Top 20 TV Shows That Were Canceled For Ridiculous Reasons

Way to anger the fans! For this list, we’ll be looking at the most notable television programs that were axed for reasons that were either bad, silly or just plain ridiculous. Our countdown includes shows "Futurama", "Longmire", "Clone High" and more! Which of these cancellations angered you the most? Let us know in the comments down below.
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#tvshows #cancelled #dc #batman #familyguy #starwars #futurama

[@WatchMojo]

Which of these cancellations angered you the most? Let us know in the comments down below. For more content like this, click here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoObYnp_p5eKpcU Don't forget to play our Live Trivia (www.watchmojo.com/play) games at 3pm and 8pm EST for a chance to win cash! The faster you answer, the more points you get!

[@marcusyates3044]

Why did they cancelled Teen Titans again? Or DC Super Hero Girls 2019?

[@jeuryrabassa4724]

The Spectacular Spider-Man, X-Men: Evolution, Wolverine And The X-Men, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Teen Titans (2003), Young Justice Season 1, Batman:Beyond and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 - 2019). Thank The Force they finally managed to bring it back TCW for a Seventh and Final Season to complete the series after 5 years.

[@aleaanderson6600]

Swamp Thing (2019), cancelled for tax errors?

[@devingiles6597]

Honorable mentions: ThunderCats (2011) Sym Bionic Titan Megas XLR Spider-Man (1994) O.K. K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Inside Space (canceled due to the merger with WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc. to become Warner Bros. Discovery) Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart The Owl House Tron: Uprising Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron Seriously? No mention of any of these shows?

[@devingiles6597]

Honorable mention: Live PD

[@joshuamohlman]

“Good news, everyone! Those asinine morons who canceled us were canceled *themselves* for incompetence!” - Professor Farnsworth, Futurama: Benders Big Score

[@Yasuda9000]

Planet Express Staff: Woohoo! Zoidberg: Yahoo!

[@PaulZebraski]

Gilligan's Island SHOULD have been on the list. It was canceled because the TV executive's wife liked Gunsmoke better. That has got to be the number 1 stupidest reason ever!! PS Angel and Veronica Mars being canceled angered me the most, not to mention Chilling Adventures of Sabrina... also a stupid reason

[@RealGateGuardian]

I heard it was the Exec himself who loved Gunsmoke and didn't care about Gilligan's Island.

[@karlc2869]

The live action Hulk TV show.

[@markelijio6012]

Universal decides to cancel the show in the spring of 1982 for good after five seasons. So with a little help from Disney's New World Entertainment unit will produce and 20th Television will distribute a trio of reunion movies on NBC: The Incredible Hulk Returns, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk and The Death of the Incredible Hulk. All aired from 1988 thru 1990 and they were very successful and profitable.

[@radrobd123]

@@markelijio6012 season 5 had a limited run of episodes. Hulk used to air on Friday nights before Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas. In December 1981, Hulk was put on hiatus and Dukes and Dallas were moved up an hour and Falcon Crest premiered at 10. This combo proved to be a huge hit for CBS and Hulk was not brought back until spring 1982 when the few episodes left were burned off

[@brianinct4631]

Yes, Gunsmoke was the favorite TV show of William Paley's wife. So, he ordered it to be placed back on the CBS schedule for the 1967-68 season. Gilligan's Island and a planned new show were the sacrificial lambs. Gunsmoke ended up lasting until 1975.

[@Nick-1990]

It really sucks because if Batman wasn’t cancelled then we would’ve seen Clint Eastwood play the role of Two-Face

[@AntoinettexKitten]

That would have been great

[@rythempetemusic4207]

The Cleveland show should be on the list I love it

[@juicyfartsofjimcornette1154]

@@rythempetemusic4207 - Nice to hear from one of the ten people that liked that abomination!

[@andrewmurray1550]

half a million for some wobbly cardboard backdrops? holy waste of money batman!

[@DavidEdwards9801]

@@andrewmurray1550 🤣🤣

[@chheinrich8486]

Just to be clear, the young justice toys werent selling badly because girls watched it, its more likely because many stores were afraid to sell dc toys after the bombing of the green lantern movies

[@WCTate]

I didn't even know that they were selling toys.

[@sifilore9462]

Speaking of the GL movie. People may say it bombed but me and my sister both liked it. Maybe what would've helped by a little is if Parallax was like in the concept arts of more insectoid. The actress who played Carol said she hoped to play Star Sapphire in the sequel, that never came.

[@job489]

@@WCTate Yeah, I don't recall Cartoon Network advertising toys from Young Justice. Since Mattel was paying money for the animation, I would've thought some money go towards advertising the toys. I actually can't remember if any were advertised during that Cartoon Network DC animation block.

[@chheinrich8486]

@@sifilore9462 i dontt say it was bad, just that it had a terribel box offuce

[@robynwolph3836]

This is false. Young Justice got canceled because the wrong demographic was watching it. It was supposed to be targeted towards young boys but young girls were watching it instead. The show was then canceled due to POOR TOY SALES. Do you research before you spew misinformation

[@mcurran6505]

Don't forget Doctor Who, it was originally cancelled in 1989 because the BBC higher-ups at the time thought it was growing stale. The fans were outraged, and after 17 years of several attempts for the series to be revived (like the scrapped 30th anniversary special & the 1996 TV movie), Doctor Who finally made its return in 2005.

[@Leandier97]

Are these redicilous reseasons though? Asaik the viewings werent indeed not that high and both the Baker and McCoy seasons have too many bad written episodes. Sure, there were very good exceptions but the average quality wasnt

[@TheYoungDoctor]

Officially Doctor Who was 'rested' not cancelled. Putting it on opposite Coronation Street didn't help the ratings either.

[@julianaylor4351]

It was cancelled because it was badly run and the controller of BBC 1 Michael Grade hated science fiction. Ironically his uncle Lew Grade who worked for ITV in the fifties, sixties and seventies would have loved to have Dr Who, which is why he commissioned Gerry Anderson to create his puppet and live action television series in that era of ITV.....Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Joe 90, UFO and Space: 1999.

[@thewootpanda]

I mean they had a point and the writing has been awful since capaldi with the odd exception. I am just hoping bringing back davies fixes that

[@julianaylor4351]

@@thewootpanda Self indulgence by a television writer is usually the cause ... you're right a long running series, always needs directors and producers who control them properly. If the producer is doing their own writing, they need to submit the scripts to proper peer review. Chibnall, I believe should have done that. His predecessor John Nathan Turner on the other hand just, I believe, behaved like an old Hollywood producer ...over powering others...another recipe for disaster.

[@johnkchristensen]

I am still hurt about Firefly! It genuinely has so much potential.

[@coomtothebroom778]

A friend recommended the show to me long after the series ended and it truly is a tragedy it wasn’t given a longer life. We did get Serenity, but I would’ve loved to see where more seasons of the show would explore as it was quite smart and original.

[@garypasquill2355]

One of the claims was the execs thought the public couldn't follow a show with so many characters, then whedon had buffy which had a revolving door of multiple characters

[@DirectorsChoice]

I agree, I know we got the movie sequel but dang was Nathan Fillion amazing in the show. It's become such a cult classic. What was the "wow" moment for you when you watched it for the first time?

[@TripleBerg]

@@DirectorsChoice It floored me when Mal acted against type as the hero and said absolutely hilarious things. But all the characters were done so well and had great lines throughout.

[@russellpotter7294]

Police Squad, Longmire, Angel, Veronica Mars, Deadwood, Firefly,Batman and Robin all have episodes that have classic examples of great tv. Just a shame that tv is often run by people who simply don't know about television.

[@radrobd123]

I think what's missing is most of these shows did not have good ratings to justify renewal. As funny as Police Squad! was, it wasn't a hit. Batman was originally a hit, but it started to wane by its 3rd season and ABC pulled back its airings from 2 nights a week to just one.

[@mezipe6429]

Reading Rainbow not being educational!!!??? You’ve GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!😡

[@arthuralford]

You missed one of the biggest events of mass cancellation-the so-called "Rural Purge" at CBS in the early 1970's. Shows like Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Hee Haw got the ax due to Fred Silverman's belief that these shows attracted older viewers, not more desirable younger ones that advertisers wanted.

[@Iggystar71]

Interesting!!! I watched these shows so much as a kid in the late 70’s on reruns, I bet the kind of shows that replaced them weren’t memorable at all.

[@RealGateGuardian]

I want to add that the Moon Landing made studios think "No one cares about green shows! We need to go to space! it's the future!"

[@hydrolito]

The also took off westerns with rural purge but a few years later we got Waltons, Little House on The Prairie, Father Murphy, Kung Fu (which was about a Chinese Man in the old west), and Alias Smith and Jones.

[@stone1andonly]

Hee Haw lived on with original episodes for nearly a decade and a half in syndication. Fred Silverman was an idiot savant in the entertainment business, and his greatest talent was wrecking networks with poor judgment. A few years later, he would go on to screw up NBC as well.

[@RealGateGuardian]

@@stone1andonly Hee Haw: the Next Generation was pretty good

[@bluebear1985]

In the mid-70s, there was a Robin Hood parody series on ABC, "When Things Were Rotten", which was co-created by Mel Brooks. After only thirteen episodes had been produced, the network wanted to slash the budget and make it into a multi-camera setup like other sitcoms at the time. Brooks didn't want to do that, so the show got canceled. Thankfully, Brooks got another chance at a parody of it in the early 90s, when he released the film "Robin Hood: Men in Tights".

[@marthacarson7561]

I enjoyed 'When Things were Rotten.'

[@westzed23]

Another comedy where you had to pay attention to get the jokes like "Police Squad".

[@radrobd123]

If I recall, the show was replaced by Laverne & Shirley, a Happy Days spin-off, which proved to be a huge hit for ABC. So they made the right decision.

[@andrewmurray1550]

@@westzed23 and out of Police Squad came three Naked Guns, and two "airplanes!"

[@alienlovesong]

No Child Left Behind was such a failure. I’m so sad Reading Rainbow was one of its casualties.

[@badbooking3221]

There is one show whose omission from this list is a crime: Gilligan's Island. Despite being a relative ratings hit, it was only cancelled because the wife of the CEO of CBS wanted to see Gunsmoke continue, a show already 14 seasons deep. That was beyond stupid.

[@melissagrant4178]

That the reason Gilligan's Island was cancel

[@amwfan88]

Not just the wife, but the CEO as well. Both were fans of the show.

[@hydrolito]

They could have run Gilligan's island instead of some other show, both shows are still in reruns.

[@badbooking3221]

@@amwfan88 it was the wife who demanded Gunsmoke not be cancelled, and as they say, happy wife happy life.

[@PhenomsServant4]

So why couldnt they just keep both shows running?

[@MelodicQuest]

Moral of the story: If you want your show to succeed, DON'T partner with FOX

[@hydrolito]

Simpsons was run on Fox.

[@MelodicQuest]

@@hydrolito My point is that FOX has really bad management. Because of their reputation for greenlighting so many new projects, the have more flops than successes.

[@Terahnee]

Yeah..... In the same TV season (IIRC) Firefly and John Doe were on Fox and cancelled. John Doe on a major cliffhanger. I stopped trusting Fox. A few years later they had another show with Nathan Fillion on Fox - Drive. It lasted 6 episodes. Pretty sure Nathan Fillion never worked for Fox again.

[@andrewbloom7637]

Case in point: "The Chicago Code".

[@radrobd123]

@@Terahnee FOX is now owned by Disney which also owns Marvel. Fillion was in a Disney owned Marvel movie just this year (GOTG3)

[@b1646717]

Reading Rainbow was a huge part of my youth.

[@bobbuethe1477]

One notable omission is "Bridget Loves Bernie," a highly-rated 1972 sitcom that was cancelled after one season because the cast and crew received threats over its controversial subject matter: interfaith marriage.

[@westzed23]

I forgot about this show. I really enjoyed it. It was funny with the clashing cultures.

[@crystalshaw8744]

I remember that show!! I didn't know about all the drama tho...smile

[@angelaholmes8888]

I was furious when reading rainbow got canceled that show was so important i loved watching the show when I was a child

[@KaraMorassco]

I remember this as one of the shows we had watched in our elementary classes in 3rd/4th grades on Friday afternoon before the end of the day. This was the show that made me love reading so much (even still think of it fondly from time to time).

[@stephenpenrice1230]

I hope the fundamentals-based programs that replaced it were as much fun as The Electric Company was back in the day. It’s totally counterproductive to focus so much on skills that kids get zero joy from reading.

[@dreamguardian8320]

So did I.

[@jenniferburns2530]

Trying to watch Firefly when it aired was a special kind of hell. I was already a fan of Buffy and Angel, and was excited when it was announced. However, not only were episodes aired out of order, but the schedule was also in constant flux with different days and time as well as pre-emption for sports. I gave up because there was no way to watch it consistently. When the dvds came out, it was a revelation. Suddenly it made sense, and I got to see all 14 episodes (3 more than aired by the network.)

[@HersheyHemi1]

Seems like the reasons for some of the TV Shows cancellation. Was because the STUDIO hated it! They can tell the fans whatever the "real" reasons for the shows removal was. But it's clear the studio said " I hate that show get rid of it now!"

[@DigitalNoodle]

That was the reason why Farscape was cancelled.

[@psychopathyoutubeemployees280]

Bingo. It's all about money...THEIR way!

[@georgeowain]

Cave Girl got cancelled because the main character was thought to have too much sex appeal for its young audience. Also, the original Thunderbirds got cancelled because the higher ups wanted something new, despite the shows rating success Gerry Anderson's desire to continue the show. They also cancelled the new Captain Scarlett series for being too dark.

[@dancarey7204]

Captain Scarlett genuinely terrified me as a child.

[@-tiredkitcat-2336]

You forgot The Owl House! It had two full seasons but season three was three 40 minute episodes. Apparently it was cancelled because it “didn’t fit the Disney brand” a lot of fans thinks that means some people didn’t like that there was so much representation of the LGBTQ+ community.

[@jfwfreo]

I thought Disney was pro LGBT (look at what they are doing in Florida)

[@AJsBusVideos]

@@jfwfreothis was before Disney vs Desantis

[@-tiredkitcat-2336]

@@jfwfreo I thought so too

[@MASTEROFEVIL]

They forced Alex Hirsch to censor Gravity Falls because it would've been more LGBT friendly

[@PhenomsServant4]

Ironic considering their fine with diversifying their cast in their Disney remakes to the point that they complete go against the story. Cant wait to see live action Snow Hispanic and the Seven Non-Diminutive Ethnically-Diverse Magical Creatures

[@bawintermage8351]

Reading Rainbow was a National Treasure. I hope that Levar Burton's internet rebirth will be successful

[@VideoPropertiesNI]

King of the Hill was cancelled to make room for…. The Cleveland Show. That should have made the list

[@kittycatmeowmeow963]

Actually, I was cancelled because Brittany Murphy (Luanne) died.

[@spencerkarterlive7378]

They killed off Cotton Hill too.

[@justapeacefulmanwhosbornin7291]

‘The Spectacular Spider-Man’ is also one of my top 5 favorite Spider-Man animated shows of all time. Spoiler alert: Josh Keaton’s Spider-Man version made a surprise cameo in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’

[@Yasuda9000]

Yep, but the cameo appearance in the movie was when they mentioned the police captains of their universes who they know died. In the Spectacular Spiderman case, sometime after the show ended, they show that his version of Captain George Stacy has died in a similar situation like in the comics. (Which makes me wonder if his last words to Peter were to stay away from Gwen because she could be in danger and could experience what happened to her in the comics or the Amazing Spiderman 2 movie?) He shows up later to try and convince Miles that being Spiderman becomes requires personal sacrifices and is one of the many Spider-Men to chase after Miles when he tries to get back to his home universe. It was nice to see this Spiderman again. Ashamed it was under some sad circumstances.

[@Compucles]

Have there even been 5 good ones? As far as I'm aware, there aren't any worth watching aside from "Spectacular Spider-man" and "Spider-man: the Animated Series" (from the '90s).

[@Vicki_Benji]

Firefly was a great show and should not have been cancelled!

[@georgeh6856]

I loved "Police Squad". I watched it when it first aired, many years ago. I eventually bought the DVDs and have watched those few episodes several times. There are so many gags in each episode, that you can see different ones each time you watch it.

[@sheilaholmes996]

Networks are so stupid. I was pissed about Police Squad. Excuse me, Reading Rainbow wasn’t educational??????

[@masterice4464]

Aww poor Batman… that show always make me laugh and of course RIP Adam west

[@bobbuethe1477]

I think the only recurring cast members who are still around are Burt Ward (Robin) and Julie Newmar (Catwoman).

[@AntoinettexKitten]

The reason to look forward to Saturday

[@Ashstar4]

Gilligan's Island should have been on the list because it got cancelled because CBS chief executive William S. Paley did not want Gunsmoke to go off the air.

[@redfive5856]

Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and other popular shows were canceled because advertisers wanted more "urban" shows.

[@radrobd123]

Well it worked. The shows that replaced them were Mary Tyler Moore, All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show, Maude all big hits

[@ericjanssen394]

I didn’t realize Batman was canceled because of the sets- I always thought it was because William Dozier turning the entire third season into the Batgirl spinoff he didn’t get to do was a classic last-season shark-jump. (And no Bat-Shark-Repellant.)

[@augustoortiz1254]

The show's budget suffer, even one "fight" wasn't a proper fight, the lights off and only put sound effects to cover (the old biography channel do a cover about the whole show on his moment)

[@hydrolito]

1968 Superman Aquaman hour of Adventure was replaced by Batman Superman Adventure hour on CBS. Although were cartoons.

[@radrobd123]

ABC did not cancel it because of sets. It was cancelled because ratings were dropping. After its cancellation, NBC expressed interest in picking up the show for a 4th season but changed their minds when they found out the sets had been destroyed

[@angelvasquez1592]

Teen titans and terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles were shows that hurt me when they got cancelled

[@THANATOS-PRIME]

Ripped all of the good shows that were canceled just because a toy deal couldn’t be made or toys could not be sold (Static Shock, Thundercats 2011, Transformers Prime, Green Lantern: TAS, Young Justice’s first run.) Also to ones that kept getting shuffled around such as Godzilla the animated series.

[@thedevilsrockstxr2309]

I mean there's really no reason for WBD to invest heavily in DC, if there was one, they wouldn't have been dependent on a toy deal fr fr

[@jsmith3946]

@@thedevilsrockstxr2309 uh all kids shows are heavily dependent on toy deals or some kind of deal it's not like they do it out of love they do it to make money

[@docvoygx3788]

Tfp wasn’t cancelled and it had a good ending

[@twistedgaming9185]

@@docvoygx3788 Yeah, against all odds: the producers and Hasbro feuding, the show going overbudget AND being on a failing network. And then RID 2015 happened.

[@CobraRaptor]

A notable cancelation from the early 2000s was Hot Wheels Acceleracers for the 5th one, it was canceled due to being too popular. You'd think Mattel would capitalize on popularity

[@jfwfreo]

You would think that anything that would increase sales of Hot Wheels toys would be GOOD for Mattel...

[@megalizardon7295]

Sym Bionic Titan being canceled on Cartoon Network was the most upsetting for me. 😭

[@machtmer]

If we are all really honest, the day “Survivor” and “Big Brother” became hits…is the day most quality series on the major broadcast networks were cancelled.

[@radrobd123]

Big Brother was always a summer series so I don't see how that affected any scripted show on broadcast tv

[@machtmer]

@@radrobd123 because it and Survivor were the first hit reality programming on network television. If you analyzed programming data patterns (I’m a professional statistician; I get paid to notice patterns) over time before and after the first seasons of Survivor and Big Brother, you would notice the following right off: a tremendous drop-off in scripted, multicamera broadcast shows; and a tremendous influx of non-scripted (presumably…), cheaply-produced reality programming, across all major broadcast networks simultaneously. I lived through this change. Reality programming killed scripted television.

[@andrewhaase1826]

Honorable Mentions: *The Owl House -Of all the cancellations, this one hits me the most personally mainly because I backed the petition to save the show myself. I don't think I'm being controversial when I say that The Owl House is a fantastic show, and a much needed hit for Disney, AND YET, SOMEONE at the higher ups just refuses to he happy about it (I bet it's South Park's Mickey Mouse). Because ever since Season 2 started airing, the news going around about how Disney was treating the series was downright shameful. Not only would the series end with it's 3rd season, but ALSO the 3rd season would only consist of 3 44 min specials (against the creator's wishes mind you). There was also word going around that the show "Didn't fit the Disney brand." Oh sure, because stuff like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Gravity Falls and Amphibia were fine but THIS is pushing it. The fan backlash was massive, even spawning the aforementioned petition to save the show, but Disney remained resolute in their decision. Now thankfully, The Owl House still ended fantastically in the end (thank goodness), but again, this only makes the company look really suspicious. And in a DELICIOUS twist of irony, Disney actually DID admit that they were wrong to cancel the show and that it was in fact sucessful. But given that Dana Terrace left Disney after the show was complete, it looks like any chance for a sequel series, spin-off, or a Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood-esque extended story are unlikely. Despite the sucess of the show, it still really hurts when you think about what could've been. Mistreating your employees is bad enough, but when you mistreat your employees, your fans, your consumers, your properties, AND your legacy in such a short span on time, it takes a lot to regain the trust of the public after all that. Let's just hope their recent shows don't go to their heads, or we could end up with something like this again.

[@DarkSidedOtter]

Seriously! I don’t know why they always pass over shows like The Owl House in these lists. Everything about The Owl House brought me so much joy and excitement in my life, it’s not even funny. I’ll miss that silly owl show with my whole heart 💜

[@MASTEROFEVIL]

The Owl House was cancelled because it was unmarketable in Asia and the Middle-East because the main character was gay

[@PhenomsServant4]

Tbh you could fill half this whole list with Disney shows. Who knows how many series in the 2000's were cancelled because of Disney's stupid 65 episode rule.

[@LokiDWolf]

In regards to Police Squad, one of the writers talked about that they canceled themselves too. Because they realized that they had TOO many jokes. That while you're laughing at one, you're missing one right behind it. They seemed to have learned their lesson with the movie, Airplane. I didn't know that's why Firefly was out of order! WOW!!!

[@techboywi]

Airplane came out before Police Squad. Airplane was released in 1980 and Police Squad was in 82

[@Eddieavina123]

Love your video and keep up the great work

[@Animeguy300]

Disney buy Marvel was both a good decision for the fans and a bad idea to cancel the show

[@nevaehhamilton3493]

Fox sucks when it comes to scheduling.

[@blobulous3500]

Fox made a mistake putting futurama at 7 on sundays where it would often get pre empted by the NFL

[@frankflemming6150]

I thnk the most ridiculous ever has got to be Deal or No Deal- a game show where you can win anything from 1p to £250,000. It was cancelled because "people randomly winning £250,000 made it hard to calculate the budget". They realised this after 11 years...

[@itslegion1324]

Glad Longmire got its due in the end that show was awesome. I find it funny they originally cancelled it because of an older audience which is real odd, regardless I watched it as a teen lol.

[@piperbird7193]

Fox was terrible for moving shows with no warning. I remember there was a show called Drive that was cancelled for low viewing, but it was on a different night each time. I think it was something like the first two episodes aired together on a tuesday, and then the next episode was the week after on a sunday, and then on a thursday, and then it was just gone. I never understood why Fox did that with so many of its shows.

[@BCslostsoul]

I remember seeing it on some television show years ago that Gilligan's Island was initially picked up for another season while Paley and his wife were on vacation. When they came home, the order to make room for Gunsmoke came down. Supposedly the cast and crew of Gilligan's Island learned about the cancellation in the middle of a party celebrating the show's renewal for a fourth season.

[@amwfan88]

I'm baffled as to why Gilligan's Island isn't on here. It was canceled because of random chance. During the 1966-1967 season, when CBS was preparing the schedules, they canceled Gunsmoke, which was the network president's favorite show. When he found out, he was furious and demanded it be brought back. But they had to get rid of one show, so Gilligan got the boot.

[@nomad762]

Part of Firefly's cancellation had to do with piss-poor advertising as well. The ads focussed so much on Inarra that my friends & I referred to it as "the space hooker show" until I happened to stumble on it while channel surfing one night.

[@user-ju1lp6ef3d]

A "The space hooker show" would take a place among a higher ranks in my book. Sounds 90s like hell.

[@milescoburn1845]

Huh? I don't' even remember Inara being in the ads.

[@ashleyvanhammer3448]

Owl House AND Steven Universe. Both enjoyed strong ratings and a rabid fan following. BUT both were getting "too gay" for Disney and Cartoon Network, respectively and were shown the door. This is why we can't have nice things. 🔥👿🔥

[@cliffcorson4000]

On firefly you forgot to mention how FOXalso preempted the show multiple times for baseball, changed the time slot and day and would skip weeks between episodes

[@kittycatmeowmeow963]

Oh yeah, I remember that.

[@thesomethingthatisntathing514]

Sounds like they were so confident that the show would flop, they didn't bother giving it a chance.

[@cliffcorson4000]

@@thesomethingthatisntathing514 they didn't give it a chance Had they given it a chance it would have boomed. It was a sci-fi series unlike others then or now

[@RadioLaPrincess]

Another show canceled for ridiculous reasons was Just The Ten Of Us which was canceled because the "wrong" producers created it. It was a spinoff of Growing Pains and did well in the ratings, usually winning its time slot. However, ABC was trying to go with strictly Miller-Boyett productions (the company produced hits like Family Matters and Full House). Even though the show was a hit they canceled it. Executives years later stated it was a bad mistake.

[@markelijio6012]

However, Miller/Boyett Productions has making many mistakes over the years for producing and developing unsuccessful shows like The Family Man, Going Places, Getting By, On Our Own, Meego and Partners. None of them won't last long and failed miserably.

[@RadioLaPrincess]

@@markelijio6012 Exactly and the show that replaced Just the 10 of Us was Going Places which didn't last a season. ABC later admitted they bombed and made a bad mistake.

[@markelijio6012]

@@RadioLaPrincess Thanks for telling me that. Happy New Year 2024!

[@RadioLaPrincess]

@@markelijio6012 Thanks and same to you.

[@smile182blink]

Thank you for including Police Squad!!

[@princesspixel3151]

Young Justice’s reason for cancellation with “lack of purchased toys” is bad enough, but because GIRLS liked the series more (despite not buying toys)? That sounds like a red flag that would get the public pretty angry… 😨

[@angelaholmes8888]

I'm still angry that the cw canceled veronica Mars I love that show😡

[@rjlab742]

I wish Firefly had 11 seasons instead of 11 episodes.

[@iduckfilms]

Another one is Infinity Train, it got cancelled due to a lack of "child entry point" due to the proposed fifth season focusing on a college-aged adult protagonist.

[@tristankingcooldudewhite8392]

Honorable Mentions "Final Space" (2018-21) Cancelled Because of Tax Write-Off

[@KrystalloMantis]

At least Angel had a good finale, but it could have hung on with a few more seasons at Wolfram and Hart

[@NS_first]

It felt like the show ended on a clifhanger to me, but I do agree it could have lasted a few more seasons

[@szymonlechdzieciol]

@@NS_first Quite clearly episodes since Illyria risen were rushed to give tv series some sort of finale. I think originally confrontation with Illyria would take final 1/3 of season and all other stuff would be left for S6 and maybe 7. Maybe it was bad move to rush this. Maybe if Angel ended on natural season 5 finale, then it would be easier to try to ressurect it.

[@yadielenielbellecolon982]

Thank For the Top 20 Video 🙊🤯🥰😍😁💗💐🌟🥇🏆

[@kittykayte]

There ought to be a rule that one person can't decide to cancel a show (i.e Gilligan's Island.) there should be a series of rules and clear reasons to cancel a show (and no, "girls are watching" or "we aren't seeling enough toys" arent 'good' reasons.) and if a studio buys another studio that has a popular show already in production, they should HAVE to keep it going.

[@radrobd123]

that makes no sense. Someone has to be in charge. And it's show BUSINESS. If a show is not profitable and not making $$, then why should studios keep pouring good $$ after bad to appease a small fan base that's not getting bigger

[@kittykayte]

@@radrobd123 I’m mainly referring to the fact that Gilligan’s Island was cancelled simply because one of the executive’s WIVES (not even involved!) didn’t like the show and had it cancelled. If a show is cancelled because they aren’t selling enough TOYS, that’s not a good reason to cancel the show-there could still be a huge fan base, but last I checked, kids aren’t the ones with the money to buy toys

[@chefcircuit5392]

The Owl House: cancelled because “it doesn’t fit the Disney brand” (Aka because it had LGBT representation)

[@emperortrevornorton3119]

One of my favorite cop comedies from the 80's got canceled for bad time slots it won best new TV comedy show it's first season Sledge Hammer!

[@aaronholcomb237]

Trust me. ABC didn't know what they were doing. This show, expecting cancellation, had a nuclear bomb go off in what was supposed to be the series finale. When it wasn't, they made the second season a prequel.

[@markelijio6012]

Sledge Hammer! was canceled after two seasons. Sadly Alan Spencer didn't know what he's doing. But he disappears from the industry and haven't been seen or heard ever since. It was replaced by the Emmy winning Wonder Years which ran for six years, thanks to both ABC and New World.

[@sifilore9462]

Wolverine and the X-Men, and Green Lantern: The Animated Series were both cancelled for the same reasons as Young Justice. Not enough toy sell, which is ridiculous imo, even if you've got a deal with the company. Those only had 1 season each, they could've had more sales if they've continued. There r other show that I personally liked from CW that were cancelled after 1 season. Star-Crossed for starters. They say is was because of bad rating, low viewership and stuff. Personally I've always thought that (SC) and others got axed just to make room for new shows, and all the reasons told were just cover stories.

[@williamkerfoot8039]

Do your homework man and you'll see that's not true.

[@Cappydo]

Funny how most of the fox shows were cancelled because of poor scheduling.

[@TrexelCat]

0:44 Futurama has been revived yet again, by Hulu. Complete with the original voice actors.

[@NickCC23]

This audience guy GOT the humor of Police Squad!

[@user-lv5zz7wv6l]

At least futuramas back now plus the family guy scene from season 4 about the cancellation was genius

[@mr.decencykeepinitreal6348]

*sighs* ‘The Spectacular Spider-Man’ is one of the best superhero animated shows in 2000s. 😔

[@jeuryrabassa4724]

And canceling it was a big mistake.

[@jasonmcmurtry7812]

Longmire was excellent and glad Netflix picked it up. The Clone Wars finally got its final season too was great.

[@dreamguardian8320]

So was finale with Samurai Jack.

[@jeremyriley1238]

Sonic SatAM is another series cancelled for a new reason, as it was axed because the new president of ABC at the time was not fond of the show, not even bothering to move it to a time slot where it was competing against Power Rangers. Thankfully, while Sega wants nothing to do with SatAm and the likes of Sally Acorn, fans are doing their part to make a third season fan project. Also, as others have pointed out, a lot of classic cartoons made for Disney Channel were cancelled because at the time they aired, Disney had a stupid rule only allowing 65 episodes for a series (with only Kim Possible being able to go beyond that limit), and there are also cartoons that, like Young Justie, were also cancelled for not selling enough toys (or in some cases, not even selling toys).

[@k012957]

I'm Dickens, He's Fenster was up against Route 66 and Sing Along with Mitch. It was cancelled after one season, and by that time it was beating its competition.

[@KiryuSeiran]

before young justice, Teen titans... When I saw "teen titans go" ad for the first time, my hopes went up in smoke.

[@akuma63]

Amusing that not selling toys is a reason for cancellation. The Hot Wheels Cartoon (1969) was forced off the air by Congress (U.S) because it was deemed to air for the sole purpose of selling toys.

[@DragonKazooie89]

The Aquabats! Super Show! - Cancelled because of the change of power with the end of The Hub even though it got ratings that were about as good as MLP:FiM, which survived. Also something about being unable to make toys/merch for the show. Invader Zim - The audience that was watching it was teens and young adults instead of kids

[@m56214]

Now all the kids who grew with Invader Zim act like they loved the show when they were busy watching OddParents instead

[@lmbuckhalterjr6123]

They left out that Firefly was offered another season but Whedon was done with the bullshit and decided to do his five years earlier. The movie was supposed to take place in the fifth season. They already had the season written that told the story of "Shepherd Book". It's why you have to read the books and graphic novels to get the whole story.

[@marcusyates3044]

Why did they cancelled Teen Titans again? Or DC Super Hero Girls 2019?

[@jsmith3946]

tax cuts

[@jazzminegoddess7968]

No#15 I had no idea those movies were based on this show. I don’t remember ever seeing this show and those movies where really popular in the 90’s. Wow Watchmojo thanks for the clarity!

[@davidyoung6649]

Dallas in 2012 also got shafted due to poor ratings, but similar to Family Guy, it got moved around to different nights and aird at various times throughout the year. It should have stayed on Wednesday Nights.

[@radrobd123]

Yeah but according to the head of TNT programming they were shifting away from that type of programming.

[@kendra.1]

Happy Endings was hilarious! I loved that show and was so upset that it got cancelled. That was such a stupid decision.

[@fromthehaven94]

I hate to say this, but being on after Modern Family helped. But not enough when ABC tried to have a Tuesday night comedy block. And I had heard of and watched Mixology, but not Super Fun Night.

[@padoco73]

Firefly had another thing going against it. It should also be noted that the show was preempted 3 times for sports games. In a sense, it was basically an extensioin of jocks bullying nerds.

[@Terahnee]

No joke. Preemption, aired out of order, challenging time slot which they changed at least once. That poor show. I watched it first run and stuck with it but, man, that was difficult.

[@Kels1701e]

Firefly's cancellation was the biggest crime in television history.

[@markysumm72]

Legit thought that was Only Fools and Horses in the thumbnail lol.

[@scarletttyson4622]

Who saids girls don’t buy toys? also some would complain that Owl house had it final season shortened because Disney thought it didn’t fit there brand

[@georgeowain]

They did the same thing to the 80s Robin Hood series; Robin of Sherwood. After two seasons, the actor who played Robin moved on and the character was killed off. So when they made the third season, Robin was recast with a new character who takes on Robin's name to lead the Merry Men.

[@nv4699]

Yeah it just wasn't the same after that. However, they were able to explore both versions of the myth having each Robin have a different origin.

[@susanscott8653]

​@@nv4699I think part of the reason why it was different was that last season was longer and they had to bring in other writers who didn't know the series as well.

[@Twitchguy]

Clone wars cancellation was idiotic

[@sailorearth2007]

That is so dumb about Reading Rainbow…such a great show and so many books highlighted during the run

[@scottdoesntmatter4409]

Futurama. Canceling a tv series because the network kept changing the time slot, that's the NETWORK'S fault, not the series!

[@dsxa918]

As a long-time Futurama fan, I want to have a drinking contest where i drink every time a Mojoholic uses capital letters to do something LIKE this

[@Highland804]

I was upset when Longmire got canceled. And Veronica Mars! And Angel. And Firefly! And Deadwood!!

[@andrewbloom7637]

Despite high ratings throughout its two seasons, "F Troop" was canned in April 1967 due to high production costs. Warner Bros. was going through financial difficulties at the time and thus had to merge with a smaller, lesser-known studio named Seven Arts in order to stay afloat.

[@markelijio6012]

Warner Bros. Television has more television successes such as "Extra" at the top of their game while Seven Arts has now becoming as an indie production company to make all-new projects for both indies and studios in order to stay afloat.

[@everlenaoliver6912]

4:28 WOLVERINE and the X-men was also canceled because of Disney's Purchase of Marvel.

[@rdotmitchell]

I’m ngl Reading Rainbow was my shit as a kid.

[@kerrychabot]

I used to LOOOVE Westward Bound! For the baby pink one, if you can find some plastic chains, they would look insane looped through the bottom holes in the harness top!! You could use metal chain but I’d be afraid of catching the latex😖

[@aprilhubbard2696]

I hate that they cancelled “ Reading Rainbow” cause it got us hooked on reading at a young age Even if they already knew how to read there is nothing wrong with it they just wanted to share the joys of it among others too cause they know how fun and exciting it can be So that makes me mad My niece would look through my books to find sight words and would tell her how fun and exciting it can be to read too that you can turn those sight words into other words and kept encouraging her Now she is just as excited about reading as well and it was this show that hot me started We need it back

[@PecanSandees23]

Living Single; Frank's Place; Quantum Leap. Not sure why any of these shows were cancelled.

[@markelijio6012]

Quantum Leap and Living Single were hits but Frank's Place was a flop.

[@radrobd123]

@@markelijio6012 Frank's Place was a hit with critics, just not audiences

[@CaptainRetroStation]

It's been 20 years, and I am STILL upset over "Firefly". I haven't watched Fox since, thankfully.

[@maddogmorgan8737]

What about "The Oblongs". Cancelled because it upset too many people 😂

[@jsmith3946]

nope low ratings nice try though

[@pepecasagrande7215]

I have tried to find a book that explain this TV dynamics. I can't find anything, but it seems 90% of the shows are cancelled after 1 or 2 seasons

[@MaxWeb2599]

As a police squad fan it's sad to hear that it got canceled because the Humor wasn't dumb enough.

[@starscreamthecruel8026]

"Because viewers didnt pay attention", so you want a show that kids can watch while multitasking on their phone? Yeah good luck with that.

[@DJB0X3R]

What about Green Lantern on Cartoon Network. It’s rumoured cancellation was because of the no toys selling. But then what toys?

[@g.mitchell7110]

When it's reported that Dini says that Young Justice was cancelled because too many girls were watching it, that's an oversimplification. In the first season, most episodes had one or two characters as their focus, with about a third of these episodes being focused on the girls on the team. As the season went on, new members were added, with three of the four new members being girls because Dini and company wanted to balance the team out. This was the plan all along -- make a superhero show that would appeal to girls as much as it did boys -- and it was successful at doing this. The show got better ratings than the show it replaced. Cartoon Network and Mattel had a formula they used for what level of affiliated merchandise (not just toys -- posters, clothing, backpacks, lunchboxes, etc.) they could expect based on a given rating. A show that has X rating should sell Y dollars in merch. By this metric, Young Justice was underperforming. This was because Mattel hadn't made any merch for girls, and didn't advertise the merch they did make to girls. This was during the era of sex segregated toy aisles at major retailers, and there was no Young Justice merch in the girls' toy aisles. They also didn't make girls' T-shirts and the female team members could not be bought individually, only as part of group sets, and even there, some of the group sets didn't include Artemis, one of the three characters who got a season-long story arc (Superboy and Miss Martian were the other two). In short, Cartoon Network and Mattel didn't believe girls watched superhero shows, so they ordered the showrunners not to focus very much on female characters, didn't make merch for girls, didn't advertise the merch they did make to girls. In short, they ignored half of their audience and then pointed to half their audience not buying their merchandise as a flaw in the show. It's textbook self-fulfilling prophecy. It was also wrong on the basic premise: girls were already watching superhero cartoons, but weren't being marketed to because the suits in charge didn't believe girls watched superhero cartoons or bought superhero toys, so they didn't make or market them, which led to The toys, by the way, consisted mostly of "action figures" and play sets. What's another name for "action figures"? Dolls. The reasoning was that girls don't buy and play with dolls. Finally, Young Justice premiered not long after Kim Possible, which was enormously popular among both sexes and sold a lot of toys to both sexes, went off the air, leaving a big demographic untapped, which was what Dini and company were trying to do.

[@charlottestreet3301]

Cartoon network need to realise that girls also love superheroes not just a boy thing. Also Kim possible is awesome

[@isabeld.paredes4923]

It seems to me that the executives at Cartoon Network hadn't learned from shows like the 1975-79 Wonder Woman TV series, which had quite a few girls asking for merch (dolls, party supplies, other toys, Underoos, etc.). Many girls do love superhero stuff (Kim Possible being one example) in the same way other girls like Barbie and (in the case of the 7-under group) princess dolls