One Season Wonders, or, Shows that Needed More Love

[golentan]

I was wondering whether people had pet shows that were cancelled before their time. Shows that lived for a single season, mayhaps lingered for two, that they would like to trumpet from the rafters for fandom consideration. Unmarked Spoilers ahead!

Some of mine:
Firefly: Obviously, any discussion of prematurely dead shows must include firefly sooner or later. It's infamous for it. Favorite Episode: Shindig, where the cast, attempting to make a deal to smuggle some goods, wind up embroiled in a courtly party and a duel.

The Middleman: A self aware, self parodying brilliant storm of puns, jokes, subversions, and more running explicitly (they say in the first episode) off of comic book logic. Everyone I've shown it to either loved it or hated it, with no middle ground, but I was furious that they never even got to film the season finale. Favorite Episode: Hardest pick on the list, but in the end I'd go with the Flying Fish Zombification, where the Middleman and his Faithful Sidekick Wendy Watson aka Dubby are caught between preventing an outbreak of evil, trout craving zombies (yes, they want trout, not brains), jealousy over martial arts training, and the difficulty of participating in Dubby's Art Crawl with her roommate and best friend while saving the world.

The Good Guys: From the makers of Burn Notice, the Good Guys can be summed up as an 80s cowboy cop action movie star supplanted into a police procedural, except that often as not he's right. Detective Dan Stark does something insane, and everyone else just has to find a way to cope. I especially liked how they gave character development to the whole cast over the season, with the exception of Cowboy Cop Dan Stark. Favorite Episode: Common Enemies, where Stark and Bailey are assigned to babysit a supremely egotistical forensic specialist in pursuit of a high-profile cat burglar, and neither is able to conceal their naked hatred for him or their assignment. The dynamic duo stay one step ahead of their nominal boss throughout the episode, primarily through superior knowledge of barbecue joints in the Dallas Metroplex. Meanwhile the assistant DA gets roped in on a prostitution sting against a state senator, with the two threads converging in the final scenes.

The Finder: Quirky, intriguing characters with some real emotional depth, and a wacky detective show not relying on murderers. Iraq and Afghanistan war vet with mild brain damage Walter Sherman (there's something wrong with him very clearly, but he's still a smart guy and an amazing human bloodhound) finds missing objects, people, and even concepts with the aid of his bosom companions while dealing with florida style lunacy. Favorite Episode: The Voodoo Undo, wherein Walter is hired to find a voodoo doll of a criminal boss before the local underworld tears itself apart without his bottom line focused albeit brutal hand guiding it, while continuously lampshading the maybe-magic, maybe-mundane aspect of the disasters that befall him.

Better Off Ted: Got two short seasons, but it's hilarious. One of the best workplace comedies I've ever seen, and combined with the wacky mad science of Phil and Lem sometimes edging into stealth sci-fi, the Cold-blooded sociopathy of Veronica, and a nonstop string of hijinks from the rest of the cast and the monologues from the titular Ted as only sane man, worth a watch. Favorite Episode: Racial Sensitivity, where Veridian Dynamics installs a new motion detection system controlling everything from the lights to the water fountains. The problem? It doesn't notice black people. Everything the company does to try to fix the problem makes the situation worse.

So what are yours? And what episode would you say that folks HAVE to watch to decide whether they love it as well.

[JoshL]

At work, so I'll come back and add favorite episodes later, and probably some more shows, because things I like do tend to get the axe.

Obviously agreeing with Firefly. Adding in the works of Bryan Fuller, specifically, Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies. The latter is one of my favorite things ever, balancing morbid humor and whimsy. Lightly referencing Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me too, making it easy to imagine them all being in the same universe.

We can say Twin Peaks, though it is coming back for a third season, and did get a movie to make things clearer...while muddying waters further at the same time. I love David Lynch so very much!

The Tick. Actually disliked it when it first aired, wanting it to be more like the comic/cartoon. But once you get into your head that it's a superhero show with almost ALL the action off-screen INTENTIONALLY, you start to get where the humor is going.

The Lone Gunmen. Spin-off of the X-Files characters. I loved it, damnit, though I'll be the first to admit it isn't very good. But I still have fun with it, and if you like spies, 90s cyberpunk and awkward nerdy characters, you might have fun with a watch or two.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Clone High. Cartoon about clones of famous people throughout history being raised in the modern day (well, whenever the show ran). Currently all in high school. Ended on a massive cliffhanger.

Never actually watched it myself, but from clips I've seen it was really funny.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Obviously, Dollhouse could've used a longer run. It was nice that it got a second season to cap off its overarching plot threads, but wow did things move fast.

(Firefly is the implied one.)

I need to check out some of these shows, because I haven't run across a lot of shows that vanished after a season or two.

[Metahuman1]

Firefly.

Surface is another show that had a lot more room to do stuff.

Sanctuary had a HELL of a lot of room to have stuff happen that never got fulfilled.

And, while they didn't only last for 1 season, Angle did end on a cliff hanger and I do believe was intended to run longer, and Seven Days didn't even get told "Hi, this is your final season, wrap up plot threads." so I think it could have done with another season or two.

[Kitten Champion]

I was enjoying Alphas before it got the axe. As far as Superheroes on television, I would say it was the most creative and had the most potential.

Jericho was one of the better takes on the post apocalyptic genre I've seen, certainly the best on television, and was cancelled too soon.

Then there's Dead Like Me, which had a great premise and cast to support it. It could have gone down countless creative directions.

[Cespenar]

Aside from the already mentioned stuff like Firefly, I'm just gonna drop some names here and run.

Rome. Human Target. Carnivale. Almost Human. And if it counts, Community.

[golentan]

C'mon, folks, sell them! Names don't tell me anything!

[comicshorse]

I'm showing my age but 'Sapphire and Steel'

And, unfortunately, probably 'Constantine'

[CarpeGuitarrem]

C'mon, folks, sell them! Names don't tell me anything!
So, the short pitch for Dollhouse: it has a really cool premise--people get personality-programmed into being living automatons for various tasks. It's a horrible, unethical practice, and it makes for incredible drama as you start seeing the cracks that form in the seemingly sterling facade of the company that's doing this. Now mix this with strong Whedon writing, add in a few top-notch actors (Fran Kranz OH MY WORD...also Amy Acker and a few other familiar faces...), an episodic structure that sometimes takes time to give the client-of-the-week a sympathetic side, and you've got a real winner.

The second season came after the show was initially cancelled, and it was a really quick wrap-up of a lot of plots that clearly belonged in more seasons. It was really good, but the plot suffered from being super-compressed.

[Alent]

Hmm.

Firefly is the obvious contender.

The original Battlestar Galactica really needed more seasons and a real budget. The story as I've often heard it is that the BSG movie did so well they were immediately pushed into a TV series and not even given a proper budget or storyboard plan. The end result was derailed pretty badly as they desperately tried to work out ways to do special effects with stock footage and as little cost as possible, and they still managed to make a cult classic. It's a shame it Never got a reboot.

Another good one that sadly only got a season, Legend. Starring Richard Dean Anderson as a Dime novelist who wrote novels about a western frontier hero crafted in his own likeness getting trapped into being the sheriff in a western town that's mistaken him for his character. Our unfortunate hero is backed up by John De Lancie as an extremely energetic Tesla Expy, arming the poor novelist with fantastic steampunk inventions with which to battle the classic episodic western antagonists. I don't even think the series has had a proper release on VHS or DVD, which is a shame since I've only seen the pilot.

There aren't really a whole lot of one season TV shows in the US for obvious reasons. (Mandatory Syndication requirements) I'm sure you can find tons of one season Anime that deserved more, but I'm not sure the thread wants to go that way?

[DigoDragon]

Would the 2011 Thundercats remake count? It was pretty good from what I saw. Better animation and a decent story line without loosing the spirit of the original.

[Dexam]

I'm really dating myself here, but two shows that would have been great with a second season:

"Ultraviolet" (1998): a British 6-part mini-series about a cop who accidentally gets drawn into a secret government task force while investigating the mysterious disappearance of his best friend - task force responsible for tracking down and eliminating vampires. (fun fact: the word "vampire" is never used once in the show; they use the terms "Code V" or "leeches"). The show is in parts a crime drama, medical drama, legal drama, and suspenseful and atmospheric thriller. It's a very intelligent, modern take on the vampire mythology with realistic, flawed characters who make mistakes and have doubts - and you'll be doubting, too. While some may think it starts a bit slow, give it a chance; the tension builds and builds as it draws you in. While the series wraps up nicely, it leaves you wanting more.

"The Others" (2000): a US series that only had one season of 13 episodes and was clearly intended to have at least one more season before it got cancelled. My memory is a bit more hazy on this one, but the story revolves a college student, Marian Kitt, who discovers that she has the paranormal ability to see into "the other side" and is terrified by it. She's introduced to a group of students and teens, each with different paranormal or psychic abilities, who call themselves "The Others". The episodes focused on different characters or paranormal events, and the way the characters struggled with their abilities and with their group dynamic. And all through the series there is a creepy undertone of some darker power influencing the group.

[Pex]

In no particular order:

Nowhere Man
Herman's Head
Finders of Lost Loves
Masquerade
Automan
Lottery
Manimal
Original Battlestar Galactica
Space Precinct
Original Flash
Spiderman (Yes, there was a live action Spiderman tv show starring the kid who played Frederick in The Sound of Music, grown up, as Peter Parker.)
Original V
Space Academy
Awake
Square One TV
3-2-1 Contact, Original Cast

[JoshL]

Herman's Head reminds me: Get A Life, with Chris Elliot. Starts out sort of a typical-of-the-time Fox sitcom. Second season goes insane. It's wonderful.

[Alent]

Automan

I had forgotten about that show. I remember when Sci-fi channel started airing reruns of it in the 90's, loved the concept.

[cobaltstarfire]

Other than Firefly, Almost Human is the one that comes up for me.

I just really REALLY want to know what's behind the wall myself, I think it was really a running gag for me at first asking the tv about the Wall once it was introduced. But I really do feel sad to have never found out what the deal was with that. Also learning more about the Robot half of the cop duo would have been nice. (also would have been nice if Fox had aired the darn show in the correct order).

For me it was also just entertaining and fun to watch. The basic premise is a Human Cop paired off with a Robot cop. The Robot cop is kind of special though, in that he (and his entire run) had been decommissioned because one of them had some sort of emotional break down or something to that effect. All cops also have a robot partner, but the others are more...robotic? Emotionless walking calculators that run purely on logic ect, often portrayed as really dickish unreasonable robot cops.

[Kid Jake]

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil: A teenage loser and his one armed best friend engage in a battle of wits with a book; the book more often than not comes out ahead. Featuring zombie punk rockers, a satanic guidance counselor, high schoolers that are responsible for more deaths than the bad guys and of course: wolf rape (http://youtu.be/Aea827Gsas4?t=1m10s).

I honestly didn't expect much from the show to begin with; but ended up watching it straight through about six times in a row after I started. It's a crime it only ran two seasons.

[Cespenar]

C'mon, folks, sell them! Names don't tell me anything!

I'd suggest giving their pilot a try instead. You can't really sell atmosphere, acting, or chemistry.

[Ravens_cry]

Mission Hill, a quirky yet lovable show with characters you could care about and a simply lovely soundtrack.
Oh, and what is still one of the best portrayals of an gay male relationship.:smallsmile:

[BannedInSchool]

Brisco County Jr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Brisco_County,_Jr.). I only saw it when it aired, so it might not really be as fun as I remember (although the 'Pedia link there seems to say it was), but a campy Old West steampunk period-scifi with Bruce Campbell, Comet the Wonder Horse, a mysterious alien artifact and a time-travelling villain. Oh, and Dixie Cousins was nummy, *sigh*. It was on Fox.

[Aotrs Commander]

Babylon 5 Crusade.

It didn't even get a full first season, let alone a second. (Or even, really, a coherent running order.)

[golentan]

I'd suggest giving their pilot a try instead. You can't really sell atmosphere, acting, or chemistry.

A name doesn't tell me that I even want to try the pilot. I've had enough misfires with asking this sort of thing...

[Cespenar]

A name doesn't tell me that I even want to try the pilot. I've had enough misfires with asking this sort of thing...

Sorry for having mentioned them, then.

[Joran]

At work, so I'll come back and add favorite episodes later, and probably some more shows, because things I like do tend to get the axe.

Obviously agreeing with Firefly. Adding in the works of Bryan Fuller, specifically, Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies. The latter is one of my favorite things ever, balancing morbid humor and whimsy. Lightly referencing Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me too, making it easy to imagine them all being in the same universe.


I loved Wonderfalls. The basic premise is Jaye Tyler, a 20 something who has a philosophy degree from Brown, finds herself trapped in a dead-end retail job in Niagara Falls. She has no motivation to do anything and is socially isolated from most people. Then the inanimate stuff with mouths start talking to her, forcing her to do things, which inadvertently help and reconnect with people. It was described as Joan of Arcadia on acid and seems like a spiritual successor to Dead Like Me.

I liked Jaye Tyler better than George from Dead Like Me and I overdosed on the Whimsy in Pushing Daisies, altough, I did like it a lot for the first few episodes.

Bryan Fuller seems to have a way of having his things cancelled.

[golentan]

Sorry for having mentioned them, then.

If you have nothing good to say about the show, then why drop the name here?

And if you have things you love about the show, why is it so hard to reference them?

I asked because I'm trying to feel out hidden gems, and share some of my own favorite secrets... So, if you like it, why? What's good about them? Why should people try them, and love them as you had?

[Cespenar]

If you have nothing good to say about the show, then why drop the name here?

And if you have things you love about the show, why is it so hard to reference them?

I asked because I'm trying to feel out hidden gems, and share some of my own favorite secrets... So, if you like it, why? What's good about them? Why should people try them, and love them as you had?

I left them as threads for one to research on their own, or for others to elaborate if they so wished.

About just dropping the names: To do them justice, I'd have to look up quite a few things about them that I forgot. I don't have that kind of time. Sorry.

[LibraryOgre]

Don't Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 (it's actual, bowlderized, title) is in a somewhat weird category. While a great show with two short seasons (a mid-season replacement that got mid-season replaced), it also had something of a time limit on it, as I don't think they could've indefinitely continued Chloe's sociopathy without problems... but removing or ameliorating her sociopathy would've destroyed the show.

[Tengu_temp]

I'll actually question Firefly. I'd love to see 1-2 more seasons of it, but if it became a huge commercial success, then it'd just keep going forever, and around the fourth or fifth season quality would drop, and it'd eventually become a zombie, a pale imitation of its former self. And that'd be heartbreaking.

Also, watching Firefly is awkward as **** now, after 2014 has passed. You probably know what I mean and I ain't gonna elaborate.

[cobaltstarfire]

I'll actually question Firefly. I'd love to see 1-2 more seasons of it, but if it became a huge commercial success, then it'd just keep going forever, and around the fourth or fifth season quality would drop, and it'd eventually become a zombie, a pale imitation of its former self. And that'd be heartbreaking.




I'd have been happy for a middle ground, like Babylon 5 or Farscape, neither of which had been super mega successful, but where successful enough to at least try to tie up most of the ends for the main story lines they had going, and continue to poke at some things with comics, movies, and books.

I'm not sure Firefly would have ended up shambling around like a zombie had it been successful. Mostly since it was a show that appeared to have a direction and an end to reach. Then again I guess there's nothing to stop the station from dumping the creators and continuing to milk it after the story to be told is exhausted...

Yeah, you're right that'd be pretty sad.

[Soepvork]

Also, watching Firefly is awkward as **** now, after 2014 has passed. You probably know what I mean and I ain't gonna elaborate.

I am curious as to why now, since I actually have no idea what you are talkign about.... Could you drop a small hint (or send me a PM if it's inappropriate?)

[golentan]

Seriously. No idea what you're talking about with 2014.

[DigoDragon]

I am curious as to why now, since I actually have no idea what you are talkign about....

Seriously. No idea what you're talking about with 2014.

Amused because I too do not know what the significance of 2014 passing means to Firefly. XD

[Corlindale]

Carnivale ended way too quickly. It had a nice premise, a great setting, a lot of interesting characters and a Twin Peaks-ish feeling in general. It was only let down by a rushed ending and a somewhat bland main character.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Tengu_temp
Also, watching Firefly is awkward as **** now, after 2014 has passed.

Yeah, I have absolutely no idea what Tengu is talking about here.

Sounds like no one does.

[Sgt. Cookie]

"Ultraviolet" (1998): a British 6-part mini-series

Before I add my 2p to the equation, I'm going to finish my laughing fit.

I'm sorry, but, Dexam, you CLEARLY don't watch a lot of British telly. 6 parts is the STANDARD LENGTH for a series.

Anyway, one I'd add is "The Fades" another British show:

It's a Fantasy/Horror set in modern day england. It's about a teenager, Paul, with bedwetting issues who finds out he can see something called "Fades" which are basically ghosts, that can't be seen by normal people (Except, there's more than that) who are right pissed at the living because they're unable to pass on. There are other people like Paul, called "Angelics" who can also see Fades and are in possession of supernatural powers. Together, they attempt to stop the end of the world.

It's standard length for a British TV show.

[The Glyphstone]

I'm also baffled as to why 2014 and Firefly are related.

There was a one-season show I had thought looked real interesting called Last Resort, a military drama about the crew of a nuclear submarine who are framed for starting a nuclear war or something, and go rogue while they try to root out the conspiracy. But it apparently wasn't as good as I hoped, because it lasted one season and was cancelled, with the writers retooling the last episode into a series finale and resolving everything.

[Palanan]

As for shows that were cancelled too soon: Kings and Mercy.

Kings is my absolute favorite short series after Firefly, although virtually nothing about it can be discussed here. I'll just say that in a nutshell, it was too good for network TV--too intelligent, too literate, too strange a mix of contemporary and timeless. Unlike so many shows, by the end of it I cared about virtually every character--even if I hated some of them at the same time. The show was brilliant quality, from strong start to early finish, and I deeply wish it could have continued.

Mercy was a much different experience for me, in that it started out rather shallow and uneven, and became deeper and more involving as the season came to a close. The main character, Veronica, is a former Army nurse with PTSD who's trying to make the readjustment to civilian nursing at a New Jersey hospital.

It took me a while to really get into the show, partly because for the first half of the season it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a medical drama, with several patient cases every week, or more of a soap opera about the personal lives of Veronica and the other nurses. The medical aspect was always rather pale in comparison to more clinically intensive shows like House, and Mercy was often very unrealistic about how nurses and doctors interact, in many cases with nurses countermanding doctors, bypassing them or otherwise getting up in their grille.

Mercy is at its best when it focuses on Veronica's life and family, stereotypical Irish-Americans who know they're stereotypical and somehow manage to be a contemporary family as well. (One highlight is Kate Mulgrew, better known as a certain well-traveled starship captain, who does a great turn as Veronica's alcoholic mother.) You can't help rooting for Veronica's estranged husband, and Veronica herself becomes a more compelling character as she first denies and then cautiously delves into the impact of PTSD on her personal and professional life.

The show ended on a cliffhanger, and rather poignantly so. I'm not sure if I'd want to watch it all through again, but if you want something contemporary, entertaining, with occasional flashes of depth and good acting from the series lead, Mercy could be worth a look.

[Gnoman]

I would very much have liked to see more of The Sarah Connor Chronicles (the Terminator TV series with Summer Glau). It did get a second season, but it got really incoherent due to a writer's strike, and I got the impression that they were really trying to shove it aside to make room for Dollhouse.

[LibraryOgre]

Also, watching Firefly is awkward as **** now, after 2014 has passed. You probably know what I mean and I ain't gonna elaborate.

The Mod Wonder: If Tengu's reference is what I suspect, then he's right not to bring it up here.

[Tengu_temp]

I'm not sure Firefly would have ended up shambling around like a zombie had it been successful.


Happened with Buffy.

[Gnome Alone]

I'm gonna:

a) agree with Firefly, duh. Oh, for only just a full season. Another 13 episodes. Happily the comics are actually pretty good, but oh, the pain. The various pains.

b) agree with Mission Hill. Why in the actual copulation was this not a hit? It had flipping EVERYTHING I ever ever wanted from a cartoon sitcom: sympathetic protagonist who was really easy to identify with, cool setting, hilarious dialogue, and a willingness to actually age the characters and have their situations change. The commentary reveals that the creators had this 10-year plan of Andy actually eventually becoming a successful cartoonist with his own Simpsons-esque TV show and learning how to deal with that. Oh, the pain.

c) guess that Tengu Temp is referring to Adam Baldwin's anti-gay statements? It seems to be some kind of modern fad that one can't appreciate an artist's work unless they agree with all their political opinions, a reprehensible development if I ever seen one. Ohhhhhh the pain.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Gnoman
I would very much have liked to see more of The Sarah Connor Chronicles....

I was thinking of SCC as well. Cool but uneven, and increasingly grim, but I liked the idea of different future-machine factions, and the third season would have been interesting.

For a really good show cancelled just last year, try Bletchley Circle, about four female codebreakers solving crimes in postwar England. Beautifully done, intelligent and engaging characters, and sadly all too brief.

[Catalyst]

Space: Above and Beyond comes to my mind. A Space Opera with some interesting ideas and good actors. Would have loved to see more of it.

[Dexam]

Before I add my 2p to the equation, I'm going to finish my laughing fit.

I'm sorry, but, Dexam, you CLEARLY don't watch a lot of British telly. 6 parts is the STANDARD LENGTH for a series.


Actually, I watch a lot British television shows; just as much, if not more than US/Canadian television (I'm Australian, if that helps explain why). I understand that 4 to 6 episodes is a common length for a British TV mini-series; in fact Ultraviolet is self-contained and wraps up nicely.
What I'm saying is that given the quality of the show, I would have loved a second series. Does that make sense?

[turkishproverb]

I think part of the problem remains that the British and other U.K. production groups tend to use "series" the way the U.S. often uses "season" on many shows.

[Maelstrom]

Oi!! If this dating yourself, I'm about to marry, divorce and move on to a midlife crisis relationship here (yeah, yah, I know I'm using 'dating' out of context), but I still have fond memories of the show Voyagers! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyagers!). Funny to see that it was not renewed although it was very successful for the times, they wanted another show in that slot to compete with 60 minutes of all shows...


I'm really dating myself here, but two shows that would have been great with a second season:

"Ultraviolet" (1998): a British 6-part mini-series about a cop who accidentally gets drawn into a secret government task force while investigating the mysterious disappearance of his best friend - task force responsible for tracking down and eliminating vampires. (fun fact: the word "vampire" is never used once in the show; they use the terms "Code V" or "leeches"). The show is in parts a crime drama, medical drama, legal drama, and suspenseful and atmospheric thriller. It's a very intelligent, modern take on the vampire mythology with realistic, flawed characters who make mistakes and have doubts - and you'll be doubting, too. While some may think it starts a bit slow, give it a chance; the tension builds and builds as it draws you in. While the series wraps up nicely, it leaves you wanting more.

"The Others" (2000): a US series that only had one season of 13 episodes and was clearly intended to have at least one more season before it got cancelled. My memory is a bit more hazy on this one, but the story revolves a college student, Marian Kitt, who discovers that she has the paranormal ability to see into "the other side" and is terrified by it. She's introduced to a group of students and teens, each with different paranormal or psychic abilities, who call themselves "The Others". The episodes focused on different characters or paranormal events, and the way the characters struggled with their abilities and with their group dynamic. And all through the series there is a creepy undertone of some darker power influencing the group.

[007_ctrl_room]

Does anyone remember "Earth 2" from the 90's? That was one of my favorite shows as a kid, but it only lasted one or two seasons at most.

[Derthric]

Some of the ones I would throw in are already mentioned but I am going into it anyway.

Obligatory Firefly

I would also like to vote for Brisco County Jr. and while I am sure a good chunk of that is my youthful nostalgia. I remember it as a fun actiony western with totally random and yet cool sci-fi elements thrown into the mix with well used western tropes. While I don't think they are related it has that fun frenetic feel of the Hercules and Xena series but with a much better budget. Plus Bruce Campbell.

Space: Above and Beyond A series about Earth's First Contact and subsequent war with extra terrestrial life, told from the perspective of the "Wild Cards" a team of Marine Fighter Pilots who also were ground pounders because, plot. Parallels to WWII, more so the pacific theater than Europe, Evil Corporate Conspiracies, Rogue AI faction, a genetically created underclass, and Big Ol' Space battles(though the CGI does not hold up 20 years on). And even with all that looked at the cost of war on people's psyches and the bonding of the unit. Series ended on a big downer episode which was only supposed to be a season finale
Despite nearly killing off half the main cast in that episode

And for my one original contribution ExoSquad. Part of that early 90's generation of maturing animation that gave us Gargoyles and the DCAU. ExoSquad was, like the above entry,a space war story based around a small ground of pilots but it also followed the perspective of leader of the enemy, and Human's in occupied territory. And while the animation was wonky at times, when compared to the other animated series I mention, it's storyline was very mature. Touching on potential atrocities in war, by both sides, the power of propaganda, guerrilla insurgency and cost to civilians and the over all theme of past decisions coming back to haunt us. Loved this show way back when and still do.

I fell like there are more I should mention but can't think of right now.

[pita]

Awake had one season which was a bummer. It starred Jason Isaacs as a detective who's involved in a car accident, and from there his life splits into two realities: In one his wife died in the accident, and in the other his son did. The show beautifully contrasts each world while bringing in a truly amazing myth arc, and it ends far too soon. Isaacs is amazing in it, and so are Dylan Minette and Laura Allen who play his son and wife. It's also got a dramatic turn from Wilmer Valderama who really still sounds like Fez so it's hard to take him seriously. I think the show was just a little too weird and offputting to find its niche...

[McStabbington]

When in doubt, go way, WAY obscure: The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage.

Okay, since I am absolutely positive that no one knows this show, I'll just give you the premise of the show: it's 1991, and the putative hero of the show has had to flee to the Bahamas ahead of the fuzz for various nefarious actions taken when he was a stockbroker in the middle of the Savings and Loan Scandal. But once therthere, he finds that all of his assets have been frozen, and the mansion he bought before he arrived is haunted by a pirate doomed to either hide in the mansion or step outside and try and save 100 lives before the dread Hounds of Hell drag him off to face final judgement. After convincing the hero that he must redeem himself, the two team up to fight crime.

I do not know if the show actually holds up. I only know that 9 year-old me thought that this was the best idea for a television show EVER. Unfortunately, it was a summer replacement show that only lasted seven episodes. It has since been long forgotten.

[Velaryon]

Does anyone else remember a show from about 1993 called Time Trax? I was a big fan of it at the time, though I haven't seen it since it ended after two seasons. The premise was that in the year 2193, a brilliant scientist gone bad had helped a couple hundred criminals escape back in time, and one cop named Darien Lambert went back in time to track them all down and send them back. He had some sort of weapon disguised as a car alarm key fob that could stun people and send the bad guys back to the future, and he had a computer hologram whose projector was disguised as a credit card.

I remember liking it a lot back then, but I'm not sure if I would still like it nowadays or if it would seem horribly cheesy.




So, the short pitch for Dollhouse: it has a really cool premise--people get personality-programmed into being living automatons for various tasks. It's a horrible, unethical practice, and it makes for incredible drama as you start seeing the cracks that form in the seemingly sterling facade of the company that's doing this. Now mix this with strong Whedon writing, add in a few top-notch actors (Fran Kranz OH MY WORD...also Amy Acker and a few other familiar faces...), an episodic structure that sometimes takes time to give the client-of-the-week a sympathetic side, and you've got a real winner.

The second season came after the show was initially cancelled, and it was a really quick wrap-up of a lot of plots that clearly belonged in more seasons. It was really good, but the plot suffered from being super-compressed.

Agreed. Dollhouse started off pretty good, but once they received notice of their cancellation and tried to cram five seasons of plot into six or seven episodes, it all went to hell in a hurry. Maybe that wouldn't have happened if they had a full run.



Another good one that sadly only got a season, Legend. Starring Richard Dean Anderson as a Dime novelist who wrote novels about a western frontier hero crafted in his own likeness getting trapped into being the sheriff in a western town that's mistaken him for his character. Our unfortunate hero is backed up by John De Lancie as an extremely energetic Tesla Expy, arming the poor novelist with fantastic steampunk inventions with which to battle the classic episodic western antagonists. I don't even think the series has had a proper release on VHS or DVD, which is a shame since I've only seen the pilot.

That sounds really cool. Now I'm going to look around for it and be sad if I can't find it.

[Moak]

Something obscure and amusing:

Black Books

It's a comedy about a drunken librarian. And... I don't know what else say about it, apart that it is 3 season/18 episodes long, it's from UK, it stars Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey as protagonists, and rolls high with its nonsense.
Everyone I told to see it loved it (in Italian adaptation that was, for once, good) , so, seems like it is good and not only a strange pet peeve of mine...

This 3 minutes are from S01E02, and sit up what is all about more effectively than anything that I could say.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30axLwsjnkc

[Feytalist]

Kitchen Confidential, a 2005 comedy series starring a pre-fame Bradley Cooper. Very loosely based on Anthony Bourdain's book of the same name (in that "crazy things happen in the kitchen", basically). Only got 13 episodes before it was canceled, but it's one of the funniest things I've ever watched in my life.


And then one that I'm slightly more hesitant to mention: Moonlight, a horribly cliched vampire detective series. Nothing about it was terribly original, but the plot was intriguing enough and the actors were pretty good, with the exception of Jason Dohring, who was truly a gem. Think Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother, but less annoying, snarky and a vampire. His character alone was enough to keep the show running. Instead, it was canceled after 16 episodes.

[LibraryOgre]

I do not know if the show actually holds up. I only know that 9 year-old me thought that this was the best idea for a television show EVER. Unfortunately, it was a summer replacement show that only lasted seven episodes. It has since been long forgotten.

Reminds me of my feelings about Roar.

[Mono Vertigo]

When in doubt, go way, WAY obscure: The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage.

... why do I suddenly remember the existence of this show?

[AquaLord]

Green Lantern: The animated series
Not much i can say on this one other than the characters and story-lines are top-notch.

Megas XLR
A really funny parody series on giant robot anime. Essentially the plot is what would happen if somebody who plays video games all his life and lives in his parents basement got a hold of a giant robot. There is also a scene where a giant robot destroys the DMV. If that isn't enough to sell you on the show i don't know what is.

Young Justice
Fantastic superhero team show. My favorite animated show of all time due to the smart way the characters are written and developed along with how they approach problems. The main characters use planning and tactics to overcome obstacles rather than just punching everything to death like most superheroes.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Valid points about Firefly's pacing--it's difficult to judge, because the show didn't hinge anything on a metaplot, although Serenity is pretty obviously what the metaplot would've started to get into. It's very different from stuff like Dollhouse in that respect, and it certainly could've gotten hard to keep the show interesting after a couple full seasons.

On the other hand, there was room enough to develop a metaplot and start pushing things forward, and get a Farscape length out of it. That would've been nice.

[LibraryOgre]

Young Justice
Fantastic superhero team show. My favorite animated show of all time due to the smart way the characters are written and developed along with how they approach problems. The main characters use planning and tactics to overcome obstacles rather than just punching everything to death like most superheroes.

Really, they just need more cartoons involving Greg Weisman.

[Joran]

I'm sure this is nostalgia talking, but I liked The Pirates of Dark Water. It's set on a water-covered alien world which is being consumed by something called "Dark Water", a living thing that attacks people and ships alike.

There's a prince and his merry band of misfits who have to find 13 treasures to seemingly destroy the dark water, except the series got canceled 21 episodes in and only 8 of the treasures found. I remember liking it a lot when I was younger, but haven't bothered to watch it to see if it holds up.

[Gnome Alone]

I remember loving the everloving snot out of The Pirates of Dark Water. I think seeing if it's actually any good might just be how I'll waste my afternoon. Or well, at least 22 minutes thereof.

[Alent]

I'm sure this is nostalgia talking, but I liked The Pirates of Dark Water. It's set on a water-covered alien world which is being consumed by something called "Dark Water", a living thing that attacks people and ships alike.

There's a prince and his merry band of misfits who have to find 13 treasures to seemingly destroy the dark water, except the series got canceled 21 episodes in and only 8 of the treasures found. I remember liking it a lot when I was younger, but haven't bothered to watch it to see if it holds up.

I'll echo this one.

Does anywhere (official) stream this one? I don't think I ever saw the whole series as a kid, and rather liked it.

[Gnome Alone]

Oof. Well, I just watched the first episode, and uh.... it is not quite the tale of intrigue and desperate heroic adventure that I remember. Kind of similar to Bravestar in having a cool premise and cheeseball execution thereof. Maybe it gets better, I don't know. I will probably find out very slowly.

[Tyndmyr]

I'm also baffled as to why 2014 and Firefly are related.

There was a one-season show I had thought looked real interesting called Last Resort, a military drama about the crew of a nuclear submarine who are framed for starting a nuclear war or something, and go rogue while they try to root out the conspiracy. But it apparently wasn't as good as I hoped, because it lasted one season and was cancelled, with the writers retooling the last episode into a series finale and resolving everything.

Yeah, I watched that. It was...a little too silly at times, but there were some fun core ideas there. Plus, watching nukes go boom, and submarine fights and so forth. Could have been amazing, and was sorry to see it go.

Almost Human was glorious. Firefly, obviously. Dollhouse needed more. Dead Like Me.

Also, need moar Attack on Titan.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Also, need moar Attack on Titan.
It's coming. Eventually. Because the manga is getting enough of a head start.

[Eloel]

From what I have seen so far, Firefly has not been mentioned enough, so that?

[Ravens_cry]

I'm fine with that. When anime outrun the manga, you tend to get either a lot of inconsequential filler or things get rreeeaalllyy stretched out.

[thorgrim29]

I've seen Firefly, Megas XLR and Dollhouse mentioned, so that... Also Jeckyl, the tale of a modern-day Dr Jeckyl and his struggles with his inner beast, by the Moff himself. It's a cool series that lives and dies on the strength of the main actor, the fantastic James Nesbit. Honestly the plot is a bit convoluted and the other characters tend to be weak, but watching him play both Jeckyl and Hyde is a joy. Plus it ended on a cliffhanger soooooooo

Other then that, it looks like Constantine won't be getting another season, which is a shame. Rome might have done great things if it had had a bit more time, the end of season 2 was a bit of a mess but the first 3/4 of the series is gold (and my dislike might be because I don't like post-timeskip Octavian at all).

Sitcoms I like keep getting canceled after a season, most recently Selfie and last year Mixology

[Masonicon]

Here's my One Season Wonders: Extreme Ghostbusters as well one that Needs more love: Soar High! Isami

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I've seen Firefly, Megas XLR and Dollhouse mentioned, so that... Also Jeckyl, the tale of a modern-day Dr Jeckyl and his struggles with his inner beast, by the Moff himself. It's a cool series that lives and dies on the strength of the main actor, the fantastic James Nesbit. Honestly the plot is a bit convoluted and the other characters tend to be weak, but watching him play both Jeckyl and Hyde is a joy. Plus it ended on a cliffhanger soooooooo
Goooooooood call. I'd forgotten about Jekyll!

[007_ctrl_room]

This brings back some memories!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPz8aD1MwVY

[mrcarter11]

I know that this is unpopular but I really feel like Firefly should have only gotten another season,, maybe. The show could have wrapped itself up if it knew it was ending and I think it would have been fine. The acting was solid and the storyline wasn't bad by any means, but I always feel that a lot of the show's love is because it was cancelled, not because of the quality of the show itself.

For shows that I wish had gotten more air time. Party Down comes to mind. Was usually funny. It's about a catering group in Hollywood. The catering staff is made up of mostly failed actors or those still waiting for their "big break". Was actually well written most of the time.

[cobaltstarfire]

I know that this is unpopular but I really feel like Firefly should have only gotten another season,, maybe. The show could have wrapped itself up if it knew it was ending and I think it would have been fine. The acting was solid and the storyline wasn't bad by any means, but I always feel that a lot of the show's love is because it was cancelled, not because of the quality of the show itself.



I didn't get to see Firefly until looong after it had been cancelled, hadn't even heard of it before then. And I'm pretty sure I love it because it was an enjoyable and interesting show, and I really would have liked to see where it was going with all the little plot hooks it was laying out.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I know that this is unpopular but I really feel like Firefly should have only gotten another season,, maybe. The show could have wrapped itself up if it knew it was ending and I think it would have been fine. The acting was solid and the storyline wasn't bad by any means, but I always feel that a lot of the show's love is because it was cancelled, not because of the quality of the show itself.

The amount that people are vocal about it? Yeah. The amount of love? No. There was a lot that could've been done with the setting, and the level of quality neant it would've been done well.

It's not magically better than everything else that's considered good, but it was still high-quality.

Also I watched it in like, 2013, so not really a diehard fan.

[TheThan]

It’s been said before, but Space, Above and Beyond is a really great show that shouldn’t have died as horrible a death as it did.
I would also like to mention Conan the adventurer.


It’s was released on the heels of Xena: Warrior princess, and Hercules the legendary journeys. However while those are pure camp (good camp mind you), this show is a lot more serious and more sword and sorcery. I really liked it, it had a snarky talking skull which is awesome.

[snowblizz]

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
It follows the lead producer/writers of "Studio 60" (basically SNL but in Los Angeles) returning to the show they quit/were fired from for being too political in their writing. Comedy/drama by the people behind West Wing and quite a few actors from there and Mathew Perry. Also Big Bang Theory's "Wolowitz" was a castmember of Studio 60 and a lot of the impressions he does in BBT is what he played that the actor he played in Studio 60 was doing. Was that as confusing as I think? Also I suck at actors' names.

Basically a serious, more expensive and more real world like version of 30 Rock. Which apparently is why its was cancelled because you can't have TWO shows about shows on one network, nosiree. And if you can't, then you take the one that's cheaper to make.


Also Newsroom, I don't know what it's deal is but the seasons are short (not even 13 episodes each) and I've only seen 2 so far. First season was brilliant. The second season was utterly confusing to me (basically it only made sense as a whole), so if there's not a third I can totally see why.

[Berserk Mecha]

I'll nominate Beware the Batman for this list. A perfectly serviceable Batman cartoon that got screwed over by the network. Supposedly, the show creators were bored with the more traditional members of Batman's rogues gallery so they dredged up some C and D listers as his nemeses like Magpie and Anarchy. A few more iconic villains like Ra's al Ghul and Killer Croc do appear later, though. There were also some other changes like replacing Robin with Katana as Batman's sidekick and having Alfred be more involved in the crime fighting.

I'll also second Kings as a nomination. It's essentially a modern retelling of the story of King David. It is never quite clear on whether the story takes place in an alternate world or the future. It was fun seeing Ian McShane as King Silas and the conniving that he and every character around him gets into.

[JoshL]

Also Newsroom, I don't know what it's deal is but the seasons are short (not even 13 episodes each) and I've only seen 2 so far. First season was brilliant. The second season was utterly confusing to me (basically it only made sense as a whole), so if there's not a third I can totally see why.

Short because it's HBO, and that's what they do. There was a third season (I haven't watched it yet) that was only 6 episodes. The creator, Aaron Sorkin, wanted to end after the second, but the network got him to do a third; the shorter than short season was a compromise. I haven't watched it yet, because the second left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth...due to network pressure, it did exactly what the first season railed AGAINST (and that's why Sorkin wanted to pull the plug). Apparently even cable network tv executives don't like it when you critically examine network tv practices....

But yeah, the first season is brilliant.

Also, I don't like Firefly just because it ended, and I definitely wanted more. 7 seasons was just about right for Buffy (despite some awkwardness in the last, it ended well. And I love the comics that continue the series), 5 was too short for Angel (though, again, brilliant ending and s4 isn't great, despite some great episodes), 2 DEFINITELY too short for Dollhouse, so, yeah, more Firefly please. :smallsmile:

[Andezzar]

I agree with many of the series mentioned her. I'd like to add Kindred: The Embraced (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred:_The_Embraced). With that much existing material (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade) they could have done so much more than 8 episodes, but cancellation and the death of the actor playing the main character really do not help with continuing.

[Mono Vertigo]

I'll nominate Beware the Batman for this list. A perfectly serviceable Batman cartoon that got screwed over by the network. Supposedly, the show creators were bored with the more traditional members of Batman's rogues gallery so they dredged up some C and D listers as his nemeses like Magpie and Anarchy. A few more iconic villains like Ra's al Ghul and Killer Croc do appear later, though. There were also some other changes like replacing Robin with Katana as Batman's sidekick and having Alfred be more involved in the crime fighting.
Maybe I'm not giving the show enough credit, but honestly, seeing a dark katana-wielding young girl named Katana as Batman's sidekick was a huge turn-off for me.
(Yeah, I know, suspension of disbelief in a Batman cartoon, but still, I find that stupid in a weeaboo Mary-Sue, and that detail ruined a lot for me even though I don't remember much about the girl's personality beside being, well, dark.)
Also the aesthetics looked off for me. Bruce Wayne/Batman looked quite deformed to me for some reason, and it's a damn shame when you have to look at the character model basically every scene.
That being said, I don't remember being bad, it just wasn't for me because of a matter of personal taste.

[mrcarter11]

Maybe I'm not giving the show enough credit, but honestly, seeing a dark katana-wielding young girl named Katana as Batman's sidekick was a huge turn-off for me.
(Yeah, I know, suspension of disbelief in a Batman cartoon, but still, I find that stupid in a weeaboo Mary-Sue, and that detail ruined a lot for me even though I don't remember much about the girl's personality beside being, well, dark.)
Also the aesthetics looked off for me. Bruce Wayne/Batman looked quite deformed to me for some reason, and it's a damn shame when you have to look at the character model basically every scene.
That being said, I don't remember being bad, it just wasn't for me because of a matter of personal taste.

Never watched the show myself.. But just throwing it out there.. Katana is a real DC comic character who has helped and worked along Batman before. She also is historically a character with little room for happiness.

[Mono Vertigo]

Never watched the show myself.. But just throwing it out there.. Katana is a real DC comic character who has helped and worked along Batman before. She also is historically a character with little room for happiness.

Thanks for the clarification.
... doesn't change my initial impression, but thanks all the same.

[Mato]

Flash Forward had a nice mystery to it with a pretty creative hook for the series. I think it died because several of it's main characters were not all that likable.

Also I loved Heroes. Season 1 was amazing, I wish they came out with more of that *wink*

[Talya]

1. Firefly. Y'all already know why.

2. Veronica Mars - Simultaneously best narrated film noire and best highschool drama (written for adults) EVER. I would never be able to get enough. (The recent movie was more of another episode -- good enough on its own, but doesn't do nearly enough to satisfy me.)

3. Misfits of Science - Okay. Nostalgia brought this one on. I was a kid when it came out back in the 80s. It might not hang on now - but it was a prototypical Superhero team of maladjusted metahumans and a geeky scientist trying to figure out their powers - all while saving the world once a week.

4. Angel. Okay, five seasons of the broody vampire with a soul should have been enough, but I could have used 2 more.

5. The Human Target - Christopher Chance, private contractor, sets himself up in his client's lives as a "human target" to lure out the people going after them.

[Rodin]

I'll echo this one.

Does anywhere (official) stream this one? I don't think I ever saw the whole series as a kid, and rather liked it.

As I recall, the series got canceled about halfway through. There were 15 treasures, and when they got the 8th one it turned out there was something different about it and it was set up with the whole "the quest is about to get a whole lot more interesting" line...and then that was it. Left hanging.

I had a lot of good times with that show though. It and Swat Kats made up my after-school TV watching for a long time.

[The Glyphstone]

SWAT Kats deserves to be on here too. An amazing show that got seriously screwed by the network in its second season.

[brionl]

Brisco County Jr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Brisco_County,_Jr.). I only saw it when it aired, so it might not really be as fun as I remember (although the 'Pedia link there seems to say it was), but a campy Old West steampunk period-scifi with Bruce Campbell, Comet the Wonder Horse, a mysterious alien artifact and a time-travelling villain. Oh, and Dixie Cousins was nummy, *sigh*. It was on Fox.


I just bought the DVD. It's even better than I remembered.

[turkishproverb]

Brisco County Jr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Brisco_County,_Jr.). I only saw it when it aired, so it might not really be as fun as I remember (although the 'Pedia link there seems to say it was), but a campy Old West steampunk period-scifi with Bruce Campbell, Comet the Wonder Horse, a mysterious alien artifact and a time-travelling villain. Oh, and Dixie Cousins was nummy, *sigh*. It was on Fox.


I just bought the DVD. It's even better than I remembered.

Look up "Jack of All Trades" which also starred Campbell.


Also: Jack of All Trades. It was hilarious, and insane.

[Grif]

Green Lantern: The animated series
Not much i can say on this one other than the characters and story-lines are top-notch.

Megas XLR
A really funny parody series on giant robot anime. Essentially the plot is what would happen if somebody who plays video games all his life and lives in his parents basement got a hold of a giant robot. There is also a scene where a giant robot destroys the DMV. If that isn't enough to sell you on the show i don't know what is.

Young Justice
Fantastic superhero team show. My favorite animated show of all time due to the smart way the characters are written and developed along with how they approach problems. The main characters use planning and tactics to overcome obstacles rather than just punching everything to death like most superheroes.

I'm salty Cartoon Network cannot seem to manage its quality cartoons properly, and instead keep bringing on live action shows that are frankly boring to watch.

[eggynack]

Also I loved Heroes. Season 1 was amazing, I wish they came out with more of that *wink*
Very true. Another Bryan Fuller show cancelled before its time. That's a pretty accurate thing, too, given that I thought Cold Snap, a later episode written by Fuller, was very good.

Anyway, I'm surprised no one's brought up Freaks and Geeks yet. Amazing cast, especially in retrospect, consistently excellent writing, and it's a show where pretty much every single character, from the two protagonists, all the way down to the gym teacher and the school bully, have a well developed character, usually including a mini-arc. There is little on this show that falls anywhere short of perfection.

[Storm_Of_Snow]

Something obscure and amusing:

Black Books

It's a comedy about a drunken librarian. And... I don't know what else say about it, apart that it is 3 season/18 episodes long, it's from UK, it stars Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey as protagonists, and rolls high with its nonsense.

Couple of notes, Bernard Black (Dylan Moran's character) was the owner of a bookshop, not a librarian, and it also starred Tamsin Greig. But personally, I'd say the series ran it's course.

For the person that said Sapphire and Steel, there's been some audios produced by Big Finish that might be to your liking.

For my thoughts, Tru Calling looked like it was just getting into it's myth arc when it got cancelled.

[Moak]

Couple of notes, Bernard Black (Dylan Moran's character) was the owner of a bookshop, not a librarian, and it also starred Tamsin Greig. But personally, I'd say the series ran it's course.

It felt...without a closure. I'd loved some episodes to close some dangling point. Not many, but another season could be good. When I ended season 3 I was "allright, and now?".

And sorry for the error. I intended to say "bookshop owner" and said the wrong term (here in Italy that is what "libraio" means. "Librarian" is "bibliotecario". Damn false friends..)


On another note, another one:

I loved "The Pretender". The story about a prodigy able to became anyone and do anything, that an agency abduct as a child to make him an agent. Growing up, he found that he has been deceived, and that his talents were used to kill people, so he run away, trying to repear damages done by that agency (if I remember correctly).

The end of Season Four was so ARGGGH. Cliffhanger. There was an incredibly vicious and serious Andrea Parker in it. Very different from the one I loved in Less than perfect.

[Talya]

Also I loved Heroes. Season 1 was amazing, I wish they came out with more of that *wink*

I don't know if the *wink* was to lampshade ignoring seasons 2-4 and pretending they don't exist, or to highlight that more is coming this year. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_Reborn_%28TV_miniseries%29)

[Telonius]

Dead at 21 was one I wished they'd continued. It was absolute perfection to 13-year-old me. Haven't seen a single episode since 1994, but I was absolutely crushed when they canceled it. You can't leave a plot just dangling like that! Is he going to find a solution? Can he live? Will the conspiracy ever be unmasked? It really resonated with me at the time. It and the X Files were what got me through the week, especially since Star Trek: TNG had just ended.

[Cheesegear]

Now and Again; Some sort of circa 2000 rendition of The Six Million Dollar Man. A whole bunch of positive reviews came out of the show, but it lived in the Friday Night Death Slot, and so was cancelled for no real reason except for poor ratings. That's it. If you don't think anyone is going to watch your show, putting it on in what was (then) arguably the worst time slot for anything, only ensured that even less people would get around to seeing it.

Jake 2.0; From producer David Greenwalt (the guy basically behind Angel, and now Grimm), and coming in around three years before Chuck would hit TV, Jake is a pretty terrible NSA analyst who gets infected with nanobots, and can now control electronics, basically turning him from an analyst into a government super-weapon and super-spy. Mixed reviews, but the show had promise, but promise counts for jack if you don't have eyeballs on the screen, so the show was cancelled before it even got to finish it's first season, there was a planned 20-episode season, but the show only received funding for 16 episodes. Funnily enough, after Greenwalt left Angel, Jake ended up in the same timeslot, competing against Greenwalt's own, old show that he used to run.

Moonlight; After Jake 2.0, Greenwalt tried his hand at another vampire detective show. Again, close, but no cigar. Don't worry Dave, you'll showrun Grimm in a few years. Everything will turn out fine. The thing about this show, is that it was never supposed to be cancelled, it was only cancelled because of the 2007-08 Writer's Strike.

The Bionic Woman (2007); "Hey Cheese, I'm kind of sensing a theme with what you like..." Speaking of the Writer's Strike, another show to get hit by it was this one. Nowhere close to being as good as Now and Again (above), but at the time of the Strike, only 8 episodes had been made (with mixed quality), and they had low ratings anyway, so what would be the point?

Dead Like Me was solid, and now I'll watch anything that Callum Blue is in.

Honourable Mentions goes to Pushing Daisies. It got two seasons, of course. But there was still no reason to cancel it, after all, it won 7 from 17 Emmy nominations! Why in Hell would you drop that!? Speaking of properties ABC handled terribly - Reaper, 'nuff said. Lastly, I'll second Tru Calling as a show that was cancelled to soon, maybe could have done with one more season, possibly two?

I know there's one I'm missing, but I can't quite remember the title, and now it's going to keep me awake for the night while I try and remember what it is.

EDIT: How many seasons did Sarah Connor Chronicles get? 2. Yeah, that's not it.

EDIT 2: Figured it out. The Tick, the live action one with Patrick Warburton. Was great. Ben Edlund is kind of great at things.

[eggynack]

For something that's more of a me thing than a universally acknowledged gem thing, I always liked Journeyman. As I recall, it was like a more serialized and dramatic quantum leap, and while it had a slow start, the show really picked up near the end of its season. I was pretty disappointed when that one ceased to exist.

Edit: I also second anything and everything Bryan Fuller. He just makes awesome stuff.

[Cheesegear]

Two more, now with completely new genres!

Line of Fire; Wikipedia is extremely vague on the matter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_Fire_(2003_TV_series)), and IMDb barely scratches it (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361200/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_31) so I can only assume like, four people on the planet have seen it, one of them is me. Anyway, David Paymer is fantastic, and he's character acting all over the place these days. Anson Mount is great, and totally deserves his spot in Hell on Wheels.

Boomtown; Like, it's good. What else is there to say? Do you ever wish that your police procedurals were more...Dark? That's what Boomtown is. Grimdark Law & Order.

[mrcarter11]

I really liked So Weird. It was a more tame, kid friendly version of X-Files. I watched it like every day after school. The main character left after 2 seasons to pursue other projects, and the show made a third season with a new character but it wasn't the same by any means. Still pretty enjoyable though, I rewatched it all a few years back and while it was a bit corny, I really liked it.

[Feytalist]

Now and Again; Some sort of circa 2000 rendition of The Six Million Dollar Man. A whole bunch of positive reviews came out of the show, but it lived in the Friday Night Death Slot, and so was cancelled for no real reason except for poor ratings. That's it. If you don't think anyone is going to watch your show, putting it on in what was (then) arguably the worst time slot for anything, only ensured that even less people would get around to seeing it.

Oh hell yes. I can't believe I forgot about this. It was a great little show with some cool SF elements and a well-handled sub-plot about reconnecting with his family (at least, so I thought)... and then it got canceled.

The Bionic Woman had some potential, but they never really went anywhere good with it. Perhaps they didn't get the time to do so. But nevertheless, I'm not too torn up about it. Same with Reaper, really. Fun little show, but nothing amazing.

Moonlight I'm an unashamed fanboy of. Jason Dohring was hilarious.


The 2009 Knight Rider reboot with Michael Knight's son (and Val Kilmer as KITT!) is another one. I'm unsure about how it was received by the rest of the world, but I quite enjoyed it. It had some potential... and then it got cancelled.

[Cheesegear]

After reading this thread, with multiple posters listing a bunch of great stuff, I'm once again left to ask what makes Firefly so special? Fox aren't the bad guys. Networks cancel shows all the time. All networks do this. Every single one. Yet grognards only have special hatred for Fox, why for? A bunch of 'promising' shows got cancelled after their first season, and there's even a bunch of shows that get cancelled before their first season is over, yet we always envision Firefly as the poster child. Why? Is it because of Joss Whedon? Who made Buffy/Angel and then has never made the lightning strike twice, since? Whoops. I forgot that Joss did Cabin in the Woods, that was good, kind of.
Why is Firefly special? No, really. Tell me. You've just read three and a bit pages of other shows just like it.

What we really need to concerned with, is shows with decent ratings and positive reviews getting cancelled. Why cancel My Name is Earl or Raising Hope? What was so terrible with Alphas? I mentioned earlier that in two seasons, Pushing Daisies was nominated for 17 Emmys, and won seven of them. Then there was the Hell that Friday Night Lights went through, ditto for 30 Rock, while not actually cancelled, they were on the chopping block every year for no apparent reason. Firefly had terrible ratings, that's a fact. But why cancel good shows with sizeable followings? That's the real tragedy - it doesn't make any sense.

[eggynack]

After reading this thread, with multiple posters listing a bunch of great stuff, I'm once again left to ask what makes Firefly so special? Fox aren't the bad guys. Networks cancel shows all the time. All networks do this. Every single one. Yet grognards only have special hatred for Fox, why for? A bunch of 'promising' shows got cancelled after their first season, and there's even a bunch of shows that get cancelled before their first season is over, yet we always envision Firefly as the poster child. Why? Is it because of Joss Whedon? Who made Buffy/Angel and then has never made the lightning strike twice, since? Whoops. I forgot that Joss did Cabin in the Woods, that was good, kind of.
Why is Firefly special? No, really. Tell me. You've just read three and a bit pages of other shows just like it.

Because just about every single episode is really good, and some of the episodes are damn near perfect. Even Buffy and Angel, masters of having an absolutely horrible season or two, can't lay claim to that kind of consistent awesome. At its worst, the show is The Train Job or Bushwhacked, which are fun if not perfection, and at its best the show is Out of Gas or Objects in Space, things that twist narrative form in really engaging ways while creating fun characters. The dialogue maintained that characteristic Whedon tightness throughout, and there was a strong core of emotional resonance to the whole thing.

Meanwhile, while I wasn't party to this, Firefly was horribly mistreated by the network. Episodes were aired at bad times, out of order, and not at all, practically ensuring that it would do badly, and then cancelled it. Dollhouse's mostly failure can be blamed on the show to some extent, but Firefly isn't a case of lightning failing to strike three times, so much as it is a case of Fox holding a lightning rod above the show. Had the show been aired in order, in a good consistent time slot, and the show had still failed, well, people would still probably complain because the show is really good, but there wouldn't be the same level of justification, and it wouldn't be the figurehead of shows cancelled before their time like it is now.

[BannedInSchool]

I'm not a huge Firefly fan, but I found it enjoyable ("She was all naked and articulate". :smallbiggrin: "Don't tell 'em what I done". :smallfrown: ). As I recall, Fox just mishandled the show, both with choosing to air Train Job as the first episode instead of the pilot, and advertising the show as "cowboys in space". So it's like a movie trailer that drives away people who would be interested in the movie and disappoints people who liked the trailer.

[Cheesegear]

The dialogue maintained that characteristic Whedon tightness throughout, and there was a strong core of emotional resonance to the whole thing.

Whedon dialogue is really bad, once you start seeing it for what it really is. Having said that, I'm well aware that there are a whole bunch of people who love one-liners and occasional mugging for the camera. But I saw Buffy and Angel, and Whedon keeping on trying to recreate those kinds of character dynamics just seems lazy. I mean, sure, copy what works. But you have to change it up at some point. I excused it for Firefly, because it fit the characters. But in Avengers it was really bad, and really obvious what Whedon was doing with his script and direction.


Firefly was horribly mistreated by the network. Episodes were aired at bad times, out of order, and not at all, practically ensuring that it would do badly, and then cancelled it.

I'm well aware of the situation that Firefly was in. But, my point is (and IMO, the extrapolated point of this thread in general), is that that happens to a lot of shows, and pretty much every network does it (how 'bout that time Young Justice went on hiatus three times in one season?). But Fox is just the worst for what it did to Firefly, right?

[eggynack]

Whedon dialogue is really bad, once you start seeing it for what it really is. Having said that, I'm well aware that there are a whole bunch of people who love one-liners and occasional mugging for the camera. But I saw Buffy and Angel, and Whedon keeping on trying to recreate those kinds of character dynamics just seems lazy. I mean, sure, copy what works. But you have to change it up at some point. I excused it for Firefly, because it fit the characters. But in Avengers it was really bad, and really obvious what Whedon was doing with his script and direction.
You're entitled to your opinion that these things are bad. Your opinion obviously doesn't match mine, however, or that of other people who are pissed that the show got cancelled. You're unlikely to understand the reaction to the show's cancellation if you feel this way. This definitely isn't a "Me not recognizing some obvious thing," however. The dialogue isn't naturalistic, but it's fun, and it's fast moving, and I always like to listen to it.


I'm well aware of the situation that Firefly was in. But, my point is (and IMO, the extrapolated point of this thread in general), is that that happens to a lot of shows, and pretty much every network does it (how 'bout that time Young Justice went on hiatus three times in one season?). But Fox is just the worst for what it did to Firefly, right?

I think Firefly picked up a stronger following, mostly later, but, y'know, I see folks complaining about Young Justice all the time. People complain about this kinda stuff all the time, and they call the people that do it the worst. The question isn't why this case is special to us. The question is why this case is special to you. The outcry might be bigger, but that's probably just because more people like the show.

[mrcarter11]

A large portion of the Firefly fandom came after the show ended, or at least towards the end of it. I actually brought it up earlier that I feel a lot of the love that show has, is because it was canned. And it's really not as impressive to make every episode consistent when you only have to do it for dozen or so episodes, in comparison to what he did with Buffy or even Angel. I liked Firefly and thought it was okay, but I really don't understand the huge amount of love that the show has.

[Talya]

I find Whedon "buffy-speak" dialogue is very close to how real people talk. Or at least, how people I hang out with talk. (Doesn't surprise me, either, because people who know Whedon, says his dialogue in person is as clever as his dialogue in TV/Movies.) It therefore feels natural.

Also, Avengers is one of the best movies ever, because of the dialogue. It wasn't the action sequences ... which weren't the best in the business.

[mrcarter11]

I find Whedon "buffy-speak" dialogue is very close to how real people talk. Or at least, how people I hang out with talk. (Doesn't surprise me, either, because people who know Whedon, says his dialogue in person is as clever as his dialogue in TV/Movies.) It therefore feels natural.

Also, Avengers is one of the best movies ever, because of the dialogue. It wasn't the action sequences ... which weren't the best in the business.

I can understand why you'd like it, but on the other hand, most of my friends and I who are into comics, hated the movie due to the really awkward dialogue and forced one liners. It's all subjective. And Whedon is a very personal taste kind of director.

[Starsign]

Well if we're talking shows that could have needed another season, I've got one. Cowboy Bebop.

This is where everyone else will disagree with me, but I suggest another season to help with what I consider to be a very terrible finale. The reason for this is, IMO, because the finale has very little character to itself. Spike is an archetype without the crew of the Bebop and their wonderful chemistry that made the other episodes, and the movie, so great. As a result, when on his own, he's very uninteresting and his little arc hogs and black hole's every other part of the show that I liked. The supporting characters involved in his little arc are likewise one-dimensional and uninteresting, with Vicious being one of the dullest and poorly-done antagonists I have ever seen in anime.

That's why I suggest another season, to give more time for the series to flesh out Spike's past and give it some more depth that makes the finale, if it is going to be all about Spike, actually interesting and exciting rather than feel half-finished and rushed.

This is only my opinion though. I'm hoping everyone else might respect it and see why I have this opinion. :smallsmile:

[Kid Jake]

I was telling someone about Sons of Tucson today and it occurred to me that it was a show that really deserved a chance. It's about a jerkass bum hired by a bunch of kids with a sack of stolen cash and no boundaries to pose as their dad so CPS will leave them alone. Was cancelled after 3 episodes, I believe, though they filmed 13.

[LibraryOgre]

I was telling someone about Sons of Tucson today and it occurred to me that it was a show that really deserved a chance. It's about a jerkass bum hired by a bunch of kids with a sack of stolen cash and no boundaries to pose as their dad so CPS will leave them alone. Was cancelled after 3 episodes, I believe, though they filmed 13.

Sounds like it could be fantastic.

[Clertar]

Almost Human

http://media.tumblr.com/69826346a05a17b41d5b031a8eafd3ac/tumblr_inline_n3w6vtxcpk1sxq502.gif

Nice show with amazing production and good acting.

It could have used a clearer foreshadowing of some Big Plot behind the one-off case episodes, and probably it should have actually shown or delivered some of it by the end of the first season (a la Fringe or Person of Interest).


(Now I'd sort of like to see it with Interstellar-type robots, though :smallbiggrin: )

--

IRT Cheesegear
I think that Firefly's success and love among fans is a combination of factors. But the main thing is that it's a 2002 show, way before Lost and the new paradigm of tv series. At a time when CSI and 24 were the innovative tv series Foirefly was a big change and was bringing a Farscape type of series to a mainstream audience.
There's also the fact that it was well built as both a "low sci-fi" setting and an Old West setting, both of which are, and especially were, pretty absent in the offer of TV series.

[Andezzar]

While Almost Human was pretty much a typical buddy cop show with a few scifi elements added in, it was really fun. I would have liked to see more of it as well.

[brionl]

Sounds like it could be fantastic.

(Sons of Tucson)
I saw that one. For a sitcom it wasn't too awful. Lots better than some of the dreck that goes on forever. *cough*survivor*cough*

[LibraryOgre]

(Sons of Tucson)
I saw that one. For a sitcom it wasn't too awful. Lots better than some of the dreck that goes on forever. *cough*survivor*cough*

Reality TV goes on forever because it's cheap. It's amazing what happens when you don't have to pay the people in front of the screen, except the one person who wins. A million dollars is CHEAP when you consider even a show filled with nobodies hoping to make their name, much less one anchored by a name.

This list (http://www.businessinsider.com/highest-paid-tv-actors-2013-2013-9?op=1) from 2013 puts people earning $125,000-750,000 an episode. Sure, these are all big names who make the big bucks... but consider that sometimes, there are a couple of these people on the same show (the titular Two Men from Two and a Half Men make 1.4m per episode, combined).

Survivor may be crap, but it's relatively cheap crap.

[Zmeoaice]

I saw the first five episodes of Firefly and I think it's garbage. None of the characters are likable except Shepard and Simon. I don't get why people say it's great.


Supposedly, the show creators were bored with the more traditional members of Batman's rogues gallery so they dredged up some C and D listers as his nemeses like Magpie and Anarchy. A few more iconic villains like Ra's al Ghul and Killer Croc do appear later, though. There were also some other changes like replacing Robin with Katana as Batman's sidekick and having Alfred be more involved in the crime fighting.

Yeah, that was pretty much suicidal for the show to make those choices. Put all the D-listers you want, but Batman's more popular rogues are an essential part of the mythology.

The bad news is that now the network might not allow another serious Batman TV show for a while.

[BannedInSchool]

Survivor may be crap, but it's relatively cheap crap.
And then Alaska makes it even cheaper so there's eleventy billion "reality" shows filmed in Alaska. :smalltongue:

[Cheesegear]

Reality TV goes on forever because it's cheap.

Ugh.
In Australia, there's a law which says that during primetime (6:30-8:00, I think) certain channels must show Australian-produced shows for the whole time. Since Australia doesn't really produce anything good except Neighbours and Home and Away, we get a whole bunch of cheap, garbage reality TV for no reason other than to fill airspace because it's the law and channels have to to put it on...In primetime. :smallyuk:

[Joran]

Also, Avengers is one of the best movies ever, because of the dialogue. It wasn't the action sequences ... which weren't the best in the business.

I admire Avengers because Joss Whedon took what by right was an impossible task and made it a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Each hero, big and small, got their chance to shine and contribute.


After reading this thread, with multiple posters listing a bunch of great stuff, I'm once again left to ask what makes Firefly so special? Fox aren't the bad guys. Networks cancel shows all the time. All networks do this. Every single one. Yet grognards only have special hatred for Fox, why for? A bunch of 'promising' shows got cancelled after their first season, and there's even a bunch of shows that get cancelled before their first season is over, yet we always envision Firefly as the poster child. Why? Is it because of Joss Whedon? Who made Buffy/Angel and then has never made the lightning strike twice, since? Whoops. I forgot that Joss did Cabin in the Woods, that was good, kind of.
Why is Firefly special? No, really. Tell me. You've just read three and a bit pages of other shows just like it.

Hey, you forgot Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog! :smalltongue:

For me, I already liked Joss Whedon shows and dialogue, so he was 75% of the way there. Then it came down to a bunch of characters and actors who clearly had good chemistry together, in a setting that's different than most settings (sci-fi... western?). Tonely, it's a pretty happy series, which attracted more people. Toss in some superb episodes with really memorable lines and I wanted more episodes. I watched the series as it first aired and was really annoyed when they canceled it, enough so that I bought the DVDs because I wanted to see more.

The fact the show ended in such an awkward place probably makes the yearning for more even more intense. For instance, Wonderfalls ended in a pretty good ending (because Bryan Fuller knows his shows are going to get canned) and so the cancellation bothered me less (although, I needed to buy the DVDs to get all 13 episodes) =P

I watched Dollhouse and wasn't nearly as enthralled. I don't think I liked the premise as much (the show wasn't nearly as much fun) and the lead actor (Eliza Dushku) seemed inferior to the other actors. Toss in the fact that it got two seasons, and I don't think anyone is missing that show nearly as much.



IRT Cheesegear
I think that Firefly's success and love among fans is a combination of factors. But the main thing is that it's a 2002 show, way before Lost and the new paradigm of tv series. At a time when CSI and 24 were the innovative tv series Foirefly was a big change and was bringing a Farscape type of series to a mainstream audience.
There's also the fact that it was well built as both a "low sci-fi" setting and an Old West setting, both of which are, and especially were, pretty absent in the offer of TV series.

Agreed. In addition, Firefly was around the time that series DVDs and binge watching started getting popular; viral culture was just around the corner. Firefly was the right show at the right time.

[Cheesegear]

Two more shows coming off The CW (nobody on this forum even watches that channel, right?).

Star-Crossed; Basically Twilight, but with aliens. About a decade before the series proper, aliens crash land on Earth and can't leave 'cause their ship is broken (hello District 9). A decade or so later in the series proper; Humans make a trial run of the alien teenagers integrating into human high schools. Teen-angst drama ensues, except with aliens and race relations. Similar to Constantine, by the time the series actually started getting interesting, it was already cancelled. The lead writer on the show now works on Jane the Virgin, so the show actually had some talent behind it, and both the lead actor and actress won Teen Choice Awards (for whatever value you think they're worth), which means that The CW's target audience of teenage girls really was watching it, but, cancelled anyway. Because having good ratings isn't good enough. Or something. Maybe the production values were too high (it did have some good effects)? I don't know. If you're into that sort of thing, Star-Crossed really did have promise, and actually did have a decent message behind the show (race relations). I don't know. I thought it was terrible at first (that premise though), then it started doing interesting things. Then it was cancelled.

The Secret Circle; From the author of The Vampire Diaries books, we get a show about witches. Basically, it's Charmed, but more modern, and with more hot guys (because The CW). Again, similar to Star-Crossed, Secret Circle had decent ratings, and positive reviews (aside from the pilot. How come these teen-angst drama shows never have good pilots!?). Unfortunately, it's production values were too high, and its on-location shootings were way too expensive...Aaand that's it. The show is really good, but it's expensive to make. So, cancelled.

[Suichimo]

{{scrubbed}}


Clone High. Cartoon about clones of famous people throughout history being raised in the modern day (well, whenever the show ran). Currently all in high school. Ended on a massive cliffhanger.

Never actually watched it myself, but from clips I've seen it was really funny.

If you haven't watched Scrubs yet, Clone High is from the same guy who made Scrubs and a large portion of the main Scrubs cast are in it in on form or another. Just browsing through the list of actors they had for the show, the only two Scrubs regulars that I don't see are Ken Jenkins(Dr. Kelso) and Judy Reyes(Carla).


As for my own suggestion, while it did get 3.5 seasons to its name, I'd love to see them go back to X-men Evolution and finish the last season of it. The show was really at its peak when it got cancelled and there were plans for at least one more season that would see the clash with Dark Phoenix.

[Talya]

Hey, you forgot Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog! :smalltongue:

For me, I already liked Joss Whedon shows and dialogue, so he was 75% of the way there. Then it came down to a bunch of characters and actors who clearly had good chemistry together, in a setting that's different than most settings (sci-fi... western?). Tonely, it's a pretty happy series, which attracted more people. Toss in some superb episodes with really memorable lines and I wanted more episodes. I watched the series as it first aired and was really annoyed when they canceled it, enough so that I bought the DVDs because I wanted to see more.

The fact the show ended in such an awkward place probably makes the yearning for more even more intense. For instance, Wonderfalls ended in a pretty good ending (because Bryan Fuller knows his shows are going to get canned) and so the cancellation bothered me less (although, I needed to buy the DVDs to get all 13 episodes) =P

I watched Dollhouse and wasn't nearly as enthralled. I don't think I liked the premise as much (the show wasn't nearly as much fun) and the lead actor (Eliza Dushku) seemed inferior to the other actors. Toss in the fact that it got two seasons, and I don't think anyone is missing that show nearly as much.



Agreed. In addition, Firefly was around the time that series DVDs and binge watching started getting popular; viral culture was just around the corner. Firefly was the right show at the right time.

Firefly is, I believe, the best selling single season of Television on DVD, ever. Ratings aside (Fox's own fault), Fox made a LOT of money on Firefly. Likewise, Serenity, which barely broke even at the box office, made Universal lots of money due to DVD/Blu-Ray sales. Like most Browncoats, I didn't discover Firefly until after it was cancelled. I'm not sure why that is, but you have to blame the marketing department if most fans of a show didn't realize it existed until after the network shut it down.

As for "lightning striking twice"...Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is his (and he's going to have a lot more time to work on it now that Avengers 2 is completed and he's declined the offer to direct Avengers 3.) Whedon was also primary screenwriter for Pixar's Toy Story. (He didn't write the story - he received a broken script and was told to fix it. Subsequently, all the dialogue was his.)

[Algeh]

Of shows that haven't been mentioned yet, The Heights. It was a 90s Fox show, along the same lines as 90210 or Melrose Place, but it was about a bunch of people who were in a band together and each episode matched with a song on the CD, which was also played at the end of the episode. It lasted exactly one season, making it through the CD at least. Being a sucker for musical story stuff, I enjoyed this quite a lot. I have no idea if it was any good (I didn't tape it at the time and I don't think it ever came out on DVD, and I was pretty young at the time and watched a lot of lousy TV) but I enjoyed having a CD of songs with backstories to them. (I have since discovered filk and now have many, many albums of songs with backstories to them, but getting that out of a televised drama didn't happen again for me until I started buying anime cds for a while, and that really wasn't the same as I speak pretty much no Japanese so I had to look up translations, so it's never really happened for me in the same way as The Heights, and I wish I could watch it again, and that someone would do that again, but really well.)

My So-Called Life is also worth a mention. I enjoyed the heck out of that when it was on and again when I bought the DVD box set. I would have liked to see how the writers had Angela grow and change over time, and see the consequences of the various choices characters were making play out.

Of shows that have been mentioned before, I bought Kindred: The Embraced, Earth 2, and Roar when they came out on DVD (I actually bought Kindred when it was a VHS box set, way back in the day). Kindred: The Embraced was very good given the limitations it was working under (being a 90s Spelling drama, which is a pretty specific kind of thing, and Kindred was the only one I remember with supernatural elements, and also about the only one that wasn't about teens or people in their twenties (I guess Models, Inc had some characters older than their twenties in it)), and I've actually enjoyed re-watching it several times over the decades (generally, my gamer friends are kind of amazed that it existed and then some of them want to watch it, so I've gone through several re-watches with various gamers over the years and we generally make it all the way through since it's short). Of course, I was watching a bunch of non-vampire Aaron Spelling dramas when it originally came out and enjoying them, too, so it was easier for me to like in the first place. (I was also a gamer at the time, but mostly played GURPS and hadn't actually heard of V:TM at the time since no one at my school was playing it. I bought a bunch of the sourcebooks after watching the show, but none of my fellow GURPS players wanted to give it a try (this is before the GURPS WOD conversion books came out).)

Earth 2, on the other hand, was not as good as I'd remembered it being. My friend and I got all the way through the DVDs on the re-watch, but it was clearly a show written by people who did not feel that an SF show needed to have any kind of science advisor, and it was pretty painful as they'd just make stuff up that did not make any sense. (The "Spring Comes From A Hole In The Ground Episode" is still used as a yardstick for terrible plot-science when we talk about other shows we still watch.) I really liked the half of the premise I knew would be happening from the trailers (SF show in which they have to make their way across a planet with limited equipment to reach where the rest of their equipment landed) and really, really didn't like the Assorted Weirdness also present, most of which was metaphysical in nature and didn't make any sense. It also ended with a cliffhanger, which I resent it when shows do when they don't know for sure they'll be renewed.

Roar I remembered fondly, but I don't think we made it more than 3 or 4 episodes into the re-watch before we gave up (I do most of my TV marathoning with one specific friend, the one who made it through both Kindred : The Embraced and Earth 2 by this point). I don't even remember why, just that it wasn't interesting, was pretty cheesy (not a deal-breaker for us if the show is interesting) and we kept putting off watching more episodes until we finally put the box away.

I'm sure there are a bunch more shows from the 90s that I miss if I think about it. I spent an awful lot of time watching Fox dramas that decade, and they spent an awful lot of time canceling dramas fairly quickly that decade.