Well stated Garret.
I really did love 99.9% of the episodes but as i've mentioned elsewhere on this forum, there are a few episodes that i don't watch very often, they just don't seem right somehow, as though Roy Clarke wasn't "firing on al four cylinders" when he wrote them, i'm sure he has his off days, just like the rest of us do.
There are certain episodes that i don't find quite as funny as i used to, lets face it, it's been nearly 40 years that some of us have been watching the show, i was 19 years old when it started in`73, i am now 56 years old.
I do feel i've grown old with both the show and the characters within the show, i'm sure we all have our favorites, of both shows and characters.
I do agree with Garret, that a show cannot be infinite and the characters cannot be immortal, although they will always be remembered with oodles of affection.
I've been watching a couple of the DVD's over the weekend and i did find it difficult to decide which ones to watch, because i've seen them that many times.
The last DVD i bought, the latest one with "The man who nearly knew Pavaroti", featuring Norman Wisdom on it, well there were a couple of episodes in the set that i had never seen before, they were broadcast when i was living in Southern Ireland in the early`90's and i don't think they have ever been repeated since. so it was nice to sit down with me dinner and watch those episodes first.
I don't think that there should be any spinoffs really, to me it's like pushing a car when the tyres are flat, or as Norman Clegg might say "A little voice keeps telling me, Norman, Norman..., leave it alone".
I wonder if some of us just want a spinoff, to keep the Summer wine memory alive?
If that's the case, then i think i would rather it went down as something that was special to us for many years and but for the really crappy last few episodes, which in my opinion, was not the kind of ending that such an iconic comedy programme deserved, i'm quite happy to imagine in my own mind, that the bottle of "Summer wine", was already quite empty by the time that Russ Abbot arrived.
I'm afraid that the show seemed to be just running on faith from that point on.
RIP Summer wine, i remember thee well. x
G ; )