How Long should a Show Last?

The same could be said about Western Animation as there are barely any cartoons nowadays that run longer than 3 to 4 seasons (with The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park being some of the exceptions). Shows like Spongebob Squarepants and The Fairly Oddparents have definitely run past their ending points and therefore, the quality on both shows had suffered because they had run too long (although the same could be said about The Simpsons).

It's always been like that, really, since the beginnings of TV animation.

@17 The length of an anime series is an evolving thing. I remember when they were mostly 13 or 26 episodes... then that got trimmed down, probably due to how often filler happened in those (well, either that, or networks figuring they could get more for less money by ordering 12-episode seasons). Plus, the recent trend I've seen is to technically break up longer manga stories in adaptation and create what are, on paper, different series as sequels to the original (like how The World God Only Knows was really a three-season show, but technically released as three series). The anime adaptation of One Piece is a relic of when they acknowledged multiple seasons (given that it originated in the late 90's, that's probably why); heck, even Pokémon does the "technically sequel series" method, although everyone just refers to them as seasons.

I personally suspect it's for licensing reasons, but that's just a shot in the dark.

@20 I thought the agreement was that, when referring to PE&tB, we were to acknowledge that it was what happens when showrunners are forced to do things the network's way, and it was only to be acknowledged at all in the context of "it's all their fault." (Which I've done, because it was all The WB's fault.) And that said acknowledgement was the only way we'd ever discuss it.

As for the DVD release, I thought the agreement was to pray that they'd be sent to the same landfill where they buried E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and never speak of them again.

@26 I agree with @27 - I remember when most animation was just trying to get to the magical 65-episode barrier to get a good syndication deal. I think the belief of 3 to 4 seasons is a relic of that, because that was a best-case scenario for many shows. And perhaps, in western animation, some of that mindset still holds. Everyone, from creators to audiences, are so used to 3 or 4 seasons as the endpoint that people build their expectations towards that.

Clearly somebody at the WB forgot. They've been showing it for years in foreign countries, though; maybe they never truly agreed at all!

Theatrical animation, however, was never subject to the above rules. They kept making Looney Tunes for 40 years, after all.

edited 25th Jul '14 8:35:00 AM by Aldo930

To me, 4 Seasons is the Minimum for a good TV Show. I'd say 9 Seasons is the perfect number of Seasons for a Good TV show. Long enough so that you have at least 100 episodes, but not long enough that the Show becomes completely different from where it started. A Universally-Acclaimed Bad TV show should only have 1-3 seasons...

3 to 4 is good for me. Maybe 5 if the show deserves another season :D

The only cartoon I think needed more than 4 or 5 seasons WAS the Simpsons. Which had 8.

edited 25th Jul '14 1:36:44 PM by teddy

Honestly, unless a show reaaaally hooks me, I don't think I'd want to watch it for more than 5 seasons. If I'm watching the show from when it premieres onward, sure, I'm cool with however long it wants to go. If I'm watching it after the show's ended? I don't have time to watch what amounts to about two and a half entire days of uninterrupted watching^note assuming a 22-minute show with 20 episodes per season, 9 seasons would be 3960 hours which amounts to 66 hours in total. I don't usually have the time to binge-watch because I have other things to do, like a job and school, so if I'm gonna binge on a series, it better be a short one. (Which is part of the reason why I like watching shows that were cut short, like Clone High and Mission Hill, since I can breeze through them in their entirety in one sleepless night...but, then, I need sleep).

edited 26th Jul '14 1:01:03 AM by Odd1

I disagree on bad shows. I think that since bad shows are, obviously, very flawed, they should be only be limited to only one season. Other than that, I agree with you.

edited 26th Jul '14 3:57:56 PM by Buzzinator

Interesting thing... I've found that a lot of the shows on the So Bad Its Horrible pages, those we can call "truly awful," did not last more than 10 episodes.

I think we can safely say that the maximum any truly terrible show lasts is 10 episodes. Anyone agree?

Well, most shows that are universally reviled don't even last a whole season, so there's that. Some bad shows get enough of a following to let them last for a while, though.

You could argue that if they have a following, they're not really bad; they have something that appeals to these people, right? So they have to be good in some form or another if they have a following of some sort.

edited 26th Jul '14 7:55:39 PM by Aldo930

Not necessarily. For example, the Irate Gamer is pretty much near-universally regarded as being a terrible reviewer and entertainer, yet plenty of people still watch his stuff and follow him (and most of them still say he's terrible, but keep watching anyway).

Or, for another, more clear example of something terrible with a sizable following: Manos The Hands Of Fate.

To add on to my earlier statement: if they have a following who legitimately enjoys the work as something genuinely good, it can't be all bad, right?

Of course, there are exceptions that prove the rule.

A show really doesn't have to be a long runner. How I Met Your Mother is a pretty good representative of how running too long ended up working against the story they wanted to tell.