I was talking to someone about television so I brought up Farscape, and I was trying to tell them that they should check out the show. So I bring up all the points about how amazing the special effects were, how it's not your average Sci Fi, and all the things that might make a person who's not into Sci Fi give it a chance. So then they ask if it's still on the air, and I tell them no it lasted four seasons, but then it got cancelled. This person than said to me "well it must not have been that good then."

Is that really how people think TV works? That only great shows last, and a show will only get cancelled because it's not good? I was flabbergasted, and a little annoyed because I love the show, and to have someone dismiss it out of hand for that reason just blew my mind. I don't have a problem with someone saying they don't like the show after checking it out, but to dismiss it because it got cancelled? It's not like the show was on for 8 episodes. It had four seasons. So has this happened to anyone else? This is not the first person who has said this to me when I have discussed tv with people outside this board.

Yeah, after telling someone about the Invisible Man, another great Scifi series that got axed by those morons, and how it only lasted 2 seasons, i got the same reaction. Irked me to no end.

Yeah, it's kinda silly since most shows will eventually end their run. Just ask them for the name of an older show they really liked and then point out that you guess that since it's not on the air anymore it must have sucked.

usually the shows that get canned are the ones I like
firefly, space above and beyond, family guy, futurama

Well, why show a good show like Farscape when they can play "Tremors" constantly?

Does it frustrate me? No, because nobody talks TV with me in my circle, because I'm thought of as a TV snob.

So if a "short" run of a show means it's not good, is the opposite true?
Springer has been on 10-15 years. Is that a "good" show?There's daytime soaps that predate TV, are they good?
Length of a show isn't indicative of it's quality (Honeymooners lasted 1 year). If anything the longer it runs the more it gets watered down. Look at something like All in the Family, the first 3 years, you'd be hard pressed to find a bad episode, but as time went on, the ratio of good:bad began to go to the side of "bad" until Archie Bunker's Place which was complete dreck. A more recent example is Simpson's.
Besides, a show's lifespan isn't based on one single thing. There's dozens of variables that could effect it - direction of a station, actors and writers, fitting a desired demographic, etc.

tons of good shows get cancelled before their time.

Family Guy, Boomtown and Andy Richter are perfect examples.

Don't forget about Keen Eddie.

I don't really talk to my friends about television shows, so this doesn't frustrate me

• Quoth dancinns •<HR SIZE=1>Don't forget about Keen Eddie. <HR SIZE=1>

Thanks, jackass! I had, until you reminded me.

das

Any time, das...any time.

nope....I don't find it's all that healthy to be that vested in tv shows

It's not the fact that I'm hugely vested in the show. It's that they would dismiss what I would say for such a weird reason. To not watch a show because it got cancelled would eliminate 90% of television.