Jump to content

Four Seasons and Done


soapfan770

Recommended Posts

  • Members

I had been interested in starting this topic for a while now, but I was wondering if we could dig into shows that lasted four seasons and then done due to various reasons. Some shows start off big but ended with a whimper. 

Shows strived for that magic number of 100 for a hope of getting syndication deals, but so many failed to reach it. Obviously in the days of streaming that’s no longer relevant but it’s still notable.

Back in the 80’s two of my favorite shows Scarecrow and Mrs. King and The Equalizer suffer this fate, in the the 90’s a good number of sitcoms on both NBC (from Dear John to Caroline in the City) and CBS (Evening Shade for example ) saw this occur along with notable cult dramas as well. In more recent times shows like Ugly Betty and Revenge ended up being four at done.

Just curious on anyone else’s thoughts and examples. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 8
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

More 1980s dramas to add to your list: Knight Rider, Wiseguy, Thirtysomething, China Beach, Life Goes On

To the CBS comedy list add Major Dad, Dave's World, Cybill, Cosby.

Edited by kalbir
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Interesting since in recent years the syndication number has been lowered to more like 80-90-ish episodes (ie three months of daily M-F stripped syndication), so there's a lot of examples in recent years of shows lasting four seasons. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • Members

The Equalizer original series was not a big hit yet it became a movie franchise and got a reboot series. The Equalizer reboot season 5 starts this fall, so the reboot will have a longer run than the original.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Which pisses me off to no end, lol.

No offense to Queen Latifah, or to her fans, but speaking as one who grew up watching the original series, I'll always prefer Edward Woodward and his mix of steeliness and fatherly concern over her or Denzel.

Last night, I read Edward Zwick's new memoir, "Hits, Flops and Other Illusions;" and apparently, execs at ABC were very upset when he and Marshall Herskovitz elected to end "thirtysomething" at the end of its' fourth season.  (Up to that point, the show had been the most gratifying experience of Zwick and Herskovitz's careers; but after four years, they felt they had said everything they had wanted to say with those characters).  In exchange for allowing them to end their show on their terms, Zwick and Herskovitz promised the network another show...which is how "My So-Called Life" came to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Sorry, catching up, and the bolded part, yes! Should have been sued by DH's family for that nasty sh*t too   Anywho, back to the show, Kristina is freaking nuts, she needs to be committed ASAP
    • Angry Dante was hot; sorry, but I'm not going to pretend it wasn't awesome seeing Dominic Zamprogna act his ass off in a way that was not crying.
    • Thanks, interesting and so believable (no Lonatrat or Clones...)Instead of the Lewis family he should have made the Oil family Granger...even if the audience didn't remember that one off character it would have been interesting to tie it into the fictional GL world.
    • Dante needs stick removed from his butt
    • When you bring up what I like to call "Shapiro's Folly" you think Dano's acting choices mattered? I ask because I don't think so. As far as I could tell almost universally the ABC fans hated the very idea of her being on all 4 shows! And, BTW, the headwriters also hated it, at least according to comments made by Passanante. But, it is not hard to imagine that they'd feel that way. And, I agreed. If she wanted success she should have planted "Rae" on one & given up her idea of branding, or whatever it was that she was after.  
    • Okay, well her reasons were that she had a mandate to reduce the size of the cast & she had another mandate to make the cast overall younger, so her reason for picking Donna to off was because she was too old.  So, is that what you understand? Or are you thinking of something else? Which if so, I would be delighted to hear about it!  She had arbitrarily picked 50 as the age people needed to be younger than.  And, that is why she got rid of both Bridget & Spencer Harrison.  And, getting rid of Bridget was another of her horrible ideas.  Why do you refer to her as the Face of the Show? Don't feel bad. I am a major Cass fan & I don't remember him with Donna either, LOL! Can we say forgettable? And, yes, Lila was the most last minute of last minutes!!!! 
    • This is AWESOME, thank you for taking the time to post this! My first thought: My memory is a lot better than I thought it was, LOL! The first episode I clearly remember watching had a scene of Ed confronting Holly about Christina's paternity. He lamented how wonderful things had been over Christmas, so looks like I started watching the show early 1976. The only thing puzzling me is where is Evie? I thought she was around BEFORE Rita got involved with Tim, but maybe that's one gap in my memory. It makes Rita look slightly better--in that case, she didn't seduce Tim knowing her sister had a crush on him.
    • Oh, well.  At least he can cry into his hoodie.
    • Sorry, just realized I'd somehow lost a whole paragraph in that last post.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy