28 Sitcoms That Had Good Endings, Bad Endings or Strange Spin-Offs

Sitcoms! Comedic television programs that put characters in misunderstandings and conflicts, ideally resulting in jokes, and resolving them within a breezy 22 minutes. When the formula works with a strong cast of characters and clever writing, you can find yourself with a hit on your hands that people are happy to watch for a decade or longer.

So when is the right time to find an ending? On this list are many shows that managed to thread the needle and find the exact right time to say goodbye. Others, on the hand, stayed in the game a little longer — or sometimes much, much, MUCH longer — than anyone would like them to, spoiling any goodwill the “good seasons” may have garnered.

Taking it a step further, also on this list are the times a television show has said, “I bet people would like to see more of these characters,” and the public very firmly said “no.”

28 Seinfeld

Seinfeld CRACKED.COM Jerry knows how to go out on a high note. Jerry and Larry made it clear they wanting to end it before any of the funny was compromised, and although fans are split on the quality of season 9, Seinfeld called it quits after 9 seasons on May 14, 1998. After almost being cancelled early on, it became the #1 show by the 1994-95 sea- son, averaging just over 30 million viewers per episode. It rose back to #1 in season 9, and the finale brought in 76.3 million viewers. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

27 New Girl

New Girl GRACKED.COM You can only stay new for so long. Crit- ics couldn't deny the talent of the en- semble cast when the Fox show initial- ly aired, and many felt like the charac- ters only became funnier and more fleshed out as New Girl reached its 7th and final season. Jessica Day is a wildly competent woman, writes Ari- ana Romero. This is a far cry from the Jess we met in 'New Girl's' pilot so very long ago. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

26 Scrubs

Scrubs CRACKED COM The last season of Scrubs saw the departure of mul- tiple characters, and most fans and critics agreed they should've just closed up shop sev- eral seasons earlier to end on a high note. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

25 Saved by the Bell: The College Years

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM SAVED BY THE BELL HAD A COLLEGE SPINOFF THAT LASTED A TOTAL OF ONE SEASON. Saved by the Bell: The College Years only ran for 19 episodes, and probably part of the reason it got cancelled was that some members of the original cast decided not to join the new show. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

24 That '80s Show

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM AFTER THAT'70S SHOW, THEY MADE, WELL, THAT '80S SHOW. It wasn't quite as good, though - it was basically just a hodge-podge of '80s cultural references, and that was pretty much that. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

23 The Michael Richards Show

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM MICHAEL RICHARDS NEARLY ENDED UP PLAYING KRAMER AS A DETECTIVE. That was the premise of the ill-fated The Michael Richards Show, which had a bunch of Seinfeld writers working on it t - - Richards' character was called Vic Nardozza, but he was basically a copy of Kramer. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

22 Clarissa Now

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM AFTER CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, THERE WAS A SHOW CALLED CLARISSA NOW. It followed Clarissa as she grew up - she went to college and interned in a NYC newspaper, and the whole thing was quite a bit darker and more adult. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

21 The Golden Palace

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THE GOLDEN GIRLS SPUN OFF A SHOW CALLED THE GOLDEN PALACE. It ran for a total of one season, and it features a young Don Cheadle (circa 1992) as a hotel manager. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

20 Community

Community NDALE CRACKED.COM Those first 3 seasons are in the comedy hall-of-fame for sure. Abed famously said it would last for six seasons and a movie! And this became a rallying cry for fans, as producers fought for Community's renewal each year. Many, however, would come to regret the show moving past those first 3 seasons. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

19 Two and a Half Men

Two and a Half Men CRACKED.COM As we'll see in a certain show about a certain office, here's no clearer of a sign to call it quits than when the main character leaves. In season 9, Sheen was replaced by Ashton Kutcher, and Pilot Viruet writes, The show hit a new low every season and then continued to sink even further underground. During this last season, the show went off the rails in terms of absurdity and offen- siveness. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

18 Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory CRACKED.COM Jim Parsons was 45 in the last season. By the end, it was regu- larly getting more than 15 million viewers an episode, but The Big Bang Theory's cast aged out of the show's premise a good half-decade earlier, and after 12 seasons, we couldn't help but feel like it was just there to feed the cash cow. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

17 Cheers

Cheers CRACKED.COM After 11 seasons, everybody did indeed know their names. The story wraps up beautifully with Diane (Shelley Long) returning after 6 years, but Sam realizing the bar will always be his biggest love. The 98-minute finale was seen by about 40% of the U.S. population at the time - 84.4 million viewers. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

16 The Brady Kids

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THE BRADY BUNCH HAD AN ANIMATED SPINOFF CALLED THE BRADY KIDS. the Brady Kids It didn't run for very long, and it got pretty surreal - one episode involved a wizard, and another involved the Brady kids meeting Superman and Wonder Woman. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

15 Katy Keene

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THEY SPUN OFF KATY KEENE FROM RIVERDALE, BUT IT DIDN'T LAST AT ALL. Unlike Riverdale, the show really wasn't a hit - it flopped so bad that it got cancelled after just one season. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

14 Buddies

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM WE ALMOST GOT A DAVE CHAPELLE SPINOFF OF HOME IMPROVEMENT. It was called Buddies, and it was on air for a short while, but as Chappelle, says, It was a bad show. It was bad. I mean when we were doing it, I could tell this was not gonna work. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

13 Ally McBeal... Redux?

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM ALLY MCBEAL HAD A SHORT-LIVED SPINOFF CALLED, UH, ALLY, THAT WAS PRETTY UNIQUE. Each episode was just a re-edited episode of Ally McBeal with all the courtroom stuff taken out. Fans didn't like it at all, though, and it got cancelled even before the first season finished airing. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

12 Everybody Loves Raymond

Everybody Loves Raymond GRACKED COM Critics thought of the CBS show as a comforting sitcom for the majority of its run, but as the years stretched on critics felt like the once lovable show became repetitive. In its heyday, 'Ev- erybody Loves Raymond' defied every oracle who said traditional situation comedy was dead, wrote Kay McFad- den of the Seattle Times. Raymond' was a once-great show that overstayed its creative арех. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

11 Everybody Hates Chris

Everybody Hates Chris CRACKED.COM No we don't, Chris. Airing for 4 seasons on The CW, it won over critics from the very beginning. As the show reached its end, critics said it was sharper than ever. Season one's rotten tomatoes score was 91% and season 4 ended with a perfect 100%. It was sharply written, very fun- ny and didn't shy away from serious topics like race and class, like so many feel-good nostalgic comedies do, wrote Louisa Mellor from Den of Geek. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

10 Psych

Psych CRACKED COM Although Psych stumbled out of the gate in season one, critics were soon won over by Roday and Hill's chem- istry. As the sitcom finished out its eighth season, it was still met with positive reception. Few shows dis- play the level of unbridled, free-form silliness that Psych had, David Wie- gand wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

9 Home Improvement

Home Improvement CRACKED.COM After 8 seasons, we did get to see Wilson's face. You could argue it went out on a high note and went way too long. The ratings had slipped dramatically in the last few seasons, losing nearly 60% of its au- dience. On average, 15 million view- ers were tuning in, but the series fi- nale on May 25, 1999 brought in 35.5 million viewers. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

8 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM TURNS OUT, THERE WAS A BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURES LIVE-ACTION TV SHOW. It ran for eight episodes, and although it apparently wasn't terrible, it wasn't great either - the franchise was getting kind of milked dry by then (there was already a sequel and a Saturday morning cartoon). — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

7 Tabitha

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THERE WAS A BEWITCHED SPINOFF THAT RAN FOR A TOTAL OF ONE SEASON. Cham It was called Tabitha, and it was about, well, Tabitha, all grown up. Director William Asher said I didn't really want to do it. I did it, and I don't know why. But I didn't believe in it. But I did it. I don't know. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

6 Top of the Heap

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM MARRIED WITH CHILDREN SPUN OFF THE SHORT-LIVED TOP OF THE HEAP BACK IN 1991. And it did not work out too well - for example, the LA Times review said it reeks with the raunch of the older show's Bundy clan, but inherits not a whiff of its humor. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

5 The Farm

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THE FARM ENDED UP BEING AN EPISODE OF THE OFFICE, BUT IT WAS GOING TO BE A SPINOFF. The episode was basically a pilot that wasn't picked up, and then got cut and reassembled as a regular episode of the sow. — **Source:** **13 Short-Lived Sitcom Spinoffs We Totally Forgot About**

4 The Good Place

The Good Place GRACKED.COM The Good Place kept critics hooked from the very first epi- sode. With its tremendous heart and unwavering commitment to the stakes of 'The Good Place's' ethical inquiries, the series finale is a delightful return to form, Hannah Giorgis wrote for The At- lantic. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

3 Modern Family

Modern Family CRACKED.COM Many critics consider the award-winning ABC show to be one of the most popular sitcoms of the last decade, but after 11 seasons, reviewers admitted that they had grown tired of the show. The show should have ended years ago, when it was better equipped to tie together all these subplots, characters, and themes, Ben Travers wrote for IndieWire. Now, we're left with an ending that doesn't re- ally want to be an ending. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

2 The Office

The Office CRACKED.COM It's timeless either way. The show's ratings and critical ac- claim peaked in season 5, and with no shortage of reasons why they probably could have called it quits after Michael Scott's departure, seasons 8 and 9 just felt like a spin-off of sorts. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

1 Frasier

Frasier GRACKED COM Critics say that Frasier went on a few seasons too long, but they did wrap the story up nicely, and brought a ton of fans back to see it off. Af- ter 11 seasons, the series fina- le had 33.7 million viewers - its biggest audience since October 2000. — **Source:** **15 Sitcoms That Knew When It Was Time To Quit (And Those That Didn’t)**

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