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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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Western Animation Short Runners[]

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Short Runners in Other Media[]

Comic Books[]

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