posted
Disclaimer - next week's column is about FOX's odd habit of mistreating and finally canceling shows that deserved better. The fact that this column will come out a day after "Wonderfalls" is released on DVD is just an astounding coincidence.
I plan to mention other great FOX decisions such as: Fututama - shuffled around, pre-empted by every sports event imaginable, finally canceled. It then went on to win a couple Emmys, reruns get heavy play on Cartoon Network. The Family Guy - shuffled around, pre-empted, dumped. Brought back. Dumped. Brought back, sort of. Dumped. DVD sales go through the roof. Coming back again. Firefly - shuffled around until the plotlines made no sense, pre-empted, canceled (and then the first episode was broadcast). Sold incredibly well in DVD form, now a major motion picture. The Ben Stiller Show - Canceled. Won an Emmy.
Networks (or at least FOX) no longer seem to have any interest in a show that doesn't perform fantasically well right out of the gate. Which shows did you love that were canceled before their time?
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Brisco County, Junior - canceled abruptly before the show could regain its bearings after the Bly storyline.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
One show I loved wasn't cancelled, but it was abandoned and left to die a slow, terrible death, and that was SeaQuest. The first season was extremely entertaining, but they lost nearly every key person in the production of that show, including half the cast, and it became just about the worst show in history. I have never figured out what went wrong.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I miss SeaQuest too. And Roar. Roar was a summer-show they ran once, and then it disappeared. I can't say if it was actually good or not, since I was about 14 and it was about Celts and that was good enough for me. But it had wossname, the guy from A Knight's Tale in it.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
That one that I can't remember the name of -- it was a spin - off of another sci-fi, and it involved just the three guys, who were all real brains.... uh... trying to look it up.
posted
I love Quantum Leap, but it was not canceled before its time. Like Star Trek, TNG, it wass canceled pretty much when it needed to be. See X-Files for an example of what happens when you let a great show go on for too long.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
What was that show that had John Goodman in the first five minutes of the pilot, and then just as the internal voice of this guy that the government had given an enhanced new body to? Once and Again? Now and Again? There were two shows with similar names at the same time, and I could never keep them straight even back then.
But I really liked that show.
There was also a show about a multi-generational shrimping family living in South Carolina that I really liked, even though their pilot mixed up Hurricanes Andrew and Hugo. Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
My So-Called Life (ABC) The Tick Another vote for Sports Night (ABC) [which I believe also won Emmys] Freaks and Geeks (NBC) [one of the best reviewed shows ever] The PJ's (FOX) ---- never really caught on and some critics hated it, but I thought it brilliantly skewered both middle America's perceptions of urban African Americans *and* the language, pretensions and problems of the inner city.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Firefly is the king of all shows that got cancelled before they should of.
That being said, Simpsons is being cancelled after this season, and I think it should never be cancelled.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I really liked the newest incarnation of Dragnet with Ed O'Neill and Ethan Embry. That was on ABC.
Another one I was really interested in was The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire on CBS. That one had great actors and had just gotten to the point where I was hooked when it got canned.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Simpsons is another example of a fantastic show that has been permitted to sully a fine body of work by not being ended when its time came. It should have been ended at least a couple of years ago.
Drew Carrey is another example.
Happy Days.
Three's Company--okay, now none of these shows was as good as The Simpsons, but each still shows that there is a right time to pull a show, and you hurt its memory by letting it limp along for too long.
posted
My So-Called Life was on network TV? I remember it from MTV.
I'm pretty sure that Herman's Head was on for three or four seasons (::checks:: IMDb says 1991-1994). That's really about as long as a show like that could reasonably expect to be on.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:now none of these shows was as good as The Simpsons, but each still shows that there is a right time to pull a show, and you hurt its memory by letting it limp along for too long.
This is never going to stop as long as people keep watching the new episodes even after it has stopped being good.
Yes, I'm talking to all of you that are still planning on watching Revenge of the Sith. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Isn't the friend of herman the mom on that 70's Show? She seemed too young to be a mom of a teenager.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
See my post. It originally aired on ABC. After it was cancelled, MTV began airing it. But they didn't order new episodes.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Tick That show Icarus is talking about (with the dude from show I don't watch opposite ER).
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
Horrid time-slot (12:30AM) and initially cut up with music videos. Got some good buzz, and they reconstituted the episodes, no videos, still 12:30AM. More buzz, and they move it to 7:30, but no advertizing of it. First season ends, no talk of a second. Finally, they get the go ahead, season to starts at 7:30PM, but with Music Videos again! Eventually they are cut out again, and the show is moved to 12:30AM again. Second season ends.
Third season was going to be internet-only (this was 1999, after all). Bubble bursts, no season 3... Until the show creators get MTV permission to put the 3rd season (not seasons 1 or 2) on DVD and sell it over the internet.
We're still waiting for MTV to let the creators put the first two seasons out.
Never heard of the show? If you've heard the "This is my United States of Whatever" song (Tony Hawk, a few parodies on local rock stations, top 10 English Single a couple years back), then you heard a song first aired on the Sifl & Olly Show about 4 years before it got re-released
-Bok, a loyal sockhead
Posts: 7021 | Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged |
quote:Isn't the friend of herman the mom on that 70's Show? She seemed too young to be a mom of a teenager.
No, the mom on That 70's Show is played by Mary Jo Rupp. She also guest starred on Friends a few times as Phoebe's sister-in-law.
Herman's friend, Louise, was played by Yeardley Smith, who is also the voice of Lisa on The Simpsons.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Boomtown. Could have been way cooler than CSI. If anyone had every watched it. But not only did they cancel it, they ripped it to sheds before they did so.
Lone Gunmen. I never saw their spin-off, but I got mighty peeved when they killed them off in the last series of X-files. They were always my favourite characters. Guess there's no chance of a movie now.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Tarzan was a good show, but they took that off. Bernie Mac is my favourite show, but, they shuffle that around so much. This time they had a good reason. Bernie Mac has been sick from working on 3 movies and his show at the same time. Wanda at large was another show I liked and they took that one off. But, they also took off some of these dumb reality shows so that is good.
posted
There was a show that I loved about these kids who get caught in another, sort of Medievel world. Then, the people of the other world leak into theirs. Argh. It was on one of the kids' channels, I think. It must have been from Australia, as the accents were Australian.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
At least, I know of one that started in Australia, then this kid gets sent to another parallel dimension where they all have Polish accents. Then they go back and forth a few times, then the show ends.
It ended because they story was over. More like the lonest mini-series than an actual show. Family Channel played it, as I recall.
(I, uh, watched it for ages, and still have the two books.)
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
If it is, let me know. I've always wished I'd taped it all. I have quite a few episodes, btu they're all mixed up.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Another sho I LOVE is from Canada. Mythquest, about two vrey attractive teenagers looking for their dad, who has been cyber-napped. They go into all these myths to try to find him.
Edit: And I don't know if it was cancelled or just ended, but it is on again on Sat. mornings, and I am unsure whether they are just episodes I missed, or if the show kept going.
[ January 21, 2005, 04:59 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[No No]](graemlins/nono.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
