Four Seasons and Done

[soapfan770]

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. 

[kalbir]

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 February 28, 2024 by kalbir

[te.]

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. 

[Paul Raven]

Some more

Mork & Mindy

Welcome Back Kotter

Chico & The Man

Police Woman

[dragonflies]

Lois & Clark in the 90s, although TNT network did want to do a 5th season, but Teri & Dean were ready to move on; Teri cause she was pregnant and Dean was getting tired of being up on wires(which was painful) for hours at a time 

[Paul Raven]

Big Valley

High Chaparral

Wild Wild West

Partridge Family

Flip Wilson

The Rookies

[kalbir]

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.

[Khan]

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.

[AMCOLTLLover]

Profiler? 
The Pretender? 
do they count?