Short Runners / Other

Short-Runners without a TV Tropes Page.

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• 3-South
• Adults Adopting Adults: A reality show centered around Adult Adoptees that was cancelled three episodes into what was supposed to be a ten-episode run in 2022. It didn't help that one of the families featured on the show became embroiled in controversy due to accusations of grooming and human trafficking.
• The Adventures Of Digger And Friends: A show produced by NASCAR in an attempt to make a mascot out of their Digger the Gopher character, who was widely reviled. It lasted five episodes and ended Digger’s careeer.
• Against the Grain: A show about a high school football coach that only lasted eight episodes. Had then-unknown Ben Affleck and Robyn Lively as cast members.
• a.k.a. Pablo: A comedy about a struggling stand-up comic and his family that only lasted six episodes.
• Albie
• Americas Worst Tattoos: It lasted only two episodes.
• Anchorwoman
• American Woman
• Apocalypse Now
• Apple Pie: A show about a hairdresser and her family in the Great Depression. It lasted two episodes out of eight taped.
• Australias Naughtiest Home Videos: It lasted only half an episode, as the owner of the network, Kerry Packer, happened to be watching at home and he called the studio to "get that shit off the air" immediately. As Australia is a large country with multiple time zones, in Western Australia it meant the show was cancelled without actually airing at all! It was eventually found in the archives after Packer's death and aired several years later with various cuts & edits made to the content.
• Babes, a sitcom about three overweight sisters starring Wendie Jo Sperber.
• Bare Brita Show: A Norwegian talk show that was cancelled after two episodes.
• Beacon Hill - Transatlantic Equivalent to Upstairs Downstairs, which debuted to great hype and phenomenal early ratings on CBS in 1975, but the Prime Time Soap was still a novel genre at that point, and viewers just didn't find it compelling enough to stick with. It got canned after 9 episodes.
• The Beast: Was cancelled due in part to Patrick Swayze's death from pancreatic cancer.
• Bent
• Beware Of Dog - Focused on the life of a dog told from his perspective. It lasted a measly two episodes.
• The Big House: A Kevin Hart sitcom about a rich kid from Malibu who moves to Philadelphia to live with his working-class relatives (so, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in reverse). It only lasted six episodes.
• The Birthday Show
• Bling Empire: New York
• Blood And Oil - A soap opera about a couple who travel to a massive oil discovery to try to strike it rich. It lasted ten episodes, with three being cut from the schedule.
• Bluff City Law
• Bobbe Says - Part of Cartoon Network's heavily panned CN Real block, it had the titular host go around and give random people advice in life. Only six episodes were made.
• Bone Chillers 1996: In Name Only adaptation of the book series of the same name that aired on ABC. It only lasted thirteen episodes.
• Brambly Hedge
• The Briefcase
• Broadside: A one-season Spin-Off of McHale's Navy focusing on women serving in the Navy)
• The Bubble - Panel Show hosted by David Mitchell, where three celebrities (primarily comedians with the occasional journalist) spent four days isolated in a house in the country without access to television, newspapers, the Internet or any other form of news, then had to sort real news stories from fake ones. Ran for a single 6-episode series; a second series was actually planned, but indefinitely delayed when another topical show hosted by Mitchell, 10 O'Clock Live, went to a series.
• Buffalo Bill, starring Dabney Coleman.
• The Building: A comedy about the inhabitants of an apartment building that only lasted five episodes.
• The Bussey Bunch
• Catwalk - Canadian musical series about a Fake Band named "Catwalk" which lasted for two seasons, 49 episodes total. According to The Other Wiki,"The majority of the second season episodes were never aired due to a licensing conflict between MTV Networks and the original creator of the show, Adam Kidron, and remain unseen."
• Chambers
• Champaign Il
• Champions
• The Chicago Teddy Bears - A prohibition era sitcom focusing on the life of two gangsters who ran a speakeasy. 13 episodes in all.
• The Chop: Britain's Top Woodworker: A reality show focusing on, as the title says, woodworking. Was cancelled after a single episode in 2020 due to a contestant having multiple face tattoos of white supremacy symbols.
• The Colour Of Money: UK Game Show on ITV1, hosted by Chris Tarrant.
• Comedians Unleashed
• Coronet Blue: Filmed in 1965, its 13 episodes aired two years later as a mid-summer replacement.
• Crisis In Six Scenes
• Crowded (2016)
• The Culling: The Culling 2, a Battle Royale Game, released on July 10, 2018 and was pulled from stores, servers shutdown and customers refunded on July 18, 2018.
• Daddy's Girls: A sitcom starring Dudley Moore that got cancelled after three episodes.
• Dads (1986): A sitcom about two widowed fathers who live together.
• The Debbie King Show: A PhoneInGameShow that got shut down after just one episode as part of an investigation into the integrity of this type of show.
• Dear Edward
• Delta House: ABC, in the height of its first run at the top in The '70s, followed up the smash hit Animal House with this sitcom adaptation. First aired a scant six months after the film's debut, the network and Universal (the TV unit produced the show as the studio had the movie) hoped it would be equally successful. They had every reason for confidence: it was created by Harold Ramis, Doug Kenney and Chris Miller, the writers of the original film; it starred several of the actors from the film, including John Vernon; and it featured the first regular role for Michelle Pfeiffer. It was not equally successful, lasting a mere 12 episodes.
• Dick Tracy: only a pilot episode was made.
• Dogs Head Bay
• Do No Harm 2013
• Dot Comedy
• Do You Want To See A Dead Body:
• Elvira's Movie Macabre (ran for 1 season from 2010 to 2011)
• The Elvis And Jack Nicklaus Mysteries
• Emilys Reasons Why Not - It was canceled after one episode in January 2006 despite heavy promotion by ABC during the fall of 2005 as part of the lineup following the end of Monday Night Football for the 2005 NFL season.
• Encore! Encore!: A comedy starring Nathan Lane as a former opera singer who works at his family's vineyard. Only 11 episodes were aired.
• Executive Suite: a prime-time Soap Opera of corporate intrigue; 20 episodes, only 18 aired.
• Family Man: A 1988 ABC sitcom that only lasted 7 episodes.
• Fantasy
• The Fig Leaves Are Falling: A Broadway musical that closed after four performances.
• The First
• First Monday
• Five Nights At Freddys Fazbear Adventures: Only lasted two episodes.
• Five Nights At Freddys The Old Times: While Season 1 was able to complete its run, Season 2 was cut short at just one episode due to the creator leaving YouTube and the FNaF community and there has been no word from the creator ever since.
• Five Nights At Freddys Rebirth Of The Past: Lasted for just five episodes due to the Wisely channel shutting down in August 2021.
• Five Nights At Freddys Twisted Mind: Six episodes before being dropped in late 2022.
• The Fix
• FNA Fs Got Talent: An America's Got Talent and Britain's Got Talent-like show that lasted for 5 episodes. Unlike other FNaF SFMs, it at least managed to successfully conclude its run as opposed to being Cut Short.
• The Freddy Fazbear Show: It only lasted eight episodes due to the production team not liking the outcome of the series and due to the fact that many episodes of the series were not planned ahead. It is currently undergoing a reboot which actively ignores the events of the original series.
• Freeridge
• Freshman Dorm: A drama that only lasted five episodes.
• Flying Blind
• Gabriels Fire, starring James Earl Jones as a former cop who went to prison, and became a private detective after his release, won four Emmys in its first season. After an ill-advised Retool, it ran for only 12 more episodes under the title Pros and Cons.
• Game Over, an animated sitcom based on video games. Only six episodes were made, and only five of those actually aired; the sixth was only in the DVD set.
• Garbage Island: Despite having a pretty good cast of voice actors, this web series lasted seven episodes.
• The Goodwin Games
• Gruffs Groove Box: Talk show on Nickelodeon hosted by a puppet and guest stars boy bands and hip hop artistes, intertwined with music videos. It hardly lasted a month.
• Get To The Point
• Going To Extremes
• Gung Ho: An adaptation of the movie that only lasted 9 episodes.
• Halfway Home: A comedy about the residents of a halfway house that lasted 10 episodes.
• The Henry And June Show (a failed spin-off of KaBlam!)
• The Heights: A TV show about a Fake Band of the same name. The theme song, "How Do You Talk to an Angel", was a #1 hit, but the show itself flopped and was canceled after twelve episodes.
• Here And Now
• Herfra til Haglemoen: A Norwegian military comedy. Four episodes were filmed, but the show was cancelled after three.
• He's the Mayor: A comedy about a young man who becomes a mayor. It only lasted 13 episodes.
• Hieroglyph: a Fox drama of intrigue among ancient Egyptian royalty (think Game of Thrones with pyramids) that was ordered straight to series, then canceled after only one episode was shot. You can see the trailer here.
• Hot Streets
• House Of Carters
• How To Live With Your Parents For The Rest Of Your Life
• How We Roll
• I Feel Bad
• I Love That For You
• I Love You America
• Joe Bash: A dramedy about a New York City cop that lasted six episodes.
• Kelly Kelly: A sitcom starring Shelly Long and Robert Hays that only lasted seven episodes.
• Kirstie Alley's Big Life: a reality series centered around Kirstie Alley's weight loss journey and attempted comeback in her acting career. Cancelled after 1 season in 2010.
• Late Night Liars: A game show starring four puppets where the contestant had to figure out which of them was telling the truth- hard since the puppets weren't very nice. It lasted eight episodes.
• Lazor Wulf
• A League of Their Own: A television adaptation of the movie. It got cancelled after six episodes.
• The Lets Go Show
• Life Sentence
• Lipstick Jungle: Based off a novel, this show about women lasted twenty episodes over two seasons.
• Little Ellen: Due to Production Lead Time, this cartoon had the extraordinarily bad luck of being in production and premiering its first season around the same time the real Ellen DeGeneres was dealing with a scandal revolving around her talk show^note Little Ellen had been greenlit a year before allegations of a toxic workplace environment started to surface. After that, it only aired one more season before it was cancelled and subsequently removed from HBO Max amidst Warner Bros. Discovery's restructuring in 2022.
• Little Monsters - A somewhat obscure cartoon that aired on the BBC and several other networks worldwide. Only got one season of 52 episodes. The fact that it shares its name with the Fred Savage film but has nothing to do with it didn't help, either. Ironically though, The Kiddie Ride has been exported worldwide. The show has an entry on Wikipedia.
• Lobo; first African-American character to headline a comic book)
• Living In Captivity
• The Lodge 2016
• Lone Star
• The Lost Ones
• Lottery: An anthology show focusing on lottery winners. It lasted 17 episodes.
• Love Monkey
• Ma Boy - Korean drama. Only three episodes aired on Tooniverse.
• The Mad Bad Ad Show - Panel Game that got pulled from its slot halfway through the run
• Mad Love
• Maggie
• Makin' It: A show about disco dancing that got canceled after 9 episodes.
• Mancuso FBI
• Marianne 2019
• Marlon
• Masquerade 1983 — Co-starred Kirstie Alley. Think a bit of True Lies.
• Meego: A comedy starring Bronson Pinchot as an alien. It got cancelled after 6 episodes.
• Megan Wants a Millionaire: Only three episodes of this reality show aired before VH1 pulled the plug in 2009 due to one of the contestants, Ryan Jenkins, being named a prime suspect in the murder of his wife, Jasmine Fiore (whom he married after the show had wrapped up filming). The show was officially cancelled a day after Jenkins was found dead from an apparent suicide.
• The Melting Pot
• The Michael Richards Show: A comedy about a private investigator. It lasted 8 episodes.
• The Misadventures Of Sheriff Lobo (Aka Lobo in its revamped second season.)
• Mixed Nutz
• Moose Murders: One of the most notorious flops on Broadway. It lasted only one performance.
• Monchhichis
• Mortel
• Mr And Mrs Smith 1996 — CBS series that lasted thirteen episodes (four of which went unaired) from September to November 1996. Not to be confused with the 1941 movie or the 2005 movie of the same name.
• Mr. Mender and the Chummyjiggers - An Irish preschool show that aired for one season in 2017. Might get some unintentional laughs for its title and costume designs.
• Mr. Smith
• Mr Terrific
• Musical Mornings With Coo - This morning block starring a talking cuckoo clock aired on Sprout for a single year.
• My Big Fat Greek Life: A television version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding that lasted seven episodes.
• Navy Bear
• Nearly Departed: An updated remake of Topper starring Eric Idle, it lasted 4 episodes, with 2 episodes that never aired.
• Next Caller: 4 episodes produced, none of which aired.
• Of Gods And Kings - It was canceled after two episodes in the United States; aired nine episodes in New Zealand.
• One Dollar
• On the Air: A sitcom made by David Lynch that only lasted seven episodes.
• Osbournes Reloaded
• Paradise Hotel
• Panwapa: A Muppet program about a group of animals who lived on an island that moved around in the ocean, meant to teach children about world culture. It lasted all of five episodes. Fans of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland will recognize one of the Muppets used as the Bug from the movie.
• Pauly: A comedy starring Pauly Shore that got cancelled after five episodes.
• Percy The Park Keeper
• Peter Puck
• The Phoenix - 1982 ABC series. No relation to The Phoenix.
• Preston Pig
• Pretty Little Liars The Perfectionists
• Pretty Smart
• Promised Land 2022: Lasted ten episodes from January to March 2022.
• The Quad
• Quarry
• Quarterlife
• Queer As Folk 2022
• The Quest - 1982 Stephen J. Cannell show paired up with the final season of The Greatest American Hero when both were sacrificed to the Friday Night Death Slot. Not to be confused with the 2014 reality show The Quest or the 1976 Western series which starred Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson.
• Reasonable Doubts: NBC Police Procedural starring Marlee Matlin and Mark Harmon, it aired for two seasons from 1991 to 1993.
• Rebel 2021
• Red Handed - hidden-camera show on UPN
• Reef Break
• Rel
• Relativity
• The Rerun Show: A comedy show that parodied classic sitcoms. It lasted seven episodes.
• The Return Of Jezebel James: Lasted just seven episodes (four of which went unaired) in March 2008.
• The Rich List
• Rob: A comedy starring Rob Schneider that only lasted eight episodes.
• Rocka-Bye Island
• The Romanoffs
• Rosemarys Baby 2014
• Royal Roy
• Running The Halls
• Ryan Caulfield Year One
• Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes On Television
• Sable: a 1987 live-action television series adaptation of Jon Sable, Freelance.
• Safe Harbor
• Sammy: 13 episodes were produced, but the premiere was constantly delayed until August 2000 when it aired its first two episodes and disappeared without a trace. It was only on May 25, 2021 that episodes started being uploaded to YouTube.
• Scorch: A comedy about a dragon who lives with a weatherman and his daughter. It got cancelled after three episodes.
• Shark Girl
• The Search for the Next Elvira (2007)
• Secret Talents Of The Stars: It only lasted a single evening. To add insult to injury, the cancellation was made official during the broadcast!
• Sheeep: Yeah, this is actually spelled with 3 E's. A 26-episode Animated series that aired on CBBC. Based off the book "Sheep in Wolves Clothing" by Satoshi Kitamura.
• Sideswiped
• 61st Street
• Skin
• Skins 2011
• The Son
• Soundtrack
• South Of Sunset
• The Starland Vocal Band Show: Variety show hosted by the well-known One-Hit Wonder group, noted for featuring one of David Letterman's first TV roles.
• Starship Regulars: It only had 10 episodes.
• Still The King
• Strike Witches: Maidens of the Blue Sky (The first entry into the Strike Witches canon. It was cancelled after only one volume, in part due to objectionable content. The two main characters are given cameos in later material, however.)
• Sunday Pants: An anthology series on Cartoon Network. It had eleven episodes filmed, but only five aired, due to content that was too inappropriate for the channel.
• Super Adventure Team: A supermarionation comedy that only lasted six episodes.
• Super Dumb Joke Show: Because it was a joke show and on April Fools' Day, SDJS purposefully released one episode with no plans of continuing despite it being Left Hanging.
• Superhero Roommate
• Super Models
• Survive This
• Surviving Jack
• Ten Days In The Valley
• Thats My Mama: Lasted for 39 episodes between September 1974 and 1975 before being cancelled in the middle of its second season.
• Thomas & Friends had a spinoff mini-series called, "Jack and the Pack". 26 episodes were planned, but the series was split in half as 13 episodes exist thanks to the takeover of Hit Entertainment.
• Three Rivers
• Top of the Heap: A Married... with Children spinoff that only lasted 7 episodes.
• Traffic Light
• Truckers
• Turbocharged Thunderbirds: An American Frankenslation of the original Thunderbirds series that aired in syndication. It only lasted one season of thirteen episodes.
• The Tracy Morgan Show
• Truth Be Told 2019 (Apple TV+ series)
• Uncle Buck has two short-lived television adaptations. The first show aired in 1990 and got cancelled after 16 episodes. The second show aired in 2016 and got cancelled after 8 episodes.
• Under Cover, a 1991 series about husband-and-wife spies that featured realistic settings and tradecraft, it was cancelled after six episodes aired. Not to be confused with the later (but also short-lived) spy series Undercovers.
• Void Indigo
• We Are Men - Notable for being the last TV show parodied by MAD.
• We're Lalaloopsy (a Netflix-distributed reboot of the Lalaloopsy franchise that was never renewed)
• The Wacky World Of Bruce Barry (reality show on FamilyNet)
• When The Whistle Blows
• White Famous
• Whoopis Littleburg: A puppet show starring Whoopi Goldberg as the mayor of a town of puppets. It lasted three episodes despite positive reviews.
• The Wild, a comic book that lasted all of one issue in 1995.
• Woops
• Work It
• Whos Whose
• The Will
• Whiz Kids
• Zombie College