Burgundy LaRue

The first show that came to mind was The Pretender (NBC, 1996-2000). The show's premise was gimmicky, but it had a good lead in Michael T. Weiss and the central story of Jarod trying to find his family was a good one. But NBC cancelled it. To be fair, the show had a four-season run, but it didn't get a proper ending. I know there were a couple of TV movies, but I didn't catch those.

I always wanted Millenium to stay on longer. I was into it more than the X-Files. Again, there was a strong lead in Lance Henriksen and I thought it was infinitely creepier than the X-Files at the time. But IIRC, Fox started tinkering with the basic plot and screwed up the show in Season 3.

Here's digging one out of the Fox trash heap: Booker with Richard Grieco before his looks went to the gutter. Fox saw Grieco as the next Johnny Depp. That's funny in hindsight but at the time, it made a lot of sense to give Grieco his own show. And it was actually pretty good. I remember rapper Heavy D being a regular guest star. But Fox moved the show in a timeslot behind Married with Children and some other sitcom--I think Fox was toying with having 3 hours of scheduled programming at the time. It didn't work, needless to say. Booker was moved to make room for the TV version of The Outsiders--which was a decent show too, but also got cancelled not long after.

riley_dude

Angel
Kidnapped
Veronica Mars
Arrested Development
Farscape
Journeyman
Firefly
Pushing Daisies

Timber

Wasn't it the other way around? I thought Grieco was the breakout star of 21 Jump Street and got the spin off. I may be wrong as it was a while ago.

leacha

John Doe
Keen Eddie
The Fugitive (still brought up by my wife)

The two Fox shows' cancellations still affect what I watch on Fox. They seem to cancel shows "willy-nilly".

Burgundy LaRue

My memory's fuzzy too, but I think 21 Jump Street brought Grieco on to replace Depp as the resident hunk because Depp was tired of being seen as a teen idol and wanted to leave the show after his contract was up. Grieco proved to be just as popular as Depp at the time and with Jump Street already heading toward its finish, they decided to give Grieco his own show.

Travis McClain

Honestly, when I think back on the series I was into, most of them wound up staying on about a season too long. Some of them went out solidly, and while I would still be watching Cheers if it was still being made, I think they hung it up at the right time. The only two series I can think of that I even watched that I think ended earlier than needed were both USA series: Kojak with Ving Rhames and The 4400.

TheNightFlier

Brimstone
Big Apple
High Incident

jjcool

I rmember loving this show when it was on, and bought teh dvd as soon as they came out. All the seasons are on dvd as well as the two tv movies they put out. The movies provided some closure, but not to all teh unanswered questions.
Lots of good actors in it. In addition to Michael T. Weiss, there was Patrick Bauchau as Sidney the psychiatrist/father figure to Jarod, Andrea Parker as Ms. Parker the daughter of the head of the Centre, Jamie Denton, who now apparently goes by James, as mr. Lyle a centre operative, Jon Gries as Broots the IT guy, and Jeffrey Donovan, as Kyle, another Pretender like Jarod. Several of them went on to bigger and better things.

jjcool

I thought Depp did indeed become fed up with the show, and was phoning in his performance for a while before his contract was up. When he left, they brought in Grieco as a replacement

Timber

Yeah, you guys are right, Grieco was only on 21 Jump Street for 18 or so episodes before they spun him off.