# Cancellations you wish didn't happen. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2002, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284 "2002-11-23T01:40:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/1 "2002-11-23T01:40:35Z")
After watching some TV shows I taped, and are no longer on the air, I stared missing those shows. I know that there have probably been posts like this, but here we go again 🙂 What shows do you wish were still on the air? For me, off the top of my head, I’d have to say “The Critic” - Which at first, I thought was a lousy attempt by FOX to have another animated hit, but as I watched it more and more, I grew to really like it. and “Forever Knight” - Good acting, good stories, what else can I say? ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/2 "2002-11-23T01:45:04Z")
Cupid Homocide GvsE ---
**Author:** ![Philosophocles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Philosophocles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philosophocles)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/3 "2002-11-23T01:46:44Z")
The Straight Dope ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/4 "2002-11-23T01:50:40Z")
Sports Night When was The Straight Dope on tv? ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/5 "2002-11-23T01:53:19Z")
Ages ago, it was on A&E. Add that to my list too. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/6 "2002-11-23T01:53:19Z")
“American Gothic,” which I recall CBS apparently acting determined to kill ratings for by changing its timeslot and surprise-preempting it on a weekly basis. “Millennium,” but not the actual cancellation (a mercy killing, that was); rather, the thematic one that occurred between season 2 and 3, wherein the previous writers were either fired or forced to spend the summer inhaling paint fumes–in any case, throwing away nearly everything the second season had built up to. “Sledge Hammer”. The initial promo-commercial for the show totally sold me. Sledge faces the camera, looking solemn. “Rule one of gun safety. Never draw your gun…” whereupon he hauls out his hand-cannon “…unless you intend to use it.” He starts to re-holster, pauses as an “uh oh!” look crosses his face, looks pained, then finally shoots the ceiling before reholstering. It didn’t have a laugh track. It was doomed. “Police Squad”. To be fair, if it had lasted, by the second season, Frank would have been knocking over thirty garbage cans at the beginning of each episode. “Max Headroom” “Clerks: the Animated Series” ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/7 "2002-11-23T02:19:43Z")
**The X-files** - Ok, season nine wasn’t great, but I’d have kept on watching if Doggett and Reyes were the focus now. If they’d have introduced new characters sooner (somewhere between seasons 5-6) they could have made things work after Duchovny left, and there wouldn’t have been as much whining. I actually liked the baby plot up until they wrote the kid out of the show, turning the whole thing into a way to hurt Scully instead of building up to something meaningful. **2 Guys and a Girl** - this show and **Norm** are the only sitcoms I watched religiously after **The Golden Girls** ended. (the fact that a huge number of 20somethings watched this show religiously as children is a topic for another thread). It was extoridinarily funny, and I’m glad that it’s finally in syndication. I would love a sappy made-for-tv movie to wrap up where the series finale (which was a cliffhanger) left off. It takes a special sitcom to capture the heart of someone who thinks the vast majority of sitcoms aren’t worth even trying to watch an episode of. It was obvious the last season that ABC was trying to kill it, because it wasn’t on the same time more than three weeks in a row all season. The audience fell off because people couldn’t find the show! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/8 "2002-11-23T02:28:17Z")
Mystery Science Theater 3000 - yeah, I know, the cast was getting tired of the whole thing, but there are so many bad movies left Brimstone - just to see Stone eliminate the 113th escaped soul and forcing the Devil to make good on his deal The Visitor - just to see their take on the alien conspiracy Dark Skies - So many historical events to interweave the aliens into - like the real reason 'N Sync is popular ---
**Author:** ![chiefhardcrab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@chiefhardcrab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiefhardcrab)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/9 "2002-11-23T02:30:37Z")
**Police Squad!** Of course after six shows some of the jokes were getting old, but I remember being pretty irate when it was cancelled. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/10 "2002-11-23T02:33:27Z")
_The Montefuscos_ could have been another _Sopranos_ twenty years earlier, on network TV, and funny. But those bastidges only gave it one episode… ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/11 "2002-11-23T02:33:54Z")
Sledgehammer, wow I completely forgot about that show. I watched that all the time. Also Police Squad, The Critic, Duckman (took a little getting used to but I grew to umm like it quite a bit). ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/12 "2002-11-23T02:53:15Z")
The New Fantasy Island Birds of Prey Dark Angel GvsE All good shows or shows with much promise that were cut down far too early. ---
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/13 "2002-11-23T03:03:38Z")
Picket Fences Quantum Leap ---
**Author:** ![lethean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@lethean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lethean)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/14 "2002-11-23T03:07:38Z")
Once and Again. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/15 "2002-11-23T03:13:37Z")
How could I forget Futurama?!? ---
**Author:** ![JMRossi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@JMRossi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMRossi)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/16 "2002-11-23T03:22:43Z")
Crusade-which TNT canceled before the series even went on. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/17 "2002-11-23T03:26:58Z")
“Sledge Hammer” yeah, I forgot about that one too. I loved that show. I kind of feel bad for…what’s his name, the lead actor who got reduced to small parts in “Nurses” and “JAG”. I kind of liked “The Charmings” too. Yeah, it kind of ran along the same lines of “Bewitched” and “I Dream of Genie”, but still. And I almost forgot about MST3K myself. Yeah, that was great. Too bad the SCIFI channel decided they didn’t want it any more. ---
**Author:** ![Fifteen\_Iguana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Fifteen\_Iguana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fifteen_Iguana)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/18 "2002-11-23T03:27:09Z")
MIDDLE AGES. A summer show that lasted six episodes. Peter Riegert as a guy who turns forty and watches his world collapse. Wonderful, wonderful lines. In the last episode he has a heart attack and his friend, who inherited his dad’s company (making useless plastic novelties) and who is trying to get their 20-year-gone band back together, brings him a get-well present. The copy of Sgt Pepper’s he borrowed in college. “This is an LP. I don’t even have a PLAYER.” “Well, I meant to bring it back. But Watergate happened. And then the energy crisis. Everything after that is a blur…” EZ STREETS. Another six episode wonder. Ken Secor as a cop in a weird, seemingly deserted NE city (I think they were thinking of Buffalo, NY). Jason whashisname (now on Boomtown, another good show) was a just-out-of-jail crook who was obviously going to ind up working undercover if the show lasted that long. And the always-wonderful Joe Pantoliano was the chief bad guy. Best scene: The corrupt young mayor making a passionate speech about how he will KEEP this factory in town and SAVE the jobs of all the workers. He builds to a climax, we wait for the applause. The camera pulls back. He is in an empty factory, remembering a favorite moment. But the place is out of business… On the other hand, Boomtown hasn’t been cancelled and 24 is back, better than ever. THank heaven for small favors, huh? Fifteen Iguana ---
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/19 "2002-11-23T03:28:53Z")
Addendum (from my younger days): The Wonder Years My So-Called Life ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284/20 "2002-11-23T03:31:37Z")
I hate cancellations that prevent the “end” of the story from being told, especially when that forces crappily, hastily written “movies” that try to add to the story arc or worse, end the story arc in a neat little two hour package, instead of the 13 hours it would’ve taken to do the same amount of storytelling if the show had remained extent. That said, I still rue the day that the following shows were cancelled: _Sports Night Homicide The Pretender UC: Undercover_ (A show never given a chance. Grrr.) _The Job_ And tonight’s episode reinforced how much I’ll miss _Providence_, which will be ending in 3 weeks while _Dog Eat Dog_ stays on the air. :smack: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancellations-you-wish-didnt-happen/138284.md?page=2)