So TIL that there was a 1990s US remake of the cult 80s British classic (and my personal greatest TV show of all time) the Young Ones. It never saw the light of day, and all that survives is the intro:
So this definitely falls into the “glad its lost” category for me (though the intro doesn’t look awful).
What are the dopes thoughts on this?
I wish we had the bulk of Your Show of Shows and Sid Caesar Hour. By all reports this was great TV and we have only a small amount on crappy Kinescope.
I enjoyed the Young Ones.
I want House back.
I have a huge list of 70s short-lived shows that I liked (at least when they were new, and I was young) that I’d love to see again. Sometimes they get a DVD release (rare), show up on youtube (not always complete, and often poor quality), sometimes they show up on one of the retro TV channels (often edited but at least available). And sometimes they stay lost.
I’d like to see Rich Man, Poor Man on a streaming service someday. I know its on DVD, but I would never buy it in that format.
I remember Hot l Baltimore and wish it would come back. The jokes were very racy for the time and would be almost normal in today’s world
I think there are a couple of ways to look at this.
Great shows that played, but are no longer on the air on any service, nor DVD.
Great shows that played, but ended or were cancelled, and you’d like to see completed (continuation with original cast)
Great shows that played, but ended or were cancelled, that you want to see rebooted.
Great shows that played, but ended or were cancelled, that you feel could never be made in modern times or without the original cast.
The last one is generally the ‘stay lost category’. The second is often - because the original cast is unavailable, dead, or aged out of the role - and you don’t think anyone could quite match the ‘fit’ of the original.
So for each category I’ll give one example for myself at least.
Brimstone (1998) - urban dark fantasy / detective show, loved it but it would also be in in category 4 because the casting. Still, I’d buy it in a heartbeat if it was available in any format.
Firefly - one of the few I enjoyed where the cast is still available (largely) and feel that while Serenity gives a conclusion to a story, there is much more to be told. And it would be fun to see how everyone’s flaws were not, as to be expected, resolved. To see the characters older, wiser, but also possibly even more jaded by time and troubles would be interesting.
Thundarr the Barbarian (animated, 1980) - this was one of my favorite shows as a kid. Far, far more developed setting than the majority of animated fare, it had a combination of post-apocalypse, magic, and sci-fi tech that never quite was matched by anything else. Reboot that S*** asap, animated or live action, with modern techniques and I’d be throwing money at it!
Brimstone (as mentioned above) worked in large part because John Glover made such an amazing Devil. The back and forth between him and the lead is what made it memorable and makes me miss it as well.
So some shows are more ‘lost’ than others (I have Thundarr and Firefly on DVD for example), but the tendency of modern reboots to stick to things that were broadly popular and assume their base makes the recovery / re-broadcast of some of those personal favorites of ours problematic.
I was just thinking about shows that sit in vaults that I wish they’d pull out and sell me. But your post reminds me of something,
There used to be a thing where they would make reunion movies, “where are they now”, from old shows, with the original cast. They would take place as far in the future from the show as real time. So we got “Still the Beaver” with everyone grown up but Ward deceased, and “The Wild Wild West Revisited”, with an older West retired and living in Mexico. A lot of these were enjoyable.
In that sense, I’d have loved a proper reunion movie for Magnum PI, not the abomination of a reboot that we did get. But, OTOH, seeing Magnum as a trump-sucking republican (and you know that’s true) is an idea best left unfilmed.
I’ll Fly Away was the most brilliant, lovely, and moving show with an amazing cast. The show was short lived. It needs to be on DVD or streaming. I'll Fly Away (TV Series 1991–1993) - IMDb
Yeah, Firefly is going to be at the top of a lot of people’s list, including mine. Rather than have them reboot it now, though, I’d prefer to go back in time and have them not cancel it so soon. I’m sure if they re-did it now, they’d manage to both overproduce it and under-finesse it.
The 2008 British TV series “Survivors” built up to a hell of a Season 2 cliffhanger, then unexpectedly failed to be renewed. I’m still reeling; great show.
Serenity and her crew inspired this collaborative fiction thread:
Dopers seem to have lost interest in such threads.
Mr. Peepers starring Wally Cox.
Galactic/ Galaxy Trio apperantly done by Hanna Barbara
There was only one unaired episode of Superpup but I’d really like to see it.
Brown Hornet was a superhero parody that ocasionally appeared on Fat Albert
Danger Island one of the segments that appeared on *Banana Splits
I watched that in the US. It was fun and I wouldn’t mind seeing another series of it. I also liked the program Humans, about anthropomorphic robots and the conflict with humans. I think it aired around the same time as Westworld on HBO but in some ways was better.
Looks like that’s on Amazon Prime – I’ll check it out, thanks.
I think another category of “lost shows” to consider are ones that are still available, but because of licensing agreements don’t have the music they originally aired with. Examples that come to mind are Daria and WKRP in Cincinnati. It would be nice to see those shows available in their original broadcast form again.
So in the OP I was thinking about specifically shows that had all the elements of being great (or at least unique and worth watching) but never actually got played, or past the pilot. These are typically movies rather than TV: e.g. the Beatles version of Lord of the Rings, or the rest of the animated LOTR (vastly superior to Peter Jackson version IMO, but only covered the first book), or Jodorowsky’s Dune. There are TV examples other than the one in the OP but can’t think of them off the top of my head.
Thanks for explaining the thought process!
Well then, I have a clear TV example, the much missed Korgoth of Barbaria which was an animated episode / pilot which was stated to have been picked up as a series, then not mentioned, then officially stated that it was dropped as too expensive.
It was a loving homage and parody of various barbarian hero and post-apocalyptic tropes, and such a treat. I’ll include a video link in a dropdown because it is most emphatically NSFW even if it is TV-MA.
This is, of course, a lost show that I really, really want to see if it wasn’t clear.
‘House’ with Hugh Laurie? It’s on cable, on H&I, 5 hours a day and sometimes more. 
I wouldn’t mind seeing the 1960’s ‘Astroboy’ - just to see if it brings back memories.
‘Here Come The Brides’ was a HUGE thing when I was in high school. Bobby Sherman, Joan Blondell were the ‘names’ - mail order brides brought to Seattle logging country. Again, just to see it for old times sake.
Might as well include ‘Dream On!’ and ‘Northern Exposure’. Some or all of it is on DVD. ‘The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd’ was enchanting, unavailable anywhere AFAIK.
I’m down with that; update it some (1994 may not have been uneventful, but the World didn’t end) flesh out some backstory, do some World Building.
In that vein, I’d like to see a reboot of the Buck Rogers TV series, done like it was being done in the 1st season before Executive Meddling caused the re-tool for S2. Give it a Firefly level of production values and tone; mostly light, but with some real heart and darkness underneath.
Early Edition was appointment viewing in my house when I was a kid. It was about a man who got the next day’s paper every morning, and had to decide how to do the most good with that information on any given day.
Someone is meticulously saving the tapes to YouTube, but it’s an unofficial fan channel, and no one is legally streaming it.