The 1990s brought a tidal wave of sitcoms crashing onto television's shores. Some were
amazing, some were terrible, but all of them, in time, came to an end. These are the strangest,
most interesting, and most surprising stories of '90s sitcom cancellations, from The Fresh
Prince of Bel-Air to Frasier.
Freaks & Geeks transcended its sitcom status, ultimately becoming one of the defining teen
shows of the 1990s. Unfortunately, much of its reputation is posthumous; it was canceled
after one season and never given another chance by NBC.
"High school is for learning, but it's also where you should be learning how to socialize."
The show debuted at 8 PM on a Saturday an awful time for a new show, especially one
aimed at teens. Freaks & Geeks then changed time slot, hampering any chance at building
ratings. The producers created a website, a rarity at the time for TV shows, to help
fans keep track of when it was on. But NBC refused to put the URL on any commercials,
lest viewers gravitate towards the web instead of TV.
There were also tensions between the producers and the network. NBC wanted a more positive
show, while the producers wanted to keep things realistic. Executive producer Judd Apatow
became particularly known for viciously defending his show to any and all network executives.
In the end, the show was canceled, but its legend has only grown.
Phenom, a sitcom about a tennis prodigy and her family, lasted one season and has largely
been forgotten. The show had a lot going for it at the start, and perhaps more importantly,
it had a great time slot, right after the mega-hit Full House.
So why was it canceled? Depends on whether you ask ABC or the producers.
ABC implied it was canceled because it under-performed. Reviews indicated a lack of direction for
the show, but this was still a shock to fans.
Phenom creator and executive producer Dick Blasucci was also surprised the show was axed.
He claimed that even though their own metrics showed good ratings, ABC told them that their
numbers didn't match. Many saw this as code for a network looking for an excuse to cut
a show.
3rd Rock from the Sun followed a group of aliens masquerading as an upper middle-class
American family, studying human habits and reporting back. It was, if you'll excuse the
space pun, a far out show that dabbled in everything from witty wordplay to slapstick.
It had a great cast, including John Lithgow and Kristen Johnson, and introduced the world
to Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
The show was off-kilter enough to have dedicated fans, but it had a hard time maintaining casual
viewership thanks to a frequently changing time slot. The network didn't believe in 3rd
Rock, in spite of its longevity. As such, the finale of season six was designed as a
series finale, and the creative team signed on for different projects, correctly suspecting
the show was done. The cast ultimately accused the network of having "mishandled" the series.
Will Smith's career trajectory from rapper to living with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air
to the world's biggest movie star is a strange arc. Starting as the Fresh Prince with DJ
Jazzy Jeff in the 1980s, Smith got rich from his music only to blow all his money on an
unsustainable lifestyle. After getting in trouble with the IRS, he signed on to star
in a sitcom largely because he needed the money.
Luckily for him, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air went on to become one of the most memorable
sitcoms of the '90s. Running the gamut on topics from normal teen issues to somber dives
into racial discrimination, it was such a hit that it never left its 8PM Monday timeslot
during its entire run.
By the end of the series, Smith had become a megastar. In addition to the leading role
on Fresh Prince, he also had Six Degrees of Separation and Bad Boys under his belt, and
he was set to star in a movie you may have heard of called Independence Day.
Smith loved his castmates, but recognized the show was limiting and knew it was time
to move on. He had something bigger in mind.
"Goodbye...Will."
"Bye bye, G."
The Fresh Prince was cancelled largely because Smith was ready to move on to the big-screen
full-time.
Few sitcoms come longer running and better-loved than Frasier. Starring Kelsey Grammer as radio
psychologist Frasier Crane, the show went through almost the entirety of the '90s and
beyond. Originally a spinoff of Cheers, Frasier stuck around a season longer than its predecessor.
But why would such a long-running and successful sitcom get canceled? Part of it was a ratings
dip, yes. But the larger part was unsustainable production costs.
Long-running shows often see higher production costs, given that actor salaries tend to rise
and more care is put into the show itself. By the end of the final season, each episode
of Frasier cost over $5 million to make, $1.6 million of which was Grammer's salary. He
implied he'd be interested in a 12th season and might take a pay cut, but an NBC spokesperson
said the network just couldn't see the numbers working. So the show's writers decided to
end things on a high note.
"Thank you, Frasier, for...well, you know."
Strangers with Candy was one of the more bizarre and acclaimed comedy shows of the late '90s.
Starring Amy Sedaris as Jeri Blank, and featuring comedy icons Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello,
the show was a hit on Comedy Central.
It ran for 30 episodes over three seasons in 1999 and 2000. Its weird twisted morals
alone make for some of the best comedy of its era, even though it's mostly a cult hit.
As such, Strangers with Candy often makes lists of shows that were canceled too soon.
Here's the catch, though: according to Sedaris, the show was technically never canceled.
In that era, most Comedy Central shows only lasted three seasons, and the Strangers with
Candy team operated under the assumption that they'd be no different. Sedaris later noted
that the final episode of the series was simply written assuming it would be the last, and
it just worked out that way.
Martin was one of the highest-rated sitcoms during Fox's rise in the early '90s. By the
end of the show's run, it was still the third most-watched show among Black viewers. It
was a hit however you slice it, and still does well in syndication. When it ended somewhat
abruptly after five seasons, star Martin Lawrence said it was because he felt it was just time
to move on. This sounded plausible enough at the time thanks to Lawrence's budding movie
stardom.
Of course even in the pre-Twitter days, Lawrence was enough of a public presence that most
people suspected differently. His erratic behavior was making headlines even before
co-star Tisha Campbell filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him after she quit the show.
The lawsuit was settled, and Campbell only appeared in the series finale on the condition
that she didn't have to be on-set with Lawrence.
Lawrence told GQ Magazine in January 2020 that he regretted a lot of his behavior in
the '90s. He also openly acknowledged for the first time that he walked away from Martin
because of the lawsuit. Martin and Campell are reportedly on good terms as of late, so
there's at least a happy ending.
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