Shows that completed their brilliant runs without jumping the shark

Minimum of, well, I'll go with our recently departed's 86 episodes.

To me, it is only The Sopranos.

I loved MASH till the end, but it was inferior once it lost Henry, Trapper and Frank, and then Radar.

I'd put Seinfeld in here, but I count that finale as a massive jump of the dorsal.

Picket Fences almost made it for me, but no.

Other thoughts?

 

I have a feeling The Wire will make the short list when its run concludes after next season.

And I think Sopranos did jump the shark, with the dream sequence episode, until making a late resurgence. Ditto West Wing.

Other than that ...

 

Kind of hard to fault West Wing, given the death of John Spencer. You have to wonder if the show would have ended differently had he still lived.

 

See, I think it ended well. It was Seasons 4 and 5, post Sorkin, when it jumped. It bounced back, IMO.

 

Interesting.

 

I loved Seinfeld's last season, even though it was completely out there, and the last episode has some quality humor/metaphorical meaning in it, so I credit it as un-jumpable. Cheers too, of course.

 

Seinfeld. I know I'm in the minority, but I don't have the disdain for the last episode most do, and looking back, I think it wraps up the show nicely.

Green Acres. Seriously. Ok, maybe there wasn't a shark to jump because it was such a goofball show to begin with, but they pretty much stuck to the premise throughout the run.

 

I can't think of the shark jumping moment from Hill Street Blues.

I thought Seinfeld in the non-Larry David years came pretty close to shark jumping. It never sank to unwatchable levels like some shows, but it was a dead arm period.

 

I thought that when the basketball game was played... where Betty Thomas dominated and the ball was shot at the end... (if I am remembering that correctly)... that episode, plus the Buntz shit at the end, hurt it for me.

 

St. Elsewhere.
Homicide: Life On The Street

 

I wanted to vote for Homicide, but the show was never the same after Pembleton left.

 

Nice phrasing, MT.

I don't really agree, but I loved that turn.