12 Great TV Shows That Fell Victim To The College Years

That '70s Show is already on its last legs when some of the kids are sent off to college. Both Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher are nowhere to be found, and new characters and story arcs fail to generate much excitement and even less humor. Introducing college life into the show just makes a flailing series flail that much harder. It's a whimper of an ending for a show that deserved to go out with a bang.

Saved by the Bell: The College Years mercifully lasted just one season. It's basically the same show as Saved by the Bell, except set at California University and featuring a dorm monitor instead of a principal.

While Saved by the Bell isn't art, it has an appeal the college years totally lack. And it's unforgivable that both Lisa Turtle and Jessie Spano aren't series regulars – or perhaps they're lucky.

At the beginning, Glee is fresh, inventive, and funny. By the time it becomes necessary for the central characters to attend college, the show's spark is starting to dim considerably, and the transition only dampens it further.

Outside the confines of Mr. Schue's choir room, the Glee characters suddenly become much harder to watch. They morph into bundles of contradictions, and the show starts to feel like a bizarre parody of itself. Even hardcore fans agree this show lasts way longer than it should.

Beverly Hills, 90210 doesn't set out to be a realistic show; it's more of a soap opera with really pretty, pampered teenagers going through '90s drama and trauma. But when the central characters go off to college, a series that always flirts with believability takes a dive straight into the realm of the absurd.

Not only do most of the characters attend the same college (California University, in case you forget where the series takes place), but they share the same classes and the same close relationships. It's basically West Beverly Hills High set at California University. Also, major cast changes and ridiculous storylines (Andrea is knocked up! Kelly is a drug addict!) don't help.

Dawson and his pals graduate high school and find their way into the next chapter of their lives, but taking them out of their idyllic backwater and dropping them into the heart of a major metropolitan city is jarring to watch.

In the real world, plenty of teens fall out of touch once they head to college. On TV, though, the writers find ways to ensure the central characters talk enough that their relationships can continue. But the change of scene and the intrusions of the real world shake up the foundation of Dawson's Creek and all that makes it unique and endearing.

The O.C. is built around a simple premise: what if a kid from the wrong side of the tracks suddenly moves to the fanciest spot on the west coast? The series finds plenty of drama in the premise, but after the core cast of high schoolers leave Orange County for college, they become far less interesting.

The biggest change is, of course, the absence of Marissa. The rest of the cast is still around, but the dynamics just aren't the same. The O.C. effectively jumps the shark with her death.