10 TV shows that were off the air longer than 'Mad Men'
Don Draper's been away for 17 months, but he's got nothing on Basil Fawlty
10 TV shows that were off the air longer than 'Mad Men'
When "Mad Men" returns to AMC on Sunday, March 25 at 9 p.m., it will be the first new episode featuring Don Draper and friends in 17 months. A protracted contract negotiation with series creator Matthew Weiner, coupled with AMC's other scheduling needs, have kept the show off the air for nearly a year and a half. But that's not even close to the biggest gap between new episodes for a TV series. Some of the shows that follow returned from cancellation, while others just worked on an idiosyncratic schedule, but all stayed away for longer than the employes of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.
Photo Credit: AMC
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupBen
March 12, 2012 at 7:42PM EST Reply to CommentDidn't Futurama have 4 seasons on FOX before getting canceled (so, it was canceled more than one year after it premiered)?
Jon He was saying it got cancelled a year after Family Guy got cancelled, not that it was cancelled a year after it premiered.
March 12, 2012 at 7:49PM ESTsad
March 12, 2012 at 7:54PM EST Reply to CommentDon't know which is worse - that I wasted my time on this or that Alan did.
Only apt comparison - Sopranos.
Hector Thanks for contributing this comment to the world. You seem like a pleasant person. You have lots of friends, I'm sure.
March 13, 2012 at 12:21AM ESTDD Hector, remember Alan's rules - attack the comment not the person.
March 13, 2012 at 6:53PM ESTalynch
March 12, 2012 at 8:45PM EST Reply to CommentThe Wire had a similar hiatus between seasons three and four.
chudleycannonfodder Yeah, clocks in around 20-21 months.
March 13, 2012 at 12:51AM ESTsepinwall That would be a good one to have included, yes. It was off the air for so long because HBO wasn't sure whether the show should continue or not, especially since Simon had seemingly wrapped up so many storylines at the end of season 3.
March 13, 2012 at 7:37AM ESTJeremiah
March 12, 2012 at 9:23PM EST Reply to CommentCan we really count it as a hiatus if the show in question was cancelled? Or if it comes back in a new form (like DOCTOR WHO) with a new cast? THE SOPRANOS and MAD MEN are similar because they were/are in the middle of their runs as a series, not simply being rebooted or resurrected.
sepinwall I'm not calling them hiatuses. There are a variety of circumstances in the examples I picked. But all of these were series that did continue (and, yes, I do consider "Doctor Who" a continuation, since the show always had a tradition of recasting the Doctor and bringing in new companions) after a greater length of time than "Mad Men" has been absent.
March 13, 2012 at 7:40AM ESTPrettok If you are going to count Doctor Who, then maybe you should also include the update series of Leave it to Beaver, Mission Impossible, and Upstairs Downstairs, all of which picked up on decades-old continuity.
March 13, 2012 at 9:33AM ESTsepinwall Fair points. This wasn't a definitive list, anyway; just 10 that came to mind as I started pondering gaps longer than 17 months.
March 13, 2012 at 10:49AM ESTIan
March 12, 2012 at 10:14PM EST Reply to CommentAhh poor Mole, one of the only "reality" shows I truly loved. Probably best to pretend it ended with Cooper in 2002 but I always wished that show could gain an audience and a greater general appreciation. It really was smart reality television and in the early 2000s when it aired the people involved were truly concerned solely with the game not with getting 15 minutes of fame (a big problem with a few of the people on it when it came back in 2008).
I wouldn't call them cheats per se but I still think a long time off the air for an animated series is a little less impressive compared to live action comedy/drama - less of a time commitment for the actors involved, nobody ages. I'd imagine it was a little easier to pick up Beavis and Butthead a decade+ down the line than something like Arrested Development will be (though here is surely hoping for nothing but the best for the Bluths).
Prettok
March 13, 2012 at 2:50AM EST Reply to Comment24 had a two-year hiatus thanks to the writers strike.
Conchords also had a long stretch between first and second seasons.
sepinwall Someone else reminded me of 24 on Twitter, and as with some other items on the list, I guess it comes down to whether you count the TV-movie or not when calculating the gap. Without "Redemption," there were 20 months or so between episodes; with "Redemption," the gap was shorter than "Mad Men" has been away.
March 13, 2012 at 7:39AM ESTStacy
March 13, 2012 at 6:35AM EST Reply to CommentI love that you included Doctor Who on this list! It's the best TV show of all time.
RedFi
March 13, 2012 at 1:27PM EST Reply to CommentNot sure if you would include it, but there were long gaps between the various iterations of the Degrassi shows. A break between the Kids of Degrassi Street and Degrassi Junior High, and then almost a decade between the end of Degrassi High and Degrassi: The New Generation.