Beech Tree News Network

With the new season of shows finally starting, I noticed the other day that the show Schooled was not on the roster of returning shows.  I researched it and, it turns out it got cancelled after 2 seasons.  It made it a lot longer than some other unfortunate shows.  Schooled certainly wasn’t the shortest-tenured show to get axed.  What was the shortest tenured show on air?

For the earliest known show to be cancelled after one episode, we have to go back to 1951.  Who’s Whose was a panel quiz show hosted by Phil Baker that aired on CBS, in which 4 celebrity panelists(Robin Chandler, Basil Davenport, Art Ford and Emily Kimbrough) tried to determine which of three male contestants was married to which of the three female contestants.  The show replaced The Goldbergs (not the current one, obviously), which was dropped when its creator Gertrude Berg refused to fire blacklisted actor Phillip Loeb.  Contemporary news accounts confirm that this was a series that was dropped by Sponsor General Foods after one airing.

One thing that likely spells trouble is when executives commit to a show without even seeing a pilot.  Who does that? Even the fictional NBC executives on Seinfeld had to watch the pilot before picking up George and Jerry’s show.  The actual show in this case was called Emily’s Reasons Why Not, starring Heather Graham.  Turns out there were plenty of reasons why not, as ABC found out quickly.  The series premiered January 9, 2006.  It was cancelled January 10, 2006.  

I vaguely remember this one: CBS’ musical comedy (red flag) Viva Laughlin premiered October 22, 2007.  The series took place in a casino in Laughlin, Nevada.  Your guess is as good as mine why a musical set in a Nevada casino was cancelled so soon.  It sounds like such a solid idea(not).  It was cancelled the day after it premiered.  I’m guessing they gave this weak show the greenlight based on the big name behind it: it was produced by Hugh Jackman..

You have your unfortunate circumstances shows.  One such show was Melba.  Why was it under unfortunate circumstances? This CBS sitcom starring Melba Moore as a single mother who runs a New York information bureau had its series premiere on the day of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.  I remember this was covered in one of Mo Rocca’s Mobituaries podcast episodes.  His consensus, and this would seem obvious, is that America was not ready to laugh in that period of time.  The five remaining episodes did air that summer.

Did you know Eagle Glenn Fry starred in a private detective show? It’s ok if you didn’t.  Despite being heavily promoted during the World Series of 1993, South of Sunset was cancelled because of bad rating as well as preemption in the west coast because of wildfires in Malibu.  The remaining five episodes aired on VH1 a year later.  You might be able to find some of these on streaming services if you want.  Netflix has everything, doesn’t it?