There is nothing worse than getting involved in a TV show only to have it yanked away by heartless studio executives who are only worried about their bottom line. Oh wait, yes there is: to have a TV show end on a cliffhanger before being canceled. Luckily, in this day and age of social media, streaming networks, Kickstarter, and a love of nostalgia, we rarely have these problems anymore, what with reboots / mini-series / movies for shows like Full House, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, The X-Files, 24, and Prison Break. The new economics of television mean that it is okay to only do six or eight hours of television, a much easier number to fit into actors’ schedules and perhaps meaning less canceled TV shows in the future.
But back in the day, these weren’t options. Every once in a while, there would be a made-for-TV movie to wrap things up (for example, ALF), but these often came after public interest had waned, and production values were often terrible.
We have culled together a list of 30 canceled TV shows which left us with lots of story threads just dangling. One of them even ended with the words “To be continued…,” which is damn near criminal. Which cliffhangers were most painful for you?
TV Cliffhangers
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Soap (1977-1981)
"Soap" was a primetime half-hour comedy that was meant to parody daytime soap operas. Often considered one of the best television shows in history, at the time it was quite controversial due to its frank representation of homosexuality, infidelity, race, and other sensitive topics. A fifth season was planned for the series, but it was canceled suddenly, after the fourth season finale. ABC claimed it was due to low ratings, but it was really due to advertisers pulling out. Among the cliffhangers, one character was threatening to kill his son and wife; another character was about to be executed by a Communist firing squad; and another character was being ambushed by thugs.
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Mork & Mindy (1978-1982)
The Robin Williams classic ended with Mork and Mindy getting married, the world discovering that Mork was an alien, Mindy's home getting destroyed, and the pair getting lost in a time vortex.
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Friday the 13th: The Series (1987-1990)
Cancelation came unexpectedly for this popular syndicated series, which had no relation to the slasher films of the same name. The series was caught up in the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s and 1990s, and advertisers pulled out of the show after church groups promised to boycott their brands. Producers were told of the cancelation just before production on the last few episodes of the season. They didn't have a chance to write a big finale, but they did blow their budget (and then some) on a lush, time-traveling finale. (Shameless plug: you can read more details on the finale of the series in my book, Curious Goods: Behind the Scenes of Friday the 13th: The Series).
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Forever Knight (1992-1996)
This popular cult series was about an 800-year-old vampire, Nick Knight, who is a modern-day cop in an attempt to make up for his violent, vampire ways. Nick is caught between worlds when the vampires who made him show up and try to bring him back to the, ahem, dark side. The series ends with a fade to black during a ritual which may let Nick recapture his humanity, leaving people to wonder if Nick turned his human companion, Natalie, into a vampire, let her die, or died himself.
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Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997)
The fourth season of "Lois & Clark" featured the titular pair finally getting married. In what turned out to be the series finale, the couple found a Kryptonian baby left for them. ABC initially planned a fifth season, but pulled out when ratings for the show continued to deteriorate.
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VR.5 (1995)
This short-lived sci-fi series was developed to cash in on the popularity of "The X-Files." Sydney comes from a family of scientists, working on a virtual reality project. Sydney is a computer hobbyist who accidentally discovers she can enter an "advanced type of virtual reality." Unsurprisingly, the series only lasted ten episodes (though thirteen were shot) mainly due to the huge budget and a viewership that wasn't even close to that of "The X-Files." In the last episode, Sydney discovers a new virtual reality realm, VR.7, which has trapped her mother and the sister who was supposed to have died in childhood. Sydney is left in a coma.
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Space: Above and Beyond (1995-1996)
Another Fox attempt to cash in on "The X-Files" sci-fi explosion, "Space: Above and Beyond" came from a pair of "X-Files" writer/producers, but even still, it didn't make it past its first season. The show followed space wars between humans and aliens as the humans attempt to colonize other planets. Despite the fact that producers knew the show was likely to be canceled, they still left a few story threads open, just in case. Most of the cast was either killed or missing in action, but Earth was left in a "stronger strategic position." But there was a mysterious explosion that viewers never got an explanation for.
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NewsRadio (1995-1999)
The NBC sitcom about the employees at a New York AM news station ended on a tragic note. The network canceled the show in May 1998, after the fourth-season finale. Two weeks later, they reversed their decision and picked up a fifth season. Ten days after the renewal, series star Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife. This cast an understandable pall across the season, both for the series' producers and audiences. At the end of the season, the station owner bought a new radio station in a small town in New Hampshire, with the hopes of moving the show setting and starting anew. But by then it was too late, and the series was canceled.
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Sliders (1995-2000)
I loved "Sliders," but by the third season, the show was so terrible I stopped watching. Reading some recaps, I now know why (a combination of network interference and a lack of money). It was probably these factors which led Sci-Fi Channel (which picked up the series for season four and five after FOX canceled it) to cancel the show without giving it a proper ending. As it stands, Rembrandt injects himself with a virus that is lethal only to Kromaggs (the series' "big bads") and slides to Earth Prime in the hopes of wiping out the Kromaggs and regaining control of their Earth. Whether or not he succeeds is never explained, but I think by that point in the series, no one really cared.
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Popular (1999-2001)
The CW's teen dramedy was supposed to be a spoof on "Beverly Hills, 90210" and its ilk, which meant that every season was expected to end on a huge cliffhanger that would be resolved at the start of the new season. Except, of course, when it was canceled after two seasons. Amongst the dangling threads: who Harrison took to prom; if Josh and Lily consummated their marriage; and what happened after Nicole ran over Brooke with her car.
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Dark Angel (2000-2002)
James Cameron's sci-fi series was about a genetically enhanced super-soldier who escapes the government facility where she was born and tries to carve out a normal life for herself in a post-apocalyptic world, while she searches for her fellow super-soldiers. The government is searching for their top-secret "toys," and find hundreds of them hiding in an abandoned section of what was once Seattle. The series ends with the military preparing to invade, and the super-soldiers preparing to stand their ground. Several novels were written following the show's cancelation, which fleshed out the mythology that would have been explored in a third season.
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John Doe (2002-2003)
A man wakes up on an island off the coast of Seattle, with no knowledge of who he is - but he seems to have all of human knowledge in his brain. The show was canceled after only one season, leaving John Doe's real identity forever a mystery.
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The Dead Zone (2002-2007)
Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, Johnny wakes from a coma with the ability to see into the future when he touches people or objects. Of course, he uses this new talent to solve crime, but he also has to deal with intermittent visions of an apocalyptic future. The season six finale reveals that Johnny's father is still alive; the suggestion that the armageddon Johnny has visions of was at least partially caused by him; and the revelation that Johnny's son may have inherited his father's gift. A seventh season was expected, but canceled due to low ratings and a high production cost.
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Carnivale (2003-2005)
This one still haunts me to this day. Set in the Dustbowl during the Great Depression, "Carnivale" followed two parallel storylines: one about a traveling carnival, and one about a traveling evangelist preacher and his sister. The two storylines merged very, very slowly until they met in season two. In a very general sense, the show was a battle between good and evil. Brother Justin eventually came into his evil power at the close of season two, and is seemingly killed by healer Ben Hawkins. But Sophie, the fortune teller who was kidnapped by Brother Justin, discovers that Justin is her biological father. That seems to turn her evil, and as the episode ends, she lays hands on Brother Justin where he fell, in a cornfield, and all the corn withers and dies... The series was originally planned as three "books," each "book" lasting two seasons. At the end of season two, HBO couldn't make the commitment to another two seasons, so it was canceled. Rumored movies never came to fruition.
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Las Vegas (2003-2008)
The night-time soap about the people who ran a fictional Las Vegas casino was canceled abruptly following its fifth season. In the series finale, pregnant Delinda starts bleeding. It was rumored that Delinda and her husband Danny would have a cameo on "Knight Rider" to reveal the outcome of the jeopardized pregnancy, but that show was canceled, too. A bigger cliffhanger was when, during the funeral for casino owner A.J. Cooper, who died in a plane crash, Cooper actually strolls in and reveals he isn't dead.
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Deadwood (2004-2006)
HBO was careful to say that they didn't "cancel" "Deadwood." At the end of season three, the cabler opted not to pick up the actors' contracts. They may as well have said that the show was canceled. While it didn't end with as big a cliffhanger as some of the other shows on this list, it was an abrupt finale that disappointed fans, who felt it deserved a proper send-off. There have been rumors that series creator David Milch is working on a "Deadwood" movie for HBO. The most recent rumor is dated 2016, but we have been hearing this for a decade, so I am not holding my breath.
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The 4400 (2004-2007)
The show is about 4400 people who have gone missing at various times since 1938, who are mysteriously returned in a bright white light. Some have superpowers, which is caused by a neurotransmitter that has been implanted on the disappeared and is controlled by the government using a drug called Promicin. Promicin gets loose, infecting Seattle, with a 50/50 chance of survival. A new world order threatens to rise, but the show was canceled before viewers got to see if that happened.
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Reunion (2005-2006)
This little-remembered FOX series was canceled after only nine episodes. A detective is investigating the murder of a woman at her twenty-year high school reunion. Each episode was supposed to represent flashbacks to a year in the six friends' lives, starting with their high school graduation in 1986. The identity of the victim was not revealed until episode five, and the killer was to be revealed in the season finale, but the series never made it that far.
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Invasion (2005-2006)
Meant as a companion piece to "Lost," "Invasion" had an Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel, about aliens who invade Earth via a hurricane and take over citizens' bodies. Expecting a second season because of good reviews and a rabid fanbase, the producers readied a "cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers." Unfortunately, it was the cliffhanger to end the series.
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My Name is Earl (2005-2009)
Earl sets about to fix his karma by righting his previous wrongs. NBC should add "Canceling My Name is Earl" onto their karma list. The network assured creator Greg Garcia that they would have a fifth season, and that it would be safe to tag the season four finale with a "To be continued" card. Shortly after season four wrapped, the series was canceled. Fans never got to see if Earl finished his list, or who Earl Jr.'s biological father was.
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Kyle XY (2006-2009)
This beloved ABC Family series, about a teenage boy found in the forest, with no bellybutton and no more knowledge than a baby, was thought to be a lock for a fourth season, but cancelation came as season three was wrapping up, leaving no time for producers to write a proper series finale. Kyle's biological father is revealed, but the fallout was intended to be addressed in season four.
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Reaper (2007-2009)
On his 21st birthday, Sam discovers that his parents made a deal with the devil to make dad healthy. In return, they promised the devil their firstborn's soul. Sam must now be a "reaper" for the devil, tracking down escaped souls and returning them to Hell. Cancelation came near the end of the second season, which meant that viewers didn't know what happened to Andi's soul (she lost it to the devil), or what the mysterious message from "up above" was.
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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-2009)
Set after "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," The Sarah Connor Chronicles" only got two seasons before it was canceled, due to costs and difficulties with the rights to the characters. Unfortunately, the finale of TSCC sees John Connor jump into a future that has never heard of him, so as it stands, TSCC essentially undid the entire Terminator franchise. Terminator Genisys, the 2015 film, gave something else for Terminator fans to focus their disappointment on.
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FlashForward (2009-2010)
The single-season sci-fi series was about a mysterious worldwide event where everyone in the world lost consciousness for just over two minutes, during which time they each saw a glimpse of their lives six months in the future. The show eventually caught up with the "FlashForward," but then everyone got a new FlashForward, twenty years in the future. Then the show was canceled.
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Terriers (2010)
The FX series had nothing to do with dogs. Instead, it followed Hank, an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic who teams with Britt, his best friend, a former criminal to form an unlicensed private investigation business. It only lasted one season, and ended with Hank and Britt at a crossroads, literally: does Hank deliver Britt to prison, or do the two make a run for the border?
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Alphas (2011-2012)
This Syfy series only ran for two seasons, and left with a cliffhanger big enough to get a reference on CBS's "Big Bang Theory." People with superhuman abilities, "Alphas," use their skills to stop other Alphas from committing crimes. The series ended with the show's "big bad" setting off a photostimulator bomb in a train station, leaving everyone unconscious.
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The River (2012)
The first television venture from "Paranormal Activity" director Oren Peli followed Dr. Emmet Cole, a famous explorer who went off into uncharted parts of the Amazon - and was never seen again. Six months after his disappearance, his emergency beacon goes off, sending his wife on a reckless hunt to save him. And of course, a documentary crew is there to capture it all. It was an expensive show, shot entirely on location in Puerto Rico, so after an abbreviated eight-episode season, ABC canned the show. We never got to find out what "The Source" is, but we did get to see that the river changes its shape to keep visitors there. But why?
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Revolution (2012-2014)
NBC's post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama was set in the near-future, 15 years after a mysterious event caused all electricity on Earth to stop functioning permanently. The nanotech responsible for ending electricity "took over," and caused people to have visions telling them to go to Bradbury, Idaho. The finale showed people walking into Bradbury, with power burning brightly. This was not the planned finale, as the show was canceled, but in 2015, DC Comics released a four-part digital comic book to wrap up the story.
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Constantine (2014-2015)
After a terrible pilot, "Constantine" got better and better over the span of its 13 episodes. Unfortunately, that pilot was enough to seal the show's fate. Too bad, because by the last episode, Manny the angel, who "watched over" John Constantine, finally was given something to do (besides being a pain in the ass): reveal that he has been working against Constantine this whole time. Luckily, Constantine lives on in the Hellblazer comic books.
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Agent Carter (2015-2016)
"Agent Carter" was the far superior Marvel property on ABC, and while it was never "officially" canceled, ratings in season two were dreadful, and Agent Carter herself, Hayley Atwell, took a lead role on another ABC drama, "Conviction." So there are no plans for a third season in the near future, which is a pity, because when we last saw Jack, he was bleeding to death after being shot by a mystery man who also stole a heavily-redacted personnel file on Carter.
