Television is a fickle industry. Every year production companies make hundreds of pilot episodes and only a minute fraction of those ever make it to the screen. From there, only a few will get picked up beyond that pilot episode for a series.

You might think that once you’ve got a series commissioned you’d be fine and it’d be plain sailing. Think again. There’s nothing to stop a network from hauling your show off the air with a comedy hook, never to be seen again.

All of which means that there are some TV shows that were quite extraordinary that you never saw.

Adams of Eagle Lake (2 episodes, 1975)

Andy Griffith was kind of a big deal – but you wouldn’t think it given how quickly this show was bumped off-air. It turns out that Andy Griffith playing a small town sherriff wasn’t as popular as one would think (who knew?!).

The Sanford Arms (4 episodes, 1977)

Four episodes is starting to be a minor success…well, not really. But really, this show deserved to be yanked.

You might think, from looking at the title, that this was a spin-off from Sanford & Son. You’d be correct (sorta). Technically, it was a spin-off of the popular show. But it involved neither Sanford nor Son. In fact, the main layover from the previous show was the house.

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