10 TV Shows Ruined By Their Own Popularity

3. Dallas

What's the most enduring part of Dallas' legacy? You'd think it would be the whole Who Shot J.R.? storyline where the mystery attacker of the Ewing oil baron was stretched out to brilliant lengths between the third and fourth seasons (a trick homaged by The Simpsons in Who Shot Mr Burns), or perhaps the finale, which sees the devil do a reverse It's A Wonderful Life and trick J.R. into (allegedly) killing himself. But no, the single thing that Dallas will go down in the history books for is its complete writing out of existence of its ninth season.

Bobby Ewing had been ran over in the finale of the eighth season, but as the ratings decreased the producers brought Patrick Duffy back in the final episode of the ninth, writing off the intermediate episodes as a dream in the mind of Bobby's wife, Pam. What?!

Although it was a pretty disposable show, stuff like the character of J.R., particularly his near-death furore, made Dallas one of the most popular soap operas of the eighties. There was no way the Who Shot J.R. popularity would ever be reached again and when its original lead and still hero was removed there would obviously be a slip in ratings.

The show never recovered, sliding in popularity as it failed to match the thrill of the J.R. scandal.