Co-Ed Fever is considered the shortest-lived American television series lasting from February 4, 1979 to a half hour later on February 4, 1979. It was an attempt to cash in on National Lampoon's Animal House. The show wasn't even supposed to air until February 19 but the episode "Pepperoni Passion" was aired as a special preview after the movie Rocky. Co-Ed Fever never made it to its regularly scheduled timeslot. The show Billy was aired in its slot instead. Billy was off the air by the end of April 1979.
On February 5, 1969, the ABC variety show Turn-On premiered and, in some markets, never made it past its first commercial break. Turn-On was heavily sexualized and highly political. Stations that did air it received complaints, some stations opted not to air it and Cleveland's WEWS decided not to return to Turn-On after the first commercial. Turn-On was officially canceled on February 10. Tim Conway, the host of the first episode, stated the show was canceled because it was ahead of its time.
A more recent example is the ABC series Emily's Reasons Why Not starring Heather Graham. Emily's Reasons Why Not was about Emily Sanders (Graham) who makes a list of reasons why she shouldn't date someone and premiered on January 9, 2006. The next day on January 10, ABC canceled it. The first episode consisted of the characters making fun of Mormons, virgins and homosexuals causing ABC to receive a lot of complaints. It's reported that ABC bought the series sight unseen. The cancellation was so abrupt that for the next week or so some magazines had cover stories articles showcasing a canceled series.
