TV Shows Cancelled For Dumb Reasons

YOUNG JUSTICE

EP Greg Weisman has dismissed the "Internet myth" that the original incarnation of the superhero cartoon got cancelled because too many girls watched it, and girls don't buy the right kinds of toys. But moving merch was a major cause of its cancellation. Weisman has cited an overall "lack of toy sales, which is where the money for our budget came from."

VERONICA MARS

The sassy sleuthing drama was delivering its best numbers ever in Season 3 — ranking ninth out of The CW's 13 scripted series, in the post-Gilmore Girls slot on Tuesday nights. So what was its reward? It got yanked at midseason to make room for... Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll.

Veronica Mars eventually returned with its final five episodes of the season, only to have The CW announce it would not be back in the fall. Weeks later, Rob Thomas affirmed, "Veronica Mars is officially dead," adding quite presciently: "At least in TV-show form."

UNDERGROUND

What is a low-profile network to do when it cultivates an acclaimed drama that lands it firmly on the basic cable map? Cut it loose, apparently, due to a new programming philosophy dictated by bean counters.

"As WGN America evolves and broadens the scope and scale of its portfolio of series... resources will be reallocated" away from original programming, the network explained in a statement. Or as Tribune Media President Peter Kern more plainly put it, "Despite Underground being a terrific and important series, it no longer fits with our new direction."

PROFIT

Arriving years before the likes of Tony Soprano, Don Draper and Walter White, this Adrian Pasdar-led drama was literally ahead of its time — and in turn paid dearly for it. Everyone from pearl clutchers in the Bible Belt to Jim Profit-like business executives aired their grievances, saying the title character (an abused child turned sociopath, oft dubbed "Satan in a suit") was too amoral, and that he gave corporate America a bad name.

Despite positive reviews from actual critics, Profit was pulled by Fox after five of its nine produced episodes saw the light of day. (But maybe a revival is on the horizon?)

LONGMIRE

This Robert Taylor-led Western debuted in June 2012 as A&E's No. 1 series premiere of all-time, drawing 4.1 million total viewers. And by Season 3, it was still averaging 3.7 million viewers. The problem was the 0.6 demo rating it drew in Season 3, marking a drop of 33 percent from its sophomore finale — meaning, its sizable audience was old (average age 61) and not getting a lick younger. "We sell the shows to advertisers based on the demographics of 18-49 and 25-54, and the audience just wasn't there," A&E SVP Dan Silberman said at the time.

Luckily for fans, Netflix saw the numbers differently and picked up the oater for another three seasons.

HAPPY ENDINGS

If we were playing Jeopardy, the question for the above would be: "What did ABC not get by canceling this sitcom?" Asked why he cut Happy Endings after three seasons, then-ABC boss Paul Lee said that while it was "on brand" for the network, "it was just too narrow" — meaning, not appealing to a large enough audience. That is a legit POV, to be sure... except that Lee went on to say of his freshman pick-ups, "I think Super Fun Night and Mixology are broader shows that will bring in a wider audience." Um, those two comedies respectively lasted 17 and 13 episodes.

FREAKS AND GEEKS

Another victim of scheduling, this NBC comedy was launched in fall 1999 on a Saturday night, when its target audience was likely at the movies or, you know, studying. From there, its run was interrupted at least four times over five months, and sometimes for weeks at a time.

But perhaps most damning, NBC execs simply didn't "get" the premise and tried hard to change what made it special. As EP Judd Apatow and consulting producer Jake Kasdan have revealed in interviews, they regularly clashed with the network regarding the "lack of victories" enjoyed by its title characters, whom NBC execs also wished could be more "cool."

FIREFLY

Make no mistake, this Joss Whedon joint didn't put up good numbers, ranking as it did 98th in the Nielsens. But the why behind its woeful audience has over the years commanded much side-eye.

For one, it was launched on Friday nights. There's also the infamous fact that instead of opening with the pilot, Fox aired the second episode first. The pilot was in turn aired last, and three episodes were left on the shelf at the time it was cancelled.

EVERWOOD

One family drama's success was literally another family drama's failure when The WB decided to un-cancel 7th Heaven — which had days earlier aired a well-promoted "series finale" — and instead boot the Browns, as the netlet merged with UPN to become The CW.

"We're launching a new network, we wanted to have the best shot we could," CW boss Dawn Ostroff told Michael Ausiello at the time. "Not only for the new network, but also for Runaway, which is a family drama." (By the way, that Runaway aired three times before getting yanked. #Irony)

DEADWOOD

Letting its options for the cast expire as Season 3 drew to a close, and wanting Deadwood creator David Milch to focus his attentions on his next offering, John From Cincinnati, HBO brass invited the auteur to wrap his Western with a six-episode final season. Milch, though, wanted the usual 12. The parties found themselves at an impasse until June 2006, when Milch
agreed to deliver proper Deadwood closure via a pair of two-hour TV movies, which 13 years later wound up being the 110-minute finale airing May 31.

ANGEL

Ratings for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer offshoot had actually trended up in Season 5, so series creator Joss Whedon aimed to head off at the pass what had become a typical, anxiety-creating, mid-May renewal decision by leaning on The WB CEO Jordan Levin in February of 2004. But pressed for an early decision, Levin opted against a Season 6.

"I guarantee that, if we waited as we normally did, by the time May had come around they would have picked up Angel," EP David Fury said in a September 2004 interview, echoing what WB chairman Garth Ancier said months prior: "The mistake that was made ... was that we didn't wait until May, we just made the decision early based upon their request."

BATMAN

Holy screw-up! In the wake of being cancelled by ABC after three seasons, the super-campy crimefighter series was on the verge of being rescued by NBC... until it was discovered that the sets had already been destroyed! (Biff! Pow! indeed.) Not wanting to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild, the Peacock passed.

CLONE HIGH

When a humor piece in the February 2003 issue of Maxim drew fire for depicting Mahatma Gandhi as being pummeled as part of a "workout," people got to Googling... and in turn stumbled upon the fact that this MTV cartoon not only existed, but presented Gandhi's clone as a hyperactive teenage slacker.

Even worse, the controversy was redirected toward MTV just as its execs were touring India, where business for the cabler was booming. Amid threats of having its broadcasting license revoked in that country, MTV expelled the animated series from its lineup.

ELLEN

Yep, she's gay. And yep, it wound up having an impact on her sitcom's fate. After Ellen DeGeneres came out on the cover of Time magazine, and then had her small-screen alter ego do same toward the end of Season 4, ratings for the ABC sitcom fell 26 percent, dropping it from No. 30 to No. 42 in the rankings.

Creatively, the comedy garnered criticism — including from GLAAD media director Chaz Bono — for adopting way too serious a tone, to a degree that it disenfranchised even LGBT viewers. ABC cancelled Ellen in May 1998, after five seasons.

CBS' 'RURAL PURGE'

Green Acres was not the place to be when CBS — having been derisively dubbed the "Country Broadcasting System" and "Hillbilly Network" — cancelled the Eddie Albert/Eva Gabor charmer, as well as anything akin to it. The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry R.F.D., The Jim Nabors Hour, Hee-Haw and Hogan's Heroes were among the similar shows sent to the showers. Or as Pat Buttram, who played Green Acres' Mr. Haney, famously put it: "It was the year CBS killed everything with a tree in it."

POLICE SQUAD!

If you know anything about absurd TV cancelations, surely you have heard why this comedy from the Airplane! guys met a quick demise. (And yes, I did just call you Shirley.) As then-ABC entertainment president Tony Thomopoulos explained in March 1982, Police Squad! — loaded as it was with sight gags* — was canceled because "the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it."

* Did you notice the signage behind Frank in the photo here?

READING RAINBOW

Despite being, as host LeVar Burton has put it, "the most used television resource in our nation's classroom," this PBS series was cancelled in 2009 due to No Child Left Behind, a government policy that stressed teaching the rudiments of reading versus fostering a love of reading. "PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read," John Grant, content chief at the show's home station in Buffalo, noted at the time, "but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do."