History AbortedArc / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/TheFlash2014''
** In TheStinger of "Power Outage", Thawne takes a blood sample from the dead body of Blackout, musing that his ability to drain The Flash's powers will come in handy. However, this is never brought up again for the rest of the season.
** Captain Cold slowly forming the Rogues has met an abrupt end since he's been transplanted to ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''. And now, with his death, it seems this arc will never be completed.
** In Season 3, Mirror Master and the Top were meant to be replacements for Cold's gang but given the lukewarm reception of their debut they haven't been seen since.
** In Season 3, Savitar says to Jesse Quick that he has plans for her when they meet. This is never addressed or brought up ever again. [[spoiler: And with Savitar's death/erasure from existence at the end of the season, it's likely that it will never be addressed again.]]

* ''Series/LoisAndClark'': Towards the end of an arc, the CorruptCorporateExecutive was defeated and killed, and his (apparently) dumb-blonde trophy wife Mindy was last seen saying that she would be in charge from now on, with an implication that perhaps she had been the prime mover all along. She made one subsequent appearance (again successfully framing someone else for her crimes), and was never mentioned again.

* Thanks to the cancellation of ''Series/UndergroundWGN'' multiple threads were left dangling without resolve, among them Cato's taking over of Patty Cannon's gang, the capture of Rosalee (and her being made to leave her brother James and newborn son behind) and Georgia's group house, Ernestine trying to get back to her children, the destruction of the Macon plantation, Elizabeth's assisting with Nat Turner's rebellion prior to the Civil War, and many more. There was also never any follow up with Boo's freedom in Canada.

* The fourth season of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' where Phoebe becomes impregnated with the [[TheAntichrist Son of the Source of All Evil]] had such potential for exploring the morality of killing a child (albeit a [[FetusTerrible psychopathic killer baby]], which is such an awesome plot point in itself: imagine them attending school) to prevent future evil, or even an [[AnAesop Aesop]] about redemption (or lack thereof). Instead the child is disowned, {{retcon}}ed into a surrogate child, casually dispatched and never mentioned again -- all within the last few minutes of the penultimate episode of the season. It could have been such a cool BigBad.

* ''Series/{{GameOfThrones}}'':
** The fifth season introduces the kingdom of Dorne and establishes a new storyline about political intrigue revolving around Prince Doran and his nieces, the "Sand Snakes." The comparable storyline from the books has the Sand Snakes plotting against Doran after he fails to side with them against the Lannisters, but he eventually outwits them and reveals he has a complex, large-scale plot in mind to betray the Lannisters at the most inopportune moment for them by siding with Daenerys Targaryen. However, in the TV series the Dorne plot of Season 5 was widely despised, causing the writers to switch gears and simply murder most of the Dornish cast in the opening episode of Season 6, with the survivors returning in a minor role in Season 7. Actor Alexander Siddig (Prince Doran) even noted his confusion at being told of a long-term, multi-season story for his character only to be brutally killed off at short notice.

* ''Series/{{ER}}'' had a notorious one involving the return of Anna Del Amico's supposedly reformed junkie ex-boyfriend, and a romantic rivalry developing between him and Carter. Problem is, this was all set up at the end of the season. When Maria Bello didn't return for the following season, the writers had no choice but to drop the whole thing.

** After the end of the Gorilla Grodd storyline near the end of season 1, General Eiling tells Barry that he is aware of his SecretIdentity and that this isn't the last time he sees him. Despite that, Eiling has yet to appear again in the Arrowverse.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' has one episode with Raj initiating a relationship with an older Puerto Rican woman who works as a cleaner at his lab. After all the build-up she disappears and is never seen or referred to again. Raj is also supposed to have an arranged marriage with a wedding in India; the wedding is abruptly called off, she moves to London and is dropped from the series.

* In ''Series/{{Cursed}}'', the whole thing about Nimue being [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer ostracized]] by other Fey for her powers is basically dropped after the second episode and they have no problems accepting her as their leader.

* ''Series/SoWeird'' effectively abandoned the MythArc that had been set up in the first two seasons after [[ExecutiveMeddling Disney Channel executives]] rejected the original plans for Season 3 for being "too dark" and wanted things to be LighterAndSofter, leading to the original writers and lead actress Creator/CaraDeLizio leaving. As a result, everything that had been built up was quietly dropped with little explanation and the original protagonist was replaced by a new one in the span of a single episode. There is a good deal of WordOfGod from the original writers detailing [[WhatCouldHaveBeen how Season 3 would have played out]] and bringing the MythArc to its ultimate conclusion.

* ''Series/SoWeird'', the Creator/DisneyChannel's version of ''Series/TheXFiles'', took this a step further -- it abandoned the entire MythArc which had been mapped out for three seasons when the lead actress left the show after season 2. After this, she was replaced by an unrelated character and ExecutiveMeddling ensured everything that had built up was quietly dropped with little explanation in the span of a single episode. Floating around on the Internet is a WordOfGod summary of how season 3 was supposed to go, and it was the culmination of the MythArc of the first two seasons.
* The first two seasons of ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' build up David Hale as the man who will take over the Charming police department, purge it of corruption, and lead the cops in a final showdown against SAMCRO. Then Taylor Sheridan decided to leave, so Hale was killed in a drive-by shooting.

* ''[[Series/BlakesSeven Blake's 7]]'':

** ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'': We never hear about Mari's hairdressing again.

** ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'': The crossover between ''Double'' and ''OOO'' was largely based on preproduction material for ''OOO'', and as such much of what happens ends up foreshadowing events that don't actually get used. The movie introduces the idea of homunculi as a way of resurrecting the dead, which was intended to be used for one of the major characters who instead survived his death due to his popularity. It also briefly introduces the dinosaur Greeed, who's treated as TheDreaded and someone that the other five already know, but in the actual show no such character exists and the Greeed treat the dinosaur Medals as a new thing that they've never heard of before.

* In ''Series/DawsonsCreek'', infamously annoying Eve Whitman was introduced in season 3 as a new {{Love Interest|s}} for Dawson who later finds out [[spoiler:she's Jennifer's half-sister]]. Dawson tells [[spoiler:Jenn's mother]] about his discovery and it's never heard of again. Eve disappears by the end of the season. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in one of the series' final episodes, when a character who wasn't around for season three asks about her:

* In ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}:

** The first 8 episodes of season 1 focus on an assassin who gets plastic surgery to obtain a new identity and get close to Senator David Palmer at a morning rally. Jack never meets the guy until their one and only encounter, but successfully throws the assassin off Palmer by implicating himself as an enemy. The assassin runs away when Jack gets arrested...and never shows up again, despite having plenty of chances afterwards to kill his target, in any of the episodes or seasons following this. The producers supposedly forgot about the character.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** Another notable one is the cyborg plot that was in "Lineage". We never saw any more of it or found out where they really came from. The only clue was that the cyborgs bore the symbol of the Circle of the Black Thorn -- but that doesn't tell us which member sent them or why.
** Planned storylines for season 6 were either dropped or expanded in ''After the Fall''. This resulted in some season 5 stuff also being compressed or eliminated altogether.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has the Anointed One -- a prepubescent child who'd been made a vampire in the first season -- was meant to be the main villain of the season. The problem was, while vampires don't age, the actor playing the role had had something of a growth spurt and clearly wouldn't be able to hold up as an immortal, ageless vampire. As a result, his storyline was scrapped and he was killed off rather anticlimactically -- if satisfyingly -- by Spike three episodes into the season.

* ''Series/TheOfficeUS''
** During Season 6, there was an arc featuring Dwight trying to hatch a scheme to get Jim fired after his promotion, which included forming an alliance with Ryan. Despite all the build up, Jim steps down from his position willingly for unrelated reasons a few episodes later, and Dwight and Ryan dissolve the alliance without ever having done to Jim.