Long-Running TV Series That Maintained Quality Throughout Run (4+ Seasons)

Breaking Bad?

Cold Case.

Parks and Rec.

Knots Landing (save for the first half of Season 13, but even it had good parts going on).

My choice would be Hell On Wheels, which never received the acclaim that it should have received. It was magnificent.

Also, believe it or not, Downton Abbey -- I was worried in season 3 when they had the Canadian soldier claiming to be the heir that had allegedly died on the Titanic, and I thought the show was going to devolve into Dynasty-esque camp melodrama, but they managed to correct and despite the big departures managed to sustain itself to the end.

Frasier

The Rachel Ray Show

The Americans

The Sopranos

Mad Men

Sex And The City

Grace and Frankie... although I’m not sure it qualifies as long running yet

Schitt's Creek

R3, you’re wrong. The quality of the show plummeted by season five. You could predict every joke and every character observance from that point on. The characters never grew, they just got involved in minor mini arcs that never had any real stakes on impact on the show.

Real Housewives of New York City

Breaking Bad definitely owns this category, it kept getting better as it went and people loved the final season.

The Wire fits, Season 5 wasn't as brilliant as seasons 1-4 but it was still good television.

The West Wing. Right up 'til the last episode.

Gunsmoke

La Femme Nikita is my guilty pleasure, and it was pretty solidly awesome and trashy from start to finish.

[quote]The West Wing. Right up until they hired Jimmy Smits.

Fixed.

Golden Girls

I Love Lucy.

Six Feet Under.

Friday Night Lights.

The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad

I feel as though Little House On The Prairie, maintained the same level of quality, even after Charles and Caroline left. The movies kind of dipped, though. Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, was the same, the regular show was fine until the end, but the follow up movies dipped.

30 Rock.

Some of you are being way too generous.

Six Feet Under, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec all had seasons they got bad.

R4 Sadly, I disagree, I don't believe any long-running primetime soap managed to maintain quality until the end, Knots included.

SNL

As with all of these type of threads, it just becomes a list of shows people liked.

[R27] I enjoyed all the seasons of Six Feet Under. Nate's death scene in the final season is my all time favorite scene in any TV show.

Tell me whose dream it is

R8, The Americans doesn't belong on this list. The last 2 seasons became confused, uneven and strained about the time they brought in Frank Langella. Remember the completely pointless arc about Phillip's Russian son?

[quote]The Rachel Ray Show

Tommy, if you can't spell Rachael's name right, you won't be invited back!

Homeland?

Fringe

Saved By The Bell

Breaking Bad, it was a thing of genius.

Even the cast admits the first season of Parks and Rec was shit, R3.

Six Feet Under hit a big slog in seasons three and four until the hijacking story added some much needed life. 30 Rock started going downhill in four, and by season five, was just ham-fisted, hokey, and try hard. You don’t need to cram ten jokes into a minute of show if nine of them are bad.

Parks and Rec was a sad one because it was a warm, likable, and relatable show until Leslie got onto the city council. From that point further, it lost so much of its charm by cramming truly reprehensible characters like Councilman Jamm, Jean Ralphio’s relatives, the douchey perfume czar, and Billy Eichner. The much maligned first season is leagues above than anything past season five.

Mike Schur and Jenji Kohan shows always go downhill after the third season.

Breaking Bad is the only one that comes to mind. Sopranos and Wire both suffered in their final seasons.

Third Rock From the Sun.

AbFab!

Yeah, R42. It was shit from episode 1.

Perry Mason.

West Wing, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Downton Abbey, Wentworth

Saint Elsewhere

Mary Tyler Moore Show

Golden Girls

Laverne And Shirley

The wire.

The Bob Newhart Show

R48 No, once they moved to Hollywood, the quality went way down.

Psych. A gay man has to be behind that show. The comedy was witty and brilliant.

Everybody Loves Raymond

r25, I know everyone is entitled to their opinion but you're wrong

Hill Street Blues

One of the many huge mistakes Little House made when they brought in the new child actors was that Nellie's replacement, Nancy, was a scary psycho. The producers thought Nelli had been such a popular character because she was mean, but of course the real reason was because Alison Arngrim was so brilliant at being funny and mean at the same time. She took such hilarious relish in tormenting Laura and Albert--I think Arngrim was in her own small way kind of brilliant.

R54 Of course Nancy was a let down from Nellie, but over all the show still maintained quality, with the long running characters like the Olsens, Doc Baker, and Laura and (swoon) Almanzo. I agree R56, Nellie could be a bitch, but also funny, and Arngrim was able to make Nellie a multi-dimensional character, whereas Nancy was just the spawn of Satan.

The Wire

Mad Men

Falling Skies (a guilty pleasure!) and the first time I became aware of Connor Jessup.

Mad Men was certainly still a good show by the end, but it was not as superlative as it had been the first five seasons.

Certainly not Dexter. First 4 years, perfect. 5, ok. 6 through 8 were just awful. They should be so ashamed.

Seinfeld

Murder, She Wrote. It matured and became more modern, sure, but always an interesting puzzle. 12 years of sustained quality in spite of changing appetites.

I agree that The Sopranos was brilliant right up until the very end, with one of the greatest, perhaps THE greatest series finales ever. But people forget that a lot of people whined and complained about the last season, hating that Tony killed Christopher, and totally misunderstanding the ending.

I suspect Game Of Thrones will come in for a similar reappraisal. Who knows?

OZ

St Elsewhere

Seinfeld sucked after Larry David left.

WWE Monday Night Raw.

Another vote for Mary Tyler Moore.

Also, Barney Miller (except for a brief infestation by Linda Lavin near the beginning).

I completely agree, r63. The people who are "disappointed" didn't know the show that they were watching. The last season of GoT will definitely get a reappraisal down the line.

[quote]Gunsmoke

No, Gunsmoke started slowly going downhill when Dennis Weaver (Chester) left and they brought in that doofus Cleetus or Feetus or whatever his name one was to replace him. It never completely jumped the shark but after 20 years the early seasons were distinctly better than the last ones.

The Shield -from the first episode to the very last. Stunning!

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Monk

The Wire

M*A*S*H

Joan Of Arcadia

Dharma & Greg

The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone

Night Gallery

St. Elsewhere

M*A*S*H

Rescue Me

Le Bureau des Légendes

Professor T

Beck (Swedish crime series into its 22nd season and still brilliant)

Mama's Family - shit from the first episode to the last!

The Closer

Major Crimes

Longmire

Justified

Bates Motel

Sherlock

Vikings

Simpsons

Battlestar Galactica

Breaking Bad is the closest example of a nearly perfect run we’re gonna get it.

Still, season three was a bit of a bore.

“The Flintstones”

“Taxi”

WKRP in Cincinnati.

The Sopranos & The Leftovers

The Avengers, Green Acres, Bewitched

"thirtysomething"

The Cosby Show never had a bad episode.

The Leftovers is the best show in recent memory.

[quote] The Leftovers is the best show in recent memory.

That has nothing to do with this thread. Look at the thread title again. "The Leftovers" only lasted 3 seasons.

Yeah R89, I noticed the dullness of this thread so I'm trying to jump start this bore

^BACKPEDALING

Sex and the City Mad Men Game of Thrones

The Sopranos. Janice Soprano is a boss lol.

China Beach, which ran for four seasons.

Six Feet Under. Shows that help u deal w the truth about life are to be commended.

Columbo. I think it was something like 35 years between the pilot and the last show.

Breaking Bad

Another vote for Breaking Bad. And Veep