10 Best 2000s Sitcoms That Only Lasted One Season or Less

Some good things just don’t last. Those initial sips of a drink can be amazing, but by the end of the glass, you’re over it. An awesome TV series run can be thwarted by a less-than-stellar ending. A series rarely sticks the landing as well as it starts, making the best series finales truly a different category of television. But many shows don’t get to tell the stories that they want because their runs are cut short.

New series are canceled every single year because they don’t land with viewers. As fans, this can be frustrating because, even though they like a show, it doesn’t mean it’s popular with the masses. It’s ultimately out of their control as to whether or not the series will get renewed and they’ll get to enjoy more episodes. This is often especially true with comedies, since a show that really nails the specific sense of humor one might be looking for can be tough to come by.

There are plenty of comedy series that only got one season before getting the ax, but here are 10of the most notable of the 2000s. Chances are, audiences won’t remember some of them, but there could be one or two where they were some of that loyal fan base.

10

‘Luis’ (2003)

Luis was one of those series that featured a fan favorite in a leading role, as Luis Guzman, most notably known for his supporting roles in movies and TV series like Out of Sight, Boogie Nights, The Limey, and Oz, was the vehicle’s star. Luis starred Guzman as a Bronx donut shop owner who dealt with the unique community members who frequently came into the shop. It was the first network sitcom to feature a Latino star and showcased life in an urban community.

It co-starred Charlie Day two years before It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia came out. Malcolm Barrett, Reggie Lee, Wes Ramsey, Jaclyn DeSantis, and Diana-Maria Riva all starred on the series, thus the cast was an eclectic group and racially diverse. However, the series, created by Will Gluck, never found its footing and was canceled after four episodes, despite 10 being made.

9

‘Emily’s Reasons Why Not’ (2006)

Back in 2006, Heather Graham was coming off a successful character run on Scrubs and was cast as Emily in Emily’s Reasons Why Not. Based on the novel of the same name, it stars Graham as an editor of self-help books whose personal life is a bit of a mess. She takes the advice of her therapist to write down reasons why a relationship isn’t going to work. If she gets to five, she ends it.

Every channel was trying to find its Sex and the City, and ABC bet big on Emily’s Reasons Why Not. It’s been reported that it was picked up without executives seeing a script. The marketing budget for the show was incredibly high as the network positioned the series as a cornerstone of its fall lineup that year. However, after the first episode premiered, it was received disastrously. People thought the character portrayals featured stereotypes, and Graham’s character wasn’t charming, but annoying. The premise for the series was a good idea, but the execution was flawed, with ABC canceling it after a single episode aired.

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8

‘Out of Practice’ (2005)

Out of Practice

Release Date

2005 – 2005

Network

CBS

Directors

Sheldon Epps, Joe Regalbuto, Mark Cendrowski, James Widdoes, Bob Koherr, Gail Mancuso, Kelsey Grammer, Philip Charles MacKenzie

• 

  Barry Bostwick

  Uncredited

• 

• 

  Deanna Wright

  Dr. Stewart Barnes

• 

• 

Featuring a talented cast and great writers, Out of Practice aired from 2005 to 2006 on CBS. It starred Christopher Gorham as Ben Barnes, a marriage counselor and the only non-doctor in his family, which was constant fodder for the rest of the group. His father, played by Henry Winkler, was a gastroenterologist who is living a happier life now that he is divorced from his ex-wife, a cardiologist, played by Stockard Channing. Jennifer Tilly plays Winkler’s new girlfriend, Ty Burrell plays Ben’s plastic surgeon brother, and Paula Marshall plays his ER doctor sister.

The series was created by Christopher Lloyd and Joe Keenan. Lloyd, who would co-create Modern Family four years later, had a good working relationship with Burrell from this series. Out of Practice ran for 14 episodes before being canceled before its first season run ended. The show was replaced in its time slot by The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

7

‘The Winner’ (2007)

From 2002 to 2006, Rob Corddry was a correspondent on The Daily Show, which helped launch his acting career. He had been in a number of projects leading up to 2007, when his starring role on The Winner took place. Corddry plays Glen, a 43-year-old man who looks back on his life as a 31-year-old when he lived with his parents. The series had originally been pitched in 2002 with the hopes of starring Johnny Galecki. Despite a pilot being shot, it was not picked up.

Creator Ricky Blitt was one of the original writers on Family Guy and, after that show grew to be a massive success, the pilot was redone with Corddry and ultimately picked up by Fox with Seth Macfarlane’s Fuzzy Door Productions as one of the production companies. The series also featured Lenny Clarke as Glen’s father, Linda Hart as his mother, Erinn Hayes as his friend Alison, and Keir Gilchrist as Alison’s son, Josh. The show featured a friendship between Josh and Glen and Alison as a potential love interest for him. The series ran on Corddry’s charm, but audiences just missed the series. It was canceled after six episodes due to low ratings.

6

‘Cracking Up’ (2004)

Cracking Up

Release Date

2004 – 2005

Network

FOX

Directors

Greg Mottola, Jay Chandrasekhar, Marc Buckland, Michael Spiller, Miguel Arteta

Mike White is one of the most well-known showrunners working today, as The White Lotus has been a runaway hit for HBO. Back in 2004, White created Cracking Up, a sitcom that aired on Fox with a great cast that never found an audience. The show features Jason Schwartzman as Ben Baxter, a psychiatrist who is hired to observe a 9-year-old boy from a Beverly Hills family. While doing so, he realizes that the son is the most normal one of the family.

The father was played by Christopher McDonald, and the mother was played by Molly Shannon, in one of her more unhinged performances. Bret Loehr played the son as Schwartzman moved into the guest house to get to know the family. The show was sharp and acerbic but it probably wasn’t a perfect fit for a basic cable network. It likely would have done better had it been on a premium cable network. It was canceled after only six of the 12 episodes had aired.

5

‘Courting Alex’ (2006)

Courting Alex

Release Date

January 23, 2006

Network

CBS

Cast

• 

  Dabney Coleman

  Jack Atwell

• 

• 

  Josh Randall

  Scott Larson

• 

Jenna Elfman had a wildly successful run on Dharma & Greg through 2002, and her next television starring role was in Courting Alex in 2006. Elfman played Alex Rose, a single attorney who worked with her father, played by Dabney Coleman. She is unlucky in love because she works too hard, and the sitcom focuses on her love life in New York. The series co-stars Hugh Bonneville as Alex’s British neighbor and Jillian Bach as Molly, Alex’s assistant. Both of those characters provided Alex advice throughout the series.

Courting Alex aired eight episodes before it was axed on the same day as Out of Practice by CBS. Coleman went on to be on Boardwalk Empire while Elfman led a number of series that only lasted one season before her five-season run on Fear the Walking Dead.

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4

‘Life on a Stick’ (2005)

Life on a Stick

Release Date

2005 – 2004

Network

FOX

Directors

Andrew D. Weyman, Andy Ackerman, Lee Shallat Chemel

Writers

Adam Chase, Jeff Westbrook, Kat Likkel

• 

• 

• 

  Zachary Knighton

  Laz Lackerson

• 

  Ryan Belleville

  Uncredited

Another Fox series that didn’t make it, Life on a Stick is a 2005 sitcom that focuses on teenage workers at a mall food court. Zachary Knighton is the main star of the series, playing Laz, while his best friend Fred is played by Charlie Finn. Rachelle Lefevre plays Laz’s girlfriend, while Amy Yasbeeck and Matthew Glave play his parents. Laz and Fred are just out of high school and don’t know what they want to do with their lives. Working at the food court opens up possibilities they hadn’t expected.

The very low stakes series was simple but enjoyable for those who watched it. Unfortunately, the audience numbers weren’t enough to save it from cancellation after five episodes. Knighton went on to play a main role in another criminally underrated one-series show, FlashForward, before leading the cast of Happy Endings, one of the best sitcoms of the 2010s.

3

‘Kitchen Confidential’ (2005)

2005 proved to be a huge year in the career of Bradley Cooper. His biggest film role up to that point took place that summer with Wedding Crashers, and he starred in the adaptation of Anthony Bourdain’s book Kitchen Confidential. Kitchen Confidential aired on Fox in the fall of 2005 and featured Cooper as Jack Bourdain, an executive chef and former drug and alcohol addict who is given the chance to rebuild his career at a restaurant in New York.

Frank Langella played the owner of the restaurant, Bonnie Somerville was his daughter and the head waitress, Jamie King was the hostess, Nicholas Brendon played the pastry chef, John Francis Daley was the commis chef, John Cho was the seafood chef, and Owain Yeoman was the sous chef. The series got great reviews and a rough draw, as it aired its first three episodes before Fox’s coverage of the Major League Baseball playoffs halted its season run. After the playoffs ended, Fox decided not to run the series during sweeps and ultimately canceled it after only four episodes aired.

2

‘Back to You’ (2007)

Before hitting it big with Modern Family, Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd created Back to You in 2007. Airing on Fox, it starred Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton as co-anchors on a Pittsburgh TV station. After Grammar’s character leaves to take a new job, he is fired from said job for making an insensitive remark. He returns to Pittsburgh 10 years later to pick up as the anchor once more of the series he left. He also finds out he and Heaton’s character have a child, which is a part of the series.

Heaton and Grammar are both superb in the series, having both been sitcom veterans with Emmy Award wins to their name. The series co-starred Ty Burrell, Josh Gad, Ayda Field, and Fred Willard. Unfortunately, too many critics compared the show to Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond, leaving people disappointed that the material wasn’t as good as those series. It was canceled after one season. Because of how Fox dealt with Back to You, Levitan and Lloyd didn’t offer them Modern Family.

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1

‘Undeclared’ (2001)

Diehard fans clamored for a second season of Freaks and Geeks, but the Judd Apatow-led series never got a renewal, devastating those that loved it. What did come next for Apatow was Undeclared, a half-hour sitcom airing on Fox. The series follows a group of freshmen in college, trying to navigate the big life change. It stars Jay Baruchel as Steven Karp, Seth Rogen as Ron Garner, Charlie Hunnam as Lloyd Haythe, Carla Gallo as Lizzie Exley, Monica Keena as Rachel Lindquist, Timm Sharp as Marshall Nesbitt, and Christina Payano as Tina Ellroy.

There were a number of actors and actresses who went on to become big stars that were recurring characters on the series, including Jason Segel, Amy Poehler, Kevin Hart, David Krumholtz, Kyle Gass, Busy Phillips, and Kevin Rankin. It had great critical acclaim during its first year, but it failed to find an audience, ranking 93rd overall during its season. It was canceled due to low ratings, but is revered as one of the best cult shows of the early 2000s.