# Shows that ended too soon but... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934 "2016-12-17T15:42:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/1 "2016-12-17T15:42:25Z")
…were not One Season wonders, in that they lasted at least two seasons. My examples: Better Off Ted Suburgatory Happy Endings I was going to write a little blurb about each but but what they all had in common was they all had a striking comedic voice and characters I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else. I miss all three to varying degrees. In the case of Better Off Ted, it felt like a show about 5 years ahead of its time. The other two were a little more traditional but interesting takes on the “Family Sitcom” and “Hang Out Sitcom” genres respectively. Something else that just occurred to me, they are all ABC shows…interesting, not sure if that means anything. So what are your examples? They can be drama too. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/2 "2016-12-17T15:47:47Z")
**Pushing Daisies** barely got 2 seasons in, both partial due to a writer strike. **Star Trek** at only 3 seasons of course. \*\*WKRP \*\*still was still improving. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/3 "2016-12-17T16:16:12Z")
_Fawlty Towers_, obviously. \*\*Dinosaurs \*\* ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/4 "2016-12-17T16:47:13Z")
I very much liked the HBO TV show “Enlightened” which lasted for two seasons (18 episodes). I think it could have gone for at least one more season before the premise ran too thin. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/5 "2016-12-17T16:53:04Z")
_Deadwood_. Lots of loose ends. Stories at the time mentioned a film version was planned that would tie those up, but it never happened. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/6 "2016-12-17T17:00:35Z")
I thought _Welcome to Sweden_ (starring Amy Poehler’s brother) was funny and interesting, for the unusual (for US television) setting. It only got two short seasons. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/7 "2016-12-17T18:05:56Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > **Pushing Daisies** barely got 2 seasons in, both partial due to a writer strike. > **Star Trek** at only 3 seasons of course. > \*\*WKRP \*\*still was still improving. I was going to suggest both Pushing Daisies (still one of my favorite shows) and WKRP. The original Trek series’ third season was poor in quality for several reasons (Roddenberry had become less involved, budget cuts, etc.), and even if the show hadn’t been cancelled, I suspect that a fourth season would also have been pretty bad. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/8 "2016-12-17T18:08:39Z")
_Rome_. The second season was inferior to the first, but I think that was mainly because they were trying to wrap things up too quickly. The series was supposed to last 4 or 5 seasons. When they found out the second season was going to be the last, they tried to tell the rest of the story in compressed form with somewhat disappointing results. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/9 "2016-12-17T18:35:11Z")
Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 The Witches of East End Joan of Arcadia Legend of the Seeker Dirt Boomtown Dirty Sexy Money ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/10 "2016-12-17T18:44:45Z")
_Pushing Dasies_ was on my mental list after I saw the title but before I clicked the link and saw the “more than one season” stipulation (ruling out others on the list, such as _Wonderfalls_.) I’ll add _Dead Like Me_. (_Fawlty Towers_, mentioned above, is an interesting complication, given that it’s two seasons is fewer episodes than a typical “one season and done” series in the US.) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/11 "2016-12-17T18:55:12Z")
[_Dead Like Me_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348913/), as the first of a string of narratively unfulfilled shows by Bryan Fuller. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > (_Fawlty Towers_, mentioned above, is an interesting complication, given that it’s two seasons is fewer episodes than a typical “one season and done” series in the US.) _Fawlty Towers_ wasn’t discontinued because of being cancelled, but because both John Cleese and Connie Booth were creatively exhausted, and Cleese has subsequently refused to even consider a third series or film adapatation. And it is arguably not “too soon” in the sense of being incomplete. Like _The Prisoner_, _Fawlty Towers_ completed a narrative arc. It is better seen as a book that just came to close. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/12 "2016-12-17T18:58:12Z")
Wonderfalls My So-Called Life ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/13 "2016-12-17T19:00:48Z")
“The Defenders” actually ran for four years ('61-65), but would still be a timely storyline, to this day. Starring E G Marshall and Robert Reed as father-son attorneys who defended people in danger of having their constitutional rights trampled. I have long wished this series would run in syndication, so people born since then could see how their rights came about, which are now taken for granted. It took a great deal of courage for CBS to air this show in the first place, early in the Vietnam war era and before Civil Righs Act, and it still would. By the way, they often lost their cases, against stonewalling courts. I understand this series was released as a boxed set earlier this year. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/14 "2016-12-17T19:01:02Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > Wonderfalls > > My So-Called Life Both are single season series, so like _Freaks and Geeks_ they are certainly incomplete but do not meet the o.p.'s criteria of having at least two seasons. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/15 "2016-12-17T19:03:22Z")
“F/X: The Series” starring Cameron Daddo as Rollie Tyler. Two seasons in syndication but (AFAIK) it stopped being carried locally after the first. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/16 "2016-12-17T19:33:21Z")
_Carnivale_, which ended after two seasons with loose ends everywhere. _Twin Peaks_ was my first thought of when I saw the thread title, but that’s getting a third season next year. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/17 "2016-12-17T19:36:37Z")
**Pushing Daisie** s was already mentioned (and much missed) so I’ll add \*\*Sports Night \*\*and **Joan of Arcadia**. :mad::(:mad::(:mad::(:mad:☹ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/18 "2016-12-17T19:52:24Z")
_ **The Rat Patrol** _. They did well to get two seasons out of it, though, considering US troops fought in North Africa only from November of 1942 to May of '43. _ **F Troop** _ ceased production because the studio thought they could make more money using the space for other shows. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/19 "2016-12-17T19:58:33Z")
_ **It Takes a Thief** _ was cancelled because the episodes started to suck after Malachi Throne left the series. _ **Batman** _, mercifully, after its budget was slashed. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934/20 "2016-12-17T20:11:02Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 > The Witches of East End > Joan of Arcadia > Legend of the Seeker > Dirt > \*\*Boomtown \*\* > Dirty Sexy Money The first season of “Boomtown” was great. It was like a weekly version of “Rashomon” where the events in the episode were shown from the perspectives of several of the characters. Then of course the network suits had to get involved and dumbed it down for the second season, making it just another cop/lawyer drama. Probably just as well that it only lasted two seasons. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-ended-too-soon-but/774934.md?page=2)