When a Show Airs For Too Long

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"You can't have happy endings in sitcoms, not really, because if everyone's happy, the show would be over, and above all else, the show... has to keep going," - BoJack Horseman.

I think flanderization plays a big role in cartoons. Shows start to lose their grip when the characters become stereotypes of what they were initially.

"Let it die, let it die. Let it shrivel up and die." - O'Hare

"Grey left with her anatomy like three seasons ago" is probably one of the sentences ever said.

As a kid, it always confused me when cosmo would interact with Timmy's dad and crocker. Like, wasn't one of the shows biggest rules that fairy godparents couldn't be seen by other people or they would lose them forever?

God forbid Mark talk about one piece’s length.

Lesson from the life of an animator: "If you are going to hire a writer for your cartoon(or the cartoon you direct),make sure he cares about your show and always check what he writes on paper before the episode enters the project and airs,and of course you know when it's time to finish."

I heard someone make a great point one time about modern SpongeBob: it just looks like every single frame is trying to be a viral meme.

Sometimes I forget the fact Grey’s Anatomy is still going on, and yet somehow I still don’t know what the heck show is even about anymore for it to go this long.

Out of all the cartoons that went through seasonal rot, fairly odd parents was the worst. What’s worse is that they had multiple opportunities to call and quit, but by the time it was permanently canceled, just about half its runtime was seasonal rot.

15:37 I'm impressed Julie Kavner can even speak anymore, with how wrecked her vocal cords are

I loved your point about the show not feeling "real" anymore because it's such a subtle critique but it's so true. I too feel that at some point, these long running shows begin to feel less real. The best way I can describe it is the show becomes somewhat self-aware, it's aware of how culturally impactful and iconic it is. And because it's aware of its importance, the characters aren't written as just another piece of that show, they are written with an acute awareness of how the audience will react to them. Now the writers know that the audience has certain expectations and in trying to meet those expectations, the writing begins to feel self-aware. I'm not talking about a self-referential sort of self awareness (although that can start happening too), I'm talking about a scene perhaps being framed in a certain way because the writers expect it to be iconic or a character does something arbitrary because the writers are checking a box for familiar character trait. An example of this is Vegeta. In the first few seasons of DBZ, his character, introduction, and role in the plot were so raw and natural. He was another in a long line of villains turned rivals and his journey felt organic and real. But now, the cultural expectation is that Vegeta will always be Goku's rival because he's so iconic, that rivalry is part of Dragon Ball's identity. As a result, the show never introduces a new rival to replace Vegeta. They always have Vegeta fill the same role in new DB as Goku's sideman because they need to check that box. But this feels weird and less "real" because logically, Vegeta would have been replaced by a new rival at this point like Tien and Piccolo were before him. Old Vegeta was written so we never knew what he was going to do. But modern Vegeta is written so we know exactly what he'll do. Another example is Super Saiyan vs Ultra Instinct. When SS was introduced, no one realized this was about to become one of the most famous power-ups in all of fiction. It was introduced with nothing but faith in the concept and its role in the story. But Ultra Instinct was created with the goal of replicating the enthrallment viewers felt with when seeing SS for the first time. SS was well written and just so happened to become the next big thing. But Ultra Instinct, conversely, was explicitly designed to be the next big thing. That's what I mean when I say it's self-aware. The end result is that the show loses the rawness, the "realness" that it originally had. When the show was first made, the creators had no idea what was going to stay in the cultural consciousness, what scenes, gags, character, settings were going to become part of popular culture. They were going in totally blind. But now the writers feel the need to meet certain expectations, to hit certain check boxes, because they know what the audiences expects. It makes certain choices feel arbitrary, like the writers are winking at the audience because they know what they want. The show isn't exploring new, uncharted territory anymore, it's going through the familiar because it has to meet familiar audience expectations.

Why’s the Brian death edited like a 2010 ytp 💀

Frank welker has been voicing fred from scooby doo for over 50 years since the og 1969 show

To me the biggest hint that a show has run its course is when the focus shifts the supporting cast to more than the main characters themselves. Example is at one point in the Simpsons the show could have been renamed Springfield, because the Simpsons family were not the focus. It felt like they were there to witness the start of someone else’s story like the audience. Also the moment the Continuity is given a soft reset to make new stories. Etc Homer and marge meeting as kids at a summer camp, or SpongeBob with camp coral. If you are gonna change important parts of the continuity, you have to give it a hard restart. Honestly something like the Simpsons could do with a hard reset and change up the art style. Breathe new life into the show.

I honestly believe that The SpongeBob Movie should’ve been the swan song for that show. It would’ve been literally the perfect ending and when I rewatch the show now I stop there and pretend that’s when it ended. 😂

These are things I feel can kill a series. Some of which you mentioned: 1. Of course going on for to long. Aside from the issue of staleness, there are other things that simply come with that effect. 2. Giving a mostly episodic series a more plot centered focus. A lot of series handle this right and I actually encourage this. But when later episodes focus a bit more on heavier plot impacted elements, I feel it can disrupt the overall flow. Like how in Regular Show when they brought in the dome and scientist. It changed the feel of the show and kinda dulled the impact brought from the randomness of an episodic series. 3. Simply changing or removing to much. Like Fairly Oddparents. Removed old characters, brought in new ones WAY to late into the series run. 4. A sudden change in staff. Not always a bad thing, but take Rick and Morty for example. Dan brought in more writers for the sake of “equality” without considering the fact that those not directly connected to the show and it’s team may not be the best for such a consistent series. 5. And probably the easiest and worst one to screw up, forgetting the fundamentals. Of course, SpongeBob. They insisted on making almost every character equally unlikable. To the point where someone as dull and empty as Squidward became seen as the exception.

I was SO scared that this would be a Manscaped add with that sponsor transition

To me what bugs me a lot about a lot of newer episodes of shows is the bright AF colors. Seariously watching season 1 SpongeBob vs whatever the new season is the colors are eye piercing same with the Simpsons it just looks too perfect