Finding a TV show you like can feel like a chore. You can be endlessly scrolling in your cable guide, flipping through dozens upon dozens ofNetflix titles, checking out all theHulu originalsuntil something strikes your fancy, or rewatching your older favorite NBC sitcoms onPeacock. You’ve had so many people tell you that you HAVE to watch a specific show, but when you watched the first episode, it didn’t hook you like you thought it would (and you haven’t had the heart to tell people that you didn’t watch it through.)
There is so much content to consume and there’s so little time to do it. The all-time classic shows like The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Simpsons, All in the Family, The Andy Griffith Show, The Golden Girls, or I Love Lucy had many seasons where fans got to watch and follow the characters as they evolved and changed. But there are plenty of shows that saw their storylines cut short and only lasted for one season.
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Every show that gets canceled has at least a few people that loved it and are upset when it abruptly ends. Some of those kinds of shows had cancelations that hit harder than others. We’ve put together a list of the best series that only lasted one season.
Note: This does not include series that were mini-series and only planned to have one season.
An edgy buddy cop show
Following up an impressive run on Grounded for Life and well before his 100-episode run on Gotham, Donal Logue took over the lead character role of Terriers and played Hank Dolworth, an ex-cop who decides to start a private investigator business with his best friend, Britt Pollock, played by Michael Raymond-James. The show had a lot of humor and followed two characters more or less stumbling their way through the seedy underbelly of San Diego. The performances were engaging and the characters extremely likable. But FX canceled the show after 13 episodes, and it ended on a massive cliffhanger, leaving fans yearning for a conclusion even more.
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War, but make it funny
Following three brothers who were in the Army, the comedy was set at an Army base in Florida and seemed almost ahead of its time. Crated by Kevin Biegel, who wrote on Scrubs and co-created Cougar Town, Enlisted starred Geoff Stults, Chris Lowell, and Parker Young as the Hill brothers, with Stults' Pete coming back from Afghanistan to lead his brothers' squad. With a great supporting cast like fan favorite Keith David and Mel Rodriguez before his star turn on The Last Man on Earth, this show is worth looking up for some laughs. Fox canceled it in June 2014, marking it the second time in four years the network had given a Stults' show a one-and-done order after it canceled The Finder.
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3Stumptown
From Robin to Dex
A comic book series without any of your recognizable superheroes that fell outside the MCU and DCEU? That was Stumptown. Many people didn’t realize that this show was based on a comic book, but this show took two of the most recognizable actors that had major success on ensemble comedies of the 2010s and introduced them into a gritty drama. Colby Smulders, known to many as Robin Scherbatsky of How I Met Your Mother, and Jake Johnson, known to many as Nick Miller of New Girl, teamed up in this ABC series set in Portland. Smulders played Dex Parios, a former Marine who works as a PI to make money to help her disabled brother while Johnson played her best friend, Grey McConnell, an ex-con and owner of a bar. The similarities to Terriers stop there, as the setting of Portland offers plenty of Confederated tribe storylines and the supporting cast features Adrian Martinez, Michael Ealy, and Camryn Manheim. It was originally picked up for a second season, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced ABC to reverse its decision.
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4The Black Donnellys
When America couldn’t have more than one mob show
The Black Donnellys
One could say that The Black Donnellys just came out at the wrong time. In the winter of 2007, NBC debuted a crime drama that focused on four Irish-American brothers living in Hell’s Kitchen dealing with the Irish Mob. There was another series on at that same time about the mob that was in the midst of its final season that had the entire world paying attention to it. That would be The Sopranos, which didn’t bode well for The Black Donnellys' ratings. Created by Paul Haggis, the writer of Crash and Million Dollar Baby, the series shined a light on the Donnelly brothers Tommy (Jonathan Tucker), Jimmy (Tom Guiry), Kevin (Billy Lush), and Sean (Michael Stahl-David) and focused heaviliy on the racial tensions between Irish and Italian citizens of New York City. While many of the actors are recognizable and have been seen in many shows and movies since then, none of them hit it bigger than Olivia Wilde, who played bartender Jenny. The show only aired six episodes before NBC pulled the plug. The final seven were then posted online, never to be officially aired.
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5The Class
A bringing together of friends after Friends
After Friends finished its legendary run in 2004, networks were scrambling to find the next major sitcom that featured a cast of up-and-coming 20-somethings. One of those was The Class, which was created by David Crane, the co-creator of Friends, and his husband, Jeffrey Klarik. This show was even directed by James Burrows, the legendary TV director known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Fraiser, Friends, WIll & Grace, and The Big Bang Theory. The show focused on eight 28-year-olds who were all in the third grade together and became thrust back into each other’s lives after one of them invited them all to his engagement party. In the cast were actors who went on to become breakout stars including Jon Bernthal, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lizzy Caplan, and Jason Ritter. Andrea Anders, Lucy Punch, Sean Maguire, and Heather Goldenhersh rounded out the main cast. The show ran on CBS for 19 episodes before getting the ax.
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6Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
A rare misfire from Aaron Sorkin
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Imagine this: it’s the fall of 2006 and NBC unveils its lineup and there are two shows that revolve around the behind-the-scenes of a late-night sketch show. Some people may have been scratching their heads as to why they would do this, but there was major weight behind both shows. Aaron Sorkin had just finished his successful run as the creator of The West Wing, which was the most Emmy-awarded drama series in history, and had pitched a comedy drama called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Tina Fey, who had just finished up her incredible run as head writer on Saturday Night Live, pitched 30 Rock. Neither blew away audiences in their first seasons and because Studio 60 was more expensive to produce, it got axed. But the show had an unbelievable cast, as it starred Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, Steven Weber, Sarah Paulson, and D.L. Hughley. If you’re a fan of Sorkin or any of those actors, it’s worth going back and watching.
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7My So-Called Life
A teen drama that never made it out of high school
My So-Called Life
A show that took on the major issues of its time, My So-Called Life has become a cult classic after being a rather successful show in its own right when it was on. It was a critical darling, even winning a Golden Globe for its star, Claire Danes. It focused around Danes' Angela, a 15-year-old high school student living outside of Pittsburgh, and what life was like in high school. It launched the careers of Jared Leto, as heartthrob Jordan Catalano, and Wilson Cruz, as Rickie Vasquez. Many people believe this is one of the best shows to only receive one season, as ABC aired 19 episodes before it was cancelled. The show was created by Winnie Holzman, who went on to write Wicked following the cancelation of the series.
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8Almost Human
A sci-fi offering that didn’t land
Almost Human
Michael Ealy finds himself on this list again with the 2013 series Almost Human. He played Dorian, a Police Synthetic a.k.a an android who teams up with Karl Urban’s John Kennex to fight crime. The show was executive produced by J.J. Abrams and was a sleek look at the (potential) future, as the crime got so bad, the city decided to rely on each human police officer having an android counterpart. The show failed to catch on with audiences, was expensive to shoot, and was cancelled in early 2014. But as we know, Urban went on to bigger and better things as Butcher in The Boys.
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9Freaks and Geeks
Want to talk about a cast?
Freaks and Geeks
There is no doubt that Judd Apatow has had an indelible impression on comedy over the past 30 years. From The 40-Year Old Virgin to The Larry Sanders Show to Knocked Up to Girls, he has been a part of many of the best comedies on both TV and film during that time frame. He executive produced Freaks and Geeks in 1999, a show created by Paul Feig, who went on to direct Bridesmaids, Spy, The Heat, and more. The show was a teen comedy-drama that followed a group of teenagers in suburban Detroit in the early 1980s. It is lauded for its smart portrayals of the awkwardness of growing up and the cast is arguably one of the best of any show ever. Nearly every one of the cast members went on to become big stars, including Linda Cardellini, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segal, and Busy Phillips. Sadly, NBC nixed it due to low ratings. But critics loved it at the time and fans have come to appreciate it after its cancelation.
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The ultimate cult classic
Back in 2002, Fox was looking to cash in on the huge success that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was having and greenlit another pilot from creator Joss Whedon. Firefly was set in 2157 and focused on the crew of the spaceship Serenity after humans arrive in a new star system. Many of the crew members had fought on the losing side of a civil war and were dealing with adjusting to life in a new place. The show featured Nathan Fillion as the captain of Serenity, Mal Reynolds, Gina Torres as Zoe Washburne, the ship’s second-in-command, Alan Tudyk as Hoban “Wash” Washburne, Zoe’s husband and the pilot of the ship, Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra, a Companion, Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb, a mercenary, Jewel Staite as Kaylee Frye, the ship’s mechanic, Sean Maher as Simon Tam, a trauma surgeon, Summer Glau as River Tam, Simon’s sister, and Ron Glass as Derrial Book, a preist-like figure known as a shepherd. The show followed these smugglers and has a Western feel to it. It was canceled after 11 of the 14 episodes aired but became a massive hit when the show was released on DVD. The support was so huge, a follow-up film titled Serenity, was released in 2005.
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