What TV series ended way too soon?

[begin_within]

The obvious answer is "Police Squad!" with only 6 glorious episodes. What others?

[Robeson]

1. Gunsmoke...

...:sarcasm:

[Adsos Letter]

2. "Arrested Development" and "The Tick"...

[montanto]

131. I'll go with Arrested Development, though

Barry Zuckercorn (Henry Winkler: aka The Fonz) did jump the shark.

[SeattleGirl]

3. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"

Only lasted one season, damnit!

I loved that show!

[MissMillie]

34. that's the one

I liked it very much.

[Mojambo]

4. Fawlty Towers

Only twelve episodes, but one wonders, given the sheer comedic energy Cleese poured into it, if it could have gone on much longer without it killing him.

[swag]

5. "Get a Life"

[terrya]

30. I liked that show.

I agree. I thought it was cool that Bob Elliot played Chris' father on the show. :-)

[pokerfan]

6. Sports Night

Action
Freaks and Geeks
Dilbert
Titus

That's five off the top of my head.

[driver8]

66. Sports Night was the greatest show that nobody watched.

One of my friends absolutely loved that show and it is his opinion that "Sports Night" couldn't decide if it wanted to be a drama or a comedy, and that's why it never caught on.

[pokerfan]

77. another great show screwed up by a network

ABC demanded that they add a laugh track, which was inappropriate for that style of humor and a major turnoff to the very audience who might be attracted to that kind of show. Then they failed to promote it and kept jerking it all over the schedule.

Despite all that, it didn't do badly. It won a bunch of Emmy awards and it has the rather dubious distinction of being the highest rated tv series to be canceled that season. ABC even renewed the lesser-rated Norm that year. :puke:

[ScreamingMeemie]

110. I Loved it...and watched it all the time.

:(

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. Dead Like Me

I'm still bummed about it.

[PeaceNikki]

32. Seconded

My 1st thought as well.

Though... the creator of "Dead Like Me" FULLY redeemed himself with "Pushing Daisies".

[semillama]

69. For sure on that series. n/t

[JeffR]

8. Nowhere Man, American Gothic, Grounded for Life, The PJs,

Bearcats, that lawyer show with Kim Delaney whose name I can never remember, & Call to Glory. Other than that, I got nuthin'.

[Parche]

62. Grounded For Life

That show is hilarious, very well written

:hi:

[Dogtown]

84. Only recog "American Gothic", JeffR

but that cancellation really pist meoff.

[ghostsofgiants]

9. Carnivàle.

[yellowdogintexas]

56. my husband and daughter would certainly second and third that one.

We got the series for her as a gift, and they watched it together. I haven't watched it yet myself.

Anyway they were very disappointed it ended and didn't like the ending either.

[ghostsofgiants]

75. Yeah, the ending was a total cliffhanger that posed so many important qquestions about the show.

I was so pissed when HBO canceled it.

[RubyDuby in GA]

86. I agree 1000%!!!!!

That show was awesome! Definitely one of HBO's best.

[PassingFair]

92. My first choice as well!

If you go to Wiki, the information on the show
is almost as interesting as the show itself.

It was to have run for at LEAST three more seasons
to even BEGIN to run down the atavistic themes!

I felt like I had been thrown over a cliff after
the last episode...so many core themes left hanging!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carniv%C3%A0le

[ghostsofgiants]

120. I know!

It was such an incredible show, I couldn't believe HBO just bailed on it.

[Rhythm]

10. Strange Luck n/t

[swag]

11. "Twin Peaks"

[ghostsofgiants]

63. For sure.

ABC didn't know what the fuck to do with that show and it showed.

[cemaphonic]

108. To be fair, it spent much of the second season spinning its wheels

Between the network pressuring them to hurry up with the killer's identity and Lynch spending most of his time working on "Wild at Heart," they were really grasping at straws from the reveal of "Bob" until the appearance of Wyndham Earle. Then, just when it was getting back on track, it ended.

Plus, for a hit show, it was really pretty repulsive and squicky. Not surprising that it was destined for a short lifespan.

But yeah, I agree. A third season, or even a capstone movie would have been great. Made me miss Washington (little did I know that I'd be back in Seattle 2 years later.)

[ghostsofgiants]

121. Yeah, I agree.

That whole plot line with James running away and getting mixed up with that woman and her husband or whatever, for example, was pretty lame.

[DFW]

12. Liebling Kreuzberg

Manfred Krug was BORN for that role.

[just a girl]

13. Firefly

[elocs]

114. A big second for Firefly. What a bonehead move by FOX that was. Stupid, stupid. n/t

[LeftyMom]

Rome

Holy shit, that show was awesome.

[Fleshdancer]

28. I agree!

I watched the last episode without knowing it was the last one and was very disappointed the following week. :(

[Taverner]

126. I loved it too, but think it was the perfect length as it was

That one reason I love Brit shows - they have a beginning, a middle and an end.

American Shows, just the beginning and middle.

[Taverner]

127. Shasta McNasty

OK, that show sucked and deserved to go ;)

[Eurobabe]

137. GAWD we LOVED that show

2 seasons was NOT enough!! :cry:

[harmonicon]

14. fishing with john

One of the funniest shows ever made - only 6 episodes. If they could get the money, I think they should make more.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139776/

[Fox Mulder]

15. Angel.

[WillParkinson]

18. 2nd

I loved the last episode, though I hated the fact that one of the main characters died.

The show hit a stride that couldn't be denied. Strong performances by everyone.

[Steerpike]

24. The Character that dies does come back.

Joss said he had the plan to bring him back. So in the Buffy-verse he lives...Apparently he appears as a regular in the comic books as a ghost. Can you "live" as a ghost?

[philosophie_en_rose]

33. yes

Spike lived as a ghost and got better. There's hope for Wesley, yet.

[CreekDog]

16. Buffalo Bill

[stanwyck]

101. Second Buffalo Bill

good show.

[1]

116. i have to third on that creek, buffalo bill was incredibly funny...

a show ahead of its time...

[leeroysphitz]

17. Mash n/t

[LostInAnomie]

19. Deadwood and Rome

The two best shows HBO ever made.

[sarge43]

37. Rome was great,

but another season would have been a do over of I, Claudius. Plus, the writers and producers slammed the door on Season Three when they wrote out Octavian's daughter, ie Livia was his only wife.

[semillama]

70. Deadwood was awesome

Just about done with the last season, and you can tell there was so much more that could be done there...

[MsTryska]

74. Agreed on both

but definitely Deadwood. Rome they could have taken for seasons and seasons...

[Awsi Dooger]

20. All the '60s comedies

And Johnny Bago

[skooooo]

96. Smothers Brothers show for sure!

Taken off the air by the censors.

[alphafemale]

21. Michael Moore's show. Not even recalling the name of it at the moment.

[taterguy]

27. TV Nation

[begin_within]

47. He also had another series called The Awful Truth.

[SoxFan]

48. I liked that show

I remember when he rented an 18 wheeler, decked it out in bright red Soviet livery, including a hammer and sickle, and had some guy drive it across the South.

[Drunken Irishman]

22. Freaks and Geeks and Still Standing.

[ghostsofgiants]

64. Good call on Freaks and Geeks/

[ScreamingMeemie]

111. Freaks and Geeks was based on my high school.

I went to school with them...only I didn't know them. My brother knew one of them.

[NewJeffCT]

23. Police Squad - 6 episodes

did well in the ratings, but was canceled because people had to pay too much attention to get all the jokes.

[sarge43]

25. Frank's Place and Firefly n/t

[HERVEPA]

79. I second Frank's place

[kentauros]

81. Yeah, Frank's Place was great!

Is it available on DVD? :)

[HERVEPA]

90. Check out the Forum discussion on IMDB

A number of people seems to have copies, some DVD, some Tape.
Good Luck.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092354/board

[YankeyMCC]

26. Farscape and Firefly and the original Star Trek and

the Star Trek animated series and ExoSquad

[SidneyCarton]

50. Agreed on all, especially ExoSquad, a much deeper cartoon than one would suspect.

[Auggie]

29. Commander in Chief -- Geena Davis as President

Oldies: The Paper Chase and Lou Grant -- Wonderful dramas from the late '70s.

[lizziegrace]

31. Brooklyn Bridge n/t

[yellowdogintexas]

58. That was a marvelous show. I hated it went off. nt

[BOSSHOG]

35. CRIMESTORY

A favorite of mine from back in the 80's.

[Iggo]

136. Is that the one Runaway for the theme song?

That show was the shit!

[mikeytherat]

36. Far Out Space Nuts

mikey_the_rat

[NJmaverick]

38. The Loop

You can watch it here

http://www.hulu.com/the-loop

[blueraven95]

39. Raines

a quirky noir-ish detective show staring Jeff Goldblum. I think it only had 6 episodes on NBC last year and it was great.

[ceile]

65. Seconded n/t

[QueenOfCalifornia]

124. Agreed

I enjoyed it. The acting was terrific and the writing excellent. If they had ran with it, it would have picked up steam.

[PeaceNikki]

40. Aliens in America

GREAT show...

Only lasted 1 season. :(

[terrya]

52. I was surprised they cancelled the show.

I liked "Aliens in America", also. It sort of had a "Freaks and Geeks" kind of vibe. Well cast, well written. I wished WB gave it more of a chance.

Maybe another network...like Comedy Central...could pick it up again. "AiA" really deserves another chance.

[PeaceNikki]

61. The "mom" has the WI accent down BEAUTIFULLY!

It was a joy to watch her.

[bigwillq]

41. My So-Called Life

Sports Night

[MrCoffee]

49. Yes, MSCL died far too young.

[southpaw]

42. Northern Exposure... but

the show had jumped the shark by the time it ended.

I would loved to have had many more seasons comparable to the first three... even four.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

51. agreed

:toast:

[redwitch]

43. Homicide.

Andre Braugher-yum.

Also agree with The Tick and Commander in Chief.

[musiclawyer]

122. Homocide Life on the Street went out in time

You gotta admit it lasted a long time even though it had a bad time spot and hence got far less viewers than it deserved. In any event, it had a lot of changes to the ensemble, important changes, that kind of left the show unbalanced at the end. So I would say that it went out just in time. Fantastic show though-- one of best dramas of TV all time.

[WinkyDink]

44. "Tour of Duty"; "American Dreams"; "T.H.E. Cat"; "Hootenanny"; "Get a Life".

[devilgrrl]

45. Police Squad

[ThatsMyBarack]

46. That's Incredible!

They won't even put out a DVD box set! :grr:

[Seeking Serenity]

53. Laugh-In.

[kwassa]

54. The Wire, best TV show ever made. Also, Deadwood.

[Sentath]

55. Avatar, the last air bender

The wrap-up movie made me ill.

[kentauros]

57. Crusade

Spinoff of Babylon 5.

The TNT suits didn't understand it (much like happened to Star Trek in the 60s) and after trying to get more sex and violence into the high-brow stories without much success, they canceled it :(

[SPQR]

59. Homefront

Wonderfalls, John from Cincinnati. Oh, and Pink Lady and Jeff.

[MorningGlow]

71. Wonderfalls DEFINITELY

Good call. Mine are Wonderfalls, Freaks and Geeks, and Studio 60.

[deucemagnet]

60. Andy Richter Controls the Universe n/t

[marigold20]

107. I loved that show!

Were there more than 2 of us who watched it?

[deucemagnet]

119. Apparently so!

Andy's a fucking riot. :thumbsup:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

67. Nothing Sacred

A series about the priests and nuns in a large urban parish. Conservative Catholics raised a huge fuss about it because it showed the religious as full-fledged human beings, not as plaster saints who walked around clutching their rosaries. (I suppose this was the same crowd that picketed the wonderful movie Priest.)

Anyway, there was such an outcry from people opposed to the series (which was entirely inoffensive unless you think that priests and nuns are some sort of supernatural beings) that it was canceled in midstream, with episodes remaining unaired. I have learned from the IMDB that it has been aired in full in other countries, which are apparently more sophisticated than the U.S., and I wish it were out on DVD.

Here are some comments from the IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118411/usercomments

[begin_within]

68. I'm surprised nobody has said Smothers Brothers yet

[hedgehog]

72. Frank's Place

It went on the air with Tim Reid after WKRP in Cincinnati went off. It was funny, but also addressed issues such as black on blacker racism, religion, men and women, etc.

[TK421]

73. Carnivale...I really started to get into that show

:(

[Lydia Leftcoast]

80. Yes, a lot of disappointed fans for that one, me included

It was part of HBO's "golden age."

[Rambis]

76. Life on Mars

http://www.mafster.co.uk/space/files/audio/Lombollocking.mp3

[Lydia Leftcoast]

78. I don't know--unless they wanted to turn it into just a period cop show,

they had to end it somehow.

[Rambis]

83. That's what I wanted

Sam stays stuck in 1973 and there you have it- I would have let him adapt to all the new copper technology he already knew about etc. Wishful thinking I guess

[Blue-Jay]

82. The Dresden Files

[PBS Poll-435]

85. Capital Critters

[RubyDuby in GA]

87. American Dreams

I don't care if it was a glossed over cheese-o-rama of the 60s, I like it.

[aine p]

128. It was rather cheesy with a bit of bad acting here and

there but still it somehow grabbed my attention...shame it's gone.

[Cheap_Trick]

88. Firefly

Freaks and Geeks
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven
Action
Brooklyn South
Jericho
Life on Mars
Alien Nation
Clerks: The Animated Series
Undergrads
Space: Above and Beyond

[MilesColtrane]

89. "Action"

A Jay Mohr vehicle that lasted 8 episodes on Fox.

His amoral film exec Peter Dragon was the spiritual father of Ari Gold.

[LeftinOH]

91. That one hurt (the cancellation, that is).. great cast, well written show-

I looked forward to it every week during its brief run.

[Z_I_Peevey]

98. That was my first thought too.

I love Illeana Douglas.

[panhead1961]

93. Joan of Arcadia

Quirky and funny.

[aine p]

125. Ya that one was rather good actually. It seemed to disappear

all of a sudden...now I know!

[Courtesy Flush]

94. Breaking Away

It was based on the movie. Didn't last long, but was very well produced and acted.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080203/

[MadrasT]

95. Deadwood and The Wire

Deadwood. Best. Show. Ever.

Al Swearengen: "In life, you have to do a lot of things you don't fucking want to do. Many times that's what the fuck life is...one vile, fucking task after another."

I loved "The Wire" too. From the first episode:

McNulty: I got to ask you. If every time Snotboogie would grab the money and run away, why'd you even let him in the game?

Witness: What?

McNulty: If Snotboogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?

Witness: You got to, this is America, man.

[kath]

97. Veronica Mars.

There's so much utter freakin' CRAP out there these days. That such an intelligent, well-written show as VM, with a kick-ass female protagonist, should get cancelled still pisses me off to no end. :mad: :mad:

[JTG of the PRB]

99. Arrested Development, Firefly, Futurama, Invader Zim, Mission Hill...

...Andy Richter Controls the Universe, The Critic, The Tick... There are lots of great shows that got killed far, FAR before their time was up.

Hmm... Interesting... Six of the shows I mentioned were on FOX... How VERY interesting!

[madrchsod]

100. east side-west side

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/E/htmlE/eastsidewest/eastsidewest.htm
one of the best tv shows ever produced

[Lydia Leftcoast]

103. Heavens, yes

The former cable station Trio showed it in its "Brilliant but Canceled" series, and it was excellent.

[Shine]

102. Journeyman

I really liked that show a lot. It was relatively recent. It was set in SF and it featured a guy who time-traveled involuntarily. It was well done, in terms of looking at the relationship aspects of having that inconvenient condition and how it played out. I was really bummed when it wasn't renewed.

[Blue-Jay]

109. Yeah. I liked that one too.

They left a lot of shit unresolved.

[Shine]

118. There was apparently a whole push to get it renewed, but it failed.

:(

http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/06/06/the-arrested-development-award-winner-video/

[Ivan Sputnik]

104. Wonderfalls

The network only broadcast four of 13 completed episodes. Luckily they all came out on DVD.

[Deja Q]

105. "Blake's 7", original Star Trek, Doctor Who*

(1963-1989) - got canned right when things were really getting superlative again and *can* it goes, and hasn't recovered despite some superfluous recovery. (I suspect, within 5 years, the new series will have dated far worse...)

[NanceGreggs]

106. American Gothic ...

... and Bakersfield P.D.!

[ScreamingMeemie]

112. It Takes Two-Sit com with Patty Duke, Richard Crenna, Billie Bird

Anthony Edwards, and Helen Hunt. Hysterically funny. I loved Billie Bird as the grandma. Gone way before it should have been.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

113. The Charmings

1980s sitcom about Snow White and her family coming to 21st century suburbia along with the wicked Queen and her mirror. Favorite series of mine when I was a child

[madeline_con]

115. Maximum Bob

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_Bob

It was set in FL, about a hanging judge, his ex Wiki-Wachee mermaid wife, some trailer trash. It was SO good, but only aired a few episodes and was gone. Damn!

[coyotespaw]

117. I can't believe nobody brought up Titus!

One of a small hand full of really great Fox shows...

[Forkboy]

129. I liked that show a lot.

Stacy Keach as the dad was hilarious.

[graywarrior]

123. Vengeance Unlimited with Michael Madsen

[Forkboy]

130. I clicked on the thread ready to say Police Squad, and there it was.

You beat me to it. The show was beyond funny. "Married, one child. That didn't work out so he married a full grown adult." :rofl:

[VenusRising]

132. Kindred: The Embraced.

It ran 8 episodes, but didn't come back again. The lead actor that played Julian Luna, the Prince of the City, was killed in a motorcycle accident. :(

[LeftyMom]

133. They'd fucked up the WOD so bad though.

As a player, it was kinda painful to watch.

[VenusRising]

134. Hmm.

As a player, I didn't think so at all.

:shrug:

[Iggo]

135. Carnivale. Rome. Deadwood.

I don't think In Treatment is enough to keep me hangin' on with HBO.