Brewster Rockit by Tim Rickard for August 21, 2023

No amounts of big budgets can saves terrible writings terrible directions and terrible actings.

Stuff I don’t like runs for 14 seasons. Stuff I do like almost never get past 4 or 5 – IF they even get a second season

That happened with Turn On back in 1969. It was cancelled on its premiere night halfway through.

I can’t recall the name of the show… It was a Laugh-in knock-off while Laugh-in was still on the air. First episode had Tim Conway as the guest star. It was so dreadful I was hoping it would be cancelled at the commercial break. No second episode aired. When sponsors aren’t willing to pay for ads the show must not go on.

There needs to be more than one episode to constitute a series.

The last show I loved to watch ran 6 seasons, and it was beginning to show episodes that were just meh in quality Best to leave while you’re on top.

Nowadays some services cancel shows after two “seasons” not because viewership goes down, but to avoid paying writers and actors their residuals.

Back in the ’90’s, the Sci Fi channel advertised running Max Headroom reruns. They aired the first epidode…..then pulled the plug on it, never showing another one. Not enough horror in it, I guess.

Anyone recall the 1993 sci fi show “Space Rangers”? Probably not; it was cancelled after only 6 episodes.

“Firefly” is the perfect example of premature cancellation.

A lot of what is out there should have been cancelled before they were filmed.

Well, though the Universe loved Tim Conway, perhaps it was a bit too soon to go with SON Of RANGO.

I knew that show “Gunsmoke” was a flash in the pan.

Ah, Seinfeld must have been very cheap to make. And Everybody Loves What’s-his-name…

Reminded of a neighbor that liked to say in a voice which over stated his hillbilly roots ….

“The wuns ye want ya kan’t git. The wuns ya don’t want they falls fer ye”

Is Brewster Rockit going to be Canceled???

That actually happened once! I don’t remember the name of the show, but it was a really terrible Laugh In knock off, so was probably in the 60s. They went to commercial and never came back. Nor should they have, it was that bad.

None of that is new. And cancellation half-way through the first episode has been done.

That’s why the stuff that sticks around has low overhead to produce. Reality TV stuff with no script writers and no special effects. Very dull stuff.

Cue the comments on Firefly.

They discovered people were all talking over the first half. :)

Actually, one show around 1970 was canceled halfway through the first episode. “Turn On” was so bad that most of the affiliates switched to reruns halfway through the premiere.

But the longer you think about how it’s all about the money, the more you wonder why you watch at alll…

search for “Turn On” on YouTube. It was cancelled before the first episode finished airing. A strange show for sure, even for the sixties.

And now the strikes are causing shows to be postponed and/or cancelled. Look for another round of “Reality Programming” coming to a network near you soon.

We must admit that for some it is a mercy killing

I used to think the main criterion for cancelling a show was that I had to like it!

The most fleeting show I ever watched, not counting those that are brief by design like “Zootopia+,” was a ’90s program called “The Downer Channel.” Six episodes, and I gave up midway through the first.

The shows with the highest ratings today would be canceled in the 1970s for being too low.

It’s rare, but it has happened before to where shows were cancelled after only the first episode.

A few shows have also been cancelled during the broadcast of the first episode due to obscene content or other issues.

Several announced and greenlit shows were cancelled before they even aired an episode, usually due to controversies that made broadcast unwise at the moment.

This actually happened. “Turn-On” was shown for one episode on ABC on Feb. 5, 1969. It was cancelled, and some stations pulled it off the air, before the first episode was even finished. I’m probably one of the few people who watched the whole episode, and I did because I couldn’t believe it was so bad. “It HAS to get better!” It never did.

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the one Turn On episode just showed up on YouTube and this strip appearing.

Wouldn’t be the first time a show has been cancelled halfway through the first episode. Look up “Turn On”, which at least one station turned off by the first station break in favor of a black screen with live organ music, and many west coast stations refused to air at all after hearing about the reactions back east. And Jackie Gleason had a show which bombed so hard that instead of the second episode, he used to time slot to sit on an empty set in front of a blank wall and apologize for how bad the show was.

I’ve seen a couple shows like that.

Others that Should have been cancelled Before the first episode go on Forever.