The Gilligan's Syndrome Page
"When the last episode rolled around, we realized that the kids would NEVER make it home. Man, that did it for me. It haunted me. So on the one hand, I have to give props that the animators never sold out by having them go home in the last episode. But on the other hand, do I ever feel cheated for following this show without a final pay-off." - A "Dungeons and Dragons" fan, frustrated that the show never resolved its premise.
"The Pirates of Dark Water was a great show that read like a good book in the sense that it followed a storyline that eventually had an ending. Unfortunately, we never got to see this ending because the show was canned partway through its second season." - A "Pirates of Dark Water" fan, similarly frustrated. This description somehow fits most unresolved-premise series.
Dramatic premises have been, and still are, a part of TV series we take for granted these days. Case in point, Richard Kimble's run for justice in the original version of "The Fugitive" back in the 60s. That series came to a "proper" ending on 29 August 1967 when approximately 25.7 million households -- a whopping 45.9% rating -- tuned in to the ABC series' final ep when the guy who framed Kimble finally got captured (NB: data from the World Almanac). (The remake didn't fare as well... read how it ended here.) However, many series don't get to even HAVE "proper" endings, their main dramatic premise just hangs there. That same year, the no. 1 CBS comedy "Gilligan's Island" was scrapped for the western "Gunsmoke" and although the characters were finally rescued about 15 years later in a subsequent telefilm, the show still has a reputation as the show that never resolved its premise. This page lists such shows. If you've got any that I don't have, send it to me.

Show: Gilligan's Island
Genre: Sitcom
Year: 1960s
Of course, no page about shows with unresolved premises isn't complete with THE show famous for not resolving its premise: the still syndicated Gilligan's Island. If you haven't been under a rock, you'd probably know that the show was about 7 guys stuck on an island after their boat for a three hour tour crashed onto an island. They didn't manage to get off the island until 15 years after cancellation, when the telefilm "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" was aired. Interestingly, this is the only comedy series on my list.

Show: Coronet Blue
Genre: Mystery
Year: 1960s
This show was about some guy whose only past memory was the phrase "Coronet Blue" (played by Frank Converse). Part of the series' premise was people trying to figure out what this meant. What made viewers "Blue" was that they never did find out what that phrase meant. Though it has been said that this referred to the symbol on a boat from which he was dropped.

Show: Star Trek
Genre: Sci-fi
Year: 1960s
The Enterprise originally had a 5-year mission, but the show that went "where no man had gone before" got unplugged after just 3. (Thanks Mike Alvarez!)

Shows: Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants
Genre: Adventure
Year: 1960s
Irwin Allen was "the master of disaster"... and a master of leaving people stranded. Lost in Space (the best known and longest running of his series) was about the Robinson family getting lost in space due to Dr. Smith, and has thus been often compared to Gilligan's Island. Time Tunnel was about guys getting lost in time, while Land of the Giants was about a passenger plane ending up on a giants' planet. In none of these series did the characters get home because the plug was pulled abruptly on each of them.

Shows: Incredible Hulk
Genre: Action Drama
Year: 1960s (and remade as a cartoon in the late 1990s)
Every comic book fan must know this well. The Incredible Hulk was this guy who was bombarded with cosmic rays and became said character. While many comic-book-based series (at least, with guys who become superheroes after some date with destiny, like getting bitten by a spider or hit by rays) emphasize on only the action that occurs, this one also ran on Hulk's constant quest to find a cure. He apparently never did. (Thanks Disruptor!)

Shows: Shazzan
Genre: Animated Adventure
Year: 1960s
Some guys named Chuck and Nancy found a pair of rings which when put together summoned the title character, a genie-ish kinda guy. Though they kept getting rid of bad guys (with Shazzan's help, of course), apparently they never did find the rightful owner to those rings. (Thanks Jeff Boice!)

Show: Space 1999
Genre: Sci-fi
Year: 1970s
All throughout its 2-season run, there was a continuous yearning in Moonbase Alpha's crew to leave some wandering moon they were on and settle on a planet, and they just never did. (Thanks Mike Alvarez!)
An extra "did you know?": This show featured Martin Landau and his real-life wife.

Show: Dungeons and Dragons
Genre: Animated Adventure
Year: 1980s
Based on the popular RPG game, the show had some teens go on an amusement park ride, only to find themselves in some primitive wasteland. There was this sage dude who offered them advice, and the teens followed in the hope that it would lead them home. The last ep turned out to be both a blessing and a curse for a certain fan of the show: the quote is from http://www.jumptheshark.com, and is at the top of the page.

Shows:Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
Genre: Animated Adventure
Year: 1980s
Written by the guy who later created Babylon 5, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors followed the adventures of some guy named Jayce as he (and the Wheeled Warriors, of course) search the galaxy in his search for his daddy. You see, his daddy had a half of a magic root, and he had the other half, and uniting them would rid the world of evil roots (which had mutated from roots daddy had invented) called the Monster Minds. When the series ended, Jayce hadn't found him. The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers followed the adventures of Zachary Fox, whose wife was enslaved by some aliens, and his "rangers" (all of whom were fitted with some kind of mechanism that helped them in their battles). While the Rangers kept getting rid of bad guys, Fox apparently never found his wife. (Thanks Danger X!)

Shows: Pandamonium
Genre: Animated Adventure
Year: 1980s
Some kids and a couple pandas (then, like now, considered an exotic animal) were looking for the pieces of "The Pyramid of Power", which was some crystal one of the kids witnessed the explosion of. They kept it away from the bad guys. But (at least the submitter believes) they never found all the pieces of said crystal. (Thanks Jeff Boice!)

Show: Pirates of Dark Water
Genre: Animated Adventure
Year: 1990s
This series centered around prince Ren and "his sea biscuits'" effort to collect the "13 Treasures of Rule" to save his homeland Mur, while fighting off the bad guy's attempt to get the treasures. At the end of the first season the good guys had 7 of the treasures (all gems or something of that sort) and they were put in one half of the homeland, thus "restoring" that half. But the show sort of strayed off the main plot for most of the 2nd season, and they only managed to get the 8th treasure (which was an animal) in the 21th, and what turned out to be the last, ep of the series.
Show: Silver Surfer
Genre: Animated Adventure
Year: 1990s
The Marvel series was based on the comic book and centered around the title's character's effort to return to his home planet, after he found that it had been moved. The series came to an abrupt end after one season due to Marvel's bankruptcy. Plus, it's also the first series to have the ultimate double whammy: both an unresolved premise and an unresolved cliffhanger.

Show: Mortal Kombat
Genre: Animated Action
Year: 1990s
Five words: the rebellion was a bust. The main characters had 2 main goals, protect the Earth from being invaded and free Mileena's dimension from the rule of Shao Khan. Anyways, in the final ep, Kitana (voiced by Cree Summer, who's most famous for Elmyra) had gathered an Outworld army to fight Shao Khan. A betrayal by the Shotokhan put Shang Tsung in control of the Outworld and that was that. The show's live-action counterpart fared no better either, as it ended on a cliffhanger. (Thanks Disruptor!)

Show: Brimstone
Genre: Supernatural Drama
Year: 1990s
OK, so you have this guy who's supposed to retrieve 100+ souls from hell. This show lasted just one season so certainly he couldn't have finished his task in that short span!

Show: Crusade
Genre: Sci-Fi
Year: 1990s
The premise behind this Babylon 5 spinoff was that evil aliens had dumped plague spores on Earth that would cause a disease that would end all life on the planet in five years as a means of revenge for humans defeating them in two wars. An advanced spaceship had just four years to find a cure for the plague before they'd have to spend the last year in orbit of Earth shooting down any other ship that tried to leave Earth. As far as I can tell, Crusade only had one season, so it's highly doubtful that the premise was ever fulfilled, especially considering all the episode-long side stories that got told along the way. (Thanks Jesse Shearer!)

Show: Samurai Jack
Genre: Animated
Year: 2000s
So, you got a samurai sent into the far future, constantly trying to defeat some evil named Aku and find a way to get back home. It was on Cartoon Network, so toon fanatics thought that surely the CN would let the plotline run its course. But in 2003, CN brass cancelled the show after 52 eps... with Jack still stuck in the future.

Show: Dead Like Me
Genre: Supernatural Comedy
Year: 2000s
Kinda like Brimstone, only that the heroine had to retrieve souls from newly-deceased people, and there was no set limit for the number that had to be retrieved. Lasted two seasons, and is currently being shopped around.
Look, I'm part of a webring now:
For more storylines cut off by networks, click here for To Be DISContinued! - The Hall of Unresolved TV Cliffhangers.
Or maybe you fancy some TV cliches? I have a big fat list of them.
Return to the main page.