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

[Kromm]

What was this show about? It sounds familiar.

If it's the one I think it is, it got 3 seasons.  So it wasn't super-mondo-cheated, maybe just cheated of a decent wind-down period.  I wasn't really a viewer, but I believe it was in the same stable of shows as thirtysomething and My So Called Life, and like them was a Family drama/Relationshipy/Marginally soapy show.  

[St. Claire]

Wow, this thread looks like a list of my TV-on-DVD collection:  Sports Night, Joan of Arcadia, Firefly, The Unusuals...I think the only short lived show I have on DVD that doesn't deserve a place on this list is Studio 60, since it deserved to only have one season.

 

Is this the right place to also fuss about shows that didn't get their proper airing (i.e., episodes were filmed by not shown)? I am still mad at ABC for burning off the remainder of Dirty Sexy Money with 3 AM timeslots and as Fox for stopping Reunion without airing all of the episodes.

[ganesh]

Reunion! 

 

That was a good concept but I think the cast wasn't that great.

[AimingforYoko]

QuoteQuote

What was this show about? It sounds familiar.

Billy Campbell and Sela Ward play two divorcees who get married and basically it's about the blending of their families. Susanna Thompson played Billy's ex and Jeffrey Nordling played Sela's ex. Evan Rachel Wood and Shane West played Billy's kids. So it had a pretty good cast.

David Clennon's Miles Drentell from thirtysomething reprised his role in an arc on the show.

Edited July 2, 2014 by AimingforYoko

[BoogieBurns]

Evan Rachel Wood and Shane West played Billy's kids. So it had a pretty good cast.

 

That's what I was thinking. I liked that show a lot because my parents got divorced around the time it was airing. There weren't a lot of night time "soaps" during then. 

[Ohwell]

Does anyone else remember Frank's Place?  This show goes back a long way; I only saw it during a brief rerun stint on some cable network that I don't even remember, and then only because I was told about it.  I think it originally ran on CBS in the 1980's.  I own a very bad version that was copied to DVD from a VHS tape. I still watch it from time to time, fuzzy quality and all.  Delightfully quirky ensemble show that I guess just never found an audience, but 22 wonderful episodes.

Oh I remember Frank's Place, and I was devastated when it was canceled.

 

I was already upset about Deadwood but I gave HBO another chance when Rome appeared.  After it was canceled, I canceled my subscription and haven't been back since.  HBO is dead to me.

 

Also meant to include  Profit and Once and Again.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Ohwell

[Snowprince]

       Star Trek: TOS ran 79 episodes.

 

 

 

 

Star Trek TOS got 65 ish episodes before it was canned.

[Badger]

Does anyone remember "Outsourced?"  It was on NBC around 2010-2011 for one season.  It was about a young American man who is a manager for a call center for an American novelties company who discovers the call center has been outsourced to Mumbai, India so he has to move there if he wants to keep his job.

 

The show had an incredibly likable cast but it got a lot of criticism for being about outsourcing and also for supposedly being un-PC.  

[BoogieBurns]

Does anyone remember "Outsourced?"

 

I did not like the lead character, Ben Rappaport. The supporting characters should have been the leads. People were confused if this was based on the movie by the same name. Apparently the movie was a very different tone.

[Irlandesa]

Once & Again was killed before its time but at least it got more than one season.  Another one canceled before it's time is another & Again show...Now & Again.  Now & Again starred Eric Close, Margaret Colin and Dennis Haysbert.  There is no quick way to explain it but the story is that John Goodman plays a man married to Margaret Colin who "dies" when he's hit by a train.  His brain is then transplanted into the body of Eric Close as part of some government project.  He isn't allowed to tell his family what happened but can't help but try to get close to them again.  Dennis Haysbert plays his "handler" of sorts.

 

It was so good and ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger.

[Badger]

I think in the original "Outsourced" movie, Todd was only supposed to be in India long enough to train his successor as manager.  

[Jeebus Cripes]

I hope this isn't too tangential, but flashing back to great and short-lived shows like this sometimes has me playing "What if?" in my head. I mean, how would things have gone differently for Heath Ledger if Roar lasted several seasons? Who could play Cersei Lannister if Terminator:TSCS were still going?

 

I think about this from time to time. I love Deadwood, but I love me some Justified, too. I like to think that Justified would have been made eventually with Olyphant after Deadwood properly ran it's course, but who knows. 

 

I can't recall if it's been mentioned, probably not because it wasn't outstanding or anything, but I enjoyed Witchblade. The second season was kind of a mess, but I loved it anyway.

[Wax Lion]

I was never interested in Witchblade just based off of the awful covers of the comics but then someone told me the first season heavily used radical feminist theory, which certainly grabbed my interest. I'd like to see it now.

[Bort]

Is this the right place to also fuss about shows that didn't get their proper airing (i.e., episodes were filmed by not shown)? I am still mad at ABC for burning off the remainder of Dirty Sexy Money with 3 AM timeslots and as Fox for stopping Reunion without airing all of the episodes.

Reunion didn't finish making all the episodes. There were a few in the can that didn't air but the finished storyline hadn't been shot. I do remember the outcry that was so loud FOX had to do a press conference to tell us all who the murderer was.

[ganesh]

I think Witchblade got canceled because its lead was an alcoholic and had a terrible relapse. It was a good show though. It's only 2 seasons of 13 iirc.

[Brandi Maxxxx]

Does anyone remember "Outsourced?"  It was on NBC around 2010-2011 for one season.  It was about a young American man who is a manager for a call center for an American novelties company who discovers the call center has been outsourced to Mumbai, India so he has to move there if he wants to keep his job.

 

The show had an incredibly likable cast but it got a lot of criticism for being about outsourcing and also for supposedly being un-PC.  

I never saw "Outsourced" but I know it also got a lot of resentment because Parks and Rec got pushed back to midseason to accommodate it.

[blugirlami21]

I just thought of a show that fits this topic: Blood Ties that used to air on Lifetime.  I was super disappointed when it ended after season two.  It was a really good show.

[Hanahope]

Another decent female led show cancelled too soon was Birds of Prey.

[Kromm]

Another decent female led show cancelled too soon was Birds of Prey.

The dynamic on the show had potential, but the actual execution seemed kind of awful though.  To me personally it falls on the "never lived up to it's potential" side, even though admittedly 13 episodes isn't a lot of time to find your proper footing.

[shapeshifter]

Three more, IMO, canceled too soon:

Defying Gravity

Caprica

The Neighbors

But as someone who watches too much TV, I no longer protest if a show is canceled.

We are in the golden age of TV. Breaking Bad had a beautifully plotted finale rather than just fading away. True Detective and Fargo were limited to a season from the start. 'The times, they are a-changing.'

[Jeebus Cripes]

Oh, man. I never even got to finish Caprica. I hate watching stuff on the PC, so it'll probably remain a mystery.

[Joe]

Caprica really was a show that had great potential, lots of great ideas. I just never really clicked with the execution.

[Neurochick]

Back to Fox again with Space: Above and Beyond.  Bad starting timeslot after Sunday football, some other schedule shuffling, and back to Fox again.

 

Space Above and Beyond was a perfect example of a show that got screwed because of political shit at Fox and because it was WAY ahead of its time.  One of the complaints about that show was that it seemed so bleak, but it was 1995, six years before 9/11; I think many in the US were still optimistic about life.  Had the show premiered in 2005, it probably would have been a hit.  

 

I think Witchblade got canceled because its lead was an alcoholic and had a terrible relapse. It was a good show though. It's only 2 seasons of 13 iirc.

 

Yes, that is true; a shame because it was a good show.  

Edited July 5, 2014 by Neurochick

[Kromm]

Caprica really was a show that had great potential, lots of great ideas. I just never really clicked with the execution.

Yeah, I feel the same.  It's again, that kind of thing where you're split in the middle between this as the "never lived up to it's potential" topic.  Because a lot of what went into those episodes wound up stinking. And yet the overall ideas were good enough/big enough that it's also easy to see how so many people believe that even based on what we DID see it deserved more time to find it's legs.

[ybrik]

Was binge watching Brooklyn 99 and it made me think of Denis Leary's cop show The Job. I really liked the show but it never found an audience even though it was a nice mix of Brooklyn 99 and NYPD Blue. Basically a cop version of Rescue Me but on network TV and not FX.

[Ohwell]

I was truly pissed and disappointed when they canceled Detroit 187 after only one season.  I loved that show!  It had a great cast, including Michael Imperioli (Christufuh) and James McDaniel (NYPD Blue).   I read that one of the reasons was that Michigan, going broke, cut back on film incentives, so there were budgetary concerns.  They did at least try to tie up some loose ends and wrap it up, unlike some other shows that were left hanging *coughDeadwoodcough*.  I always wondered if the show would have had a better chance on cable.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Ohwell

[selkie]

I just thought of a show that fits this topic: Blood Ties that used to air on Lifetime.  I was super disappointed when it ended after season two.  It was a really good show.

 

IIRC, Blood Ties was getting pretty good ratings, but new management at Lifetime wanted to take the network in a different direction, and the Canadian side of production couldn't find a new dance partner to get back needed funding after Lifetime dropped it.

[Joe]

Earth 2, if anyone remembers that. That was another one of those great premise shows. However, the execs brought someone in who was going to retool it, make it more soapy. The producers chose to kill it after one season rather than that.

[BoogieBurns]

Has Bunheads been mentioned? They deserved a second season after ending on a cliffhanger. Plus the dancers were played by actual dancers. 

[Kromm]

Has Bunheads been mentioned? They deserved a second season after ending on a cliffhanger. Plus the dancers were played by actual dancers. 

Bunheads definitely qualifies.  It had enough of Gilmore Girls, without being an outright copy, to deserve to exist.

[Haleth]

My personal opinion was that Fringe went on one season too long.  

Also, didn't the original Star Trek have only a handful of seasons?

 

I remember the fan angst and petitions for NBC to bring it back for a second (?) season.  Without the network granting a reprieve and allowing an audience to build none of the later incarnations of ST would have existed.

 

My favorite show to be cancelled prematurely was Pushing Daisies.  Yeah, whimsy isn't everyone's cuppa, but it was so different from anything else, visually stunning, an amusing storyline, and generally likeable characters.  And I like pie.

[ParadoxLost]

Earth 2, if anyone remembers that. That was another one of those great premise shows. However, the execs brought someone in who was going to retool it, make it more soapy. The producers chose to kill it after one season rather than that.

 

The way I heard that was that Universal and NBC weren't happy with the ratings and Universal fired the producers and brought in new ones.  The new producers decided that they wanted to dominate the "Its like feminism never happened" thread and NBC cancelled it when they heard about the new plans.

 

If the reported retooling was true, its better that it got cancelled.  Because, damn, the plans for the show sounded awful.

[Bort]

IIRC, Blood Ties was getting pretty good ratings, but new management at Lifetime wanted to take the network in a different direction, and the Canadian side of production couldn't find a new dance partner to get back needed funding after Lifetime dropped it.

The irony being that Lifetime, like CBS with Moonlight, dropped Blood Ties right before the "vampire craze" really took off.

[blueray]

 

I can't recall if it's been mentioned, probably not because it wasn't outstanding or anything, but I enjoyed Witchblade. The second season was kind of a mess, but I loved it anyway.

 

I remember loving that show and wanting to watch it but my parents thought I was to young and it was to violent. Then I found out it got canceled a year later.

[JayKay]

Oh man, I'm getting all nostalgic. A lot of my picks have been mentioned, so it's nice to know I didn't mourn alone.

 

Dirty Sexy Money had a great cast and reminds me now of a cross between Arrested Development and Nip/Tuck. I think it was a casualty of the writer's strike.

Legend of the Seeker wasn't something I expected to like, but season two was amazing and I got hooked hard right in time for its cancellation. Awesome fandom, too.

Better Off Ted - unfortunately named, or else I would have watched it before it was cancelled and streaming on Netflix.

Miracles was vaguely associated in the promos with M. Night Shyamalan before everyone got sick of him, and had some genuine chills to it. I'll never forget the "GOD IS NOWHERE/ NOW HERE" message that appeared during freak accidents. Brrr.

Breakout Kings, Bomb Girls, Sports Night, Cupid, Eyes, and Blood Ties were also faves that got cut down too soon.

 

I'd like to add The Riches because I bought the family vibe and rooted for them even when they hurt people. Another casualty of the writer's strike, I believe. Also a show called Surface (one of those Lost-esque shows aired during that barrage of Lost-esque shows) about a mysterious baby dinosaur thing that was not my kind of show in theory but I ended up loving it. The Middleman was wonderful, clever and quirky, and I'll never forgive ABC Family for cancelling it. And I only discovered Todd and the Book of Pure Evil on Netflix a few weeks ago, but that show should still be on the air. Absolutely hilarious and one of the most enjoyable series I've watched in years. I've been trying to come up with topic names for a thread request for it for over a week now.

[DittyDotDot]

I had totally forgotten about The Middleman. That is one of those shows that upon watching the first episode I knew was doomed. It was far too cleaver and awesome to ever get enough people to watch it to pacify the ratings whores on American network TV.  I immediately decided to enjoy the ride as long as I could, though.

[Kromm]

I had totally forgotten about The Middleman. That is one of those shows that upon watching the first episode I knew was doomed. It was far too cleaver and awesome to ever get enough people to watch it to pacify the ratings whores on American network TV.  I immediately decided to enjoy the ride as long as I could, though.

The Middleman was totally and completely awesome. 

[Joe]

The way I heard that was that Universal and NBC weren't happy with the ratings and Universal fired the producers and brought in new ones.  The new producers decided that they wanted to dominate the "Its like feminism never happened" thread and NBC cancelled it when they heard about the new plans.

 

If the reported retooling was true, its better that it got cancelled.  Because, damn, the plans for the show sounded awful.

Ah, thanks. I was... close. :)

[ganesh]

The Middleman rocked. For those of you that wanted to know how the series would have ended, TPTBs created a short graphic novel as a code to the tv show. So, it counts as canon.

 

The show was shopped around first, but no one picked it up, so they made a graphic novel, then it was picked up as a show, then they ended it with another graphic novel. So, you can 'watch' the series in graphic novel form as well. Pillow Lips!

[amaranta]

I'd like to add The Riches because I bought the family vibe and rooted for them even when they hurt people.

 

Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver were excellent.  Thank you for reminding me of that show; I may put it on my Netflix list for a rewatch.  Though I wish it had gotten a proper ending.

 

I'm going to add 10 Things I Hate About You.  It was an enjoyable, light watching; I hated that it ended with a cliffhanger.

 

Bunheads I would put in the category of not reaching it's potential.  The show seemed to have an identity crisis, never quite deciding what it wanted to be. Only towards the end did it seem to finding its footing and direction, but by then I guess it was too late.

Edited July 7, 2014 by amaranta

[Dirtybubble]

Has anyone mentioned Mystery Science Theater 3000?  LURVED that show & yeah we have the rifftracks now but they aren't the same as the Mike or Joel and the bots rippin'.

 

Earth 2, if anyone remembers that. That was another one of those great premise shows.

I liked Earth 2 as well.  I mainly watched it because of Clancy Brown but I enjoyed the other characters as well.

[psychoticstate]

Let me chime in with tears over the loss of Journeyman.  That show was freaking awesome and I am still angry that NBC (Nothing But Cancellations!) put the kibosh on it.

 

I'm happy to see Eyes mentioned - - another great show with potential.  American Gothic . .  Gary Cole was phenomenal.  I loved him in Midnight Caller as well.

 

I thought The Black Donnellys had potential and Trust Me was hilarious (but I am a Tom Cavanaugh fan).

 

Love this thread!

[Kromm]

Has anyone mentioned Mystery Science Theater 3000?  LURVED that show & yeah we have the rifftracks now but they aren't the same as the Mike or Joel and the bots rippin'.

A show that had 11 seasons is a bit of a hard sell for "died before it's time" though.

[BoogieBurns]

I think Mystery Science Theater 3000 was in the "shows ahead of their time" portion of this topic. 

[AimingforYoko]

My biggest regret about The Middleman is that it didn't make Natalie Morales a bigger star.

[ganesh]

She was cast on White Collar and then replaced, and I never knew why.

[spaceytraci1208]

I think Mystery Science Theater 3000 was in the "shows ahead of their time" portion of this topic. 

I would definitely agree MST3K was ahead of it's time...I miss it dearly

[Irlandesa]

She was cast on White Collar and then replaced, and I never knew why.

Marsha Thomason was in the pilot but was unavailable for the series due to scheduling conflicts.  They brought in Natalie for the rest of the first season.  Marsha became available later in the first season and for the next season so they went back to her. 

[Kromm]

Marsha Thomason was in the pilot but was unavailable for the series due to scheduling conflicts.  They brought in Natalie for the rest of the first season.  Marsha became available later in the first season and for the next season so they went back to her. 

That's kind of... low. I mean unless Morales knew all along it was only a limited commitment.

[ganesh]

It's possible. I believe Morales showed up in a later guest appearance so no hard feelings. Actors tend to just want to work, so 'hey you want to go 8 episodes of this show?' Sure!