Can TV Shows Thrive Without Their Creators?

News about an impending Twin Peaks revival jumped from great to terrible just as rapidly as the second season of Twin Peaks. In the fall of 2014, we got word that visionary filmmaker David Lynch would be rebooting Twin Peaks — a mystery-thriller situated on the ever-bending line between reality and fantasy — for contemporary audiences, solidifying a deal with Showtime to produce the new incarnation of the cult classic. But, if our time spent in the spooky Northwestern lumber town have taught us anything, it's that things rarely work out the way they should. Lynch has left the Twin Peakes, announcing that the network offered insufficient funds to develop a Twin Peaks reboot in the fashion he deemed proper.

As of now, Showtime is bent on carrying forth with the project in lieu of Lynch and Frost's noninvolvement, hoping that the creators and showrunners' absence will not be too big a liability on the development of the program. But, when it comes to a product as unique and eccentric as Twin Peaks, it's hard to imagine success prevailing without Lynch's signature battiness on board.

This is hardly the first TV show we've seen lose its creator. Perhaps past instances of the like can tell us what to expect from a Lynchless Twin Peaks.

Gilmore Girls

Original creator: Amy Sherman-Palladino.She ran the show for: Six seasons.Until: Disputes with The CW led Sherman-Palladino, and her writer husband, Dan to ditch the gig.Afterwards: We were left with one final season that is controversial at best. Let's leave it at that.

Seinfeld

Original creator: Larry David.He ran the show for: Seven seasons.Until: Leave it to Larry David to find fault with any writer's dream job of running one of the greatest and most successful situational comedies in television history.Afterwards: Seinfeld remained on air for two more years, maintaining popularity and relative acclaim, but devolving from a show about everyday life into a stranger, loonier exhibition of cartoon hijinks.

The West Wing

Original creator: Aaron Sorkin.He ran the show for: Three seasons.Until: Sorkin's behind-the-scenes uncooperativeness led to a seizure of the program's creative wheel by his fellow producers.Afterwards: The post-Sorkin West Wing actually lasted longer than the Sorkin-era West Wing, producing four more seasons that wrestled with strengths and weaknesses alike.

The Walking Dead

Original creator: Frank Darabont.He ran the show for: One season.Until: AMC fired Darabont over the usual ambiguous budgetary conflicts, replacing him with writer Glen Mazzara. The series has gone on to produce four more seasons and counting.Afterwards: The Walking Dead has hit highs and lows since Darabont's departure, though fans would credit what is recognizable now as the zombie series more than likely to Mazzara's contributions than to Darabont's.

Community

Original creator: Dan Harmon.He ran the show for: At first, three seasons.Until: NBC fired Harmon for his contentious reputation and devotion to esoteric comedy, replacing him with sitcom writers Moses Port and David Guarascio.Afterwards: Port and Guarascio's season was universally despised by critics and fans, convincing NBC to rehire Harmon (an unprecedented move) for a fifth season of the show. However, even under Harmon's reign, Season 5 was likewise lackluster, leading to the long-anticipated cancelation of Community. It presently lives on as a streamable TV series via Yahoo, maintaining its latter era subpar character.

Star Trek

Original creator: Gene RoddenberryHe ran the show for: Really only one season.Until: Roddenberry stepped back voluntarily, due in part to a distaste for working with the network.Afterwards: While Star Trek was only on air for three seasons, it maintained its luster and innovation throughout, and stands today as one of the most important TV series ever to air.

Supernatural

Original creator: Eric Kripke.He ran the show for: Five seasons.Until: Kripke left the show at what he felt would be the logical concluding point for the story. Little did he know that his soapy sci-fi/fantasy series would continue on for another half of a decade and counting.Afterwards: Supernatural, while it hasn't lost most of its incredibly dedicated fan base, has pretty much spent the past five years slipping further and further off the deep end. And will probably continue to do so for the next five years, because the fans are as loyal as they are dedicated.

Images: ABC; The CW (2); NBC (4); AMC