Best Canceled TV Shows

I’m sure you’ve had one of your favorite tv shows canceled before, and I’m sure you’ve told everyone how upset you were about it. Sometimes you got closure, sometimes you didn’t. Some shows just don’t get enough time to finish their story or hit their true potential. It may have not been the best move for the network to keep these on, who wouldn’t have liked to see where they went?

10. Miracles

Miracles starred Skeet Ulrich as Paul Callan an investigator of miracles who had once been a priest. It was kind of an X-Files like show where people went to weird places and investigated so called miracles. There was a lot of good mystery to the show, and surprisingly some pretty good acting among the cast.

What Happened? Miracles actually opened to decent ratings and a positive response from critics. However,  ABC pre-empted it’s viewing for a little while which is not a good thing to do to a relatively new show. Due to mismanagement Miracles continued to drop in the ratings. After three more episodes ABC canceled the show. All 13 episodes are now available on DVD.

9. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Set in an SNL like show for a network called NBS, Studio 60 was Aaron Sorkin’s highly anticipated Studio 60. Including an all-star cast of Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, and Amanda Pete. It’s pilot episode had great ratings, largely due to a huge pre-season buzz. It all starts when Judd Hirsch’s character which is a Lorne Michael’s type goes all Network on live television.  He, of course, gets canned, and they bring in his two proteges who were kicked off the show years earlier. The show largely follows these two characters, Danny Tripp and Matt Albie, around. Although slammed by many industry people as largely unrealistic in the writing of comedy, it was still a fun concept. Judd Hirsch’s speech in the pilot episode still rank as one of my favorite scenes in a pilot ever.

What Happened? Well , this one we can’t blame the network on. In fact NBC stood by the show all season long even after it’s ratings had dropped a massive 43% by the fifth episode. Luckily the reason NBC was willing to stick with this one is it rated high in key demographics. Basically if you make decent money and had a college education, you were more likely to watch the show according to the demographics. Luckily Sorkin and staff were given plenty of time to wrap up all loose ends at the end of the season making for an almost too neat package.

8. Angel

Ahh, one of my favorites, and the longest running show of this list. Angel was cancelled after 5 seasons. Which may sound like a lot, but unfortunately the show had it’s best season on it’s last. Fresh off of Buffy and Firefly, Angel‘s creator Joss Whedon, came back to the show and you could really tell the difference.  By Angel‘s fifth season he had joined his nemesis, the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart. Trying to turn things around from within the evil corporation we see all new sides to Angel and his crew. Unfortunately, Whedon was not informed soon enough of the cancellation and it ends on a major cliffhanger. The apocalypse to be exact….

What Happened? Despite being on of the WB’s highest rated programs at the time, it was canceled. Many people were surprised about it, most of all people involved with the show. The current season had enjoyed it’s critical best, and things were starting to pick up. Head writer at the time believes that because they asked for an early pick up they were dropped. Luckily there is hope in some form. While David Boreanaz has moved over to “Bones”, he can still exist the same way in comic book form. Last year Angel: After the Fall came out in comic book form. It is an official continuation of Angel and uses the plot Season 6 would have had.

7. Carnivale

A classic good vs. evil story. Carnivale focused on two main characters, Ben Hawkins, a person who possess unexplained abilities to heal. The other main character, is a Methodist preacher named Justin Crowe who has the ability control people and turn their sins against them in terrifying manners. Taking place in the Dust Bowl era, we are shown the life of Ben Hawkins in the traveling Carnival he joins. The show was known for its sweeping mythology. It was a show that was much more than it appeared.

What Happened? Well, it was expensive. HBO couldn’t justify the costs anymore, even though it had good ratings for an HBO show. Offers were made, but lowering the budget with such a large cast and a period setting was just not doable. The viewership was very loyal and ran a huge campaign to the network, but to no avail. Much of the story was left open ended. Creator, Daniel Knauf, has come out and revealed details of the mythology to satisfy viewers who were left hanging.

6.Dead Like Me

Don’t you hate it when you are killed by a flaming toilet seat from a space station? George Lass did, however it did give her full-time employment as a Reaper. Dead Like Me‘s apathetic George is made to interview for a job by her over-bearing mother. When outside she is killed by a toilet seat from the heavens. She is then given a new body (sort of) and becomes of a Reaper. Her job is to take a soul before they die, so they don’t have to suffer. The cast was great all around and the chemistry between Mandy Patinkin’s Rube and Ellen Muth’s George is great. It’s filled with many rich characters and for a show about death, really fun to watch.

What Happened? Bryan Fuller, the brains behind the show, left early in the first season due to disagreements with the studio. He set up a decent guideline to start from, but without his influence there is a bit of a drop in the second season. Despite rumors that the show was doing very well in viewers, Showtime canned it. They have recently come out with a DVD that continued the arc of the show. However, one of the main characters is missing, and the other is replaced by another actress. It was fun to see the show again, but it didn’t feel the same.

5. Wonderfalls

Jane is a college educated sales clerk at a tourist shop at Niagra Falls. Her philosophy degree from Brown University gets her no where and it’s pretty apparent her life is not on the track she wanted it to be. One day a tiny Wax Lion with a smashed face starts talking to her. He gives her instructions to help people. Throughout the series many different figurines talk to her and inform her to help different people. The show sounds a little wacky, and it is. I almost gave up on it at first, but after the second episode you start to relate to the characters very well.

What happened? Bryan Fuller is a genius. Creating shows like, Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, and being a head writer on Heroes for a while. However, he is very good at creating a captivating show, his record as a show runner is not very good. His shows are all a bit different and mass audiences don’t connect with them as much. There is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief required to enjoy one of his shows. This show was canceled mainly because of poor ratings. Although moving it’s timeslot without advertising didn’t do much to help.

4. Veronica Mars

Maybe one of the best shows that was never watched that much. It followed the title character, Veronica, through her life in high school. Oh, and did I forget to mention she is trying to solve the murder of her dead friend? Veronica lives in a town where the rich and poor are divided and she is stuck somewhere in the middle. Until the year before, even though she didn’t have a lot of money, she was part of the 909ers, a group of elite children. When her father, the sheriff, accuses Jake Kane, a software billionaire and Neptune’s biggest money maker, of the murder of his daughter everything goes to pieces. Veronica loses her friends and her dad loses his job, and her mother runs away. Luckily for us in the face of all this Veronica is a spunky and highly intelligent girl. Using detective techniques she learned from her father she pieces the mystery together one piece at a time.

What Happened? Poor ratings. Although a huge critical success Veronica Mars kept improving slightly, but unforntunately not enough to keep going. The network is there to make money, and it just wasn’t. The head of the CW did seem to express regret that it wasn’t being picked up for a fourth season. Creator Rob Thomas has been in talks with Kristen Bell to do a film based on the series, but it may potentially never happen, and if it does it is a few years down the road.

3. Freaks and Geeks

This show launched the careers of many Hollywood elites, such as Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Jason Segel. After being on a show this good, they all deserve the success they have had. Centered around a brother and sister in a Detroit high school in the 80s, Freaks and Geeks showed teenagers just trying to fit it. It sounds boring when you put it like that, but it was so well executed that you can’t help but love it.  The characters feel real and fully developed, and the growth that occurs in the first season is great. It is a show that was definitely canceled before it reached it’s full potential.

What Happened? Once again, it’s feeling pretty familiar by now, ratings due to mismanagement by the network. Critical praise was off the chart with this one, but it didn’t translate into audience due to scheduling changes. Much of the same stuff happened to Apatow’s next project, Undeclared. Undeclared brought over a lot of the same staff from Freaks and Geeks but it ultimately failed too. Luckily, Apatow and crew found fame with 40 Year Old Virgin a few years later and have been riding a wave of sucess ever since then.

2. Arrested Development

Following the arrest of his father George Bluth, Michael Bluth is put in charge of running the family business and the family. Everything about this series was great. It is a show that you can watch multiple times and still laugh every time. The cast has to be one of the most perfect comedic casts of all time. There isn’t a single weak link in the series. Not your normal sitcom, it used a single camera variant with no laughtrack to great effect. Instead of a laughtrack we get Ron Howard narrating the story for us.

What Happened? Once again, poor ratings. FOX actually stuck with it longer than anticipated probably due to such great critical reception and loyal fan base. Many critics thought the show was not properly marketed and was doomed to failure because of it. Since it’s season 3 cancellation it has done very well on DVD. In fact, just recently, a movie was greenlit so we can continue to enjoy the Bluth charcters for another hour or two.

1. Firefly

Following the crew of a Firefly Class Spaceship in the 2500s, Firefly takes place in a time when humans are settling other planets. There was a time where there was only two remaining superpowers, the US and Chinese. They eventually infused to create a new government called The Alliance. Firefly follows some members of a losing side of a civil war, called “The Browncoats”.  It’s an ensemble cast consisting of nine characters. With such a large cast it was amazing how fully realized every character was and just how much of their backstory you learned. The cast is what made this show so memorable and funny. The Sci-fi western nature of it is what kept it interesting. No character was pure, but most of them have good intentions. It’s a story of the little guy and you want to root for them all the time.

What Happened? Yet another example of a good show ruined by a network. The show aired out of sequence because FOX executives were not a fan of the original pilot. This made the plot a lot harder to follow than what was necessary. It was also aired in a slot that did not lend itself to getting a lot of viewers. It was eventually cancelled due to ratings. Its DVD sales were good enough that Joss Whedon was given the greenlight to make a movie called Serenity which continued the story. It made decent money at the box office, but not enough to warrant sequels.  Whedon has talked about continuing the series through comic book form such as he has with his Buffy and Angel series.

So, you may or may not agree with my choices. So let’s hear yours!

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