The world consumed a billion pies and cups of coffee waiting for more of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, inspiring this week’s gallery of 24 times we waited years for new seasons of favorite TV shows.
Twin Peaks
“How’s Annie?” A question left hanging (and will continue to be well-hung) for 26 years following Twin Peaks‘ 1991 cancellation and Showtime revival.
The X-Files
The show shrugged itself to an end somewhere in New Mexico during its 9th season. Fast forward 14 years (with a regrettable theatrical movie in-between), when Mulder and Scully re-opened the X-Files with an event series last year.
Boy Meets World
Boy meets an eighth season and a whole new series in Girl Meets World, which saw original star-crossed weirdos Cory and Topanga raising their daughter 14 years after the two graduated from college in 2000.
Gilmore Girls
Nine years after getting kicked off The WB- ahem, The CW, the talky travails of Lorelai and Rory in Stars Hollow came back in 2016 thanks to old show revival machine Netflix.
24
After terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days eight years in a row, Kiefer Sutherland took it easy for four years before coming back for weekly Jack Bauer power hours with the 2014 series Live Another Day.
Dallas
14 seasons wasn’t enough for the greed-driven Dallas, which continued the story 21 years later with the 2012 revival series.
Futurama
Four years after its FOX cancellation, Futurama returned in 2007 with four DVD movies that could be split into 16 episodes constituting a fifth season.
Full House
The adventures of Kimmy Gibbler and her geekburger neighbors took a pause…a long 21 year pause…before Netflix revived the series as Fuller House, a high-concept fantasy depicting affordable San Francisco real estate in 2016.
Family Guy
When FOX cleaned house on its early aughts cartoons, Family Guy looked doomed to be remembered only in syndication until fan fervor brought it back after three years for new seasons starting 2005.
Will & Grace
After an election-themed reunion short that went viral (and 11 years after the series finale), NBC is getting Will & Grace back together this year for 12 new episodes.
Roseanne
Cue that blues riff: ABC is bringing back Roseanne for eight episodes after 21 years, ignoring the series finale that twisted relationships around and killed John Goodman’s character.
Arrested Development
The Bluth family saga continued into season 4 on Netflix after a seven-year pause, fufilling an early Obama campaign promise.
Get Smart
Don Adams and Barbara Geldon played spoof spies Agents 86 and 99 until 1965, and returned to the roles 30 years later for a single season.
The Brady Bunch
Mike and Carol and spawn got a bunch of spin-offs and TV movies after the show went off the air in 1974, but it wasn’t until 16 years later in 1990 with The Bradys that they got a proper TV series follow-up.
Doctor Who
After 26 straight series, Time Lord couldn’t get it together for the swinging’ 90s, having to wait 16 years for its 2005 revival with Christopher Eccleston.
Heroes
After a startlingly good first season followed by three lackluster ones, Heroes came back from a five-year absence…for the lackluster Heroes Reborn.
Leave It To Beaver
The focus on the family during the 1980s prompted the resurrection of the Cleaver clan: 20 years after the finale, all the major surviving actors came back for The New Leave It To Beaver.
Sanford & Son
This show came back minus Son when Redd Foxx launched Sanford in 1980, three years after the original ended and with Desmond Wilson refusing to come back.
Burke’s Law
60s nostalgia was hot in the ’90s, allowing Gene Barry to revive Burke’s Law (playing his signature millionaire detective) 28 years after the original went off the air.
Mission: Impossible
Espionage is a group effort but only Peter Graves starred in both Mission: Impossible series, the latter one airing 1988-89, 15 years after the original’s last episode.
The Munsters
The late ’80s Munsters Today show picks up 22 years after we left our favorite family ghouls, though with none of the original cast returning.
WKRP in Cincinnati
This sitcom was about a radio station struggling in changing eras of music: first in the early ’80s during the age of soft rock and post-disco, and then nine years later during the grunge era with The New WKRP in Cincinnati.
Beverly Hills, 90210
Would you believe there are sleazy goings-on in greater Los Angeles? Well, there are and you had two chances to know it: with the first series and then its continuation 8 years later with CW’s 90210.
Melrose Place 90210 spinoff also enjoyed revival success, with the show coming back 10 years after the original ended in 1999.
