7 Ingenious Ways TV Shows Bounced Back From Awful Seasons
The most remarkable turnarounds in small-screen history.
One bad season is often enough to kill off a hit TV show. Once the bad reviews start trickling in and the viewers are tuning out in their thousands, network executives have tough decisions to make. Do they swing the axe now as a means of damage limitation, or give the series a chance to redeem itself with a risky renewal order?
History tells us that once the rot has set in, there's usually no going back. The Simpsons has been on a downward trajectory in quality terms since the turn of the millennium and, while Fox is unlikely to kill off the series that put it on the sitcom map, other shows with similarly inconsistent output haven't been so fortunate.
But every once in a while, broadcasters take a punt on a down-on-its-luck show and are rewarded for their faith. The writers return to the drawing board having learned from their mistakes and bring the series back from the brink.
Flagging TV shows have bounced back from terrible seasons and returned to form in many creative ways, from throwing out their format, to refreshing the cast, and here are some of the most ingenious ways they've pulled it off.
7. The Office US: Ditching The Template
The US version of The Office looked destined to join the long list of failed stateside remakes of British TV shows after its debut season.
It inherited a winning blueprint from the Ricky Gervais version across the pond, but stuck to it too rigidly, regurgitating its first season more or less scene for scene, give or take a few name changes and American accents.
Dunder Mifflin and its employees felt largely pointless to fans of the British Office, bringing nothing new to the paper company's proverbial table, but this changed dramatically in season two when the showrunners made the bold decision to ditch the blueprint and allow the series to stand on its own two feet.
Only when The Office US began to tell original stories did it come into its own and find a unique voice. Michael Scott turned out to be a thoroughly more endearing boss than David Brent, though no less socially or professionally inept, and the supporting cast also proved more than pale imitations of their Wernham Hogg counterparts.
With a larger episode count to flesh out these characters, the show was able to bide its time building relationships and rivalries with a level of depth the UK version was denied (though expert pacing and writing helped it more than compensate).
Did it ever hit the heights of the Gervais original? Not quite, but the American Office had both quality and quantity on its side for much of its nine-season run, and this all began with its stellar second series.