is there a television show that was/has been consistently great for 12+ years?

[parklife]

i sure can't think of one

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

South Park master race

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Uuuuhhhh....Frasier?

[The Duke of Insomnia]

South Park for the first 14 seasons/years.
and king of the hill

[The Thompsons]

Uuuuhhhh....Frasier?

Frasier was at that eleven season threshold, much like M*A*S*H and Cheers. This is a toughy.

[irvine_11]

South Park for me. I mean, I'll admit it isn't as good as it used to be, but it still has better comedy and writing than most shows today.

[zach]

South Park for me. I mean, I'll admit it isn't as good as it used to be,

so then it wasn't consistently great.

[The Thompsons]

The best I can come up with is King of the Hill. A very underrated show for the most part.

[zach]

shows that i like only lasted around 3-5 great seasons. king of the hill went way downhill after season 3, for me. every show runs it's course. it's impossible to stay great for that long.

[leprechaun_dan]

South Park for sure. And ongoing, is still consistently great in my opinion.

And I believe that's it

[Jesse Pinkman]

south park. not a huge fan of the first couple seasons but pretty much everything after would warrant a 5/5 or 4/5 from me. one of my favorite comedies

[zartok-35]

South Park was only consistent for 8 seasons.

[Captain Squid]

South Park was consistently good for a while, though I'd argue their lower episode number per season gives Simpsons the edge. Also, while I do like South Park, I am not always in the mood to watch it. Mainly due to the episodes that were written around current events that are long forgotten and the ep's with a ton of swearing and gross out bits. I mean, I can totally stand that stuff, but Simpsons is much more of a show that I could watch any time and with any group of people.

[The Thompsons]

South Park was only consistent for 8 seasons.

Pretty much this.

[CousinMerl]

Nope, no show that I can think of has been consistently great for 12+ years; it's a close to impossible feat, at least in my opinion.

[maxdefolsch]

I would say Detective Conan. But maybe I'm wrong.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I assumed the question didn't count anime. I still love Detective Conan but I certainly wouldn't think it qualifies...maybe in Japan.

[irvine_11]

so then it wasn't consistently great.

Oh, I didn't realize you meant the same exact quality for 12+ years. In that case, I don't really think there's such a show that did such a thing, since that would be pretty much impossible.

[zach]

so....it wasn't scully's fault.

[cloneasaurus]

so....it wasn't scully's fault.

well you can tell there's a distinct change in style. had o&w (for example) stayed on until season 10 the show would have become like a tired version of the classic era ie. not classic but still decent (i'm assuming).

by contrast, by season 10, scully had made half the episodes about homer and made such plot/plot twists like 'homer manages to flip a truck over a bigger line of trucks', 'homer and mr burns capture the loch ness monster' or 'homer leaves his father to die' acceptable. the characters also became worse and less rounded (imo - not necessarily less funny), which wouldn't have happened so fast under a classic showrunner.

scully sped up the process of decline a lot, for me. the jokes are quite often funny, but the rest feels like a cheap lazy version of what came before.

[The Governor]

so....it wasn't scully's fault.

We will never know, but since he was chosen and we got what we got, it is his fault.

If King of the Hill didn't steal Greg Daniels away, I wonder what the show would've been like had he taken over in Seasons 9 and 10.

[zach]

could you imagine a world were O&W were show-runners up until season 10?



uhhhhhh!!!




i was kinda joking when i posted "so it wasn't scully's fault" since every thread here seems to just come down to, "scully ruined the simpsons."

[irvine_11]

Yeah, if Scully hadn't taken over, it would probably have been like South Park - still good, but not as good.

As I said above, South Park is the most consistent long-running show in my opinion. There haven't been any bad seasons, only bad episodes. The show's "decline" began at season 7 for me, but even then, it only went from great to good. A once great show only being "good" after 16 seasons is way more than you can say about most other shows in terms of consistency.

[Dark Homer]

Jeopardy!

[Dobbie]

South Park. It has taken a bit of a plunge but it's still capable of producing good/decent episodes today. It always has been inconsistent but there isn't a season you'd skip (unlike the Simpsons, which have a few) so to do that for 16 years is quite impressive.

[zach]

wow. so much love for south park.......

[Ragged_Clown]

Very few scripted television shows last 12 years to begin with. Even the most popular live-action shows tend to end in the 9th or 10th season.

But no, no scripted TV show has been consistently great for 12+ seasons. All evidence suggests it's not possible. The Simpsons' sustained greatness up through Season 7 (or 8, if you prefer) is about as impressive as it gets. Even Kelsey Grammar admitted Frasier declined considerably in its later seasons. Seinfeld was still funny but was clearly a shadow of its former self in its post-Larry David years. South Park has always been inconsistent, and has become increasingly scattershot as the years have progressed.

Television programs just aren't built to last that long, for numerous reasons. Does anyone think Fawlty Towers could have maintained its brilliance if it had lasted for 12 years rather than 12 episodes?

[The Thompsons]

The Simpsons' sustained greatness up through Season 7 (or 8, if you prefer) is about as impressive as it gets.

I say M*A*S*H's run from 72-83 was the most impressive run for any TV show. The show did have more serious undertones though once Alan Alda was given the reigns, but it was still great television for all of those years.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

How about Westerns like Gunsmoke or Bonanza? I mean I wasn't alive to tell how good they were to the audience back then, but they must've enjoyed them...

[Prune Tracy]

Pretty much every long-lasting game show.