In the Doper spirit of shameless ripping, what are some good sitcoms that for some reason got cancelled early in their running?
Clerks: The Animated Series only lasted for two episodes. I rented the DVD awhile back and saw all the episodes (ones that weren’t aired), and enjoyed it alot.
Reno 911 sadly only lasted it’s one season (or are they planning on bringing it back soon?)
Undeclared, a Fox show about Freshmen college students, looked to be very promising but, as most good Fox shows do, got cancelled.
Actually, Reno 911! is making all-new episodes to start in June. The troupe did a ‘Just Say No’ skit at the Aspen Comedy Festival that was a big hit.
As for the OP, oh yeah, I’ve got a few.
It’s Your Move
Action
The Tick
The Job
Working it Out, otherwise known as “the cute one with Stephen Collins Jane Curtin did between Kate and Allie and Third Rock”
Columbia-Tristar is currently debating whether to release it on DVD, I’m crossing my fingers that they do. I never saw the appeal of Undeclared, but I know a lot of people loved it, not me though. And I take solace that The Job lasted as long as it did on ABC. I’m surprised we got two seasons.
But The Pitts? Sure the daughter was drop dead gorgeous, but the show was brutal.
But I’ll add FreakyLinks to the list. Sure it was an X-Files ripoff. But it was a funny X-Files ripoff.
I think I’m the only one on the planet who remembers these shows, but if there are any other Dopers who do, please show yourselves!
**One of the Boys (1982), ** starring Mickey Rooney, Dana Carvey, Nathan Lane and Meg Ryan. No, I’m not kidding. I recall this show as being genuinely funny; it was gone after one season.
**Open All Night (1981), ** a sharply written and witty show about life in a 24-hr. convenience store. A then-unknown David Letterman made a cameo (as himself) in the last episode. Again, gone after 1 season.
I loved a Norman Lear series called Powers That Be that aired in 1992. It starred John Forsythe as a Democratic senator but the supporting cast were all standouts: Holland Taylor (always wonderful when she has a bitchy character) as his ice-queen “Democrat’s answer to Nancy Reagan” wife, Valerie Mahaffey (always wonderful when she has a just-inches-away-from-full-psychotic-meltdown character [most famously Eve from Northern Exposure) as their neurotic needy and evil daughter, David Hyde Pierce (always wonderful, period) as her husband (a suicidally depressed Jr. Congressman), Elizabeth Berridge (who works far too seldom) as their literally long-suffering maid Charlotte, and Peter MacNichol as Forsythe’s slimy office manager. It also had a completely unnecessary sideplot about Forsythe’s recently discovered illegitimate daughter (Robin Bartlett, best known as Paul Reiser’s sister on MAD ABOUT YOU).
You knew this wasn’t going to be the usual “yuk yuk” sitcom when the first line was Holland Taylor addressing her maid: “Charlotte, I was just in the guest bathroom and there were dustbunnies on the towel” followed by a huge SLAP! across her face. “I’m sorry for that, but it’s the only way you seem to learn.”
The show had several laugh-out-loud funny moments (Holland Taylor attempting to cover-up her son-in-law’s accidental shooting of her husband in the butt by shooting him again in a “more advantageous place” before the press arrived [she was going to claim it was an assassination attempt, David Hyde Pierce’s growing infatuation with the maid, etc.).
Excellent show! Only lasted 10 episodes. The premise was questionable - middle-aged man (John Goodman) dies; brain placed in a younger bio-engineered body (Eric Close) - but a great cast of characters. If there was only one cancelled show I wish had been saved, it would have been this one.
That show kicked ass. I still randomly quote Count Blah…even though nobody ever gets it. ^o^
It occurs to me. The Simpsons and X-Files are the only good shows Fox has treated right in a looong time, and they both date back to when the station didn’t can the best shows out of the gate.
I may be the only fan this show had, but I liked Tom Arnold’s first sit-com, The Jackie Thomas Show. Arnold played Thomas who was the self-centered star of a hit sitcom.
Does anyone else remember The Family Dog? It was an animated series, which my foggy brain insists was made by Spielburg. I remember it as being hysterically funny, but this was years and years ago.
It had to have been during the late 80’s. It only lasted for a few episodes, but my family still comments on it occasionally.