13 Sleeper Hit Canceled Shows That Deserve A Revival
Nearly every show cancellation is a bummer to someone. Maybe the show had started huge and lost viewers over time, maybe it was just starting to find its stride when it was cut, or maybe it just never found that stable fanbase it needed. The most devastating of all the reasons is when a show finds it's rabid fanbase years after it left the air and those new viewers are hungry for more.
We're in the midst of a reboot and revival era and there are most than a few shows that debuted at the wrong place and at the wrong time that deserve another shot on the air now that they've got the fans to back them up.
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Airdate: 2002
Seasons: 1
Firefly is the poster child for “wrong time, wrong place” shows. A mixture of an odd airtime, episodes being released out of order (and a couple not at all on TV), and the good television viewers of 2002 maybe not being ready for a wester/space hybrid meant the show was dead nearly on arrival. It wasn't until the single-season was collected – in the proper order! – on DVD that it grew its now-massive cult following. Although the show did get a wrap-up film in Serenity, with just 14 episodes the series established a rich world that was clearly full of stories that should still be told.
-Jacob Bryant
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Airdate: 2007-2009
Seasons: 2
The best way to describe Pushing Daisies is Comfort Food: The Show. Lee Pace plays a pie chef who has the ability to touch dead people and bring them to life for a minute – a skill he uses with a private investigator and his (once dead) girlfriend to solve a variety of wacky, Dr. Seussian murders. Yes, the show is part criminal procedural but the cases are far from dark. In fact, the show is nearly saccharine-sweet enough to give you a cavity. That sweetness helped the show gain massive popularity via streamers that it didn't come close to having during its two seasons on the air. Pushing Daisies might be the perfect remedy to help fight the fires the 2020s have brought.
-Jacob Bryant
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Airdate: 2006-2008
Seasons: 2
Jericho managed to come back from the dead once after fans of the puzzle-box, post-nuked USA were rabid for answers following a Season 1 cliffhanger, but the end of the truncated second season left just as much on the table. Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich), Robert Hawkins (Lennie James), and the rest of the citizens in the small town of Jericho, KS might have helped figure out the culprit of who nuked most of the major cities in the US by the end of Season 2 but it was clear there was a lot more story to tell. What was the deal with Jennings and Rall? How close were they to another Civil War? The show's creators into a third season via an IDW comic that got into how Jake and Hawkins allied with the new Independent Republic of Texas to stop the war between the new Cheyenne, WY-based Allied States of America, and the remnants of the constitutional United States government. The blueprints for more Jericho already exist, we just need a streamer to come in and make dreams come true.
- Jacob Bryant
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Airdate: 2015-2022
Seasons: 6
Yes, The Expanse ran for six seasons. Yes, the show was saved after a three-season run on Syfy for an additional three seasons on Amazon Prime. Yes, the show was able to end on its own terms with an abbreviated sixth season. Was that enough? No. As the series ran on, The Expanse earned more and more accolades as one of the best adaptations on television with some calling it the best sci-fi series since Battlestar Galactica and others explaining it to new viewers as “Game of Thrones in space.” Although the series came to an – albeit satisfying – conclusion on its own in 2022, the story was far from over with three more books left unadapted. While the Free Navy threat and the Earth/Mars/Belter conflict wraped up in Season 6, the final three novels focus heavily on the unanswered questions about the protomolecule and the Ring Gates. The show was saved once; it should be saved again to give the series – and its many fans – the ending it deserves.
-Jacob Bryant
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Airdate: 2019
Seasons: 1
The Society was one of the many shows to fall victim to cancelation due to COVID. Originally the series had been popular enough to warrant a second season but when sets were forced to shut down for extended periods of time led to contract and availability headaches Netflix chose to rescind their renewal and cancel the series after only a single season. The show – which follows the kids from New Ham, Connecticut waking up to discover there are no adults in town and they can't cross the town border- left plenty of questions unanswered as the various factions began to descend more and more into a Lord of the Flies-esque existence. The series has joined a hallowed few Netflix shows that have fans pestering every social media post (related to The Society or not) to bring them back to New Ham, and I'm one of them.
-Jacob Bryant
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Airdate: 1999
Seasons: 1
It ran for only one season, but was created by a mastermind who changed the comedy film industry, starred a cast who are mostly A-listers today, and is probably more watched now than it ever was during its initial run 20 years ago. When it first ran on NBC, Freaks and Geeks was beloved by critics and the few audience members who happened to tune in, but for the most part, ran under the radar. Starring Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jason Segal, Martin Starr, Linda Cardellini, and John Francis Daley, the high school comedy set in 1980 gained a fan base long after it was banished from the primetime schedule. Since its final episode, which saw Lindsay ditch an academic summit to follow the Grateful Dead, there has been talk about resurrecting the series. Who knows. Maybe one day a 50something Lindsay will emerge from a van ready to continue her high school education?
- Erin Maxwell
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Airdate: 2015-2018
Seasons: 2
Created by the Wachowski siblings and set in every corner of the Earth, Netflix's Sense8 was an ambitious project that never really took off while it was airing. Following a "cluster" of eight metahumans who are connected mentally to create a new species, this show was filled with action, sci-fi, and lots and lots of sex. It ran for two seasons before it was canceled on a cliffhanger, angering fans new and old, especially as it gained traction among Netflix audiences. Eventually, it got a movie to help tie up a few loose ends and to fans at ease.
- Erin Maxwell
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Airdate: 2011-2013
Seasons: 3
Once Happy Endings sorted out its streaming rights it ballooned its popularity and now sits high in the pantheon of shows most argued for getting a revival. It was a refreshing take on the "20/30-something friends in X city just figuring life out" with an all-star cast including Damon Wayans Jr, Adam Pally, Casey Wilson, Eliza Coupe, Zachary Knight, and Elisha Cuthbert. The show's continuity came from its many genius in-jokes and Dave (Knight) and Alex's (Cuthbert) refreshing will they/won't they. It's a testament to the show's continued popularity that the cast reunited via Zoom during the COVID pandemic for a reunion episode. Happy Endings humor made you laugh in a way that The Office, Friends, and Parks and Rec just never could. The world needs (and is finally ready) for a fourth season.
-Jacob Bryant
Bring It Back?Airdate: 2010-2011
Seasons: 3
College parties, beer, drugs, football, girls, and good times - this raunchy comedy series might not be for everyone, but its American Pie-styled appeal has gained it a cult following. Originally premiering on Spike TV, the series gained renewed interest after Netflix absorbed it. With endlessly quotable lines and one of television's most entertaining football captains, fans were heartbroken to see the show canceled after only three seasons. Luckily, the BMS cast felt like they weren’t done with their characters either, and announced their intention to make a film that could stand-in for a fourth season. A Kickstarter campaign was launched and fans flocked to it in droves, exceeding the amount needed by nearly half a million in only one month! The film, Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland was released two years later, with the fan-favorite captain Thad at the forefront. Since then, there has been no news about releasing further BMS projects, BUT the rise of Thad has continued, with his actor Alan Ritchson becoming Amazon Prime’s new Jack Reacher (a role just *slightly* different than Thad). So, with Alan Ritchson on the rise in Hollywood, the potential future of BMS seems just a little bit brighter.
-Charlie Boyle
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Airdate: 2017-2019
Seasons: 3
A joint effort between the CBC and Netflix to remake the beloved story Anne of Green Gables, Anne with an E was released to critical acclaim and won some of Canada’s highest television honors. Highlighting feminism, discrimination, and the question of identity while still keeping a wholesome appeal, the show was lauded for being one of the few literary adaptations that could surpass its written form. Netflix, however, didn’t seem to see the whimsical charm that Anne with an E had cast. The show was canceled after three seasons, with the CBC citing the cause as a lack of interest from middle-aged adults, along with the statement that they would no longer work with Netflix due to a conflict of interest. Heartbroken fans flooded social media and created a petition to protest the cancellation, which currently stands as the largest petition to bring back a canceled TV show in history. In 2020, billboards were erected in Toronto and in New York City’s Times Square featuring stills from the show in order to garner more attention to the show's renewal petition. Although these efforts have, so far, not captured Netflix’s attention, the billboards WERE successful in ensnaring new fans of the series, showing that the world may not have seen the last of Anne Shirley-Cuthbert!
-Charlie Boyle
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Airdate: 2002-2004
Seasons: 1
Greg the Bunny didn't just have a cast of ringers like Eugene Levy, Sarah Silverman, and Seth Green. It didn't just have a bunch of idiosyncratic puppets. Greg the Bunny had potential. So, so much potential. Taking place on the set of a children's series called Sweetknuckle Junction, the show was a crackerjack combination of behind-the-scenes showbiz comedy, workplace sitcom, and acidic social commentary. In the world of Greg the Bunny, puppets were living, breathing citizens who functioned as stand-ins for marginalized communities in America, allowing it to be about so much more than a funny riff on Sesame Street. And, of course, it was a crassly funny riff on Sesame Street, complete with puppets who would, to name just one example, drunkenly pee on their boss's car to prove a point. Well-written, immaculately performed, and clever down to its core, Greg the Bunny was way ahead of its time.
-Tucker DeSaulnier
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Airdate: 2017-2018
Seasons: 2
Starring Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson as two of the least professional ad men in Motor City, Detroiters was part of a Golden Era of fantastic sitcoms produced and prematurely canceled by Comedy Central. But while greats like The Other Two and South Side found a new home at HBO, Detroiters came to a permanent end after two seasons. Comedy fans at this point probably know Tim Robinson for his sketch show I Think You Should Leave, but Detroiters proves that he and co-creator Zach Kanin have as good a sense for the story as they do for laughs. What makes this show special is its tender approach to the community of Detroit, shining a very positive light on a misunderstood city. There’s a pervading sense of optimism throughout Detroiters that makes you root for almost every character in it, no matter how thoughtless or silly they may be.
-Ryan Mach
Bring It Back?- 13
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Airdate: 2005
Seasons: 1
Stella was a show that was ahead of its time...and likely still is today. What makes this web series-turned-sitcom about three well-dressed roommates so bizarre is its complete disregard (or even contempt) for plot and story, regularly defying reason for the sake of a dumb joke. Main characters will be shot to death, for example, only to reveal that the deceased was actually an incredibly realistic robot and that our beloved character is just fine. You might recognize the show’s humor from other projects featuring comedy actors/creators Michael Ian-Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain shows like Children’s Hospital and the Wet Hot American Summer spinoffs produced by Netflix. But none are quite as unabashedly silly as Stella, a cult favorite even among fans of cult favorites.
-Ryan Mach
Bring It Back?
