Yet more short lived TV series

"One of the few MTM failures"

Whose idea was it to cast Iola as a romantic lead?

Fetch me mah tambourine!

Poor Marcia Rodd never landed anything that worked Part 1

Poor Marcia Rodd never landed anything that worked Part 2

Poor Marcia. Also cut from the pilots of Maude and One Day At. A Time.

This one I also don't remember, but apparently NBC got cold feet about a gay character and never ran this show!

I remember Ball Four. I had a crush on Jim Bouton who was a local sportscaster in NY. So sad it didn’t last

Jim Bouton was the sportscaster on WCBS 2 in New York when I was a kid. I had such a crush on that man as a kid.

He started at WABC then switched to WCBS.

I had a teenage crush on Jimmy McNichol who starred in 1979’s 10 episode CALIFORNIA FEVER. Jimmy sang the theme song. Listening to it again now he doesn’t sound very good. Lorenzo Lamas also starred.

R1, We’ve Got Each Other was kind of sweet. I was really young but so remember thinking “there is someone for everyone.” Years later I got to know Beverly Archer. She was so happy to hear the show was remembered.

This looks....terrible

Ball Four was very controversial because it pushed the envelope on acceptable language and subject matter at that time for prime time TV. I was only about 10 when it started so I wasn’t allowed to watch.

Most failed TV shows have at least one actor who went on to something that succeeded, but I don’t recognize any of the names in that large cast except for Samuel E. Wright who had some modest success as a Broadway actor.

R13- David-James Carroll from Ball Four went on to Broadway success and two Tony nominations in three years for Leading Actor in a Musical (Chess, Grand Hotel) before succumbing to an AIDS related illness in early 1992 at the age of 41. He was poised to have a big and lengthy career on Broadway and had an amazing voice, and charm to spare.

R12- The only thing I remember about Sugar Time was that during its short-lived run, Didi Carr appeared on Match Game at least twice, and was introduced as "the star of the new hit show, 'Sugar Time.'"

R14-,Was Carroll the good looking guy with the mustache in the baseball sitcom?

No, you can barely see him in the opening credits in OP's post. At the very end when they are all looking out the window, he's the guy on the left in the blue striped shirt. Here's some David Carroll late in his career.

Can't Hurry Love starring Nancy McKeon and a pre-SVU Mariska Hargitay. Mckeon was seriously considered for the role of Monica in Friends and CHL is clearly in the same vein. Despite getting cancelled it got decent ratings.

R17- Two Lesbian actresses as roommates-Who knows what might transpire?

By the way- Mariska is SO young and pretty here.

David Carroll - if I remember right the story was he was somewhat advanced in his AIDS. Someone took over his role but they wanted him for the original cast recording. He went to record it, but had a heart attack at the studio and died.

MARY!

Grand Hotel also had the very lovely, wonderful Michael Jeter.

Shows about orphans don't last long like Stephanie Beacham's "Sister Kate" (1 season), Abe Vigoda's "FIsh" (2 seasons) , Joseph Bologna's "Rags to Riches" (2 seasons).

R19, that's correct. David was in and out of the show for about a year or so, due to his illness. Right before the Tony Awards that year, he got too ill to perform, so they had Brent Barrett take over for him until they could get Rex Smith up to speed in the role. The saddest thing was to see Carroll attending the Tonys, watching someone else play his role in the performance during the show. That number basically saved Grand Hotel and kept it running for a couple of years, it was so well received.

Carroll came back to the show once more, but it was very short lived. The cast album, which should have been recorded shortly after the opening, took 2 1/2 years to get done because of issues between the composers who were fired off the show and the one brought in. So by the time Carroll got to record it, he was very ill and they brought him in by himself to record his part a few days before everyone else. And he went to the restroom before he started the session and died there.

Jason Priestley was 20 in 1989 on SISTER KATE and SO cute!

Did Sister Sable Colby ever sample the Pendulousness of Priestly?

Had to refresh my memory

R1, Beverly Archer also co-starred on ABC's ill-fated [italic]Nancy Walker Show[/italic] as Nancy's nerdy hypochondriac daughter. She was really funny (to 10-year-old me anyway) because she leaned hard into her nerdiness. I wish someone would put it on YouTube.

The Ugliest Girl in Town

R26 that clip is LITERAL VIOLENCE!

[italic]Stockard Channing in Just Friends[/italic]

Blansky's Beauties!

Short lived with Celeste "Cunt" Holm in the cast.

Cool song, though!

DL legend Diana Canova!

And some blandly handsome dude.

South Central: part sitcom, part drama. Too black; canned after one season. RIP.

Grosse Pointe! I had a huge crush on Kyle Howard as a kid. He just couldn’t catch a break

This guy's got a ton of short-lived series' pilots on YouTube, most of them from the 90s and 00s.

The show that was apparently cancelled between the east coast debut and west coast airings.

I remember seeing its one episode.....it was meh, but nothing that would merit such a messy ending. Have seen way worse since.

And heeeeeyyyyyy, Miss Macy Gray!

I loved GROSSE POINT, R33! I have the series on DVD. It’s a hilarious underrated gem. The tv father lusting after his onscreen son (Al Santos) was funny and creepy.

I thought Santos would have had more of a career because the man was stunning and a decent actor. Other than the JEEPERS CREEPERS sequel that he did many years ago he really fizzled. His career reminds me of CALIFORNIA DREAMS’ Michael Cade who was equally good looking, had good comic timing, but went nowhere.

Here’s the show’s into.

13 episodes in total only, but it will never be forgotten by the gays!

The hilarious "The Powers That Be" starring John Forsythe and Hollard Taylor, 1992-93, produced by Norman Lear.

Holland Taylor: People. Don't get me started on people!

*Holland

^ Was Holland younger there than Sarah Paulson is now?

Charlie's Angels 2011 with DL favs Minka Kelly and Rachael Taylor

"TURN ON".

The shortest series of all was a mildly smutty variety show starring Tim Conway cancelled during the only episode that ran.

R38 I see The Nanny used the same sets from that show. Check out the photos on IMDB.

I watched an episode of It's Your Move with Jason Bateman from that youtube account above and realized the set was the exact same one as the apartment in One Day at a Time.

Wow, did that show with a Heather Graham in R35 also feature Nina “the face” Katz? Must be why Heather graham was in that infamous episode?

GROSS POINTE was awesome. I would love to see it again.

R46, several of the eps are on YouTube. Here's the pilot, and the same account has several more eps.

I was just a kid when Partners in Crime came out. I was so excited! It was so bad!

There a huge drama going in in Texas with a man named Jason Collier living a double life. Reminds me of the show alone a Star which only lasted two episodes. Starting DL fave James Wolk.

*Lone Star

Still one of the best shows ever to air only a few episodes. I think it might have run longer in the streaming era.

"Viva Laughlin!" from DL fave Hugh Jackman. Cancelled after two airings.

"The Herman Cain Show"

(Seriously. See the attached Wikipedia article about one-episode shows. He croaked before they could do a second episode.)

R51, I LOVE Wonderfalls. I watch it every few years or so.

R54 It's so good. Love Caroline D amd Diana Scarwid is hilarious.

R29- Actually there's a NEW 21st century version of Blansky's Beauties premiering soon it's called - Blansky's TRANS Beauties.

Pushing Daisies

[quote] Blansky's TRANS Beauties.

Wouldn't it be called Transky's Beauties?

R57 OMG that scene. I cry every time.

I can't imagine why this wasn't picked up!`

The Andrews Sisters also had a TV pilot...

Jesus r60!

I wanted to post Central Park West but since that lasted two seasons, here's Pacific Palisades instead. It made real estate look glamourous and exciting , years before Million Dollar Listing and Joan Collins was at the top of her game. But she was brought in to increase falling ratings and Natalia Cigliuti(Mrs Matt Passmore) finding out her sister was actually mother was a bit underwhelming - it's not really that surprising it was cancelled. According to Wikipedia it was originally meant as a vehicle for Erika Eleniak