What TV show should have ended before it did? When did it "jump the shark"?

Law and Order. Season 1 – Episode 2

Always the same format, same timing, same same same same.

Greys Anatomy. Should have died several seasons ago but is still dragging on.

Lost. It jumped the shark when there was the writer’s strike and we got into weird time-travel stuff.

Happy Days, should have ended before Fonzie went water skiing.

Ohhh so many! The Gong Show popped into my mind first.

@gorillapaws I completely agree. the ending was such a letdown on how it morphed.

Famously, Game of Thrones. (which I never watched).
Naruto, before it turned from a series about ninjas, into Dragonball Z.
Dragonball Z, after the Cell Saga, with the handoff to Gohan.
Star Trek Discovery and Picard. Should have never started.
Stargate SG1, after the final defeat of the Goa’uld, before they introduced the Ori.
The Mission Impossible franchise should have never had movies. From the beginning, it just was “Tom Cruise’s Midlife Crisis – Action Schlock Edition”.
The MCU should have arguably ended with “Endgame”.
Star Wars should have ended with Return of the Jedi. No prequels, no sequels.
Agents of Shields should have ended after the defeat of Hydra. Definitely before the time travel to the future of space.
The Terminator franchise should have ended after T3. Because I like the ending of “the apocalypse is inevitable”.
Sword Art Online should have ended after the Aincrad arc.
Cobra Kai, after Season 2. In season 3, the incessant teenage love triangle melodrama was really pissing me off.

The West Wing should have ended when they lost Aaron Sorkin.

The Batman movie series should have ended before Joel Schumacher put nipples on the Batsuit.

The Sopranos should have ended before Tony turned State’s evidence oh, wait… It did!

The “Assassin’s Creed” series should have ended before they turned from games featuring actual assassins, to featuring pirates, egyptian and spartan warriors, and fucking vikings.

Seinfeld.

Friends.
Should not have been written, or worse even, made.
And throw away that canned laughter track.

@ragingloli I think “Game of Thrones” is actually the opposite in that it ended too early, and the writers were forced to wrap up the series before it could play out at a more natural pace. The last season could have easily been 3. It would have given time for characters to evolve more believably instead of behaving one way and then very differently an episode or two later. It just felt rushed (because it was).

Walking Dead

NewsRadio should have ended on May 12, 1998, which was the last episode of season 4.
Phil Hartman was murdered 16 days later, and they should have scrapped season 5.

I thought NewRadio was hilarious, but season 5 was funereal.

@ragingloli the question is about TV shows, not video games. But yeah, I agree with you, it should have ended with Assassin’s Creed III. I play the game for the history, not the stupid modern day people.

@rebbel it’s so interesting to me how people in Western countries say it’s trash, while people from where English is a foreign language recommend it as if it’s some kind of classic you should watch before you die.

@Caravanfan. Absolutely! The Walking Dead should of killed Negan after he killed Glen.

@filmfann They lost it for me when Rick had Negan right in his sniper gunsight and he didn’t fire. Ironically, Negan was the only character in the series I genuinely liked. The rest were all so two dimensional.

Any sitcom once they start having the main group of characters have serious romantic relationships (if that wasn’t the original premise of the show.) For example: Seinfeld, Friends, Big Bang Theory. Once that happens, you know they’re out of original ideas.

@ragingloli Totally agree on Terminator. T3, while not a classic like T2, is a seriously underrated movie, with a much, much better ending that the movies that followed.
@filmfann The West Wing was never close to what it originally was post-Sorkin. Some episodes were alright, but nothing close…

I’d add…
The Simpsons, anything after season 10 is unwatchable.
The Office, should’ve ended after season 5.