A common misconception is that My Sister Sam was canceled due to the death of Rebecca Schaeffer. CBS canceled the series in May 1988 due to low ratings. Schaeffer was killed over a year later, in July 1989, by an obsessed fan.
The show was moved to Saturday evenings at the start of its second season and, its ratings dropped drastically. CBS put the show on hiatus in November and, it returned in March 1988 and moved again on Tuesday nights. Finally, CBS pulled the plug on the series in April leaving the last 12 episodes unaired. Two years later, the show went into syndication and aired the full two seasons along with the episodes unaired.