Cancelled TV Shows That Never Provided A Proper Ending

[Markxxx]

All In The Family / Archie Bunker's Place for being such a classic show deserved a finale. So did the long running Jeffersons. I remember Danielle Brisebois on a talk show saying "We haven't been renewed but we always get renewed. (Note she turned out to be a great singer/songwriter)

Of course there was ALF, which ended on a cliffhanger and was resolved by a horrible TV movie that left the Tanner family out of it.

Laverne and Shirley, of course seeing as neither Shirley or Lenny were in it anymore by the end it hardly seems worth it. Bewitched, like L&S seemed to be another show that just totally ran out of steam at the end.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Show just ended until the Mary Tyler Moore's finale. After that you started to see a final episode to long running programs for a last second ratings bang.

Adding to the list:

The Brady Bunch ended with Greg having orange hair and a pissed off Robert Reed.
IIRC Taxi faded away after the move to NBC

 

[Braves2005]

That Girl should have had a proper ending with the marriage of Ann and Donald, but instead we have them stuck in a elevator going over the first time they met. Marlo Thomas had something to do with that, I believe. As I recall, the ratings were still managable, but she decided to end her show.

Mork and Mindy should have stopped at season 3 instead of having Jonathan Winters joining the cast as Mork's "son", Mearth, and Mork and Mindy getting married in season 4. I loved the show the first 3 seasons when it was basically Mork and Mindy, Mindy's dad, Mork's advisor, Exidor, and the couple who ran the deli, I liked that, but the 4th season was totally awful, even the finale was totally surreal at best.

 

[ixnay]

The "fad", which it really isn't IMO, of series having endings that tied things together, should have come into existence long before the finale of MTM (a series that my mom enjoyed). 8)

The Flintstones, which ran for 6 seasons on ABC, definitely should have had a proper resolution, it had that much going for it. The same would have gone for The Jetsons if it had lasted much longer than one season.

ixnay

 

[firepoint525]

Show just ended until the Mary Tyler Moore's finale. After that you started to see a final episode to long running programs for a last second ratings bang.

Adding to the list:

The Brady Bunch ended with Greg having orange hair and a pissed off Robert Reed.
IIRC Taxi faded away after the move to NBC

I believe I remember reading in Barry Williams' book that Robert Reed was so fed up with The Brady Bunch that he was going to quit the show anyway if it had continued another season. (I believe this would have been the 1974-75 season.) Interestingly enough, that last episode, in which he refused to appear because he was upset about the way it was written, "The Hare-Brained Scheme," involved a subplot involving Bobby and Cindy breeding rabbits, and that stuff that caused both the rabbits' fur, and Greg's hair to turn orange. The irony is that that last episode involved a lot of chances for parental lecture that ordinarily Mike Brady would have handled, but with him gone, it fell to Carol to lecture Bobby and Cindy about fly-by-night pyramid schemes.

If they had gone another season (without Mike Brady), it would have been interesting to see how they dealt with him not being there for the "Hollywood Squares" sequence that opened every show. I'm sure they could have put Robbie Rist (Oliver) in there somewhere, assuming he had stayed with the show. Would Marcia have gotten Greg's old room in the attic? Would Greg have even appeared in the show at all? Supposedly, he went off to college.

 

[firepoint525]

St. Elsewhere had an "ending" with what proved to be their next-to-last season, with a senile Dr. Auschlander wandering around in the St. Eligius hospital building while the wrecking ball was hitting it outside! I won't even go into the final season. We've already discussed how that ended! :

 

[WMC2006]

If they had gone another season (without Mike Brady), it would have been interesting to see how they dealt with him not being there for the "Hollywood Squares" sequence that opened every show. I'm sure they could have put Robbie Rist (Oliver) in there somewhere, assuming he had stayed with the show. Would Marcia have gotten Greg's old room in the attic? Would Greg have even appeared in the show at all? Supposedly, he went off to college.

Hmm....maybe Alice marries Sam the butcher and Sam moves into the house and takes over as father figure and the "center square" of the show opening. :

With all the stories of Robert Reed being gay and how he hated doing the show and the old stuff of Barry Williams (Greg) and Florence Henderson having an affair during the run of the show, it must have been quite a place to go to work every day. No wonder Susan Olsen (Cindy) threw up at a radio station interview a few weeks ago. ;D

 

[radiorob2.0]

Show just ended until the Mary Tyler Moore's finale. After that you started to see a final episode to long running programs for a last second ratings bang.

Adding to the list:

The Brady Bunch ended with Greg having orange hair and a pissed off Robert Reed.
IIRC Taxi faded away after the move to NBC

I believe I remember reading in Barry Williams' book that Robert Reed was so fed up with The Brady Bunch that he was going to quit the show anyway if it had continued another season. (I believe this would have been the 1974-75 season.) Interestingly enough, that last episode, in which he refused to appear because he was upset about the way it was written, "The Hare-Brained Scheme," involved a subplot involving Bobby and Cindy breeding rabbits, and that stuff that caused both the rabbits' fur, and Greg's hair to turn orange. The irony is that that last episode involved a lot of chances for parental lecture that ordinarily Mike Brady would have handled, but with him gone, it fell to Carol to lecture Bobby and Cindy about fly-by-night pyramid schemes.

If they had gone another season (without Mike Brady), it would have been interesting to see how they dealt with him not being there for the "Hollywood Squares" sequence that opened every show. I'm sure they could have put Robbie Rist (Oliver) in there somewhere, assuming he had stayed with the show. Would Marcia have gotten Greg's old room in the attic? Would Greg have even appeared in the show at all? Supposedly, he went off to college.

Besides ratings, The Brady Bunch cancellation was encouraged by The Brady Kids growing up and having an opinion. The youngins had story line suggestions and the Schwartz family would have none of that. By the way, another plug for "Growing Up Brady", it's a great read.

Unless I missed a mention in this thread, Ed Sullivan wasn't allowed a goodbye after 23 years on CBS. Come to think of it, none of the shows canceled around that time had a final episode. That would include Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry RFD, Green Acres and a few others.

Then there is Sanford and Son, a show that just faded away. It became The Sanford Arms without Sanford and son and finally Sanford.

A confusing final episode was WKRP in Cincinnati. The station was to change to an all news format but Mama Carlson allowed a stay of execution and music continued.

 

[mleach]

If they had gone another season (without Mike Brady), it would have been interesting to see how they dealt with him not being there for the "Hollywood Squares" sequence that opened every show. I'm sure they could have put Robbie Rist (Oliver) in there somewhere, assuming he had stayed with the show. Would Marcia have gotten Greg's old room in the attic? Would Greg have even appeared in the show at all? Supposedly, he went off to college.

Hmm....maybe Alice marries Sam the butcher and Sam moves into the house and takes over as father figure and the "center square" of the show opening. :

With all the stories of Robert Reed being gay and how he hated doing the show and the old stuff of Barry Williams (Greg) and Florence Henderson having an affair during the run of the show, it must have been quite a place to go to work every day. No wonder Susan Olsen (Cindy) threw up at a radio station interview a few weeks ago. ;D

I have Barry's book "Growing Up Brady". While the part of Reed was gay is true the part about Willaims and Henderson having an affair...I think Barry perhaps made that up to sell books. Sorta like the books that David Cassidy and Wolfman Jack wrote about themselves. Cousin Brucie Morrow wasn't exactly a fan of the latter nor his book.

 

[landtuna]

Do you mean 8 Simple Rules? If so, I assume you mean Katy Segal?

Yes, 8 Simple Rules.

And 'Cate' was the character's name which was spelled differently that the actress' name.

 

[anotherguyTN]

On the other end, the best ending to a series EVER, was the last episode of Newhart, where Bob wakes up in bed with Susanne Pleshette, his wife from his previous series, and talks about the "strange dream he had".

A year or so later there was a reunion of Bob Newhart's 70's show that took place the day after the dream, which Bob talked about. At the end of the show, Bob starts to walk on the elevator, and it is being worked on by Larry, Darryl, and Darryl. ;D

I had a thought that an 80's Newhart reunion would be unrealistic since everything was supposed to be a dream. But then I've thought that it could be done by having Dick Loudon waking up from a crazy dream he had after getting hit in the head with a golf ball where he was a psychologist in Chicago waking up from a dream where he was an innkeeper in Vermont. That could set up the question, which one was really the dream? ;D

 

[johnnya2k6]

The short-lived syndicated teen soap "Swan's Crossing" from 1992 never had a proper ending; it ended with the words "To be continued...let us hear from you!" followed by the credits. The only problem: There was no contact info to the producers!!!!

But it didn't matter anyway; the show got poor time slots, especially in the middle of the night. Some stations ran SC at the 6:00am hour opposite the morning news; others, at 3:00 or 4:00pm when The Almighty Oprah rules those slots. At one time, KFXF here in Fairbanks carried it at 7:00pm...opposite "Wheel of Fortune" on KTVF!!!!!! And you thought the 1980 version of "Let's Make A Deal" that originated in Canada had poor clearance in the U.S.!

Swan's Crossing would be rerun on USA Network the following year, and overseas after that; it is unknown as to who has the episodes now as both the production company (Heliopshere Productions) and syndicator (Sachs Entertainment) are believed to no longer in business.

One of its stars, Sarah Michelle Gellar, went to "All My Children" after Swan's in 1993 and won an Emmy; in 1997, she was cast as Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the more successful TV version of the movie...and the rest as they say was history!

 

[Ultimajock]

Sorta like the books that David Cassidy and Wolfman Jack wrote about themselves. Cousin Brucie Morrow wasn't exactly a fan of the latter nor his book.

...Bruce Morrow was a lousy disc jockey who lucked his way into a good job. If New York radio was all I had to put up with in the early '60s, I'd have kept my dial bouncing between Mitch Reed on WMCA and Murray the K on WINS and constantly passed Morrow by...

 

[bpatrick]

Blue Light (ABC, 1966): Set in World War II,
Robert Goulet plays David March, a member of
an elite group of OSS (the predecessor to the CIA)
agents codenamed Blue Light, whose job it is to
get as close to the German high command as possible
and find out their next move. March is one of the few
Blue Light agents left; the Germans have been knocking
them off at an alarming rate. As part of his cover, he
begins fervently spouting Nazi propaganda, but this is
one World War II-based show where the Germans aren't
stupid. They figure out pretty quickly that he is a Blue
Light agent, while the Americans think he's a traitor.
That introduces an element of "The Fugitive" into the show,
as March attempts to complete his assignments and avoid
being killed by either side. At the end, he's still alive, but
you'd think it wouldn't have been too difficult for one side
to have eliminated him. They should have carried it out to
V-E Day so we could see if he indeed survived the war.

 

[LKellerIII]

Sorta like the books that David Cassidy and Wolfman Jack wrote about themselves. Cousin Brucie Morrow wasn't exactly a fan of the latter nor his book.

...Bruce Morrow was a lousy disc jockey who lucked his way into a good job. If New York radio was all I had to put up with in the early '60s, I'd have kept my dial bouncing between Mitch Reed on WMCA and Murray the K on WINS and constantly passed Morrow by...

Other than brief air-checks, and little sound bites of him in movies (Dirty Dancing, etc.), I only heard Cousin Brucie live on air once - on WCBS-FM about 1993. I was astonished. CBS let him ramble on and on (obviously because he was the great Morrow). He wasn't talking incoherently, or anything, but it was trivial, multiple-minutes long each time, and B-O-R-I-N-G. As a radio nerd who loves the great jocks of that era, I'm always upset that management doesn't let them talk more. But Brucie - at least on that night - was a great argument for "just shut up and play the music."

 

[Ultimajock]

Blue Light (ABC, 1966): Set in World War II,
Robert Goulet plays David March, a member of
an elite group of OSS (the predecessor to the CIA)
agents codenamed Blue Light, whose job it is to
get as close to the German high command as possible
and find out their next move. March is one of the few
Blue Light agents left; the Germans have been knocking
them off at an alarming rate. As part of his cover, he
begins fervently spouting Nazi propaganda, but this is
one World War II-based show where the Germans aren't
stupid. They figure out pretty quickly that he is a Blue
Light agent, while the Americans think he's a traitor.
That introduces an element of "The Fugitive" into the show,
as March attempts to complete his assignments and avoid
being killed by either side. At the end, he's still alive, but
you'd think it wouldn't have been too difficult for one side
to have eliminated him. They should have carried it out to
V-E Day so we could see if he indeed survived the war.

...not only is there a similarity to The Fugitive, there's a closer similarity to Branded (bogus belief of misconduct during wartime tarnishing an individual's reputation). And Branded is also a series that never got a proper resolution to its continuing plotline, either; as I recall, the last episode produced implied Jason McCord would be getting involved in the administration of an orphanage, but there was nothing solid past the implication. Then again, considering the nature of the series, perhaps no single-episode resolution would satisfy, unlike The Guns of Will Sonnett, which was also about Old West drifters but ended with Will and Jeff catching up with James and the three of them became lawmen in a small frontier town they'd all passed through earlier in the third season...

 

[mleach]

Sorta like the books that David Cassidy and Wolfman Jack wrote about themselves. Cousin Brucie Morrow wasn't exactly a fan of the latter nor his book.

...Bruce Morrow was a lousy disc jockey who lucked his way into a good job. If New York radio was all I had to put up with in the early '60s, I'd have kept my dial bouncing between Mitch Reed on WMCA and Murray the K on WINS and constantly passed Morrow by...

Other than brief air-checks, and little sound bites of him in movies (Dirty Dancing, etc.), I only heard Cousin Brucie live on air once - on WCBS-FM about 1993. I was astonished. CBS let him ramble on and on (obviously because he was the great Morrow). He wasn't talking incoherently, or anything, but it was trivial, multiple-minutes long each time, and B-O-R-I-N-G. As a radio nerd who loves the great jocks of that era, I'm always upset that management doesn't let them talk more. But Brucie - at least on that night - was a great argument for "just shut up and play the music."

I was in NYC in 1999 and I heard Brucie on WCBS-FM and yeah..he seemed to be well..way into talking..a LOT.

Around the same time Barry Williams' book "Growing Up Brady" came out ( mid 90's ) Wolfman Jack's bio came out too and Brucie went off at some of the stuff in the book, pretty much calling the Wolfman a "liar". Then David Cassidy's book came out and some of his foes did the same. Then on top of that there was Bob Denver who did his own bio where he mentioned that one day on the set of Gilligan's Island, he couldn't get a nap in or something because Tina Louise was having loud sex in her dressing room which was near Denver's. Tina denied that. Anyway at the time a lot of people were starting to wonder exactly how much in those books were true or how much was made up to sell books. Cousin Brucie started that. Then again one could easily agrue that Christina Crawford got the ball started when she wrote the infamous "Mommie Dearest".

 

[LKellerIII]

A common denominator among all these shows that never got proper endings - LOW RATINGS. I was a fan of Branded, but it only lasted 1 or 2 seasons. Run for Your Life - also 2 seasons. Some of the others mentioned above lasted one full season at best.

The networks obviously felt no responsibility toward viewers of shows that "only" had a few million fans.

 

[bpatrick]

A common denominator among all these shows that never got proper endings - LOW RATINGS. I was a fan of Branded, but it only lasted 1 or 2 seasons. Run for Your Life - also 2 seasons. Some of the others mentioned above lasted one full season at best.

The networks obviously felt no responsibility toward viewers of shows that "only" had a few million fans.

Add to the list "A Man Called Shenandoah" (ABC, 1965), with Robert
Horton as an amnesiac roaming the West in search of his identity.
It lasted one season against the two Andys--Griffith and Williams--
and the last I heard, Shenandoah was still trying to find out who he
really is.

In daytime, most canceled soaps try to end on an up note. Not "Love
Of Life." In its last episode in 1980 Vanessa Sterling was being accused
of having an affair, and her nephew Ben Harper (played at one point by
Christopher Reeve) was on trial for battery. Neither storyline was resolved.
Supposedly American Home Products was hoping either ABC or NBC would
pick up the show, or it might go into syndication (as its sister soap "The
Secret Storm" was supposed to do in 1974). (BTW, "Storm" did go out on
a happy note: Amy Ames Britton's wheelchair-bound husband Paul actually
got up, took a few awkward steps, and collapsed on the floor right where
Amy was playing with their kids, and naturally he joined in.)

 

[Ultimajock]

A common denominator among all these shows that never got proper endings - LOW RATINGS. I was a fan of Branded, but it only lasted 1 or 2 seasons. Run for Your Life - also 2 seasons. Some of the others mentioned above lasted one full season at best.

...IIRC Branded was in Nielsen's Top 20 that first season. It wasn't until well into the second season that the ratings Branded had taken from The Ed Sullivan Show drifted back to Sullivan and The F.B.I.. To be honest about it, the second season of Branded was badly written; I don't think Larry Cohen had a single script or story credit that second year, while he came up with the majority of stories for the first year's episodes...