Short Runners

The polar opposite to Long Runners are, as you may expect, shows that were canned so quickly that few people remember them. They may have lasted one season, two at most, but no matter how much they were advertised are eventually forgotten. Some of the more unfortunate ones don't even last one episode. The Ur Example is the 1969 program Turn On which was so bad a number of affiliates dropped it at the first commercial break and was effectively cancelled before the first episode even finished airing.

They may have not even gotten a TV Tropes page until someone suddenly remembered it existed. They may or may not have been Too Good to Last; they also could've been mediocre. Sometimes, they have a promising Season 1 but suffer a Second Season Downfall; sometimes they are a One-Episode Wonder. Whatever the case, very little Wiki Magic gets to these pages.

There's a Wikipedia article on single-episode runs.

When the show has this many episodes, yet is successful, that's British Brevity. When the show ends naturally with this many episodes, that's a Twelve-Episode Anime.

This is the supertrope of Too Good to Last, Second Season Downfall, One-Episode Wonder, Short Lived Big Impact, and Twelve-Episode Anime but is distinctly different from Too Good to Last — Too Good To Last shows may have lasted much longer than a Short Runner, and are required to have a fandom; some Short Runners may be Justified because of universal panning.

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Live-Action TV Short Runners

A

• The Adventures of Superpup
• All Star Blitz
• Animorphs
• Arthur of the Britons
• Automan

B

• The Better Sex
• The Big Showdown
• Big Wave Daves
• The Black Donnellys
• Blackout
• Blank Check
• Blood Ties
• Bob
• The Bradys
• Break the Bank 1985
• Brimstone
• Bring Em Back Alive

C

• Caesars Challenge
• Caprica
• Catchphrase (American version)
• Central Park West
• The Chair (American version)
• The Challengers
• The Cheap Show
• Childs Play
• The Chronicle
• The Class
• Code Name: Eternity
• Conan the Adventurer
• Cop Rock
• Conviction
• Couch Potatoes
• Crime Traveller

D

• Deadly Games
• Don't Scare the Hare
• Downfall
• Drive

E

• Earth 2

F

• Families at War
• Fantasy
• Fastlane
• Fear Itself
• Fearless
• Firefly
• Flash Gordon
• Fortune Hunter

G

• Gemini Man
• Gigantic
• Give-N-Take
• Go
• Greed

H

• Harsh Realm
• Heil Honey I'm Home
• He Said She Said
• Homeboys in Outer Space
• Hot Potato
• Huge

I

• I'm in The Band

J

• John Doe
• Johnny Bago
• Just Cause

K

• Key West
• Kings

L

• Late Night Liars
• Law and Order LA
• Law and Order Trial By Jury
• Legend
• Life As We Know It

M

• The Magnificent Marble Machine
• MANTIS
• The Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour
• Merv Griffins Crosswords
• Million Dollar Mind Game
• Million Dollar Money Drop (American version)
• Mission:2110
• Monopoly
• My Brother and Me

N

• National Bingo Night
• Night Visions
• Ninja Turtles the Next Mutation

O

• Outsourced (TV series)

P

• Paranoia
• The Philanthropist
• Pictureka
• Pitfall
• Pink Lady and Jeff
• Police Squad!
• The Playboy Club
• Probe

Q

• Queen of Swords

R

• Raines
• Roar
• The Ropers

S

• Safe Harbor
• Scattergories
• Second Chance
• Set for Life
• Showoffs
• Skedaddle
• Special Unit 2
• Stargate Universe
• Supertrain

T

• Tales of the Gold Monkey
• Talkabout
• Temptation 2007
• Terriers
• Trashed
• Treasure Mall

U

• Undercovers
• Unforgettable
• The Unusuals

V

• Vengeance Unlimited

W

• The War Next Door
• Wild Boys
• Winning Streak
• Wipeout 1988
• Wonderfalls
• Work It

Y

• You Deserve It
• Young Blades
• You're in the Picture

Western Animation Short Runners

A

• Allen Gregory
• The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan

B

• Birdz (According to creator Larry Jacobs, a timeslot after the news did not help this show at all, which only lasted 13 episodes.)
• Blasters Universe
• The Bremen Avenue Experience
• The Brothers Flub
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids
• Butt Ugly Martians

C

• Clerks

F

• Father of the Pride
• Fish Police

H

• Hammerman

M

• Making Fiends
• Napoleon Dynamite
• Nightmare Ned
• The Oblongs
• O'grady (Just like all the other The N original programmes, it ended up becoming a flop.)
• Pinky, Elmyra and The Brain
• Raw Toonage
• Robotomy
• The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show
• Sit Down Shut Up
• Slacker Cats
• Station Zero
• Time Squad
• Waynehead
• Whatever Happened to Robot Jones
• The Xs
• Yakkity Yak

Comic Books

• DR and Quinch
• Warrior

Short Runners Without a TV Tropes Page

• Anchorwoman
• Angelica And Susies Pre School Daze
• Australias Naughtiest Home Videos (lasted only half an episode)
• Beware Of Dog
• Bobbe Says
• The Bussey Bunch
• Co Ed Fever
• Comedians Unleashed
• The Debbie King Show
• Dot Comedy
• Emilys Reasons Why Not
• Flying Blind
• The Henry And June Show (a failed spin-off of Ka Blam!)
• Lawless
• Little Muppet Monsters (only three episodes aired, after Muppet Babies)
• Lobo (not The Main Man, an earlier one; first African-American character to headline a comic book.)
• Lone Star
• Lottery
• The Mad Bad Ad Show (Panel Game that got pulled from its slot halfway through the run)
• The Melting Pot
• Miami Medical
• Osbournes Reloaded
• The Othersiders
• The Phoenix (1982 ABC series. No relation to The Phoenix.)
• The Playboy Club
• Public Morals
• Quarterlife
• Red Handed (hidden-camera show on UPN)
• The Rich List
• Running The Halls
• Secret Talents Of The Stars
• The Silver Brumby
• South Of Sunset
• Survive This
• Turn-On (1969 ABC sketch show that was so bad, it got canned halfway through its debut on most affiliates {one replacing it with a PSA on gun safety}. Others either didn't air it at all, or aired the entire thing before deciding to pull the plug on it.)
• Void Indigo
• The Wacky World Of Bruce Barry (reality show on Family Net)
• Werewolf
• Whoops
• Whos Whose
• The Will
• Wolf Lake