Also came to mention My So Called Life. Definitely ahead of its time.
Judy Garland’s variety show only lasted one season and there were some rough patches early, especially the bits with the least funny man alive Jerry van Dyke. At the end it morphed into an all concert format which may be a little too much but Garland was a tremendous singer.
There was a George C Scott television drama called “East Side/ West side” about a New York social worker that lasted only one season.
A Gene Roddenberry series called “The Lieutenant” about a young Marine lieutenant starring Gary Lockwood (who got killed off in the second pilot for “Star Trek”)
“Shindig” which lasted one and a half seasons.
Shows that seeming go on forever without reason? “Saturday Night Live” is the champion of this.
“Action” and “Clone High” were great, but the granddaddy of them all is “Police Squad!”.
EDIT: I also liked “The Oblongs”.
Bakersfield P.D. was a great police comedy.
American Gothic (the one with Gary Cole as Lucas Buck) was underfunded but still had great promise.
Scrubs was very welcome throughout it’s long run… Until that final season. That really stunk.
TCMF-2L
There is much to admire in US tv these days, unfortunately the dragging out of excellent ideas and milking them dry over multiple series isn’t one of them.
I loved the Sopranos, The Wire, The West Wing etc. but all of them went on far too long. All would have been better had they lasted only half the length and the full story arc had been defined at the beginning. They all petered out into a slow decline. I wouldn’t be suprised if this is a feature of most american TV drama. A superb initial product seems to be diluted by the wish to keep it churning through season after season.
One that I felt maintained a high level of quality throughout was “Boardwalk Empire” But that was the exception.
So shorter is typically better for me, (particularly where comedy is concerned)
The Office (UK) (twelve half hour episodes plus two 45 minute Christmas specials)
Fawlty Towers ( twelve half hour episodes)
Blackadder ( 24 half hour episodes and 2 specials over the course of 18 years)
The Day Today (six half hour episodes)
Brass Eye ( seven episodes)
Big Train (12 half hour episodes)
The Thick of it (21 half hour episodes and three specials over the course of 7 years)
Helpful to think of the final season as a spinoff, as was intended.
I loved Better Off Ted (two seasons but less than a year total). I never even knew it existed when it was on television; found it on DVDs on Netflix.
I really liked the first season of Grey’s Anatomy, didn’t hate it for the next season or so, but got burned out on it and don’t know who all those people are anymore, and don’t care.
I also really liked You, Me, and the Apocolypse. I was sad to see it cancelled after one season.
I adored The Riches, with Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver. Granted, it was one season and then another slightly-less-than-half-ish season (the writers’ strike happened), but it was still way too short. It’s 20 episodes total, which is more like one regular season on network TV.
The show I hated that went on forever is Everybody Loves Raymond. And weirdly, I like a lot of the actors on the show in other things, but that sitcom itself, I can’t understand how it went on for nine seasons, and now reruns in perpetuity.
Sons of Anarchy could have been a good 2.5 seasons. Seven was just torture . . .
Justified is getting a bit draggy; I think we’re in season four now. Like Sons, it’s getting a bit too murdery.
I loved King of Queens, but it got stupid with the miscarriage/baby stuff. I usually stop watching series when baby drama starts to happen (Mad About You comes to mind).
It seems like there’s a million episodes, but The Honeymooners was just one (long) season as well.
Justified lasted six seasons and coincidentally I am finishing the sixth season right now.
I like the show, the characters, the language and the basic world they have constructed. For me the biggest weakness is the lack of a clear story arc. In the end it boils down to a Raylon versus Boyd feud. Quite honestly I didn’t realise they hated each other so. I probably wasn’t paying enough attention.
TCMF-2L
gently smacks her head Can’t believe I forgot this one…I LOVED it on Sci-Fi (excuse me, SyFy) during the summer as a tween/early teen, and still love it via the occasional YouTube revisiting…
Misfits Of Science
My So Called Life had one amazing season, meanwhile Two and Half Men lasted for like 9.
**Quark**
Classic comedy gold (at least to my 10 year old self for the earliest examples) and done too soon.
Yes, loved it. Also any excuse to get Karen Gillan on screen.
Probably an unpopular opinion, and I know it got two seasons, but it was still cut down before it’s time: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
It ended on a cliffhanger with multiple unresolved plot threads… Some of which were extremely tantalizing. It also had great potential to dig into some really intense sci-fi character stories, but got held back because it had an action focus.
Police Squad! of course, although that didn’t even last a season, just six episodes.
Love “The Oblongs”! I also like “O’Grady”, which did last 2 seasons but the first one is definitely the better of the two. AFAIK, “O’Grady” has never been released on DVD but you can watch The Weirdness on You Tube.
I also liked “Invasion”, an alien-invasion series that aired for about 10 episodes immediately after “Lost”.