When I was in high school way back in the pre-reality-TV epoch
of the late 1990s, the two most buzz-worthy shows among the teen
female demographic were NBC’s “Friends” and the
WB’s “Dawson’s Creek.” While
“Friends” has postponed its much-ballyhooed final
season one more year, however, Dawson and company will soon sail
away from our hearts forever. Cry me a river.
On the bright side, at least the 6-season-old
“Creek” will be spared from the self-immolation known
as the Seventh Season. This dreaded phenomenon has victimized
’90s classics including “Married “¦ with
Children,” “Roseanne” and “ER.” For
some inexplicable reason, hit shows tend to jump the shark (take a
major turn in direction) during or immediately after the seventh
season.
The Seventh Season is the TV equivalent of a basketball legend
who turns 40. Sure, there will be an occasional stellar episode,
but the overall quality of the show is no longer (as they say in
Hollywood) edgy. The once top-notch writing loses consistency. The
ideal thing to do is to quit while you’re ahead like
“The Larry Sanders Show” did after its sixth season.
Unfortunately, over-the-hill shows would rather use the same old
storylines to lasso in viewers.
In the case of “Creek,” the “teen
trauma” (as I used to call it) actually lost its fastball in
season three. At their prime, Dawson and Pacey were the best
preppie/rebel duo since the days of Brandon Walsh and Dylan McKay.
Then the producers decided to change the name of the show to
“Joey’s Creek,” ensuring a slow and painful
death.
Despite its massive popularity and recent Emmy win for
“Best Comedy Series,” “Friends” has seen
its writing falter in the two seasons since unlucky No. 7. That was
the season when the show officially doused itself with gasoline
(Monica and Chandler’s wedding) then lit the match
(Rachel’s pregnancy).
As if two cheesy gimmicks weren’t enough, the producers
chose to stuff the excruciatingly awkward Joey/Rachel romance down
our throats. The jokes weren’t as crisp because the writers
relied too heavily on the characters’ idiosyncrasies for
comedic material. Why didn’t someone step in and stop this
ugly mess before it got out of hand?
Fellow NBC stalwart “Frasier” also jumped the shark
in the seventh season. Like the “Creek” situation,
“Frasier” quickly became “Niles and Daphne”
as the two supporting characters turned the sitcom into a soap
opera in hopes of higher ratings. Many fans were outraged as
Frasier was put on the back burner.
Even my favorite show in high school, “The X-Files,”
succumbed to the Seventh-Season jinx. Instead of riding into a
four-car pileup because of cliched writing, Fox’s
otherworldly thriller crashed due to the exit of David
Duchovny’s memorable agent Fox Mulder. For years, Duchovny
threatened to leave the show, but creator Chris Carter stubbornly
and egotistically drove on like a suspect in a car chase. The
landmark show was cancelled last year after nine seasons.
The cause of death was similar in “Beverly Hills,
90210″ and “Baywatch.” Hit shows simply
can’t survive when key characters, especially if
they’re sex symbols, decide to bail out. Luke Perry’s
brooding bad boy, Dylan, and Pamela Anderson’s luscious
lifeguard, C.J., were two of the biggest departures of the
’90s. Their respective shows dragged on for a few miserable
seasons, but things would never be same again.
David’s top three shows that escaped the Seventh Season
jinx: “Seinfeld,” “The Simpsons” and
“Law and Order.” E-mail him at
dchang@media.ucla.edu.