A Year at the Top
Lasting only 5 episodes, ‘A Year at the Top’ was a 1977 TV show that aired on CBS. It featured a talented cast, including Greg Evigan, Paul Shaffer, Priscilla Lopez, Nedra Volz, Julie Cobb, and Mickey Rooney (who only appeared in the pilot episode).
Although it had an interesting premise of two struggling musicians that make a pact with the devil’s son, played by Gabriel Dell, in order to achieve success, viewers just didn’t find it good enough.
All That Glitters
Released in April 1977, 'All That Glitters' was a soap opera 'spoof' show that was on TV five times a week, during the late-night slot. In an effort to be different, the show's plot took place in a world where women were the head of the house and men worked as secretaries. Obviously, this was not a popular story back in the '70s.
Lasting barely three months, it's a miracle the show even lasted this long, especially after it was called "embarrassingly amateurish" by TIME magazine. Seems like a talented cast, including Gary Sandy, Eileen Brennan, Lois Nettleton, and Greg Evigan, wasn't enough to make this show a hit.
Flatbush
'Flatbush' aired on CBS in 1979, and it was about a group of high schoolers that lived in New York's Flatbush neighborhood. They called themselves "The Fungos" and were always finding new adventures to take part in. The storyline seemed promising, and the cast included a young group of actors that could've made it work, but it just didn't.
Apparently, there were a lot of offensive ethnic stereotypes portrayed in the series, and obviously, audiences didn't like it one bit. In fact, even Flatbush's neighborhood president criticized the show, making ratings drop even more. The network produced six episodes, but it was so badly received that it could only air three of them.
The Texas Wheelers
A very young Mark Hamill and Gary Busey were among the A-list cast in the 1974 TV show, 'The Texas Wheelers.' ABC thought it had itself a hit with this comedy sitcom, but bad production and low ratings got it canceled after just 11 episodes.
Jack Elam, another known '70s celebrity, played Zack Wheeler, a man who had to care for his four kids alone after his wife passed away. Even though eleven episodes were filmed for the show's first season, the network only aired four.
Sanford Arms
'Sanford Arms' was another spin-off show released by NBC in an attempt to capitalize on its previous series, 'Sanford and Son.' The new series, released in 1977, followed the story of a widower and his two teenage children while they run a rooming house called the 'Sanford Arms.'
Of course, this all happened after 'Sanford and Son' characters Fred and Lamont moved to Arizona at the end of the show. Unfortunately, 'Sanford Arms' didn't fare too well with audiences, and it got canceled after just 8 episodes, out of which only 4 got aired.