10 Great Black Cast Shows: Cancelled Too Soon

By Bill Carroll

It is extraordinarily difficult to shepherd a television show from a nascent idea to broadcast. Most scripts never even make it to pilot, and fewer than half of pilots are picked up to series. The number of guaranteed series orders has steadily declined. In recent years, first-season episode orders have dropped to 10–13 episodes. Traditionally, broadcast networks ordered 13 episodes.  If the show performed well, added a “back nine” to complete a 22-episode season. Now, especially in premium and streaming spaces, initial orders can be as low as 6–8 episodes, with limited or cable series often capped at 6–10.

With this decreased commitment, one might assume that the barriers to greater diversity have decreased.  Risk-taking shows would be lower. To be fair, series such as Heated Rivalry, Small Axe, The Beast in Me, and Yellowjackets have been given real opportunities to succeed.  Furthermore, each has thrived. Unfortunately, they remain the exception rather than the rule.

With the arrival of Black History Month, there is a pointed reminder that the leash is often shorter for majority-Black casts and Black creator–driven series. Roots, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, A Different World, and The Cosby Show were enormously successful. Abbott Elementary continues to thrive in its fifth season. Even so, Black-led television still faces an uphill battle.

This is my completely biased and unscientific list of the top 10 hastily butchered Black TV.  These are all shows that deserved a far kinder fate.

1. Frank’s Place-September 14, 1987 – March 22, 1988

In the interest of full disclosure, I have met the Reids on two occasions. Tim Reid established the Stanley W. Wilson scholarship, which I received at Norfolk State University. When I watched this show, the first thing I noticed was that the setting was virtually a member of the cast. So many elements of the show were detailed and nuanced.

Frank Parrish, played by Tim Reid, is a Boston professor who returns to run his late father’s New Orleans restaurant, Chez Louisiane. The show intertwines issues of class, colorism, and substance abuse. Frank’s Place was filmed with a single camera and used no laugh track; it balanced humor and weighty issues gently. Most impressively, it felt real, as if it took place in a real place, not “TV Land” or a soundstage.   

Gregg Maday a producer and show developer approached Reid about a show set at a restaurant. Reid and co-creator Hugh Wilson spent time in a New Orleans restaurant, Chez Helene. From exposure to Creole cooking and culture came so much of what gave the show its unique flavor. The show received accolades, including the Humanitas Prize, NAACP Image Award, Television Critics Association Awards, Viewers for Quality Television Awards, and a prime-time Emmy for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special.

The warm critical reception and awards were to no avail. The show’s large ensemble, film-style techniques, and even the music rights to the theme “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?” by Louis Armstrong made it an expensive show, which, combined with its mold-breaking format and oft-changing time slot, spelled trouble. After 22 episodes, the show was concluded over considerable protests.  It had aired briefly in reruns on BET in 1990. The cost of music right have prevented a DVD release. I still miss this show.

2. Superstition October 20, 2017-June 6, 2018

This show clearly owed a debt to Supernatural. It had a familiar and effective blend of horror, drama, humor, and an engaging mythology.  However, it was given an extra jolt of gravitas by its writing, which had cultural heft, and a cast well-suited to the task. The Hastings family in La Rochelle, Georgia, runs a funeral home and secretly battles demonic entities and dark, superstitious manifestations.

Led by Isaac (Mario Van Peebles), the Hastings family in La Rochelle, Georgia, runs a funeral home.  They secretly battle demonic entities and dark, superstitious manifestations. The rest of the family includes Robinne Lee as his powerhouse wife, Bea Hastings, the prodigal son Calvin Hastings, Brad James, his past/future lover, Chief of Police May Westbrook, Demetria McKinney, and her daughter Garvey, Morgana Van Peebles. The Hastings’ youngest son, Arlo, who had died, was played by Myles Truitt.

Show-runner/co-creator Joel Anderson Thompson and co-creator/star Mario Van Peebles co-wrote the first episode.  It sets the tone effectively. Calvin returns after 16 years in the military, prompted by a premonition of Isaac’s death. The show deals with the battles of the mystic world and real-world issues like generational trauma, racism, and sexual dynamics.

The show had some awkwardness in some episodes, but was really hitting its stride when the cliffhanger ending closed the show with its 13th and final episode. It is always disappointing when this happens but especially a quirky, family-centered supernatural dramedy. Too few of these shows are green-lit.

3. Lovecraft Country August 16, 2020-July 2, 2021

I am going to be honest. This one still hurts. Like Superstition, it boasts an impressive cast and was very well crafted, particularly in its atmosphere and world. But it had a much greater and more lasting impact on popular culture. With names like Jonathon Majors, Oluwunmi Olapeju Mosaku AKA Wunmi Mosaku, Jurnee Smollett, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and Courtney B. Vance as members of the principal cast, the expectations were justifiably high.

All of those expectations were met or exceeded. The show was intriguing and was just finding its rhythm when it ended. Unlike so many on this list, the show was extremely popular.  There were rumors of confusion about what to do after the source material had been exhausted, difficult cast members, power struggles, and, of course, discomfort with the company regarding racial aspects of the subject matter. HBO officially announced the show’s cancellation in July 2021, leaving everyone wanting more.

4. South Central April 5, 1994-June 7, 1994.

This American comedy-drama series aired on Fox from April 5, 1994, to June 7, 1994. It was canceled following its first season. The show concerned a family, the Moseleys, and issues such as gang violence, drugs, dating, sex, school, and unemployment. Joan Moseley (Tina Lifford) is a divorced mother, raising three children, Andre (Larenz Tate), Tasha (Tasha Scott), and a foster son, Deion Carter, played by Keith Mbulo.

The actors were excellent, and the storytelling was compelling. South Central was praised by the critics for a gritty, occasionally humorous, and realistic portrayal of inner-city life. This was a show that avoided a stereotypical portrayal of Black families.  Consequently, perhaps this honesty and realism were too much?

5. A Man Called Hawk-January 28 – May 13, 1989

Via TV Guide

In the interest of full disclosure, this was my favorite show. It featured a hero who was dangerous, smooth as pearls on silk.  It was the most Black fashion-forward show on TV. I was thrilled to see Avery Brooks and hear his sinuously muscular baritone voice. The show was not merely Black; it was Afrocentric. A spin-off of “Spenser For Hire“, A Man Called Hawk starred Avery Brooks. Brooks was from a musical family.  In fact, he co-composed portions of the show’s theme music with Stanley Clarke and Lawrence Douglas “Butch” Morris. The Hawk character debuts in the Robert B. Parker book, Promised Land.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, when the show was cancelled after just 13 scintillating episodes. It was too Black and too strong.

6. How to Die Alone September 13, 2024-February 4, 2025

This was a show, in the creator’s own words, about a “broke, fat, Black JFK airport employee,” and a concept that took eight years to get made. It was a show that had strong word of mouth. It finally premiered on Hulu on September 13, 2024, and earned strong reviews. She plays a 35-year-old JFK airport cart driver, Natasha Rothwell plays Melissa, who has never been in love, and the role is partially inspired by Rothwell’s own journey of love and self-discovery. How to Die Alone also starred Conrad Ricamora as Rory, Jocko Sims as Alex, and KeiLyn Durrel Jones as Terrance.

Yet in February 2025, Hulu canceled it after just one season, even as fans hoped another platform would pick it up. Alongside Survival of the Thickest, it offered something rare on television: plus-size women of color centered as full, complex leads, not boxed into the tired “sassy best friend” trope.

7. Run the World May 16, 2021-September 25, 2023

8. The Underground Railroad

Initially a Colson Whitehead Novel, The Underground Railroad was adapted into a critically acclaimed 10-episode limited series on Amazon Prime Video, directed by Barry Jenkins. Release Date: May 14, 2021. Key Cast: Featured Thuso Mbedu as Cora, Aaron Pierre as Caesar, and Joel Edgerton as Ridgeway. Awards: The series won the Golden Globe Award for Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film and the BAFTA for Best International Programme [sic].

As in the novel, the story is of Cora Randall, an escaped slave, leaving her Georgia plantation with the help of a very literal Underground Railroad. Cora continues towards free country, making stops in varying locales, experiencing the different ways in which Blacks are treated. As she is chased by Ridgeway, a slave bounty-hunter with a complicated past.

The novel can do things rather easily that the show labors to do; the pace is a tad slow, and the subject matter is heavy, but the great visual poetry welds together the loud moments, the quiet moments, and every moment in between. Like with Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, Jenkins’ humanistic lens seeks to better understand what is in his characters’ souls. While it was conceived as a limited series, there was still “meat” left on the book’s “bones” that could have continued.

9. I’m a Virgo

One of the most interesting people in popular culture is Raymond Lawrence “Boots” Riley, the Chicago-born, Bay Area native, who is an activist, filmmaker, impresario, producer, poet, rapper, speaker, and writer, who is never one to play it safe.

A committed and effective community-based activist, Mr. Riley was deeply involved in the Occupy Oakland movement and was a leader of the activist group The Young Comrades. He is also the founding member and lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club featuring Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. 

He is the author of the critically acclaimed collection of essays, Tell Homeland Security-We Are the Bomb. The non-hip-hop and activism world was largely introduced to Riley through his directorial debut, Sorry to Bother You.

In a similar vein of magical realism that bleeds into surrealism came his dark comedy miniseries, I’m A Virgo, about Cootie, a 13-foot-tall Black teen in Oakland. After being hidden away by his adoptive parents for 19 years to protect him from the world, Cootie ventures out to experience, for the first time, friendship, love, and the complexities of modern life. 

I hear echoes of such archetypal influences as Candide and Harrison Bergeron. Since Boots Riley is well, this will not be a linear coming-of-age yarn. The story of Cootie, portrayed by Jharrel Jerome along with Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo, Kara Young, Olivia Washington, Brett Gray, Allius Barnes Walton Goggins, Mike Epps, and Kendrick Sampson.  

10. Rap Sh!t July 21, 2022 – December 21, 2023

I am still perplexed that a show that was Issa Rae’s brainchild, sexy, smart, and about the music industry, was not given more chances to find its audience. Two estranged Miami friends, Mia and Shawna, reunite to crash the rap game, backed by a surprisingly soft‑centered hustler and a socially conscious writer. Rap Sh!t spit bars about creativity, friendship, identity, misogyny, and sexuality, then pulled a quick fade after just two seasons. Starring Aida Osman and KaMillion AKA Alja Jackson, the series bowed at ABFF (June 18, 2022), premiered July 21, 2022, scored a Sept 2022 renewal, got stalled by the 2023 SAG‑AFTRA strike, and was canceled by HBO/Max in January 2024. Gone too soon, but like a classic song, it had a hook that still sticks in my head.

The Honorable Mentions:

• Kindred (FX/Hulu, 2023): Cancelled after one season.
• Grand Crew (NBC, 2023): Cancelled after two seasons.
• Unprisoned (Hulu): Cancelled after two seasons.
• Black Cake (Hulu): Cancelled after one season.
• Ziwe (Showtime, 2023): Cancelled after two seasons.