A great show can’t necessarily be judged by how long it was on the air. Granted, TV classics like M*A*S*H and Frasier produced hundreds of episodes, but there are also fantastic comedy shows that experienced a much shorter run. In some cases, only receiving one season before the sets were permanently taken down.
Whether the show always intended to have a limited run or the series was ahead of its time, some of the most influential TV comedies didn’t stick around for a long time. With that in mind, we’ll take a look at some of the best comedy shows with fewer than five seasons. These shows prove beyond a doubt that a series doesn’t need to be on for a decade to grab fans for life.
10
‘The Honeymooners’ (1955–1956)
No. of Seasons: 1
The Honeymooners is such a well-known and often referenced comedy that it’s surprising to realize the show only ran for one year. The sitcom followed the home life of Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), an irritable bus driver, and his long-suffering wife Alice (Audrey Meadows). Frequent fixtures in their lives are Ralph’s best friend and neighbor, Ed (Art Carney), and his wife Trixie (Joyce Randolph).
Many classic sitcoms with an edge, such as the groundbreaking All in the Family, can trace their origins back to the verbal sparring matches between Ralph and Alice. Featuring a small cast that relied heavily on tightly written scripts, The Honeymooners is one of the most influential sitcoms ever made, even though the show stopped after one season. The voice of the show can be found in The Flintstones, Married… with Children, and even received a film adaptation in 2005 starring Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph.
9
‘The Good Place’ (2016–2020)
No. of Seasons: 4
The Good Place followed the misadventures of lost soul Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) after she dies and miraculously ends up in the Good Place. However, Eleanor quickly realizes that a mistake was made, and she has been mistaken for someone who actually lived a pious, noble life. Fearful of going to the Bad Place, she ropes her assigned soulmate, Chidi (William Jackson Harper), to teach her how to be a good person so she can stay.
The Good Place approached concepts like the nature of existence with humor and heart to create one of the most unique and original sitcoms to air on network television. Unlike many network comedies, which typically have a narrative structure designed for an audience to jump in on any episode, The Good Place offered an ambitious serialized story that asked its viewers to watch every episode to understand the complete picture. Each of the four seasons made bold choices that continued to push the characters, and the audience, out of their comfort zones for a beautiful and funny tour of the afterlife.
8
‘Atlanta’ (2016–2022)
No. of Seasons: 4
In Atlanta, Donald Glover stars as Earn Marks, an intelligent but unfulfilled young father looking for a better life than a string of dead-end jobs. When Earn sees the opportunity to manage the rap career of his cousin Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles (Brian Tyree Henry), he takes the first steps on an unpredictable and sometimes bizarre journey to wealth, success, and rebuilding a frayed relationship with his cousin.
Between the chemistry of the core characters and the surrealist brilliance of the show’s comedic voice, Atlanta could have been a fixture on FX for a decade, and fans would have continued to return. Series creator Glover had interest in ending Atlanta after two seasons, but the added time with Earn, Paper Boi, Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz) went a long way in creating a full journey for the characters to experience and grow from.
7
‘Fleabag’ (2016–2019)
No. of Seasons: 2
Fleabag packs more humor, pain, and honesty into two short seasons than most shows manage over multiple years. Phoebe Waller-Bridge stars as the titular Fleabag, a woman in London struggling with depression and guilt while regularly addressing the audience by speaking to the camera. We watch as she navigates her love life, comes to terms with a changing family dynamic, and grieves the ones she’s lost while deflecting her pain and anxiety with a sharp sense of humor.
Fleabag does an incredible job of expressing tragedy and comedy within the same line of dialogue, and both emotions feel relevant and appropriate for the situation. Over 12 episodes that go by too fast, the journey the audience takes with Fleabag (we never learn her name) can be uncomfortable, heartbreaking, but always relatable and remarkably funny. Unsurprisingly, the unforgettable Prime Video show nabbed many awards, including Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Waller Bridge.
6
‘Brockmire’ (2017–2020)
No. of Seasons: 4
Telling its story over a flawless four-season run is the IFC comedy series Brockmire. The series follows the adventures of Jim Brockmire (Hank Azaria), an ex-major league baseball announcer who had left the country after a public meltdown ended his career in broadcasting. When he is lured back to the states with an offer to announce for a minor league team, Brockmire takes the first steps back into the job he loves, even if his personal demons are waiting for him as well.
A love for baseball is not required to enjoy Brockmire, as the humor stems from the announcer’s struggle to face the trauma that caused his meltdown and to come to terms with his alcoholism. Whether the series shifts into moments of absurd farce or dramatic self-reflection, Azaria commands the screen, delivering laugh-out-loud monologues that pour out of the verbose character. Each season jumps to a new pivotal point in Brockmire’s life, removing any filler from the series to give audiences a perfect comedy.
5
‘Fawlty Towers’ (1975–1979)
No. of Seasons: 2
Running a hotel never looked as daunting and chaotic as it did in the brief but beloved sitcom Fawlty Towers. The series invited viewers to witness the daily disasters that take place inside Fawlty Towers, a hotel in a coastal English town. Running the hotel is the rude but hysterical Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), who frequently blows up at the staff and guests alike while juggling multiple issues.
With only 12 episodes produced, the still-revered comedy went out on an impossibly high note. Fawlty Towers is a quintessential example of well-written situational comedies, layering plot threads over one another with an intricate and satisfying level of precision. Cleese is legendary as Basil, but the entire cast, including Prunella Scales as Basil’s wife, Sybil, and Andrew Sachs as Manuel, all piece together perfectly to make Fawlty Towers one of the best sitcoms ever made.
4
‘Party Down’ (2009–2023)
No. of Seasons: 3
Every new catering job is an opportunity for disaster in the fantastic but underrated comedy Party Down. Almost no one employed by the Party Down catering company wants to show up to work, and they make it known in a variety of ways at each new location they visit. Amongst a group of hopeful actors or screenwriters, only Henry (Adam Scott), a failed actor, accepts that this job is the destination and not a step in the journey.
In a perfect world, Party Down would be on a list of the longest-running series, but fans are grateful for what they received. For the longest, the catering comedy’s legacy was as a two-season series, but a revival in 2023 brought the gang (mostly) back together for a funny and well-crafted third outing. Party Down could shift gears from dry, cynical humor to broad slapstick, and still sneak in enough heart to require a rewatch for each episode.
3
‘The Office’ (2001–2003)
No. of Seasons: 2
A fake documentary about working in an office quickly became a surprise cult classic of the new millennium. The Office followed the lives of employees who reluctantly showed up to work at the fictional Wenham Hogg paper company in the English town of Slough. Domineering the time of the documentary crew is boss David Brent (Ricky Gervais), who delights in showing how he’s a walking, talking HR nightmare in every way possible.
The series turned Gervais into a household name, shook up the sitcom genre, and accomplished all this in two seasons and a Christmas special. Even if the comedy had not spawned a long-running American adaptation, the impact of the UK version of The Office would still loom large over future television shows. The Office is cringe comedy at its finest, and doing it in a mockumentary format seemed like a revelatory idea when the show premiered in 2001.
2
‘Chappelle’s Show’ (2003–2006)
No. of Seasons: 2 1/2
Comedy Central was once the coveted destination for anyone working in comedy, and shows like Chappelle’s Show were a reason why. Co-created and starring stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle, Chappelle’s Show was a mixture of comedy sketches with Chappelle performing stand-up and introducing the next segments. The series was wildly popular, known for satirizing anything and everything with an irreverent, pull-no-punches approach.
Sketch shows run into a challenge of maintaining a high level of quality, considering how much content needs to be created and turned over, but Chapelle’s Show never dipped in quality. The series turned an already popular Chapelle into a legendary comedy star, and the format would become seemingly mandatory for future Comedy Central productions. Fans were disappointed when the sketch show abruptly ended during the run of season three, but if given a choice, it’s always better to leave the audience wanting more.
1
‘Freaks and Geeks’ (1999)
No. of Seasons: 1
The short-lived comedy drama Freaks and Geeks notoriously only received one season, but the story it told over 18 episodes still holds strong in viewers’ memories. Set at the beginning of the 1980s, Freaks and Geeks follows the lives of the less-popular students at William McKinley High School. Primarily focused on Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) and her brother Sam (John Francis Daley), the series watched them explore the complicated social dynamics of school while trying to find acceptance and friendship.
Freaks and Geeks rides the line between comedy and drama, but it does both extremely well. The NBC series is usually the first to be mentioned when referencing shows cancelled too soon, especially considering that virtually all the cast members went on to have notable roles in the entertainment industry. Freaks and Geeks expertly used long-form, serialized storytelling to drive the humor because the jokes came from organic and honest character growth, presented in a way that was believable and relatable.
