When a sitcom that has been really popular, even a fixture in a certain time slot, starts to lose its audience funny things happen. What was a hit show suddenly vanishes from the schedule, as if the network is suddenly ashamed of it. But since the final episodes were filmed and recorded, when do you air them? Sometimes in the middle of the season, I remember My Two Dads quietly going away around March. Alf was quietly shuffled away in the spring also. But another idea is to wait until the worst time of year to put something on-the middle of summer!
I am not sure if it’s done anymore but in the old days when the network wanted to air unaired episodes of a series they put the show on in June or August and basicallt burned off the episodes. With as little fanfare as possible. They did this with unsold pilots or series that were cancelled so fast maybe two whole episodes aired. But those are failed shows, it makes sense to do that. When it’s a series that has been on for years and has been good for the network this kind of discarding is kind of mean.
Here are five shows that had this happen
TAXI
A great subject for another article is when a sitcom is cancelled by one network only to be bought and aired on another. Why haven’t I done that one yet? This is alays a little odd, to see your favorite show on a different network. However, this usually fails because it was cancelled originally for a reason. And the new network is just trying to cash in to the zeitgeist. This is what happened when Taxi moved from ABC to NBC. Pairing it wuth Cheers should have been a no brainer. It didn;t work that away and the final episode, which wasn’t even a finale, quietly aired in June.
Perfect Strangers
Honestly this show should have been cancelled two years earlier. At least one. They tried to keep the show alive, but once Larry and Balki got married it was kinda stupid. At some point the guys have to grow up! They tried to add a kid, which failed. Then they put the show opposite other hits on Saturday’s. That also failed. A short final season was ordered and filmed in late 1992, but the episodes did not air until the summer of 1993.
The Drew Carry Show
This is a good example of a show shooting itself in the foot. This was a big hit for ABC and Drew Care was almost the face of ABC as a result. Then What’s My Line came on. What does that have to do with it? Carey hosted that show also and I guess got a little to into the improv conceot. So the show started doing events and stunts like an episode where you had to find the mistakes. The audience was turned away. It was pulled mid-season and not only did the season end summer of 2003 but the final season didn’t even air until a year later, summer of 2004. The network cared so little the episodes weren’t even in order.
Just Shoot Me
Honestly this one I kind of understand. I loved this show, it could be so funny at times. Then came the last year or two, and I don’t know what the heck happened. The show was just, awful. The final season the show vanished only to finally return, and end properly, over the summer. Except three episodes that never even aired on NBC.
The Nanny
This show got really screwed over by CBS. For some reason I’ll never understand, the episodes stopped in March. Then they sped past several final episodes and got the series finale out in May. With plans to release the episodes never aired later on. Great idea except for one thing, those episodes had plot details that led up to the finale! Try to imagine turning the finale on and being utterly baffled because you missed all the episodes that set it up. But don’t worry, you were able to watch them all in June after the finale spoiled all the surprises. Ugh. I’m pretty sure I read that Fran Drescher was not happy with this choice.
Did I miss a show that should be here? Comment and let me know
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