The polar opposite to Long-Runners are, as you may expect, media that was canned so quickly that few people remember them. They may have not even gotten a TV Tropes page until someone suddenly remembered it existed.
Quality of the media may vary. Some of them may have been mediocre or downright terrible. Or they could have suffered Seasonal Rot during the second season after having a great first season. Or the show might have cost too much for their network, or they might have been Screwed by the Network, ending in the middle of plot lines that were never resolved. It gets worse if the short-lived show never got reruns, sharply decreasing the likelihood that there are tapes to circulate; this is a little less of a problem with the creation of streaming media, but that has its own issues if something gets pulled or delisted from a service. The Other Wiki has an article
on single-episode runs. No matter how much the media was advertised, many were Quietly Cancelled and sometimes forgotten.
One possible Trope Codifier for TV is the 1969 ABC sketch show Turn-On, which was considered awful and controversial — for its time, anywaynote . A number of ABC's affiliates dropped it at the first commercial break, and it was effectively canned before the premiere finished airing. Other affiliates either aired the entire show and then pulled it or didn't air it at all and replaced it with better programming, like a documentary on gun safety.
In the case of book series or other published media, many start off with a contracted run that ends when the contract is up or tapers off after it no longer draws in an audience or has very low readership. Shows may have lasted one season—two at most—and some of the more unfortunate ones don't even last one episode. Toys often don't sell well enough or get recalled, and companies move on to the next thing that might take off; Ghost of the Doll focuses on 80's and 90's toys aimed at girls, with several that often had short runs.
When a show has only a few episodes but is successful, that's British Brevity. When the show ends naturally with a few episodes, that's a Miniseries or 12-Episode Anime.
Supertrope of Second Season Downfall and One-Episode Wonder. Compare Short-Lived, Big Impact, which is where a show has a short run, but well-remembered; Too Good to Last; Cut Short; and Orphaned Series. See Failed Pilot Episode for an index on pilots that never went anywhere.
The podcast Canceled Too Soon specializes in covering short runner shows as well as other TV curiosities.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Abunai Sisters: The anime is ten episodes long, with only the first two airing and the rest being released on DVD.
- act-age: Despite becoming a surprise success to the point of having a stage play adaptation planned, the manga only ran for two and a half years before being cancelled almost immediately after its writer was arrested for sexual misconduct. Print and digital volumes of the manga were pulled from distribution, the stage play was canned, and the artist later removed all mentions of the series and any art she drew for it from her social media.
- Amalgam of Distortion was cancelled after 21 chapters due to low popularity with readers.
- Barrage was cancelled after 16 chapters due to low readership.
- Bone Collection was cancelled after only 15 chapters over four months of serialization.
- Candy Flurry was cancelled after 19 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Chagecha was cancelled after eight chapters due to low popularity with readers, holding the record for being the shortest-lived manga to ever run in Shonen Jump.
- Cheat Slayer is infamous for being cancelled after a single chapter for not only having several characters who are blatant copies of characters from other isekai works, but also portraying them as much more villainous than the characters they're obviously based on as a Take That! to the genre. This resulted in so much backlash (from both readers and creators of other isekai works) that the manga was cancelled immediately.
- The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store: Ran for only 10 chapters from February 2017 to November 2018.
- Criminale! ran for only 30 chapters before ending prematurely due to the creator's health issues.
- Dangaioh was cut short after three OVA episodes, even though it was intended to run for longer. Its TV anime sequel, Great Dangaioh, was meant to run for 26 episodes, but was cut down to only 13 due to low ratings and poor reviews.
- Don Dracula - The manga ran for only six months, from May to December 1979. The 1982 anime adaptation only had eight episodes produced, and only four of those episodes made it to air, thanks to the anime's sponsoring company going bankrupt.
- Doron Dororon: The manga ran from less than a year from November 2021 to August 2022.
- Double Arts was cancelled after 24 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Duranki ran for only six chapters before creator Kentaro Miura died, and it was agreed that the manga would not continue without him.
- Fabricant 100: The manga ran from less than a year from November 2022 to September 2023.
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited was planned to be 52 episodes long, but low ratings (and the financial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within) led to the anime being cut down to only 25 episodes. The story has since been continued in other mediums.
- F-Zero: GP Legend: Ended on a "to be continued" after 51 episodes. The English dub was canceled after only 26 episodes were translated, with a mere 15 airing in the US.
- Green Green Greens was cancelled after 26 chapters due to low volume sales and popularity rankings.
- Gun Blaze West was cancelled after 26 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Hana & Hina After School was cancelled after a year and a half of serialization (first from April to May 2015 in the magazine Comic High!, then from June 2015 to November 2016 in Monthly Action) due to low readership.
- Harisugawa in Mirror World was cancelled after 29 chapters due to low volume sales and popularity rankings.
- Heroine Voice ran for only ten chapters from 2015 to 2016 before abruptly stopping with no explanation; many consider it to be Quietly Cancelled.
- Hula Kappa ran 78 episodes from April 1 to December 21, 2006.
- Hungry Marie was cancelled after 44 chapters due to low readership.
- The Hunters Guild: Red Hood: Due to low readership despite attaining a small but growing following online, the manga ran for only a handful of months, from June to November of 2021, only 18 chapters.
- I don't know if it's LOVE or MAGIC! was cancelled after only 33 chapters due to low volume sales.
- i tell c: The manga was cancelled after 21 chapters over six months due to low volume sales.
- Ice Revolution was cancelled after only 13 chapters.
- Killing Me! was discontinued after only 11 chapters.
- Kuro Kuro ~Black Chronicle~ ran for only 10 chapters before going on an indefinite hiatus; the creator has said he doesn't expect to continue working on the manga, leading many to consider it Quietly Cancelled.
- Kurogane (2011) was cancelled after 70 chapters due to low popularity with readers.
- Kyokuto Necromance was cancelled after five months of serialization due to low readership.
- Lock On! was cancelled after 18 chapters due to low volume sales and popularity rankings.
- The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies only ran for a year and a half before the creator's sudden passing left it unfinished.
- Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force ran for 31 chapters over a span of four years with a massive issue of Schedule Slip before it was put on a hiatus which, for all intents and purposes, is considered by many to be a quiet cancellation.
- Magu-chan: God of Destruction: Despite doing fairly well in critical reception and merchandise sales, the manga was ultimately cancelled after just under two years of serialization due to low volume sales.
- MamaYuyu was cancelled after 29 chapters due to low readership.
- Marry Grave was cancelled after just over a year of serialization due to poor volume sales.
- Mitama Security: Spirit Busters had positive reception and ranked fairly high in Shonen Jump's popularity polls, but it was ultimately cancelled after 47 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Noah's Notes was cancelled after 25 chapters due to low popularity rankings.
- Otome Kikan Gretel ran for only five chapters from 2007 to 2008, after which the creator put his career on hold due to health issues. Many consider it to be Quietly Cancelled.
- Otr of the Flame was cancelled after eight months of serialization due to low popularity rankings and volume sales.
- Oumagadoki Doubutsuen was cancelled after 40 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Phantom Seer was cancelled after 30 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Pokémon RéBURST - 77 chapters over a year and a half.
- PPPPPP was cancelled after about a year and a half of serialization at 70 chapters due to consistently low popularity rankings.
- Princess Rouge was intended to run for six OVA episodes, but it was cut short after only two due to running out of funding.
- Prism was cancelled after only six chapters due to allegations of its art being traced.
- Psych House was cancelled after 17 chapters due to low readership.
- Robot × Laserbeam started out with strong sales thanks to the success of Tadatoshi Fujimaki's previous manga, but sales and readership both gradually dwindled over time, to the point that it was eventually cancelled a little over a year after it began.
- Rookie Policewoman Kiruko-san: Despite getting a lot of attention at first thanks to its main heroine, the manga was eventually cancelled after six months of serialization due to dwindling popularity and low volume sales.
- Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru: Despite the success of Masashi Kishimoto's previous series and Shonen Jump's attempts to promote it, the manga only ran for ten months before it was cancelled due to low volume sales.
- Shindere Shoujo to Kodoku na Shinigami was serialized for only a year and a half before being put on indefinite hiatus due to the writer's illness. She passed away two years later, leaving the manga unfinished.
- Shuukan Shounen Hachi was cancelled after 42 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Soul Rescue was cancelled after only ten chapters due to low volume sales.
- Star of Beethoven was cancelled after 20 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Stars Align was intended to run for 24 episodes, but it was cut down to only 12 episodes late in production; since the staff had no time to adjust the story to that length, the anime ends on a Cliffhanger and has yet to be properly continued.
- Stealth Symphony was cancelled after 21 chapters due to low popularity with readers.
- SWOT was cancelled after 22 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Syd Craft: Love Is a Mystery was cancelled after 28 chapters due to low readership.
- Tekkaman was intended to run for 52 episodes, but was cancelled after only 26 episodes aired. Its later revamp was much more successful.
- Time Paradox Ghostwriter was serialized for only 14 chapters over three months before being cancelled due to low popularity with Shonen Jump's readership.
- Time Stranger Kyoko was cancelled after only a year of serialization due to the titular Kyoko's headstrong personality not being received well by readers, along with Arina Tanemura's editors disliking the series and Tanemura herself going through personal problems at the time.
- Tokyo Shinobi Squad was cancelled after 27 chapters due to low readership.
- Tricks Dedicated to Witches was cancelled after 31 chapters due to low volume sales.
- U19 was cancelled after only 17 chapters due to low readership.
- Vector Ball was abruptly cancelled less than a year after it began due to low sales.
- Yui Kamio Lets Loose was cancelled after 36 chapters due to both low popularity and volume sales.
- Zipman!! was cancelled after only 17 chapters due to low volume sales.
- Zombiepowder. was cancelled after only 27 chapters due to low volume sales and Tite Kubo going through personal problems that made it too difficult for him to work on it.
Asian Animation
- Akis had all twelve of its episodes aired in the same year.
- Block 13 lasted 2 years with 45 episodes produced.
- Nana Moon has 52 episodes, all of which aired in one season in 2013.
- Noonbory and the Super 7 (one season with 26 episodes; follow-up series was never released outside South Korea)
- Rocket Boy & Toro ran from 2008 to 2009 for 52 episodes, across one season.
- Stitch & Ai: Only one thirteen-episode season, making it the shortest-lived TV show in its franchise. When it finally reached the United States over a year later, the ninth episode was excluded.
Comic Books
- Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars!: lasted 5 issues and a graphic novel, and got an Animated Adaptation, but was canceled when creator Continuity Comics went out of business.
- Family Guy had a comic book run in 2006 by Pullbox. Only three issues were released before it was Quietly Cancelled.
- Incarnate was Cut Short after three issues due to accusations of plagiarism.
- Mega Man (Dreamwave) - Four issues came out of this before Dreamwave went out of business.
- Once Upon a Caper: Issue #0 was published under the title "Once Upon a Superhero", but was pulled shortly after release due to legal disputes from Marvel Comics and DC Comics over the trademark "superhero". The comic was re-released a few years later with a new title and some script changes, but no other issues have been published.
- Rainbow Brite only lasted five issues before getting canned.
- Red Hood (2025): The first issue of the ongoing Batman Spin-Off was published in September 2025. The next day the whole series was cancelled, it was announced that the other completed issues wouldn't be printed or released, and publisher DC Comics offered to refund comic shops.
- Sonic Boom - 11 issues before it became the first casualty of Worlds Unite.
- Sonic: Mega Drive - Two issues out of three were made before the cancellation of the main comic series took this with it.
- Spümcø Comic Book ran for only four issues from 1995 to 1997.
- Starfire (2015) - Twelve issues from August 2015 to July 2016.
- Street Fighter (Malibu Comics) was cancelled after just three issues, with the second one ending on a cliffhanger heavily suggesting that Ken was dead (though writer's letters included alongside the third and final issue would prove that wasn't the case).
Comic Strips
- Garfield creator Jim Davis has had multiple comic strips that lasted only a few years:
- Gnorm Gnat, one of Davis' first strips, barely lasted 2 years before being cancelled.
- Jon — The strip that would be the direct predecessor to Garfield, also lasted 2 years before cancellation.
- U.S. Acres, which is more known for its appearance on Garfield and Friends, lasted 3 years and a month due to not being much of a success (especially when compared to the orange cat).
- Li'l Folks — created by Charles M. Schulz, it lasted only 3 years before it was retooled into Peanuts.
Game Shows
- You Don't Know Jack: while a long runner when counting the games, the gameshow version only got six episodes.
Literature
- Bad News Ballet only released ten books in the series, a victim of many short lived girl-focused book series of the 1980s and 1990s.
- Star Darlings was launched in 2015, but after low book and toy sales, all parts of the franchise (the books, the doll line and the web series) were discontinued in 2017.
Pinball
- Capcom's arcade pinball division, which developed only six tables (four of which were released) before closing.
Theme Parks
- Superstar Limo at Disney's California Adventure: Known as one of the most notorious Disney rides ever for being lazy and unfunny, it lasted about a year. Where it once stood is now a Monsters Inc ride.
- Galactic Starcruiser, the hotel/roleplaying experience attached to Walt Disney World's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, was shut down after only 18 months of operation, March 2022 to September 2023.
Toys
- Flick-to-Stick Bungees - The European version lasted for two series between 2012 to 2013. The American version fared even worse at only one series.
- My Friend Cayla lasted 3 short years on the shelves before it was pulled due to security and privacy concerns.
- My Little Pony - The second generation only lasted a year in the US, though continued in European markets until 2003.
- Stardust Classics - Launched in 1997 but folded in 2001 due to their parent company, Just Pretend, closing in the dot-com collapse.
Video Games
- The Virtual Boy; which lasted less than a year and received only about a dozen games in the US (if you include Japanese games, it almost reaches two dozen).
- The Sega 32X launched in late 1994 and was discontinued less than 2 years later in 1996, receiving a total of only 40 games. Sega intended it as a more affordable way for Genesis users to make the jump into the upcoming 32-bit generation, but its lack of games and the imminent release of true next generation consoles such as the PlayStation and Sega's own Saturn killed any interest in it.
- The Learning Voyage series of PC/Mac edutainment games by Davidson & Associates/Learningways, Inc. There were only two games in the series, released in 1998. Trademarks were filed in 1997 and abandoned in 1999. While it is still used in Classworks, it's not known by that name to those who play it; it's just "That game where you play as a shark and eat fish with words on them" or "That game where you dunk a clown by choosing fact or opinion".
- BEMANI games each usually get sequels that include interface, songlist, and gameplay updates, with beatmania IIDX having the most arcade versions of any game at 34,note but two infamously only lasted one version each before being retired: Mambo A Go Go and pop'n stage; both games were released before the advent of the eAMUSEMENT network and online updates that keep versions fresh even as they age.note To be fair, pop'n stage is a spinoff of pop'n music, but that it got a unique cabinet yet only used that cabinet for a single release cements it firmly into this trope.
- Unlike other Love Live! mobile games, Love Live! School idol festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE! is very short lived. The original Japanese version launched in April 2023 and shut down in March 2024, just a month shy of its first anniversary. However, the global version took it to the extreme, as it had both its launch date and its end-of-service date announced on the same day. The global version ultimately launched in February 2024 before shutting down three months later.
- Dr. Mario World is one of the shortest-lived Nintendo mobile games to date, having lasted only two years and four months before it was shut down and delisted from all app stores.
- Concord was a live-service Hero Shooter game probably best known for only running for about two weeks before it was abruptly shut down, citing that it never found its audience in that time. It spent 8 years in development and had a budget of over 200 million dollars.
- Spectre Divide was a free-to-play competitive team-based tactical shooter similar to Counter-Strike and Valorant, marketing itself as a competitor to both games, seeing an official release in September 2024, but following its first major content update/season in February 2025, its developer, Mountaintop Studios, announced both the closure of the game and the studio itself in March 2025. In their announcements, Mountaintop pin their failure on low player count and retention, and while they had considered alternate options to keep the game afloat, it was ultimately deemed a dud.
- Korean developer Press A had a video game, SIDE BULLET, which was a side-scrolling battle royale. Western gamers didn't play it, with the ones who did mocking it. After less than two months, the game went down, anyone who purchased content for it was refunded, and its social medias were delisted and deleted.
- In terms of Disney’s mobile games, one of the shortest ones to last was Disney Wonderful Worlds, a match three puzzle game focusing on the parks. It lasted only seven months before Disney rendered it unplayable.
- Highguard was launched in late January 2026 and shut down in March 2026, having lasted a little over a month and a half.
Webcomic
- Omoriboy: The webcomic that would conceive the then-unproduced 2020s horror game began being uploading on creator Omocat's Tumblr blog between the end of 2011 and March of 2012.
- Nebula: Lasted only 17 chapters between 2013 and 2016 (before going on an indefinite hiatus that would be occasionally reinformed about from the creators since the releases of the latest chapters through May 2025), with a few tie-in short stories being uploaded during the comic's run until 2017.
- Vampire Girl: The first season ran from 2011 to 2012 with only a total of seventeen strips... then the second season ran from 2022 to 2023 with an additional thirty-five strips.
- Wumpus Wonderventures: Lasted for only four episodes, all of which were uploaded to Webtoon on the same day.
Web Videos
- Blocklanta: Only three episodes were uploaded a day after the last.
- Petscop: Out of a 32 month-run, the Alternate Reality Game series had 24 episodes uploaded between early 2017 and late 2019.
Web Animation
- The Bro Show: Only lasted one episode due to mixed reception.
- Button's Adventures: Only lasted one episode before its creator was handed a cease-and-desist letter from Hasbro.
- CartoonMania had a total of 30 cartoons (unevenly) spread throughout 3 seasons, as well as a Finale Movie.
- Dig Build Live only lasted for seven episodes with the last episode being released in February 2014 and has since been on indefinite hiatus.
- Family Gal: Only 3 episodes were released in 2022.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: The Backstory: Lasted for four episodes (three complete episodes and an unfinished one) before being discontinued due to the creator's lack of motivation.
- Five Nights at Freddy's (Nicotor700): Only lasted for eleven episodes. A second season was planned but ultimately scrapped due to the creator not having ideas.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: The Past: It only lasted one episode due to Zero2zero 2 having to focus on Dares 4 and 5 and with her quitting YouTube in late 2021 suggests that its fate has been sealed.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Rebirth of the King: Lasted for one season of 21 episodes due to lack of motivation and school. There were plans for the series to return but animated with Blender in March 2023, but nothing ever came of them.
- Glue (W!ldBrain) ran for 25 episodes during the early 2000's.
- Hard Drinkin' Lincoln: Only lasted 14 episodes.
- Human Kind Of, which for extra points, aired on a web service few people are even aware of to begin with.
- Melody Star: Lasted a measly episode before getting canned and undergoing a reboot.
- Murder Drones: It only had one season of 8 episodes stretched across three years.
- Queer Duck: Only lasted 20 episodes, although it later received a movie in 2006.
- The Red Ape Family: Lasted four episodes before its budget ran out.
- Spookyville USA had two episodes; the second episode is also a parody of Long-Runners, playing out like the final episode to a popular, decades-spanning multi-media franchise.
- StrifeToons: As a consequence of Andrew Kepple having a desire to work on several other projects, the series only lasted 4 episodes before coming to an end.
- Toon Marooned: This take on Survivor starring the Looney Tunes crew lasted ten episodes, as was planned.
- Weekend Pussy Hunt: Only lasted 12 episodes, even though 16 were planned.
- Your Favorite Martian: Lasted two years, due to being screwed over by Maker Studios.
