Sunday Discussion Group

November 20, 2005

We’ve been doing these discussion groups every Sunday for the last six months, but I thought I’d try something completely radical today: a non-political topic. (I figure readers will either love the diversion or hate it; I guess I’ll find out soon enough.)

Earlier this week, I was among at least seven people nationwide to be deeply disappointed by the cancellation of Arrested Development, one of the most creative and well-written comedies I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, very few Nielsen families agreed and the show instantly joined the ranks of shows to meet an untimely demise.

This week’s topic: what are the best TV shows to be cancelled too soon?

To be sure, in most instances, shows that get cancelled are pulled because they are, well, awful. But we all know those gems that were terrific, found a small but devoted following, but were brutally yanked from network lineups anyway.

Firefly? Freaks and Geeks? Andy Richter Controls the Universe? Am I the only one to have been disappointed by the premature and unwarranted cancellation of quality programs?

This is going back a ways (before even my time) but the original Star Trek was on for only 2 years before it was canceled. What other TV show has become a cultural phenomenon to the extent that Star Trek has? The whole cast are stars to this day despite having done not much since.

  • I’ll cast a vote for Firefly, which has done quite nicely on release as a DVD set and a movie, and Sports Night, which never seemed to find an audience.

  • Firefly, of course, but also Wonderfalls and Brimstone. (John Glover was the best TV/movie Satan in decades.)

  • I think about this all the time. Damn networks.

    Firefly, The Tick, Undeclared, Freaks & Geeks, Andy Richter, and Sports Night, Greg The Bunny, and My So Called Life.

    To name a few.

  • Has anyone noticed that a vast majority of these shows were on Fox? And this is a historical thing, going back to the early 90’s and The Ben Stiller Show. Fox is definitly the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals of the television world. They get all the superstars, and send them away before they can blossom.

  • I think Star Trek was on for three years. But it was in an era before detailed demographics. It was a hit with young people and would have been kept on today for that demographic. But it showed on Friday nites when nobody was home.

  • How about once great shows that have run out of steam? The Simpsons should have called it quits about five years ago. And the original Family Guy had its moments, but the resurrected version is just flat.

  • Without a doubt “Futurama.” The only upside is that Morbo lost his TV news gig and now does the weekend blogging on this site.

  • Sure, sure, Firefly is now the canonical example of how to royally screw up a great show.

    But how about Farscape? They were cancelled after a grim cliff-hanger, while still expecting to have a final season to resolve it. At least they made a movie to tidy things up in a compressed way. Sorta like Firefly.

    On the less serious side, how about Parker Lewis Can’t Lose?

  • On the less serious side, how about Parker Lewis Can’t Lose?

    Good one. For a show geared towards a younger (teenage?) audience, it was pretty sophisticated humor.

  • Brimstone, Firefly, Harsh Realm, The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr., Nowhere Man, Hack, Now and Again, Angel.

    Homicde: Life on the Street went seven seasons before being cancelled but was great until the very end and could have probably gone on for several more seasons. It never jumped the shark.

  • A show that debuted last spring but wasn’t picked up for this fall’s schedule: Eyes. It starred Tim Daly as private investigator Harlan Judd. It wasn’t just your ordinary PI type of show, either. It was interesting, stylish, a bit quirky, and fun to watch. Daly was excellent and the supporting cast was strong, as well. It even featured a big, deep-voiced, African-American PI who was openly gay. As I say, it wasn’t your ordinary private investigator type of show. I was sorry to see it go.

  • Sad news on Arrested Development.

    Michael Moore’s “TV Nation” was wonderful, but it was a summer replacement and got cancelled nearly immediately. Karen Duffy (?) did a piece on efforts to increase tourism to North Dakota, crawling up the steps of a building in the face of a blizzard, that was superb.

    Long, long ago, there was a very short-lived comedy show, sort of a Laugh-In type show, with Marty Feldman. It seemed wonderful at the time.

  • I never watched Freaks and Geeks when it was on the air, but I’ve been catching up on the DVD recently and it’s brilliant. After that, Judd Apatow did another show called Undeclared, that was also very clever and funny, and also canceled after one season. The only upside is that those experiences apparently pushed Apatow off of TV for good, and he now makes great movies like “40 Year Old Virgin”.

    As far as Arrested Development, it is one of the smartest, funniest TV shows I’ve ever seen, and its cancellation is a crime against humanity. But at least it got nearly three seasons. It will make plenty of money on DVD.

  • Firefly, Farscape, The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr., also another show with Bruce Campbell where he played Jack somebody, a period comedy. Does anyone think it’s interesting that the devotees of this blog almost all like sci fi, especially Firefly?

  • I don’t watch enough tee-vee to comment (e.g., I’ve never seen, or until today heard of, “Arrested Development”).

    The IMDb says this about the original “Star Trek” demographics: Shortly after the cancellation of the series, the staff of the marketing department of the NBC TV network confronted the network executives and berated them for canceling Star Trek, the most profitable show on the network in terms of demographic profiling of the ratings. They explained that although the show was never higher than #52 in the general ratings, its audience profile had the largest concentration of viewers of ages 16 to 39, the most sought after television audience for advertisers to reach. In other words, the show, despite the low ratings, had the precise audience advertisers hungered for, which was more than ample justification to consider the show a big success.

    Also, one minor correction: The first season the show was on Thursday nights, not Friday (that began the second season). I remember this because I was taking a graduate seminar which had to be re-scheduled (as, also, did the one which conflicted with Batman when that appeared). We had our values right back then.

    One show I did like which disappeared almost immediately was 2003’s Mr. Sterling, about a prison teacher appointed by the CA governor to finish a deceased senator’s term.

    Another which was killed was too early was the 1967 Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour … way too hot and humrous for the corporate mentality.

    I couldn’t have made it through grad school without The Monkees 1968-8. Or university politics and the first Bush administration without Pee Wee’s Playhouse 1986-91.

  • Good suggestions so far, but I’m surprised no one has mentioned “Wonderfalls”. It premiered last year on Fox with amazing reviews from the critics, but was only aired for a mere 4 episodes and then axed. It too suffered the same plight as that of AD, very poor marketing and an uneven schedule. I think all 4 episodes aired on different days of the week, except for the last 2 episodes, which aired on Friday night (the kiss of death for any show).

    The entire 1st season is out on DVD. It’s worth checking out.

  • How about Joan of Arcadia? Kind of a cool show without going over the top on the schmultz, like “Touched By an Angel”.

  • As has been mentioned here, Star Trek: TOS is sort of the granddady of this phenomenon: when shows that are critically acclaimed with a strong cult fan base get cancelled anyway due to poor ratings, as measured by the networks. Star Trek was on for 3 years and for its first two it was a Thursday night offering but it was bumped to Fridays for it’s third year, which only aired at all because of a strong fan showing and letter-writing campaign.

    Anyway, does anyone remember an excellent ABC show in the late 90s called American Gothic? I think it’s new on DVD now (finally). SciFi ran it in reruns for a while but there’s less than a full seaon of it–great horror fare–sort of like a Vertigo comic on TV.

    Supposedly there may still be life in AD if Fox execs reconsider toward the end of the season or if a pay network like Showtime picks it up. Maybe the WB will grab it, ala Buffy.

    I was disappointed when Comedy Central took Upright Citizens Brigade off the air in favor of that robot battle show.

    /my2c.

  • I want to throw in seconds for “Sports Night”, “Brisco County”, and of course “Twin Peaks”.

    But I was also really disappointed at the premature axing of a show called “E-Z Streets”, which ran a pilot and a few episodes back in 1996. It was a cops and mob drama with Ken Olin and Joe Pantoliano (whose Ralph Cifaretto on the “Sopranos” was more or less a reprise of his Jimmy Murtha on “E-Z Streets”).

    And the damn series isn’t even on DVD.

  • another vote for Brisco County but also Maximum Bob it was a comedy set in rural Florida… just hilarious. I don’t think it even made it a whole season.

  • What was the show with Chris Elliot living in a garage-I think it’s called Get A Life. That one is definitely worth bringing back.

  • Agree with most mentioned above. There was one short-lived series in the late 1980s called “Frank’s Place” with Tim Reid. Wonderful thoughtful well-written show that took place in New Orleans. CBS cancelled the show.

    Another show I liked was “Hooperman” with John Ritter. Very funny and clever writing.

    And although you can’t blame this on American executives, “Fawlty Towers” nevertheless deserves a mention. A hoot and a riot. Found out only 12 episodes were made of this fantastic comedy.

  • One point about the original Star Trek is that by its third season, quality was slipping badly. A season 4 of that one might not have been pretty. Twin Peaks also was losing its way creatively a bit, once they resolved the initial whodunit storyline.

    The saddest thing about Firefly was the fact that the show was obviously built to run well over the long haul. If the suits had kept their mitts off it could have been another Buffy – a strong run for many seasons.

    No one’s mentioned Crusade, another Sci-Fi series killed by meddling from the executive suites.

    Are there bad consequences to networks types who screw up a good show? Will the idiots who killed Firefly carry a black mark on their resumes?

  • JimBob’s right – if you go back and look, the third season of original Trek is embarassing. Remember the “Yangs” and the “Coms”? That was embarassing the first time! As usual, when they had to reduce costs, they did it in the writing department – always stupid, because good scripts can make great stories no matter the budget. Example: “Twilight Zone” – all made on mini-budgets, and all good. Because of the scripts.

    As to the over-rated “Twin Peaks” – despite my violent dislike of David Lynch, the perpetrator of “Blue Velvet” and the eviscerator of “Dune” – I was conned into watching that thing the first season and nearly forgave him. Until the second season, when it was decided that “Bob” could be anybody – what a @#$%$#@!! copout!!! The only thing that kept me from throwing a size 9 cowboy boot through the TV screen was SWMBO’s reminder that “you’ll have to buy a new one.” I still have yet to forgive Mark Frost for going along with that.

    “Firefly” is a perfect example of a good show – the secret of which are “great scripts.”

    And if you think George Bush is a moron, wait till you’re on the other side of the desk with the Hollywierd Morons known as “da suits,” who make him look like a genius. All thebad things you have heard my fellow Hollywood writers say about them are just “the family version.”

    I can tell you this: every good show you can think of on TV since the dawn of the medium was made IN SPITE OF the suits and the system. The creators had to fight tooth and nail to keep the ingrained mediocrity out.

    TCinLA
    Yer Hollyweird Reporter

  • The Dana Carvey Show.

    Does no one else here remember “Skinheads in Maine”? Or how about the poorly animated cartoon segment featuring two dudes in tights who always managed to get tangled up in one another titled “The Ambiguously Gay Duo”?

    This program aired just a few episodes some years ago. No one else seems to remember it. Did I dream the whole thing?

  • I second American Gothic.

    It screened in Australia before or after the X-Files (can’t remember which) – and I thought it was far better than the X-Files.

    It also was the first time I saw the criminally underused Gary Cole in anything. What a champion.

  • The Dana Carvey Show

    Don’t feel bad, Morbo, I remember that one too. “The Ambiguously Gay Duo” was always hilarious.

    On a related note, the voices for the “The Ambiguously Gay Duo” were done by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, both of whom became starts on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

  • In reverse order of greatness…

    5. Dead Like Me

    4. Manimal: Just kidding, always liked the name though.

    3. It’s Your Move: Believe it or not, another Jason Batman comedy.

    2. Buffalo Bill: Someone already mentioned this Dabney Coleman classic.

    1. Voyagers!: The error of pulling the show was irreversibly compounded when the lead, Jon-Erik Hexum, accidentally shot himself in the head.

    Yes, most of these are from the 80’s, when I last watched TV with any regularity.

  • I’ll second Police Squad. But then again, seeing as how several years later they couldn’t even get a decent sequal to the movie (Naked Gun), odds are they couldn’t have kept up a running series. But it was a funny show while it lasted.

    I also thought Sledgehammer got knocked off too soon, though I suspect I wouldn’t find it as funny as I did when I was a kid. Even then, I knew that it shouldn’t have had a laugh track, which was a later addition. And when they put it opposite Cosby, I knew it was doomed to be cancelled.

    And I’ll denounce Twin Peaks. I couldn’t really watch it, but at least the first season had something going for it. They should have known that they couldn’t sustain the energy, and really should have just made it a miniseries. I had a friend who absolutely insisted that it was a miniseries. That would have made a lot more sense.

  • Thanks space, I forgot about It’s Your Move. I loved that show, and was very upset when that was cancelled. That should have lasted much longer.

    I also watched Manimal, though I can’t say I was disappointed at its demise. Even as a kid, I knew that that was a silly silly show.

  • FWIW, I don’t think think that Fawlty Towers was cancelled per se. Wasn’t it planned (much like The Prisoner) to be a short-run? I think that Cleese financed it out-of-pocket.

    Yeah, E-Z Streets was great. Why the heck isn’t it available on DVD?

  • Mercy Point. Although some of it was lame, it was in the stage of development and promised great characters and story lines.

  • Hey CB,

    Has a subject ever drawn more comments than this one? I don’t think so. Curious huh?

  • As we approach the holiday season, who can forget “WKRP in Cincinnati” and it’s famous “Turkeys Away” episode …

    “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly …”

  • Has a subject ever drawn more comments than this one? I don’t think so. Curious huh?

    You know, sknm, I was just saying the same thing to Mrs. Carpetbagger. I’m thinking this means a) readers like the occasional non-political topic; b) readers like TV; or c) both.

  • Farscape!

    Also –
    The Invisible Man
    Firefly
    Nowhere Man
    Enterprise (just as it finally started getting good)
    Harsh Realm
    Brimstone
    Ultraviolet (I know it was just a miniseries – I wanted more!)
    Strange Luck
    American Gothic
    Haunted
    Now and Again
    Odyssey 5

    I’m seeing a general pattern…

  • Until a year ago my favorite show of all time, Dr. Who, fit this topic perfectly. However, BBC finally saw the error of their ways and brought the series back. Unfortunately, there aren’t yet any american networks broadcasting it, but I’m fortunate enough to have a family member who lives somewhere it is broadcast who records it and mails it to me.

    Keep your hopes up, you never know, Dr. Who was brought back after over a decade off the air. Your favorite show could come back too.

    – Danny

  • Heat Vision and Jack, created by Ben Stiller and starring Owen Wilson, Jack Black–and Ron Silver as a NASA assassin. Only the pilot was made, and I’m not even sure it was ever shown.

  • I’ll also chime in for “Homicide-Life On The Streets”. A much better show than “Law & Order” or “NYPD Blue”, both of which ripped it off. To its credit, NBC did indeed keep it afloat for seven years, despite its low ratings(it got its ass kicked regularly by “Nash Bridges” in its last years, for christsakes). Some network honcho must have liked the show a lot.

    One of the thing I liked best about Homicide is that it was set in Baltimore. Having never visited there, I have no special affinity for “Charm City,” but I found it refreshing to see a cop show that was set in a mid size American city, as opposed to NY, LA, or Chicago.

  • “Firefly” and “Harsh Realm” are some of my obvious choices.

    But does anybody remember the FOX series “Space Above and Beyond” and “Roar”. They were excellent, but suffered the fate of most FOX programs with potential.

    “Space Above and Beyond” was about the space marines of the 58th Wildcard who were in a battle for the fate of humanity against the ‘Chigs’.

    “Roar” was about a young Celtic man who was fighting to unite his people and drive the Romans out of Britian. He was actually played by Heath Ledger early in his career.

  • C’mon people, how could you forget “Models Inc.”! It certainly deserves to be on the list, if only for the season finales cliff-hanger ending which was never resolved!

    “Where am I?!!!”

    “You in Hooker Hell baby…”

  • “American Gothic,” which appears to have been cancelled because no one watched it but me. To this day I keep expecting every character Gary Cole plays to turn out to be the Devil.

  • Firefly was wonderful (I’ve seen Serenity, er, four times. So far). Brimstone was great too – there were some great one liners in there. And many years ago there was a little show called Cupid, which I really enjoyed. I think that was about the time I started thinking that if I liked a show it was doomed to failure.

  • Robbery Homicide Division. A great crime drama which made excellent use of the locale and local culture of Los Angeles. If they ever issue the one and only season on DVD, definitely check it out.

  • angry young man – “I know everything!”

    For awhile TNT was playing Briscoe County Jr. every day, and I caught a lot of the episodes. The show just got to weird towards the end. There was that alien machine thing and the guy who was trying to use it/complete it to do something or other.

    The other Bruce Campbell show was “Jack of all Trades”, set on a French Caribbean island during Napoleanic times (I believe).

    My vote goes to Futurama

  • “The Job” with Denis Leary was one of the funniest shows I’ve seen. Don’t know what happened to it or the moron who pulled it.

  • Aack. I’m late to the party!

    Since “Farscape” has already been mentioned, I’ll add “Keen Eddie” to the list. Another Fox show cancelled before it had time to find an audience.

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