The recent release of Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe has truly proven that no matter how long a TV series has been gone, it ain’t over ’til it’s over. With the endless variety of media platforms and a constantly renewing nostalgia, many projects that seemed long-dead have found new life in one form or another.
Although it’s rare, some TV shows have been off the air for so long that fans believe there’s no shot at another season, only for the impossible to happen and for that purportedly canceled or concluded series to begin again. Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe, for example, came out 11 years after the first revival of the franchise in 2011. These days, pretty much any show can get a revival. No matter how “final” their last episode may be.
Curb Your Enthusiasm – 6 years
Curb Your Enthusiasm follows the fictionalized (and highly exaggerated) story of Larry David himself, as he deals with the annoyances of everyday life as a rich celebrity. Thanks to Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s faux biographical style, the show remains an evergreen satire of whatever year it came out.
Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s hiatus from 2011 to 2017 had a hilariously simple reason. Larry David simply didn’t feel like making the 9th season at the time, and so, no season was made (per USA Today). That sort of mundane and dry reasoning fits perfectly with the show’s tone.
Trailer Park Boys – 7 years
Trailer Park Boys is a black comedy mockumentary set in the shady outskirts of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The trailer park of Sunnyvale is where the three main characters live. Together, they plot horribly contrived schemes that inevitably fail. The show arguably did a lot to balance the perception of Canada as the “polite” country.
Season 7 was intended by Mike Clattenburg to be the show’s natural ending. For a while, that’s exactly what it was. However, according to Looper, the three main leads (Tremblay, Wells, and Smith) bought the rights from Clattenburg and they continued the show in his stead. Thankfully, fans accepted the new showrunners with open arms, and Trailer Park Boys puts out new episodes to this day.
Young Justice – 7 years
Young Justice follows teenage superheroes who are used by the Justice League as a covert ops team to solve problems that the League can’t deal with. The show had a messy production cycle and was canceled in early 2013 with little fanfare. Three years later, in 2016, Warner Bros announced that they would revive the show with a new season.
In 2019, Young Justice finally received its long-awaited third season, Outsiders. Young Justice had some of its best episodes during this time. As of June 2022, the show ended its fourth season with high view numbers, as confirmed by Greg Weisman on a fan site. Viewers can only hope that this means a fifth season is possible.
Arrested Development – 7 years
Arrested Development follows the struggles of the Bluth family as they attempt to adjust to a middle-class life. The show received wide critical acclaim during its original three-season run. Unfortunately, the critical praise did not translate to solid ratings, and it’s for this reason that Fox decided to ax the series.
Eventually, Netflix picked up the show for a revival and released a new season on May 4, 2013. The binge format of Netflix also let the show’s iconic long-running gag style of humor work much better. Unfortunately, with the death of Jessica Walter in early 2021, any follow-ups are likely impossible.
Reno 911 – 11 years
Reno 911 is a satirical mockumentary in the style of COPS. Instead of following a crew of actually competent policemen, Reno 911 is composed of a bunch of incompetent misfits. They are barely capable of policing each other, let alone the entire unfortunate community of Reno. The show originally ran on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2009, and season 6 was to be the final season.
For years, fans and even natives of Reno, Nevada clamored for a new show, but to no avail. Hilariously, it was picked up by the streaming platform Quibi, which promptly died only three months after Reno 911 finished its 7th season revival. The show has since found its new home on the Roku platform, along with all of Reno 911‘s best episodes.
Samurai Jack – 13 years
Samurai Jack follows the story of Jack, a samurai warrior who is sent to a dystopian future where his archrival, the great Aku, has become the overlord of all. The show originally aired for 4 seasons from 2001 to 2004.
Finally, in 2014, Tartakovsky reached a deal with executive Mike Lazzo to create an entire fifth season, which came out in 2017. The fifth season aired on Adult Swim, and to Tartakovsky’s credit, he took full advantage of that fact. The show was far more brutal, bloody, and darker in tone, maturing with its fans in the 13 years that have passed.
The X-Files – 14 years
The X-Files follows two FBI operatives, Dr. Dana Scully and Agent Fox Mulder, as they investigate cold cases with strangely supernatural and extraterrestrial elements. The show ran for over nine seasons from 1993 to 2002 and would spawn two movies in the years since.
In 2016, Fox aired a “limited series event” which turned out to be the 10th season of the X-Files. The overall goodwill generated from the revival meant an eleventh (and likely final) season was released. Chris Carter has gone on record to say that any follow-up to The X-Files would likely be something completely different, due to season 11 being Gillian Anderson’s final season (per DigitalSpy).
Beavis and Butt-Head – 14 years/11 Years
Beavis and Butt-Head follows a pair of teenage slackers, the titular Beavis and Butt-Head. With their combined “intelligence”, they do their best to avoid working, watch music videos, and generally be a complete waste of space to the people around them. The show ran for seven seasons from 1993 to 1997, and wouldn’t get an eighth until 2011.
The revival season on MTV was then also canceled, as Beavis and Butt-Head‘s humor no longer appealed to MTV’s largest demographic at the time, teenage girls. Over a decade later, the revival film Beavis and Butt-HeadDo The Universe is now streaming on Paramount+, along with new episodes. For a series about lazy slackers, Mike Judge has proven himself the opposite with his determination to continue their saga.
The Jetsons – 23 Years
The Jetsons are the polar opposite successor to Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones series. The show follows yet another dysfunctional family, only this time, it’s set in the far future of the 21st century. The show’s first season would get low ratings (mostly due to color televisions being exceptionally rare in 1963).
Over two decades later, successful reruns prompted Hanna-Barbera to put the show on syndication, along with a whole second season. The motif of “futurism” was even more appealing in the 80s than it was in the 60s, as the years ticked closer to the 21st century. Despite being incredibly ambitious with its portrayal, The Jetsons did predict a bit of the future, in its own charmingly corny way.
Twin Peaks – 26 Years
Twin Peaks starts out as the typical crime soap opera, and is set in the sleepy town of Twin Peaks, Washington. Over time, David Lynch’s unique style twisted the show into a surreal and blatantly supernatural drama. After a disastrous second season (and equally disastrous films), the show was put on an “indefinite hiatus”.
In 2001, a decade after the show’s cancellation, Lynch went on record with Empire saying “the show was as dead as a doornail”. Despite this claim, Lynch was surprisingly protective of Twin Peaks’ story and vetoed continuations that did not involve him and Mark Frost. It wouldn’t be until 2014 that Showtime announced a third season. It would be set 25 years after the events of the second season. Thankfully, the 25 years did little to change the town’s hidden layers of strangeness.
