When it comes to television, it feels like some shows are just destined to be hits… eventually. We’re talking about the shows that we all turn to as our comfort watches, the shows that we sit down to binge on streaming even though we’ve seen every episode hundreds of times. These are the shows that often end up as part of “best of” conversations or have remained part of the pop culture conversation even years after their runs ended.
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But here’s the thing: many of our most beloved television shows, even some of the most popular television shows of all time, didn’t start out that way. There are shows we can’t imagine being anything but huge hits now that started out with everyone either being skeptical or outright hating them. Sometimes it was just because the first few episodes hadn’t yet showcased exactly what the show was capable of. Other times, it was a matter of acquired taste. A few remain popular with a fairly niche audience, but one that grows every time someone finds it again on streaming. Whatever the case, these shows finally caught on and now are some of our favorite and most treasured series that we can’t imagine television without.
5) The Office
The Office might be one of everyone’s favorite shows now, but it wasn’t always that way. When it first debuted in 2005, audiences were pretty skeptical of the Greg Daniels-developed series. Based on the British series of the same name from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, viewers initially thought that the American version of The Office was little more than a low-quality copy of the British version — especially the series’ pilot.
Fortunately, audiences (and the network) stuck it out. The Office began to grow its audience and soon became one of the most popular shows on television, ultimately running for nine seasons on NBC. It’s now considered one of the best sitcoms in television history.
4) The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries may be everyone’s favorite comfort watch these days, but the series was almost a victim of the feast of vampire content in the mid-2000s and early 2010s. Debuting on The CW in 2009, The Vampire Diaries ended up one of the most popular TV shows of the 2010s, a loose adaptation of The Vampire Diaries book series by L.J. Smith following a teenage girl, Elena Gilbert, who ends up in a complicated love triangle with vampire brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore but at the beginning, many viewed the series as a cheap Twilight rip-off and a weak attempt to capitalize on an already over-saturated field of vampire entertainment.
However, despite some rough reviews, the series premiere pulled in huge numbers for the network and viewers kept tuning in. The second season of the series fared much better with critics and got a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score and ultimately, the series ended up running for eight seasons and spawning not one, but two spinoffs.
3) Freaks and Geeks
While most of the shows on this list ended up finding their audience and turned into big successes, that sadly is not the case for Freaks and Geeks. This show is, unfortunately, a case of people not appreciating it until after it was cancelled. Freaks and Geeks got just one season on NBC in 1999 — and didn’t even get to air all 18 of its episodes before the axe fell. The series followed a group of misfit high school students in the 1980s who might be destined to be great, but for now aren’t having the best time.
The show was met with critical praise, but audiences didn’t tune in. The show had abysmal ratings — partly due to poor scheduling and a time slot that set it up against the wildly popular game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire — which led to its early demise. However, after that, people started to realize what they lost and now the show frequently comes up in “brilliant but cancelled” conversations.
2) Parks and Recreation
Is Parks and Recreation one of the best television shows of all time? Yes. Did it get off to a very bad start? Also, yes. Airing on NBC from 2009, Parks and Recreation’s first season was not great. The show came about when co-creator Greg Daniels was asked to create a spinoff of The Office and while Parks and Recreation ultimate was a stand-alone series and not a spinoff, that was where things began. And that was reflected in the first season. Many critics saw too many similarities to The Office — particularly with Parks and Recreation’s main character Leslie Knope being too much like The Office’s Michael Scott.
However, people stuck with the show, the audience grew, and Season 2 was a dramatic improvement with much better reviews and ratings. The show ended up running for seven seasons and a special reunion episode. It remains a beloved favorite and is notable for its humor and its cameos.
1) Friends
Friends might just be the most popular television series in history at this point (or at least very high on that list) which might make it an odd choice as a “cult” favorite, but it didn’t start that way. When Friends first debuted on NBC in 1994, many people thought the first few episodes of the series were boring and kind of dumb. Major critiques of the series, which followed a group of young adult friends as they live their lives and go through various daily life challenges in New York City, were that it was boring and formulaic with lots of comparisons to Seinfeld just without the humor.
However, as is the case with many television series, Friends just needed a little time to find its footing and its voice and in the ’90s, Friends got that time. The show soon began to build and audience and ultimately went on to run for 10 seasons, making television history and breaking various records over the course of its run. The series has become a major part of pop culture even today, something that wouldn’t have seemed likely given how cool the initial response to the series was.
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