In the world of television and film, it seems like every good idea or movie has to have a reboot or trilogy, something to produce more money off of the same ideas. Why try to stretch something out when it’s so obviously over? It’s an uncreative and unproductive cycle. 

America’s favorite family in the 80s were the Tanners on Full House. It was a good show for a series with a laugh-track and extremely predictable storylines. For its time, Full House was a great show, but it would do terrible on television today. Fuller House, its reboot, actually proved that it wouldn’t do well today. 

The dragged-out sequel went on for five seasons before it was canceled due to a drop in viewership. It included most of the old cast, along with some new actors portraying the old character’s children. In my opinion it was actually hard to watch. I only saw some of the first season, but the storylines were terrible, and it just didn’t work anymore. The world of comedy and sitcoms has changed dramatically since the last episode of Full House in 1995. We’ve moved past laugh-tracks and the same old story lines after seeing shows like The Office and Parks & Recreation. As good and popular as sitcoms were in the 80s and 90s, they shouldn’t be brought back today. It’s a new world with new comedy and new tastes; it’s better to leave those shows in the past. 

Another show that went on too long is Tiger King, everyone’s 2019-2020 obsession. The first season was extremely well received, with four stars on Rotten Tomatoes. It was an interesting, grandiose docu-series that kept you interested during quarantine boredom. But a year later, the second season came out. It has one star on Rotten Tomatoes. Everyone lost interest, and the second season clearly wasn’t good enough to gain that level of popularity again. 

Later in 2021, Netflix released Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story. It was slightly better than the second season of Tiger King, but still has a very low rating at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, Peacock is entering the ring of Tiger King content with their new show Joe vs Carole. Its first episode was released on Mar. 3, 2022, and so far has a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

You’d think after the failure of the second season of Tiger King and The Doc Antle Story, that Peacock would recognize the world has moved past Tiger King, but clearly that doesn’t matter. It made Netflix money once, so it can make Peacock money now. Just because a show was good at one point in time, doesn’t mean that same concept will capture people’s attention again. 

Though instances like this are frequent throughout television and film, some media makers just don’t know when to stop their film or television series. Sometimes that’s even worse than a spinoff. Forcing a show to go on when it’s obvious to the fans and actors that the series has ended is embarrassing. It might actually do more harm than good, costing producers more than it makes. Often when a show goes on for too long, fans just stop watching. 

Arrested Development is one of my favorite shows. It first aired in 2003-2006 on Fox for its first three seasons. Then, it had a two-season revival on Netflix from 2013-2019. Though I really love this show and all of the seasons, it shouldn’t have come back for the two-season revival. I’ve rewatched it many times, and my answer always stays the same. The third season ended on a satisfying note, and they had to dig up all that good work in order to find a reason for a fourth and fifth season. They reworked the ending and found the tiniest loopholes to work with in order to continue with the series, even though there was really no reason to continue with it. The first three seasons were comedic gold, and the last two were pointless with the rare redeeming moment. 

All the twisting and reworking the writers had to do to the last episode of season three should’ve been a warning to not go through with it. They had to do so much recapping and reworking that the setup for the Netflix revival was just confusing. In a Fox episode of Arrested Development, the first 5-10 minutes of it was recapping. In a Netflix episode, more than half of it was a recap. I’m convinced they didn’t have enough content to put into one episode, so they had to drag the recap out. 

Arrested Development could’ve ended as one of the greatest shows of the 2000s, maybe even all-time, but they had to pick it up and mess with it. The revival probably did make money because of the show’s devoted fans, but it was terrible. 

Another show that went on for a couple seasons too long was That 70s Show. It aired for a total of 8 seasons from 1998-2006. This is another personal favorite that I wish ended sooner. Towards the later seasons, one of the main characters, Eric Forman, left the show completely. In my opinion, he was the heart of the show; he was why all the characters were there. They hung out at his house, in his basement, with his parents, in his car, and when he left there was really no point. Another main character, Michael Kelso also left the show. It made sense, they were all growing up, out of high school, and finally parting ways. But the producers couldn’t end the show there. They attempted to bring in a new Eric with some traits of Kelso to fill both roles, but the new kid couldn’t cut it. He was so obviously a replacement for the two characters, he didn’t last long. It’s hard to know when to end high-school sitcoms, but it was obvious that That 70s Show should’ve ended much earlier.

Clearly, That 70s Show hasn’t learned from any of their peers, because they’re coming out with a reboot called That 90s Show. I hate this idea for the same reason I didn’t like Fuller House; it’s a different time and the same show. Laugh-tracks aren’t funny anymore; reliable storylines aren’t entertaining. 

From Arrested Development to Full House, every failed reboot or spin-off tells film and television producers to just stop trying to do this. Although Hollywood loves a good sequel, there’s plenty of series that went against the grain and ended when the time was right. Shows like Freaks and Geeks, The Office, and Schitt’s Creek, had perfect endings and lasted the perfect amount of time. They understood what all these other shows should’ve figured out.

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