Updated September 12, 2019 11.4k votes 2.4k voters 114.4k views
While you're probably telling the truth about most TV shows you claim to have completed, there are at least some you're lying about. The Simpsons has been on for 30 years, and that's not even close to the longest example on the list, yet it's still one of those TV shows people pretend to have finished because the likelihood that anyone has watched over 600 episodes of this longest running animated show is slim to none. At least the longest running sitcoms have significantly less seasons, but even some of those are TV shows people lie about completing.
Sometimes it doesn't even have to do with the sheer number of seasons or episodes to explain why some shows just cannot be viewed in their entirety. There are shows that bounce around from network to network due to poor ratings, and some even shift media altogether. Those are particularly hard to keep up with.
SNL has run for a long time. It has spawned generations of comedians, the first probably now unfamiliar to many viewers of the current. SNL remains an American institution spanning almost 50 years, and there's a really good chance, even if you were alive that entire time, that there was a stretch in your life where you had stuff to do on Saturday nights and thus were not watching.
Technically, you could sit down and go through every season on DVD or a streaming service, but unless you're Lorne Michaels, who has the time?
Bugs Bunny and friends debuted in Looney Tunes in 1930. Over that time there have been many different incarnations and iterations, but at the end of the day, they're still all Looney Tunes. So if you lived almost 90 years ago, good for you, but that's not likely, and even if it's the case, you'd need to take a good long look at your life if you somehow had consumed every minute of Looney Tunes.
This is how you know you haven't seen Power Rangers in its entirety: it consists of 20 different themed series over the course of 24 seasons. Name 10 of those "themed series." You probably can't. The world has come a long way since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1993 and you haven't even jumped into Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Power Rangers Mystic Force and Power Rangers Beast Morphers. Unlike some action shows you loved as kids, Power Rangers just doesn't have the same lasting appeal. It's simply too cheesy to appreciate into adulthood.
General Hospital debuted in April 1963. The largest demographic of GH viewers are women ages 25-54. Even if you (quite generously) take 25-year-olds as the largest contributors to this demographic, someone that age in 1963 would now be 80, just over the average life expectancy in the US. Besides, who can follow those daytime soap plotlines over 13,000+ episodes?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? proved to be an unexpected flash-in-the-pan success. The American version debuted in 1998 and was canceled in 2007 after it couldn't even get enough viewership to keep it alive despite being bounced to ABC's cable network, but it returned again a few years later.
The show later popped up on the CW in 2013. That's right, Whose Line Is It Anyway? still ran on TV in the 2010s now hosted by Aisha Tyler. Since it's a virtual certainty you didn't know that, there's no way you've seen every episode.
Doctor Who has been on TV for over half a century. The series began in 1963, running until 1989, eventually returning in 2005 with no end in sight. A TV movie in 1996 filled the void in between the old and new series. Doctor Who has always been a family show, but even someone who was 10-years-old when the series started would now be a senior citizen. With the average life expectancy of the US and UK right around 80 years, there's a good chance that anyone who started watching the series as an adult is dead.
But consider that 10-year-old in 1963 - their beloved show ended in 1989 after a remarkable 26-year run. That person was now 36-years-old and probably ready to move on with their life. But 16 years later, the Doctor returned. This person is now 52; their priorities have changed drastically. Even if they initially felt excited, is it really likely they've stuck with the new series, now in their mid-60s? Nope. There are over 800 episodes.
