Television's One-Season Wonders of the Decade
In the Motherhood (2009, ABC)
Based on the popular webisodes featuring Chelsea Handler, ABC premiered a television version of the maternal series in 2009 with Megan Mullaly, Cheryl Hines, Horatio Sanz and Jessica St. Clair. Despite the brilliance of Mullaly and Sanz, especially as the season progressed and the pair organized nanny strikes and faked pregnancies together, the show was pulled for reruns of Grey's Anatomy after five episodes.
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Moonlight was an awesome show that picked up quite a huge fanbase (still has one) and it only had one season. It's a shame really.
Much love for _The Comeback_
the best shows seem to always get cancelled; the most likely explanation... people do not want to think and most likely like watching brain-numbing reality tv thus making the country dumber which in turn makes more reality tv and so on and so on. The two best shows in the later part of this decade were Journeyman and New Amsterdam. Two excellent shows but both got cancelled after half a season, why? Yet we have constant crap like American Idol/America(has not) Got Talent (both copies of english shows) as well as the office (something original please America), and all the stupid reality shows about people we do not care about in the slightest (ie Hills, Housewives of wherever, pretty much everything on mtv, biggest loser, etc etc. It's a shame I know some names. Yet shows like Journeyman and NA are not advertised or produced well enough and are dropped. But in a country where money is king, American tv will always fail to produce quality (except HBO that is).
The Middleman was a fine one season wonder.
There have always been cult shows, but this is the first decade where cancelled programs actually drove fan interest that got them widespread commercial release post-cancellation. It's only going to get more interesting as the broadcast market becomes more saturated and segmented.
I really liked The Unusuals; I think that in a few years we might see it on a list like this. At least it gave Jeremy Renner a bigger audience.
they left out one that I personally loved from this year. My Own Worst Enemy w/ christian slater. it aired on NBC. prime time slot, tons of promotion, great story, great visual effects, good acting, but NBC pulled it after something like 6 or 7 episodes.
What ever happened to "The Class"?
What about "Keen Eddie" (2003)? Fox barely gave this awesome show a chance 🙁
And whatever happened to American Gothic?
Interesting article, but the title doesn't exactly make sense: "One-Season Wonders".
I'm sure you got the idea from the music industry phrase, "one-hit wonders" which refers to artists who produce one memorable, widely popular and easily recognizable hit song, but then fail to produce a single follow-up to that initial success.
In TV parlance, the phrase "one and done" would be more appropriate in the context of this discussion.
I know Pushing Daisies technically lasted 2 seasons... but ABC didn't have it's heart in the second in terms of marketing and support, so, really, it should classify as a one-season wonder.
Amazing show.
Journeyman was the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. It was so good (and I usually hate science fiction, so if I liked it, that means something). I know the writers strike happened right in the middle of the season, so that helped to push it towards cancellation, but I also read that since the writers knew it was going to happen, it allowed them to actually somewhat resolve and explain things enough, so that the episodes that did air have a coherent story arc.
I liked New Amsterdam as well, at least at the beginning, but I remember starting to get bored with the later episodes.
Hey network stooges: I don't watch any so called 'reality' shows. Journeyman, Southland, Moonlight and Flashpoint were all killed off before their time. Bring back real programs, not this constant stream of drivel.
What a strange list...
No Invasion? Miracles? Eyes? Freaks & Geeks? Karen Sisco?
I actually looked three times to make sure an additional page wasn't missing.
Freaks & Geeks was '99.