The Thread Search isn’t working for me so I’m not sure if this one has already been mentioned -
Call To Glory
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086678/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_49
Very well-made one-season series from the mid-80s with Craig T Nelson as an Air Force colonel during the Kennedy and post-Kennedy years. It also gave me and probably a lot of other people their first look at an SR-71 Blackbird.
[quote=“terentii, post:157, topic:711394”]
[/QUOTE] I knew this was on YouTube, watched it a couple years ago. I thought it was hilarious too! It's pure meta-humor. it's not making fun of Hitler or the Holocaust, it's making fun of 99% of sitcoms (and how awful they are!) Truly ahead of its time (*25 years ago!!*) I wouldn't be surprised if Adult Swim ran this unannounced at 4am some night... :DBig Shots.
I loved that show! It starred Christopher Titus and Dylan McDermott. From Wikipedia: "The show was officially pitched as “the story of four friends at the top of their game… until the women in their lives enter the room.”
The Black Donnellys
Another show I loved!
I featured a young and hot Olivia Wilde, pre House days.
It was a story told sort of in flashbacks about one of the Donnelly brothers grew up to be the head of the Irish Mob in Hell’s Kitchen. I thought it was a great show.
Surviving Jack was an awesome show; and should not have been cancelled. 
Andy Richter Controls the Universe from the same people who would later make the slightly more successful (2 seasons!) cult classic Better of Ted. Had the same absurdist cut-away humor that 30 Rock would use later.
I loved Max Headroom. Matt Frewer and his quirky voice; and of course the hot Amanda Pays! Wasn’t crazy about Brice though! 
I can’t believe this only lasted 8 episodes. I remember watching it as a kid and liking it.
Don’t think this one has been mentioned; Q.E.D. (Quentin E. Deverill), 1982, 6 episodes.
I’d forgotten about that. I thought it was quite awesome when I was 9-10 years old, but hadn’t thought about it much since.
I remember it too, and I was in college. I was disappointed that more episodes weren’t produced.
People! Hang onto a table or something! I just did a quick tally: we have mentioned nearly 180 shows!! :eek:
Have we scratched the surface? Or have we exhausted all possibilities? 
Onward!
“Ellery Queen” Jim Hutton and David Wayne. “Break the fourth wall” mystery show. Not bad. 23 episodes.
dwyr, forgive my jumping in here like this, but you’re my new best friend. How could I forget one of my favorite shows EVAH? The stars of “Excalibur”; the hottest girl of the late '80s/early '90s in a feminist role? That opening bit of the first episode was PERFECT!
I hang my head in shame. I really liked it.
Queens Supreme, a drama about judges starring Oliver Platt, Robert Loggia, and Annabella Sciorra. It lasted for only three episodes in 2003.
“UFO” British, 26 episodes.
Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation—“SHADOW.” Loved it! 
Never saw the show, but my dad was apparently a fan, because I had one of these as a kid- the SHADO Interceptor. Not sure if Dad got it when I was a young boy, or if it’s something he bought from the PX while he was in the USAF.
Quite frankly MOST British shows are short lived although they may not be very well known to Americans. Looking at comedy:
Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969) is well known but still only managed 4 seasons, 45 episodes, the final season without John Cleese and only the first 2 seasons are really “pure” Python. And that show’s the outlier!
Monty Python alumni (John Cleese) went on to do Fawlty Towers (1975) which had 2 seasons of 6 episodes each.
Meanwhile does America know Ripping Yarns (1976)? The Pythons Michael Palin and Terry Jones spoof boy’s literature of the 1920s and managed 2 seasons. One of 6 episodes and the second “season” just 3 episodes.
Eric Idle did Rutland Weekend Television (1975) spoofing a small TV station. Managed 2 seasons, the first 6 episodes the second 7 episodes. However one sketch took off. A clear spoof of the Beatles, the Rutles led to a fake TV spinoff film and album with involvement by long time Python fan and supporter George Harrison.
More recent but I’m guessing less well known to Americans would be
The Day Today (1994). Spun off from a radio show, it lasted one season of 6 episodes. It was a sketch show parodying modern news reporting. It won numerous comedy awards and introduced to the (UK) mainstream the Alan Partridge character.
It’s main creative force was Chris Morris who went on to do Brass Eye (1997) which also lasted one season of 7 episodes. This show parodied investigative TV journalism and gained notoriety in the UK when various celebrities were duped into recording pieces condemning, for example, fake drugs. The celebrities and politicians solemnly intoning the dangers…
Morris then did one season, 6 episodes of the challenging Jam (2000) which occupied a strange area somewhere between comedy, surrealism and horror.
Back to The Day Today and the character of Alan Partridge (portrayed by Steve Coogan) was successful leading to 6 episodes of Knowing Me, Knowing You (1994), 2 seasons of I’m Alan Partridge (1997 and 2002), a book and later a film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013.)
But Coogan also did 2 seasons, 13 episodes of Saxondale about a former roadie turned pest controller (pest exterminator.) That was 2006.
Coogan’s production company also got behind the Julia Davis 2004 black comedy Nighty Night about an incredibly self centred woman who sees her husband’s terminal cancer as an opportunity to start an affair with her next door neighbour’s husband. The usual 2 seasons and 12 episodes.
Then there was The Office (2001) which is a good example of the British way versus the rest of the world. The original UK version ran for just 14 episodes from 2 seasons of 6 episodes and a 2 episode Christmas special. Took a while to take off (as it were) but was incredibly successful when Ricky Gervais ended it. The US version ran to over 200 episodes and 9 seasons plus there are many, foreign versions, which have lasted longer than the UK version.
Gervais also did Extras (2005) for 2 seasons and 13 episodes and recently he did Derek (2012) for 2 seasons and 14 episodes and Life’s Too Short (2011) which only went to 1 season of 7 episodes.
One more. **The Inbetweeners **(2008) ran for a mighty 3 seasons and 28 episodes before spinning off 2 cinema released films. Interestingly this one was remade by the Americans (2012) but failed to go beyond one, 12 episode season.
There are many more shows I could name but I guess they would be increasingly obscure for the US readers so I’ll stop there. However I must point out all of the shows I have mentioned here were critically acclaimed, award winning if not outright popular hits on UK Television. Indeed many have been remade or have been considered for remaking for US and other foreign markets. It’s the UK way.
TCMF-2L
When I was in kindergarten, back around 1966 or 1967, there were TWO shows I loved that disappeared without a trace:
It’s About Time, a sitcom about astronauts who accidentally travelled back in time and ended up living with cavemen.
Mr. Terriffic,a sitcom about a wimpy nerd who became a superhero by taking a pill. He could fly by flapping his arms.
I forgot… a year or two after National Lampoon’s Animal House, there was a sitcom version on ABC called Delta House. It featured several of the actors from the movie- Stephen Furst as Flounder, James Widdoes as Hoover, John Vernon as Dean Wormer, and Bruce McGill as D-Day.
They also had Zero Mostel’s son Josh as John Belushi’s little brother Jim Blutarsky.
As I recall, the first few episodes were very funny, and then it went straight downhill in a hurry. By the time it was cancelled, nobody cared any more.
