Went through a couple of others in my head, mostly shows cut down before their time like Firefly, Farscape and The Invisible Man. They all had one of two things in common. They were either on Fox, or the Scifi network. Someday I hope those retarded syphillitic monkeys will figure out how to run a fucking network.
Hint 1: One show with 100 episodes is worth more in the long run than 25 with four episodes each.
Hint 2: Your network only gets N ratings in X timeslot. Period. Your history shows this. Don’t cancel a show just because it doesn’t get multiples of N. PLAN FOR N.
Also, being a big B5 fan, I wish they hadn’t canceled Crusade. I loved that show, even if it was just a touch “D&D In Space” (you had a thief, a wizard, a warrior, a healer, a corporate archaeologist, and a telepath! Throw in a dwarf and you have a full D&D Party!)
Horatio Hornblower - Being an on-again-off-again series of TV movies, you can hardly say it was cancelled, but comon, the last set of movies, Loyalty and Duty, only took the story as far as Hornblower and the Hotspur, the meat of the series, starting with Beat To Quarters was only one more book away! Hopefully they get back to making those sometime.
Watch it! It will probably feel inferior at first due to expectations and the fact that it’s a time travel story. It deserves a 2nd viewing, though. I’ve seen it 4 times (and I NEVER re-watch movies anymore) and I hold it on the same level as the best episodes.
The best eps IMO are:
*The Devil’s Hands . . . * The Sting Luck of the Fryish Jurassic Bark
Probably in that order. If you liked those you’ll like Bender’s Big Score. But watch it at least twice.
Now and Again Yeah, it wasn’t great science fiction but it was entertaining. That’s all I need. They killed the series with a cliff-hanger, too, the bastards.
Right you are, on both counts. In LKOS I had to go back to the opening credits to be sure who that was. When I learned (or paid attention to that fact that) it was Gillian I almost flipped. In fact, I thought she did as good a job as a chameleon as she did as an actor, so I started a thread on the subject. It’s been a good while, but the thread was fun.
Sorry I left this one out of my Old Time list. In school this was the one show that had the Tube Room as close to completely full (guys sitting in other guys’ laps even) as any show of the day. James Garner and Jack Kelly were terrific every week and the guest characters and scatter-brain plots were always top dollar.
I sometimes wonder, though, if my memories of this show would be shattered, as they were when I saw a recent rerun of Have Gun, Will Travel, and if that were to happen I’d never forgive myself for watching one. Other shows like that, that hover on the edge of forgettable and “never were so great” would have to include:
Cheyenne
Yancey Derringer
Trackdown
Wanted Dead or Alive
Sugarfoot
Bonanza
The Virginian
One that’s definitely in the Who Cares zone for me is The Rifleman which is (along with Bat Masterson (another dud for me)) now a prominent feature on Encore Westerns. I watched one episode and almost lost my lunch. Times have surely changed. That show is dreck!
I agree with many of the previous entries, particularly Arrested Development, Futurama, Brisco County Jr. and Studio 60.
My contribution to this thread would be My So-Called Life. That show was so important for my young teenage self and it was a crushing disappointment when I found out it was canceled.
I’ve got the feeling that many of my favorite shows get canceled prematurely. This thread would be a lot shorter if we were discussing shows that were allowed to run their course.
I never watched Twin Peaks, so this was my dose of wierdness. Died a death with nothing resolved, as far as I remember. I could be wrong, its been ten years or so.
Also, Arrested Developement. Not so much the show itself, but GOB, specifically. I could live with a GOB spin-off. Joey we can have, but not GOB? COME ON!!
To scratch my GOB itch, I even rented out “Lets Go To Prison”… My GOB itch remains unscratched.
My votes would have to be for Blackadder, Red Dwarf, and Black Books.
They’ve been talking about Blackadder V for ages now (although it looks like it’s going to be in the Only Fools & Horses route of sporadic Christmas Specials, if they ever get around to it) and Red Dwarf has been on hiatus since 1999 and is unlikely to be coming back, despite what Messrs. Grant & Naylor say.
Black Books is great, though, and It’s a shame they’ve got no intention of reviving it. It deserves more than 3 series, especially when you consider the potential the characters have.
I know I posted this on another thread elsewhere but…
Herman’s Head.
Bosom Buddies.
James at 15/16.
30 days.
Tangent: back in the day of no-VCR/DVR etc. TV seemed more enjoyable because more was invested in a TV program by the viewer. I’d know that my program was on at a certain time and evening, and if I missed it, too bad.
The anticipation made the event better. When commercials came on, I’d run to the kitchen for something and hurry back. If you called me on the phone, I might have to get back to you. If the station experienced technical difficulties during the magic window, I was PISSED.
Remember trying to watch two programs—switching at commercials—and having to crank the old rotary dial back and forth?
A few years ago I picked up Season 1 of Mary Tyler Moore on DVD. I was disappointed. True, it didn’t hold up perfectly over time but that aside, but the particulars of the original experience were totally different. Some of the above (Bosom Buddies and 30 days) are available on DVD but I haven’t bought them.
How old were you when Herman’s Head was on? I was 10 and I loved it, but most people who were adults at the time hail it as one of the worst shows ever.
In my world, the last episode of ER was the one after Mark died, when Carter encouraged an overwhelmed med student (Gallant? the one who was an asshole to Neela) just as Mark helped him in the first episode.
