There's nothing worse than finding out that your newfound favorite television show has
gotten the ax after only airing for one season.
A few examples immediately come to mind.
For starters, there's the early 1990s teen drama My So-Called Life starring Claire Danes,
who eventually played Juliet in that weird 1996 modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juiliet, then you got shows like Freaks and Geeks and Firefly that went on
to develop strong cult followings but were never renewed for unknown reasons.
But then there are shows that never even made it that far.
Join us as we discuss several television series that never actually became series at all.
Every show that we'll be discussing got canceled after airing just one measly episode.
Can you imagine being a television producer or actor and investing so much time and effort
into a project only for it to be grounded almost immediately after takeoff?
That must be devastating, but fortunately for us little people at home, we're lucky
enough to just go on about our lives as if it never happened.
Granted, it's pretty rare for a show to be immediately canceled, and there are ordinarily
extenuating circumstances involved behind-the-scenes that lead to such abrupt and decisive action.
Shows can get the boot so early on in their run because of factors such as receiving extremely
negative critical response, poor ratings, controversial subject material, or sometimes
even offset scandals.
For clarity's sake, however, were not going to include shows that never progressed past
a pilot.
We could devote a whole 'nother episode just to that topic alone.
Anyway, let's get down to business.
Who's Whose – 1951
Here we have a panel quiz game show that was hosted by Phil Baker and aired on CBS.
Four panelists would try to figure out which of three male contestants was married to their
respective corresponding female contestants.
The show was dropped by it's sponsor, General Foods, after just one airing because of dismally
poor ratings.
You're In The Picture - 1961
This CBS game show aired for only one episode on January 20, 1961, the same evening that
John F. Kennedy was inaugurated.
The show was the creation of Don Lipp and Bob Synes, who were attempting to prove that
it's host and star of the show, Jackie Gleason, could demonstrate versatility after his successful
run with The Honeymooners.
The game show was canceled after receiving extremely horrible reviews by critics and
audience members alike.
The show was, in fact, so bad that Jackie Gleason released a public apology the following
week on a stripped-down bare-bones sound-stage which arguably could be called its second
episode.
In his apology, Gleason rhetorically asked how it was possible for such a highly trained
group of people to put out such a big flop.
Turn-On – 1969
This spin-off of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was a lot racier than its parent show.
It was a sketch comedy show that aired for just one episode on ABC back in February of
1969 and is considered to be one of the most notorious TV flops in history.
The reason why it was canceled so abruptly was that numerous broadcast officials and
network sponsors considered it to be far too offensive and raunchy, seeing as how it leaned
heavily on sexual and political humor.
It's reported that at least one local station, WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio, refused to even air
the rest of the show after the first commercial break – instead opting to air 15 minutes
of ads.
ABC ended up canceling the program halfway through its initial airing.
While two episodes were technically filmed, only one was ever shown to the public.
The Melting Pot – 1975
This BBC ridiculously offensive sitcom, which was written by Spike Milligan, who also played
its lead Mr. Van Gogh, a Pakistani immigrant who Milligan played in brownface, was not
surprisingly canceled after airing just one episode.
Four other episodes had already been filmed but they have since become lost media.
Not to get too derailed, but if you're enjoying this video so far, be sure to give it a like
and subscribe to Facts Verse for more entertaining videos about the film and television industry.
And don't go anywhere just yet.
Stay tuned to learn about a sitcom that was so ill-conceived that its producers literally
thought they could make Adolf Hitler funny.
Co-Ed Fever – 1979
This 1979 CBS sitcom desperately tried – and failed – to capitalize on the success of
the National Lampoon film Animal House which had hit theaters the year prior.
It was actually the third 'frat house' that aired on television in 1979, so CBS clearly
weren't the only ones to think that a college comedy would be en vogue.
The first episode of Co-Ed Fever was aired as a 'special preview' episode on February
4, 1978, but it received such low rating and negative critical response that it was canceled
before the remaining five episodes that had been filmed could be aired.
Melba – 1986
Melba was a sitcom that briefly aired on CBS in 1986.
The series starred singer-songwriter and actress Melba Moore as Melba Patterson, a divorced
mother who was a director of New York's Manhattan Visitor Center.
While the show wasn't particularly awful, it premiered on January 28, 1986, the day
that the Space Shuttle Challenger tragically exploded after its launch killing everyone
on board.
People were likely too busy watching news coverage of the disaster to even bother checking
out a new comedy.
As such, it's premiere ranked as one of the lowest-rated programs on the network that
week and CBS immediately canceled it after airing only one episode.
The remaining 5 episodes were eventually aired later that summer, and curious viewers can
now stream the whole series on the Crackle streaming service.
Heil Honey I'm Home!
- 1990
We're not even sure how this horrible mess of a show ever even got greenlit in the first
place.
It was a British sitcom that hit the air in September 1930 and spoofed classic 1950s and
60s American sitcoms but with a pretty terrible twist.
The two leads of the show were caricatures Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, who live-out pretty
mundane stereotypical married lives until they become neighbors to a Jewish couple.
Needless to say, the series was given the ax because of the controversy that it stirred
up.
Seven other episodes were filmed but never aired.
Public Morals – 1996
This CBS sitcom was about a group of mismatched detectives and their acquaintances from New
York City's vice squad.
Technically it was a spin-off of the popular drama procedural NYPD Blue, and it was led
by Bill Brochtrup's character, John Irvin, from that series.
The pilot had previously been scrapped because critics and CBS officials alike felt as if
the language was too vulgar and offensive, but the episode that eventually made it to
air was also poorly reviewed.
Critics especially felt like the show suffered from having characters that were far too one-dimensional,
and they also took issue with how much of it's humor revolved around racial stereotypes.
Lawless – 1997
This Fox detective series starred former NFL player Brian Bosworth as a private investigator
named John Lawless in Miami's South Beach.
The network canceled the show for performing extremely poorly after just one episode.
Dot Comedy – 2000
While internet humor is routinely incorporated into modern television shows these days, back
at the turn of the millennium, the web was still a relatively unexplored realm for network
television.
The show was hosted by Annabelle Gurwitch and the Sklar Brothers and aired as part of
the network's TGIF block of programming.
After only 4.1 million viewers tuned in for its premiere, it was swiftly canceled, never
to be aired again.
Comedians Unleashed – 2002
The early 2000s were a time of experimentation for many television networks.
This extremely short-lived show was Animal Planets' attempt to copy Comedy Central's
stand-up comedy shows with animal-themed humor.
While the show was officially canceled after airing just one episode, that first installment
was rerun a few times, presumably to see if it would fair better in different time slots.
The Will – 2005
This laughably bad reality show which ran on CBS, involved a group of family members
and friends that competed in a series of challenges in the hopes of coming out on top and being
named as the sole beneficiary of a will.
CBS canceled it after just one episode, but FOX Reality Channel picked it up and proceeded
to air the rest of the series in full.
Emily's Reasons Why Not – 2009
This failed sitcom which aired on ABC starred Heather Graham as a single, independent, career
woman who writes up a checklist to help her figure out when it's time to stop trying to
find love and move on.
The series was canceled after only airing its first episode with ABC's chief of programming
Steve McPherson saying that he knew the show wasn't going to get any better and that they
needed to cut their losses and swap it out as soon as possible.
Reportedly the show was greenlit without the ABC brass even seeing its pilot.
The Rich List – 2006
This miserable game show was the dirty work of the producers of the British game shows
The Weakest Link and Dog Eat Dog.
Even though it was heavily promoted by FOX during the MLB World Series, the show was
sent to the chopping block after airing just one episode.
Oddly enough, the show was later revived by the Game Show Network in 2009, renamed as
The Money List.
But that incarnation also was canceled after airing just nine episodes.
Well, that pretty much wraps up this video.
Do you remember any of these quickly canceled, one-off television shows?
Yeah, neither do we.
But if you can think of any other series that were promptly canceled after premiering on
network TV, let us know down below in the comments.
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