Failures and Cancellations Trivia

1. This show featured Karyn Parson, best known for playing Hillary Banks on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", alongside Lori Petty as two best friends determined to live life to the fullest, without a lot of money.

From Quiz The First Seasons Club

Answer: "Lush Life" (1996)

Parson starred as Margo Hines, a woman who has never lived her own life before. She leaves her philandering husband after he reveals another one of his many trysts to her. She moves in with her best friend George, played by Petty, and the two have many adventures figuring out how to keep financially afloat. The show only lasted for seven episodes, with three unaired.

From Quiz When The Television Series Ended

Answer: Julie Kavner

"Rhoda" was one of the spinoffs. Julie Kavner played Brenda Morgenstern, the sister of "Rhoda" in all 110 episodes of the show. Rhoda was played by Valerie Harper on both shows. Ted Knight played cartoonist Henry Rush in "Too Close For Comfort"... which was not a spinoff.

From Quiz One and Done

Answer: Heather Thomas

Heather Thomas played Sandi on "Co-Ed Fever" which was a rip-off of "National Lampoon's Animal House". The show starred David Keith and Alexa Kenin, and while eight episodes were produced, "Pepperoni Passion" was the only one to air, on February 4, 1979. Thomas had much more success as Jody Banks on "Fall Guy" which had 112 episodes.

From Quiz Your Show Is Slipping

Answer: Deadwood

Set in Deadwood, South Dakota in the 1870s, the show was fictional but occasionally used the names of real people of the times as characters. Shown on the HBO Network, it was produced by David Milch, who did most of the writing during its three seasons from 2004 to 2007. Even after winning eight Emmy Awards HBO didn't "cancel" the show, it just decided it wouldn't pay the actors for a fourth season. There were false hopes raised over the next few years but in 2012 everyone finally admitted the series was dead.

From Quiz Television's Greatest Misses - Part 2

Answer: Go to medical school

Although best known for is work on the CBS sitcom "Hogan's Heroes", Bob Crane appeared in a number of well-known TV programs before his untimely death in 1978. He was joined on this short-lived sitcom by the likes of prolific character actors Todd Susman (Officer Shiflett on "Newhart") and James Sutorius (Mike Andros of the short-lived journalism drama "The Andros Targets").

From Quiz So Many TV Shows Canceled in 2006

Answer: Blade

Written by one of the original writers of "The Dark Knight" and "Jumper", "Blade: The Series" was actually a very popular cable show (originally airing on the Spike TV Network). Despite extremely favorable ratings, the show was not renewed for a second season. It is speculated that the relative cost to produce the show, both in standard and high definition, was too much to continue with. Though Wesley Snipes did not return to reprise his role as the titular comic book hero, the role of Blade was taken by Kirk 'Sticky Fingaz' Jones, a hip-hop artist. The show was canceled in September 2006.

From Quiz More TV Shows Canceled in 2006

Answer: John Stamos

Although "Jake in Progress" didn't have the best first season, the show was picked up by ABC for a second season. What's the catch? ABC placed the show right after the major flop "Emily's Reasons Why Not" which only aired one episode before being canceled. Likewise, "Jake in Progress" was also removed from the schedule before ABC announced it had been canceled in May 2006.

From Quiz TV Shows Canceled in 2006

Answer: Heather Graham

Although Heather lost this show rather quickly in mid-January, she performed guest roles on TV's "Scrubs", "Arrested Development", and "Sex and the City" over the previous years, and she was the co-star in the hit movie "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (1999). The show was about a woman (Emily) who wrote self-help books and turned to her friends in order to make lists of reasons as to why she should break up her relationships. After only 6.2 million viewers in the premiere episode, the show was immediately cut from ABC's schedule.

From Quiz More TV Shows Canceled in 2005

Answer: 1986

The show was about six friends in 2006. One has been murdered, and the other five are all suspects in the case, but to figure out what really happened, they have to go back to every year over the past twenty years to find out what went wrong. FOX had the idea to run hour-long episodes to show one year (per episode), and when it was all over, they planned to have a new set of friends with a new problem. The show was canned in November due to low ratings in its very first season.

From Quiz Failed Television Pilots Part 3

Answer: Gary Burghoff

Burghoff was in the pilot "W*A*L*T*E*R", where he would reprise his role as Radar. In this one, Radar became a police officer. The pilot was shown on 17 July 1984. It was shown in the eastern United States, but delayed in the west because of the Democratic National Convention.

From Quiz TV Shows Canceled in 2005

Answer: Head Cases

A successful lawyer who suffers a nervous breakdown and a somewhat unsuccessful lawyer he meets at a mental wellness clinic team up to bring justice to the courts in this "Ally McBeal" of the twenty-first century. Chris O'Donnell and Adam Goldberg teamed up in only two episodes of FOX's would-be hit, but the station took the axe to "Head Cases" after extremely low ratings.

From Quiz Television's Greatest Misses

Answer: John Vernon

A versatile character actor who appeared in numerous movies and TV shows during his career, John Vernon (real name Adolphus Agopsowicz) played the sinister dean of Faber College in both "Animal House" and "Delta House". John Belushi was unavailable to reprise the role of Bluto Blutarsky for the series, and that may have contributed to its short lifespan. The last of the fifteen half-hour episodes of "Delta House" aired on ABC in April, 1979.

From Quiz Gone By Season's End

Answer: Daniel Stern

Daniel Stern was "Marv" in the first two "Home Alone" movies.

From Quiz Failed Television Pilots Part 2

Answer: Policemen

"Bunco" starred Tom Selleck and Robert Urich.

From Quiz Failed Television Pilots Part 1

Answer: 1992

Two pilots were made of the show. Craig Bierko, the actor who played doomed human Dave Lister, turned down a chance to play Chandler Bing on "Friends."

From Quiz Short-lived TV Shows

Answer: Manimal

In theory, the hero had the ability to change into any animal he chose. However, the show plainly didn't have much of a budget, so he seemed only ever to change into a hawk or a puma. Perhaps that's why it only lasted 8 episodes.

From Quiz Canceled Shows

Answer: "Glory Days"

It was written by Kevin Williamson of "Dawson's Creek", and was canceled after only one season (2002).

From Quiz When The Television Series Ended

Answer: Window On Main Street

This mild comedy/drama only lasted one season. In 1969, after several years of relative inactivity, he returned to television in his Emmy winning role as Marcus Welby.

From Quiz TV's Finest Failures

Answer: A Japanese pop singing duo who spoke no English

Kei and Mie were two women from Japan who formed a duo named Pink Lady. In their native country, they filled stadia with clamoring fans, and so Fred Silverman, a producer at NBC thought they'd be able to bring American viewers to the TV for an hour every week as hosts of a variety show. He neglected to find out whether they spoke English. When it turned out they didn't, Sliverman was not deterred; he hired stand-up comic Jeff Altman to join them, and do most of the talking, while Kei and Mie supplied a few lines memorized phonetically, plus a song or two learned the same way. Once in a while, they'd sing in Japanese, and the audience got a sense of what Japanese audiences loved so much, but they were less charming when they had no idea what they were saying, and the show fell flatter than one of Jeff Altman's falls into a hot tub, fully clothed in his tux, which was a running joke on the show. Really.

From Quiz One and Done

Answer: The space shuttle Challenger explosion

"Melba" premiered on January 28, 1986. Unfortunately, the Challenger had exploded only hours earlier, leading "Melba" to have the lowest ratings in the history of any first-run television program. "Melba" was a family sitcom by CBS that was attempting to capture some of the same audience as "The Cosby Show". The first episode of "Melba" was titled "Manhunt". Eight episodes were produced, and they were aired in August and September of 1986, to very low ratings. Chernobyl happened April 26, the Berlin bombing occurred April 5, and Geraldo's disastrous (but non-fatal) opening of the Capone vault happened on April 21.

From Quiz Your Show Is Slipping

Answer: Firefly

"Firefly" was on the Fox Network in 2002 and only lasted for 11 of its planned 14 episodes. Director and writer Joss Whedon used the premise that 500 years in the future technology will have advanced but we will still have the same social problems we do now. It ranked in the top 100 in the Nielsen ratings but Fox pulled the plug. Despite that, its DVD sales were strong when released and in 2013 "TV Guide" named it number five on its list of 60 "Cancelled Too Soon" shows.

From Quiz Television's Greatest Misses - Part 2

Answer: Leslie Nielsen

All four men listed in this question appeared in the short-lived "Police Squad", itself the basis of the very successful series of "Naked Gun" movies. Alan North played Captain Ed Hocken; Ed Williams played police scientist Ted Olson; and in the opening credits, Rex Hamilton played an Abraham Lincoln who shoots back at a would-be assassin. But it was Leslie Nielsen, whose roles widely varied during his career, who drew the short straw with "Shaping Up". Also appearing with him on that short-lived show were future poker champion Jennifer Tilly (as aerobics instructor Shannon Winters) and Miss Universe 1980 Shawn Weatherly (as aerobics instructor Melissa McDonald).

From Quiz So Many TV Shows Canceled in 2006

Answer: Show Me the Money

Armed with a group of thirteen female dancers, William Shatner would spout the words 'Show Me the Money' and the show (and dancing) would begin. Essentially, players would need to answer trivia questions in order to select a dancer, each with a respective amount of money ranging from $20,000 to $250,000, to earn over a million. Correct answers add money to the final pot though only the six highest dollar amounts earned would count. If a player incorrectly guessed the answer, that amount would be taken away from the total (sometimes giving a negative balance). If that player encountered the one Killer Card held by one of the dancers, the game would go into Sudden Death mode and the player could potentially lose it all. ABC dropped the show from its mid-season line-up after sharply declining ratings. Only seven episodes made it to air over the show's brief run.

From Quiz More TV Shows Canceled in 2006

Answer: His sister

Although "Friends" was canceled less than a year earlier, Matt LeBlanc returned and reprised his role as the ladies man, Joey Tribbiani in the NBC comedy "Joey". The show took Joey to Los Angeles where he moved in with his sister and nephew. After two seasons, "Joey" was canceled by NBC when it became the lowest-rated show on the four major networks. It was pulled from the air and announced canceled by May 2006.

From Quiz TV Shows Canceled in 2006

Answer: Killer Instinct

Of course, all of these shows were canceled, and two of them were by FOX. "Threshold", a show based around a government agency to stop aliens, was canceled by CBS in 2005. "The Inside", was a FOX show starring Alec Baldwin, and it was canceled in the summer (also in 2005). "Wanted" was a TNT drama about cops in Los Angeles, and like "Killer Instinct", it left in January 2006. Before being canceled, "Killer Instinct" aired nine episodes on FOX (with four remaining), and it was about a police unit in charge of seeking out and solving deviant crimes in San Francisco.

From Quiz More TV Shows Canceled in 2005

Answer: Hot Properties

Another show gets the axe in the first season. "Hot Properties" was created by one of the minds behind the popular show, "Frasier", but this show never managed to take off. The show was set in Manhattan as four friends/co-workers/real estate agents solve business and personal problems together. This show was kicked off due to low ratings (once again).

From Quiz Failed Television Pilots Part 3

Answer: 2003

Kiefer Sutherland was Jack Vincennes. HBO was originally supposed to have a 13-part miniseries, but negotiations failed. Fox then produced the pilot, but did not pick up the series.

From Quiz Gone By Season's End

Answer: Cheers

"The Tortellis" centered around Loretta, the former waitress. Loretta was played by Jean Kasem, who is Casey Kasem's wife.

From Quiz Failed Television Pilots Part 2

Answer: Robert Goulet & Goulet

Goulet played Brent McCord, a washed-up actor who became a small-town sheriff.

From Quiz Failed Television Pilots Part 1

Answer: Ryan Stiles

Matthew Perry and Kelly Hu also starred in the flop.

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Last Updated Mar 05 2025 6:36 PM

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