I have two, both pretty awesome dark fantasy / horror shows that were ahead of their time.
Brimstone (1998) - with John Glover as an amazing, amazing Devil, who has sent dead cop back to earth to earn redemption by hunting other escaped damned souls. It had it’s flaws of course, but was basically the Dresden files before they were a thing. Sadly, still has never been released on DVD, which I check for frequently, along with my second choice -
Werewolf (1987) - which had callbacks to Werewolves being cursed creatures, rather than more modern, misunderstood environmentalist forest dwellers. Seek a cure before you lose control and become the beast forever. Had the flaw of a lot of period pieces (The Incredible Hulk especially, but Knight Rider, A-Team and the like) of ‘drift into town, fix situation of the week, move on’ but actually had an overriding story it was working towards. Sadly was crippled in part due to Chuck Conners wanting more money during the series and being written out, as well as super-inconsistent time slots that made it hard to watch.
Ah, ok. Pluto has an interesting approach, letting you binge watch some programs by giving them an entire channel. For laughs I was watching “Deal or No Deal” and discovered the episodes weren’t in order. In other words maybe contestant Billy Bob comes on and doesn’t finish by the end of episode 43…but for some reason Pluto doesn’t show episode 44 after episode 43 so you don’t see how that ended. WTF?
Selfie: Karen Gillan saves the day through her social media skills. With John (“Star Trek” re-boot) Cho. Was really hitting its stride when it got the ax.
Pepper Dennis: Rebecca Romijn as Ace Reporter Who Stops At Nothing To Get Her Story. There have been worse.
There was a short-lived sitcom about EMTs called Sirens a few years ago that was really excellent and deserved to continue. Though one of its best characters was played by Bill Nunn, who died shortly after cancellation.
Also People Of Earth was great fun and got cut off mid-arc.
I was looking at others that are like Pluto. Y’know that thing where a program builds to a tantalizing moment and, oops, commercial time? It gets to where you can anticipate it, right? A review of one like Pluto’s competitors said, basically, it’s free so there’s that. But they throw in commercials anywhere. Like a character says half a line and oops, it’s time for commercials. Five minutes of ads later they resume from the beginning of the sentence to get you up to speed.
The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Two red-headed brothers, both named Pete, living in a proverbial everytown in a slightly off kilter version of reality. Arguably the best sitcom Nickelodeon has every created. Featuring a raft of celebrity cameos that have to be seen to be believed (Michael Stipe, Debbie Harry, and Frank Gifford) and an absolutely amazing soundtrack:
Limitless was a great show with a witty sense of humour to its formulaic sci-fi procedural set-up. Only got one season; had hit its stride but too late.
Oh, yeah-- there could have been lots more Fawlty Towers, and I would be very happy.
I may be alone here, but I could have watched more No, Honestly. It was a very short series with real-life couple Pauline Collins and John Alderton (both of Upstairs, Downstairs, and Forever Green). It was just adorable, about their courtship and first year as a couple, so it really had played out, I guess, but I wish there had been more.
I wish there had been more Xena, Warrior Princess along the lines of the first four seasons, but I realize the stars were done with it, and wanted to move on with their lives, and the show couldn’t move with them. The sixth season was very odd, not as satisfying as the rest of the show, and if there has been any intent of having Xena’s daughter carry on, the actress they had cast was not going to be able to hold up the show. She was a total non-entity. I’m not sure what attracted the casting directors to her, because she wasn’t convincing as the powerhouse she was supposed to be as all. (SPOILER: she was supposed to be Xena’s daughter, with the soul of another great woman warrior.) They’d staged this 25-year time gap so Xena and her daughter could interact as adults who were nearly the same age, and I thought they were anticipating a continuation with the daughter as the main character. But they didn’t cast an actress who could shoulder the burden. And the show ended.
By then, though, L&O: SVU was on, and really good, so Olivia Benson was TVs power woman. I have to say, that show is ready to go now, though. It is already the record-holder for the longest-running prime time show, having broken the record that Gunsmoke & L&O:TOS shared by a year, and it’s on life-support.
I wanted to watch this series when I was living in the UK, but I never got the chance. I did get the soundtrack albums as a present, though. At least some of the songs can be heard on YouTube, where there are clips from the show as well.
I enjoyed the single season show “Forever” starring Ioan Gruffudd. Once it got over the silly “ending up in the East River” bit, it showed itself to be a thoughtful study of love, loss and immortality.
I’m still looking for a Red Skelton impersonator. Found one who performed at Death Valley Junction (population about 3) but he was off the week we visited there.
