5 Star-Studded TV Shows That Were Canceled After A Few Episodes

Ever since Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson delivered two of the best performances of their careers in 2014's "True Detective" Season 1, the boundary between movie and TV star has all but crumbled. Now, A-listers don't think twice about leading prestige streaming dramas, and in many cases, that has led to some of the best TV shows of the 2010s and 2020s.

But not every big name actor has had success on the small screen. In fact, TV history is full of star-studded shows that struggled to foster much of an audience, mostly because they were summarily yanked off the air before they even had a chance to do so. Networks will often give new shows a chance to build a following, but in some cases, they pull the plug at the first sign of trouble, even if there's a big name top-lining the project.

If you look back at your favorite actor's filmography, chances are they may have led some sort of obscure TV series you never heard about. Here, we've rounded up a few examples which demonstrate how even the most well-known actors are no guarantee of a show's success or safety.

I will resist the temptation to make a joke at the expense of this show's title. "Emily's Reasons Why Not" was based on Carrie Gerlach's novel of the same name and starred Heather Graham as lovelorn Los Angeles book editor Emily Sanders. The show was supposed to follow Sanders as she put a new dating rule into practice: she can only break up with a guy if she can list five reasons to do so. Unfortunately, we never saw much of that play out, as "Emily's Reasons Why Not" lasted just a single episode, which, according to the New York Times' Alessandra Stanley, had to do with the fact "Heather Graham was so off-putting" in the series.

A single installment of this "Sex and the City"-style sitcom aired on January 9, 2006 and brought in 6.2 million viewers. Meanwhile, "Desperate Housewives" was comfortably bringing in 23.7 million viewers. Evidently, this simply wasn't good enough for ABC, which had heavily promoted the show ahead of its debut. According to a contemporaneous E! Online report, the network completely shuttered production on the show following the end of filming on Episode 6. Executive producer Gavin Polone told the outlet, "When the audience stays away, in this super-competitive environment, quick decisions are made. That's the television business."

In the end, none of the other episodes ever made it to air, which judging by the critical response, that was probably for the best. Dana Stevens of Slate described it as "another disappointing role for Graham," who she noted had "struggled to find a place on the big or small screen" ever since her role in "Boogie Nights." "Emily's Reasons Why Not" didn't do much to help.

Today, it's hard to imagine a network green-lighting a show called "We Are Men." Back in 2013, however, that's exactly what CBS did when it ordered 10 episodes of writer Rob Greenberg's single-cam sitcom. But only two of those episodes ended up airing.

That certainly wasn't a reflection of its cast. The show starred Christopher Nicholas Smith, Tony Shalhoub, Jerry O'Connell, Kal Penn, and Rebecca Breeds, all of whom did an unsurprisingly admirable job in a sitcom that didn't exactly have the most appealing premise. Beyond its talented cast, this was a sitcom about a dude whose wife stood him up at the altar, whereafter he makes friends with three other divorced guys. It's like Ross' divorced men's club from "Friends" brought to life, except it's not very funny.

Greenberg had previously won Emmys for his producing and writing work on "Frasier." That, along with a solid cast, seemed to bode well for "We Are Men," which ultimately debuted on CBS in September 2013 and lasted only two episodes before CBS dropped the axe. Hey, that's double the time "Emily's Reasons Why Not" stayed on the air. 

The critical reception to this short-lived sitcom was absolutely atrocious. A 4% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes should give you some idea of how reviewers felt, but just in case, consider Verne Gay of Newsday's assessment: "[More like] We Are Morons." That surely makes it a contender for one of the worst sitcoms of all time. And to think, Kal Penn went from "House" to "How I Met Your Mother" to this...

Before "The Office," Steve Carrell starred in a short-lived sitcom with none other than Tim Curry. "Over the Top" was a silly little show about an actor who falls on hard times and moves into a hotel owned by his ex-wife for some reason. It was pretty dire stuff, and only lasted three episodes before ABC decided it could no longer inflict the show on the small audience that was watching.

Curry played Simon Ferguson, who, after being fired from a popular soap opera, finds himself on the verge of becoming fully washed up. So, he moves into the Manhattan hotel which is run by a woman named Hadley Martin (Annie Potts). It seems Ferguson was once married to Martin for 12 days, and decides that he needs to take up residence in her hotel, where she lives with her two children. A young Steve Carrell plays Greek chef Yorgo Galfanikos, who's used frequently throughout the three episodes of the show that did air.

As delightful as Curry's presence is, the rest of this show was about as generic as you can get, with rote sitcom humor failing to set "Over the Top" apart from the competition. 11 episodes were shot, but only three ended up making it to air. Some messy behind-the-scenes drama involving a relationship between the show's executive producer and ABC's Entertainment President was speculated about as a factor in the show's bungled launch. But in the end, it just wasn't very good, and critics were absolutely relentless in their condemnation of Curry and Carrell's collaboration.

"The Simpsons" star Hank Azaria auditioned twice to become a main character on "Friends," but ended up in a guest role as Phoebe Buffay's (Lisa Kudrow) on-again-off-again boyfriend David. While Azaria landed nicely on his feet by voicing multiple beloved characters on "The Simpsons," it seems he always had ambitions to front a successful sitcom. Unfortunately, he never really realized those ambitions, despite trying numerous times.

The closest he came was with his recurring role on Fox's "Herman's Head," which ran for three seasons. Otherwise, there's "If Not for You," a '90s sitcom that lasted one season and starred Azaria alongside Elizabeth McGovern. Then there was "Imagine That," which was even more short-lived.

Azaria stars as Josh Miller, a TV comedy writer who uses his Walter Mitty-esque fantasies as inspiration for his writing. Throughout the show, he was supposed to deal with an overbearing boss and a fraught marriage to his wife, Wendy Miller (Jayne Brook), but "Imagine That" was pulled after just two episodes. Today, the show is basically lost media. Six episodes were produced, but they're nowhere to be found — though judging by a Reddit thread, every now and then the pilot resurfaces. 

Critics would probably rather it didn't. As The Washington Post's Tom Shales put it: "'Imagine That' traps the versatile Hank Azaria in a smutty-minded sitcom about a spineless comedy writer who doesn't get enough sex at home."

Kelsey Grammar will forever be sitcom royalty for playing Dr. Frasier Crane on both "Cheers" and its equally beloved spin-off, "Frasier," but the man is certainly no stranger to sitcom failure and swift cancellations. Grammar's forgotten 2009 sitcom "Hank" was pulled off the air after just five episodes, which you'd think would be a wake-up call for the actor. Perhaps these multi-cam live-studio-audience sitcoms were becoming old hat in the age of "The Office" and its mockumentary format? Well, the message didn't quite sink in, and five years after "Hank," Grammar returned with another sitcom, and this time he brought Martin Lawrence along for the ride.

"Partners" sees Grammer and Lawrence play Allen Braddock and Marcus Jackson, respectively, two Chicago lawyers with very different backgrounds and professional experiences. Braddock worked for his father's law firm, but was fired and needs a place to set up shop on his own. Luckily, he meets Jackson, who runs a law firm out of his basement, and the two go into business together, thereby establishing the "sit" of this sitcom as a fairly rote odd-couple-type deal.

Unfortunately, neither critics nor audiences were interested. "The show itself is practically an afterthought," wrote Variety's Brian Lowry, who went on to describe how "watching these two comedy veterans trying to keep such a leaky, woefully flat vehicle afloat is more depressing than nostalgic." Unsurprisingly, then, "Partners" didn't last long. The show premiered on August 4, 2014, with FX committing to just 10 episodes with the option to order 90 more if the show did well. It did not, and was cancelled after its 10-episode first season. Sadly, Grammer didn't learn his lesson, and returned to the business of delivering "more depressing than nostalgic" fare with his short-lived "Frasier" revival in 2023.