Cheers finished #34 in it second season, but by the summer of 1983-84 NBC had strung Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, Hill Street Blues together on Thursday nights. In the fall of 1984, The Cosby Show was placed in front of that group and finished 3rd, and Cheers moved up to 12. It was 1985-86 when NBC really took over, with Cosby #1, Family Ties #2, Cheers #5, and Night Court #11.
The point remains that with a brand new show there is a need for patience to let a writersā room jell and for the audience to grow. NBC & ABC & CBS used to actually program and try to find strong shows to draw the audience to the next new and promising show. That never happens with streamers and so if a show doesnāt find its legs immediately that show gets axed almost without exception.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the only reason it didn't get cancelled after S1 is because of how ridiculously cheap it was to make, but the very small viewer base it had watched every episode rather than the numbers dipping so FX thought it was worth giving a second chance by bringing in a bigger name and trying to make that tiny but dedicated fanbase grow.
It always surprised me that the show that followed it, *Starved*, was cancelled after seven episodes, because as they aired back-to-back, the aforementioned seemed like a more complete production. As Iām typing this and looked it up, *Starved* was canceled mostly because it drew criticism for its depiction of eating disorders. Guess thatās why Sunny survived and became what it became.
> As Iām typing this and looked it up, Starved was canceled mostly because it drew criticism for its depiction of eating disorders. Guess thatās why Sunny survived and became what it became.
Yeah, Sunny focused on the REAL issues. Like how important it is to help kids get drunk, and how easy it is to get addicted to crack.
Oh, sorry, thought you were someone else in the chain. I do see your point, quantity is big, but for me even bigger is spanning eras. 2005 to 2023 is a massive span of time, also happens to be the time where I grew into an adult so that might be a bit biased
Yeah I feel ālongest running sitcomā is a complicated title especially with Curbās 6 year hiatus. But Iād say:
Longest running sitcom: The Last Summer of Wine (37 years)
Longest running American sitcom: The Simpsons (33 years)
Longest running live-action American sitcom (ranked by years): Curb your Enthusiasm (23 years)
Longest running live-action American sitcom (ranked by Seasons count): Always Sunny in Philadelphia (16 seasons)
Longest running live-action American sitcom (ranked by episode count): The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (435 episodes)
Arrested Development was always on the brink of cancelation due to low ratings but was saved by being given a good slot after The Simpsons.to try to get ratings up and due to critical acclaim .
There are two great jokes about this in season 2.
Michael tells his employees that they'll build 18 houses instead of 22 to save money after the 2nd season's episode count was cut from 22 to 18.
The office staff moves the entire Bluth company's office to a different floor in the building to save money on rent but forgets to tell Michael. He comes in and the office is empty and he says something like "they cancelled us and didn't tell me."
The Save Our Bluths (SOB) dinner was just dripping with double entrendre about the entertainment industry - not that the rest of the show wasn't already.
George: "Well, I don't think the Home Builder's Organization is gonna be supporting us."
Michael: "Yeah, the HBO is not gonna want us. What are we gonna do now?"
George: "Well, I think it's Showtime."
Chuck was ALWAYS on the verge of cancelation. But it had a very active fandom. I remember they ended up getting an outside sponsorship with like subway or something to keep it on the air.
Yeah it was Subway with Big Mike hawking them.
The show also had great music throughout.
[Charah Theme](https://youtu.be/pkiNJ9eX4cA?t=50)
[The Best Chuck Music](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC9udX-wzuCGqKKyQQ-6ICFWpOfyqSrBM)
Im kinda sick of this mentality everywhere. It has bad episodes of course, especially the newer stuff, but early on in the show there were some legitimately good seasons with good jokes. Thereās a reason itās so popular
> but early on in the show there were some legitimately good seasons with good jokes
I rewatched it recently and the pre cancelled seasons are pretty goddamn bad. Really bad.
The stuff they did when they came back is quite a lot better. But after the Star Wars parodies, everyone stopped caring.
Adult Swim managed to save a *Japanese Anime*. The anime The Big O, a sort of dectective/noire Giant Robots anime, did so poorly in Japan that it was cancelled after 1 season. It did so well in America that they revived it and finished out the full story arc intended for it.
Had a musical composer who was described as having a "scary good knowledge of music," and did a lot of different themes for it centered around orchestral noire, but with a ton of pieces just for individual characters and settings.
I'd highly recommend it just for the [soundtrack alone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ouCiqGCNE).
Imagine if it never came back. Those first few seasons were actually pretty good, so you'd have more folk going on about how FOX cancels great shows too early!
And it certainly helped that they retooled the character in season 2 to be less like his British counterpart and embody a little more Steve Carell-ish personality.
Also they cleaned up the office itself, visually. The lighting was brighter. The cast had warmer makeup. And they made sure the show was focused beyond the three main characters.
And they went beyond the British show.
The first season just tried to transplant the British show's identity. Some of the scripts in the first season are almost straight remakes of the British show. It didn't translate right and they changed the tone significantly for Season 2.
In the British show most of the characters weren't really as warm. David Brent was a total asshole and isn't really likeable at all. Tim is meant to be his counterpoint but they play up more the idea that he really needs to get out of that job whereas Jim seems more comfortable with it tbh which makes less sense when Michael is also a total asshole in the first season (since he is closely modeled on David Brent).
It was very smart to expand the show's cast and take it in a warmer direction. The British series itself already retooled in its second series.
It's always wild to me reading comments like this.
I find there to be no difference between Season 1-3 outside of the makeup and production in season 1.
The humour, the tone, the acting is all the same. Michael's hair is by far the biggest change from season 1. Michael is a total asshole the entire TV show and is at his worst in season 3. He's way more endearing in Season 1 v 3 IMO.
After season 4 is when the show starts to become super American and then it jumps the shark in season 6. Have never watched anything past that though, so can't comment on Season 7-whenever it ended.
I will keep hoping. There is a massive time jump between where the season ended and where the next book starts. They could actually pick it up again some day and it would make perfect sense to have older actors.
Wait, it was cancelled? Did it at least have a satisfying conclusion?
I was considering checking this out since I heard a lot of hype but not if it got the Netflix treatment.
It does have a good conclusion to many of the arcs presented throughout, while also leaving bits open for potential more.
It has adapted book 1-6 and there's a 30 year time jump between book 6 and 7, so the ending point for now made sense
Doctor Who's third serial is only two episodes compared to the more typical four to seven they produced at the time as a caution against the series failing to live beyond its initial thirteen episode order, and had The Daleks not represented an enormous jump in ratings over An Unearthly Child, it's likely that would've been that.
It was also considered for cancellation after the seventh season, but the "exiled to Earth" arc proved cheap enough and popular enough for continuation.
Until such time as official BBC releases stop using An Unearthly Child and start using "The Tribe of Gum" or "10,000 BC" or any of the other common proposed names for it, I'll stick with An Unearthly Child.
(That said, the first episode is exemplary and then the following three are terribly middling, so I'm not unsympathetic to the urge to split them.)
Season 1 of MASH did not do well. Luckily it got moved to a different time slot for season 2 and lasted 11 seasons with its final episode getting 125 million viewers, to this day one of the highest viewing figures of all time.
The show also drew a lot of complaints that it was disrespecting the military and the country by depicting US soldiers as horny arrogant drunks, really worrying the head of CBS. They were only reassured when lead actor Alan Alda showed them hundreds of pieces of fan mail heād been getting from actual US soldiers and veterans.
Another interesting bit of trivia is that the MASH movie is the first widely released American movie to use the word āfuckā, which prior to that had been forbidden. (Some indie art house type movies had used it before but nothing that got released in mainstream theaters in multiple states.) It drew gasps and made people walk out at premieres, and itās not even a graphic sexual usage. (During a football game, one character taunts another by telling him āAlright, your fuckinā head is coming right off.ā)
It got moved to between All In The Family, which was the number one show on TV at the time, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which was the #7 show at the time
It was moreso DVD sales, they had huge sales on DVD because that was the prime time for the format. It brought in a lot of money for FOX and they wanted more. The Simpsons DVDs were a big money maker for FOX at that time and Family Guy actually sold faster than those to become their #1 seller. Probably partly due to The Simpsons DVDs releasing on like a 10 season delay whereas Family Guy's seasons were much newer.
It's also why they came back in 2005 not just with a new season, but also released *Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story* a couple months later as a direct to DVD release.
Halt and Catch Fire very easily could've been canceled after one season but AMC didn't do it and it's now critically acclaimed (though still unknown to most people sadly)
Breaking Bad
AMC told Sony that they felt that the third season of Breaking Bad should be its last season, so Sony began asking around to see if any other networks would be interested, to which FX said they'd be interested in 2 more seasons afterwards, and AMC reversed their decision. Also, having Breaking Bad added to Netflix really helped insure it wouldn't get cancelled.
Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/breaking-bad-movie-aaron-paul-series-creator-revisiting-amc-show-1240406/
I remember Supernatural being on the bubble as far back as season 1.
If I remember right, it wasn't even picked up for season two until after the finale aired.
If the series ended with season 1 it would have been a bleak, yet awesome, ending.
This was my first thought too. I remember lots of online message board discussions from nervous fans about whether it would get picked up after S1 and then again S2. I don't recall when it became apparent the show would run as long as Jensen and Jared were willing.
Friday Night Lights is a good example of this. Its first season drew pretty middling ratings, and the show was renewed basically on the strength of its critical success and that its demos were fairly upscale. Season two was, um, let's just say not a critical success and ratings continued to dwindle in a Friday night timeslot in a really fallow period for NBC.
The show probably would have been cancelled if not for a unique partnership formed with DirectTV, who agreed to produce the show in exchange for an exclusivity window before being rerun several months later on NBC. Three more seasons were produced all very much in line with the quality of the first season, and the show ended up producing 76 episodes while picking up a couple Emmys along the way for Kyle Chandler and showrunner Jason Katims.
Without DirecTV, I don't think the show would have survived into a third season. The show would have had a very strange legacy of being a two season show where the first season was great but the second season was just a trash fire in regards to pretty much every storyline.
DirecTV later arranged the same deal with Damages, then decided they were getting out of the show-saving business, then abandonded original programming altogether.
The entirety of what I consider the holy trinity of NBC 2010s sitcoms 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, and Community continuously had poor ratings and were constantly on the brink of cancellation.
Yeah, here is an article on 30 rock constant risk of cancellation until season 2 or 3 https://www.slashfilm.com/881434/tina-fey-always-knew-30-rock-was-courting-cancellation/
Baywatch finished 73rd in the ratings on NBC in it's first season and was cancelled. It's production company dropped out saying it was too expensive to make.
David Hasselhoff and the shows creators bankrolled the production for syndication, where it became popular and ran for 10 more years.
Community was nearly cancelled 3 times on NBC before finally actually getting cancelled, only for Yahoo Screen to save it for its prophesied sixth season. After which it ended its run and was blamed for tanking the streaming service.
Ironically, itās now back at NBC for the planned movie (which hopefully shoots at some point later this year, like most productions it has been delayed by the studios not wanting to fairly pay their writers)
Community AND 30 rock.
Both were constant bubble shows, especially 30 rock which only clawed on because Lorne pushed for it.
Insanely good comedies couldn't get an audience back then.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was one of the [lowest-watched](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/crazy-girlfriends-unique-tv-ratings-history-1199892/) network TV shows ever to be renewed for as long as it was. It was the least-watched network TV show overall in 3/4 seasons and last or tied for last in the 18-49 demographic in all 4 seasons. Despite this, it was a critical darling, winning multiple Emmies, Golden Globes, etc., and amassed a cult following.
Timeless on NBC was cancelled more times than I can count... Even when it was cancelled for good it still god a wrap up movie to tie up loose plot points.
It's a shame we never got a third season, the potential story lines sounded so good, not to mention the show brought to light many historical figures often forgotten regardless of their important legacy.
Family Guy. It got cancelled after Season 3 until Fox decided to uncancel if after favorable DVD sales and high ratings. The rest is history. Whether that's for better or worse is up to you
Yes it was. The first season was close to being it's last. People didn't know what to make of it in the beginning and the network was unsure about continuing the show even though by the end of the first season it has grown by leaps and bounds in popularity. Thankfully they renewed it and here we are.
> even though by the end of the first season it has grown by leaps and bounds in popularity.
It started off with 9 millions viewers, and had dwindled down to 4m million by the end of the first season.
12 Monkeys TV series. The show was going to be cancelled after season 2, but Syfy changed their decision and gave the creators two more seasons to end the show in a satisfying manner, and they fucking delivered with the finale. Still, many people don't know about it even now. The show is very underrated, IMO.
Archive.org has the entire show available.
IANAL, so I don't know the legal status of this, but archive.org is a generally respected site that is not exactly known as a pirate stronghold.
Shows that did terribly on their cable channels and then turned into big hits on streaming after changing networks.
You was originally on lifetime, no one watched it. It's one of the most watched netflix shows.
Hannibal was on the brink of cancellation for it's entire run but they managed to get 3 seasons and a strong cult following.
Still got cancelled but for a Bryan Fuller show that's a good run.
Star Trek Deep Space 9 was on the chopping block going into season 4, but showrunners were hoping to get to end it after a fifth.
Worf joining the series coincided with increased fan interest in the show and it got a full 7 seasons like TNG and Voyager.
Cheers was ranked 77 out of 100 shows its first year and dead last in its time slot. It became a top 10 show in its second year.
Its crazy to think if it had been cancelled after season 1 the character of Frasier Crane would never exist.
Fun Fact: James Burrows originally wanted John Lithgow to play Frasier Crane.
Sideshow Bob wouldn't have existed as a major character either then.
Or The Rumble
Money plane
šµ āļø
Cheers finished #34 in it second season, but by the summer of 1983-84 NBC had strung Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, Hill Street Blues together on Thursday nights. In the fall of 1984, The Cosby Show was placed in front of that group and finished 3rd, and Cheers moved up to 12. It was 1985-86 when NBC really took over, with Cosby #1, Family Ties #2, Cheers #5, and Night Court #11.
Actually thatās not true. It became a top 20 show in its third year and in its fourth year it became a Top 5 show
The point remains that with a brand new show there is a need for patience to let a writersā room jell and for the audience to grow. NBC & ABC & CBS used to actually program and try to find strong shows to draw the audience to the next new and promising show. That never happens with streamers and so if a show doesnāt find its legs immediately that show gets axed almost without exception.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the only reason it didn't get cancelled after S1 is because of how ridiculously cheap it was to make, but the very small viewer base it had watched every episode rather than the numbers dipping so FX thought it was worth giving a second chance by bringing in a bigger name and trying to make that tiny but dedicated fanbase grow.
It always surprised me that the show that followed it, *Starved*, was cancelled after seven episodes, because as they aired back-to-back, the aforementioned seemed like a more complete production. As Iām typing this and looked it up, *Starved* was canceled mostly because it drew criticism for its depiction of eating disorders. Guess thatās why Sunny survived and became what it became.
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I wish I could find it somewhere. I remember it as a great show.
> As Iām typing this and looked it up, Starved was canceled mostly because it drew criticism for its depiction of eating disorders. Guess thatās why Sunny survived and became what it became. Yeah, Sunny focused on the REAL issues. Like how important it is to help kids get drunk, and how easy it is to get addicted to crack.
Now the longest running sitcom of all time
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I donāt think Always Sunny is even the longest running US sitcom. That would be the Simpsons with 34 seasons / 33 years.
For whatever reason, there's seperate records for animated and live action
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Curb also has 10 episode seasons though. IASIP has 162 before the new season to Curb's 110. So you are still incorrect lol
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Oh, sorry, thought you were someone else in the chain. I do see your point, quantity is big, but for me even bigger is spanning eras. 2005 to 2023 is a massive span of time, also happens to be the time where I grew into an adult so that might be a bit biased
That would be Curb Your Enthusiasm which has been on since 2000.
Only 11 seasons compared to 16. You are technically correct but not correct lol
Yeah I feel ālongest running sitcomā is a complicated title especially with Curbās 6 year hiatus. But Iād say: Longest running sitcom: The Last Summer of Wine (37 years) Longest running American sitcom: The Simpsons (33 years) Longest running live-action American sitcom (ranked by years): Curb your Enthusiasm (23 years) Longest running live-action American sitcom (ranked by Seasons count): Always Sunny in Philadelphia (16 seasons) Longest running live-action American sitcom (ranked by episode count): The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (435 episodes)
Arrested Development was always on the brink of cancelation due to low ratings but was saved by being given a good slot after The Simpsons.to try to get ratings up and due to critical acclaim .
There are two great jokes about this in season 2. Michael tells his employees that they'll build 18 houses instead of 22 to save money after the 2nd season's episode count was cut from 22 to 18. The office staff moves the entire Bluth company's office to a different floor in the building to save money on rent but forgets to tell Michael. He comes in and the office is empty and he says something like "they cancelled us and didn't tell me."
Hell doesn't season 3 go full meta with the cancellation and trying to save the show?
The Save Our Bluths (SOB) dinner was just dripping with double entrendre about the entertainment industry - not that the rest of the show wasn't already.
George: "Well, I don't think the Home Builder's Organization is gonna be supporting us." Michael: "Yeah, the HBO is not gonna want us. What are we gonna do now?" George: "Well, I think it's Showtime."
"Please tell your friends to watch this show"
Scrolled down for this.
Chuck was ALWAYS on the verge of cancelation. But it had a very active fandom. I remember they ended up getting an outside sponsorship with like subway or something to keep it on the air.
Yeah it was Subway with Big Mike hawking them. The show also had great music throughout. [Charah Theme](https://youtu.be/pkiNJ9eX4cA?t=50) [The Best Chuck Music](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC9udX-wzuCGqKKyQQ-6ICFWpOfyqSrBM)
The dude who found and curated the music was on Reddit a while back and answered some questions.
I loved those subway scenes lol.
The fandom would encourage eachother to go get subway. It was a great tactic.
Family Guy actually was cancelled.
And that which is dead can never die
Im kinda sick of this mentality everywhere. It has bad episodes of course, especially the newer stuff, but early on in the show there were some legitimately good seasons with good jokes. Thereās a reason itās so popular
> but early on in the show there were some legitimately good seasons with good jokes I rewatched it recently and the pre cancelled seasons are pretty goddamn bad. Really bad. The stuff they did when they came back is quite a lot better. But after the Star Wars parodies, everyone stopped caring.
It was revived due to DVD sales and Adult Swim ratings. Adult Swim also saved Home Movies
Adult Swim managed to save a *Japanese Anime*. The anime The Big O, a sort of dectective/noire Giant Robots anime, did so poorly in Japan that it was cancelled after 1 season. It did so well in America that they revived it and finished out the full story arc intended for it. Had a musical composer who was described as having a "scary good knowledge of music," and did a lot of different themes for it centered around orchestral noire, but with a ton of pieces just for individual characters and settings. I'd highly recommend it just for the [soundtrack alone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ouCiqGCNE).
> The anime The Big O Holy shit. I was never an anime fan but I loved this show when I was younger. I've completely forgot about it since.
twice, once after season 2 and once after season 3
Imagine if it never came back. Those first few seasons were actually pretty good, so you'd have more folk going on about how FOX cancels great shows too early!
[They made it back by the skin of their teeth](https://youtu.be/0oMTmtN7lHI)
The Wire never had an order for more than one season, and more or less had to beg for each one. It concluded with a shortened season at HBO's request.
Sucks that the final season shortened. Best show ever seen.
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And it certainly helped that they retooled the character in season 2 to be less like his British counterpart and embody a little more Steve Carell-ish personality.
Also they cleaned up the office itself, visually. The lighting was brighter. The cast had warmer makeup. And they made sure the show was focused beyond the three main characters.
And they went beyond the British show. The first season just tried to transplant the British show's identity. Some of the scripts in the first season are almost straight remakes of the British show. It didn't translate right and they changed the tone significantly for Season 2. In the British show most of the characters weren't really as warm. David Brent was a total asshole and isn't really likeable at all. Tim is meant to be his counterpoint but they play up more the idea that he really needs to get out of that job whereas Jim seems more comfortable with it tbh which makes less sense when Michael is also a total asshole in the first season (since he is closely modeled on David Brent). It was very smart to expand the show's cast and take it in a warmer direction. The British series itself already retooled in its second series.
It's always wild to me reading comments like this. I find there to be no difference between Season 1-3 outside of the makeup and production in season 1. The humour, the tone, the acting is all the same. Michael's hair is by far the biggest change from season 1. Michael is a total asshole the entire TV show and is at his worst in season 3. He's way more endearing in Season 1 v 3 IMO. After season 4 is when the show starts to become super American and then it jumps the shark in season 6. Have never watched anything past that though, so can't comment on Season 7-whenever it ended.
Star Trek TOS, and I believe TNG as well, were both on the chopping block.
The Expanse, Amazon picked it up by the 4th Season after ScyFy dropped it.
But not popular enough to keep it going. So much more to explore based on the books.
I will keep hoping. There is a massive time jump between where the season ended and where the next book starts. They could actually pick it up again some day and it would make perfect sense to have older actors.
Wait, it was cancelled? Did it at least have a satisfying conclusion? I was considering checking this out since I heard a lot of hype but not if it got the Netflix treatment.
It does have a good conclusion to many of the arcs presented throughout, while also leaving bits open for potential more. It has adapted book 1-6 and there's a 30 year time jump between book 6 and 7, so the ending point for now made sense
came here to find that..The Expanse is one of the best sci fi I've ever watched and no one in my circle is interested in..
Yea i find many are hesitant about the show. I even was in the beginning, but once they really get into it, most really love it
Doctor Who's third serial is only two episodes compared to the more typical four to seven they produced at the time as a caution against the series failing to live beyond its initial thirteen episode order, and had The Daleks not represented an enormous jump in ratings over An Unearthly Child, it's likely that would've been that.
It was also considered for cancellation after the seventh season, but the "exiled to Earth" arc proved cheap enough and popular enough for continuation.
AUC is the just first episode, not the whole first serial.
Until such time as official BBC releases stop using An Unearthly Child and start using "The Tribe of Gum" or "10,000 BC" or any of the other common proposed names for it, I'll stick with An Unearthly Child. (That said, the first episode is exemplary and then the following three are terribly middling, so I'm not unsympathetic to the urge to split them.)
Season 1 of MASH did not do well. Luckily it got moved to a different time slot for season 2 and lasted 11 seasons with its final episode getting 125 million viewers, to this day one of the highest viewing figures of all time.
Apparently it was the wife of one of the cbs executives that loved the show and convinced them to give it another chance
The show also drew a lot of complaints that it was disrespecting the military and the country by depicting US soldiers as horny arrogant drunks, really worrying the head of CBS. They were only reassured when lead actor Alan Alda showed them hundreds of pieces of fan mail heād been getting from actual US soldiers and veterans. Another interesting bit of trivia is that the MASH movie is the first widely released American movie to use the word āfuckā, which prior to that had been forbidden. (Some indie art house type movies had used it before but nothing that got released in mainstream theaters in multiple states.) It drew gasps and made people walk out at premieres, and itās not even a graphic sexual usage. (During a football game, one character taunts another by telling him āAlright, your fuckinā head is coming right off.ā)
It got moved to between All In The Family, which was the number one show on TV at the time, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which was the #7 show at the time
Ahh, that was one of the best lineups ever (including Carol Burnett at the end). And all on Saturday night. How times have changed.
That was when CBS had good TV. Boy how time has changed.
Futurama had actually been canceled, but due to great sales of their DVDs, the series was revived.
And in less than 60 days more episodes drop
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I mean wasn't it literally cancelled twice though? Cancelled at FOX then cancelled at Comedy Central. And now it's back a third time.
Huh? it's ended because it wasn't renewed for another season, hence it was cancelled a second time.
Family guy was also revived due to huge ratings for reruns on adult swim. Unfortunately nothing was as good as those first 4 seasons
It was moreso DVD sales, they had huge sales on DVD because that was the prime time for the format. It brought in a lot of money for FOX and they wanted more. The Simpsons DVDs were a big money maker for FOX at that time and Family Guy actually sold faster than those to become their #1 seller. Probably partly due to The Simpsons DVDs releasing on like a 10 season delay whereas Family Guy's seasons were much newer. It's also why they came back in 2005 not just with a new season, but also released *Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story* a couple months later as a direct to DVD release.
Halt and Catch Fire very easily could've been canceled after one season but AMC didn't do it and it's now critically acclaimed (though still unknown to most people sadly)
The Wire, The Leftovers.
Deadwood actually was cancelled. Rome too. Both were incredible
Yeah but that wasnāt the question
Conanās Late Night Show. NBC would only give 13 week renewals at a time.
That's crazy, but I can see it. Was amazing to stay up for in the 90s.
Breaking Bad AMC told Sony that they felt that the third season of Breaking Bad should be its last season, so Sony began asking around to see if any other networks would be interested, to which FX said they'd be interested in 2 more seasons afterwards, and AMC reversed their decision. Also, having Breaking Bad added to Netflix really helped insure it wouldn't get cancelled. Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/breaking-bad-movie-aaron-paul-series-creator-revisiting-amc-show-1240406/
The office barely made it out of season 1
I remember Supernatural being on the bubble as far back as season 1. If I remember right, it wasn't even picked up for season two until after the finale aired. If the series ended with season 1 it would have been a bleak, yet awesome, ending.
This was my first thought too. I remember lots of online message board discussions from nervous fans about whether it would get picked up after S1 and then again S2. I don't recall when it became apparent the show would run as long as Jensen and Jared were willing.
Friday Night Lights is a good example of this. Its first season drew pretty middling ratings, and the show was renewed basically on the strength of its critical success and that its demos were fairly upscale. Season two was, um, let's just say not a critical success and ratings continued to dwindle in a Friday night timeslot in a really fallow period for NBC. The show probably would have been cancelled if not for a unique partnership formed with DirectTV, who agreed to produce the show in exchange for an exclusivity window before being rerun several months later on NBC. Three more seasons were produced all very much in line with the quality of the first season, and the show ended up producing 76 episodes while picking up a couple Emmys along the way for Kyle Chandler and showrunner Jason Katims. Without DirecTV, I don't think the show would have survived into a third season. The show would have had a very strange legacy of being a two season show where the first season was great but the second season was just a trash fire in regards to pretty much every storyline. DirecTV later arranged the same deal with Damages, then decided they were getting out of the show-saving business, then abandonded original programming altogether.
The entirety of what I consider the holy trinity of NBC 2010s sitcoms 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, and Community continuously had poor ratings and were constantly on the brink of cancellation.
Yeah, here is an article on 30 rock constant risk of cancellation until season 2 or 3 https://www.slashfilm.com/881434/tina-fey-always-knew-30-rock-was-courting-cancellation/
Baywatch finished 73rd in the ratings on NBC in it's first season and was cancelled. It's production company dropped out saying it was too expensive to make. David Hasselhoff and the shows creators bankrolled the production for syndication, where it became popular and ran for 10 more years.
Community was nearly cancelled 3 times on NBC before finally actually getting cancelled, only for Yahoo Screen to save it for its prophesied sixth season. After which it ended its run and was blamed for tanking the streaming service. Ironically, itās now back at NBC for the planned movie (which hopefully shoots at some point later this year, like most productions it has been delayed by the studios not wanting to fairly pay their writers)
Parks and Recreation
Monty Python's Flying Circus had a rough start both in ratings and the dislike of it by BBC execs and censors
Community AND 30 rock. Both were constant bubble shows, especially 30 rock which only clawed on because Lorne pushed for it. Insanely good comedies couldn't get an audience back then.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was one of the [lowest-watched](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/crazy-girlfriends-unique-tv-ratings-history-1199892/) network TV shows ever to be renewed for as long as it was. It was the least-watched network TV show overall in 3/4 seasons and last or tied for last in the 18-49 demographic in all 4 seasons. Despite this, it was a critical darling, winning multiple Emmies, Golden Globes, etc., and amassed a cult following.
Timeless on NBC was cancelled more times than I can count... Even when it was cancelled for good it still god a wrap up movie to tie up loose plot points. It's a shame we never got a third season, the potential story lines sounded so good, not to mention the show brought to light many historical figures often forgotten regardless of their important legacy.
Is that show really considered a classic though?
Sounds like The Wire was always chasing for renewal and the cast said goodbye every season, turned out to be a god damn killer of a show.
Family Guy. It got cancelled after Season 3 until Fox decided to uncancel if after favorable DVD sales and high ratings. The rest is history. Whether that's for better or worse is up to you
Star Trek the original series was CANCELLED during its third season.
Man, cancel culture was out of control in the 60s.
Cheers is the obvious answer.
So glad Parks n Rec made it
Parks and Rec and Bobs Burgers come to mind.
*Bobās Burgers* was never, ever in jeopardy of being canceled.
Yes it was. The first season was close to being it's last. People didn't know what to make of it in the beginning and the network was unsure about continuing the show even though by the end of the first season it has grown by leaps and bounds in popularity. Thankfully they renewed it and here we are.
I found zero evidence of this. No clue about what you are saying after googling for a good long while.
> even though by the end of the first season it has grown by leaps and bounds in popularity. It started off with 9 millions viewers, and had dwindled down to 4m million by the end of the first season.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Scrappy was added 10 years after Scooby Doo premiered though. There had already been one or two other "new dog cousin" characters before him.
Futurama. Actually itās been canceled like a billion times but keeps coming back so Iām counting it as surviving lol
12 Monkeys TV series. The show was going to be cancelled after season 2, but Syfy changed their decision and gave the creators two more seasons to end the show in a satisfying manner, and they fucking delivered with the finale. Still, many people don't know about it even now. The show is very underrated, IMO.
I want to watch it, but there's currently no way to legally watch it in Sweden.
Ah, that sucks. šš
Archive.org has the entire show available. IANAL, so I don't know the legal status of this, but archive.org is a generally respected site that is not exactly known as a pirate stronghold.
Shows that did terribly on their cable channels and then turned into big hits on streaming after changing networks. You was originally on lifetime, no one watched it. It's one of the most watched netflix shows.
Arrested development
Sometimes, dead is better. It was so much better when it was struggling to stay on the air than it was post-Netflix Zombification.
JAG was cancelled(NBC) then picked up(CBS) and we all know how that went....along with all the spinoffs.
Hannibal was on the brink of cancellation for it's entire run but they managed to get 3 seasons and a strong cult following. Still got cancelled but for a Bryan Fuller show that's a good run.
Star Trek Deep Space 9 was on the chopping block going into season 4, but showrunners were hoping to get to end it after a fifth. Worf joining the series coincided with increased fan interest in the show and it got a full 7 seasons like TNG and Voyager.