Read This: An illuminating visit to the social media graveyards of cancelled TV shows

By Gwen Ihnat  |  June 28, 2019 | 5:50pm
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Read This: An illuminating visit to the social media graveyards of cancelled TV shows
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Whiskey Cavalier Photo: ABC

Usually, when a TV series is cancelled, its social media accounts die right along with it. That’s not always the case, though, as is evidence by the official The King Of Queens Twitter account rearing its head last month to comment on Game Of Thrones.

Yes, 12 years after The King Of Queen’s last new episode, its Twitter account is still extremely active, spurred on by the show’s second life in syndication. That kind of social media devotion is rare, though: What happens to most TV series’ public accounts post-cancellation? Vulture took on an exploration of 12 such shows to see what happened to them on Instagram and Twitter once the source material faded away.

It’s a wide swath, from long-forgotten series like NBC’s About A Boy (cancelled: 2015) to the more recently axed Whiskey Cavalier. Often, the social media accounts featured rhetorical questions hoping to draw the viewer into sitcoms like Married; other times, shows like Mulaney went straight for the merchandising jugular. Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll, which apparently was an FX show starring Denis Leary as an aging rock star, favored edgy graphics that appropriately resembled album covers, even if the messages weren’t exactly earth-shattering. Now, the posts lay covered in digital dust, their evolution from wide-eyed optimism to dutiful info-dumping reflective of their slow descents.

All in all, Vulture offers an interesting overview of the codependent relationship between social media and TV, but, honestly, the piece just makes us even more impressed with The King Of Queens’ social staying power.

 
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