Cancelled TV Shows That Never Provided A Proper Ending

[mleach]

SOAP. The show left us with many, many cliff hangers involving sure deaths of nearly all of the characters. The show was cancelled before those stories could be resolved.

Except Benson who got his own spinoff. I wonder if Chuck & Bob died.

Soon after Soap ended I am pretty sure Chuck & Bob ended up doing another show. "So You Think You Got Troubles"? At the time it was being billed as a "spin-off from Soap" but I don't think it was.

 

[nightfly61]

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

They could have put Tiger the dog in the middle square-which brings to mind their cat. I think you only ever saw the girl's cat in the pilot where Tiger chases him & they knock the cake over. Which also brings to mind Robert Reed...he died of Bladder Cancer but had AIDS. With all the kissing they did on the show you'd think Florence Henderson may have contracted it. Wasn't his daughter in the episode with the itching powder?

 

[nightfly61]

One of the last shows I watched religously was American Dreams & am still fired up about NBC cancelling it. It made it through almost 3 seasons but was pushed aside for football, boring Christmas specials & seemingly never ending Sunday nights of special 2 HOUR Law & Order which literally had me writing in complaints to NBC! . It originally aired on Wednesday nights so I took my own VCR to the station to tape it I liked the show so much (even though lots of their historical timeline stuff was out of whack).
Nathan could have gotten killed off...
Luke could have knocked up Roxanne & split...
Meg & Chris could have run away to the west coast (to tag along with the move of Bandstand, since you can't have the show without Bandstand!)...
Henry could have re-married that new lady(I forget her name)...
Sam could go on to run in the Olympics...
(the singer JoJo-as Linda Ronstadt who was too young for Bandstand but sang excellent makes her return as an "old enough for Bandstand" Ronstadt & sings with the Stone Ponys...
Will gets cured of Polio...
Patty's mouth finally gets her in trouble & Jack hauls off & cracks her(something you never saw Jack do but it went on alot back then)...
Beth(Rachel Boston the MAJOR hottie) leaves J.J & comes running with arms outstretched to none other than NIGHTFLY61
...soooo many things could have happened with that show :-[

 

[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

They could have put Tiger the dog in the middle square-which brings to mind their cat. I think you only ever saw the girl's cat in the pilot where Tiger chases him & they knock the cake over. Which also brings to mind Robert Reed...he died of Bladder Cancer but had AIDS. With all the kissing they did on the show you'd think Florence Henderson may have contracted it. Wasn't his daughter in the episode with the itching powder?

Mono yes..AIDS no. AIDS didn't come around until the 80s and besides from what I heard the risk to catch AIDS from simple kissing is pretty much zero.

The "bladder cancer" story I believe was an attempt to hide from the public that Reed had AIDS and was gay. Kinda like a few years ago in the last \radio market I worked in. We had an announcer at a competiting radio station whose bio on his station's website said he was married to a "hot blonde named Heather" and had 4 kids...but the same guy was actually gay ( no kids at all ) and had a male lover for 10 years. And this was only TWO years ago !!!!!!!

But then again I heard heard that Reed really did die from bladder cancer and had the early stages of AIDS. Gotta do research.....

 

[anotherguyTN]

A lot of game shows ended with no real finale. I've read where Match Game 7X was cancelled on short notice and they still had a few weeks of unaired episodes that were never shown except possibly later in reruns on GSN.

Then there were two of the biggest flops in prime time game shows in recent years, The Rich List and Show Me the Money. The Rich List only ran one episode, but the team that was on it had won $175,000 and were on a roll. On Show Me the Money a contestant had reached the $600,000 range when the last episode was shown. I've read where these contestants may have never been paid their complete winnings since the later episodes weren't shown. Has anything ever come out on what happened with the final results of these shows if they had continued? It sounds like in both cases they probably won big and Fox and ABC got out of the shows fast since they were ratings flops to keep from paying the big winners.

I happened to read after I had posted this that GSN was supposed to carry reruns of Show Me the Money, including the rpisodes that didn't air on ABC, but bailed out after 2 weeks with low ratings, even for GSN. That looks like another indicator that the last guy on ABC won big and by not showing the remaining episodes the production company, GSN and/or ABC got out of having to pay him, at least no more than the $600,000 that he had won up to the end of the last episode shown on ABC. On the other hand if he had lost big, would he have been still been paid the $600,000, or whatever lower amount he had ended up with later?

SOAP. The show left us with many, many cliff hangers involving sure deaths of nearly all of the characters. The show was cancelled before those stories could be resolved.

Actually Benson ended with something of a cliffhanger, although some people might have considered it the right ending. Benson had become his party's candidate for governor, but the Governor decided to run a write in campaign. The final episode with Benson and the governor having settled their differences and watching the election results together, with the winner about to be announced when the episode ended. Since there was no new season the results were never known.

 

[LKellerIII]

Mono yes..AIDS no. AIDS didn't come around until the 80s and besides from what I heard the risk to catch AIDS from simple kissing is pretty much zero.

The "bladder cancer" story I believe was an attempt to hide from the public that Reed had AIDS and was gay. Kinda like a few years ago in the last \radio market I worked in. We had an announcer at a competiting radio station whose bio on his station's website said he was married to a "hot blonde named Heather" and had 4 kids...but the same guy was actually gay ( no kids at all ) and had a male lover for 10 years. And this was only TWO years ago !!!!!!!

But then again I heard heard that Reed really did die from bladder cancer and had the early stages of AIDS. Gotta do research.....

Since people survive so much longer now with HIV/AIDS, it's not unusual for those infected to die of other, sometimes unrelated causes, such as cancer. But even then - it certainly did happen. So it certainly could have been true in Reed's case.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I think CBS pulled the plug on the reality show "Armed And Famous" before the final episode, so we never got to see if any of the D-listers involved ever became part of Muncie, Indiana's finest. (I'm guessing not.)

Also, ABC yanked "Push, Nevada" before that show's season-long mystery was solved, didn't they?

Someone mentioned "Chico" being the guy with the goat on "Sanford & Son"...That was Julio, played by Gregory Sierra (Chano on "Barney Miller"). "And bony knees to you, too!"

 

[nightfly61]

I think CBS pulled the plug on the reality show "Armed And Famous" before the final episode, so we never got to see if any of the D-listers involved ever became part of Muncie, Indiana's finest. (I'm guessing not.)

Also, ABC yanked "Push, Nevada" before that show's season-long mystery was solved, didn't they?

Someone mentioned "Chico" being the guy with the goat on "Sanford & Son"...That was Julio, played by Gregory Sierra (Chano on "Barney Miller"). "And bony knees to you, too!"

No, I thought Julio was related to or was friends with Chico & that's what made me think Chico & the Man was a spinoff of Sanford & Son.

I think the show Fish (spinoff of Barney Miller) may not have had a noticeable ending.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Some other shows that just ended without any sort of closure: Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, Joan of Arcadia, the original Star Trek series, Life Goes On, American Dreams, and Picket Fences.

Going in the other direction and picking a show that had one of the best endings giving closure was, in my opinion: M*A*S*H.

 

[azumanga]

Some other shows that just ended without any sort of closure: ... Life Goes On...

I thought that show had closure, with Corky marrying his girlfriend, and the dog in the opening credits finally getting his food.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I guess I missed the final episode of Life Goes On, but that would would be a good closure for that show. Thanks for the correction and the closure.

 

[firepoint525]

One of the last shows I watched religously was American Dreams & am still fired up about NBC cancelling it. It made it through almost 3 seasons but was pushed aside for football, boring Christmas specials & seemingly never ending Sunday nights of special 2 HOUR Law & Order which literally had me writing in complaints to NBC! . It originally aired on Wednesday nights so I took my own VCR to the station to tape it I liked the show so much (even though lots of their historical timeline stuff was out of whack).
Nathan could have gotten killed off...
Luke could have knocked up Roxanne & split...
Meg & Chris could have run away to the west coast (to tag along with the move of Bandstand, since you can't have the show without Bandstand!)...
Henry could have re-married that new lady(I forget her name)...
Sam could go on to run in the Olympics...
(the singer JoJo-as Linda Ronstadt who was too young for Bandstand but sang excellent makes her return as an "old enough for Bandstand" Ronstadt & sings with the Stone Ponys...
Will gets cured of Polio...
Patty's mouth finally gets her in trouble & Jack hauls off & cracks her(something you never saw Jack do but it went on alot back then)...
Beth(Rachel Boston the MAJOR hottie) leaves J.J & comes running with arms outstretched to none other than NIGHTFLY61
...soooo many things could have happened with that show :-[

Hmmm, a lot here to respond to. Other than dancing to music that hadn't been released yet, and appearing in Bandstand shows in Philly long after they'd apparently moved to LA, the biggest head-scratcher of the show for me would have to be Luke's transformation from Buddy Holly lookalike (while dating Meg) to a Neil Diamond lookalike (according to Roxanne) while dating Roxanne. What exactly happened to him that year or so he was gone?

The other issue was why NBC so frequently pre-empted it (as nightfly said), but never put it up against the Super Bowl? If NBC wanted to kill off the show (as it is evident that they did), then why didn't they just put it up against the other networks' big guns? And that deal with moving it to Wednesday was apparently so their remaining audience couldn't find it! :

 

[firepoint525]

I'm going to add one of my personal faves though it is probably one no one else would think/care about: The New WKRP in Cincinatti. Was the program director killed in the plane crash or not? I still wonder all these years later.

I posted about that one earlier as well.

A lot of game shows ended with no real finale. I've read where Match Game 7X was cancelled on short notice and they still had a few weeks of unaired episodes that were never shown except possibly later in reruns on GSN.

Then there were two of the biggest flops in prime time game shows in recent years, The Rich List and Show Me the Money. The Rich List only ran one episode, but the team that was on it had won $175,000 and were on a roll. On Show Me the Money a contestant had reached the $600,000 range when the last episode was shown. I've read where these contestants may have never been paid their complete winnings since the later episodes weren't shown. Has anything ever come out on what happened with the final results of these shows if they had continued? It sounds like in both cases they probably won big and Fox and ABC got out of the shows fast since they were ratings flops to keep from paying the big winners.

That brings up an interesting question: if GSN were to air something that had never been shown (anywhere!) before, would that still be considered a rerun? ;D

As for Match Game, loved the show, but they should burn all the episodes in which Richard Dawson appeared wearing dark glasses! It is obvious that he didn't still want to be on that show, and would have preferred to be on Family Feud!

 

[Ultimajock]

As for Match Game, loved the show, but they should burn all the episodes in which Richard Dawson appeared wearing dark glasses! It is obvious that he didn't still want to be on that show, and would have preferred to be on Family Feud!

...I suspect it wasn't so much that as Goodson-Todman were simply demanding too much out of the man. After all, not even Bill Cullen had worked that many air hours a week for the company. I think it was more a case of Mark Goodson not realising the jobs of host and panelist were actually harder than guys like Dawson, Cullen and Rayburn made it appear...

 

[Bob1370]

"Run For Your Life (65-68) starred Ben Gazzara as a wealthy lawyer who is told he has only a couple of years to live. He decides to do the things he's never had time to do, and embarks on a series of adventures where he goes to new places and meets new people. The plots tended to be along the lines of the Fugitive or Route 66. An ending was never promised - but fans of the show were hoping for a "happy" ending...a cure for the fatal disease, so he could go on living. Never happened, so I guess we can assume he died."

Actually the fate of Gazzara's character was probably never going to be resolved on the show, and my source on that is Ben Gazzara himself.

Gazzara told me earlier this year during an interview mostly about another topic (his film work with his friend John Cassavetes) that the producers of Run For Your Lifehad pretty much decided they were not going to do a finale to settle the question of whether his character either lost or won his ultimate battle for survival, even if the show had lasted several more seasons.

There was a business reason for that.

You see, rerun syndication was even then a major extra source of profit for a series' producers. But back in the '60s shows usually didn't go into syndication while new episodes were still being produced for first-run network airing like they do today. More often than not they went into syndication only after their first runs on the network had ended. It would be hard to sell a drama show for syndication and draw a rerun audience if the original run had essentially brought a storyline like that to a conclusion for the viewers, one way or the other. A dramatic series without a definitive conclusion, though, can be recycled through any number of plays and sold through several rerun cycles, as long as people are interested in the characters and the show and tune it in. (Needless to say, Gazzara was fine with that at the time--he not only enjoyed playing the character and didn't want to see him killed off, he was going to collect healthy residuals from any successful marketing of the show in syndication if it happened.)

As things turned out, Run For Your Life lasted for three seasons and close to 100 episodes, and almost made it to a fourth (it was "on the bubble" at the end of the 1968 season as far as NBC was concerned, but it didn't quite make the cut for renewal). They'd have needed at least that fourth season, if not a fifth, to make an inventory of episodes big enough to market for syndication in those days, and they never quite got there. But even if they had, they were not going to resolve the life or death issue of the lead character, at least to Gazzara's knowledge.

 

[nightfly61]

Did "Grounded For Life" have an ending episode? ???

 

[bpatrick]

Who was shot in the last scene of the last episode
of "Dallas"?

 

[azumanga]

Who was shot in the last scene of the last episode
of "Dallas"?

Trick question -- it was revealed in a 1996 reunion special, "J.R. Returns", that J.R. shot his mirror (though we heard no glass shattering).

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Bumped in case some people on here that might have watched today's final episode of "Guiding Light" might be dissatisfied by its ending.

 

[bpatrick]

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.

Ed didn't want a goodbye; he was quite miffed at CBS for canceling the show, especially when there had been some sentiment for continuing his show for two more years to make 25. Besides, he would continue doing specials almost up to his death in 1974.

I thought at first that the CBS exec who canceled "Mr. Ed" just to, in Alan Young's words, show his power, was Jim Aubrey. Aubrey was fired from the network in 1965, and "Mr. Ed" ran one more season on Sunday afternoons, so I'm not clear who canceled the show.

The best finales, IMO:

1. The "Newhart" finale, with Bob and Suzanne Pleshette (not Mary Frann) in bed together.
2. "The Fugitive" finale--no one who saw it will ever forget it.
3. "It's a long way to Tipperary," better known as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" finale.
4. The "M*A*S*H" finale.
5. "The Odd Couple": Felix and Gloria remarry, and Oscar is ecstatic to see Felix go.
6. And one you may think unlikely: the last broadcast of the original "What's My Line?"
with host John Daly as the Mystery Guest.

Biggest disappointment:

The "Dallas" finale; viewers had to wait several years before they found out that
J.R. didn't shoot himself after all.

Overall, I was happy with the "Guiding Light" finale, but since it jumped ahead
one year, I'd still like to know if either Ed and Holly or Fletcher and Alexandra
(or both couples) got together. Holly really needed Ed, and why she was always
attracted to Roger (except maybe some of his mysterious or shady ways--some
women like that, I guess) is a mystery to me. Fletch and Alex had great chemistry,
but I wish Beverlee McKinsey could have been there; her scenes with Jay Hammer
always cracked me up.