Sure, TV is a tough business — but having the show you’ve slaved over for the better part of a year canceled by executives after just one episode? Heartbreaking! Until, that is, you start to look at just what shows have been subjected to this kind of premature death. You’ll wonder how they ever got approved in the first place!
Heil, Honey, I’m Home!
A domestic family sitcom about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Whaddaya mean it’s not funny?! Part I is below, and part II is here.
Osbournes: Reloaded
An ill-fated variety show starring Ozzy Osbourne and his fantastically messed-up family! The first thing they do in the first episode? Pick two random strangers from the audience and force them to make out on live TV! Almost makes me miss that Hitler sitcom.
Quarterlife
The MySpace-produced show which proved that just because something’s popular on the internet doesn’t mean millions of people will tune in to watch the same stuff on network TV. Or even thousands of people.
The Rich List
I couldn’t find a clip of the quickly-canceled US version, but this Aussie version is essentially the same program. It’s a game show with a simple premise: complete the list and get rich! (Lists of things like “name the James Bond films.”) We here at Mental_floss are big fans of lists, so we were sorry to see it go into that TV lineup in the sky.
South of Sunset
A 1993 detective show starring Glen Frey of the Eagles.
Viva Laughlin!
This 2007 musical-dramedy set in the casinos of Laughlin, Nevada was produced by and starred Hugh Jackman. I guess it reminded people of Cop Rock or something, because it didn’t last long.
Anchorwoman
A comedy-reality series about Lauren Jones, a model turned anchorwoman. This promo certainly doesn’t leave me begging for more — which is, apparently, how most viewers felt about the first episode.
Rosie Live
Rosie O’Donnell’s ill-fated variety show. It’s never a good sign when your opening number — a song-and-dance duet with Rosie and Liza Minelli — is this big a clunker.
Comments (19)
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20/20 was cancelled after the first episode. it was brought back with the same name and an entirely new format with a new set and with hugh downs and barbara walters.
posted by ricky on 11-30-2009 at 10:57 pm
there was a show with heather graham as the star on abc that was cancelled after the first episode. i dont really remember what it was called…probably because they only aired one episode
posted by lexy on 11-30-2009 at 11:07 pm
There was an unremarkable pilot once called “Dad’s a Dog”, about a single dad who gets a job as the voice of a dog on some wacky sitcom about a family with a talking dog. I don’t know why I remember this, I just do.
posted by Howard on 11-30-2009 at 11:29 pm
20/20 lives on in many countries :)
posted by Bakedpotatoes on 11-30-2009 at 11:37 pm
It’s too bad YouTube does not have the 1969 show “Turn On” anywhere. It was an ABC show that was supposed to resemble “Laugh-In”, but the double entendresproved too much and got the plug pulled immediately.
posted by Tommy Ken Yuhereme on 11-30-2009 at 11:40 pm
The Rich List sounded like The Money List that ran on Game Show Network (sorry, I mean GSN) and I found this YouTube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig1K9L7ZqsA
Again, apologies, but they won’t allow embedding of the clip.
And the Heather Graham show was called “Emily’s Reasons Why Not”. More information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily%27s_Reasons_Why_Not
Here’s a couple of more for your list. First is “Turn On”, hyped as the “second coming of Laugh In” and also created by George Schlatter. As it hasn’t been seen again, it has grown in notoriety. You can get the facts on the Wikipedia page for the show:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn-On
And there’s “You’re In The Picture”, a game show by Jackie Gleason that was technically two episodes. But the entire second episode was Gleason apologizing for the first episode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_in_the_Picture
And here’s more One Hit Show Wonders:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_series_cancelled_after_one_episode
I’m not a Wiki hack, that’s just where the information I needed was located. But they don’t do blog like you guys.
posted by Tony Collett on 12-1-2009 at 12:00 am
Death comes in many forms these are examples of some of them. And you think these were failures you should hear some the shows that were turned into pilots but never got picked. My all time-worst is “Alien Drapes” about aliens that take over the drapes in a suburban home and hilarity ensues. I have to admit “Alf” was a big hit at the time.
posted by Insideguy on 12-1-2009 at 3:40 am
That Heather Graham show was Emily’s Reasons Why Not.
posted by Brad on 12-1-2009 at 6:34 am
Turn On wasn’t cancelled after the first episode, it was cancelled DURING the first episode. Only part of the first episode aired, then the network pulled the plug and put a sitcom rerun in place of the second half-hour
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 12-1-2009 at 12:44 pm
Sorry, PariallyDeflected, but Turn On wasn’t cancelled mid show by ABC, but by a couple of affiliates showing it. Again, the wiki page for the show backs that up.
posted by Tony Collett on 12-1-2009 at 6:42 pm
Viva Laughlin was based on a very successful UK show called Blackpool which starred the current Dr Who, David Tennant.
posted by Rob James on 12-1-2009 at 8:57 pm
Although more than one episode, the most memorable early cancellation for me was the animated series based on the movie Clerks. The pilot did not air, but the second episode did. Unfortunately, in Kevin Smith style humor, the second episode was a clip show, continually repeating a clip from the pilot. The joke was completely lost on an audience that had not even been exposed to the first episode. They then aired the fourth episode for some reason, and then cancelled the show. The six episodes produced, however, have had decent sales on DVD.
posted by Amauriel on 12-2-2009 at 3:00 am
Tony, you’re right about The Rich List.
It was reincarnated on GSN as The Money List.
It’s a great show. :)
posted by Tim on 12-2-2009 at 10:25 pm
I actually liked Viva Laughlin – I know, I know. But I would have sworn that at least two or three episodes aired.
posted by MrsHashBrown on 12-3-2009 at 1:41 am
show to go ya! even die-hard boobtubers have ‘class’ and sometimes do mind what they watch (even if it’s not evident today!).
posted by dm walsh on 12-3-2009 at 8:28 am
How about “Paul Sand’s Friends and Lovers”? It was super-hyped by its network (which I’ve forgotten). It pulled in a fair-sized audience, but because it didn’t “knock ‘em dead”, was pulled after just 1 episode.
posted by Oldguy45 on 12-5-2009 at 10:56 am
There’s Korgoth the Barbarian, for anyone who’s an Adult Swim fan and remembers it.
posted by Cody on 12-6-2009 at 7:39 pm
The Hitler show was absolutely distasteful.
posted by Anna on 12-7-2009 at 1:08 am
it might have made it a few episodes- but for whatever reason this article made me think of that early ’90′s show Surf’s Up Dave’s. or whatever that show was called.
god, how awful.
posted by emmiline on 12-7-2009 at 4:13 am