# Good TV shows that deserved a better fate **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 2, 2001, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999 "2001-10-02T17:21:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/41 "2001-10-03T00:01:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by frock75 \* > There was a show about a twenty-something Catholic priest, who questions his own beliefs while trying to councle his inner city parish. I can’t remember what it was called, but I found it fascinating. Unfortunatly, one day it was > cancled. No ceremony. No fanfair. Are you talking about **Nothing Sacred**? I loved that show. _sighs_ I’ll add my vote for **Nightmare Cafe** (I thought I was the only person who watched it–and I have all the episodes on tape…somewhere) and **Alien Nation**. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/42 "2001-10-03T00:14:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kat \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by frock75 \* > > There was a show about a twenty-something Catholic priest, who questions his own beliefs while trying to councle his inner city parish. I can’t remember what it was called, but I found it fascinating. Unfortunatly, one day it was > > cancled. No ceremony. No fanfair. > > Are you talking about **Nothing Sacred**? I loved that show. _sighs_\*\* Until I saw you post the right answer, I couldn’t remember Helltown, which two people gave as the wrong title. But now I do. It starred Robert Blake as the tough priest, who was not a twenty-anything. If I recall correctly, it was an okay show, though I obviously don’t miss it much. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/43 "2001-10-03T00:19:29Z")
I wish I could take back my last post, since I’ve just realized that Nothing Sacred probably wasn’t what frock75 was talking about either. Wasn’t Nothing Sacred the Home Improvement spinoff starring Dan Ackroyd? I thought that one was pretty good, but I’m sure it isn’t the right one. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/44 "2001-10-03T00:46:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pcubed \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by watsonwil \* > > \*\*The John Laroquette Show. It lasted a while due only to the network’s gratitude to JL. He did win four consecutive emmys… \*\* > > I loved the first season of this show. It was so dark and moody, yet funny. Once they took John out of his squalid little apartment and moved him into a nicer place across the way from Alison LaPlaca, things just went downhill. > > I still have this weird crush on Gigi Rice, who played Carly the hooker. \*\* I agree, the first season of this show was quite dark and intriguing. It pushed the sitcom envelope. The ratings weren’t good enough, I guess, because it was retooled into a much more conventional show. Nothing weird about having a crush on Gigi Rice. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/45 "2001-10-03T01:10:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Saltire \* > \*\*I wish I could take back my last post, since I’ve just realized that Nothing Sacred probably wasn’t what frock75 was talking about either. Wasn’t Nothing Sacred the Home Improvement spinoff starring Dan Ackroyd? I thought that one was pretty good, but I’m sure it isn’t the right one. \*\* I’m pretty sure they were talking about Nothing Sacred. Soul Man was the Akroyd show, I think. ---
**Author:** ![frock75](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ad7895/32.png) [@frock75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frock75)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/46 "2001-10-03T01:23:10Z")
Nothing Sacred was the show!!! I loved it. I just couldn’t understand what the controversy was surounding it. I didn’t find it offensive or sacreligious. Oh well, a good show that deserved a much better fate. Thanks Kat!! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/47 "2001-10-03T01:50:31Z")
**First Wave** **Working** - Now this was a funny show. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/48 "2001-10-03T02:26:06Z")
I mourn the passing of the _ **STRAIGHT DOPE TV SHOW.** _ I never even got to see it. [sub]I can’t believe, after 46 posts, not one of you so-called Dopers mentioned it[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/49 "2001-10-03T02:28:48Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d never even heard of this show before, I just wanted to share the odd fact that at the exact moment that I read the title, the song “Wish You Were Here” came up on my Winamp playlist. Didn’t you know that Roger Waters planned that the same way he planned “Dark Side of the Moon” and the “Wizard of Oz”? More to add: **Sledge Hammer** – you don’t often get satire on prime time TV. “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” **Hey Landlord** – Gentle comedy centered around the residents of an apartment house. **Callucci’s Department** – James Coco as the head of a government agency. Something of a “Barney Miller” feel. **Good Morning, World** – comedy about two morning DJs. Goldie Hawn played the girlfriend of one of them. **The Texas Wheelers** – Comedy/drama about a bunch of boys. Notable for its cast – Jack Elam, Gary Busey, and Mark Hamill – and for being the only prime time TV show with a theme song extolling the joys of smoking marijuana (John Prine’s “Illegal Smile”). **The Good Guys** – Very funny comedy starring a post-Gilligan Bob Denver, who, along with Herb Edelman, ran a diner. The humor was much more clever than Gilligan and this may have been Denver’s best role (maybe even better than Maynard). **Ellery Queen** – the Jim Hutton version. Nice mysteries. **The White Shadow** – school/sports drama about a white ex-basketball player teaching and coaching in an inner city school. Overlooked. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/50 "2001-10-03T02:48:56Z")
More votes for: **Brimstone** **Alien Nation** **Cupid** And does anyone else remember a series titled **Golden Years** about an elderly man caught in a lab disaster? He gradually starts growing younger. Or a show called \*\* My Life and Times\*\* about a man telling stories from his life? Each one was from a different period, so the main character would sometimes appear younger, sometimes middle aged, etc. ---
**Author:** ![oliversarmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb8c5e/32.png) [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/51 "2001-10-03T04:09:10Z")
I won’t go into all the soap opera details of its production, but while it was on, “Wiseguy” was one of the greatest dramas on television. It deserved a longer run, but the star, Ken Wahl, had some problems. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_The\_Diver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Buck\_The\_Diver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_The_Diver)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/52 "2001-10-03T04:23:40Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* Sledge Hammer\*\* – you don’t often get satire on prime time TV. “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” [ENDQUOTE] Good Lord! I thought I was the only one who appreciated “Sledge”. Thanks, Reality. ---
**Author:** ![pezwookiee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@pezwookiee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pezwookiee)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/53 "2001-10-03T06:04:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Baker \* > \*\*And does anyone else remember a series titled **Golden Years** about an elderly man caught in a lab disaster? He gradually starts growing younger. \*\* Wasn’t this a miniseries based on something by Stephen King as opposed to a weekly show? I believe I saw it also. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/54 "2001-10-03T06:26:47Z")
More votes for **Cupid Sports Night VR 5 Alien Nation 7 Days** (_Why_ did they cancel it?) **Quantum Leap** Yeah it lasted several years, but the end should have been much better. Millenium started ok, but they lost me when they couldn’t get the correct date for the end of the Millenium. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/55 "2001-10-03T12:03:24Z")
**Now and Again** –The show where John Goodman’s brain was put into the body of Eric Close-- was cancelled the night before they had to present the new schedule to advertisers. It was such a promising show. Damn thing ended in a cliffhanger. ---
**Author:** ![Phlip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Phlip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlip)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/56 "2001-10-03T12:46:12Z")
Greatest American Hero. I loved that show. The Critic was awsome. The Ben Stiller show was very funny, even though I was a kid. I loved his Die Hard commercial. ---
**Author:** ![dlb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@dlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dlb)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/57 "2001-10-03T13:01:03Z")
First, my “me, too”'s: _Nothing Sacred_, big time (damn, that show was good!), and _Brimstone_. The controversy over _Nothing Sacred_ had nothing to do with it being cancelled — poor ratings were enough — but I cared enough to call Ollie North’s radio show and give him hell. He cut me off, of course. Now, some of my favorite, lesser known series: _Matrix_. No, not the television show of the movie, but a Canadian production starring Nick Mancuso. A professional hit man is shot himself, and winds up in the World In Between, where he was sent back with orders to help people rather than go to hell as he deserved. In many ways it was a bit of fluff, but Mancuso’s performance was brilliant, and as the episodes progressed, his halting realization of the harm he had caused as an assassin was moving, even heartbreaking. The characters in the World In Between were sometimes truly innovative, and I will carry the image of Eartha Kitt as a motorcycle riding nun to my grave. Sublime! _T.H.E. Cat_. A very young Robert Loggia (this was 60’s vintage, folks) as a jewel thief turned professional bodyguard. He was, to me, the essence of cool. _She Wolf of London_. Actually, this **didn’t** deserve better than it received, but I loved it anyway. An American grad student and her English professor confront various mythical monstors as they search for a cure for her werewolf problem. It was silly, overacted, badly written, and the production values were lousy, but I loved it anyway. It was **fun** ; it insulted everything in the world, and “Beyond the Beyond” was the best send up of Trek in the world until they made _Galaxy Quest_. ---
**Author:** ![cerebrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3da27b/32.png) [@cerebrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerebrum)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/58 "2001-10-03T13:25:17Z")
Millenium Now and Again American Gothic \<–sheriff Lucas Buck…Thats BUCK with a B. hahaha that line STILL kills me ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/59 "2001-10-03T13:47:00Z")
High Incident - an ABC cop show of a few years back. Hooked me after the first episode I saw (it started in summer and I never saw the first few). Brimstone again - though why did they have to make all the escapees murderers? They could have added a little variety, perhaps a guy who committed suicide out of despair and ended up in Hell for that, thus leading to a crisis of conscience for the protagonist. St. Elsewhere - my favorite show of the '80s, and tied with Greatest American Hero for best theme song. ---
**Author:** ![Hekcorps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/87869e/32.png) [@Hekcorps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hekcorps)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999/60 "2001-10-03T13:52:18Z")
SACRILIGE No mention of **Crusade**? It deserved much better. Now the fans are left hanging. **Earth 2** was pretty good, too [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-shows-that-deserved-a-better-fate/84999.md?page=4)