If there’s one truism in the often unpredictable world of television, it’s that all shows will eventually come to an end. (Unless you’re The Simpsons, probably.) But often, a series is taken from fans before its time; take, for example, The Killing, which debuted on AMC in the post-Mad Men, cable-networks-gotta-have-prestige-dramas landscape. Based on a Danish thriller, the gloomy procedural got off to a strong start, but by the end of the second season, its ratings were low enough that AMC, er, killed it off. The network then decided to give it another chance, renewing it for a third season; when that, too, underperformed, The Killing was gone for good…or so viewers thought. Enter Netflix, who earlier this year announced that it had reached a deal with Fox Television Studios (which owns the series) to broadcast a fourth and final season, which will premiere on August 1st.
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Of course, that’s not the only instance of a beloved series getting saved from certain death: Netflix’s first foray into picking up a gone-too-soon series happened last year, when it aired a new season of Arrested Development, which originally ran for three low-rated seasons on Fox. And in July, Yahoo Screen announced that it will air a sixth season of Dan Harmon’s beloved-but-troubled Community, which got the ax from NBC. This happens more often than you might think: Read on to learn about 12 series that were given a second — and in some cases, a third — chance, whether due to the work of devoted fans, a showrunner with a vision, or the magic of crowd-funding. By Amy Plitt
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