‘Melissa and Joey’ effectively canceled by ABC Family after four seasons

Sad news for all of those out there who really enjoyed the ABC Family comedy “Melissa & Joey“: It looks like the party is going to be over sooner rather than later.

It was confirmed today, via TheWrap, that the show is going to be coming to a close after four seasons on ABC Family. We cannot really say that this is a shock; while occasionally you have a show like “Pretty Little Liars” that goes on far longer than you would at first anticipate, four or five seasons is the typical shelf life for this network. Most of their audience ages past their series; this is not so much the case with “Melissa & Joey,” but clearly they decided still that it was best to go in a different direction.

In a statement to the publication, Programming and Development executive vice president for the network, Karey Burke, said the following:

“We are proud of the milestones ‘Melissa & Joey’ has achieved, being the network’s first sitcom to reach 100 episodes and the network’s first comedy to win a People’s Choice Award … Now that the kids are grown and Mel and Joe have married and are looking towards starting a family, it seemed like a natural time to bring the series to a close. We are grateful to Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence, and the whole cast and crew who worked so hard on this successful show.”

With Hart in particular, we have faith that she will eventually find another show to call her home. This is a woman who has done three hugely successful shows now in this one, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” and “Clarissa Explains It All.”

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