Beloved TV Shows That Were Canceled Far Too Soon

NBC canceled Star Trek in 1969 after three seasons and 79 episodes, a pattern the article says networks have repeated for decades—dropping shows before they fully found an audience. The list spans six decades, from ABC’s Kolchak: The Night Stalker (canceled after 20 episodes in March 1975) to the 1982 ABC spoof Police Squad!, which ran for just four airings with six episodes produced. Other cancellations highlighted include Mel Brooks’ When Things Were Rotten (13 episodes; last aired December 3, 1975), CBS’s Square Pegs (20 episodes; canceled May 1983), and NBC’s fate for NASA’s planned shuttle orbiter “Constitution,” renamed “Enterprise” after nearly 100,000 Star Trek fans wrote to the White House.