Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
Shows that are like an old mule. They're not flashy and may not get tossed around on the latest blogs or TV spots, but they manage to pull a decent audience enough to keep them going nonetheless. Occasionally, a viewer who vaguely remembers the show in its formative years flips channels to see it still kicking, prompting the titular expression. They aren't so much long-runners as the more personal realization they're running longer than you seem able to remember. Especially common if the series is elsewhere in syndication and you lose track of new and old episodes that start running together in your own head.
See also Long Runners. Sounds like, but is not related to, Is This Thing Still On?.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Pokemon. Many people who are teenagers and young adults today saw this show when they were young and are surprised to know it is still running. In Japan, it even now has its own Sunday-morning programming block (Hosted by, among others, Idol Singer / Otaku / Gamer Chick extraordinaire Shouko Nakagawa) called Pokemon Sunday.
- Not really, Pokemon has a big fanbase, mostly thanks to the games and mangas. It's impossible to notice it isn't still airing. However, this one manga called Pocket Monsters
 counts.
- Any number of anime series, most notably Sazae-san, Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan.
- Detective Conan, being a Long Runner in its original manga form, has had its anime version running from 1996 to the present with no end in sight.
- Even longer than Conan, Hajime No Ippo. 20 years and over 850 chapters later no one has any idea when it'll end, if ever.
Comics
- Archie's Sonic The Hedgehog comic series has been running since 1993, maintaining the same continuity that Sega has long since all but abandoned. It now only bears a passing resemblance to the video games.
- YMMV, the Archie Comics never had much resemblance to the games, even the issues that focused on one of the games.
- Heck, Archie's Archie, which has been running in the far background of comic book history for nearly 70 years.
- A good number of newspaper strips end up this way, especially if they start running low on material. Blondie, for instance, has been around for over 75 years.
- Two more good examples are Peanuts and Garfield (though Peanuts has been in reruns for nearly a decade). I'm sure Marmaduke counts too (though it seems to have always been "there"). And speaking of Garfield, seeing as how it's become a Franchise Zombie, there'll probably be Garfield strips being written well after Jim Davis's death.
- And let's not forget Gasoline Alley, which recently celebrated its 90th anniversary. (What do you mean, you've never heard of it?)
- Nancy. Or one of its many aliases, as it tries to avoid prosecution for terrorism, since it is obviously trying to destroy America's national sense of humor by never once being funny in decades.
- Back to comic strips, some more have fallen into this trope, such as Hagar The Horrible and Mother Goose and Grimm.
- The Katzenjammer Kids. 1897. Yes, that second digit was an eight. Still runs in a few papers.
- Actually, uninformed people now sometimes ask if comic books in general are still printed or if Marvel and DC only make movies now.
Film
- When Rupert Grint appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly to promote Half Blood Prince, Regis stated his surprise at the start of the show that they were still making Harry Potter films.
Live Action Television
- JAG catches people by surprise when they realize it lasted 10 years, far longer than most television series.
- Family Guy drew attention to this by way of having someone watching JAG, and a character on the show points out that old people enjoy the familiar noise in the background their show provides.
- Any number of CBS sitcoms, including but not limited to Yes, Dear (2000-2006), and The King of Queens (1998-2007), and the Drew Carey Show (1995-2004, albeit an ABC show, it was treated poorly late in its run and the final season was burned off in the summer of 2004).
- Similarly, According to Jim (2001-2009), an ABC show.
- And Frasier (NBC)
- The Frasier Crane character himself deserves mention. Kelsey Grammer played him from 1984 to 2004 on Cheers, Frasier, and a guest spot on Wings.
- 7th Heaven, which was on for 11 seasons of Anvilicious glurge. Notably, it would have stopped at ten... but it was renewed off the ratings for its finale.
- More than a few people blinked when they heard about new seasons of Power Rangers after the mid-late '90s. Notably, the fans are still writing fanfiction about the first few seasons.
- Saturday Night Live occasionally does Hey Is That Still On gags about itself. ("Yeah, I thought they cancelled it after Eddie Murphy, too...")
- Stargate has produced reactions like this; considering it's become a franchise, this is unlikely to end even after SG-1 was cancelled.
- Atlantis is slated to end early this year, but SG-1 is still cranking out movies, as well as branching out into an MMORPG
- And coming in the fall of '09 is Stargate: Universe. Also there's a SGA movie in the works.
- Last Of The Summer Wine is still made, probably because canceling it would be such an effort.
- Harpoon is still going after 20 years.
- The king is, of course, gameshows. While it's commonly taken as a given that Jeopardy! (1964, but since 1984 in its current version) and Wheel Of Fortune (1975) are going to be on until the sun fizzles out into a hunk of cold rock, accidentally stumbling across a brand new episode of The Price Is Right (1956, 1972 in its current version) can be a very strange experience.
- It's even stranger when you see the host and realize it's Drew Carey; most people thought the show ended when Bob Barker retired.
- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, at least the American version, is a borderline case. It's only been around since 1999, but has been off Prime Time (aside from special runs) since 2002 and fallen a long way from the massive buzz it had at the turn of the millenium.
- Early example: The Three Stooges, even if their golden years were the 40s, performed in various shorts and movies until 1970, when Larry Fine suffered a stroke during the filming of Kook's Tour. And performed until around 1975 (or so) with Emil Sitka as the second Stooge (though they never made a movie with him in the role).
- The Canadian TV series The Beachcombers lasted nearly twenty years, running from 1972 to 1990 and becoming an internationally syndicated hit in the process.
- The all-time grand high king of the Long Runners, (The) Guiding Light: seventy-one seasons, over eighteen months of continuous material, and still on the air. It's the longest narrative, ever, in human history.
- You spoke too soon... cancelled. Not a case of Screwed By the Network as much as Screwed By the Parent Company/Sponsor (start your Proctor and Gamble boycott now).
- Several WWE wrestlers fall into this same category, this troper is always amazed that guys like Mark Henry (signed in 1996 to a ten-year contract, still around to everyone's amazement after that contract expired, career highlights have included a storyline in which he went on a date with a transexual named Sammy and another in which a relationship with an 80-year old woman led to her becoming pregnant and giving birth to a hand) and Hardcore Holly (around since 1994, spent his first few years in WWE as a racecar driver named Bob "Spark Plug" Holly, has a long history of keeping order backstage and is well respected by other wrestlers) are still around.
- Ric Flair, just for note, retired in 2008. People wrestling now grew up idolising people who idolised Ric Flair.
- It's worth pointing out that the word "retirement" means nothing in the wrestling business. Ric Flair has "retired forever" at least twice before. But he doesn't hold a candle to Terry Funk, who must have retired at least five times by now.
- That's nothing: Lou Thesz wrestled his last match in his SEVENTIES. He wrestled his first professional match in 1932 and his last in 1990!
- Update! Hardcore Holly is finally gone from WWE after his contract expired.
- Another wrestling example: WCW Saturday Night ran, under various titles, for TWENTY SEVEN YEARS on TBS.
- Mad TV displays this trope as well; it's been on for thirteen years, dropped its original theme song, and has never been treated well by Fox. The most exposure it gets is when the good old episodes get shown on Comedy Central, albeit Edited For Syndication.
- As an inversion of this trope, this troper first heard of Mad Tv when he was 13, got into it when he was 16, and was shocked to learn soon after that it has been on air since he was 3 years old. I do have to admit, however, that the older episodes are still some of the best. When did they drop the old theme, precisely?
- Parminder Nagra has had some difficulty convincing immigration officials that ER (1994-2009), the basis of her work visa, was still on when it was.
- This Troper's Father used to joke about how ER was four years into its final season advertisements in 2000. It's still advertising for the Final Gripping season of ER in 2009.
- Ironically it's hardly the same show, containing no members of the original cast.
- And speaking of medical shows that once aired on NBC, Scrubs went 7 full seasons on NBC from 2001-2008. After the writer's strike mangled the final season, NBC dropped the show. ABC picked it up and gave it a proper final season (and series finale) on a tighter budget. The 8th season did well enough on ABC that a ninth season will air in 2010 with a different cast (Dr. Cox and Turk are the only returning characters, save guest appearances).
- Star Trek The Original Series provides an Inversion of this trope. You'll find that many people who were living during its original run are under the impression that the show lasted several years because it was rerun so much in the 1970s. In reality, it ran for only three years in the late 1960s. In fact, in a 1983 interview Leonard Nimoy mentioned that some people thought the show was still in production.
- British sitcom My Family is still being made. Seriously. The upcoming 10th series is the last that Robert Linsay and Zoe Wanamaker have agreed to do, but I'm not sure that will stop the ever churning My Family machine...
- Starting this fall, Americas Funniest Home Videos will have been on the air for twenty seasons!
- Cops has been on the air for twenty years now, and some people don't even know they're still making new episodes!
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 was on for ten seasons on cable, and another as a local series. And people still insist that it was Too Good To Last.
- TV critic Tim Goodman, who was never particularly fond of Charmed, proposed it as a failure under his personal test of quality. Allow a show two seasons, and cancel it if you've never heard anyone discussing it around the water cooler. It wasn't quite a Long Runner, but certainly lasted longer than he would have liked.
- This troper got a reaction like this from a friend when he told her about Power Rangers RPM being rumored to be the last season of Power Rangers.
- Beverly Hills 90210 was on for the entire 90s. And now, it's been revived. When...will the hurting...stop?
Music
- Les Luthiers celebrated their 40 anniversary in 2007.
- In 1955, Chuck Berry started the genre of rock and roll, becoming perhaps the single most influential person in 20th century music. 53 years later, he's still touring.
- Village People, although this is a lesser example because they have not released new material since 1985.
- Cliff Richard! This troper has seen jokes made about Cliff from 1951. He probably can't die.
- The late, great Les Paul. I mean, the guy was still playing early in 2009.
- Dick Dale, another legend of guitar playing who invented the surf guitar sound of the early 1960s, is still touring as of 2009.
- The Glenn Miller Orchestra and its Air Force counterpart, Airmen of Note, are still touring, sixty five years after Miller's death.
- Mayo Thompson/The Red Krayola has been making music since the 1960s, always enriching the sound with new influences, ranging from a country-rock sting in the late 1960s to a flirt with the Chicago post-rock scene in the 1990s. This often leads to older music fans finding the band's records where they least expect them.
- Bob Dylan's still touring and releasing albums, and will probably be doing so until the day he dies.
- The Rolling Stones are still going after 47 years, longer than most rock stars since the 1990s have been alive.
- Rush has been active for 41 years with 35 years of the same lineup.
- Weird Al Yankovic is still active after thirty years; this troper has to admit to having the titular reaction ten years ago.
Radio
- When this troper's drama teacher got the class to write an assignment on The Archers, the trope title was his mother's reaction. This troper still listens to it 10 years on from that, as well.
- BBC Radio 4 is full of Long Runners. If you're under forty it's quite amazing to learn how old some of the shows are. Take Quote Unquote, that innocuous literary quiz that appears at lunchtimes. It's been on, with the same host, since 1976! I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is four years older than that. And Desert Island Discs started in 1942...
- Paul Harvey still hosted his daily News and Comment and The Rest of the Story shows until his death in early 2009 at the age of 90.
Tabletop Game
- When this editor published a text about a D&D on a fairly generic news site, guess what were the comments. Yes, "people still play that?", "haven't you heard about World of Warcraft?"...
- This Troper just died a little inside.
- It's ok, you wouldn't want people like that at your gaming table, anyways.
Video Games
- In Japan, the Sega Dreamcast still has games published for it (e.g. Triggerheart Exelica in 2007). Although they're generally fan-made.
- Triggerheart Exelica was the penultimate official game, with Karous (in March 2007) being the final game released for the system.
- The NES and SNES are almost as bad.
- And technically, the Play Station 2 hasn't been officially discontinued—games as recent as Sonic Unleashed and Guitar Hero Metallica have received PS 2 versions.
- And at E3 09, Sony outright said that if they keep making as much money off of the PS 2 as they are right now, then they'll still be cranking out content for it for a long time.
- A little research shows that the PS 2 has outlived both its competitors; it was released in America in October 2000 and still cranks out a game or two every month, to the reaction of "Oh, hey, they're still making games for it!" The Game Cube lasted from November 2001 to August 2007; the Xbox, 2001-2006. And some of these later games are even originals, as opposed to cross-platform releases like movie tie-in games.
- Star Craft is still going strong ten years later, especially in Korea. Its time might come to an end with the sequel, though.
- This troper thought Sonic had died with the Genesis, as he didn't have a Saturn or a Dreamcast and therefore never payed attention. Then he found a box of Shadow...the Hedgehog...?
- Wow..Where have you been? Commercials air all the time for the games.
- Backyard Sports. The series has changed so much that it is unrecognizable aside from the players and the title; this troper was surprised that it is the same as the one 12 years ago.
- Meridian 59, though 3DO itself has gone the way of the dinosaur, has been running on and off (mostly on) since 1996. The other MMORPG's that began in that era and are still running are... well, tootin’ popular in comparison.
Western Animation
- Amongst Fox's animated fare, King Of The Hill has done well enough to last many seasons even though it doesn't have the apparent fan-cred of other animated prime time fare. This was actually referred to in an otherwise hotly satirical South Park episode "Cartoon Wars", about prime time animated shows, where animators for the show seemingly go about their business quietly. The show is usually referenced in passing in Fox's "Animation Domination" promos. Finally ended in 2009.
- Transformers. No, that was not a Revival Movie.
- Transformers is an unusual example of this, as it does not continue as a single show, but rather is in a constant state of death and rebirth. Whenever the show's ratings start failing, it is canceled but a spin off or Alternate Continuity version is created shortly before or after this to keep the concept going (and to sell more toys).
- The same could be said about Batman. Every time you think he's off the air, here comes another show.
- Arguably, The Simpsons. Everyone remembers some shows from the first 9 seasons or so, but at this point it's started to become a blur.
- The Fairly Odd Parents has been in production for over 8 years, with just a small hiatus between the 5th and 6th seasons. 11 years if you count the original shorts.
- The PBS series Arthur.
- Bob The Builder.
- Spongebob Squarepants. Ten years and counting. Woot.
- Ed Edd N Eddy, although not anymore since it's massive finale aired in the United States in celebration of it's tenth anniversary and went out with a serious bang, instead of just fading into obscurity due to Network Decay.
- South Park has held this status for at least a couple of years now.
- Even moreso than The Simpsons (which was always aimed mostly at adults) considering South Park's original demographic of teenagers are now entering their 30's and some might not be that far away from having teenagers of their own. Weird.
Real Life
- The 2009 Minnesota senate recount went on for eight months before Norm Coleman finally conceded to Al Franken.
- There was a time period around 2005 - 2006 (before the heavy campaigning for the '08 Presidential Election began), that people blurted out the Trope Name when someone referenced the Iraq war
- Another US political example: the Prohibition Party still exists. They've fielded a candidate in every presidential election since 1872. Their candidate received 655 votes (nationally) in 2008.
- I'll drink to that?
- Not if they have anything to say about it. So, bottoms up!
- More of a case of Hey Do They Still Make That: Jolt Cola. Yes, the infamous "All the sugar and twice the caffeine" cola of The Eighties is still going strong in the 21st century, with new (non-cola, but still caffeinated) flavors (YMMV on how good they are). There's even a diet version, which obviously has none of the sugar. Oh, and their cans are now huge and battery-shaped. It just goes to show that just because something isn't advertised anymore doesn't mean it's gone.
- For that matter, Fruit Stripe Gum. Even though you haven't heard "Yipes! Stripes! Fruit Stripe Gum!" on television in over a decade, it's still out there.
- They got a throwaway gag on Family Guy once.
- Wait they've actually stopped making a brand of gum at some point in history?
- They still make Blackjack, so, no.
- And Teaberry!
- TaB. Yes, the original diet cola is still in production.
- When this editor watched the AFI's top ten in ten categories special, he heard Kirk Douglas mentioned, and said, "Is he even still alive?" And then he saw him, and said, "Okay, the jury is still out."
|
|
