Shows That: Died Before Their Time, Never Got A Fair Shot, Or Were Ahead Of Their Time

[Lya167]

On 5/9/2021 at 1:10 AM, jewel21 said:

FYI, it was Fox who cancelled both shows. I really hated Fox for awhile.

You're not alone, though my reason was Jessica Alba's Dark Angel show, also cancelled by Fox after only two seasons. Not cool. I also remember the show being set in the year 2019; we're past it and humans are yet to be genetically enhanced and carry barcodes (at least that I know of). 

And a really good "Shondaland" one, Off the Map, that didn't even make a whole first season, was cancelled mid-season with a lot of unresolved issues. I kept hoping for Shonda Rhimes to revive it, but never happened, guess it's one of those that never got a fair shot.

[Shannon L.]

Prodigal Son Cancelled at Fox

My husband and I really liked this show, but we saw this coming.  I looked it up the other day and the articles said that it didn't look good. I have to laugh, though, because one thing they did this year was introduce Catherine Zeta Jones because they were hoping that as an Oscar winner, she'd boost their ratings.  I have nothing against her and have enjoyed her work in the past, but she hasn't done much at all recently and I hated the story line they gave her.  I said to my husband when I read that "Who actually thought to themselves 'You know who will save this show?  Catherine Zeta Jones!'".  *sigh*  Oh well.

[Kromm]

On 11/9/2019 at 5:20 PM, andromeda331 said:

Both good shows. I hated the way the network messed with John Larroquette Show taking out everything that was great about it. 

 

On 11/9/2019 at 5:53 PM, Was-MArsenault said:

They are really underrated shows and should get shown on TV again.

Couple years since these posts, but the scoop now is that Larroquette is instead attached to a Night Court continuation/sequel series. 

[annzeepark914]

"Frank's Place" starring Tim Reid (he played Venus Flytrap in "WKRP In Cincinnati"). I think it lasted one season in the 1980's. Very funny! 

Edited May 21, 2021 by annzeepark914

[Epeolatrix]

The shows I miss are:

Profit. Maladjusted man played by Adrian Pasdar rises in corporate ranks through clever but horrible acts. It would have fit in well with that batch of jerk protagonists like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men, etc. But it was too early and people were shocked and appalled, so it lasted one very short season.

Century City. Near-future legal ethics drama featuring Viola Davis, Ioan Gruffudd, Hector Elizondo, and Kristin Lehman.. Technically science fiction, because the issues dealt with all involved things like “man doses other man with some sort of recording technology so that he can experience that man having sex with his wife, and she finds out: can she have that man charged with rape” or “members of a boy band sue one of their members for breach of contract because he doesn’t want to take youth-prolonging drugs”. Basically it's if Black Mirror was a legal show, but lighter in tone. I think drama people ignored it because it was science fiction and SF people ignored it because it was a legal drama.

Vengeance Unlimited, starring Michael Madsen. It was a deranged version of "Have Gun, Will Travel". Madsen played a man called Mr. Chapel who offered to proved justice for people who’d been wronged and ignored in legal recourse. The gimmick was that the price for his help was either a million dollars or a promise to do him a favor should he come calling. He didn’t carry a gun, but his methods were highly questionable and occasionally violent. It got crushed because it was in the same time slot as Friends.

[CoderLady]

Yes, please!

Possible Dark Matter miniseries

[Hiyo]

Quote

Profit.

If only it showed up 5 years later and on HBO...

[ifionlyknew]

Murder One.  If streaming platforms had been in existence in 1995 I think it would have thrived.  .   Add in social media and it would have been a huge hit. People on Twitter tweeting who they think did it. I just watched it over the weekend on Prime and even though I have watched it several times it still holds up.  It is a little dated since it's 26 yrs old but it is still a very engrossing murder mystery/crime drama.  

[DoctorAtomic]

Wasn't it super serialized (for its time)?

 

[ifionlyknew]

2 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Wasn't it super serialized (for its time)?

 

The first season there was one crime and each episode was devoted to something happening with that crime and eventual trial. You had to watch each episode to keep up with everything.  They did a recap at the beginning of each episode but it didn't cover all the details. I watched it when it originally aired and have rewatched it at least three times since and I still pick up on things I missed the first time.  

Edited July 5, 2021 by ifionlyknew

[DoctorAtomic]

That's tailor made for streaming. 

[andromeda331]

5 hours ago, ifionlyknew said:

Murder One.  If streaming platforms had been in existence in 1995 I think it would have thrived.  .   Add in social media and it would have been a huge hit. People on Twitter tweeting who they think did it. I just watched it over the weekend on Prime and even though I have watched it several times it still holds up.  It is a little dated since it's 26 yrs old but it is still a very engrossing murder mystery/crime drama.  

I loved that show. Season one was really good. It was fun following the ups and downs of one case.

[badhaggis]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffhangers_(TV_series)

I loved this series and was sad to see it end. The idea of 3 story's being involved and you never knew which story would pick up the next time. Of course each week would end with a cliffhanger.

Edited July 5, 2021 by badhaggis

[Stats Queen]

On 7/4/2021 at 3:24 PM, CoderLady said:

Yes, please!

Possible Dark Matter miniseries

That would be awesome. That show was great - well written, directed and acted.

On 7/5/2021 at 4:57 PM, badhaggis said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffhangers_(TV_series)

I loved this series and was sad to see it end. The idea of 3 story's being involved and you never knew which story would pick up the next time. Of course each week would end with a cliffhanger.

Never heard about this show, but this would be great, and perfect for streaming.

[Scarlett45]

I really liked Party of Five (2020) on Freeform. Instead of the parents being deceased, they were undocumented, and were deported. The eldest son (aged 24) played by Brandon Larracuenta (man he was FINE) was DACA, and was left in charge of caring for the 16yrs old  twins (boy/girl), the 12yrs old sister, and the infant. There was a lot of good stuff with gender roles- the 16yrs old boy was far the most nurturing and best caregiver out of them all, and he was very much a stereotypical heterosexual teenage boy in many ways, the 16yrs old girl was questioning her sexuality and becoming a social activist.

We also got scenes with the parents regarding the complex issues emotional issues from leaving the children behind, placing their son in charge etc.

I really really enjoyed it and was sad it didnt get a second season, it was a good companion to Good Trouble.

[zoey1996]

On 7/4/2019 at 10:16 PM, Scarlett45 said:

I loved Bomb Girls, a Canadian series, we got a wrap movie but it wasn’t the same. 

 

On 5/8/2021 at 12:58 PM, zoey1996 said:

It's available now on Tubi! I started watching last night.  I'd seen a few episodes, but not the entire series, and had been looking for it for a while.

 

On 7/6/2019 at 5:50 AM, ratgirlagogo said:

So I gather, but we never knew of it.  We watched it on REELZ and maybe since we didn't watch anything else on REELZ we never found out about it?

I finished watching it on Tubi & Pluto, and saw the wrap movie yesterday on Acorn. Enjoyed the series and the movie; sad about one character’s ending. 

[krankydoodle]

Remember WENN, AMC's first scripted show from the 90s is finally available to stream on AMC+. Only the first season so far, but hopefully they'll add the rest. It was so clever and charming and never really got its due. Also frustrating was that the final episode ended on a cliffhanger (I was Team Victor).

[Thomas Crown]

Shows I wish had lasted much longer:

From the 80s:

Sledge Hammer:   Hilarious  spoof of Dirty Harry and other cop TV movies/shows.  

Voyagers:  Before Quantum Leap, there was Voyagers going back in time to fix history

Probe: Created by Isaac Asimov, a smart series about a scientific prodigy going around solving crimes.

From the 90s:

My So Called Life:  Already mentioned a few times in this thread, but worth repeating. So raw and real. Way ahead of its time. Loved it. 

Raven:  Created by Frank Lupo (who also created Hunter and the A-team), this show would have been a hit had it aired in the 80s instead of Saturday nights on CBS in the early 90s.   A former Assassin is searching for his son in Hawaii while himself being hunted by a group of assassins called the Black Dragons.

Post 2000:

Already mentioned a few times but I really enjoyed the following shows and wished they all had gotten more than 1 season:  Life on Mars, Limitless, Awake, Whiskey Cavalier, and Miss Match 

Edit:  Even though it lasted 3 seasons, I also wish Friday the 13th the series had lasted longer. 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Thomas Crown

[Shannon L.]

I was really enjoying Life on Mars, too.

I was also enjoying Endgame, mostly because I thought the lead actresses worked well together, and would have loved a 2nd season.  

Edited October 1, 2022 by Shannon L.

[magicdog]

13 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

Sledge Hammer:   Hilarious  spoof of Dirty Harry and other cop TV movies/shows.  

Voyagers:  Before Quantum Leap, there was Voyagers going back in time to fix history

Grew up watching both shows!  Miss them dearly.  

13 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

Raven:  Created by Frank Lupo (who also created Hunter and the A-team), this show would have been a hit had it aired in the 80s instead of Saturday nights on CBS in the early 90s.   A former Assassin is searching for his son in Hawaii while himself being hunted by a group of assassins called the Black Dragons.

I vaguely remember this.  Trouble is Saturday nights are the death knell of most TV shows.  I think it was network sabotage.

13 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

 Life on Mars, Limitless,

Really thought these two had potential.  Limitless in particular since it took place in the same universe as the movie.  

[Kel Varnsen]

14 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

Sledge Hammer:   Hilarious  spoof of Dirty Harry and other cop TV movies/shows.  

I used to watch that as kid back in the 80's. Looks like I would have been about 8 when it premiered so I probably didn't get the satire. But I still thought it was funny.

[Raja]

The first seasons of Hunter was also spoofing Dirty Harry but with the conventional crime story running and without the pressure of trying to come up with background sight gags running in every scene. It took a lot to get a 90 minute Airplane! movie. Trying to keep that up for 13 hours of a TV season was a very tough task.

[Domestic Assassin]

15 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

Edit:  Even though it lasted 3 seasons, I also wish Friday the 13th the series had lasted longer. 

I have been trying to remember the title of this series for around 25 years now! I started thinking it never really existed and I just dreamed it or something. (And of course, it's such an obvious title!). Not what I was expecting to get a resolution for on a random Saturday morning. Anyway, thank you!

[DoctorAtomic]

I think Life on Mars was victim to the writers' strike. Flashforward was around then, and another about a guy who couldn't die in New York with Judd Hirsch. 

[ABay]

Dark Matter.

[Fukui San]

The people who liked Life on Mars should try to track down the original BBC version which had it's full two seasons and its spinoff show Ashes to Ashes.

[Haleth]

4 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

and another about a guy who couldn't die in New York with Judd Hirsch

I remember that!  It starred Nikolaj Coster-Waldau aka Jamie Lannister. 

[DoctorAtomic]

That one too. That was New Amsterdam. The native Americans cursed him to live until he found love or something. I don't think that was the writers' strike though. I was thinking of an other one. It was an English guy who is in a lot of stuff. He had a pocket watch. Every time he 'died' they had to fish him out of the Hudson. 

Edited October 1, 2022 by DoctorAtomic

[Jenniferbug]

2 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

That one too. That was New Amsterdam. The native Americans cursed him to live until he found love or something. I don't think that was the writers' strike though. I was thinking of an other one. It was an English guy who is in a lot of stuff. He had a pocket watch. Every time he 'died' they had to fish him out of the Hudson. 

Forever, with Ioan Gruffud. 

[DoctorAtomic]

That's it. Soon as I saw the name. Weird that there were two shows about people who can't die in New York. 

[Thomas Crown]

23 hours ago, Domestic Assassin said:

I have been trying to remember the title of this series for around 25 years now! I started thinking it never really existed and I just dreamed it or something. (And of course, it's such an obvious title!). Not what I was expecting to get a resolution for on a random Saturday morning. Anyway, thank you!

Friday the 13th was a great series IMO from the 80s and it had nothing to do with the movies.  What I enjoyed was the heroes didn't always succeed in their quest to retrieve the cursed antiques and the female lead was not written as a damsel in distress.  Some of the episodes really hold up well + 30 years later. 

[Thomas Crown]

On 10/1/2022 at 9:51 AM, magicdog said:

Grew up watching both shows!  Miss them dearly.  

I vaguely remember this.  Trouble is Saturday nights are the death knell of most TV shows.  I think it was network sabotage.

Really thought these two had potential.  Limitless in particular since it took place in the same universe as the movie.  

Miss them both dearly too 😀 and wish they had lasted much longer.  Both Sledge and Voyagers were really fun shows but as Raja mentioned above doing parody shows and keeping the content fresh over multiple seasons would have been challenging especially for a show like Sledge Hammer.   Still there's a bit of innocence and carefree on how some of these 80's shows were written back then that is missing in todays shows IMO.  Maybe it's nostalgia but I'll take them over a lot shows from today that follow too much of the same formula.  That's especially true on what you get on the big networks these days when it comes to police procedurals that are interchangeable.  Plus those 80s shows had great theme songs and intros!

I was also very surprised and disappointed that Limitless, Life of Mars and another one that I forgot to mention (Forever) got cancelled with only 1 season under their belts.

As for Raven, yeah the Saturday night slot was a death sentence.  Too bad as I was really into martial arts back then and the show had some really great martial arts choreography. 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Thomas Crown

[BlueSkies]

On 7/11/2019 at 10:46 AM, andromeda331 said:

That's Life aired only for 2 seasons 2000-2002 about Lydia DeLucca and her family. Lydia breaking off her engagement and enrolling college. It was a good show with Ellen Bursstyn, Paul Sovino, Debi Mazar, and Heather Paige Kent as Lydia.

Yes!! I just watched the pilot of it on Youtube.  I recall it as a teenager when it came out but in my late 30s now I think I could appreciate what's going on in it more.  My parents used to watch it.

Yeah Heather was very beautiful on the show.  I'm pretty upset she went the housewives route.  But will keep watching.  

The show had a great cast

Around the same time back in the early 2000s on CBS as That's Life there was another show called Danny that got the rug pulled on it after the first episode.  I finally found the pilot this weekend on YouTube.

it wasn't a great show but not bad either.  It evolved around Daniel Stern as a guy in his 40s managing his kids, his job, I guess ex-wife, and father.  I was 17 when it came out and was pissed about it then when it got cancelled.  I still remember that!

like I said even upon reflection getting to see the pilot years later out of nostalgia..  it wasn't great but its something I would have watched for a full season 

[andromeda331]

14 hours ago, BlueSkies said:

Yes!! I just watched the pilot of it on Youtube.  I recall it as a teenager when it came out but in my late 30s now I think I could appreciate what's going on in it more.  My parents used to watch it.

Yeah Heather was very beautiful on the show.  I'm pretty upset she went the housewives route.  But will keep watching.  

The show had a great cast

Around the same time back in the early 2000s on CBS as That's Life there was another show called Danny that got the rug pulled on it after the first episode.  I finally found the pilot this weekend on YouTube.

it wasn't a great show but not bad either.  It evolved around Daniel Stern as a guy in his 40s managing his kids, his job, I guess ex-wife, and father.  I was 17 when it came out and was pissed about it then when it got cancelled.  I still remember that!

like I said even upon reflection getting to see the pilot years later out of nostalgia..  it wasn't great but its something I would have watched for a full season 

Yeah, it was a great show with a great cast. It was fun to see what her next job would be. I don't remember Danny I'll have to check it out.

[BlueSkies]

On 7/14/2019 at 4:41 AM, andromeda331 said:

Temporary Yours-1997 starting Debi Mazar. It only lasted 6 episodes but it was a fun show every episode she'd go to a different temp job. I really liked seeing the different jobs she had to do. Like makeup artist for a mortician and typing for a romance author. I love Debi Mazar and wish it had lasted longer.

I just watched the 1st episode on YouTube.  Kind of cute, was all right.  Very 90s.  But better to me than anything on TV now.

I have two friends that are big Madonna fans and will have to run this show by them.  Debi and her I think are best friends in real life.  The one time my friend saw her in concert she dedicated her song True Blue to Debi 

[roamyn]

Manimal anyone?

Just kidding...😜

[DoctorAtomic]

I see your Manimal and raise you the ninja show with Lee Van Cleef. 

Edited October 4, 2022 by DoctorAtomic

[Thomas Crown]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I see your Manimal and raise you the ninja show with Lee Van Cleef. 

The Master was great in all it's glorious cheese right down to the much shorter stunt double doubling for Lee Van Cleef 😃 

[DoctorAtomic]

Stunt double! He was just scooching down!

[selkie]

I wish one of the streaming services would run ‘Kung Fu: The Legend Continues’ because it was better written than the concept suggests (some of the same producers as Equalizer:Original Recipe) and they had some genuinely fun episodes like the Dragon’s Wing where they’d get Robert Vaughn and Patrick Macnee to guest star. 

But it’s stuck in a vault at Warner somewhere and, unlike Babylon 5, doesn’t really have the fan base to get it dug back out again. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I see your Kung Fu and raise The Collector. Really, those mid to late 90s/early 00s syndicated shows should get some opportunity to stream somewhere. That last phase of syndication had a lot of quality offerings. 

I'm going to check Highlander, but it ran 100+, so it got a good run. 

[Hiyo]

I see your Manimal, Kung Fu, The Collector...and raise you Automan.

[DoctorAtomic]

Street Hawk. 

[magicdog]

Loved Automan and Street Hawk!!  If I didn't have so little faith in the current screenwriting climate, I'd love to see both of those IPs rebooted!  

Automan got the ax more due to rhe money it cost to produce and the special effects were tricky and expensive at the time (though easily done now with computers).  Street Hawk I think was tough due to the number of bikes that would get trashed with the leaps!

SH though is VERY popular overseas!  Europe and Asia love the show to this day.

Edited October 6, 2022 by magicdog

[Hiyo]

Quote

Loved Automan and Street Hawk!!

Imagine a crossover between those 2 shows...there wouldn't be enough wine to go with all of that cheese...

Edited October 6, 2022 by Hiyo

[toodywoody]

My picks of shows I loved that got cancelled

Magic City, I was pissed when Starz didn't renew it. It was getting so good.

Invasion, it was slow to really start making sense but at the end it had me hooked.

Rebel, I wanted this to get renewed because I love Andy Garcia. But I thought it deserved another sesson.

Kindred, vampire show way before Twilight. Plus it had a bunch of hotties on it.

My So Called Life, I wanted another couple seasons just to see her dump Jordan since he was such a douche. And wanted more drama from her best friends.

[Anduin]

44 minutes ago, toodywoody said:

Kindred, vampire show way before Twilight. Plus it had a bunch of hotties on it.

Kindred was based on the RPG Vampire: the Masquerade, which is still going strong. The show wasn't a perfect representation of the game, but you may still want to check it out.

[magicdog]

On 10/4/2022 at 5:19 PM, Thomas Crown said:

The Master was great in all it's glorious cheese right down to the much shorter stunt double doubling for Lee Van Cleef 

This YT channel has been doing episode reviews of The Master - it's a hoot!

[DoctorAtomic]

6 hours ago, toodywoody said:

Magic City, I was pissed when Starz didn't renew it. It was getting so good.

I thought maybe it was just too expensive. The worldbuilding was stellar. I felt like I was right there in Miami. 

Deep cut because I think only 5 of us watched it - Intruders

[toodywoody]

42 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I thought maybe it was just too expensive. The worldbuilding was stellar. I felt like I was right there in Miami. 

Deep cut because I think only 5 of us watched it - Intruders

My daughter and I were pissed. It was getting so good and then we were left hanging. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan in it!!!!