This isn’t a thread for talking about old shows that have come and gone but you still miss (like MASH* or Facts of Life). Rather, it’s about shows that met their untimely deaths at the hands of network bosses who brought down the proverbial axe too soon.
I, for one, didn’t bemoan the cancellation of critically-acclaimed-but-ratings-deprived programs like My So-Called Life or Freaks and Geeks, mainly because I didn’t watch them.
However, there have been a few of my favorites over the years that got the axe early and didn’t deserve it. Here is the thread for me (and you) to lament your favorite shows that got cancelled too early.
Brooklyn Bridge: Sort-of a Wonder Years only it took place in the 40’s. It was smart, funny and occasionally touching. The only TV show that I can think of that had a family of Jews as main characters.
Family Guy: All the negative publicity about this show made it that much more enjoyable to watch. Yeah, it was vulgar and tacky. But that was the beauty of it. Here’s hoping that Fox packages up the show and releases a complete box set on VHS :fingers crossed: .
It’s Like, You Know: I must have been the only person in America who actually liked this show. What can I say? I felt like Lauren, Shrug, Artie, Robbie, and Jennfier were friends of mine, and I looked forward to spending time with them each week in the same way I look forward to spending time with Ross, Joey, Chandler, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe each week now. At times, the show bordered on being surreal- like the time Shrug went to jail to talke to his friend Hilo Beckworthy… guess you had to be there.
I miss Stark Raving Mad. I thought that show was hilarious. Tony Shaloub is my god. Witness his comedic genius, not only in the above mentioned sit-com but also Wings and the movie Men In Black. And he is not without dramatic skills. I refer you to A Civil Action and Big Night.
Oh I could go on, but I don’t feel like searching IMDB for stuff I can’t think of off the top of my head.
Let me be the first on the thread to moan, cry, wail, keen and lament over Mystery Science Theater 3000!
how, How, HOW could Sci-Fi do this to us? They were the saviors when they rescued the show after Comedy Central cancelled it after yanking it around the schedule for months (of course the ratings are going to go into the toilet when we can’t FIND the thing!). Then, three short seasons later, Sci-Fi pulls the rug out from under the single most hilarious show on the face of the earth.
WAIL!!! BITCH!!! MOAN!!!
Now all I have to comfort me are my Rhino tapes and the erratically scheduled petering out of the re-runs on Saturday mornings.
I miss Millennium. God, that was a good series! Nice and dark. They could have at least let it run until The Millennium (which is coming up in a month!) and finished the story!
I also thought that Max Headroom was cancelled before its time.
And then there’s Twin Peaks. Great first season. The second season kind of dragged at the beginning, but it was picking up steam. The story was moving along nicely when it was cancelled! Again, they should have finished the story before it was cancelled.
Speaking of cancelled David Lynch series, On the Air was brilliant! Only seven episodes, and they’re nearly impossible to find.
God, the Devil, and Bob! i loved that show. Sure, I thought it would suck but it was so funny. Why, why cancel it? I only saw a few episodes, but by god, it rocked…the little known biblical references…the circles of hell…Bob’s kids…ahh…i do lament it. Well actually I stopped lamenting b/c I forgot about it…this thread has just opened up new wounds. Sigh…
I did watch Freaks and Geeks and it was one of the best shows I’ve seen in Years. I was livid when it was cancelled. It was one of those shows that would make you laugh, cry, and cringe in remembered embarassment as you recalled your own High School days. Brillantly done show.
I watched Freak and Geeks just long enough to miss it when it got yanked.
I really liked Sports Night and was pissed when ABC dumped it. When a show like Sports Night gets pulled and crap like Will and Grace gets Emmys, there’s something really wrong with the state of the universe.
Space: Above and Beyond… It seemed to get chopped so suddenly. After the unit suffers no attrition to the regulars so unrealistically for so much of the war, most of them get snuffed in the last minutes of the last episode. It was a weird and crummy end to a series. Granted, it’s more of an end than most series get.
Family Guy is being held in reserve as a replacement series. Supposedly with such guest stars as KISS!
I agree on Max Headroom. It also predicted several TV trends to be such as networks displaying their logos onscreen all the time.
Also killed early: The Visitor, Dark Skies, Brimstone, and Dilbert.
No more Sports Night?!! I thought they were taking a long time to get the new season going, but I didn’t know it was cancelled.
I enjoyed American Gothic. But it’s hard to get real worked up about the cancellation – what would the writers have done, if it had lasted three or four seasons?
We need more shows with attractive evil. Are there any good bad guys on TV?
Whatever happened to that show (forgot the name) where the hero (also a bad guy) lived in a box?
Ooooh…MST3K! I dont’ care if it was Season 10 (11, if you count KTMA). I loved that show. Michael J. Nelson is sex on a stick. And there are sooo many crappy movies out there now, because they no longer have to FEAR the Brains!
I liked “The Pretender”. The plots were getting a bit convoluted, but there was great stuff there.
“Sports Night” is another one I miss. If HBO had picked it up, I was going to subscribe.
Finally, a Matt Frewer (of Max Headroom fame) sitcom called “Doctor, Doctor” now being shown on USA during the day (I’ve been home sick). It wasn’t great, but I love Matt, so I wish it could have turned into something.
I guess I can quit bitching over the fact that horrible shows like “Veronica’s Closet” and “Suddenly Susan” continued to limp along, while quality shows dropped like flies (mercifully, these two “comedies” have disappeared).
But I still haven’t forgiven NBC for taking “I’ll Fly Away” off the air. That, my friends, was a classy program.
…meanwhile, the networks are probably lining up the next Jackie Mason or Nathan Lane fiasco even as we speak.
It’s a crime that you left Galaxy Quest off your (admittedly incomplete) list.
As for me, I had just started to get into China Beach. Yeah, it was maudlin, but it could make me bawl like you would not believe. It was also somewhat refreshing to watch a show where it was possible that any character could be killed at any time. It’s hard to get as emotionally caught up in shows where happy endings are guaranteed.
MST3K, definitly. I loved that show, I loved that show! I’ve taken to MSTing movies, myself, and so have dozens of my friends. It should never have been pulled.
The Pretender. Yes, TNT shows repeats every night (a great thing, I love reruns) and they’re coming out with a movie for 2001, but NBC was just being stupid to cencel this one (and Profiler, for that matter)
La Femme Nikita. We did convince USA and Warner Bros. to give us eight more episodes, but they killed off the best characters and the male lead kinda walked away when Nikita told him she never loved him. Ouch.
Forever Knight. Yes, that was a while ago, but I’m still complaining. Geraint Wyn Davies wa one really attractive guy and I LOVE Nigel Bennett.
Silk Stalkings. Ok, now I agree with most people that the show kinda ended when Chris and Rita left, but still. I liked that warped up cop drama with Cassie and Tom. And I miss it! (Boo for USA! Silk Stalkings, The Net, La Femme Nikita, Pacific Blue, The War Next Door… what is WRONG with you people! Stop cancelling things already, geez!)
I’ll second Family Guy and Stark Raving Mad, and add The Others. Okay, maybe it was a bit too close to The X-Files in plot, but I thought it had potential.
I’ll second “Get A Life” - possibly the most bizarre sitcom ever, it kept me in stitches most of the time (my girlfriend claims it’s “retarded”, but every time we watch an episode she cracks up). Nobody has tried this type of humor on a prime-time major network show before or since (though I’ll also give props to David Lynch’s “On The Air”, which was also in a category of its own). I liked “Twin Peaks” until it turned from a parody of a soap opera into the reality of a soap opera. Other than that, everything else (on the networks, at least) seems pretty bland to me.
