Short Runners

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

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 gotten a TV Tropes or All The 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.

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.

The Wikipedia tab above links to a list of shows canceled within two episodes.


Examples of Short Runners that are not yet confirmed to be tagged with Category:Short Runners :

Live-Action TV Short Runners

A-C

D-J

K-P

Q-Z

Western Animation Short Runners

Comic Books Short Runners

Short Runners Without an All The Tropes Page