Strange ideas to help an ailing t.v. series...

[Mrs Mangel]

Posted: 6/11/08 at 5:56pm

I was watching an old episode of "Ally McBeal" last night- don't ask me why, I was in a daze) and it just kind of dawned on me- who on earth thought it was a good idea to add Dame Edna Everage to the regular cast? It was very odd, and got me to thinking-what other random choices have been made to an ailing series in order to bump up the ratings?
Kind of like Fallon getting abducted by aliens on "Dynasty"...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:02pm

Jonathan Winters to "Mork & Mindy"

Cousin Oliver to "The Brady Bunch"

Cousin Rose to "The Waltons"

[Jon]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 12:42pm

It's called "jumping the shark".

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:06pm

The king of these has to be when Dallas declared an entire season "A bad dream" and went back and re-started the action at the end of the previous season.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:12pm

What to do when Jean Stapleton wants out of ALL IN THE FAMILY? And Sally Struthers and Meathead are all gone?

Why, have no fear, just put in an adorable little girl to play off that old curmudgeon Archie Bunker! Little Stephanie! What a great idea!

Oh, but we'll have to change the title to ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE and have much of it be set in a bar.

Needless to say, they should have re-titled it LITTLE STEPHANIE'S HINDENBERG.


And lets not forget ROSEANNE's disastrous decision to have the Conner family win the lottery and become wealthy.

Updated On: 6/12/08 at 01:12 PM

[Calvin]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:17pm

What was that sitcom they built around Suzanne Sugarbaker?

Not DAG or Delta. The sitcom where Delta Burke actually played Suzanne Sugarbaker again.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:22pm

Why, that would be WOMEN OF THE HOUSE, which I didn't even know existed until I looked it up on imdb!
WOMEN OF THE HOUSE

[sally1112]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:58pm

It wasn't strange, but bringing in an 80's style hot George Clooney
to help save Facts of Life.
Which reminds me, changing the entire premise of that show when the girls got too old to be in school, so they ran a catering service, then turn it in to a novelty shop.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 2:00pm

"Why, have no fear, just put in an adorable little girl to play off that old curmudgeon Archie Bunker! Little Stephanie! What a great idea!"

She was plucked straight out of the chorus of Annie. From chorus girl to sitcom savior overnight. While Sarah Jessica Parker was still donning the curly red wig and belting "Tomorrow", Danielle Brisbois was snuggling up to Archie Bunker and collecting a fat paycheck with guaranteed residuals.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 2:03pm

"Which reminds me, changing the entire premise of that show when the girls got too old to be in school"

The show jumped the shark when they cut Molly Ringwald loose after the first season.

In the storyline of "Facts of Life" Natalie is the first girl to lose her virginity. (Yeah right, we believe that the ugliest girl is the only one getting it on). Talk about desperate to get ratings.

[Mrs Mangel]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 10:05pm

And getting back to "Ally McBeal"- how about in the final season, she found out she had a teenaged daughter due to egg donation or something.
Jonathon Winters on "Mork and Mindy" was lame, but kind of amusing.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 10:11pm

Ally McBeal was so great for like two seasons or so and then it just went to hell. If the cheerleader couldn't save that show, how can we expect her to save the world?

I do like this mini-trend of shows jumping ahead, like Desperate Housewives just did. I think that really might be a canny way of getting a show back on track.

[JudasIscariot]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 10:21pm

That stupid Alien in The Flintstones, and that stupid ugly dude who replaces Topher Grace in That 70's Show.

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 11:35pm

The series certainly wasn't ailing, but I'd like to give a good kick in the rump to whoever decided to quasi-fire half of the cast of House.

[louisamayfoster]

Posted: 6/13/08 at 12:32am

LOVE the topic and the responses....keep going!

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 6/14/08 at 11:33pm

Really? I enjoyed the quasi-firing of half the cast of House. The new team may not be as pretty but they are better actors.

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 6/14/08 at 11:53pm

With Chase and Cameron went the general quality of the show, IMHO. It was on a downward slump beforehand (you can generally see that the skankier Cuddy's outfits were, the worse the quality of the episodes became), but when the fourth season started, the show had lost the "intelligent medical drama" feel that originally got me hooked and became an hour-long sitcom.

This is all just my opinion, of course, but by the end of the fourth season, the show became unwatchable for me. I know that a lot of people enjoy it now, but I just don't understand how. The episodes are cringe-inducing these days.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 12:28am

Adding Raven Simone to The Cosby Show, because all their own kids had grown "too old" for Coz to relate to.

Having Laverne & Shirley move to L.A.

Adding Batgirl to Batman. (Although personally I LOVED that one!)

[LePetiteFromage]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 12:29am

Updated On: 1/23/09 at 12:29 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 12:31am

Adding another kid to Family Ties.

Adding another kid to Bewitched.

Adding another kid to Growig Pains.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 12:48am

Bringing Bobby Ewing back from the dead, because it was all just a dream.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 1:35am

Robert Reed getting a sex change operation on the last 2 parter of "Medical Center" (I think 1974? Chad Everett and James Daly starred)

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 1:38am

Where are you watching these old episodes of Ally McBeal?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 2:54am

When Lassie left Timmy and went to work for the Park Ranger.

[Mrs Mangel]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 3:00am

A friend is the proud owner of the entire series on dvd, and I was bored the other night and put it on- Calista Flockhart also becomes extremely irritating in the last season- you find yourself just wanting her to dump Jon Bon Jovi and leave for New York quicker than she actually does.
In the next to last episode, you do get Jane Krakowski doing an audition for some production of "A chorus line" though. That's fun.