20 TV shows that came back from the dead

“Ted Lasso” was once a phenomenon, but the third season seemed like the end. For starters, it was less well-received, meandering and bloated. On top of that, the final episode certainly had the feel of a series finale. Then, for a long time, no one talked about a fourth season. Reasonably, we assumed “Ted Lasso” had ended with a whimper. However, in March 2025, almost two years after the third season, a fourth season was announced. To what end, we shall see.

“Family Guy” was one of the first shows, perhaps the first show, saved by DVD sales. After three seasons, the FOX cartoon was canceled. Then, something happened. DVD sales were huge, and reruns' ratings in syndication were notable. FOX realized “Family Guy” had an audience, and it undid the cancellation two years later. The fourth season of “Family Guy” debuted in 2005. It’s still on the air, and it is approaching 500 episodes.

They may throw on different subtitles to create the illusion of a new show or a spinoff, but in the end, Showtime has simply been bringing “Dexter” back. The pulpy, salacious show about a serial killer who kills other serial killers ended its original run in 2013 with a lukewarm response to the series finale. This led to a “Okay, we’ll do better this time” season of TV in 2021 called “Dexter: New Blood.” They called it a miniseries, but it was essentially a new season of the same show, with the same guy. Then, they tried to mine the IP without Michael C. Hall with the prequel “Dexter: Original Sin.” Realizing where the bread was buttered, they brought Hall back for “Dexter: Resurrection,” which fittingly killed “Original Sin.” This time, they didn’t even bother pretending it was a one-and-done miniseries, either.

Yes, plenty of sitcoms come back years later, and we wouldn’t count them, but “Arrested Development” definitely counts. Netflix resurrected it, but that was before it was the norm for that streaming service and others. Two, “Arrested Development” wasn’t just canceled by FOX; it was canceled as a cult classic. That was part of the story of “Arrested Development.” It was a genius sitcom that went underappreciated and got canceled. Then Netflix brought it back for two seasons that weren’t very good. Oops.

The popular, family-friendly Disney animated sitcom “Phineas and Ferb” ended its run in 2015. However, nostalgia is popular, and maybe Disney thought, “Hey, we can get a new wave of kids watching the show, plus the older kids now tuning back in for the show!” After all, the people behind “Phineas and Ferb” always said they didn’t see it as a children’s show, but as one that didn't exclude children from its audience. They tested the waters with a 2020 movie on Disney+, and then it came back in 2025. It definitely seemed to assume that many now-teenagers would be watching. We say that's complimentary.

It always seemed like “Community” was hanging by a thread. Though a classic hangout sitcom on paper, Dan Harmon’s show was rather ambitious, and occasionally self-destructive. You know, like the man himself. At one point, in lieu of canceling the show, Harmon was simply replaced. When that didn’t work, Harmon returned for the fifth season, but then “Community” was indeed canceled. This was followed by arguably the most bizarre resurrection of any show. “Community” was picked up by Yahoo Screen, a new streaming platform. Yahoo Screen was a mess; “Community” only lasted one season on there, and Yahoo Screen was shut down about as quickly as it was launched.

The show that wouldn’t die. “Mystery Science Theater 3000” did seven seasons on Comedy Central, but the last episode of that run definitely felt like a finale. However, the then Sci-Fi Channel picked it up. After that, “MST3K” aired a clear series finale after three seasons there. Years later, following a Kickstarter campaign, the show returned once more, now on Netflix. It never fit there, though, and ended after two seasons. Then, show creator Joel Hodgson used another Kickstarter to get another season of “MST3K” on its own platform. Unfortunately, Hodgson’s skill set was ill-suited to this scenario, and the 13th season was a disaster. It seemed to kill off “MST3K” for good, but Hodgson then sold the rights, and the RiffTrax guys, all “MST3K” alums, stepped in for yet another batch of episodes.

We mean, “Law & Order” ran for 20 seasons. The procedural was an NBC staple for two decades and was built to rotate the cast left and right. When the show ended in 2010, of course it felt like it was over. It was a great run; it was time to bring it to a close. Nobody gets 20 years on television- the end. Except not so fast! The show came back in 2022 and is into its 26th season. Some formulas apparently never stop working. Just ask any soap opera that's been running since the Eisenhower Administration.

“Remington Steele” had a meaty, if convoluted, hook. A female private eye has invented a male boss, Remington Steele, to step in the way of sexism, but then a charming con man finagles his way into that role and becomes “Remington Steele,” her business partner. Both stars made good money and became bigger names, but NBC also kind of screwed them. The network canceled the show after the fourth season, then offered Stephanie Zimbalist a role in “RoboCop” and Pierce Brosnan a James Bond role. So, NBC figured, “Ooh, these two are in demand; let’s bring the show back.” Both Zimbalist and Brosnan lost their film roles so NBC could milk a mere six more episodes out of them. Of course, Brosnan would eventually become Bond.

Late-night TV is a medium on the wane, so we may have seen the end of the turmoil of jockeying for these jobs. NBC had both Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, and the network wanted to move Conan into the “Tonight Show” seat. Leno didn’t want to leave the role, though, so NBC tried to give him a 10 pm show. That didn’t work, and it made Conan’s tenure hosting “The Tonight Show” awkward. In under a year, Leno was back on “The Tonight Show,” and Conan was off on the adventure that led to him inventing podcasting.

The convoluted, on-again, off-again story of “The Mindy Project” fit a show that was an incoherent mess during its run, seemingly because Mindy Kaling was wholly incapable of running a TV show. Away from the watchful eye of “The Office” staff, she helmed a show that changed cast, tone, and storylines with abandon. FOX gave up on the show, but Hulu gave it a chance. It ran three more seasons on Hulu, though the episode order dropped season by season.

Maybe “Futurama” is actually the true show that wouldn’t die. The creatives on the show didn’t know FOX was going to cancel it after the fourth season, but delivered a fitting potential series finale just in case. A few years later, the “Futurama” crew reunited to make four direct-to-DVD movies. These were popular enough that Comedy Central brought the show back. The fifth season chopped those four movies into episodes, followed by two more seasons. Season eight ended with a more definitive series finale. That one actually lasted for a full decade. Then Hulu brought “Futurama” back for four more 10-episode seasons.

“Parks and Recreation” is a little different because it was never canceled and then brought back. What it was, though, is a show where it felt like every season could be the last. As such, effectively every season ended with an “Okay, this could be the series finale, and that would be fine” episode. Then, after seven seasons of that, it finally ended.

Though “7th Heaven” was a bad show, preachy and politically questionable, it was successful. The show aired 10 seasons on The WB, but that 10th season came at a time when The WB was coming to an end. “7th Heaven” wasn’t going to make the move to The CW. As such, the 10th season ended with a two-part wedding episode designed to be the series finale. It then proved quite popular, ratings-wise. The CW decided it actually wanted a season of “7th Heaven.” One final season aired on the new network.

Thomas Magnum literally died. “Limbo,” the season-seven finale, lived up to its title. Magnum is fatally injured in a shootout, and he spends the episode wandering around as a quasi-ghost (quasi because he’s in a coma). The episode ends when Magnum finally accepts his death. Viewers, though, did not accept this as a series finale. “Magnum P.I.” came back for an eighth season, which ended with Tom Selleck as Magnum literally looking at the camera, saying good night, and then clicking a remote control button to turn the screen black. This time, they weren’t going to offer up any potential to take things back.

“Scrubs” is a two-fer here. Maybe even a three-fer, since the eighth season was in the air for a bit. However, the medical sitcom moved from NBC to ABC for that eighth season, which ended with the episode “My Finale.” Even before it aired, rumors began to circulate that it might not actually be the last season. Indeed, ABC tried a middle ground by doing a ninth season of “Scrubs” with a bunch of new characters, but it lasted only one year. That paved the way for a run-of-the-mill legacy season here in the 2020s.

This speaks to a specific kind of show that is presumably done, but then is not. “The White Lotus” won big Emmys for HBO…in the Limited Series category. Yes, originally, “The White Lotus” was a limited series: one story, then done. When it became such a phenomenon, though, the show got a new season, and it became an “anthology” series. “The White Lotus” remains popular with the Emmys, but now in the Drama Series category.

“Good Omens” was a co-production between Amazon and the BBC, so it isn’t surprising it was initially conceived as a one-season story. After all, it’s based on a book. It got a second season, though, and that was it for a while. In fact, it seemed like that would be that, but in 2026, a final, 90-minute episode was released to tie the whole thing up.

“Big Little Lies” could end up a two-fer, but we remain a bit skeptical. This pulpy HBO series was also based on a book and was originally conceived as a limited series. After all, it had a star-studded cast. However, (former) movie stars kept migrating to television, which led to a second season. One with Meryl Streep in it! Before she was on “Only Murders in the Building!” That second season aired over the summer of 2019, and talk of a third season began. It would bubble up here and there, but nothing ever materialized. Finally, after years of speculation, a third season of “Big Little Lies” was announced in September 2025. We shall see.

To avoid a “this limited series is no longer limited” kind of deal, let’s end with an interesting one. “Star Trek” is, of course, a Paramount property, and Paramount has filled Paramount+ with “Star Trek” shows in recent years. “Prodigy” is an animated kids' show that debuted on Paramount+ in 2021 and began airing on Nickelodeon later that same year. The show was already in production on a second season when Paramount not only canceled it but also removed it from Paramount+ in 2023. That would have been that…if not for Netflix. Netflix started streaming “Prodigy,” then greenlit a second season that debuted in July 2024. That was that, but “Prodigy” managed to exist outside the Paramount umbrella for a moment there.