With that being said... Do ideas have an expiration date? A lot of people scratch their heads when I ask this question. What I mean by it is... When does a good idea stop being a good idea?
A prime example of this in my mind is the television show Spongebob Squarepants. I distinctly remember the very first episode I ever saw and I what I thought at the time was that it was extremely bizarre. What I didn't know was that it was going to be a massive hit that would become a worldwide phenomena.
For a while the episodes only got more hilarious and was something I considered to be pure genius. That was until the first movie came out. While it had it's moments I felt betrayed by what I had grown to love and cherish. Not long after that the episodes became redundant, stupid and downright insulting to my intelligence. Maybe this was because I was getting older but that can't be because I still laugh my ass off at the earlier episodes.
Recently, I discovered that the creator of the show jumped ship after the movie because he had done everything he wanted to do with the show. To that I applaud him heartily, and it also helps me to understand why the show really started to tank. The people left behind fell into formulaic storytelling which is lazy, but for some reason racks up revenue like you wouldn't believe.
Spongebob has been tainted by this and it doesn't hold the same revere in my mind for being creative that it once did.
Inversely, Bill Watterson, the creator and illustrator of Calvin and Hobbes never tried to keep the comic strip alive longer than it needed to be. When he was done he retired the comic and has never looked back. Thus, giving us a truly timeless piece of history that has never been blemished by overblown budgets, cheap merchandise, or bad storytelling.
When an idea reaches it's logical conclusion just end it! Don't keep it on life support or you'll get this tripe...
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