I liked that show too. Paul Gross worked his ass off in it. It had one of the greatest endings ever, featuring a previously mothballed sail frigate used to capture the crooks. I don’t care who you are, when you look up in your small boat at fifteen cannons aimed at you, you put your hands up.
Pee Wee’s Playhouse.
Absolutely “Freaks and Geeks!” And I loved “Call to Glory,” thanks to the earlier poster who mentioned it!
Can I mention a soap that was cancelled? ducks Okay, I admit to watching them, and especially this one: “The Doctors” - I’m -still- upset that NBC cancelled it!
Nightmare Cafe was good too. There are too many shows that the networks just don’t give a chance to find their niche/viewing audience. Now and Again too–I was hoping that maybe SciFi channel would pick that up.
tarragon
Diane, “I know you are, but what am I?”
Are re-runs shown anywhere? I searched, but can only find videos for sale.
I also found a hilarious Pee-Wee vs. Gilligan grudge match, and this information:
“Playhouse characters who went on to later fame: Cowboy Curtis (Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne), Captain Carl (Saturday Night Live’s Phil Hartman), Mail Lady Reba (Law and Order’s S. Epatha Merkerson), and in a guest appearance, Jimmy Smits as an all-important TV repairman.”
-Another
WKRP in Cincinnati. Didn’t always hit the mark, but when it did, it was very good.
(And having Jan Smithers didn’t hurt . . .)
Oddly, it wasn’t the network that killed it, it was the production company. They didn’t really understand the show, and MTM was on record thet she didn’t like it. 'Course, the network didn’t help by schlepping it “up and down the dial” until nobody could find it. Yes, I know it’s available on cable; but most of the episodes have been hacked up so much by now that they’re painful to watch.
THE MIDDLE AGES.
A show from the nineties about four guys who are turning forty. The star was Peter Riegert (of Animal House, Crossing Delancey, The Mask, etc). Wonderful, wonderful lines in it, like when the hero had a heart attack and one of his buddies brings him a present: an LP of Sergeant Pepper he borrowed in the 70s. “I meant to bring it back earlier but there was the gas crisis, and then Nixon resigned, and everything after that is a blur!”
EZ Streets
Ken Olin as the good guy and Joe Pantolino (sp?) in the weirdest cop show ever. Takes place in a seemingly deserted city in upstate NY. The female bad guy when on to start on Earth 2.
MAXIMUM BOB
Not great, but it deserved a chance…
And I second votes for The Prisoner, Police Squad, Alien Nation, and Strange Luck.
I know YOU are, but what am I?
:::snicker:::
Definitly count me in for a Sports Night vote. That was/is one of my favorite shows. I still catch the reruns on comedy central, and I read webisode scripts every now and then.
Already mentioned:
Nowhere Man
Cupid
Sports Night
American Gothic
Boston Common
New additions:
451 Hauser Street-That was Archie Bunkers address. This series had a black family who moved into Archie’s old place and they were staunchly liberal w/ a conservative son. Didn’t last 1 season.
Me and the Boys-A comedy starring Steve Harvey as a widowed dad. Hilarious. Lasted 1 season.
Fish Police Lasted less than 1 season.
I know there’s more, but I can’t think of any right now.
Sledge Hammer It’s been said several times already, but hey I want on board as well. I loved the “Season Finale” when they blew up a nuclear bomb in the city, figuring there’d be NO WAY they would be invited on for a second season… and then they were, so they continued by saying “All the following episodes occurred before the nuclear blast.”
Max Headroom Remember Network 23? “20 minutes into the future”? Edison Carter? This show was absolutely cutting edge. Way before its time. Maybe the public just couldn’t handle it. I was so sorry to see it go. (And I’m really surprised it hasn’t been brought up yet!)
Rocky and Bullwinkle OK, maybe I’m going too far back. But dammit this show was witty and sometimes genious. (Especially the fractured fairy tales) Often when viewing a moral dillemma, I find that it’s much easier to resolve by asking, “What Would Bullwinkle Do?”
Didn’t it have John amos as the dad, meaning he played two characters in the same “universe” of shows?
As i understand it, when the sci-fi channel picked up the series, the cast was all still under contract.
Unhappy with the story lines as they were going, around the third season (i think) some of the cast bailed, and were replaced (Sabrina Lloyd, John Rhys-Davies).
I also heard that in the last season the reason that Jerry O’Connell disappeared was that he was asking for more money, control of the show etc… so they fired him.
The State, a sketch comedy on MTV. They had their fair share of clunkers, but when they were on, IMHO they were the equal of the best SNL, Kids in the Hall or Monty Python.
You can find a decent compilation VHS, Skits And Stickers, but otherwise the show is completely out of official circulation. ( At one time, there was an unofficial site – http://www.krispypops.org —that offered episodes for download, but it seems to have gone down.)
The unexploded tortilla is not worth eating.
Did any of you see Action! when it was on the air? It was a great show, but just a bit too over the top for a mainstream audience. But it was awesome, and the critics loved it. Jay Mohr was great. So was Ileanna Douglas.
If it were shown between Sex and the City and the Sopranos,it would have lasted 5-6 years…
I can’t believe I am the first to mention one of my favorite shows that was cancelled after one season:
**Max Headroom **
Ditto on the : **Sports Night, Northern Exposure, Due South **
[rant]
I have a [sub]Conspiracy [/sub]Theory that Network TV - that’d be the FREE TV, plots to have crappy stuff with inane plots and dippy characters on for prime time stuff so that it will force people to get cable so they can watch Sex In the City and Comedy Central, et al. This conspiracy theory, naturally, is funded by the American Heart Association and Weight Watchers.
Farewell Bay Watch Nights, we hardly knew thee.
Can’t believe nobody mentioned <b>Stark Raving Mad</b>, which starred Tony Shaloub as an eccentric horror writer and Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Houser) as his editor.
That show had me laughing so hard I would almost wet my pants. Man, I was pissed when it was canceled, yet they keep crap like “Love Cruise” on the air.
Another vote for American Gothic.
Sheri
Small Wonder
Why yes, it deserved a better fate. If there was true justice in this world, all copies would be rounded up and inserted into the rectum of the exec who green lighted it.
Oh fine…
Misfits of Science
It had, what? One season? It was great!
Capitol Critters. Don’t laugh, I’m serious.
Okay, actually I’m not.