# Tell us about your favorite failed TV shows. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 30, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743 "2015-12-30T18:04:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/181 "2016-01-04T03:04:40Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > **Working** : A funny workplace comedy starring Fred Savage. I don’t remember much of it at all other than it was really funny and had a lot of literal/cutaway style jokes. Oh yeah, I remember that show too! Like you, I don’t remember much about it now, but I do remember thinking it was really funny. I remember one episode where Fred Savage winds up in the company infirmary (does any company actually have an infirmary?) With an ulcer due to overwork (yeah, I know ulcers are caused by bacteria, just go with it). Everyone there is trying to one-up each other with the illnesses they got from working so much. “Arrhythmia is nothing! I have bleeding colitis!!” I also remember watching “Sledge Hammer!” in the 80s. I would have been 13-14 years old. To my adolescent mind, it was one of the funniest things in the history of human entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/182 "2016-01-04T03:49:26Z")
Took me a while to think of one not already mentioned, but I figured it out! _The Neighbors_ was a comedy about a bunch of aliens living in the suburbs. It was funny, fresh, and \*very \*self-aware. I was sad to see it go. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/183 "2016-01-04T03:58:22Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > **Working** : A funny workplace comedy starring Fred Savage. I don’t remember much of it at all other than it was really funny and had a lot of literal/cutaway style jokes. It was wonderful and ahead of its time by just a few years. I watched every first season episode, but the second season suffered from massive casting changes and it went downhill. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/184 "2016-01-04T04:33:52Z")
I think pretty much of all of the shows I would have mentioned (Firefly, Sports Night, Brisco County Jr, Police Squad) have been brought up. On the cartoon side, I would say Sam & Max, Freelance Police, based on the Steve Purcell comics. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/185 "2016-01-04T06:15:03Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Adventures of Brisco County Jr. 27 episodes total, completely fucked over scheduling wise, appeared and disappeared, moved day and time almost every other episode. Every episode of Brisco County aired on Fridays at 8:00 PM. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Brisco_County,_Jr.#Broadcast_history) backs me up and says that all 27 (!) episodes in the first season were produced despite less-than-great ratings. Aside from canceling it, Fox did everything they could for the show at the time. > [@Quimby](#): > > Sorry but new titles keep popping into my head. Andy Richter Controls the Universe should have lasted five seasons but only lasted one. Two seasons. Which was still about three seasons not enough. ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/186 "2016-01-04T09:43:52Z")
There used to be a BBC show around 2004 or so called “Crisis Command — Could You Run the Country?”. The premise was that “normal” people (I think there was a digital version where the viewers could vote on decisions) had to decide how to deal with certain threats like a terrorist attack, an epidemic and a flood. Then some experts evaluated your answers and told you what the “pros” would have done instead. It lasted 1 season (3 episodes) and I still think it was cut short because it gave out too much information regarding the Government’s approach to dealing with crises. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/187 "2016-01-04T11:57:55Z")
There was, for about half a dozen episodes in the early 1990s, **Danger Theatre** hosted by Robert Vaughn. The bit I remember as really funny was **The Searcher** segments where Diedrich Bader portrayed a mysterious biker vigilante, Police Squad style. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/188 "2016-01-04T14:51:15Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > [Terriers](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1493239/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). A great PI show set in San Diego starring Donal Logue. Sadly only lasted one season. Very sad indeed. I watched a few of the episodes and enjoyed them very much. IMHO, this show was much better than the show Donal is currently working on, “Gotham”. I’m very glad I got to see this show (Terriers) because it gave me a much greater appreciation for Donal than I ever could have gotten from Gotham. AAMOF, I think I’ve pretty much had it with Gotham. I liked it when I first started watching it. But ever since it has stopped broadcasting new episodes, when I think about that show, I get the feeling it’s really aimed at children and I just don’t find it very enjoyable at all. I sure do wish they would have given Terriers more episodes. It’s truly a better show than many other long running shows. Thanks to everyone who posted about Terriers. ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/189 "2016-01-04T17:58:29Z")
[Buffalo Bill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill_(TV_series)) Way ahead of its time. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/190 "2016-01-04T18:01:18Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Has anybody mentioned Herman’s Head? Yeah, it was delightfully weird. Also on my wish list…“T.H.E. Cat”…and “10 speed and Brown Shoe”… ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/191 "2016-01-04T18:44:16Z")
You guys are really making me miss [Pushing Daisies](http://www.buzzfeed.com/alannabennett/come-back-to-me-sweet-pie-babies). ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/192 "2016-01-04T19:51:37Z")
Another vote for _Life_, and one for _The Cape_. I thought it had promise. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/193 "2016-01-04T20:08:40Z")
More love for _The Night Stalker_ some of the episodes were campy but many of them scared the piss out of me as a kid. Recently rewatched it and decided those were the best episodes. I loved _Due South_ and I do realize it went on longer up in Canada. There was another short lived one I really enjoyed but I can’t remember the name. It stared a rapper, pretty sure it was Ice-T, and a bunch of ex cons who were solving mysteries by operated a bit closer to the ilegal side of the law than cops could. Pretty sure it was on in the early 90s, I remember seeing it in the tiny living room of the house we were living in at the time 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/194 "2016-01-04T20:13:41Z")
Oh found it, it was _Players_ [Players](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118431/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_61) ---
**Author:** ![akrako1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@akrako1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akrako1)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/195 "2016-01-04T22:14:28Z")
[SOAP!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075584/) Hilarious, groundbreaking, and cancelled with a HUGE cliffhanger! :smack: I’ll have to agree with other’s selections as well: Jericho, Freaks And Geeks, My So Called Life, Carnivale ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/196 "2016-01-05T02:29:41Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > There was a show on NBC a few years ago called “Awake”. A police detective is in a car accident with his wife and son, at which point his reality splits into two timelines: one where his wife died in the crash, the other where his son dies. When he falls asleep in one timeline he wakes up in the other. Cancelled in the first season, but with enough time for them to resolve the story. A show like that, the central character has a 50/50 proposition but no real incentive to resolve it. That’s why I call that show _My Two Deads_. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/197 "2016-01-05T02:36:29Z")
> [@akrako1](#): > > [SOAP!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075584/) > > Hilarious, groundbreaking, and cancelled with a HUGE cliffhanger! :smack: I wouldn’t call **Soap** a failed TV show. I thought it was hilarious too, especially the first few seasons, but it did have a four year run, 85 episodes. It started to feel tired by the end of the fourth season so it’s probably good it went when it did. I **do** remember being ticked off that it was canceled before they could resolve the cliffhanger, but then I changed my mind. What better way for a show that was one continual story that always ended in cliffhangers, ending with a cliffhanger? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/198 "2016-01-05T15:25:14Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > I can still sing the theme song to that. “Not just food, but even kings were rotten!” > [@TCMF-2L](#): > > There was, for about half a dozen episodes in the early 1990s, **Danger Theatre** hosted by Robert Vaughn. The bit I remember as really funny was **The Searcher** segments where Diedrich Bader portrayed a mysterious biker vigilante, Police Squad style. Yeah, I liked “The Searcher” segments; weren’t there also segments with Adam West as an actor who thinks he’s a detective? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/199 "2016-01-05T16:21:07Z")
My contributions: [Strange Luck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Luck). Wish they’d put it out on DVD. 17 episodes. [Raines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raines). Jeff Goldblum as a schizophrenic detective who “sees” the victims of the murders he is investigating. I liked it, but I really thought he was on the path to suicide, so I don’t think it could have run forever. 7 episodes. [RHD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbery_Homicide_Division). A very short lived LA detective show. I like Tom Sizemore, despite his personal life issues. A bit more realistic than _The Closer_, which took place across the hall. 🙂 13 episodes. [Rescue 77](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_77). One of the many attempts to replicate _Emergency!_. As it was the 90s, it was more about the personal lives of the firemen than the rescues, but it did have potential. Only 8 episodes. [Bearcats!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearcats!) A period (WWI) adventure show, a cousin so to speak of _QED_ and _Brisco County_. 13 episodes and a pilot movie. All available on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/200 "2016-01-05T16:28:26Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > I have a station on my cable package called GET TV, which shows Judy Garland, Andy Williams, Merv Griffin, etc. a couple times a week. You might check to see if you have it; it’s in the high numbers where you just come across it by accident. Synchronicity! I watched just last night for the first time and saw Judy on The Andy Williams show (she looked a bit…sedated…but otherwise good) followed by Jack Benny (and Twiggy!) on Merv. Must have been the year he died. Nice time capsules into times past. I may have to check out more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743.md?page=11)