Plenty of shows don’t make it through the first season. Have they ever cancelled one halfway through the 2nd season, or something like that?
Yes. The 2003-2004 TV season had several such cases: Boston Public, Boomtown, Good Mornign Miami, and the Dragnet revival were all cancelled midseason.
Tru Calling was renewed for a second season and they produced 5 or 6 episodes before it was cancelled (tho this was before any of the second seson was aired).
the episodes (except for the last one - which was a Christmas episode) were aired.
Brian
Boston Public lasted 4 seasons (2000-2004) and 81 episodes.
Canceling Boomtown was a travesty that still makes me see red and is a good example how a program can be “improved” to extinction. It was an excellent ensemble show the first season, with interesting, sometimes convoluted, plots and steady character development. Apparently the ratings weren’t quite what the network execs expected, though. The second season started with immediate shark jumping, including a ludicrous plot and a lesbian scene that had no reason that I could see, other than it was a lesbian scene. After that, the show just died.
One show I can think of is Bob Newhart’s third sitcom (the one where he was a comic book artist with a twenty-something daughter who still lived at home). In the second season, they overhauled the show to have Bob working at a greeting card company rather than writing comic books. It didn’t work. The show was gone before Christmas.
Also, wasn’t *My So-Called Life * cancelled in midway through its second season?
On the syndicated side, they started a 2nd season of Jack of All Trades, but halfway through it’s 2nd season they cancelled it and expanded Cleopatra 2525 from 30 minutes to an hour, to fill the space.
I think Governor Quinn meant to say Boston Common.
Pash
Yes, but it was mysteriously pulled from the schedule halfway into season 4 (this was around the end of January, after the show was moved to Friday…whoever thought that somebody would want to watch a show about SCHOOL on a Friday night???), and never returned. The show deserved to be cancelled at that point…it had been drilled so far into the ground, and was becomining nothing more that a ground for Jeri Ryan’s ego (who is now trying her best to ruin The OC), and a place to put the non-winners of American Idols. However, the show did at least deserve to have a final episode, which it didn’t.
The most blaring example of the same thing was Last Comic Standing, which was cancelled with 2 episodes left to go in season 3.
The Mole, Celebrity Edition…
Arrested Development almost was. They shortened the second season from 22 to 18 episodes and almost cancelled it.
I think it was worse than that. IIRC, the only episode left was the live finale. I was irritated, since I was following the show. What an f-you to the fans. Sheesh!
Just a quick sidetrack: is she the wife of the Ryan whose senate campaign got shut down by a sex scandal involving him forcing her to let people watch them have sex at parties?
Yup. Imagine that, a sex scandal working against a Republican.
-Joe
No, I meant Boston Public. fusoya has given why.
(Besides which, Boston Common (at least according to my source) finished the 96-97 season.)
Then, there’s the best-known (and, it appears, longest-run) series to be cancelled midseason: Bonanza, which was pulled in January 1973, during its’ 14th season.
I think Joey will fall into this category.
The American version of Men Behaving Badly made it through its first season (1996), but then was cancelled shortly into its second. I’d say largely because of Justine Bateman and Ron Eldard leaving the show after the first season. The new roommate combination in season 2 just didn’t click. Worked much better with Eldard in season 1.
Sadly, I feel Arrested Development will as well.
thwartme