Outside of a limited run series, TV shows generally operate with the intention of coming back the next television season. However, the decision as to whether or not they’ll actually return is not left up to the the showrunners. If the network executives decide the show is not worth the company’s money for any number of reasons the show gets cancelled, and when that happens the fans who were watching can feel pretty hurt about it.
But what is there to do about it when a show gets the axe? In most cases the answer is, unfortunately, nothing. Shows end up on the chopping block because in the eyes of the network executives they aren’t bringing in enough viewers to justify the time slot. That doesn’t mean by any stretch that the show was bad, it just couldn’t find purchase with a dedicated audience. Perhaps the show was a bit too niche, or the network shuffled it around so often that viewers couldn’t figure out when the next episode as airing, or it never got the advertising push it needed.
Life after cancellation isn’t just relevant for short-lived shows, though. Television powerhouses like Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier have become fresh in the minds of younger generations because they’re just a click away on a streaming service people already happen to have. Some shows live long, full lives, end as all good things must, and then come back later, perhaps even stronger than ever before. Initially ending its run in 1989 after 26 seasons, Dr Who is now one of the biggest names in British entertainment after being revived in 2006. It’s spun-off from itself countless times in various mediums as a result of this revival, and is still going strong in 2020.
Ran for eight seasons 1998 – 2006, and for 3 more seasons 11 years later.
Those shows already lived long, full lives, though. What about the ones that were cut down in their prime? Even before streaming services were so ubiquitous, some shows found their fan bases just a little too late. Perhaps one of the most prominent examples goes all the way back to the mid-60s with Star Trek. While the monologue that plays over the shows opening sequence describes the Enterprise’s ship as being on a five-year mission, they more accurately only lasted three before NBC decided in 1969 that audiences had enough of exploring the final frontier despite numerous letter-writing campaigns from its fans. However, the show, with its 79 episode run, was purchased for syndication by the Kaiser Broadcasting Corp. shortly after it’s cancellation, where it attained a larger audience and would go on to become a cult-hit.
By 1972, the first Star Trek convention was being held in New York, and the amount of conventions and the numbers they would draw in would only continue to grow from there. Over a quarter of a century after the end of its initial run, Star Trek would finally get a sequel series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which began airing in 1987. Star Trek: The Original Series would even be one of the first TV shows to be released on home media in the VHS format. Pop culture has been irrevocably shaped by the Star Trek franchise since it began broadcasting 54 years ago, having spawned over 13 movies, multiple additional television series, countless merchandise, a language, shows and movies parodying it, video games, and the careers of quite a few well-known actors and actresses.
It would seem fans have learned a lesson from the long road that led to the massive success of Star Trek‘s revival. Fan-driven campaigns for networks to bring back their beloved IPs have become a standard tactic for those aching for new episodes. Veronica Mars was also a show that fans felt was cut short and saw large and persistent efforts to bring it back. It premiered in 2004 on CW and was cancelled after it’s third season in 2007. Fans went as far as to even hire planes with banners to fly over CW headquarters asking for them not to cancel the show. It would be some time before fans would see their efforts come to fruition, however. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, a film was released in 2014, and the show was given a fourth season as a Hulu original in 2019. Hulu has since stated it doesn’t intend to produce a fifth season.
As was the case with Veronica Mars, it would be some time before fans of David Lynch’s surreal ABC drama Twin Peaks would see a continuation of the series. Despite winning multiple awards, the show was cut short after its second season. It’s been regarded by many as one of the greatest television shows of all time and is credited by some with propelling cinematography in TV dramas forward, and a number of creative directors have stated how much of a large impact the show has had on their body of work. In the final episode of the show’s original run, (no spoilers) a character tells the lead they’ll see them in 25 years. In a situation where the revival is thematically in-line with the original, 25 years later Twin Peaks would finally have a third season. Speculations abound as to whether the show will return with a fourth season, with David Lynch seeming to provide mixed-messages as to whether he sees a future for the show or not, and with any plans for his projects put on hold during the pandemic.
Animated shows are also sometimes subject to decade-long “hiatuses”. MTV’s Clone High, which aired 2002-2003, got low ratings and sparked controversy in India over its portrayal of Mahatma Ghandi, and was cancelled after its first season. As is sadly too often the case, the show’s quality was recognized only after it had been off the air for some time. This July, though, MTV surprised everybody by announcing that the show would be making a return, with it’s original creators on board. Also announcing a continuation of a long-thought dead series this Summer was Mission Hill. Originally aired on WB in 1999, it was planned to have 18 episodes in its first season but instead had 13 produced, was put on hiatus after 2 episodes aired, and was cancelled after 6. It’s been rebroadcast on Adult Swim, received a DVD release half a decade later, and 20 years after the show was cancelled, the show’s creators announced in June that a new spinoff series was in the works. Adult Swim produced new episodes of Samurai Jack with a darker and more adult-oriented feel that acted as a proper finale to the series 13 years after Cartoon Network had initially pulled the plug on the show without letting it have a proper sendoff.
Also making a comeback after more than 22 years off the air: Animaniacs
Perhaps with the emergence of social media, some calls for show revivals instigated by fans have been met with much swifter results. Fox’s wildly popular cop-comedy Brooklyn 99 was originally doomed for cancellation after after its fifth season. After the fan outcry, it was picked up by NBC for additional seasons, and currently its eight season is scheduled to premiere in 2021. Adult Swim came through for fans once again and has optioned for a new season of Tuca and Bertie after Netflix, notorious for dropping shows early and often in a constant chase for growth, unceremoniously cancelled the series after just its first season. Fans were dismayed and the outcry on social media was hard to ignore (aside from staying off of social media, which is never a bad idea), and it appears the execs at Adult Swim listened.
Adult Swim’s name has been peppered throughout this article because they’re well-known for bringing new audiences to properties that may not have otherwise found them, or for playing an instrumental role in a show’s return from beyond the grave. It’s plausible to say that they are the reason the space-faring anime Cowboy Bebop has fans in the United States. They are also part of the reason Family Guy ever became the show that it is today. While it’s currently slated to run for at least 21 seasons and has currently aired 351 episodes, the show originally seemed doomed to die in obscurity. In it’s initial run, the show’s time slot was constantly shuffled and was aired at the same time as other networks’ heavy-hitters, and the show was cancelled after its third season in 2002. With reruns airing on Adult Swim and with the stellar DVD sales that would ensue, Family Guy found such great success that fans had impossibly won their game of Chess with the Grim Reaper. Fox brought the show back in 2005, and the world hasn’t been able to shake free of it or series creator Seth MacFarlane ever since.
Ever the necromancer of television, Adult Swim also helped saved Futurama, that cartoon everybody knows as the one that made them cry a whole lot. Futurama‘s future was so consistently uncertain that the show has had four open-ended series’ finales, each more heartfelt than the last. The show was cancelled midway through its fourth season in 2003, and the creators of Futurama attempted to recreate Family Guy‘s successful bid for revival. Comedy Central would eventually acquire the rights to syndication and the show produced three more seasons starting in 2006, with the fifth season actually just being three movies chopped up into 16 episodes. The show would finally have its actual ending in 2013 with one final send-off, which many view as a fitting ending to a show that has been nominated for and won so many awards, before and after its initial death knell.
Maybe some shows have been so well-regarded specifically because they were ended so soon. The show ends strong because it was never given a chance to slip up. When a series is given new episodes, as easy as it is to think this is a good thing, sometimes it isn’t. In the cases of Clone High or Mission Hill‘s spinoff, it remains to be seen whether it was worth bringing these shows back.
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