Which show got cancelled before it had a chance?

[Nikepallas]

We all have seen it. We've had it happen to us from time to time. Got interested in a show that was REALLY good or innovative etc...But for whatever reason it was cancelled.


Which show was cancelled too soon?

[FULL_METAL_HAT]

1. That's My *!!! ROTFL n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Greg the Bunny

[mairceridwen]

5. Yes!

that's what I was going to say

[BlueEyedSon]

11. Uh-oh, you're as weird as I am.....

[mairceridwen]

17. wierdos are cool

[tuvor]

21. Yes, but at least the DVD just came out, blah! n/t

[semillama]

88. my first thought also

and that's why mairceridwen is the woman for me.

[eternalburn]

3. Vengeance Unlimited....

...with Michael Madsen.

[Hazelrah]

4. Firefly

and I'm still bitter.

It's the other reason I hate fox. :mad:
rupert's the first.

[w13rd0]

8. Agreed...

...I enjoyed that show. The hybrid scifi concept is one that's worked rather well in our "post-modern" present day fiction, and it was nice seeing it well done in a series.

[Enraged_Ape]

36. Firefly is, IMHO, up there with the original Star Trek...

and Babylon 5 as the greatest sci-fi series ever on TV.

Can't wait for the feature film Serenity to open in April of 2005.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

58. I forgot about that one.

FOX kills good shows faster than NBC. Greg the Bunny was funny as sh*t. Ally McBeal stays on for like five years, and Firefly gets cancelled halfway through? Bah!!

Oh well, at least the Simpsons are still around. 16 years and counting....

[YankeyMCC]

82. I was getting over it

Then you reminded me about this travesty of justice! ;)

Firefly was entertaining, thoughtful and intelligent. Of course Fox couldn't keep stuff like that on for long.

[BlueHandDuo]

85. Ah, fellow Browncoats! How shiny to see you!

My favorite quote from Firefly could apply just as well to Democrats in 2004:

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one." -Captain Mal Reynolds.

[ixion]

97. yep, that would be my vote

such a great show.

[Sannum]

6. God, the devil and bob

[jobycom]

26. Hey

I think they are still looking for your avatar. Better hide!

(SOrry, you probably get that a lot, just, you know, I'm bored.)

[Chovexani]

47. I loved that show

But it was doomed to failure from the start thanks to Jesusland. :(

[The Doctor.]

7. Profit... the story of executive social engineering.

It was great - the guy's dad was a disenfranchised ex-employee of a company who raise his son in a refrigerator box with the company name on it.

The show was brilliant. The main character (the son) became an executive at the company out of the blue and began manipulating everyone around him by using their own insecurities and weaknesses against them.

The show always ended with a sudden shriek.

[w13rd0]

10. That sounds kind of interesting...

...how many episodes ran, I'd like to look for it on the Peer2Peer...

[The Doctor.]

30. Geez! I don't know. It was on for a month in 1990? ...

I'm not sure.

GL tho.

[BlueJazz]

24. I remember catching one Episode and being completely

...blown away. I remember thinking "Wow, TV has finally become Intelligent, adult entertainment".

Stupid, Naive Me....

[LostInAnomie]

9. G vs E

I liked it as least.

[Dukakis88]

50. Yup. If you get the chance, watch the movie "Deceiver" by the same guys

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

59. I loved that show!

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

60. I loved that show!

[semillama]

89. Damn, forgot about that one.

G v E was very engaging. I really enjoyed that show. The whole concept was gold.

When Sci Fi canned that show, that was when I knew Sci Fi wasn't worth watching anymore.

[MuseRider]

12. American Gothic

I was loving it and then it was gone.

[ProfessorPlum]

68. You know, the pilot of that show was really good

and there was one episode about the guy who is terrorized by the ex-con who was wrongfully jailed - he's worried about the guy having sex with his daughter, but it turned out it was just the sheriff (Gary Cole) messing with his head.

Those two episodes were fantastic - but the rest were less so.

Were they ones you liked as well?

[StevieM]

13. There was a teen soap on FOX called "Tribes" back in 1990....

It was a half-hour show. Tribes was kind of like a 90210-type show, except much better. It was cancelled after a few months, even though its ratings were rising. The problem was that it was never syndicated on a national basis, and didn't have enough markets to survive. I watched it in NY at 5 PM.

It was a really good show.

Steve

[GreatAuntK]

14. Donahue

Wow, I don't remember any of those shows. Phil Donahue came to mind immediately, in the months leading up to the war, he was a lone voice of protest, he had great ratings, too. He even had Helen Caldicott on.

[HeeBGBz]

20. Most recent: Father of the Pride

The puter animated Sigfried and Roy w/lions and other assorted critters. By the people that brought you Shrek.

It wasn't always majorly funny but the one-liners were awesome.

Did you see the one where Dick "Chainsaw" Cheney was trying to be a hanger on with S&R? It was great.

It only lasted a couple of months and now its gone.

[Todd B]

106. FYI:

FYI:

Father of the Pride is still on according to the NBC website. There is a new episode scheduled for 21 December 2004.

[StevieM]

29. Doesn't anybody else remember Tribes? (eom)

x

[amerikat]

15. Wonderfalls

I liked it.....lasted about 3 episodes.

[Pepperbelly]

37. Amen ...

delightfully snarky script and spot-on performances by all involved.

[Ivan Sputnik]

73. Good news for 'Wonderfalls' fans

The complete series will be released on DVD (3 discs) on February 1st. You can find more details at Amazon.com. I believe a dozen episodes were produced, although the damn network only broadcast four of them.

[flamingyouth]

103. Thanks for that bit of info

I had heard a rumor that it would be released at some point. Just preordered it on Amazon - can't wait to see the rest of the series. Thanks! :hi:

[flamingyouth]

102. I loved that show n/t

[RoadRunner]

16. Cop Rock

fer sure.

[The Great Escape]

18. My So Called Life

[HeeBGBz]

22. I loved My So Called Life. China Beach was another. n/t

[Killarney]

54. Absolutely. I loved this show.

[George_S]

65. Yes

The quality was way over the top for TV.

[AngryOldDem]

84. Yep. Most Definitely.

I liked the show so much that I bought the CD set.

Hard to believe it's been 10 years -- watched it when my kid was a toddler and now I'm feeling more and more like Patti Chase everyday.

I'm using the CDs as a guide to get me through these teen years. Seriously.

[tuvor]

19. Square Pegs and Freaks and Geeks

So few shows about early 80s high school, and these were both great.

"I like dark. Dark is good."
--Johnny Slash

[fudge stripe cookays]

78. I LOVED Freaks and Geeks.

I was sooo pissed when it was canceled.

FSC

PS-- Add Cupid. I LOVE Jeremy Piven.

[Starfury]

23. Crusade

Stoopid TNT....

[jobycom]

25. Austin Stories, Rude Awakenings

And that has nothing to do with my almost painful crush on Sherilyn Fenn!

[Metatron]

44. I really miss Rude Awakenings.

Such a great program.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. Nothing Sacred

Story about a Catholic parish. Conservative Catholics raised a stink about it because the priests were portrayed as human beings with problems. The chicken network didn't even show all the episodes that were in the can.

[NightTrain]

28. Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Imagine what they could've done with that show if computer animation existed in 1974!

[Piperay]

34. That was a TERRIFIC show

wish they would revive it with new episodes.

[AValdoux]

90. Night Stalker DVD

I bought the original movie on DVD the other day. I saw it when it aired originally on ABC Weeknight movies. Scared me and all my family for a week. I was only 8 when I saw it but it left an impression. Still gets to me.

A Valdoux :scared:

[bettyellen]

111. just saw the other day that's available on dvd w/ night strangler too !!

Netflix has it. I think they were both movies of the week before they made the regular show of it. God I loved that show!

[AgadorSparticus]

31. Boomtown. I thought the concept sounded interesting but before

I could catch an episode, it was long gone. I think the name didn't help either.

[Mojambo]

32. The Ben Stiller Show. n/t

[asthmaticeog]

53. You know, my roommate bought the DVDs,

and I just didn't find it as funny as it seemed to me back when it originally aired. Of course, we have that show to thank for Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob & David, but the material didn't hold up as well as I'd expected. Maybe that's just because everybody's subsequent stuff (News Radio, Mr. Show, etc.) kicked so much ass?

[Mojambo]

55. It's been so long since I've seen it

It's entirely possible that it hasn't held up so well.

It didn't have much of a chance to establish itself into my consciousness. It's more like a flash of goodness that I recall.

[Piperay]

33. "Do Over" a season or two back

was a time travel drama, only 3-4 episodes aired. :-(

[lazarus]

35. two of them

"Robbery Homicide Division" was a great show that just got dropped.

And Fox screwed up another great series by abandoning "Andy Richter Controls the Universe".

[GiovanniC]

38. Mister Sterling

I liked that show.

[GreenPartyVoter]

66. Yep. Was sorry to see it go

[chyjo]

39. Wonderfalls!

anyoneelse see it on DU? It was run up against CSI though. So they took it off after like four episodes.

[Kire]

40. The Lyon's Den

I really want to know if the boss really killed himself, or was he murdered?

[Dukakis88]

41. "TV Funhouse" on Comedy Central -- canceled after only around 7 shows

I have no idea why they even bothered doing the show in the first place if they're not willing to give it longer than that to catch on. It was friggin' hilarious.

[Dukakis88]

42. The Dana Carvey Show -- incredible group of comedic talents shitcanned

Look at all of these incredible comedians who were writers / performers on The Dana Carvey Show:

Charlie Kaufman (of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich), Steve Carell, Dana Carvey, David Chappelle, Louis C.K., Stephen Colbert, Robert Smigel

Cancelled after only 3 or 4 episodes. I would like to beat the hell out of the people who cancelled it.

[AmericanErrorist]

48. You mean the

Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show.

[Dukakis88]

49. aka the Mug Root Beer Dana Carvey Show

[blueblitzkrieg]

43. Comedy Central's 'Strangers With Candy'

hilarious comedy if you have a demented sense of humor, starred Amy Sedaris (yep, David's sister). Supposedly there is a Strangers With Candy movie coming out soon!! *crosses fingers*

[Malikshah]

45. Dark Shadows-- Re-make of early 1990s

Loved the Gothic tone-- loved Ben Cross as Barnabas-- alas-- others did not.

[Chovexani]

46. Way too many, it breaks my heart

Firefly so owns this thread. I MISS YOU CAPTAIN TIGHTPANTS! :cry: At least we're getting a movie of it.

I fucking hate ABC, I call them Already Been Cancelled. They even more than Fox are responsible for killing off more fantastic shows before they have a chance than any other network. Vengeance Unlimited was one of my favorites and no one remembers it but me...it was on ABC for a hot second a few years ago, and it was a show with Michael Madsen as a mysterious mercenary-detective for hire type guy who would get revenge for people for a price. He really used to screw with people, it was great. I'm still mad about this show because there was some really neat backstory we just never learned about, such as what happened to his wife and how he got into that line of work.

Besides that...Miracles (another great show with an unsolved mystery), My So-Called Life, Sports Night. All great ABC shows killed before their time. I actually refused to watch the network for a long time because of their penchant for cancelling shows I had really gotten into, which is why I missed out on the Alias train. They have won me back with Lost and Desperate Housewives, but if either of them get cancelled there will be hell to pay (and luckily the ratings for both are through the roof so I think I'm safe).

As for other shows on other networks...oh, let's see, Lucky on F/X with John Corbett which was actually a GOOD show about Vegas. Freaks and Geeks, one of the last good shows on NBC. Then there was Profit on Fox with Adrian Pasdar which was apparently too dark for the masses (I loved it of course). Wonderfalls, also on Fox, which was another show by a Mutant Enemy alum that suffered due to totally unfair comparisons with Joan of Arcadia.

Futurama. There is absolutely no justice in the world when unfunny POS shows like fucking Family Guy get rescued from cancellation and Futurama is left to languish in reruns on Adult Swim. No justice. Especially when the Simpsons ran out of gas about 6 years ago. I hate Fox and their damn sports scheduling, which is responsible for the death of more good shows (John Doe anyone) than just about anything else besides bad taste in 90% of the people who watch TV.

Seems like fantasy-ish & sci-fi shows always get the short end of the stick. Stupid fucking muggles refuse to give them a chance, network suits move them to crazy time slots so the fans can't find them...ugh, don't get me started. There are the ones I've mentioned earlier, plus the Lone Gunmen, Brimstone, Jake 2.0 (surprisingly good show on UPN), Farscape...and yet Enterprise, which is like the worst Trek EVER, manages to stay on the air when it's operating on fumes (and so are the writers). I don't get it.

I can't be the only one sick to death of famewhore "reality" shows and cop & doctor shows, can I? Anyone? Bueller?

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

61. Hold on a minute,

it is indeed a crime against nature that Fox cancelled Futurama, but Family Guy is damn good TV.

[Chovexani]

95. Um, okay

Different strokes, I guess. I've tried watching Family Guy, repeatedly, and I can't sit through more than like 5 minutes of it. I don't need to be beaten in the face with a joke.

[Dukakis88]

51. David Lynch's "Mullholland Drive" -- cancelled before it ever aired

The movie Mullholland Drive was actually a pilot for an ABC TV series that was cancelled before the pilot even aired. Finally Lynch was able to add material to it to fashion the pilot into a stand-alone movie, which breathed life into Naomi Watts's career.

[Dukakis88]

52. "Heat Vision and Jack" w/Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller et al.

All that was produced was a pilot, for Fox. They never broadcast it. It was freakin' hilarious. I got it off of the internet awhile back. Watch it if you get the chance.

[recoveringdittohed]

56. Police Squad!

I think Police Squad! which only lasted 6 weeks on TV back in the 1980's was one of the best TV shows which was quickly canceled. At least the characters and premise did live on and thrive in three Naked Gun movies.

[Jobu]

101. Police Squad Rocked!

I loved that show and have always liked that kind of humor. Johnny the Snitch used to crack me up.

I have Police Squad on VHS, but I am hoping it also gets released on DVD. I buy that too.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

57. Well, there's a lot of them.

Futurama !!!!!! (FOX, you bastards.)
Gargoyles (Disney)!!!!
Line of Fire (ABC)!
Farscape (SciFi)
Watching Ellie (NBC)
Birds of Prey (WB)
Dark Angel (Fox)
Crusade (TNT)!!
Boomtown (NBC)
UC Undercover (NBC)
Whoopi (NBC)
The Tracy Morgan Show (MBC)
Freaks and Geeks (NBC)
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (Turner)

and the new He-Man series.

[WI_DEM]

62. Buffalo Bill and the Famous Teddy Z

a series with Dabney Coleman from the mid 80's, Famous Teddy Z was with Jon Cryer many a moon ago.

[Kashka-Kat]

63. 'life as we know it' may soon be one of them :-(

Ratings are low, and the fact that the show has a lot of SEX in it makes it a prime target for elimination. Never mind that the show is well written, has real characterization and plot, and all the SEX is completely in context of it being about teenage boys--life as filtered thru the feverish hormone-spiked reality of the adolescent. BTW, why is it that honest, believable, intelligent sex is a no-no on TV but dumb smirky double-entendre fox network-type sex is OK?

[St. Jarvitude]

64. The "Clerks" TV show

It only lasted 6 episodes (half season). Comedy Central picked it up a couple years after it was cancelled.

Awesome show. Kevin Smith rocks.

[ProfessorPlum]

67. TV Nation

Michael Moore's show.

Laugh out loud funny.

[Milo_Bloom]

69. Most of the good ones and not enough of the bad ones!

Cancelled too soon?

Vertitas: The Quest
Miracles
Millennium (The cancelled this at the beginning of 1999 when they only had to do one more season to finish out the natural end of the storyline... instead they finished with a an episode of the X-files.)
Futurama
Method and Red
Good Morning Miami (actually they re-tooled it idiotically and killed it, they needed up the sweetness and not up the antics.)

[devilgrrl]

70. Police Squad!!!!

[DrZeeLit]

71. Sports Night -- could have had two more seasons at least..

They rushed to wrap it up, but it had so much potential.
I had netflix send me both seasons and I had myself a Sports Night marathon.

Wow... great dialogue.

[fluffernutter]

104. that was my vote too! great show.

[PunkyPower]

72. All America Girl - Margaret Cho

Was on ABC back when I was in the 5th Grade, got taken off after 1 season

[arcos]

76. welcome to DU!

I remember All American Girl... I didn't know it was Margaret Cho, though!

[newyawker99]

79. Hi PunkyPower!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Huckebein the Raven]

74. Keen Eddie

Debuted last summer on FOX. FOX kept shifting it around its schedule. New York cop goes to work for Scotland Yard or the London Police Dept. (not sure). Starred Colin Salmon (starred in all the Bond with Brosnan except for Goldeneye) and the angel that is Sienna Miller.

Also, Futurama. FOX should have left it where it began: right after the Simpsons on Sunday nights

[lies and propaganda]

75. My So Called Life

Best MTV show ever! Touched on something that evrything in that age group could relate to.

[newyawker99]

80. Hi lies and propaganda!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Tafiti]

77. The State - MTV sketch comedy....

...which came on the scene at the same time that Saturday Night Live was losing its best to Hollywood, etc. At that time, The State was way better than SNL - I was convinced that SNL would steal all the actors from it. Turns out, the show got cancelled and half of them went to Comedy Central to do Viva Variety and Strangers with Candy.

[Jobu]

100. State DVD *Update* August 1, 2004

I really liked the State too. I am looking forward to getting it on DVD when it comes out. Here is an update from their website (http://www.the-state.com):

Finally, at long last, the members of The State are working in conjunction with MTV Home Video to make the ultimate, REAL, DVD collection of The State. We going back to the original master tapes and loading it with great extras too, including commentary, interviews, unaired material, etc. Save your money! Stop buying bootlegs! We don't know when exactly this new DVD will be released. *update 4/14/04: it looks like we've finally broken through 95% of the red tape on The State DVD. Deals are being closed as we speak and we hope to have a release date for you soon. **update 8/1/04: Apparently there have been some regime changes and more unexpected legal delays, but MTV tells us the project is still alive and they want to release the DVD in the next six months. As always as soon as they tell us something, we'll tell you.

[Ctrl_Alt_Del]

81. Robbery Homicide Division

Michael Mann's series on CBS, 2002. Tom Sizemore got arrested for knocking Heidi Fleiss around and the network bailed, just when it started to catch on.

Bummer. 'Twas a great show.

[YankeyMCC]

83. Farscape

Also, Babylon 5, if they had let JMS play out the full story in the format of a TV series we wouldn't have to deal with those terrible TV movies after the show was canceled.

[ProfessorPlum]

86. Anything with Bonnie Hunt in the lead

I think she had like three separate shows, each of which was very good - great dialog, some of her man-on-the-street interviews. Always excellent. Each was killed by about the third episode. But I watched 'em.

[Bridget Burke]

87. The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

It ran a whole season, but was cancelled. I heard the ratings were OK but it was too expensive to be profitable. Or some other spurious reason.

And no DVD so far.

[Metatron]

94. I really enjoyed that show.

I wish the reruns would come back to cable.

[BlueHandDuo]

96. That's one I can't wait for on DVD...

...I hope they hurry up with one.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

110. I loved that show! They used to show reruns on TNT,

but no longer. Anything with Bruce Campbell is good.

[cavanaghjam]

91. Been some good ones mentioned

Buffalo Bill, Teddy Z, Sports Night; surprised no one mentioned Dinosaurs (Earl Sinclair, Sinclair Oil - get it? remember the logo?) absolutely brilliant social commentary (send-up of Persian Gulf War, where they went to fight for pistachios - called Nuts to War). Also a show on for two or three weeks - I think it was called Alphabet Streets - was a hauntingly beautiful/disgusting police drama. They all had in common - too smart fer duh peeple.

[lazarus]

92. Dinosaurs!

I had forgotten that one!

"I'm the baby, gotta love me." Great show.

[m_welby]

93. Wow, all these shows and no one misses Max Headroom?

The show totally blew me away, (as did Amanda Pays, but thats another matter).

doesn't anyone remember Blipverts? Instant ratings? No off switch on the TV (Its illegal) Blanks? (I wouldn't mind becoming a blank these days).

I could go on and on

Much of it was eerily prescient of modern corporate america in a cyberpunk sort of way.

I vividly remember sitting in a hospital room with my wife and newborn son watching the last episode air. All the while trying to come up with a middle name for him, Finally I just said duh, EDISON ! End of disussion.

[annabanana]

99. Max Headroom was SO ahead of the curve......

I loved that show. It was so smart and funny. Corporatism ascendant. No apocalypse required. I'm sure that, somewhere, someone is working on blipverts for real.....(exploding noggins would be considered just part of the "cost of doing business")

[ironflange]

98. Johnny Bago

Summer series many years ago. What a hoot!

[Todd B]

105. Newsradio, definitely!

Newsradio (true it went on for a few seasons, but they did abruptly can it), My So Called Life (thank goodness for DVD's), and Andy Richter Controls the Universe.

Why, oh why, does television tease us by pulling the plug on smart intelligent shows?!

[Feathered Fish]

107. Twin Peaks

and American Gothic.

[Deja Q]

108. F I R E F L Y

[Kire]

109. The Lyon's Den

with Rob Lowe was actually really good (and Elizabeth Mitchell was really hot)

great drama, but you really have to watch every episode in order to follow along with most of it, perhaps that was it's downfall, that and it was at the same time as The Practice