5 Best '90s Sitcoms That Only Lasted One Season, Ranked

The sitcom has been a staple of the small-screen since TVs found their way into homes around America in the post-war years. Since then, every decade has introduced new ensembles with whom successive generations have fallen in love, from Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in "I Love Lucy," to the "Gilligan's Island" castaways, the "Happy Days" crew, and the regulars at Cheers bar. As such, every generation can claim to have lived through a sitcom golden age, but only those of us who grew up in the '90s are actually right.

I kid, but come on. "Friends," "Seinfeld," "Frasier?" I'm sorry but this was the apex of the sitcom, which in the years since these titans of the genre went off-air has struggled to maintain its relevance (just take a look at the "Frasier" revival that should have been a one-off special). In that sense, the '90s felt like the final triumphant flourish for a genre that had helped define 20th Century TV, and it was glorious to witness.

It should go without saying that the 90s also had its share of abject dreck. But terrible sitcoms have been a thing since Jerry Van Dyke turned down "Gilligan's Island" to speak to his dead mother via a car radio in "My Mother the Car." Then, there are those shows that might have been able to join the great '90s sitcom crescendo had they been given more time. If you have any interest in the illustrious history of the TV sitcom, then, you might join us as we take a look at those '90s shows that, though solid, simply couldn't measure up to the might of the decade's great sitcoms and were canceled after just one season.

If you've ever been to Bakersfield, California you'll know it to be a strange, oddly liminal place situated right on top of the state's main artery, the 5 freeway. It's a fairly large city that somehow has the aura of a forgotten desert town and, for some reason, represents the hub of California's country music fandom, all framed by the beauty of the Tehachapi Mountains. It's also where Giancarlo Esposito moved after learning his son could be the product of an unscrupulous fertility doctor's own sperm.

That's the premise of "Bakersfield P.D." which sees Esposito's detective Paul Gigante uproot his family from Washington DC after witnessing a news report about a doctor who'd been inseminating patients — one of which was Gigante's wife — with his own specimen. Gigante, wife, and son decide to get as far away as possible from their DC community, where any child could be the boy's half brother or sister, and head for Bakersfield, CA.

Once there, Gigante discovers the Bakersfield police department to be a gaggle of dimwits lead by an incompetent captain. He's paired up with a white partner, detective Wade Preston (Ron Eldard) who's obsessed with Black culture and cop shows. Chris Mulkey, who was recently revealed to be villainous rancher Tom Weaver on the "Yellowstone" spin-off "Marshals," also starred as a Bakersfield cop in a show that was somewhat ahead of its time. The lack of a laugh track and slightly more complex comedy than audiences were used to from their sitcoms make it more in line with the likes of "Brooklyn 99." Alas, viewers simply weren't interested in 1993, and "Bakersfield P.D." was told to hand in its badge after one season.

If you grew up in the '90s chances are you remember "Sister, Sister." But you probably don't remember the show it replaced. "Muscle" is a forgotten '90s sitcom and soap opera parody that saw Adam West play gym owner "Big" Jim Atkinson. Unfortunately, he doesn't stick around long as he's poisoned in the very first episode and dies. His son Kent Atkinson (Dan Gauthier) then sets out to find the culprit while his scheming stepmother, Jane Atkinson (Shannon Kenny), tries to ensure Kent's inheritance goes to her.

It's an odd setup for a sitcom but that's what made "Muscle" interesting. The show was goofy and over-the-top but it had a self-awareness to it. One episode sees Michael Boatman's attorney Garnet Hines defending an accused cannibal who ends up holding him captive in a cage. It wasn't exactly grounded, but it was fun and certainly different from anything else on TV at the time.

Unfortunately, audiences of 1995 simply weren't ready for such a thing. You don't often see TV show promos that recap the basic premise and characters for "perplexed" viewers and end with the phrase, "See, that wasn't so hard." But that's what happened with "Muscle." The show's rating must have prompted some network suits to consider the possibility that people were just confused. Needless to say, their promo didn't work and The WB canceled the show after its first season.

In 1970, Bob Dylan released "If Not For You," a sweet little love song for his then wife Sara Dylan. In 1995, Larry Levin made a similarly sweet little sitcom about record company workers who fall in love, which shared a title with Dylan's folk rock ditty. Unlike the song, the show has faded from the collective memory.

By 1995, Hank Azaria was already voicing multiple characters on "The Simpsons" and had appeared as Phoebe Buffay's (Lisa Kudrow) on again/off again boyfriend David on "Friends." He seemed to be building a decent career for himself but having auditioned for the role of Joey Tribbiani on "Friends," he must have felt at least slightly disappointed to have missed out on TV megastardom — especially since his good buddy Matthew Perry won the role of Chandler Bing. Perhaps he felt a starring role in "If Not for You" might make up for that. It didn't, but it could have with more time.

"If Not for You" stars Elizabeth McGovern as Jessie Kent opposite Azaria as Craig Schaeffer. The two meet at a restaurant and fall in love but there's one problem: they're both engaged. That's the "sit" in this com, and it makes for a charming show that, though it might not have matched "Friends" in becoming one of the best TV shows of the 1990s, had a ton of potential thanks to its leads. That said, it remains unclear how long the writers were planning on having Jessie and Craig struggle with their feelings and fiancés and it would have been tough to extend the premise over multiple seasons. Sadly, in the words of Dylan, "If Not for You" didn't "ring true" and CBS asked Levin and his show to "find the door."

Bob Newhart is nothing short of a comedy legend, and much of that status was built thanks to his beloved sitcoms. "The Bob Newhart Show" was one of the best shows of the 1970s, running from 1972 to 1978, while "Newhart" ran from 1982 to 1990. The latter delivered one of the greatest endings in TV history when it revealed the entire series was dreamt by Newhart's "The Bob Newhart Show" character. After that, however, the comedian struggled to recapture the magic of his earlier sitcoms, as evidenced by his two '90s efforts, "Bob," which ran for two seasons from 1992 to 1993 and "George and Leo," which only lasted one season between 1997 and 1998.

"George and Leo" was set on Martha's Vineyard and saw Newhart play George Stoody, whose son Theodore Stoody (a young Jason Bateman) marries Casey Wagonman (initially Bess Meyer, later Robyn Lively), the daughter of Judd Hirsch's Leonard "Leo" Wagonman. What should be a joyous union of two families is, however, an awkward affair as it turns out George and Leo are very different men. Newhart's peaceable bookstore owner is dismayed when Hirsch's magician, who's on the run from gangsters, moves into his spare room. Odd couple hilarity was supposed to ensue but CBS pulled the plug after 22 episodes.

Newhart, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 94, told the Television Academy that he felt "a little shellshocked" after seeing the Nielsen ratings. It seems the legacy of "George and Leo" is that it put Newhart off making sitcoms for the rest of his life. The thing is, the show wasn't bad at all. It was charming and probably deserved a little longer than it got.

"Sydney" was a CBS sitcom that ran from March to June 1990 and has been all but forgotten today. But it was notable for several reasons. Perhaps most obvious is the fact it co-starred a pre-"Friends" Matthew Perry, who certainly made the sitcom rounds prior to finding massive fame with his portrayal of Chandler Bing. Perry starred in a sitcom that's nearly impossible to watch today and had his first major role in the failed Fox sitcom "Second Chance." "Sydney" was another short-lived sitcom effort, one that saw the future Chandler actor star alongside Valerie Bertinelli and Craig Bierko in a show about a private investigation agency.

Bertinelli plays Sydney Kells, who moves from New York City to her native Los Angeles where she tries to continue her work as a private investigator. Perry plays her brother, Billy Kells, an LAPD officer who, though naive, is highly supportive of his sister. Bierko played lawyer Matt Keating, who brings Sydney most of her cases. There's a healthy dose of sexual chemistry between the two but Matt is engaged. He's also not all that proud of using Sydney as his investigator and does all he can to hide it from his bosses.

Not many sitcoms of the era could claim to have a theme song written by Eddie Van Halen himself. But since Bertinelli was married to the Van Halen guitarist, that's exactly what "Sydney" got in the form of "Finish What Ya Started." It also had plenty of charm and real chemistry between the cast. Much of the charm was provided by Perry, whose proto-Chandler stylings are fascinating to watch for any '90s kid. Could "Sydney" have been one of the best sitcoms of all time? Almost certainly not. But it definitely deserved longer than 13 episodes.