Before the days of Disney+, or even streaming as a whole, Marvel had been running their own luck with TV shows.
Marvel Television was formed in 2010, and quickly obtained partnership deals with ABC Studios, Netflix, and Hulu. These shows were aired on ABC, and later Freeform.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Created by: Joss and Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen Run: 09/24/13-08/12/2020
Seasons: 7 Episodes: 136
With 136 episodes, 7 seasons, and 7 years of runtime, this is by far the largest Marvel series.
Which is fitting, as it was around long enough to be both the first and last production Marvel Television made.
The first few seasons were highly rated, as they featured Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) trying to make sense of the ramifications of events from the films.
The entire second season revolves around Coulson trying to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. after the events of The Winter Soldier.
While viewership slowly tapered off over the seasons, the show maintained good ratings for the entire run.
This show is the encapsulation of the initial idea at the TV studio: make something that stands on its own but connects to the over-arching story of the MCU.
Due to that over-arching connectivity, the writers were forced to abandon certain ideas.
Such ideas included utilizing characters such as the Winter Soldier and M.O.D.O.K., as well as organizations such as S.W.O.R.D.
Agent Carter
Created by: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely Run: 01/06/15-03/01/16
Seasons: 2 Episodes: 18
The first season follows the story of Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) as she’s trying to assist Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) in New York, as he’s been wrongly framed for supplying deadly weapons to national enemies.
The second season sees her move to LA to scour threats of the Secret Empire, a defected Hydra subsidiary.
There were plans for a third season, the idea and show got scrapped due to low ratings.
While the ratings may have been partly due to ABC’s inconsistent broadcast schedule, another speculated reason is that the show felt too “soap opera” for a superhero show.
The show was cancelled shortly after the release of Civil War, and around this time there were talks of copying CBS’s streaming service model.
Inhumans
Created by: Scott Buck Run: 09/29/17-11/10/17
Seasons: 1 Episodes: 8
The shortest series that Marvel produced, follows Black Bolt (Anson Mount) and the Inhuman Royal Family as they flee from the U.S. government.
This had intentions of being a much larger show, but as the ratings would have it, this show didn’t do well.
And it’s a safe assumption that at least one showrunner felt the same as the audience, as the plug was pulled on this project without much of a fight.
While Black Bolt did make an appearance in Multiverse of Madness, most everyone’s forgotten about this ill-fated show.
