# TV series canceled too soon **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875 "2005-11-20T03:08:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/1 "2005-11-20T03:08:22Z")
The new _Kolchak the Night Stalker_ Didn’t hold a candle to McGavin, but it had promise. _John Doe_ Turns out they were making up most of the “stuff he knew”, but if they hadn’t made it just a cop show and continued with the “what the hell happened to this guy” theme, it could have done well. _Space: Above and Beyond_. It was great. WTF happened? _Touching Evil_. Really good. G-d hates me, so it was canceled. _Star Trek: Enterprise_ If they’d just let Ron Moore produce it… _Nikita_ Muhy-kull! ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/2 "2005-11-20T03:22:21Z")
This is going back a while: [“The Famous Teddy Z” (1989)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096580/) \*\*Star Trek \*\* only had 3 years, the biggest crime in TV history. A big FU to the guy that canceled it. [Police Squad 1982](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083466/) only 6 episode. Jim ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/3 "2005-11-20T03:24:51Z")
_Arrested Development_. I’m still in shock that they cancelled it. Can’t the network execs tell quality when they see it? _Futurama_. The show had great potential. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/4 "2005-11-20T03:25:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > _Touching Evil_. Really good. G-d hates me, so it was canceled. Seconded! I loved that show. It was one of the only shows of the past 15 years that I’ve actually planned on watching each week. Shortly after it was cancelled The Blair Witch 2 aired on SciFi (shoulda been Comedy Central IMO), and I sat through it just to get my Creegan fix. Cool tagline too, “What didn’t kill him made him stranger.” I think **Brimstone** was cancelled too early also. I always wanted to see how many seasons they could milk the show for, considering he was only after 13 souls and he averaged one “capture” per episode. Unfortunately, the show fell victim to poor writing and the trappings of network television sensitivity. Interesting characters with a neat concept; but it could have been so much better (and likely longer-lived) if they hadn’t had to coddle to prime time self-censoring. Only one I can think of at the moment, but my prediction is that it will take no more than 3 more posts before someone mentions Firefly. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/5 "2005-11-20T03:30:09Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > This is going back a while: > \*\*Star Trek \*\* only had 3 years, the biggest crime in TV history. A big FU to the guy that canceled it. > Jim Oh, that Dude’s in Dante’s Seventh Circle. Satan spat out Judas to chew on him. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/6 "2005-11-20T03:35:48Z")
I have been enjoying repeats of “_Wonderfalls_” on LOGO. I really wish I would have seen this show the first time around. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/7 "2005-11-20T03:38:28Z")
“The Montefuscos” (1975) Never had a chance to find its audience. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/8 "2005-11-20T03:39:50Z")
_Jake 2.0_, a modern _Six Million Dollar Man_, was really good and was one of my favorite shows for the few months it was on but it got cancelled after only about ten episodes. I had quit watching it because my TV viewing habits had died by that point but I was disheartened to find out _Joan of Arcadia_ was cancelled. The entire Whedon oeuvre, especially \*Firefly \*and _Angel_. I love \*Buffy \*and consider it my favorite but it had its day in the sun and, I think, was cancelled more out of Gellar’s apathy (antipathy?) and Whedon’s full schedule than by UPN’s disinterest. The other two were crimes against geekanity. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/9 "2005-11-20T03:42:07Z")
> [@soulmurk](#): > > Only one I can think of at the moment, but my prediction is that it will take no more than 3 more posts before someone mentions Firefly. Hah. Four. The funny thing is, I didn’t even see this sentence the first time around and I’m not even one of its more enthusiastic fans. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/10 "2005-11-20T04:05:25Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Hah. Four. The funny thing is, I didn’t even see this sentence the first time around and I’m not even one of its more enthusiastic fans. So close, yet wrong! Seems to be my modus operandi, as evidenced by my football picks each week 😉 Another one came to mind, **Samurai Jack**. The poor guy never found his way home. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/11 "2005-11-20T04:16:15Z")
**Strange Luck** should’ve gotten at least another season. And **Nightmare Cafe** only got 6 episodes. _sighs_ ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/12 "2005-11-20T04:29:37Z")
Re John Doe: The creators said after the series was canceled that John had died in a boat accident and met God, and got all of God’s knowledge. While I liked the show well enough, I’m kinda glad it got canceled before that little scenario got played out. My picks for some gone too soon shows: Twin Peaks Tru Calling Parker Lewis Can’t Lose Wolf Lake The Judy Garland Show ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/13 "2005-11-20T04:32:28Z")
A vote here for _American Gothic_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/14 "2005-11-20T04:32:43Z")
The Norman Lear TV show [The Powers That Be](http://imdb.com/title/tt0103515/) had some hysterical moments and never found an audience. It ran 13 episodes, then was brought back the next season for 8 more which were far more conventional and lame than the first 13- they didn’t even resolve the cliffhanger plot from the first 13 episodes. John Forsythe played straight man as a long term senator to Holland Taylor’s brilliant performance as his Lady MacBeth ice queen wife, Valerie Mahaffey as their neurotic needy daughter, David Hyde Pierce as their suicidal son-in-law (in one scene he’s reading _Final Exit_ in bed), Eve Gordon as the senator’s mistress and Elizabeth Berridge as the maid who falls in love with the son-in-law. It had some brilliant comedy (in one episode the senator is accidentally shot by his son-in-law, so the wife leaks to the press that it was an assassination attempt so that his poll numbers will jump and he’ll get major press, and then as he’s still unconscious she realizes it’s only a fresh wound and decides [with his secretary/mistress helping] to “shoot him again in a more strategic place”- dark humor but it was played hysterically]). The only thing the show is really remembered for is a piece of trivia: it was while watching the show that one of the producers of _Frasier_ was struck by the resemblance of Pierce to Kelsey Grammar and suggested him for the role of Niles. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/15 "2005-11-20T04:42:15Z")
[_Action_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206467/) Thirteen episodes were made but only eight were shown. This show was edgy before being edgy was cool. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/16 "2005-11-20T04:49:53Z")
I’ll second **Firefly, Wonderfalls, John Doe, Jake 2.0, Joan of Arcadia, Parker Lewis, Wolf Lake** , and a few others here. And to them I will add: **Nowhere Man** ; I’m not sure it even ran a full season. Oh, and **Bakersfield, P.D.**. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/17 "2005-11-20T04:51:07Z")
Damn my eyes. And my coding. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/18 "2005-11-20T05:13:05Z")
_Gunsmoke_. Yeah, I said it. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/19 "2005-11-20T05:40:02Z")
> [@Kat](#): > > **Strange Luck** should’ve gotten at least another season. I thought the pilot was really good, but the subsequent episodes couldn’t sustain that level of weirdness. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875/20 "2005-11-20T05:41:06Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > I thought the pilot was really good, but the subsequent episodes couldn’t sustain that level of weirdness. I was talking about **Strange Luck** , incidentally. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-canceled-too-soon/331875.md?page=2)