TV shows that burned hot, then burned out almost as fast

[TMC1982]

Basically any show that for whatever the reasons, failed to have cultural staying power (and therefore, becoming an afterthought) following its first season as a phenomenon and ratings and/or critical success. In other words, shows that were at the end of the day, "flashes in the pan".

Examples (any shows on this list could be considered as being popular at first to having a final season in which it was sort of just tossed out there due to falling so far off a cliff):
*Alias

*Ally McBeal

*Amazing Stories

*The Apprentice

*The Arsenio Hall Show (1989-1994)

*Batman (1966-1968)

*Battlestar Galactica (1978)

*The Brady Bunch

*Chico & the Man

*Commander In Chief

*Desperate Housewives

*The Drew Carey Show

*The Flip Wilson Show

*Glee

*Grace Under Fire

*Heroes - Heroes kind of created its own TV colloquialism called "Heroes disease". This is where a show that is popular in the first season starts burning through plotlines like coal in a steam train race, throws everything at the wall to see what sticks, and changes characters on a whim to fit whatever storyline is happening that week.

*In Living Color

*Jericho

*Joan of Arcadia

*Joe Millionaire

*Max Headroom

*Miami Vice

*The Monkees

*Moonlighting

*Mork and Mindy

*The Morton Downey Jr. Show

*The O.C.

*The Osbournes

*The Partridge Family

*Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

*Ren & Stimpy

*Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip

*Survivor

*SWAT

*Texaco Star Theater/The Buick-Berle Show

*3rd Rock from the Sun

*Twin Peaks

*Ugly Betty

*Welcome Back Kotter

*The West Wing

*Wiseguy

*Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (1999-2002)

*X-Files

*XFL

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I don't know friend... There are many shows on your list that I would not call flash in the pan types. A lot you have down went on for enough seasons to be syndication hits. I think you could have better criteria, or at least a more finely tuned criteria for your list.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

Yeah I don't think that list meets your description.

Heroes is a definite though. That is the finest example of a show that literally only had one good season and then kind of sucked after that.

 

[Warhammer]

Heroes was the first show to come to mind when I saw the thread title. Though I will say this. Who knows how well season 2 could have been if it weren't for the damn Writer's Strike. That had some ramifications.

 

[Warhammer]

And I disagree with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. That show was my s***.

 

[THUNDERSTRIKE]

Heroes absolutely YES in the way of quality, but how can you say that with Jericho?!?... I think it always maintained it's quality, but the numbers just weren't there... I miss Jericho...

another show that I thought was great and did very well in it's storyline, but somehow never survived for whatever reason was Odyssey 5, with the brilliant Peter Weller and Sebastian Roche... what a great concept for a scifi show...

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Heroes is the only one I can truly think of. That's a definite must when it comes to a list like this.

 

[Tanin]

The Real World..... yea it still airs... but Survivor overshadows it in every way now.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Misfits, I think was incredibly good for the first two seasons and was an clever take on the superhero genre. Come season 3 and it turned into a real **** show.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Heroes is the best example. Also Glee.

 

[Jason Kane]

Yeah I don't think that list meets your description.

Heroes is a definite though. That is the finest example of a show that literally only had one good season and then kind of sucked after that.

This!

 

[Donnie Darko]

Damn. Heroes was SO GOOD for the first season. It could've been so much better in the following seasons if they would've really had Hiro kill Sylar in the S1 finale and had Nathan's arc end with him sacrificing himself in that same finale.

I swear Nathan "died" in one way or another every season.

I'm sure there are lots of other things they could have/should have done differently, but those have always been my big two.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

I still enjoyed Misfits after the first two seasons, but yeah the last 3 weren't all that great in comparison.

 

[ThePhantasm]

Heroes? Yes. But the X-Files? WTF?

 

[THUNDERSTRIKE]

Heroes? Yes. But the X-Files? WTF?

the show got really ****** when Agents Doggett and Reyes came on board...

 

[Soapy]

Dexter? It seemed to be a critical darling and a show everyone was talking about for like one or maybe two seasons. After that it seemed to me like no one really cared.

I've never seen it, so I don't know if it was because of a dip in quality or if other shows came along and ate its lunch, but one definitely seemed to fall off the radar pretty quick and it was the first (besides Heroes lol) that came to mind.

 

[Hyde]

At the moment, Agents of SHIELD

 

[John Locke]

The West Wing? How did that make the list? It won four straight Emmy's? I think the Newsroom fits. It's kinda fallen off the radar and no one is sure if its cancelled or not.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

At the moment, Agents of SHIELD

I have to co-sign with this.

 

[Specter313]

I have to kinda disagree with Alias being on that list. The first two seasons were amazing. The third season dipped because of one certain character mainly, but once they killed her off I think they bounced back rather fine, not as good as the first two seasons, but still good enough.

 

[Tanin]

Breaking Bad

 

[Donnie Darko]

At the moment, Agents of SHIELD

SHIELD came in with a lot of hype from being tied to Avengers, but many have found it to be underwhelming. That's not the same as having a spectacular first season and then falling off.

Heroes, for example, earned its hype by having such a strong first season, but then fell off. That's really not the same as SHIELD not delivering on the excitement from being tied to Avengers.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Heroes is the best example. Also Glee.

The funny thing about Glee is that you could see that coming easily. Whenever a musical show gets popular, it becomes less of "What music fits into this episode?" and more of "How can this episode fit to this song, artist, or genre?".

The first half of the first season was pretty good, the second half okay, and then I stopped watching in the second season.

 

[PyroChamber]

I'm surprised Glee is still on, I haven't seen the show but are they still in high school?

After getting into Ugly Betty through reruns I can sorta see how it fell off, moving it to Fridays didn't help either.

BTW, Jumped the Shark is now called Bone the Fish?

 

[Evil Twin]

Twin Peaks is probably the poster child, you can point to the exact moment when it fell apart when David Lynch left to film Wild at Heart. Of course, it was a minor miracle that a network gave David Lynch a series to begin with and let him make it as Lynchian as it was.

I disagree with X-Files though. Yeah, it fell apart at the end, but there are six or seven solid seasons there and one decent feature film. I don't think anybody thinks the first season was the best either. You can make a case that it was the show of the '90s, not a quick burn out. All shows run out of gas eventually, but X-Files had both a white hot peak and a whole swath of good seasons.