Sometimes, the good things in life leave us much too soon. Like Icarus, they fly too close to the sun, their beautiful wings crashing back to Earth in a mess of melted wax or stale plots. And we say goodbye to them with a heavy heart, as when The Wrap reports that Melissa & Joey, the ostensible comedy starring Melissa Joan Hart and Donald Trump-for-President endorser Joey Lawrence, has been canceled.
Melissa & Joey is currently in its fourth season, which will finish up sometime this summer, bringing an end to the ABC Family series itself. “We are proud of the milestones Melissa & Joey has achieved, being the network’s first sitcom to reach 100 episodes,” said ABC Family’s Karey Burke, likely through gritted teeth. As befitting a show that has done its level best to reach the proud heights of sitcom forerunners like Family Matters and ¡Rob!, the show will conclude before it burns out its goodwill—the kind of goodwill that earned it the “Favorite Cable TV Comedy” at the most recent People’s Choice Awards. It was ABC Family’s highest-rated sitcom, which is either a testament to the actors’ popularity or an unsettling warning for the channel’s other original shows. (“I mean, we’re a good show, but not, like, Melissa & Joey good,” the stars of The Fosters are no doubt thinking.)