The best cancelled shows
Top five shows that shouldn’t have been cancelled – Quit Your Day Job:
Lee came up with a good Friday Top Five this week. What are the 5 best shows that met an untimely end at the hands of the network suits?
1 & 2: This is a tie for me. Firefly and Crusade were both handled horribly by their respective networks (Fox and TNT), and both were aborted before they even had a chance—Crusade was even cancelled before it aired. They also both had overarching story arcs that would have been amazing. Crusade had a 5 year plan (as its parent show, Babylon 5, did) and would have taken an extreme turn in the very next episode after it was cancelled. Firefly didn’t have a set time that I know of, but it had an obviously evolving story with a defined end point. When the follow-up theatrical release, Serenity, came out, it was obvious that it was compressing multiple years worth of episodes into its running time. While the movie was great, it would have been so much more satisfying, and a more fully-realized story, to have it all play out over the course of a few seasons.
3: The 4400. It had a great run on USA Network, but it needed to resolve the story. Everything was heating up for the big reveal, and fans were left hanging. I still haven’t quite accepted that it’s not coming back.
4. Journeyman. The only reason this is #4 instead of a three-way tie for #1 is that they found out early enough that they were being cancelled that they wrote a suitable finale. While there was plenty left to sustain multiple future seasons, they managed to make the last show feel like an ending. Thanks for that, at least. Still, it was cut down way too early – and again, handled very poorly by the NBC suits, who didn’t seem to know what to do with it. In their defense, it had a bit of a slow start, but when it started firing a couple episodes in it was top-notch TV. Easily the best show to run last year.
5. The Dead Zone. This one, again, had a good run on USA Network. But just like The 4400, they were gearing up for the big stuff when they got axed. I appreciate that they were kept on as long as they were, but if the writers could have gotten some advance notice of the cancellation, they could have tied the show up properly – even if it had to be rushed into an episode or two.
Honorable mention: Nowhere Man. We’re re-watching this on DVD now. It’s showing its age a little, but I was hooked on this show during its short original run. Again, cut off way too early, but the writers saw it coming and had time to cram an ending into the last few episodes. It felt rushed, but it was good stuff.
Agree? Disagree? What are your picks? Lee has an almost completely different list, but I’d agree they all should have gone on a little longer (except Seaquest DSV… that one had to go. I cringed when it came on.)
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Tags: 4400, anthony michael hall, babylon 5, bruce greenwood, crusade, dead zone, firefly, jms, journeyman, nowhere man, serenity, tv, whedon
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July 4th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I’ve got Crusade on DVD somewhere, I was going to watch it as soon as I finished sitting through B5 (which is taking forever).
I think shows like that need a second season to find a really firm footing, Star Trek TNG’s first season only got across the line thanks to the Star Trek name, if they didn’t have that then I doubt it would have been renewed and think what we would have missed out on. (It should be said though that I don’t mind season 1 of TNG)
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July 4th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I disagree on Journeyman. My wife was a huge fan of the show, and I watched it with her. The show didn’t have a slow start – it was at a painful snail’s pace. The first four or five episodes could have been compressed into one or maybe two, and it wasn’t until the sixth episode or so that things started to pick up. My wife gave it a chance because she is more of a sci-fi fan than I am, so I ended up watching the season, but I would have axed it after three episodes because of the “slow start.”
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July 6th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Lee, I agree. There are definitely shows like those that need a little more faith from the suits to prove they’ve got legs.
I’d imagine the 5 years of B5 is taking you forever. We’ve only got 9 disks worth of Nowhere Man to watch, and it’s taken us months to get to disk 5. Other things keep getting in the way.
B5 is well worth the time investment, though. Stick with it!
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July 6th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
George – I’ll grant you that Journeyman was painfully slow through the first few episodes (though I’d only go to three, probably). I was on the fence about it through those episodes. The thing that hooked me in the pilot (basically the only thing) was Livia and the mystery surrounding her. That’s what made me sit up and take notice in an otherwise bland episode. Each successive early episode also had some little hint in it that was just enough to keep me coming back, but then it started getting better as a whole, and when it really snapped into place it was exactly what it needed to be.
As Lee said… sometimes these kinds of shows need a little extra time to really start firing.
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July 14th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Dude, you have a blog? And I had to find out from a mutual friend’s profile on Facebook? I’m wounded. WOUNDED, I tell you.
Agree 100% on Firefly. I own the DVD series, as well as the subsequent movie, and I actually watch them again occasionally, unlike most of the other DVDs I own, which have been collecting dust since the first viewing.
The 4400 and Dead Zone never really resonated with me, although admittedly I did not give them that much of a chance. I endured through the first 2 episodes of Journeyman and then wrote it off.
My top 5: Veronica Mars, Firefly, Cupid, Space: Above and Beyond, Class of 96 (not that good, but spoke to me at the time).
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July 14th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Dude, my blog is plastered all over my Facebook profile.
Space: Above and Beyond… I forgot about that show. I enjoyed that as well. Can’t remember the actors name, but I always think of the (now former) head of CTU on “24″ as the leader of that S:A&B squadron.
I never even heard of Class of 96.
The 4400, for me, just got more engrossing as it went. You might want to give that one a second shot on DVD.
I’m glad you found the blog. Don’t forget to come back.
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