YMMV / Shop 'Til You Drop

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• Fanon Discontinuity: To most fans, the show ended after both Pat Finn seasons on Pax, and the last two Pax seasons with J.D. Roberto never existed.
• Growing the Beard: Pretty much when Dee became the announcer/sidekick at the start of Season 6 (1997). The sleek black floor, techno-esque closing theme remix, and simple-but-snappy graphics package grew the beard further.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The switch from a very 1980s-looking two-story mall to a deeper single-story warehouse store might have simply been a cosmetic change (or a way to remove those potentially dangerous stairs that just screamed "safety hazard" for the past 800 episodes). However, with traditional malls slowly dying and warehouse clubs such as Costco on the rise, it seems oddly prophetic.
• Moment of Awesome: Any time a pair of contestants reached the $2,500 Bonus Round plateau on the fifth item.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Pat Finn was criticized for his bland performance on the 1990-91 version of The Joker's Wild (although fans now give him a pass due to what he had to work with). Shop 'Til You Drop on the other hand allowed Finn a more relaxed approach and reception to his hosting style became much more positive, even in the earliest episodes when he was finding his footing.
• Seasonal Rot: This was almost unarguably caused by the "megastore" era (2003 onwards). Despite the show being pretty much perfect by 2002, it went on hiatus until October 2003. When it returned, almost everything had been changed for the worse minus Shopper's Challenge (completely untouched) and a new 3D logo animation. What few pros were created by the show's overhaul were completely drowned out by the overwhelming cons.
  • The closing theme had lyrics added (though the theme outside of that sounded pretty good; lots of electric guitar wailing).
  • The set changed from a two-floor shopping mall with a sleek black floor to a Costco-esque warehouse.
  • Ads were all over the place, including on the contestant podiums. The contestant area itself was the same platform as before, but with a podium for the host.
  • JD Roberto and Don Preiss became the new host/announcer duo, although Preiss didn't fill the sidekick role of his predecessors.
  • The stunts were replaced by lame games that the contestants played from their podiums (no more speaking with a mouthful of marshmallows or, more alarmingly, any role for the announcer outside of...well, announcing). The team chose one of two punny categories and (after JD said such pun where the "punchline" tended to be a product plug) had a minute to come up with a set number of answers. Victory awarded the same points as before, but one contestant ran into a department to get a gift.
  • Shop 'Til They Drop now had the runner and opener taking turns. The new set also appears to have been deeper than the previous set was tall.
  • Season 10 (2004-05), the final season, actually managed to make things worse by adding a sponsor to the bonus round clock, as if there weren't enough ads.

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