I'd completely forgotten about it, but I think you are right that the show ended prematurely because one of the major male cast members died. I believe it may have been Mark Frankel.
It's bad enough when a show ends prematurely because a network pulls it for often unfathomable reasons (like Warren Littlefield killing the '91 DS because it was Brandon Tartikoff's pet project and not one of his) - but it's really sad when it ends because one of the leads dies.
