9 Comic Book TV Shows That Were Canceled Way Too Soon

The Flash (1990-1991)

While The CW’s The Flash has many callbacks to the original series from 1990, including the casting of John Wesley Shipp in a recurring role, it’s still not the same thing. In fact, the original show was a groundbreaker at the time, with the two-hour pilot costing $6 million and each episode around $1.6 million to produce.

Unfortunately, it was this pioneering mentality that resulted in its cancelation at the end of the day. Considering the cost of each episode, the network required higher-than-usual ratings. Also, it didn’t help that it had to compete with the likes of The Cosby Show and The Simpsons in its timeslot, and ultimately struggled to pull in the numbers. There were several schedule shifts over the months, but this only lost and confused viewers who didn’t know if the show was still around or not.

With low ratings and a refusal from the producers to cut the budget, The Flash was canned after 22 episodes. In that regard, the people behind the show do deserve our respect for knowing when to walk away rather than make something mediocre.