My So-Called Life
I absolutely adored that show and it was very good. Just came before its time. The world wasn’t ready for those topics yet. Damnit.
I totally agree that Max Headroom was a great show, sadly aired (and cancelled) before its time.
When I was a kid I liked Eerie, IN. Anyone else remember that one?
Can it be that no one has mentioned Freaks and Geeks? That was a great show. It deserved more than one season.
Two great ones come to mind.
The short lived sketch comedy show on MTV called The State. Probably the best show in this format since monty python. The dvd has been in the works for years now.
Freaks and Geeks despite it’s lame name is an amazingly written and perfectly casted show from the late 90’s. Get your hands on the dvd it if at all possible.
Brilliant, brilliant show.
Interestingly, I watched Superbad over the weekend and one of the DVD extras was a 2002 reading of the script. In it, Seth Rogen (Ken Miller in F&G) is reading the part of Seth, Martin Starr (Bill Haverchuck) is reading McLovin’, and Jason Segel (Nick Andopolis) is reading the part of Evan.
**Dead Like Me ** is one of the two I though of immediately. The other was Police Squad. Police Squad was somehow canceled after only 6 episodes. It was pure genius.
**Dead Like Me ** was a great show with far too few episodes. I was not a big fan of Wonderfalls, the lead was a little too frantic for me, I prefered the Snarkiness of George in Dead Like Me. The cast was great and of course it has Mandy Patinkin in it.
Apparently **Dead Like Me ** might get a second life in 2008, sadly without Mandy Patinkin. Strange, but I am very happy to see that Christine Willes as Delores Herbig. She currently has a small wonderful role on Reaper.
Jim
Another vote for Keen Eddie.
Also, Starved should have lasted at least a whole season.
By the way, I’ve started watching The Flash in reruns and while I remember thinking it was well done when I was clearly an addled 22-year old, it looks really lame now. It is very much a product of the 1980s, the tragedy being that it came in 1990.
Another Max Headroom and Dead Like Me fan here too.
I wonder if Futurama at 4 seasons and WKRP also with 4 count. WKRP even had decent ratings and CBS jerked them around and then canceled them.
Fox constantly screwed around with Futurama. I think that story is better known.
Jim
I dunno if “screwed around” is the way to describe it. Fox wanted to air baseball on Sundays and they didn’t care if the games ran over Futurama’s 7:00 pm timeslot. They chose their priorities and Futurama suffered.
Personally, I think the deadeningly slow pace of major-league baseball is a hair short of criminal, but it wasn’t my call.
The trouble with catching Keen Eddie now on DVD is that one of the best parts of the show, the stellar soundtrack, is brutally murdered because of licensing rights. What used to be great brit rock, creatively used, became generic tv show background techno. Madness or random thumping? The Specials or nothing special?
Yes! I knew there was one I was forgetting. Actually I think it’s a defense mechanism, forgetting about “Starved,” because every time I think about it I’m brutally reminded that it was killed after a handful of episodes while the horrifyingly bad “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is in it’s what, third or fourth season now? Ugh.
I agree with Eerie, Indiana (the networks evidently liked it, too – the show was rerun as a Saturday morning show, and they even tried to do a continuation. Also Best of the West, Max Headroom, and My So-Called Life (The episode “So-called Angel” is the best Christmas show ever to be on TV).
Others I like:
Bob – Bob Newhart as a comic book writer, filled with comic in-jokes.
The Duck Factory – comedy set in a cartoon studio, starring Jim Carrey.
Flying Blind – very funny comedy starring Tea Leoni
God, the Devil, and Bob – James Garner as God. Alan Cumming as the Devil. French Stewart as Bob. Very funny animated series.
VR.5 – Nice little SF series about virtual reality, predating the Matrix. This is why Anthony Stewart Head was cast in Buffy – he played the same sort of role.
Wish You Were Here – A weird travelogue comedy, shot in real time, about a man who videotapes his travels in Europe and sends them home.
“Hidden Hills” aired in 2002/2003 and I loved the show. I don’t know why the ratings were low and what caused the show to be canceled, but I suspect the fact that the lovely Paula Marshall was the female lead had something to do with it. I adore Paula, but she has a track record of starring in short-lived series.
If you like “Notes From The Underbelly”, you would have liked “Hidden Hills”. Underbelly is very similar, only ir revolves around pregnancy.
I also loved Paula in the 1999 series “Snoops”, another short-lived show with Gina Gershon in it. The eye-candy alone made this show popular in my household.
Now and Again. Considering how popular action/comedy/warm-hearted dramas are this year (e.g., Chuck, Pushing Daisies) this would have been a huge hit had it come out now.
Profit had such awesome potential it was doomed to mid-season cancellation!
Dark Angel ran for two full seasons – but that still ain’t enough, dammit! 
Or one too many, depending on your point of view…Stupid STUPID plot arc!
Two of them: Andy Richter Controls The Universe and Andy Barker P.I.. Really anything starring Andy Richter. Well, not Quintuplets. That one was justly short lived.
Eyes