Any short-lived shows you still love and watch whenever you can? Prefer you list shows that lasted two seasons or less, but I’m not making any rules here.
My first list (there may be more later)
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
Pushing Daisies
The Addams Family
Day By Day
I also liked Briscoe County. When we first had Netflix and you could get DVDs mailed to you, Mr Sarah rented it and we watched the whole thing.
Better Off Ted ran for two seasons. I liked it.
I’m also gonna add
Alien Nation
Ellery Queen
Adding my name into the Brisco County, Jr. hat.
And adding some comedy series – Look Around You and Wonder Showzen only got two seasons each. In a way, it sorta makes them “just the right size” but I want more.
First, there’s the most famous one-season wonder of all: The Honeymooners. Should count despite all the Honeymooners sketches from the Jackie Gleason Show (even in the late 1960s!)
Another one-season wonder, though it was only true to its self for about half a season: It’s Your Move. Once low ratings caused them to eliminate the grift war between Jason Bateman’s character and the neighbor, it was essentially already over.
Bosom Buddies in my opinion, actually improved in its second of 2 seasons, focusing on the friendships more than the initial gimmick.
The Addams Family
Agent Carter
Firefly
Police Squad
Pushing Daisies
Spaced
The Richard Pryor Show
“Alien Nation” was a lot of fun.
I really liked “Nightmare Cafe” when I was a kid, but realize it’s not great. The idea was awesome and I wish it had survived a year or two to really grow.
I liked “Nowhere Man”. I’m not sure it needed a second season because of how it ends, but I liked the mystery of the show. It was like a remix of “The Prisoner” (which I freaking LOVE).
“She Wolf of London” had so much potential when it was a British production. Once it moved to LA, it floundered quickly.
And, even though it was on for like 4 seasons, the “John Larroquette Show”'s first season is completely different then the rest and the only one really worth while. It’s dark, brooding and hilarious. The studio made him change it after season 1- I wish there’d been more of it.
Wonderfalls
Limitless
Undeclared
Freaks And Geeks
Alkatraz
Rubicon
Terriers
Garth Merenghi’s Dark Place
My go to answers on this question…
Wonderfalls
Superb cast, imaginative idea, well told. I wish we had more, but they tied a neat bow on the season, several relationships were addressed nicely, so I don’t feel like I’m floating in space with this one. + the gimmick might have worn out its welcome had it gone on for too long.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Though had it gone on, they’d have had to have built up a mythology around it, some kind of running plot thread on why this guy was such a monster magnet. For a single season however, it was a joy.
Also -
Toma - I don’t know if it holds up but my 13-year-old self loved it (and equally hated its replacement, Baretta)
Firefly
Other Space
Honey West
Constantine
I Am Not Okay With This - was going into a second season, when Covid put an end to that. This one left you hanging, too bad.
Two-Season wonders.
Life - Life (American TV series) - Wikipedia
Flight of the Conchords
Does anyone else remember Odyssey 5? A very intelligent science fiction series that unfortunately only lasted one season.
Drive from a while back. Had Nathan Fillion, Melanie Lynskey in it. Only a few episodes were released, but they did a few more episodes, which I regret I no longer have a copy of. I admit, I just sought it out and liked it because I liked Melanie Lynskey (and still do).
The Good Guys, with Jenny Wade, the Hanks boy, and Bradley Whitford. One season.
The Net with Brooke Langton, and that one guy as a villain. I thought Brooke Langton was a terrific talent when I was a younger man. Refuse to watch the movie version with that lesser actor. One season.
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr and Wonderfalls were the 2 that came to my mind first. Those two I watched every week and hated when they were cancelled. At least the unaired episodes of Wonderfalls eventually came out on disc.
Dead Like Me only lasted 2 seasons, that show was hit or miss for me but I enjoyed it enough to want more seasons. The movie they made to wrap things up was just OK.
Dark Matter lasted 3 seasons but ended on a cliffhanger, it deserved a 4th season to wrap things up.
I didn’t get into Firefly until after it was cancelled so doesn’t come to mind right away. Kind of shows how badly it was treated by the network, that is a show I should have known about and watched, but it slipped by me when it was airing.
American Gothic with Gary Cole, Sarah Paulson, Lucas Black, Jake Weber and Paige Turco.
The pilot was one of the best (and most disturbing, especially for 1995) hours of television I’ve ever seen, and the rest of the series was very good.
The episodes were shown out of order by CBS and frequently pre-empted. The show only lasted one season.
Two seasons: Amazon’s The Tick
I love Peter Serafinowicz wherever he shows up, and making Arthur the focus of the series was genius.
How about a one-episode wonder?
Greg The Bunny
The Lazarus Man
The Tick (Live-Action)
Tuca & Bertie (Oh, but that’s come back!)
Up All Night
Some others I could name ran one season more than I remember.
Oh man, I forgot Wonder Showzen was the name of that thing we always watched after parties. And I still love this kid…
