If Ended Shows had continued...

As we all know, there are many great shows that came to an end in our lives. Some of which could've been seen as ending too abruptly. Oh sure, Teen Titans, Ben 10 and Avatar have all found ways to keep the franchise alive, but still, that involved making severe changes to the characters.So you have to ask, if these shows had continued, how would the writers have kept things going?

Take American Dragon: Jake Long for example, if they had continued that show for more seasons, they would've had to change a lot, and not just because Jake would've been in High School at that point.

For one thing, with the Huntsclan and the Dark Dragon all gone, the show would've needed a new villain.

Also, with Jake and Rose now an official couple, the show would've needed a new way to explore their relationship, without stripping Rose of her independent nature and turning her into Jake's enabling cheerleader or clueless arm candy.

And lets not forget the change in the Long Family dynamic. With Johnathan now in the loop about the family's secret and Hayley having found a new amount of respect for her brother, they'd have definitely needed to find a way a to build on that.

Here's what I would do:

For a new villain, I'd have probably done some kind of Spike [1]. You don't see a lot of villains who are both funny and a badass; always one or the other.

As for keeping Rose as an actual character? Sub-plots, give Rose her own thing to do. Maybe there's evil monsters that DO need to be hunted. Make that a source of conflict with the Council, like they're scared she'll fall back into the old ways.

And the family, well, I'll have to think about that.

Dexters Laboratory? I think it would've continued to be the beacon of humor and outstanding animation that it was during its great four-season run oh wait they did continue it a few years later with two more seasons by a completely different team, some different voice actors, and a totally different animation style and it sucked.

edited 24th Dec '12 9:11:50 PM by 0dd1

Avatar?

Now there's a different between keeping the show alive and knowing when it needs to end.

edited 25th Dec '12 11:11:06 AM by DavidtheMouse14

I'd have liked to see Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends to see where Spiderus's character continued following the hatching of his kids, and Toad Patrol to see what new journeys the characters would face after they returned all the toadlets to Toad Hollow.

edited 25th Dec '12 5:56:27 AM by JMQwilleran

I think Avatar would've sucked after a while. The reason why is that the show gave a clear goal for the characters that, at that point in time, woudl pretty much end all conflict in the show. If they continued after, it would be kind of weird. And I'm assuming if the show had kept going, they would've have come out with "The Promise" comic books. Even if they delayed the goal achievement, then it probably would end up like How I Met Your Mother, with even the fans wanting them to just get on with it,

As far as I'm concerned, when a show ends, you let it go - you can make other media out of it if you want (yes, even mostly bad/terrible Fan Fiction), but once it's done, it's best left remembered as it is, provided it was a good show, of course (the bad ones are best forgotten and we be thankful they're done, anyway!).

Now if only Fox would get the message with anything animated that ISN'T Bobs Burgers (so far, anyway...)!

As for whomever mentioned Dexters Laboratory, thank you for proving my point, even if you weren't doing that, period and may/will proudly tell me that to my face...

edited 25th Dec '12 9:21:03 AM by LostAnarchist

That was me, and I actually agree with your point. Generally speaking, a show that ends at a finite point or gets cut off early doesn't have as much of a chance to get stale from Seasonal Rot and can be more favorably remembered.

Another good example could be Invader Zim (I seem to recall a rather lengthy thread here titled "I'm glad Invader Zim was cancelled" that cited this exact reason for it). That show even was showing signs of potential decay by its end... but it didn't get the chance to go through that, leaving people at its peak and leaving them wanting more (or at least to finish the episodes that they had already been working on when it was cancelled). It is always better to leave your audience wanting more than to keep throwing stuff at them until they're sick of it completely.

edited 25th Dec '12 9:58:54 AM by 0dd1

All I can say is glad we agree - (I know not everyone will agree with what I'm about to say next) though it is sad that good shows do and still get cancelled, my personal opinion is that is that sometimes, maybe it's for the best (so they don't get stale / go to shit...).

If I can think of one example of what I'm getting at, Sym Bionic Titan - while an awesome show, once the main villain (Modula) was eventually thwarted, I couldn't see where they would go from there to really keep things interesting...

edited 25th Dec '12 11:18:14 AM by LostAnarchist

I concur wholeheartedly. Courage The Cowardly Dog and Spongebob Squarepants debuted the same year. One is remembered with warm nostalgia and the other needs to be put out of its misery.

But then you end up with the fine lines - how do you know if a show ran its due course or if it had one, two, even three more good seasons in it?

It's easier to say with storyline-based shows, since once the characters' main arcs are solved one way or another, there isn't much of a point on going on, most of the time. But it's harder to tell with episodic comedies, since comedy is so highly subjective, and when a joke overstays its welcome is no exception.

Well, with the Internet these days, you can usually tell the way the wind is blowing. If the general reaction is becoming negative, then maybe it's time to put it out of its misery.

I'm kinda mixed into how Sonic Sat Am may have turned out if it had gone on as planned. It would have been nice to give a more full conclusion and some parts of Season Two were obviously setting up for later on (eg. Naugus' debut as a taster for his Big Bad role, Snively's increasingly frustrated ineffectual role building up to him taking over, Tails being enducted as a Freedom Fighter).

However some of Hurst's notes for future plans sound rather pretentious and worrying on paper, a romantic triangle was planned (we all know how Archie turned out trying to develop Satam's romantic subplot) and a rather disturbing, almost sexually implicating And I Must Scream origin for Nicole. It didn't help that Season Two was already showing clear signs of Seasonal Rot so even good concepts may have been harbored by more one note characterizations, corny dialogue and half hearted development (especially since said Season Three notes sound like Hurst was trying even harder to give the show a more mature feel it obviously had trouble handling).

From what I've seen recently though, a lot of things can be fixed by three seasons.

edited 25th Dec '12 6:00:50 PM by Psi001

Its usually best to end a show around its 4th, 5th, or 6th season. If you keep it going for so long it will make it hard for other good shows to thrive, which leads to Seasonal Rot.

I'd say 5th is more of a "maybe" and 6th is definitely pushing it. If the showrunners and writers know what they're doing and come up with some legitimately good ideas consistently, though, I'd say its fine for a show to go on as long as they want it to go.

I would have loved to see new episodes of "Brandy and Mr. Whiskers" and "The buzz On Maggie", since the shows ended before the protagonists were able to achieve their goals.

edited 27th Dec '12 2:33:23 PM by MsCC93

Yeah, it really just depends. If they can actually manage to keep on much of the quality talent, both cast and crew wise, through a large number of seasons, then a long series can work. But that's so rare. Arthur is one example— they've done 16 seasons and managed to keep a good portion of the major cast and retain many good writers and producers, as well as obtaining some of the cream of the crop for new ones.

edited 27th Dec '12 6:47:42 PM by JMQwilleran