Rosanne, the 90's sitcom starring Rosanne Barr and John Goodman. One of the many "living room set with a couch in the middle" family sitcoms, this one about an Illinois blue collar family, the Connors, and their life and times trying to make ends meet. Eight seasons of this premise making acclaimed TV, and then in the ninth season, they win the lottery, go on all these outlandish adventures, Dan cheats on Rosanne, etc. The series finale reveals the whole show is a story being told by Rosanne Barr, and that the last season was mostly bullshit, they hadn't won the lottery, Dan had died of his heart attack in the previous season, and the show ended on a "wtf was all that?" kind of note.

I think I'll also mention Lassie, which is just kinda weird. Non-Americans might not even know what I'm talking about. It's a show about an unusually intelligent rough collie named Lassie. Most folks who are familiar with it know it by its first incarnation, where Lassie is a farm dog who spends her days with the farm boy named Little Timmy. Little Timmy goes on precocious little adventures and often gets into trouble, and Lassie has to help, sometimes by fetching objects but often by fetching the adults to help. And everyone pretends that they can understand Lassie's barking. Here is a stereotypical exchange from the show:

MOM is in kitchen. LASSIE enters

Lassie: Bark. Bark. Woof.

Mom: What is it girl?

Lassie: Bark. Bark.

Mom: Timmy fell down a well?! Where?"

Lassie: Woof. Bark bark.

Mom: On Old Mister Knickerficker's ranch? Well let's go!

Note: You know how Darth Vader didn't say "Luke, I am your father" or Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty?" Yeah, Timmy never fell down a well. He fell off cliffs, into rivers and lakes, down mine shafts and into quicksand, but never into a well.

The thing is, after several seasons, Lassie just...became a forest ranger's dog. And other than "show about a smart, fluffy dog" it had basically nothing in common with it's original run. And then for it's last few seasons, it became an anthology series where Lassie roamed around on her own having random adventures of the week.

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Most folks who are familiar with it know it by its first incarnation, where Lassie is a farm dog who spends her days with the farm boy named Little Timmy.

That's the second incarnation. Before Timmy, lassie belonged to a slightly older kid named Jeff. Then one day Jeff's parents randomly decided to drop everything and move to England. They couldn't bring lassie with them for some reason so they gave her to Timmys family. I assume Jeff died about 10 minutes after he got off the plane with no lassie to save him from his own misadventures.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago

He fell down the airplane toilet 39 minutes into the flight and with no dog to alert anyone he drowned in the blue water.

[–] alekwithak@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Roseanne really went off the rails more than her show did.