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One and two season shows

J

johnbasalla

How many of these are available?

My all-time favorite sitcom episode was "The Joke" episode of the one-season wonder "I'm Dickens, He's Fenster" with John Astin and Marty Ingles in the early 1960s. Basically, a big argument and fight develops between those who think the joke is funny and those who don't. It seems a few years back, the producer was trying to interest someone in releasing the 32 episode series on DVD, and he asked for fan help.

I remember TV Land used to run episodes from short-lived series on Saturday nights. I thought that was cool. Got to see an episode of The Smothers Brothers sitcom in which Tommy was a ghost. Wouldn't you want to see, let's say, some of the best of the worst like "My Mother, The Car"?
 
The Monkees only lasted two seasons but was in syndication for many years in addition to being on MTV and a couple other cable channels IIRC. The show had 58 episodes; 32 in season 1 & 26 in season 2.
 
Car 54 lasted only two years, I believe, but was syndicated in the late '80s on TV Land. I think it may have been the funniest sitcom of all time.

There wasn't any redeeming social message in Car 54- just a great cast of comedic actors and actresses. As such, it went for laughs and got them.

Dabney Coleman shows were always only good for a season, but usually got good reviews. Buffalo Bill- The Slap Maxwell Story- good shows but short lived.

Square Pegs- with Sarah Jessica Parker- was a one-season wonder that was well received by everyone but the high school youth it was targeted to.

You'd figure with Tom Hanks "Bosom Buddies" would be re-run a bit more, but it only had a season or two.

More recently- ESPN's "The Playmakers" was very well received but it was cancelled after a season after pressure from the NFL. "Clubhouse"- a show centering on a major league batboy- also died a quick death despite a cast including Christopher Lloyd and Dean Cain in large part because MLB wanted nothing to do with it.

The reason was because both shows weren't afraid to deal with the uglier side of sports. In the case of Playmakers- it was somewhat absurd because they wrote every negative off the field situation that had occurred in the entire NFL and wrote it into a single football team.

But they hit too close to home- in Clubhouse they dealt with everything from steriods to corked bats- and I think people just got sick of seeing the sports page regurgitated every week.

Come to think of it- there have been many great movies about sports but few TV shows (Coach?). Bay City Blues died a quick death- as did the 1994 sitcom "Hardball."
 
What about the series "Special Unit 2"? Paulie Parrette of NCIS was on it for a little bit. I think the show was on two seasons.
 
Well in the old days shows rand 33 or 39 episodes in a year. That made it a bit easier.

I recall USA Network used to air comedy blocks of old TV series that ran one or two years like "My Sister Sam," "Angie," "The Girl With Something Extra," "He And She," "Get Christie Love," "Hello Larry," and the list goes on.

It was fun to see those old shows, if only to see how BAD some of them where compared to how I remembered them :)
 
The "New Dick Van Dyke Show" was set in Carefree, Arizona for its first season. Carefree is a very tony suburb of Phoenix and is where Van Dyke and his family lived at the time. A soundstage was built just south of Carefree and after the show left Phoenix, it became a rental stage used primarily for commercials and the occassional movie. It's since been torn down and replaced with expensive homes. Van Dyke moved the show to LA for the second season.
 
The New Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed at the Carefree Studios north of Scottsdale AZ. The show was set in Scottsdale. Dick's fictional TV station used the call sign of his KXIV radio in Phoenix.

Mike
 
Also, as far as "I'm Dickens...He's Fenster" goes I was too wrapped up in Route 66. I was interested in seeing a TV show shot on location all over America, not stuck in a place like New York City. After I became a fan of John Astin's style of comedy I am sorry that I missed out on that show. Plus, the show's theme was pretty good, too.

Mike
 
Swingtown was only on for one summer. LOL - guess you have to be a voyeuristic old lady from around that time. Trina gets lots of airplay up the road. Wins prizes, gets requests, etc.
 
Space: Above and Beyond, maybe purposely written as a single season show from inception? As far as I know, its the only show, eventhough its science fiction, that has a beginning AND an ending. Most shows start somewhere in middle of their vague timeline. S:A&B started with the 5 main characters joining the USMC before the start of war against the Chigs and ends with the ambush attack during the peace negotiations, killing off 3 (4 if you count Col McQueen) of the 5 (6) main characters. And what was going to happen next, did the war continue, did they win or lose, were they to be conquered/enslaved/exterminated by an alien civilization with superior technology? No new season, no sequel, no blockbuster motion picture finale. The show left you hanging, just like many of the episodes did. It was the only show that didn't always have a happy ending or save the world in the last five minutes. It was often very sobering, somber, gloomy and realistic, except for the haircuts. I think thats why many people didn't like it. S:A&B showed true cold and harsh adult reality, in their world and ours, that people get hurt and people die and there always isn't a happy ending. You just pick up pieces and keep going.

On a happier note, Space Rangers, a member of the Babylon 5 family, appeared on CBS during June-July of 1993, never to appear again. I don't even think it qualifies as a full season.
 
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