"It's the End Of the World As We Know It," Vol. 4.

The best one-season-and-done television series you should try to watch or at least fondly remember, Pt. 1.

In our continuing — never ending? — pursuit of high quality comfort food to escape looking at the news of the world and look, instead, at the TV, if only for some temporary happiness, we now find ourselves four solid volumes into it and, by popular demand, the Part 1 of, well, I don’t know, maybe three?, lists that give you the option to watch really good shows that lasted only one season.

The benefit here is that you know one season is all you’ve got to get through — it’s not like you’re tackling five season of “The Wire” if you’re feeling strapped for time. Although, I will say this again, you should watch all five seasons of “The Wire” — yesterday, if possible.

One season wonders however, do have some appeal. And some risk. I mean, you know going into it that if you love the show, there is no more of it.

“This was great, may I have another?”

“No. Go away.”

So, don’t blame me. Also, you might find that some of these end in a cliffhanger. Here’s a short story about my feelings on cliffhangers: No.

But don’t say you haven’t been warned. I like the concept though, primarily for the nostalgia of it. I’ll be honest, my upcoming lists — “Ah, you have loads of lists, so many lists, more lists than they can stand”¹ — will include miniseries/limited series, and those are a better bet for a grand story conclusion and plots that make sense, mysteries that are solved, etc.

Just like a one-hit-wonder song, however, there’s a real allure to great shows that came and went and left you with an impression that your mind won’t ever shake. These shows are like that really great looking, unobtainable person who kissed you on the check and walked out of your life, leaving you to wonder what might have been.

Now, nowhere is a scolding note/reminder more necessary than here, where I tell you that:

1. The list is not meant to be comprehensive.

2. I haven’t “forgotten” your show.

3. There will be, uh, maybe two more iterations, so said show(s) could pop up then.

4. They are not ranked.

Beyond that, this is also important when trying to contextualize this list and the others coming: Not all of these shows will be available to stream; some are available to rent or buy; if I could find the streaming information then I mentioned it but there may be other options.

I also left off one widely loved series that I panned (mostly because they sent us the episodes out of order but also because, not gonna lie, I just didn’t like it and I fought with people online for years and years so I’m not going to take it back now.²

And finally, I left off this list, and the others to come, any show where the whole first (and thus only) season was building to a mystery involving aliens or time travel or some huge unknowable³ and thus astonishingly frustrating to watch.

That means you, “FlashForward,” “Threshold,” “The Nine,” “Now and Again” and so many countless others that my mind could conjure or the internet gave me PTSD about.

On a positive note: This first list contains some of my all-time personal favorites, and the frustration they wrought when not renewed.

Okay then, onward:

“Freaks and Geeks.” NBC. 199/2000. 18 episodes. Streaming: Paramount+, Hulu.

James Franco, Seth Rogan, Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, et. al. Quite the cast. Yes, if I was numbering this list, it would probably be No. 1 but if you ask me tomorrow maybe it would be No. 3. Doesn’t matter — still one of the greatest shows ever to last only one season. And, side note, I was a reporter who found newly installed NBC president Garth Ancier at a party and pressed him about whether he was going to renew the show and when he seemed to give away the answer without saying it, I asked him how could he cancel one of the funniest shows of the season; his response was this: “I prefer good looking people on television.” He previously programmed the CW.

“Action.” Fox. 1999. 13 episodes (five never aired). Streaming: You can apparently buy the full season on AppleTV+ and Amazon.

One of the great send-ups of the entertainment industry and so hilariously true and scathing and vile that Americans (or maybe Fox) just didn’t have the stomach for it. Created by Chris Thompson and starring Jay Mohr, this series was like if they let someone do anything they wanted and it got put on national television, which seems pretty accurate. They also let everyone swear up a storm and just bleeped the swear words and maybe that was a distraction? I don’t know. I loved it dearly. So much hilarious anger and yelling. “I’m gonna put my foot so far up your ass that a piece of my ass will be in your ass.”

“EZ Streets.” CBS. 1996-97. Nine episodes (one never aired — oof.) Streaming: Nope.

My first year on the beat, I believe. One of the early shows where I couldn’t believe it was network television. And I was heartbroken that the story wouldn’t be fully told. Creator Paul Haggis went on to write “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash” but this would have been better. Ken Olin! Joe Pantoliano! I can’t even remember what it was about, just that I wanted more. I’m glad that I can’t stream it now and get frustrated all over again.

“Terriers.” FX. 2010. 13 episodes. Streaming: Hulu.

Arguably the worst title in television because it confused people and FX at the time could not afford to confuse even one viewer. Worse titles have come since, but this was the pop culture OG, or at least how I remember it in the Pantheon Of Terrible TV Titles. That said, it was smart, different, funny, centered on two dubious, unlicensed private investigators. Rag-tag misfits, solving shit. Or trying to. See, they would be, like, terriers, uh, the dogs who sniff for scent and clues and…forget it. Created by Ted Griffin (“Ocean’s Eleven”), starting Donal Logue and Michael Raymond James.

“Undeclared.” Fox. 2001-02. 17 episodes. Streaming: Nope. But you can buy it on Amazon.

Creator Judd Apatow was central to Paul Feig’s “Freaks and Geeks.” So this was like “Freaks and Geeks” went from high school to college, which was probably the whole point. Always funny and with a stellar list of stars, co-stars and especially guest stars, this seemed like a slam dunk but, yeah, like the rest here it wasn’t, or it wouldn’t be resting here in peace. See what I did there? Side note: The theme was a song from The Dandy Warhols whose creator and lead singer, Courtney Taylor-Taylor owns my favorite hidden gem lo-fi wine bar in Portland, called The Old Portland.

“The Prisoner.” ITV. 1967-68. 17 episodes. Streaming: Amazon Prime plus loads of other places.

Should this be No. 1? If I was ranking them, not that I’m ranking them in my head right now or regretting that I’m not ranking them. I mean, come on, “The Prisoner” is the ur-weird creative TV series that set the future up for all kinds of greatness, masquerading as an art house movie about, well, lots of things that can’t be said because people in The Village are listening. All hail Patrick McGoohan for creating, writing (some eps) directing and starring in this triptastic mind expander. Side note: I am Number Three.

“Wonderfalls.” Fox. 2004. 13 episodes. Streaming: Nope. In fact, I don’t think you can even buy this.

Anyway, I can’t type the title without crying. Created by Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller, the amount of creative craziness and humor and overall uniqueness can’t be properly expressed. It’s like a gift that went poof. I still have the orange wax lion swag from this series and yes, it talks to me and I answer. Great cast, concept, execution — title song by XTC’s Andy Partridge and…yeah, not enough to live to see another season.

Hoping this stirred some memories and certainly some interest in tracking some of them down. More from this category soon enough.

1. Riffing on Morrissey’s great “We Hate It When Are Friends Become Successful” song.

2. “Firefly.”

3. OK, fine, there are probably shows like that on these lists, technically. But I think you know what I mean in theory.