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

[ganesh]

Yes. I watched it on A&E and liked it so much I bought the DVDs. I was floored the episodes were 60 minutes. 

[walnutqueen]

John From Cincinnati

I cry "Unfair Wolves" on this one with no shame.  I broke up with my TV boyfriend David Milch over it.  Please don't hate me.  :-)

[Luckylyn]

There was a show called Prey about a dangerous new species of humanity that I was totally hooked on.   The last episode ended with a devastating cliff hanger.  

[Dejana]

There was a show called Prey about a dangerous new species of humanity that I was totally hooked on.   The last episode ended with a devastating cliff hanger.  

 

I only watched that because Todd from One Life to Live was in it. I think Roger Howarth was one of the prey with advanced DNA? The scientist on the case figuring it all out was a pre-Will and Grace Debra Messing.

[mattie0808]

There was a show called Prey about a dangerous new species of humanity that I was totally hooked on.   The last episode ended with a devastating cliff hanger.  

 

I only watched that because Todd from One Life to Live was in it. I think Roger Howarth was one of the prey with advanced DNA? The scientist on the case figuring it all out was a pre-Will and Grace Debra Messing.

 

Wow, a Prey reference! Another watching-for-Howarth viewer here. Didn't it premiere after the prime-time OLTL ep with Todd holding everyone hostage at the cabin?

[Actionmage]

I have come to add FOX's Backstrom to the list of shows that have been unfairly cut down.  It had a pilot with one of the more repugnant characters I ever tried to soldier on with. I missed the next episode, but decided to watch the next one "just to be fair." I was so glad I did!  I think we are so conditioned by the knee-jerk reactions to ratings, that we as an audience sometimes expect great, sparkling easily rootable characters from frame 1. So here I am, after  a largely out-of-order airing ( starting to become a FOX thing, which is disturbing), and I am still missing the entire regular cast! Even misanthropic Lt. Everett Backstrom. Rainn Wilson gave wonderful life to a character that started out as someone that possibly cost part of the audience, yet had such an arc over a dozen or so episodes that how Backstrom ended the season felt earned and organic, at least to me. 

 

The regulars included Thomas Dekker, Kristoffer Polaha and Dennis Haysbert. Robert Forster played  Backstrom's father. Lolita Davidovich guested a couple of times. There was a stolen bronze otter statue from a zoo. Despite it being about crimes and bad folks, I felt better after watching.  The crimes weren't the thing, the characters were. 

 

Urich starred briefly in a western series a couple years later.   I forget what it was called but I liked it.   Then it ended because Urich found out he had cancer, which eventually killed him.

 

That was Lazarus Man.  I remember the first ads for it with Urich's character digging himself out of his grave. 

 

 

This was back in the heydey of syndicated shows: Sentinel,

 

Nitpick: If you mean The Sentinel, with Jim and Blair/ Richard Burgi and Garrett Magart, as leads? That was on UPN, a channel I  enjoyed a lot. Someone on IMDb says it was on Sci-Fi ( pre-SyFy days), but it was network first. Yes, for  SF/F geeks, 90s syndication was great.

[ganesh]

I thought it was sold in syndication to the local UPN affiliate. Regardless, it still fits in there with all those great mid to late 90s shows. You'd think with all the platforms for original content, there would actually be more shows of that group: basically B movies, but across the board the acting was good, the stories were compelling, and they were fun to watch.

 

I say this a lot: As much as I like Game of Thrones, and watched Mad Men, even though there's tons of channels and year round original content, I don't think there's the freedom just to make a good and fun show. Everything has to be A Show. Not that I want to turn my brain off, but Highlander was good and fun and had drama. But there was action, adventure, and humor. Where's the humor on Game of Thrones?  

 

Falling Skies could have been like that but they had to make Tom the Saint Georgaham Lincington. Sanctuary was like that, but it was on the network that hates its shows. The USA networks shows were like that for a while but then they made the decision to Go Dark. Burn Notice was much more enjoyable when it was about Michael and the gang helping out the little guy. Not every show has to be a Question About Something Because I Have A Dark Past. Ugh. 

 

Leverage was good and fun, but short lived. The Librarians seem to have taken up the mantle. There should be ample room for more shows like that but it seems they're really sparse on the tv landscape.

[Neurochick]

Nitpick: If you mean The Sentinel, with Jim and Blair/ Richard Burgi and Garrett Magart, as leads? That was on UPN, a channel I  enjoyed a lot. Someone on IMDb says it was on Sci-Fi ( pre-SyFy days), but it was network first. Yes, for  SF/F geeks, 90s syndication was great.

 

 

Yes, that show started on UPN in either 1995 or 1996.  What was interesting about it was that the season finale had a cliffhanger and the fans went nutso.  I don't think UPN realized the show had so many fans, so much so that they had to bring the show back.  But it did go to SyFy when it was called SciFi.  

[Craphole Island]

Happy Endings!!! I wouldn't say it was ahead of its time but it got fine ratings in the second season and then the third season they kept moving it and playing 2 episodes a week and gah, I just love it so much. And that cast.

 

Also, American Dreams was a great show that I think was cancelled too early. 

[Chaos Theory]

I was discussing this on the board for the new MTV show Scream. There was actually a similar show ( that no one watched ) that came before that was actually pretty good called Harper's Island. If you like slasher movies and liked American Horror Story and the pilot for Scream and are looking forward to Scream Queens I would highly recommend Harper's Island. Unfortunately it stopped streaming this month. Figures, right?

Edited July 2, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[Pemyquid]

Being Human was cancelled way too soon, IMHO. The three main actors had mad chemistry, there was a feeling of believable camaraderie and a lot of humor to balance out the darkness. It was based on the original UK show of the same name, but quickly established that it was it's own show. I thought it was the little show that could, and fully expected it to rival the number of seasons the original UK BH show ran. There was still a lot of story left to be told. I was gutted when it was abruptly cancelled.

[Wax Lion]

I think Being Human got out at the right time. Apparently, the show faced budget cuts every year and by the fourth season producers decided to wrap things up instead of trying to make more budget cuts work for the fourth season. Apparently, the budget was so tight that the cast would have guest actors from out of town sleeping on their couch (something that apparently happened because everyone was so passionate about the show). But yeah, the cast was amazing together. The producers Meghan Rath's new show should work to get one of the Sams on.

[Athena]

Based on this thread and others, I watched New Amsterdam. I tried watching Forever earlier this season, and I think New Amsterdam edges it. Yes it has issues: the standard procedural ones, the dialogue, some weak supporting characters, and the epic love story/One True Love mythos. However, Nikolaj has a lot of charisma. I could believe he was a womanizing immortal man who had done all those things. I like how it was shot as well and had some decent music. It's a lot better than most procedurals still on. I don't know if I would say it's ahead of its time, but I think it's one of the better man of different time dramas on network TV. Though I do suspect that these shows are more viable outside of the main networks.

[Guest]

I was discussing this on the board for the new MTV show Scream. There was actually a similar show ( that no one watched ) that came before that was actually pretty good called Harper's Island. If you like slasher movies and liked American Horror Story and the pilot for Scream and are looking forward to Scream Queens I would highly recommend Harper's Island. Unfortunately it stopped streaming this month. Figures, right?

 

The thing with Harper's Island at the time for me is that I got the feeling that it was supposed to be more Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.  I don't recall from where, maybe promotion.  But it was less a mystery and more a slasher show.  I watched it anyways but I went in with too many preconceived notions of what it could have been to be really intrigued by it.  I suspect that the "right" audience never found it.  I don't know if the right audience could have been a large enough fanbase to keep it going regardless.  It was kind of ahead of its time.

 

As Bruce Campbell said in an interview recently.  Its Walking Dead that is making the way for horror to be on TV.

Edited July 6, 2015 by ParadoxLost

[Trini]

The thing with Harper's Island at the time for me is that I got the feeling that it was supposed to be more Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.  I don't recall from where, maybe promotion.  But it was less a mystery and more a slasher show.  ...

 

No, you're right. The promotion did make it seem like a mystery show, but it really turned out to be a slasher. I stopped after 3 episodes, and then watched the finale just to see how it ended. I remember on TWoP, several people guessed the killer from the pilot, but thought "Nah, too obvious..." -- but they were right!

------

 

And New Amsterdam did have its issues, but I liked it better than Forever as well. Gruffudd is good, but his character is one I've seen so many times before; Coster-Waldau's detective wasn't such a stock character.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Trini

[ganesh]

They both did the older 'son' too. Coster-W is good in everything he's been in.

[Chaos Theory]

Alien Nation.    With the all the science fiction and fantasy shows of late  the show would fit right in these days.   It was an incredibly well written and thought provoking show on what it means to me a citizen of this country and the world.    It only lasted a season and a few movies but I would still highly recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction with a a good deal of social commentary.  

[Snipsa]

I loved Alien Nation. High concept and very well executed. Definitely before its time!

Another show that was probably more "never lived up to its potential" than "cancelled too soon" was F/X the Series. About a special effects guru solving crimes. Yes it was as hokey as it sounds, but for some strange reason I kind of loved it! Acting and accents were pretty bad most of the time, I cringed when they had "South African" bad guys on one episode, but it was just quirky enough to forgive its flaws.

Then another show that was really not good but that I enjoyed for the quirkiness was Hope Island. Also starring Cameron Daddo from F/X. It was a lot like Ballykisangel, with a big city preacher coming to a small remote island. It was Everwood without the medical aspects!

[andromeda331]

I loved New Amsterdam! Another show that was barely on was Cupid, I loved the

show and the idea. There was a guy who  called himself Cupid,

claiming to be well Cupid and that he had to put together a hundred couples to go

back to Mount Olympus. They think he's crazy and there's a cop love interest. I really

should be describing it better but it was cute idea and a cute show. They tried a reboot

but again it got canceled but both times it felt like the network never gave it a chance.

 

That brings me back to V, the show I can't stop mentioning, I really think its a good

concept and both versions had good concepts a group of people coming together to

fight the aliens who are taking over the planet and want to eat us. The fighters in the first

one were really good but then they turned it into a magic show. The second one had good

parts but kept making the fighters so dumb. But I liked how the leaders of each side bonded

with each other's child. And it had Morris Chestnut who is really hot. They even brought back

Diana then ruined her by making her nice.

 

Another show was Undercover, the husband and wife team that used to be spies

but quit and are brought back into the business for reasons, I don't think we

ever found out.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Boris Kodjoe were both very hot

and their characters were good at their job at least I thought they

were. They went to cool places and there was Gerald McRainey, and another

younger guy who helped them out. It was a good show but only lasted a couple

months.

Edited July 18, 2015 by andromeda331

[Ohwell]

I had high hopes for Undercover and Gugu and Boris were certainly nice to look at, but I thought their acting left a lot to be desired.  Boris, in particular, came off as kind of wooden and that's just the way he is in every role I've seen him in.  Also, I won't forget that Iame dancing scene they did together. 

[janie jones]

Another show that was barely on was Cupid, I loved the

show and the idea. There was a guy who  called himself Cupid,

claiming to be well Cupid and that he had to put together a hundred couples to go

back to Mount Olympus. They think he's crazy and there's a cop love interest. I really

should be describing it better but it was cute idea and a cute show. They tried a reboot

but again it got canceled but both times it felt like the network never gave it a chance.

I loved that show.  It was really cute, and it made me like Jeremy Piven.

[Kel Varnsen]

They went to cool places and there was Gerald McRainey, and another

younger guy who helped them out. It was a good show but only lasted a couple

months.

The other guy who helped them out was Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Recreation. I liked that show, I thought the action was good, and the actors were solid. The writing kind of bugged me a bit though. I remember at the end, the two main characters (the husband and wife) were all pissed off because Gerald McRainy (their boss) was keeping secrets from them. All I could think of was that they were in the CIA, did they expect everything about their jobs to be out in the open?

[Proclone]

 

 

Carnivale

Probably one of my favorite shows ever. I was hooked from the first minute. Everything about this was good. The setting, the music, the characters

 

I was really upset when Carnivale was cancelled.  I'm a sucker for weird shows with religious/mythological themes.  I really wish that HBO had at least told the show runners that they were going to cancel it so they could have made the ending less of a cliff hanger.  If I recall correctly it could have ended more definitively with some minor changes to the last episode.

 

Alien Nation.    With the all the science fiction and fantasy shows of late  the show would fit right in these days.   It was an incredibly well written and thought provoking show on what it means to me a citizen of this country and the world.    It only lasted a season and a few movies but I would still highly recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction with a a good deal of social commentary.  

 

Defiance seems to be Alien Nations spiritual successor and I believe some of the team involved with Alien Nation is involved with Defiance.  It deals with some of the same themes of aliens and humans trying to live together although everyone is now stuck in a new alien world due to a terraforming accident before the series begins. It deals with the clash of cultures both between humans and Votans (the collective name for the several races of aliens that have landed on earth) and between Votans who were born on their home-worlds and Votans born on earth who have assimilated some of earth culture.  Plus while not as memorable as Farscape's (I still use Frell), it does give some pretty good alien language cursing.  Tony Curran seems especially gifted in screaming at someone in a made up language.

 

This series was brought up in another thread, but a show I wished I could have seen more of was Witchblade.  To be fair, it wasn't really screwed by the network, from all accounts it's cancellation was due to Yancy Butler's serious substance abuse problems.  That being said I still enjoyed the show and wished it had gone on longer than two seasons and hadn't ended on a cliff hanger.  Sara Pezzini really was a pretty kick ass female character and Yancy Butler did a good job portraying her despite her apparent issues.

 

The show is a little dated now, but I actually am surprised that there hasn't been a reboot.  Supposedly there was supposed to have been a movie at some point but that fell through.  This is actually one show I wouldn't mind seeing rebooted since was good, but just didn't get to finish telling its story.

[ganesh]

Witchblade doesn't necessarily have to be a reboot, per se. The comic and the show both established that the blade chooses the wielder. Now it's ready for a new one.

Edited July 22, 2015 by ganesh

[andromeda331]

I remember at the end, the two main characters (the husband and wife) were all pissed off because Gerald McRainy (their boss) was keeping secrets from them. All I could think of was that they were in the CIA, did they expect everything about their jobs to be out in the open?

 

It was weird they pissed about that. It comes up on nearly every show that features a character working for the CIA. They always seemed shocked about that the CIA doesn't tell them everything. Do they even know who they work for? Whether the show is about the "good" CIA or "bad" CIA, their never going to know everything.  It comes up on FBI shows or ones about other agencies. Why are they so surprised? 

[Princess Sparkle]

I absolutely loved the MTV series Fear. Was I the only person on the planet that watched this show? I figured this might fall under "ahead of its time" due to the pleathora of ghost hunting/investigation shows over the last couple of years. This show scared the crap out of me. I was fairly young when the show aired so that might have something to do with the fright factor.

 

 

I LOVED Fear.  I want to say it came our right after The Blair Witch Project because kind of capitalized on that, but it was legitimately scary, and you could see people getting freaked out and scared while they were in the "haunted" locations.  I checked Wikipedia to make sure I had the dates right, and apparently it wasn't cancelled for lack of interest, as it was the second-highest watched show on MTV, but because it was too expensive to keep producing the episodes.  It was a great show though, and I don't know many others that watched it.

 

The other MTV show I was going to put in here was Clone High.  I believe it was a Canadian show that MTV aired, and it was about an organization who cloned a bunch of famous historical figures (the main characters were Abe Lincoln, Cleopatra, JFK, Joan of Arc and Ghandi), you followed them around as high school students in high school, and most of the episodes were plays on the "special episodes" of sitcoms that were super popular in the 80s/90s.  It was really sharp and dryly funny, with some really great voice talent (like Will Forte, Nicole Sullivan and Donald Faison), but MTV wasn't the right network for it, and they ended up cancelling it after they got some complaints about the character of Ghandi.  Comedy Central or Adult Swim probably would've been better options.

Edited July 22, 2015 by Princess Sparkle

[Swansong]

 

American Dreams was a great show that I think was cancelled too early.

I loved this show so much. Still one of my favourite series.

[AstaCharles]

There was a show called Prey about a dangerous new species of humanity that I was totally hooked on. The last episode ended with a devastating cliff hanger.

I was hooked on that as well. Did you know that Syfy, back when it was SciFi, did a cameo scene on another show to wrap up that cliffhanger?

[Luckylyn]

I was hooked on that as well. Did you know that Syfy, back when it was SciFi, did a cameo scene on another show to wrap up that cliffhanger?

Which show? Maybe I can find the clip on youtube. I remember wishing they'd done a tv movie to wrap things up.

[ganesh]

Seriously? I watched Prey too. What could they have tied it into?

[AstaCharles]

Which show?

The Invisible Man. The actor who played Debra Messing's best friend on Prey starred in the Invisible Man on SciFi. It's a comical cameo but it was a nice shout out to the fans who tried to save the show. He's snooping around and discovers a cell door. When he opens it, "Tom" from Prey comes out and escapes.

ETA: I shouldn't have used "wrap up " , I guess it was more of a 'thank you' to fans.

Edited July 24, 2015 by AstaCharles

[ganesh]

Ooooh. I totally remember that now. Fawkes found him and was like, "are you the guy?..." I loved IM! 

 

I loved when IM did the Prisoner episode.

 

...Need to know, Bobby.

Bobby Hobbes got a need to know what food tastes like.

[ChelleGame]

I wish ROME had gone more than two seasons. I loved that show.

 

Also thought THE TUDORS could've kept going with Edward, Mary and then Elizabeth as rulers.

 

I love historical royal dramas (and I'm very forgiving of "dramatic license") but I couldn't get into REIGN or THE BORGIAS.  Enjoyed THE WHITE QUEEN but Starz is super vague on whether or not it's coming back. So, I guess that could go here too.

 

Actually, is there a thread for royal dramas?

[HalcyonDays]

That brings me back to V, the show I can't stop mentioning, I really think its a good

concept and both versions had good concepts a group of people coming together to

fight the aliens who are taking over the planet and want to eat us. The fighters in the first

one were really good but then they turned it into a magic show. The second one had good

parts but kept making the fighters so dumb. But I liked how the leaders of each side bonded

with each other's child. And it had Morris Chestnut who is really hot. They even brought back

Diana then ruined her by making her nice.

 

Vee! Totally forgot about V (sad to say) but yes, I would count this as a show that died way before their time, was never given a chance. Thought it was really good, entertaining and Morena Baccarin and Morris Chestnut were awesome. I swear, ever since Lost, anything Elizabeth Mitchell is in fails. For me, it was V and Revolution. But if I remember correctly, she's been in other short-lived shows too.

[ganesh]

V didn't know what kind of show it wanted to be though. That's on TPTBs. All that good talent to waste.

 

It was worth it for the Thorn Birds reference though.

[Inquisitionist]

Here's an oldie:  He & She ran for one sublime season in 1968-69.  I was only 12 at the time, and I didn't always get it, but I loved it.   It received 5 Emmy nominations, winning one for writing.

 

More recently, Six Degrees didn't even last one season.  I think there are unaired episodes lurking somewhere.  I would love to see them.

[NumberCruncher]

I'll bite...Pushing Daisies, Firefly, Jericho, and most recently, Constantine.

[JocelynCavanaugh]

I'm still sad about Bad Teacher. It was cuter and funnier than most sitcoms, and had a great cast -- not just Ari Graynor, but Kristin Davis, Sara Gilbert, David Alan Grier, and some actually decent kid actors. There hasn't been a better sitcom released since, except maybe Last Man on Earth.

[Bastet]

Here's an oldie:  He & She ran for one sublime season in 1968-69. 

 

Starring real-life couple Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin.  That was a good one, indeed.

[ChelleGame]

I remember Homefront. I loved the pilot ...

 

I loved HOMEFRONT so much.  Have you seen the Australian soap, A PLACE TO CALL HOME?  I watched two seasons on Acorn TV and it made me think of Homefront.

[DollEyes]

One of my picks for premature cancellation: Looking,  which was the HBO series about a group of gay male friends in San Francisco. It ran for two seasons, but was cancelled earlier this year due to low ratings. On the bright side, at least there's going to be a movie to wrap it up.

[Guest]

I still mourn that Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 ended before the Beek had a reason to go to comic con and find out that he was still Dawson but Pacey was Peter Bishop now.  In my head, that was inevitable if the show went on long enough.  The jealous fit.  What could have been.

[hjmugillecuty]

I'm gonna say Push, Nevada for ahead of its time. An audience involved mystery, it was made for Twitter and Facebook, but aired in 2002.

I'm also gonna say Pirate Master because I loved it.

And Firefly of course. I went to Salt Lake Comic Con and so many people were in Firefly costumes, which was cool, but I kept thinking ' Where were you all when it needed viewers?' So I'm still very bitter.

[ganesh]

Probably doing stuff on Friday nights with their friends like most people. Fox typically dumped it on a bad night. Back then, recording and watching later didn't count in the ratings. 

[Kel Varnsen]

Probably doing stuff on Friday nights with their friends like most people. Fox typically dumped it on a bad night. Back then, recording and watching later didn't count in the ratings. 

Although if you look at fox's schedule for that year there weren't really any other good timeslot options (especially since Fox only does 2 primetime hours a night). From what I remember any other night would have meant 1)putting it up against a ratings power house, 2) moving American Idol back when people actually cared about that show or 3) putting it up against Angel on The WB (which would make Whedon cry and complain even more than he already does about firefly).

[ganesh]

It's always something though. Fox always has an excuse when good shows don't work. "We tried we tried we couldn't find a timeslot." Nothing about them forcing JW to write a brand new pilot. Airing the episodes of Almost Human out of order and however many other shows. Meddling with the second season of Human Target. And back and back and back. 

[Kel Varnsen]

It's always something though. Fox always has an excuse when good shows don't work. "We tried we tried we couldn't find a timeslot." Nothing about them forcing JW to write a brand new pilot. Airing the episodes of Almost Human out of order and however many other shows. Meddling with the second season of Human Target. And back and back and back. 

I was just responding to the fact that you brought up the timeslot as being an issue for Firefly. But take a look at the 2002-2003 season. I am not sure there are really any other viable slots for that show. Thursday would put it up against Friends/Survivor or CSI (back when it was huge). Wednesday means moving American Idol, or going up against Angel. Tuesday means moving American Idol or 24 (and going up against Buffy at 8pm). Monday at 8pm might have worked but I am not sure how well Firefly and Joe Millionaire would have paired together (and from what I remember Joe Millionaire was the biggest hit that Fox has ever had. And it seems like Boston Public and Joe Millonaire). And Sunday was clearly Fox's animation/comedy block night.  So unless Fox was going to add a 10pm slot one night for a new, unproven show, what should they have done?

[DittyDotDot]

I think it wouldn't have mattered where they put Firefly in the schedule. It was never going to be a ratings powerhouse, it's just not that kind of show, IMO. Plus, it seemed to me the network wasn't particularly interested in having a show about cowboys in space; only interested in having a Joss Whedon show. It was probably doomed from the onset as it was never going to be the show the network wanted.

 

I'm just happy we got what did, in the end. I doubt any other network would've greenlit the show at that time.

[HalcyonDays]

It's always something though. Fox always has an excuse when good shows don't work.

I think it wouldn't have mattered where they put Firefly in the schedule.

 

 

Partly true, but also, totally different TV viewing options now. To use X-Files as a comparison, in 2001, the X-Files last season averaged around 10 million viewers (and that was the lousy barely any Mulder season) and ranked #63 in the Neilson ratings. Firefox had about 4.7 million viewers and ranked #98. In TXF heyday, it got over 19 million viewers but was only #11 in the Neilson ratings. What does that tell you? I can't find the demo breakdown, but am pretty sure both shows snagged a big portion of the coveted 18-49 that everyone things is actually important.

 

Today, a show is considered a hit if it gets 4.7 million viewers. 10 million?? Amazing. That's why everyone is lauding Empire, because it's hitting high numbers that few shows can ever reach anymore.

 

That's what's interesting. Now we have different viewing options. There were no PVR's back then. Yeah, we had VCR's back then but could only tape a show as it was actually airing, therefore that's your Neilson rating tick. There were no PVR's or Netflix or any type of delayed viewing, which cut the numbers of shows today.

 

And to compare and lament a cancelled show called Forever, until the final two episodes, the show averaged around 4.5 million viewers, similar to Firefly. The viewship numbers were decent for today's standards, but I think the demo too low, and was maybe expensive to shoot, hence despite the positive reviews was cancelled anyway. *sigh*

[ganesh]

Plus, it seemed to me the network wasn't particularly interested in having a show about cowboys in space; only interested in having a Joss Whedon show. It was probably doomed from the onset as it was never going to be the show the network wanted.

 

I've brought this up before, but there's an article many years back about how some really good shows were green lit by Fox, but "couldn't find a fit whatever" the network never really got behind them. So viewers like Fox because they'll greenlit good shows but hate them because they let the shows die if they aren't 10+ million 5 minutes into episode 1. American Idol destroyed that network. 

 

I don't think Fox was really interested in what Firefly was because they made JW do a completely different pilot.