MovieChat Forums > Daniel Boone (1964) Discussion > this show jumped the shark

this show jumped the shark

posted 14 years ago by misty233
12 replies | jump to latest

when the stories concentrated on daniels wife and little izzy. its really too bad but it does happen to every show, somebody gets married and thats the end of them. sort of real life now that i think about it.

[–] w22nuschler 13 years ago

I have started out by watching Season 5, then 6. I have not seen it jump shark at all. The wife is not on much at all. More than any western I've seen, the main star changes from episode to episode. Daniel Boone is not the main star on a lot of the episodes. It's works most of the time because the supporting cast is very good. I think the son gets more screen time than the wife does. He does a decent job.

[–] jgs1935 13 years ago

I think the original poster in this thread was just plain wrong. Rebecca is part of the series from the beginning (as is Israel) -- there's no change as he/she implies.

I think on more than one occasion the Becky/Izzy emphasis has been claimed on this board and is just not true, although as w22nuschler says, Israel does get a more substantial role later. The show remained well-balanced and always had a good cast, with storylines successfully involving everyone.

[–] w22nuschler 13 years ago

That's why I like the show. All the characters get storyline. I will bet that Fess Parker had no ego and did not try to hog the storyline. He allowed the supporting players to shine. I have just started watching Season 3 and it appears the show was more about Daniel and Mingo. They work well together.

[–] rcj5365 13 years ago

Fess Parker directed five episodes of the series from 1968-1970(seasons 5 and 6)

[–] narnia4 13 years ago

I think it did get worse when less violence was allowed and Ed Ames left the show, pretty much after season 4. I still liked several season 5 and season 6 episodes, however. The show just changed focus and became much less of an adventure show, turned into a family show more.

My favorite season is season 2, hardly a bad episode in that one and has some family stuff but also a nice mix of Mingo and Daniel adventuring.

[–] TheHistoryFamily 13 years ago

I do like the earlier episodes best. It was more of a western/adventure show. Plus you had Mingo for the first 4 seasons. The show just wasn't the same for me when Ed Ames left.

[–] narnia4 12 years ago

Very true, it had a few episodes where it succeeded with the "family show" angle that it was going for, I think of the episode with Gabe's mother as being one of the best in the series. But for the most part the action episodes are better, there's less forced humor, more serious, more action and adventure, and better supporting cast members in the first four seasons.

[–] rcj5365 11 years ago

Very true,DANIEL BOONE had a few episodes where it was going the "family show" route,and it really shows it in the last two seasons of the series. Gabe(Rosey Grier,who join the cast in Season 4)was a supporting character just Ed Ames. But his mother(who was played by Isabel Sanford.....LONG before The Jeffersons)was one of the best in the series.

Throughout DANIEL BOONE'S six year run and out of 165 episodes,the first four seasons of the show had more action sequences,more adventure and excitement and for the most part more serious interaction with the characters. That was in the first four seasons of the show...It really went downhill when Ed Ames left at the end of season 4,and it really was heading to the cancellation axe when Patricia Blair left at the end of season 5.

[–] rcj5365 11 years ago

Flip Wilson's hour-long variety series was the show that replaced DANIEL BOONE on NBC's Thursday night lineup in 1970 after six seasons and 165 episodes.

[–] rockmail 11 years ago

That's interesting to know, Flip's show was one of the first really refreshing new shows to flush out the formulaic stodgy old productions of the forties and fifties.

Although I enjoy Bonanza and Gunsmoke, they certainly needed the "Lawrence Welk" crowd of elderly viewers to remain on the air at this time! Daniel Boone was simply too juvenile a show to survive the times.

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (1565) 3 months ago

I really only objected to episodes where Daniel is a walk-in at the beginning and end, and some other character takes over the entire episode, which happened a lot more often than it should have and I can't think why. Surely these weren't backdoor pilots or anything as sometimes happens. I personally liked Israel and enjoyed all his screen time. I think I would have liked Rebecca had Patricia Blair not been so mean to Veronica Cartwright. I wouldn't say it jumped because the definition of jumped is that the series was never as good again after a specific event, although dumping Jemima was a very low point.

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (1565) 3 months ago

The real case of when the show jumped the shark was when Mingo left. It was never as good after that.