# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![ch51](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ch51/32/3111_2.png) [@ch51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch51)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/141 "2016-01-02T02:28:27Z")
Cupid - the original one, with Jeremy Piven. Smart writing, great stories, cancelled way too soon. This is the first show I thought of. Piven carries the show so well - and lots of cute 90’s girls doesn’t hurt either. Would have loved this show to go on for years - we would have been watching! ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/142 "2016-01-02T02:37:56Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > This reminds me that I was really into his show “Leap Years.” I think it was on Showtime and lasted 1 season. I liked that one too and it seems to have fallen down the memory hole. There is very little online about it. It had three parallel storylines about a group of friends. one when they were just out of school, another when they were something like five years older and a third when they were about five years after that. It indeed on Showtime. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/143 "2016-01-02T02:41:18Z")
> [@quiltguy](#): > > “Watching Ellie” with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Like her in anything, but she was particularly appealing in this short-lived series. The clock counting down on-screen was a nice, unusual touch. She was always racing towards her singing gig, and the sometimes bizarre interferences made this show a delight. She’s a damn fine singer as well. Her sister (played by her half-sister) was no slouch, either. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [_On The Air_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Air_(TV_series)), by Mark Frost and David Lynch. > > Seven episodes were made, but only two were broadcast. I’m glad I bought the DVD before it became unavailable. This is just me, but that first episode had the funniest sight gag I have ever seen on TV: The broadcast camera had to be mounted to the floor and all the action occurred around it. Somehow the floor got wet, the flooring warped and the camera tilted on its side. Then we got several shots of home viewers reacting to the situation: families leaning sideways in their seats, one guy placed his TV on its side–I still don’t know what the deal was with the guy and his horse in his tiny apartment, but the horse was not happy. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/144 "2016-01-02T03:55:30Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Another show that although it lasted three seasons, it was killed way too soon so it feels like it was short was Happy Endings. Great characters and funny writing. I watched that show and it was pretty good but mostly it made me a big [Eliza Coupe](https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3872/14714767349_602f6c571a_b.jpg) fan. Damn, she’s attractive, and a good comedic actor. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/145 "2016-01-02T04:10:18Z")
^ Oh, yeah, Eliza is the bomb! How do you suppose Damon Wayans, Sr., secured the cloning technology to produce DW, Jr.? Spooky is an understatement. ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/146 "2016-01-02T15:06:46Z")
Does anyone else remember [Keen Eddie?](http://http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318390/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) A NYC detective is exiled to England to work with Scotland Yard. Every episode was just hysterical and the sexual aura was intense. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/147 "2016-01-02T23:23:12Z")
The 1969-70 sitcom “My World and Welcome to it” starring William Windom as a James Thurber-like writer and cartoonist. > **[My World and Welcome to It](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_World_and_Welcome_to_It)** > > My World ... and Welcome to It is an American half-hour television sitcom based on the humor and cartoons of James Thurber. > It starred William Windom as John Monroe, a Thurber-like writer and cartoonist who works for a magazine closely resembling The New Yorker called The Manhattanite. Wry, fanciful and curmudgeonly, Monroe observes and comments on life, to the bemusement of his wife Ellen (Joan Hotchkis) and daughter Lydia (Lisa Gerritsen). Monroe's frequent daydreams and fantasies are usually ... Ratings-wise it did as well as the USS Constellation (NCC-1017) did against the doomsday machine, ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/148 "2016-01-02T23:58:21Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > [_Greg the Bunny_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280257/) LOVED this show, and no, we’re not related. 😃 Another vote for _My So-Called Life_. I was just enough older than Angela Chase that my heart hurt for her and I totally understood her and her friends. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/149 "2016-01-03T00:57:11Z")
Sorry but new titles keep popping into my head. Andy Richter Controls the Universe should have lasted five seasons but only lasted one. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/150 "2016-01-03T01:09:13Z")
They both got said w/i 20 posts of the start: Misfits of Science The Night Stalker ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/151 "2016-01-03T01:37:00Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > The 1969-70 sitcom “My World and Welcome to it” starring William Windom as a James Thurber-like writer and cartoonist. > > [My World and Welcome to It - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_World_and_Welcome_to_It) > > Ratings-wise it did as well as the USS Constellation (NCC-1017) did against the doomsday machine, Thanks you! You solved a mystery that’s been going through my head for years. I remember this show and kept trying to find the name of it to no avail. That yoke is now off my shoulders! My entrant is [Mixology](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2727600/). It was shallow and glorified in it. Funny relationship shit. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/152 "2016-01-03T01:41:12Z")
_High Incident_ was a pretty good cop show set in a fictional LA suburb. Fine cast and interesting stories. Gone too soon. _My Name is Earl_ (unofficially AKA _Touched by a Redneck_) was consistently one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. Great cast, great writing. And they cancelled it… after a cliffhanger! Grrrrr. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/153 "2016-01-03T02:04:08Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > The 1969-70 sitcom “My World and Welcome to it” starring William Windom as a James Thurber-like writer and cartoonist. > > [My World and Welcome to It - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_World_and_Welcome_to_It) > > Ratings-wise it did as well as the USS Constellation (NCC-1017) did against the doomsday machine, Ah, but there was a silver lining: when this wonderful show got cancelled, Windom took his Thurber schtick on the road. One of the high points of my life was to see him do his one-man show. Weaving the best of James Thurber’s stories in with biographical insights and curmudgeonly societal observations. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/154 "2016-01-03T02:12:54Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Thanks you! You solved a mystery that’s been going through my head for years. I remember this show and kept trying to find the name of it to no avail. That yoke is now off my shoulders! > > My entrant is [Mixology](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2727600/). It was shallow and glorified in it. Funny relationship shit. I loved Mixology! I thought a lot of the dialogue was snappy, and the female leads were all very attractive in different ways. That’s what it takes for shallow old me…attractive female leads. But, I watched it when it was broadcast and then watched it quite a while later when it was on Netflix. Still held up for me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/155 "2016-01-03T02:14:00Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > _Maximum Bob_ starring Beau Bridges as an eccentric conservative judge, along with a cast of quirky characters and storylines, based on an Elmore Leonard novel of the same name. Lasted seven episodes in 1998. Yes, I liked it a lot, too. > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > … **Kings** > I checked this show out because of how much Ian McShane had kicked in Deadwood. And he continued to kick ass. Point in fact, the whole cast did excellently (including Macaulay Culkin). > > The show is a retelling of the story of David and King Saul, set in a modern, quasi-Israel. We get to see how David comes from humble beginnings, proves himself on the battlefield, is taken under the wing of the King, and begins to date his daughter. There’s a good mix of politics, romance, fighting, grand-standing, backstabbing, and a strong mystical veil over it all… Yes, it was pretty well-done. An interesting look at an absolute monarchy in a modern setting; the religious stuff was an interesting garnish but never overdone, fortunately. > [@control-z](#): > > … **American Gothic** Horror and intrigue in a small southern town, where the sheriff (Gary Cole) is literally the devil and runs the town with an iron fist. A young boy, the ghost of his sister, and a couple fresh-faced doctors are the only ones to oppose the sheriff. Great show. Very atmospheric, as you might expect from the title; Cole has rarely been better. > [@terentii](#): > > _[Twin Peaks]_ suffered from the same flaw as _ **Crime Story** _ in the mid-'80s: It had one big story and wrapped it up at the end of the first season. After that, things went downhill reeeeeeeeal fast! True dat. I loved the first season and hated the second. Would’ve been better as a miniseries with an intentional beginning, middle and end. > [@teela\_brown](#): > > A quick search shows that no one has mentioned _Frank’s Place_, a late 80’s comedy produced by the same folks who did _WKRP In Cincinnati_. It starred Tim Reid as a New York guy who inherited a restaurant in New Orleans, and his attempts to become a restaurateur. It had no laugh track, IIRC, and it was funny as hell. > > It lasted one season. Another great show, and a funny multiracial love letter to pre-Katrina NOLA. > [@CT\_Damsel](#): > > …Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip another Aaron Sorkin show… Here I gotta disagree. Much as I enjoyed _The West Wing, Studio 60_ IMHO was rightly cancelled. Preachy, plodding and emphatically not funny when it most needed to be. > [@Quimby](#): > > …Andy Richter Controls the Universe should have lasted five seasons but only lasted one. Yes! Great show - clever, funny and wonderfully self-aware of sitcom conventions. I was very disappointed when it was cancelled. Another vote for _Firefly, Police Squad!_ and _Max Headroom_. I think I’m the first to mention _Reaper_, about a slacker forced into capturing escaped souls for the Devil. Darkly funny and very well-written, with an appealing young cast. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/156 "2016-01-03T02:22:30Z")
> [@CT\_Damsel](#): > > Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip another Aaron Sorkin show > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Here I gotta disagree. Much as I enjoyed _The West Wing, Studio 60_ IMHO was rightly cancelled. Preachy, plodding and emphatically not funny when it most needed to be. Exactly. And sometimes it was freaking hilarious, but it was when it was trying to be serious—“Your brother is STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF AFGHANISTAN!!!” Its fundamental problem was that it was a show that treated its audience as stupid. ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/157 "2016-01-03T03:09:00Z")
[Brisco County, Jr.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Brisco_County,_Jr.), a 26 episode series in the 93-94 season, starring Bruce Campbell. I wish they had explored it more. It was a comedy, western, sci fi, steampunk series. Maybe too off beat for a late 90s audience. Bob ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/158 "2016-01-03T03:20:02Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I think I’m the first to mention _Reaper_, about a slacker forced into capturing escaped souls for the Devil. Darkly funny and very well-written, with an appealing young cast. I was about to say someone else mentioned it, but when I looked through the thread it turned out the show mentioned was _Brimstone_, which has a very similar plot. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/159 "2016-01-03T03:27:38Z")
It was only eight episodes, but [Quark](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077066/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) had me on the floor. Richard Benjamin was an outer space garbage collector with an off-beat (to say the least) crew. Star Trek spoof, anyone? Another vote for **God, the Devil and Bob** , but of course, I knew Jim Garner was God decades before that show premiered. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743/160 "2016-01-03T03:59:50Z")
It was on for five years, mainly as a once a month replacement for “Saturday Night Live”, but “NBC Weekend” was a more hip, looser version of “60 Minutes”. But then I fondly remember an article host Lloyd Dobyns wrote for “TV Guide” on France. ``` "The French don't understand why Americans are so upset about Nixon wiretapping people. They take it for granted their politicians listen in on their opponents-and they have some very good surveillance equipped they got when the Germans left in 1944". "France has nuclear weapons but their best missile only has a range of 200 miles. Which means the only country they can hit is Belgium. Except for Brussel Sprouts, I can't think of anything Belgium has done to deserve nuclear annihilation." ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-favorite-failed-tv-shows/741743.md?page=9)