There aren’t many, but some cancelled shows have returned due to the beautiful thing that is fan power.
There is nothing better than sitting down after a hard days work (or a good night out) and watching your favourite comfort TV show. So, what happens when that show gets cancelled? Well, on several occasions, fans have approached the problem head on and made their voices heard. And in some cases, the fans got the shows reinstated!
Here are some of our favourite fan revival stories.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Brooklyn Nine-Nine created a fierce band of fans during its first five seasons. So, when Fox decided to cancel the show after its fifth run, those fans took to the internet to speak their mind. The hashtag ‘#RenewB99’ went viral.
Even celebrity fans such as Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mark Hamill got involved.
A few days after the show’s cancellation, it was announced that NBC had picked up Brooklyn Nine-Nine for an additional season.
Ultimately, the show carried on for a further two seasons, ending at their eighth season. This is one of the biggest success stories when it comes to cancelled shows that returned.
Arrested Development
Arrested Development came out swinging, with critics loving it. But sadly, the ratings were not as high as the production had hoped for. When it was revealed that they were thinking of cancelling the show after its second season, fans ran a SaveOurBluths.com website in hopes of saving their favourite show.
The show was brought back for a third season but was ultimately cancelled after that.
In a twist, this was not the last fans saw of the show. In 2013, Netflix revived Arrested Development and aired a fourth and fifth series.
Veronica Mars
You may know Kristen Bell as the voice of Anna in Frozen, as Kiki in Bad Moms or the voiceover in Gossip Girl. But before all of this, Bell played Veronica Mars, a high school kid who has a side job of being a private investigator.
After the show’s fourth season, Veronica Mars was cancelled. Fans were devastated and hoped they could get their favourite show back.
However, it was only in 2013, when Bell and creator of the show, Rob Thomas, came together to raise money to make a Veronica Mars, fan funded film. In less than 11 hours, they raised over $2 million. Amazingly, to help get the film made, Warner Bros. agreed to match whatever they raised. The Veronica Mars film aired in 2014.
Family Guy
A rerun of Family Guy can always be found on Comedy Central or Dave and we love it to pieces. Family Guy was created in 1999 and instantly became a fan favourite.
After it’s third season finale, the show was cancelled to allow airtime for other shows. If this happened in 2023, you can bet that fans would take to Twitter to try and get this reversed. But, back in 2002, fans took a different approach.
This was around the time that Family Guy came out on DVD, so fans mass bought the show via DVDs. The DVD sales were so high that Family Guy was brought back the following year.