Shows That Declined After The Network or Cast Member Interfered
 

Name a show that was good until the network or a cast member messed it up. I could name three. They are Twin Peaks, The Practice, and The X-Files.

Twin Peaks was huge in its first season until the network started intefering. ABC overexposed it during its first season and under-advertised it in its second season. Then they started to move its timeslot way too much and eventually cancelled it halfway through the second season after airing the episodes very randomly instead of every week.

The Practice was on a decline in its last two seasons that ABC furthered after it continued to move its timeslot for the fourth or fifth time since the show premiered. With better writing they could have captured back its audience but ABC put the final nail in the coffin when they moved it from Sundays (where it worked incredibly well) to Mondays where it was slaughtered by reality shows. This led to the amazing cast changes leading to its death. At the very least they could have saved Lara Flynn Boyle's character instead of Michael Badalucco's.

The X-Files was on a steady decline after the movie aired. This could have been salvaged had David Duchovny not been a diva. When they didn't increase his pay that led to the weird rushed story resolutions for his character and Scully being left without a partner so he could leave the show. Add this to Fox also changing it from Fridays to Sundays and people just forgot about this show. Had they not focused the last three years on Mulder's character and the never-ending quest to find him, they could have built on Dogget's (which was the original plan) so he could be his successor instead of a replacement. Chris Carter always said that he intended the show to go on with John Dogget and Monica Reyes. The last two seasons of this show were really good if they left out the stories pertaining to finding Mulder. It could have worked if they focused more on developing the new characters so they could be established by the time Gillian Anderson left the show.

I liked the fact that when Mulder left, Scully turned into the believer and Dogget into the male Scully. They got it right (with the character development of Dogget and Reyes) in the lsat season, too bad Chris Carter didn't go with his idea and canceled the show. He probably said I'd rather cancel my show than FOX canceling it.

Alias.

Thinking about it, I'd say the majority of declining shows can be attributed to things done by cast/network/producers. Some shows gradually peter out, running out of ideas or people losing enthusiasm, but in the case of shows with a "jump the shark" moment there are people making bad decisions. Like for the shark-jumping in "Happy Days" -- the network realized the Fonz was a cash cow the kids loved, and turned the show from a realistic "American Graffitti"-type series to a cartoon.

Interference by an actor that single-handedly tanked a series ... that's a little more specific. One recent example that comes to mind is Kevin Sorbo and "Andromeda". Sorbo found he had difficulty understanding his own scripts, so he had the chief writer fired and mandated the show be dumbed way down. And for other series where an actor is the driving force behind the show, the decline can often be pinned on that actor. Like Roseanne, who thought it was a great idea to have everyone on her show become gay and have her character win the lottery.

NBC had a habit of moving their shows all over the place until they died, like Quantum Leap, NewsRadio and 3rd Rock From the Sun.

Boomtown...the network made the producers elminate the the whole "multiple points of view" angle that made the show so good.

Moonlighting -- blame it on the lead you prefer

I think it started to decline once they moved production out of Canada and into the hollywood studios.
And I blame Téa Leoni for it. :mad:

I agree about Boomtown. Homicide: Life on the Street is one too.

Um, when Fox moved it from Fridays to Sundays in its 4th season, it actually increased its audience. It wasn't detrimentla to the show at all. In fact, that's when the show became the phenomenon we all know it to be. When Duchovny left, the show should have ended. X-Files isn't X-Files without Scully and Mulder. And I don't think Duchovny is to blame for the quality of the later seasons. I think Chris Carter just couldn't handle juggling so many balls in the air anymore and he got lost in his own mythology. The show started to drag because the truth was out there but hidden beneath a quagmire of lost and jumbled ideas.

One, Kurt Cameron getting religious pretty much killed whatever was left of Growing Pains


Two, and this is more of a question, but didn't the Practice lose its top stars due to salary constraints, then get moved to Monday after it had been determined it was the "last season".

Actually the budget was cut by more than 50% due to its Mondays ratings. They moved the show to Mondays before the cast slaughter.

When did Homicide ever decline?

after the cast slaughter they gave it back its Sunday timeslot to save the show and it still did well I believe. Then they just gave the slot to Boston Legal.

If we expand it to a cast member's wife interfering, I think it's safe to include my beloved Newsradio on this list. :(

How so?

NBC dicked around with it early but then left it alone for 5 years after that. Great show throughout.

Ooh, do tell. I haven't heard this.

You're joking, right?
If not, he is reffering to the death of Phil Hartman.

NewsRadio is still my all time favorite series. No one could replace Phil Hartman, but the show was still pretty funny after his death. It never did reach the level of the first couple of seasons though.

West Wing post Sorkin. :sad:

"Live with Regis and Kathy Lee" --> "Live with Regis and Kelly"

'nuff said.

;)

I'm only kidding... the show got so much better when Gifford left!

Wouldn't know, I'm not a housewife being able to watch. ;)

Touche... ;)

My dad worked the graveyard and he and my mother use to watch this in the morning and we'd be around during the summer and catch it everyonce in awhile.

During the summer months when I'm off school, I'll watch it from time to time, since I seem to be watching the Today show a lot in the mornings when I'm not teaching.

Well I think they did leave it alone until the season where Melissa Leo and Max Perlich got the boot. The next season saw more "conventional" characters when Callie Throne, Jon Seda and Michael Michele showed up. It was pretty much over for me as soon as they all appeared in the credits.

Definitely Alias. It was probably gonna go downhill anyway since J.J. Abrams was more focused on Lost, M:I-3, and his aborted Superman script than figuring out what the hell all that Rambaldi nonsense was about. But ABC didn't help matters by forcing him to dumb down the show for new viewers.

Also, Quantum Leap was really hurt by NBC constantly shifting its timeslot, putting it on hiatus, and demanding that Sam leap into more famous people in Season 5. That and cancelling it without giving Donald Bellasario any notice which resulting in the underwhelming series finale.

Ed suffered when those douchebags at NBC cancelled it for reality TV. I would call that network interference.

Star Trek: TOS.

NBC Cancelled it.