Uncanceled

Peter: Everyone, I've got bad news: We've been canceled.
Lois: Oh no, Peter, how could they do that?
Peter: Well unfortunately, Lois, there's just no more room on the schedule. We've just got to accept the fact that FOX has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That '80s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freaky Links, Wanda At Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute With Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The Street, American Embassy, Cedric The Entertainer, The Tick, Louie, and Greg the Bunny. *glances at Chris*
Lois: Is there no hope?
Peter: Well, I suppose if all those shows go down the tubes, we might have a shot.

—Family Guy

That rarest of all television phenomena. A show that has been condemned to the fiery pits of cancellation is resurrected by the same executives who sought to destroy it... or different executives who want to right the wrongs of the previous ones.

Most times, this means a show is picked up by a cable channel or other network and put back into production. Very rarely, a show will be resurrected by the same network.

The biggest causes are either a campaign by fans (along with a compliant creator), or high sales in other media, such as DVD. If the show is not popular enough to warrant a whole new series but an ending is in demand by fans, then a TV movie or miniseries may be ordered to Wrap It Up.

More common is creating a Revival or Media Franchise.

If the show got enough of a notice to have a Grand Finale, being Uncanceled transforms it into a Series Fauxnale, followed by Post Script Season.

If a show is not actually canceled, but comes close before a last-minute renewal or a marginal decision to renew, that goes on Only Barely Renewed.

Examples of Uncanceled include:

Anime and Manga

• The Inuyasha anime was canceled in 2004 after four years in the air when it was beginning to overtake the manga. Five years after, in 2009, a 26-episode follow-up series titled Inuyasha: The Final Act, was commissioned in order to adapt the remaining chapters now that the manga itself has already concluded.
• Pantheon High was one of Tokyopop's Original English Language (OEL) manga series, and like most of their OEL, it was canceled when the US economy dipped and Tokyopop restructured. After about two years, the third and final volume was released on the Tokyopop website.
• Slayers lasted 3 seasons in its original run, ending in 1997. A fourth season was planned, but the main cast's other commitments, along with various production issues, kept it from happening...for 11 years. Season 4 finally aired in 2008, with a fifth season arriving the following year.
• Sailor Moon's original run in the US was cut short after only 65 episodes in its original syndicated run. After leaving syndication, it re-surfaced on USA Network, where it was once again, cancelled after failing to find an audience. However, once the show ended up on Toonami, it finally garnered itself an audience, which resulted in the show being continued with more episodes.
• This actually happened to Dragonball Z back in the late 1990s. After two seasons worth of 67 episodes in its first run, the show was cancelled in 1998 due its failure of gaining a substantial audience. When the episodes started to air on Toonami, it got much more popularity, and Funimation started dubbing new episodes in 1999.
• Ranma ½ was originally canceled in Japan after only 18 episodes due to its time slot being in competition with another, more popular show. It however, continued several months later with a different time slot.

Comic Books

• Manhunter was originally slated to be canceled after issue #25, but fan demand convinced DC to continue for 5 more issues. After those five, it was canceled again until fan demand convinced DC to give Manhunter another chance. Then it became a backup Feature for Batman Streets of Gotham. The backup feature was cancelled after only a year.
• Sonic the Comic (the UK one) had an uncanceling in the form of a "Head approved" fan revival.
• The comic book Spider-Girl has been canceled and uncanceled so many times it's easy to lose track, including the latest time at issue 100 to restart again with 1 (which was far from guaranteed at the time).
• X-Men, the comic book series was canceled after seven years of horrible sales and no popularity (it was revived nine months later, but only published reprints of earlier issues). It was basically seen as a poor-man's version of the Fantastic Four. Then it was rebooted with all new characters like Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus, along with minor Hulk villain Wolverine. Under the skilled writing of Chris Claremont, it became Marvel's flagship title throughout the '80s and '90s.

Literature

• Liaden Universe: The first three books of the Liaden series did not sell well enough for the original publisher to want to commission sequels. Disappointed, the authors got day jobs and went on with their lives for the next several years while, unbeknownst to them, a significant Liad fandom was growing on the Internet (to the point where "When will the next Liaden book come out?" was a question in the SF fandom newsgroup's FAQ).

When the Internet arrived in Lee & Miller's neck of Maine, they were startled to find that not only were fans clamoring for the next book, but the title of it, Plan B, had already been decided for them. With this fandom behind them, Lee & Miller were able to find a publisher to continue the series, and cranked out seven more books (as well as two collections of the short stories they continue to self-publish in chapbook form every year).

Then the series was uncanceled again when Baen picked it up after that other publisher, Meisha Merlin, went out of business. Four more books were added to the series (though two of them had already been written as fan-funded draft manuscripts), then other sequels and prequels were contracted. To the fans' delight, the series now shows no signs of stopping.

Live-Action TV

• Arrested Development was canceled in 2006 after 3 seasons and left on a massive cliff hanger. After years of movie rumors, it was announced in late 2011 that not only was they movie going to be done, a 4th season would be funded by Netflix.
• Babylon 5 was cancelled by PTEN one year short of its 5 year arch. They wrapped it up as best they could by the end of season 4 but then had contrive a whole new story arch when they were picked up for a final season by TNT.
• When 7th Heaven was canceled after 10 seasons, its final episode got such unexpectedly stellar ratings the CW network decided to revive it for one more horrid season. Ratings quickly dropped again because people only tuned in to see the show die - not to see a dying show.
• MTV's Headbanger's Ball was finally brought back in 2003 after the original show was cancelled almost a decade earlier.
• One of the shortest uncancelation cycles on record belongs to America's Most Wanted. In 1996, Fox canceled the series even though it was still one of fledgling network's highest-rated shows, as Fox attempted to establish a Saturday night comedy block to take advantage of NBC's dwindling dominance of the evening. After then FBI director Louis Freeh, police departments across the country, the governors of 37 states and more than 200,000 letter-writers complained about the decision, Fox hastily reinstated the series, and it suffered only a six-week hiatus. It also kind of helped that the new sitcoms bombed badly and that Fox realized Married... with Children and Martin should have never been moved to Saturday night in the first place. In 2011, the show was reduced to a series of quarterly specials on Fox, as well as regular showings on Lifetime TV, but it's still chugging along.
• Battlebots was canceled in 2002 after five seasons on Comedy Central, but got brought back by CBS College Sports in December 2009.
• Dog the Bounty Hunter has been suspended by A&E several times due to incidents involving the Chapmans, but always makes it back on the air with new seasons due to fan outcry and closed-door negotiations.
• Baywatch was originally an NBC TV (or should we say T&A) series which was canceled. David Hasselhoff, the show's star, arranged to buy the rights to the show and have it continue as a Syndicated TV show, where it was very successful.
• Beakman's World was ended by CBS after the show had 65 episodes in the can (the standard number of episodes needed before a series could go into syndication back then). An outpouring of fan support convinced them to give it one more season. The comeback was so late it resulted in an assistant change.
• Apparently the first anyone working on Blake's 7 knew of the fourth series was when it was announced at the end of the last episode of the third. The BBC's Director of Television, Bill Cotton, was enjoying the episode so much he phoned the transmission staff mid-episode and told them to announce that the show was returning.
• Cagney and Lacey was canceled by CBS in 1983, after two seasons. A letter-writing campaign persuaded the network to bring the show back; four more full seasons aired, plus four(!) Made for TV Movies in the mid-1990s. Thus, unlike many of the shows on this list, its post-uncancelation run was much longer than its pre-cancellation run
• After an incredible 10 years, ABC greenlighted the return of Cupid. It was described as a reimagining and was as Too Good to Last as the original and quickly faded away.
• Damages was canceled by F/X during its third season. The show's producers took the show over to Direc TV, who picked it up for two more seasons.
• By 1985, British sci-fi institution Doctor Who had weathered Moral Guardians, inflation, and lackluster scripts... but when a new BBC controller who had never liked the show came in, its number was up. The resultant outcry made the newspapers and talk shows, and 18 months later, it returned; unfortunately, the ratings started to slip after it was put in a time slot against popular Soap Opera Coronation Street, and in 1989, it was re-canceled. It wouldn't return as an ongoing TV series until 2005. It has since then become the most successful work of fiction on British television.
  • Notably, the controller who brought the series back is the same who had it cancelled in the '80s, and has since gone on record stating that his view of the show has changed and that he now enjoys the show.
• Originating as a Made for TV Movie, Due South's rocky history included getting canceled twice. Fans could only watch in anxious fascination as the offbeat procedural was canceled, un-canceled, un-un-canceled, and finally un-un-UN-canceled. Four seasons aired in all, and the show ended on its own terms.
• The Game after two years worth of outcry and a move to BET. It's proven to be one of the most successful examples of this trope. Not only did the show's re-runs on BET get better ratings than the CW's first airings, the season 4 premier got 7.7 million viewers, which was a first for a serialized drama/comedy on cable. All the more impressive, considering what network The Game came from (CW) and where it went (BET).
• Get Smart was dropped by NBC after four seasons, only to have CBS pick it up for a fifth.
• JAG. started life on NBC for one season, before being canceled and immediately snapped up by CBS, where it ran for nine more seasons, and eventually spawned the NCIS franchise.
• The cancellation of Jericho in 2007 lead to a strange campaign where fans sent nuts to the network to persuade it to reverse the decision. The network eventually announced a further seven episodes would be produced and "please stop sending us nuts". The nuts were later given to charity. Or used as part of a contest on Big Brother.
• The original pilot for Law and Order was rejected by CBS, but picked up by NBC with several different characters and different sets for the court, police house, and DA's office.
• Mama's Family: Canceled by NBC in 1984 after only two seasons, it was brought back in 1986 in first-run syndication, lasting for four more seasons. (Thankfully, as most fans seem to enjoy the syndicated seasons more.)
  • Of course, Mama's Family is not the only show to have made a successful transition from running on a television network to running in broadcast syndication. Other shows that have done this include Charles in Charge, Fame, Lassie, and most notably, Hee Haw, which managed to have a 20 year syndicated run after a brief 2 year run on CBS.
• Medium was canceled by NBC in the 08-09 season, and then picked up by CBS.
• ABC's reality show The Mole became this when it returned to ABC in the summer of 2008 in its original format.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 was canceled after a seven-year run on Comedy Central, but was shopped around; fans lobbied to other networks to bring the show back, even to the extent of buying a full-page ad in Variety bemoaning the loss. It was brought back on the Sci-Fi Channel. Three years later, it was canceled again, and though the same maneuver was attempted, it remains so to this day.
• New Amsterdam, about an immortal detective, was canceled by Fox before the first episode even aired. However, due to the WGA writer's strike, they ended up airing it, and it got a fairly good response. But it is FOX, so they rendered the show Too Good to Last just the same.
• The UK TV drama Primeval was canceled after 3 seasons but was uncanceled and is now renewed for a 4th and 5th season.
• Police, Camera, Action!: Uncanceled in 2002, then 2007, and then 2008, and again in 2010!
• Power Rangers was canceled, and brought back multiple times. Time and time again, the lyrics from the original theme prove true.

No-one can ever take them down/ the power lies on their si~i~i~ide!

• • When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was first aired in 1993 the network executives of FOX had so little insight and faith in the show's potential that the show was only expected to last, at best, for one season. So before the show even began it was prescheduled for cancellation after it had completed its one season of 40 episodes total. Due to the show's unforeseen popularity however, what was supposed to be the grand finale was edited last minute into a standard multi-part episode to leave the show open ended for continuation. Fox ordered an additional 20 episodes, using new Toei footage and costumes bought exclusively for Power Rangers by Saban (having exhausted the Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger footage), for the first season. At the same time Saban also secured the rights to more Super Sentai series for future seasons of the show.
    • Just to further elaborate as to how little faith the network executives had in the show. According to statements given by Margaret Loesch, the then President of the Fox Kids Network, one of said network executives contacted her a week before the show's television premiere and pleaded that she cancel it right then and there (not to air even a single episode).
      • And just to take it one step further, this attitude was not exclusive to just the network executives of FOX. Saban had attempted for several years unsuccessfully to market the show to virtually all other networks at the time (both cable and standard broadcast television) that aired kids programming. The only reason Margaret Loesch had any faith in Saban's vision and gave it a chance was that she could personally sympathize with his cause. In the early 1980's Stan Lee (yes that Stan Lee) and Loesch (when she worked at Marvel Productions). had met with similar marketing failure due to resistance from various network executives when they teamed up to market a similar show concept also using Super Sentai. Their failure eventually caused Marvel to give the rights back to Toei, allowing Saban to buy them in the mid-80s, which brings us back to the beginning of this bullet point.
  • In 1998, after a significant continual decline in viewers following the Power Rangers Zeo and Power Rangers Turbo seasons, Power Rangers in Space was intially meant to wrap up the show as a whole as it was to be canceled. However, due to that season's space travel theme and Grand Finale of six seasons worth of stories, the audience interest was increased enough that it was renewed for the postscript Power Rangers Lost Galaxy season. This would become the lead way into the show's restructuring of seasons to mirror a Media Franchise, similar to Super Sentai.
  • In 2002 Disney, after having completed Power Rangers Wild Force out of obligation to Bandai and Toei (having obtained the show already in production from Saban as part of a buyout), decided to cancel the show due to production cost. The cancellation only lasted about two weeks however, when producers Douglas Sloan and Ann Austen, who had formerly worked for Saban, convinced Disney to move production to New Zealand for one-third the Los Angeles production cost.
  • While it didn't get cancelled either time, the show was on the verge of being cancelled yet again in 2005 and 2007. According to Greg Aronowitz, a former Executive Producer, Disney felt that Power Rangers had lived past its prime by the time that the thirteenth season roled around and had stated to him and Bruce Kalish that Power Rangers SPD would be a "make it or break it" season for the show in 2005. If it did well the show could be allowed to go on for at least two more years beyond SPD. However, if it did poorly they would cancel it at the end of SPD. It ended up doing decent ratings.
    • Several of the Power Rangers Operation Overdrive cast indicated that they were told that their season would be the last in 2007, further supporting what Aronwitz was told during SPD two seasons earlier. This turned out not to be the case though as Jungle Fury soon followed. It is believed that contract obligations to continue the show through its sixteenth season was the deciding factor as it would have likely been more expensive to break the contract than to produce another season.
  • The show was canceled again in 2008 following Power Rangers Jungle Fury due to a continued decline in viewers, Disney's perceived apathy to being associated with a show it didn't quite understand and a perceived overall staleness in the show's format following Bruce Kalish's tenure as executive producer. The cancellation only lasted until European investment and pressure from Bandai forced a seventeenth season.
  • The series was canceled for a fifth time with it ending in December 2009, after production problems and a mid-season staff shake-up struck Power Rangers RPM. This problem was in addition to the continuation of most, though not all, of the same problems that were perceived to have prompted the cancellation following Jungle Fury. The NZ production company even publicly stated that RPM would be the last series. Bandai countered by saying that there would be an eighteenth season by Disney in 2010 a few weeks later. Official confirmation one way or the other by Disney themselves wasn't directly made, however Bandai later revealed in another statement in October 2009 that Disney would begin showing a Recut of Mighty Morphin starting January 2010. It is now believed this was the season eighteen Bandai mentioned. Not that it matters much anymore. Saban, now reformed as a new umbrella venture named Saban Brands, has bought the series back from Disney and is now planning a true eighteenth season, Power Rangers Samurai, for Nickelodeon.
    • Press releases and direct responses to questions on Twitter by both Saban and Nick indicate that they do consider the recut of Mighty Morphin to be officially the eighteenth season same as Disney though, thus making Samurai the nineteenth season by default. The topic among fans about this decision is heated to say the least.
• Subverted with Raumschiff Gamestar: After it officially ended in the fifth season with a Kill'Em All, nothing was heard about it for five years. Then in 2009, the producers announced a new season and even released a trailer for it. However, half a year later, it was revealed to be a case of Real Trailer, Fake Movie, and the third season of RSGS's Spiritual Successor started publishing instead.
• The 2007-2008 season of Scrubs was supposed to be the last but, due to the Writer's Strike, the show didn't exactly end in a satisfying fashion. It moved to ABC.
• Sledge Hammer! was canceled after the 1st season, only to be renewed for a second season after the last episode got higher than expected ratings, which created something of a dilemma for the writers. Expecting to be cancelled after the first season, the season finale featured Los Angeles as well as the titular character being vaporized by an nuclear bomb.
  • They got around this by claiming at the start of the second season that the first-season finale was five years in the future, giving themselves room to run the series for another five seasons. Naturally, the show was cancelled soon thereafter.
• Southland was cancelled by NBC to make room for Jay Leno's prime time show, but was saved by TNT.
• Stargate SG-1 was canceled by Showtime after the fifth season, and was then picked up by Sci Fi. And was canceled again after the tenth season, with the fanbase split between those who wanted it to continue and those who wanted it to happen two seasons earlier. MGM decided to just go direct-to-DVD this time around.
  • MGM wanted the show to be picked up by another network but Sci-Fi claimed that the contract prohibits this.
  • This doesn't really count, since the show wasn't actually cancelled and brought back. At most, it was at risk of cancellation—and even that claim has been disputed.
• Taxi was axed by ABC, but jumped to NBC and survived.
• Reality show Last Comic Standing seems to only survive in 3 season blocks. It ran its first 3 seasons, then got canceled. Then it came back and ran for 3 more seasons, and then got canceled. Now it's back again. Make up your minds!
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? was cancelled in 1996, then renewed for one more season in 1999 with an all-new cast.
• Game Shows, in spades.
  • CBS canceled The $25,000 Pyramid in December 1987 and replaced it with a game show called Blackout. When that show tanked, $25,000 came back from April to July 1988 but only as a stop-gap measure until the revival of Family Feud was ready.
    • In 1973, CBS canceled the first of the series, The $10,000 Pyramid, after a season. Six weeks later it was snapped up by ABC, where it ran for six years.
  • The Singing Bee aired for one season on NBC before it was canceled. The show was brought back in 2009 on CMT with a new host (Melissa Peterman over Joey Fatone) but mostly the same format.
  • PAX had a game show called On the Cover which aired two episodes in May 2004 before getting yanked. It returned in slightly Re Tooled format in September but was re-canceled by year's end.
  • The game show Shop 'til You Drop aired on Lifetime from 1991-94 before it was canceled. It returned on Family Channel from 1996 to 1998 and got canceled again. Then it moved to PAX, which aired a new version from 2000-02 before a horrendous retool from 2003-05.
  • GSN ran Lingo for five seasons (2002–07), itself a revival of a short-lived 1980s game show. And it's come back in 2011 with a Hotter and Sexier format and Bill Engvall hosting - a revival that was also canceled after one series.
  • Incredibly, this happened with Wheel of Fortune in its early days. NBC president and CEO Fred Silverman made two attempts to cancel the show in 1980. The first was to make room for a failed talk show hosted by David Letterman, but was never followed through; the second was actually followed through to the point that several staff members (including announcer Charlie O'Donnell) left and a series finale was taped. Thankfully, Silverman reconsidered his decision and cut Letterman to an hour. Wheel would only gain in popularity during the 1980s.
    • And then it struck daytime again. Pat Sajak left daytime in January 1989 to host a talk show for CBS, and while the arguably-out-of-his-element Rolf Benirschke did the last six months of that run, NBC and Griffin simply could not come to a license agreement due to The Price Is Right adding viewers while Wheel remained steady. NBC announced the show's end in mid-May, only for CBS to renew it the next day; Bob Goen was chosen as host on July 7, a week after Rolf's last show. The show's subsequent ratings never approached that of the NBC era, even after hopping back there in January 1991.
  • The original Match Game (1962–69) was on NBC's chopping block after 13 weeks, until writer Dick DeBartolo suggested to Mark Goodson that they spice up some of the questions. He approved (given they were already cancelled), viewers picked up on it, and NBC spared it.
  • NBC has uncanceled Fear Factor (of all things), years after the network ran to the ground with constant celebrity editions. The revival aired briefly in the 2011-12 series before being re-canceled.
• In 1999 the BBC Sci-Fi comedy Red Dwarf ended on a cliffhanger. The co-creator and head writer Doug Naylor attempted for some time to get a movie off the ground, but in 2001 approached the BBC about to make a new series and the BBC replied with the comment "we are no longer interested in the audience Red Dwarf used to provide". The show eventually returned on cable channel Dave in 2009 with a 3-part adventure and was a massive ratings success for the channel, even beating the original channel that Red Dwarf used to air on in the ratings (BBC 2), a bout of hilarious irony on the BBC. A new series had been announced and will air in Fall 2012.
• Young Dracula was canceled, leaving it at a cliffhanger in Season 2. A couple years later (thanks to fan-led petitions and general interest), Season 3 is being made and is expected to air in 2012.
  • The third season ended up premiering on the 31st of October 2011.
• Roswell has both cases. It was apparently first canceled by the WB on the first season, which promoted the fans to launch a "Tabasco" campaign, in which they managed to send 6,000 bottles of Tabasco to the executives. On the second season, the show was canceled again, even if the fans did send 12,000 Tabasco bottles. UPN picked it up for a third season, after which it was canceled for good.
• Primeval was canceled in 2009 only to be revived in 2011.
• Due South, at least twice. It was cancelled after one season, then renewed and "Letting Go" was filmed to keep the fans from wondering what happened after the finale. After season 2, it happened again and the sets were taken down. That was why Fraser went to live at the consulate. Callum Keith Rennie replaced David Marciano as Marciano had already moved his family after the apparent cancellation and didn't want to move back.
• NBC cancelled Remington Steele at the end of the 1985–86 television season, supposedly to make way for a new series that they had an obligation to air. However, after two months the decision was reversed based on a spike in the show's ratings and an outpouring of support from fans. Unfortunately, this cost star Pierce Brosnan the role of James Bond, as he was contractually forced back into working on Steele and Bond producer Cubby Broccoli stated he did not want Bond to be identified with a current TV series. Given that NBC didn't renew the uncanceled Steele for a proper season but only as a series of six TV movies, many fans felt that the network's real intent was to assert some kind of "ownership" over Brosnan and squeeze what benefit they could out of his "almost-Bond" notoriety.
• The CBC legal drama Street Legal ran from 1987 to 1994, with Cynthia Dale playing the character Olivia Novak. In 2019, CBC brought Street Legal back to the air for a six-episode miniseries, with Cynthia Dale again playing the character Olivia Novak.
• NBC canceled the original Star Trek after its second season, and Gene Roddenberry wrote "Assignment: Earth" as a Poorly-Disguised Pilot for another series to potentially take its place. However, after a letter-writing campaign by the fans, Star Trek was picked up for a third season, after which it disappeared for good... or, at least, until Star Trek: The Animated Series came along, followed by Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer 40,000 managed to crank even this trope (like every other trope it involves) Up to Eleven: the Dark Heresy spinoff game was released, canceled and Un Canceled within the space of a month. The game, which fans had been looking forward to for decades, comes out. The entire print run sells out in two days. A few days after that, Games Workshop says it's getting out of roleplaying games, because literature is easier to publish for profit. Once the gnashing of teeth ties down, Fantasy Flight Games picks up the license. This had the secondary effect of visiting Laser-Guided Karma upon the profiteers who had, on announcement of the cancellation, bought up every copy they could in the hope of selling them for silly money on eBay.
  • This also had something of a longer-term effect, where several veteran designers and writers at Games Workshop^[1] left the company in the late oughts, only to contribute to Fantasy Flight Games, who currently publish all of the Games Workshop licensed Tabletop RPGs.

Video Games

• In a rare video game example see Golden Sun. Originally one game split in two (released in 2001 and 2003, respectively) due to length it received acclaim and developed quite the following, and even though the second game technically wrapped the story up many believed there was enough loose threads to make a sequel.
• The 'Mega Man X series infamously returned, but no one realized it had ever been canceled at first, until years later when it was revealed in interviews, which led to the fans giving a collective "oooooooh" as to the changes that had occurred from X6-X8.
  • Perhaps a better example comes from the classic Mega Man series. Its last numbered installment was Mega Man 8 (which came out in 1996/1997). Not counting Mega Man & Bass (a 2003 Game Boy Advance port of a 1998 Japan-only Super Famicom game), it took over a decade for Keiji Inafune to bring a ninth entry to the series...which was presented as an endearing homage to the golden days of gaming. It was followed two years later in 2010 by 10.
• With franchise creator Keiji Inafune at the helm, the fan-favorite Mega Man Legends series has just been revived after ten long years of silence...and then the Legends 3 project got cancelled sometime after Inafune's departure from Capcom, leaving the series right back at its previous status.
• Capcom could be called the "Kings of Uncancelling". For the longest time Street Fighter was considered to be a dead series by the company (outside of re-releases and crossovers). Then, after years of clamor from fans, Capcom makes an announcement and hell freezes over for Street Fighter IV.
• In the same vein as Street Fighter, the possibility of a new Marvel vs. Capcom being made was considered nill because Capcom no longer had the license to make the games. Then in 2009 they got a deal to re-release Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 for download (minus the in-game shop, instead having everything unlocked at the outset, which was Completely Missing the Point) and, about a year later, they announced Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. The Devil's heating bill must be off the charts.
• Duke Nukem Forever. After years and years of basically being Vaporware, it was then canceled...only to be picked back up by Gearbox a few months later. And then it finally got released. There's a lesson here. And it is this: Always, ALWAYS bet on Duke.
• APB: All Points Bulletin appears to have been saved. It's even going free-to-play this time, though it's too early to determine how much of an Allegedly Free Game with Bribing Your Way to Victory it'll end up as/with.
• Dragon Warrior went on a very extended hiatus in North America after Dragon Warrior IV was released in 1992. Enix apparently had intentions to localize one of the next two games on the SNES, but these efforts died when they closed their American branch in the mid 1990s. The series was resurrected eight years later when Enix brought over a Game Boy Color compilation of the first two Dragon Quest games, but the release of Dragon Quest VII the year after really cemented the uncancellation of the series in America.
  • Then plans for bringing the Dragon Quest IV remake to the U.S. were scrapped when the original development studio shut down. It took seven years and the Square-Enix merger before the U.S. finally saw the PS 1 version's bonus content on the DS.
• Largely unaware to western audiences, the Glory of Heracles series was popular in Japan, with its fourth game last made in 1994. The series then gained a 5th chapter in 2008 (2010 to western markets, and also the only one localized outside of Japan). One advantage of the series is that the games are largely self-contained, with minimal continuity spanning the various games.
• Due to already having their hands full with then-upcoming titles Deathspank and Swarm, Hothead Games was forced to cancel the third and final episode of Penny Arcade Adventures, leaving it as a written story on the Penny Arcade website. Then, in August 2011, Zeboyd Games (creators of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World) announced that they have taken up the mantle.

Web Originals

• Bonus Stage Lasted 87 Episodes, Cancelled via Creator Backlash and Finantial Woes and It would ultimately be passed down to a Guy on Deviant ART Five Years Down The Road
  • Uh, huh. Surrrrre....

Western Animation

• Celebrity Deathmatch. Just lasted two seasons, though.
• Dexter's Laboratory lasted two seasons until 1998, and three years later returned. But the two seasons that followed are often hated because they lacked input from series creator Genndy Tartakovsky (who was busy with Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars).
• Drawn Together
• Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy was originally going to be canceled after the episode Take This Ed and Shove It. It was renewed for two more seasons and also got a movie.
• The Fairly Oddparents was set to end after Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3, but after lots of fan noise and the show continuing to get great ratings, Nick changed their minds and renewed it.
• Family Guy is most likely the Trope Codifier, as uncancellations have become more common since then. Brought back by FOX after a long hiatus once DVD sales took off, who realized exactly how much money they stood to make off the most popular cartoon since South Park. What's especially notable here is how in the returning series premiere, Peter recited an excruciatingly long list of FOX shows that Family Guy was canceled to make room for but were themselves inevitably, if not always abruptly and swiftly, canned. Peter ended the list with Greg the Bunny and a quick glance at Chris (Seth Green's character).

Lois: Is there really no hope?
Peter: Well if all those shows go down the tubes, we might have a shot.

• Futurama not only got four made-for-DVD movies years after its original Fox run was over (which were made possible in part by the impressive ratings the reruns pulled in on Adult Swim), but got renewed in 2009 on Comedy Central. Not to mention, every time a contract runs out, SOMEONE is willing to issue a new one, so even the reruns are hot goods. Just goes to show that fans still love to watch their favorite cast of lovable 30th-Century misfits. And Zoidberg.
  • It's then played for hilarity in the opener of "Bender's Big Score".

The Professor: Good news, everyone! Those asinine morons who cancelled us were themselves fired for incompetence!
Crew: Yaaaay!!!!
The Professor: And not just fired, but beaten up too! And pretty badly.
Crew: YAAAAAY!!!
Bender: We're back, baby.

• • And even before all 26 episodes had aired, the show was renewed for another new season. The tagline from the first DVD movie fits the series in more ways than one.
• Home Movies had half a season on UPN, then two years later the full season got aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, then three more seasons were made for Adult Swim. Some people think it was originally an Adult Swim show.
• The Jetsons and Jonny Quest, two Hanna-Barbera shows that ran for one season each in the 1960s, were both revived with new episodes produced for syndication in the 1980s. Boomerang never shows these episodes; the consensus is that they are of much lower quality than the original runs.
  • Teletoon Retro in Canada does air the 1980s Jetsons (as well as the originals), and the difference in quality is very evident.
• Johnny Bravo lasted one season in 1997, and in its uncancellation two years later (minus creator Van Partible) is often considered better, but not by people that liked the first season.
  • Then it was uncanceled again in 2004, with Van Partible back at the helm.
• Kim Possible: Its network is also its producer and copyright holder, so it had to be them. The fans made a lot of noise, and for once the suits listened.
• Robot Chicken did a sketch where the show was supposedly canceled and then uncanceled after creators Seth Green (yes, him again) and Matt Senreich repented to Cartoon Network's execs; in reality, the show was hugely popular and there was no question that it was green-lit for another season.
  • It's since become a running joke that Robot Chicken gets "canceled" at the end of every season and "renewed" at the beginning of the next. Even if it means they have to get Seth MacFarlane to help them.

"Wow, Seth MacFarlane, you can do anything!"

• Rugrats was a Nicktoon, and all Nicktoons had a pre-set cancellation date, after 65 episodes (also applies to all live action Nickelodeon programs). Its second run was due to the high ratings of the reruns.
• KaBlam! was going to end with three seasons, wrapping season three up with June giving Henry a kiss, and them becoming an official couple. Fans made noise, and a fourth season was created (to the annoyance of some fans, Henry and June's relation ship was set back to being "just friends" (for a little while)). A fifth season was on the way, but Nick cancelled it before it began.
• Pingu was originally canceled after Season 4 in 1998. Three years after HIT Entertainment bought the rights to the series, it was revived for two additional seasons before being canceled again in 2005.
• After ending in 2007, a new season of Code Lyoko was announced for release in 2012.
• Briefly, the idea of bringing back Invader Zim was thrown around for a while, but in the end, it didn't stick because there wasn't enough money. So they settled with bringing old episodes of the show back onto Nicktoons instead.
• Beavis and Butthead, a show cancelled back in 1997, got revived in October 2011.
• Teen Titans was revived as a series of shorts for the DC Nation block, though Greg Cipes has brought up the possibility of Season 6 occurring.
• After being cancelled back in 2006, Xiaolin Showdown is being revived as Xiaolin Chronicles in 2013.

Other

• Toonami, Cartoon Network's sensational Anime block launched in 1997, hit a speed bump thanks to an agressive 4Kids-imposed Retool that left it in Lighter and Softer territory- and pigeonholed the fanbase. Eventually, incompetent scheduling and poor variety of shows led to its end late 2008. However, just like with Family Guy and Robot Chicken, Adult Swim struck again! On April Fools' Day 2012, they aired a loving joke broadcast of Toonami, suspiciously aimed toward an ulterior motive: test the waters to see if the block was really that cherished. [as] soon established a Twitter feed for viewers to express their interest in a possible return and the fandom proceeded to flood the feed with pleas to revive the block. Rumors the return was a hoax were dispelled when Steve Blum, voice of Toonami host TOM himself, and Kyle Hebert, a fellow voice actor with equal stature got involved. One month later, licensing deals were struck, and just like that Toonami is Back Bitches.

1. ↑ (such as Rick Priestley, Andy Chambers)