Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Pushing Daisies for sure as well as Farscape, just one more season would have been great to wrap up the Peacekeeper Wars.

To add another long running show, I wish they would have kept cranking out SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis. Their ratings were fine, but I understand those shows get more expensive every year.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Journeyman
Moonlight
Drive
Terminator
Firefly
Kidnapped
Karen Sisco
Touching Evil

Popular shows that were cancelled:
The Unit
Angel

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Freaks and Geeks
Twin Peaks
My So-Called Life


And why FOX cancelled Futurama, yet kept King of the Hill on the air for YEARS AND YEARS afterward, I will never understand.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I think the point of the thread is shows that should have been given time to find an audience, or shows that still had some life/potential in them.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

The top 2 answers in my mind are Twin Peaks and Freaks & Geeks.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Family Guy

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

+1
that was a crime.

I would have loved to see at least 3 seasons of Franz and Caruso on NYPD Blue, that was a major blow.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

For me:

Not mentioned:
Sports Night - it had its flaws in both seasons (laugh track in 1, inconsistent characters in 2) but I think they could have ironed things out in season 3. Plus, since it's basically a fake sports news show, it could have gone on for years like the show it mimicked, Sports Center.

and others mentioned:
Arrested Development - hard to feel bad about this one given how amazingly excellent it was all the way to the end and it had the perfect finale. Not to mention the fact it could have been canceled halfway through season one.

Firefly - fun ride, and could have gone on for a few seasons if given the chance.

Freaks & Geeks - high school television at its best, at least for comedy. FNL gives it a run for the money in the drama department.

Pushing Daisies - whimsical and original with an excellent cast of characters.

Scrubs - 2.0 - I can go with this, it was really coming into its own at the end

Stargate: SG-1 - sure it was on for 10 years, but like Scrubs there seemed to be a revitalization going on once they dumped the G'ould plots.

Titus - fun and underrated little show. Watching them in a marathon you realize how repetitive the show was, but as a weekly show it was something different.

Undeclared - see F&G, except about college.

The Unit - like Arrested Development, it's hard to complain about this one. We got five great seasons of a kick ass show. It would have been nice to get a final balls-to-the-wall season.

Veronica Mars - I don't know what to say about Ms. Mars, except that it was worthy of all the praise it got prior to me getting into it.

Wonderfalls - Like Pushing Daisies, it was something unique that doesn't come along too often.


I liked Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place, and eventually TG&aG but it wasn't that great of a show. I'd equate it to Two & a Half Men (not because of the numeral in the title), because the humor was pretty generic and nothing really ground breaking.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Definitely Farscape as well.

With regards to ratings and stuff, how many millions of viewers is deemed successful?
To me, 4-5 million is quite a lot. It's just something I don't get.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

For ratings, it depends on 2 factors:

1) The network
2) The 18-49 demographic numbers

For a network like CBS, anything that gets under 10M viewers and under a 3.0 in the demos is in some danger of getting cancelled. But, the network itself skews really old in general as most of their shows are crime procedurals.

Lost used to get over 20M viewers a week in season 1, but dropped significantly and was barely getting 7-8M per week in the last few seasons. But, what kept the show on the air and advertisers happy was the 18-49 demos as it got 3.5 to sometimes over 4.0.

Overall viewership is nice and dandy, but what keeps the shows on the air is the key demographic. For Lost, the demos mean 3.5 (3.5M of the key demographic) watched out of the 7-8M who watched that episode and that's considered solid.

But going back to the shows mentioned in the OP...All of them did horrible in the overall viewership and the demos. I believe alot of them were under 2.0 in the demos, sometimes under 1.0.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Thanks for the info!

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I can't give you an iron-clad answer, but it's all relative to what network it is on, what time it is on, how much they've spent on advertising, etc.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I agree with this one much more than the Studio 60 mention in the original post. The problem with Sports Night is that it had all the makings of a comedy, but was much more of a drama. Maybe things would have worked out better once they got past all the drama about whether or not CSC would survive.

As much as I liked Sports Night and The West Wing, Studio 60 was a chore to watch. I do not miss that show.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Pretty much lol, I did not intend to mean these shows were pulled just to make way for new shows unjustly. I understand that some did not have great ratings. Yes some of the shows did have good runs, Two guys and a girl, and Ed were great. They are on the list cause i love Tom Cavenaugh and Ryan Reynolds would loved those characters and wouldn't mind seeing more. Scrubs deserved to be cancelled after season 6 and got a finale for season 8 as mentioned, But it was brought back with a new cast and it's a shame they didn't give the new show a chance. The problem really was that Zach braff was attached at the beginning. I really started to love the New characters when Zach left. For the most part many did have great potential and some should have been given a better chance. the writer strike is responsible for alot on my list. I too would have liked to have seen where Freaks and geeks would of gone if it had another season or 2. So you can add shows that even tanked like Do Not Disturb but then again lol if you add that one your credibility as a tv goer is shot :p

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

While I think of a top 10 there is one show from years ago that I'd still like more of that didn't last really long(since most shows mentioned in here had multiple seasons with the exception of L&O which lasted longer than some members here have been alive) which was The War Next Door on USA Network. A single 13 episode season and then poof, gone.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

#1 for me is Farscape. Fucking Stargate has been on for 37 seasons and still sucks, and the most innovative sci-fi series since Star Trek first aired gets canned after 4 seasons :hairpull:

#2 would be Angel. Show could have gone in so many directions and kept getting better with every season.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Angel
24
Threshold
Still Standing
Off Centre

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

My recent favorites that were already mentioned
1) Life on Mars (horrible closure but atleast we got one)
2) Tru Calling (for season 2, they get some Buffy writers and then they cancel it just when they are taking the show in a better direction
3) My So-Called Life (brilliant show!)

A few more that lasted just less than a season
4) Day Break

from the 90's
5) Dark Skies
6) The Hat Squad
7) The Flash

from the 80's
8) Something is out there
9) V - The series (it sucked but I wanted a resolution to that cliffhanger)

from the 70's
10) Kolchak the night Stalker

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Day Break got screwed airing-wise as it got cancelled before the series finished. But, as some of you here probably already know the series did complete it's run and ABC posted all the remaining episodes online. Also, it was designed as a 13 episode 1 season self contained series and it ended with closure. Plus, it also got a DVD release.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I'm pretty sure that the series was designed to be longer than 13 episodes and got cut down to the 13 when the show premiered and the ratings were low. They were some early plot points being developped in those early episodes that were completely dropped midpoint and / or were never explained properly in the later episodes. But it was nice to get a closure and an actually DVD release, especially for us Canadians who couldn't watch online at ABC the unaired episodes. Had the series caught on like "24", then there's no reason they couldn't have developped other stories for future seasons. Too bad, I really liked it.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Law & Order - at the very least it should have been given one more season. It's not as if NBC has been churning out much else in the line of quality.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

No it wasn't dropped to 13 episodes because the ratings sucked for the 1st few. It was supposed to fill in for Lost during the winter for 13 weeks. Remember Lost aired 6 episodes in a row and then said it was coming back in February. So, Day Break was designed to fill in that time period. There was a poster here who actually worked on that series and I believe he confirmed that.

I believe if the show was a hit, which unfortunately it wasn't, the producers would have created a new arc for Taye Diggs character, but that seemed a little out there considering how the show finished and basically wrapped up everything.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I wish I would have seen this show more than I did; it was on Saturday nights which was tough for me to catch as a kid. But it had a great premise.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Mr. Show
Arrested Development
Stella

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

That would be FinkPish. But then David Levine says the producers originally planned it to be 22. Just did a quick search in the dvd talk forum and he mentions that it was originally conceived to be 22 episodes. here's the link http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/52...arch-11-a.html. 22 or 13 episodes, either way I wish the show had caught on and we'd gotten a season 2.

Considering how well "24" worked, I think the producers could have come up with some great stuff for season 2 and beyond for day break

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

The O.C- I wish it had gotten a 5th season since season 4 was so good.
The Comeback- Lisa Kudrow was hilarious in this

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I remember FOX cancelled Tru Calling as that show actually was getting interesting mid-season. I remember they brought in Jason Priestley and the show went from predictable to unpredictable, and then Fox nixed it after a few episodes in Season 2.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I agree that Tru Calling didn't get a fair chance. Season 1 had 20 episodes and they brought in Jason Priestly and yes it did get much more interesting. But, actually they only filmed 6 episodes in season 2 and FOX shut down production before the show even premiered. IIRC they just burned them off afterwards.

But, FOX was operating under a different regime back then. FOX's current president actually gave Eliza's other show Dollhouse 2 seasons (26 episodes) when it probably would have been pulled early on back then.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

yeah dollhouse was the lowest rated show in a very very long time to be renewed despite it's low ratings. The second season was very well done and i'm very glad that got an ending. Yeah for Daybreak and other shows most of the time they order 13 episodes and if it does well for the first few they order the back 9. If i remember correctly since it was getting axed they redid the 13th episode to give it some sort of closure.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Odyssey 5 is another show I wish would have gotten a few more seasons. That is one of my favorite 1 and done sci-fi shows.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

i liked better off ted.

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Here's ten shows that I actually watched the episodes as they aired only to see them die prematurely:

It's Your Move - The original tragic Jason Bateman show
My So-Called Life
Freaks and Geeks
Strange Luck
The Others - supernatural thriller given short shrift on NBC
Wonderfalls - at least I'm glad I'm able to watch all 13 episodes on DVD when only 4 aired on FOX
Joan of Arcadia - really enjoyed this show and things were really getting interesting at the end of season 2
Firefly
Dollhouse
Mercy - my latest encounter with bitterness at the networks

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Babylon 5. The constant threat of cancelation totally screwed up and compressed the story arcs, especially in S4 and S5.

The aforementioned Farscape.

Harsh Realm. Canceled just as the conspiracy was getting up to speed.

Prey. Debra Messing's breakout role before Will & Grace.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

Philly :rip:

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I forgot to mention Party Down

Had a third season been greenlit, it would have proceeded without Adam Scott and Ryan Hansen, although I believe this show could have sustained a rotating cast of characters and been just fine. You would need constants, though; Ken Marino and Martin Starr would have been the logical characters to anchor the show through different casts, IMO.

Sad to see it go :(

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I still like some of the writing/premise today with these series ...

1. Brimstone
2. Earth 2
3. Nowhere Man
4. Millennium
5. China Beach
6. Space Above & Beyond
7. Politically Incorrect
8. Mole (hosted only by Anderson Cooper)
9 & 10 are so old lets leave it at 8............

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

ChillerTV plays episodes every once and a while. I enjoyed the show as well.

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

I miss Sports Night still to this day... but having the re-release DVD set helps. ABC just didn't get it, did they? At least the cast has stayed busy since then.

But I'd have to disagree with you about Studio 60... to a degee. Loved S60's launch and first half of season, but mid-season when ratings were not what NBC wanted, the tinkering began. Though Sorkin denied it, you could see the show lurch in a different direction when it returned after Christmas, playing up the romance angle.

Still, I never saw watching as a chore: dense, literate dialog, complex discussion of current events and politics, terrific acting (what a cast!), film-quality production values. Still, I did grind my teeth at the obvious network pressure being applied to things...

I'll watch anything Aaron Sorkin gets on the air. But at this point, I think he's too good for TV. Just look at what fills most of the networks' prime-time hours now.

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The 4400

Re: Top Ten Tv Shows That Never Should Have Been Cancelled
 

My Number one is Firefly

Dark Angel
Space Above and Beyond
In the Line of Fire
Arrested Development
Miracles
Angel