15 TV Shows That Started And Ended Their Runs During Stranger Things

Looking back, July 15, 2016, was a major day in television history. What was so significant about that otherwise insignificant Friday? It was the day that "Stranger Things" dropped its first eight episodes on Netflix, launching an iconic run that concludes on December 31, both on streaming and with theatrical screenings. 

Up to that point, even the most popular Netflix shows ("House of Cards," "Orange Is The New Black") felt sorta niche; "Stranger Things" was different. After quietly releasing on the streamer and steadily building word-of-mouth buzz over the course of weeks, the show became an indisputable mainstream hit, sustaining its popularity across all subsequent seasons.

That said, "Stranger Things" fans have had to be patient many times during its run. In nearly a decade, we've gotten only five seasons and 42 episodes, and more than three years (!) passed between the releases of Season 4 and Season 5. Since the show's debut in 2016, its precocious preteens have grown up, several beloved characters have kicked the bucket, and a lot of other popular TV shows have come and gone entirely. You might be surprised — we certainly were! — at which ones completed their entire lifespans before "Stranger Things" ran its course. Keep scrolling to see 15 series that started and ended while Stranger Things has been on the air.

Bill Hader was a standout on "Saturday Night Live" for eight seasons from 2005 to 2013; like many legendary comedians before him, he left his job working "live from New York" for a new chapter of his career on the West Coast. After some voiceover work and credits in films like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Trainwreck," Hader found a starring vehicle in the HBO dark comedy "Barry."

The series starred Hader as burnt-out hitman Barry Berkman, who found renewal in pursuing an acting career in California. Sounds like a premise more suited to an "SNL" sketch, but thanks to Hader's lead performance, "Barry" managed to last four seasons and 32 episodes, ending its run on May 28, 2023. But it all started on March 25, 2018 — two years after the release dates of "Stranger Things" Season 1 and Season 2.

"Ozark" tells the ballad of Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman), who has been cooking the books for a cartel, and now the only way to save his wife (Laura Linney) and family from horrific deaths is to launder money in the most unlikely place imaginable: a summer resort community in the Ozark mountains of rural Missouri. We haven't done the math, but we estimate 96.7% of TV shows take place on the coasts and/or Chicago, so it was refreshing when Netflix released "Ozark" (though the characters did come from Chicago).

The mountainous setting introduces Marty to a colorful cast of characters, most notably the borderline brilliant Ruth Langmore in a star-making performance from Julia Garner, who perfects a "Missourah" twang despite hailing from New York. With four seasons and 44 episodes, the Byrde family's misadventures premiered on July 21, 2017 — a year after "Stranger Things" Season 1, and a few months before Season 2 — before concluding in heartbreaking fashion on April 29, 2022.

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" opened in theaters on December 16, 2016, about five months after the "Summer of 'Stranger Things'" in July on Netflix. "Rogue One" was a prequel to the original "Star Wars" trilogy that introduced us to the character of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), an Alliance Intelligence officer-turned-Rebel leader who helps lead a mission to retrieve plans for the Empire's Death Star. While it's an exaggeration to say that a lot of fans were dying to know Andor's backstory, one of them was Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote the screenplay for "Rogue One" and had a vision for a TV show exploring the pivotal time period between "Star Wars" Episodes III and IV.

With Disney+ ravenous for content, Gilroy got his wish with "Andor." Cynical skeptics were soon converted, as "Andor" earned its place in the canon and became one of the most praised "Star Wars" stories since the Disney acquisition. This is especially impressive, given it only went to two seasons and 24 episodes. Despite a three-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2, "Andor" started and completed its run from 2022 to 2025.

"The Karate Kid" kicked its way onto screens in 1984, where it primarily stayed for six films, minus an animated series that ran for one season in 1989. But with streamers' insatiable appetite for new content, and Hollywood's penchant for repurposing old IP, a new "Karate Kid" TV show was born. "Cobra Kai" wasn't a reboot or remake, but a sequel, taking place 34 years after the events of the 1984 film. For the two or three "Karate Kid" fans who actually wondered what happened to bad guy Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), "Cobra Kai" provided the answer: He was a down-and-out dude who reopened the Cobra Kai dojo.

While it sounds pretty thin for a TV show, "Cobra Kai" defied the odds, generating strong reviews from both critics and fans with six well-received seasons. The first two seasons of "Cobra Kai" were released on YouTube Red/YouTube Premium in 2018, before making the move to Netflix, where it finished its improbable run in February 2025 — starting two years after "Stranger Things" Season 1, and ending nine months before Season 5.

"Genius" gets thrown around a lot when discussing the multi-talented, multi-hyphenate Donald Glover — partly for the R&B-inspired funk of his former musical moniker, Childish Gambino, and partly because of his work as the star, creator, and lead creative force of "Atlanta." The FX series starred Glover as Earnest "Earn" Marks, who managed his cousin Alfred Miles' (Brian Tyree Henry) career as an up-and-coming Atlanta rapper. Along the way, the talented Miles and the in-over-his-head Earn got caught up in the outrageous Atlanta rap scene.

The dramedy could be poignant one moment and hysterical the next, highlighted by all-time great episodes like "Woods" and "Teddy Perkins" (with Glover unrecognizable as a Michael Jackson-like recluse). It was, at times, simply genius. Wherever Glover and his castmates' careers go next, they can always be proud of the artistic and commercial achievement of "Atlanta". Alas, "Atlanta" took its time, releasing just four seasons and 41 episodes in six years, starting in September 2016 and ending in November 2022.

Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning English monarch, with a reign that lasted just shy of 71 years, from February 6, 1952, to September 8, 2022. While it may seem like "Stranger Things" has been going on for that long, we can confirm that it hasn't. However, "Stranger Things" did manage to start before and end after Netflix's show about Elizabeth II, "The Crown." 

Based on a play by showrunner Peter Morgan, "The Crown" was a lavish period drama chronicling Queen Elizabeth II's life, from her younger days in the 1940s all the way to modern times. Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton each took turns playing the British monarch at different stages of her life, while leading an epic cast of Hollywood heavyweights playing some of history's biggest figures. "The Crown" had a six-season run of 60 episodes, which concluded on December 14, 2023. But the show began its royal lineage on November 4, 2016, in the shadow of the "Summer of 'Stranger Things'" a few months before.

"Succession" joined the hallowed ranks of "The Sopranos," "The Wire," and "Game of Thrones" as the juicy HBO show everybody had to watch. "Succession" may not have been as bloody and violent as its forebears, but it more than made up for that with cruel and cutting corporate chicanery that made the cutthroat world of big media look just as vicious as the suburban New Jersey mafia, urban Baltimore, or Westeros.

"Succession" told the tale of the Roy family, whose aging patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) had no plans to let go of the international media conglomerate the family controlled, but whose four children would stop at just about nothing to wrest it from him and each other. Created by Jesse Armstrong, "Succession" boasted a trophy cabinet to rival any show, adding more gold to HBO's packed mantel. Perhaps most impressive is that it managed all this in relatively quick, ahem, succession: The series premiered on June 3, 2018, and concluded its remarkable run four seasons, five years, and 39 episodes later on May 28, 2023.

Hard to believe, but there was a time when Taylor Sheridan didn't dominate scripted television. That time was before June 20, 2018, the date that "Yellowstone" premiered on Paramount Network. Despite starring film vet Kevin Costner, "Yellowstone" wasn't an instant smash, but soon developed an audience that appreciated Sheridan's sui generis style. Before long, "Yellowstone" became more than a big hit; it became a bonafide, mainstream, pop cultural milestone right up there with "Stranger Things" as one of only a few shows in the past 10 years to truly change TV.

"Yellowstone" seemed to open Hollywood's eyes to the massive TV-viewing audience that lived in "flyover country" and wanted stories that spoke to them. A lot of drama happened on "Yellowstone," both on-screen and off, but the seminal show ended its run on December 15, 2024, after five seasons and 53 episodes. Meanwhile, Sheridan has stayed busy with a lot of other hit shows: "Mayor of Kingstown," "Tulsa King," "1883," "1923," "Landman," and "Lioness," so far.

When "Stranger Things" started on Netflix in 2016, it became the biggest hit the streamer had to date. But thanks to the subscribers it helped attract, numerous Netflix films and shows have followed in its wake. So you may think that a season of "Stranger Things" was the biggest hit in Netflix's history... but you'd be mistaken. While Season 4 of "Stranger Things" in 2022 was the series' most successful with 140 million views, it's dwarfed by the streamer's No. 1 hit: Season 1 of "Squid Game," which managed a massive 265 million viewing hours — proving that despite the South Korean show's language barrier, it told a story that translated with audiences worldwide.

Though "Squid Game" initially seemed to be a one-and-done series, Netflix ultimately brought it back for Seasons 2 and 3; it officially wrapped its run on June 27, 2025.

What "Stranger Things" was to Netflix, "The Mandalorian" was to Disney+. Sure, Netflix had been streaming shows for four years before "Stranger Things," starting with "Lilyhammer" in 2012, so it wasn't exactly a "launch title." Still, every other Netflix show before "Stranger Things" seemed small in comparison after the quirky, 80s-set sci-fi series dominated the cultural landscape. In the same way, "The Mandalorian" signaled that Disney+ was a major player on streaming right out of the gate when it premiered on November 12, 2019. 

With its charismatic bounty hunter hero Mando/Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), and especially the absolutely adorable "Baby Yoda" named Grogu, "The Mandalorian" conquered the pop culture landscape and established itself as the feather in Disney's cap (or should we say "Mouse Hat"?). No, the second and third seasons didn't quite live up to the promise of the original, but "The Mandalorian" was still a big hit when it concluded its three-season, 24-episode run on April 19, 2023. The story will now continue on the big screen with "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu," releasing May 22, 2026.

"The Handmaid's Tale" is a bestselling novel by Margaret Atwood, and is set in a dystopian reality set presumably around the same time the novel was published: 1985. Meanwhile, "Stranger Things" is set in the mid-1980s, as well, so clearly there was something very sci-fi about the decade. But while "Stranger Things" looks back on the era with fondness (and demonic monsters... lots of demonic monsters), "The Handmaid's Tale" imagines a world of totalitarians hellbent on treating women as property of the state, called "Handmaids," and using them to repopulate the planet in the midst of plunging birthrates.

Hulu's series adaptation starred Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne, who was renamed Offred after she became Handmaid to Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife, Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski). "The Handmaid's Tale" premiered on April 26, 2017, and quickly struck a chord with audiences during its six seasons and 66 episodes, concluding its run on May 27, 2025. While the dystopian show debuted one year after Season 1 of "Stranger Things" — and, like "Stranger Things," occasionally put multiple years between its seasons — it ultimately ended about six months before "Stranger Things" returned for its own swan song.

There has been no shortage of TV shows starring Superman throughout the Man of Steel's nearly 90-year reign atop the pop culture landscape. From the proud and patriotic "The Adventures of Superman" in the 1950s, to the sexy and smart "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," the Big, Blue Boy Scout has always soared in whatever era he's in. So what kind of Superman did we get in the 2020s? A devoted dad and supportive husband.

The CW's "Superman & Lois" reimagined the Superman mythos by having our hero (Tyler Hoechlin) move back to Smallville, where he and wife Lois Lane (Bitsie Tulloch) raise twin boys. So, "Man of Steel" meets "Friday Night Lights." While never a ratings juggernaut, "Superman & Lois" managed to fly off with four seasons and 53 episodes before its cancellation. The show moved faster than a speeding bullet, too, going up, up, and away with its series premiere on February 23, 2021, before finally just going away, period, three years later on December 2, 2024.

"The Big Bang Theory" was one of the most popular sitcoms of its time, or any time, during its 12-season, 259-episode run from 2007 to 2019. While the series gave us many beloved characters, none were as memorable as Jim Parsons' scene-stealing Sheldon Cooper, a singular, sarcastic genius with an IQ of 187, and 0.0 social skills. What could be more funny than a man-boy spouting snide one-liners? A boy genius doing the same thing!

While "The Big Bang Theory" was still in the midst of its run, CBS gave us "Young Sheldon," a prequel about the child prodigy, his family, and his boyhood growing up in East Texas. Despite switching from the traditional sitcom production of "The Big Bang Theory" to a more modern single-camera storytelling style, "Young Sheldon" was a massive hit. It premiered September 25, 2017, and ran for 141 episodes, before ending its seventh and final season on May 16, 2024.

Michael Crichton adaptations make a mint at the box office — you may have heard of a little franchise called "Jurassic Park"? So, with "Game of Thrones" winding down, HBO figured Crichton's 1973 sci-fi/western "Westworld" would be a great basis for its next franchise show, especially with hitmakers J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan at the helm.

"Westworld" premiered on October 2, 2016, about three months after "Stranger Things" launched that summer. The show started strong with just shy of two million viewers, but never managed to dominate the cultural conversation like its HBO forebears, or "Stranger Things" for that matter. Ratings declined during each season, while production costs stayed sky high. Meanwhile, fan enthusiasm dwindled thanks to confusing plots, as well as two-year gaps between seasons. It was all too much, so HBO pulled the plug on its cowboy robot show, ending its run on August 14, 2022, with four seasons and 36 episodes.

For six seasons and 106 episodes, NBC's "This Is Us" told the story of the Pearson family over the course of several decades. Much of the show took place in current times, following the lives of the "Big Three" — siblings Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz), and Randall (Sterling K. Brown). But a lot of the show also followed the siblings' childhoods in Pittsburgh, growing up as the children of Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) in the 1980s (the same decade that "Stranger Things" takes place). While some episodes stayed in one time period, others went back and forth between different eras of the family.

"This Is Us" even got more ambitious in its storytelling with "flash forward" episodes that went to the not-too-distant future, while others showed the Pearson family's ancestry throughout the decades, all the way back to the early 1900s with the Pearson patriarch's arrival to America. It was a lot of story, but "This Is Us" made it work, winning raves from critics and the devotion of its passionate fanbase from its premiere on September 20, 2016, until its finale on May 24, 2022.