Friday Top 5: Canceled shows to bring back
Jason
Friday
5:17 pm
We have all had it happen. The heartbreak that follows when your most favoritist show of all time has the rug ripped out from below it and it is stamped with a big red CANCELED! Some deserve it because they are simple dreck, others are visionary masterpieces that the masses just did not understand.
So for this week’s top five I attempt to piss off everyone by not including their show in the top five shows that were canceled way too soon and need to be brought back now. Early apologies to Farscape and Wonderfalls fandom, if it is going to piss you off that much that they are not on the list, just stop reading now. I am tempted to stick The O.C. on here just to maximize the hate. Buckle in, here we go:
5) Arli$$ (1996-2002) – Arli$$ brought together my two worlds, geek and sports. You might be scratching your head on why this HBO property made the list having been on for six years. But in those six years, it only aired 80 episodes. And I grant you in advance, athletes and sports celebrities cannot act. But the main crew AMM was pretty hilarious and made you want to come back for more. The series ended abruptly with viewers wanting more, well the viewers who watched it. It never caught on with the main masses. To this day only a small Best of DVD is available for fans, though those with ESPN Classic can catch it in syndication.
4) Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000) – Freaks and Geeks should have been the next generation’s Wonder Years. Eighteen episodes of pure, unadulterated life as we knew it back in the 1980s. But they pulled the plug after lackluster ratings. If only they knew that we would grow in power and that little know producer Judd Apatow would be a multimillion dollar cash cow in the theaters. I mean really, who doesn’t have a story about how they converted the cool kid to Dungeons & Dragons or about how they mooned over that lead singer of the garage band. But then again, if you want more Freaks and Geeks, you just have to watch any of Apatow’s movies as the cast is the same in all of them.
3) Veronica Mars (2004-2007) – Oh the spunk of Veronica Mars. You mess with the bull and you get the horns. How could you not love everyone’s favorite teenage detective? Being stuck on mini-networks UPN and The CW did the show no favors. But then again, I really don’t think the show would have taken off anywhere. But Veronica Mars‘ first season was a masterpiece in writing, plot and suspense. It was how serial television series should be presented. Sadly by the end of season three the network had mettled so much with the show that it was barely a shade of its former self. But as the last credits rolled, how could you not want more. Creator Rob Thomas tried to save the show with a five year jump into the future…that didn’t work. Rumors are around though that Veronica may pull out her magnifying glass once again, this time on the big screen as a motion picture.
2) Dead Like Me (2003-2004) – Killed by a toilet seat from space. Maybe the best image ever. And thus began the work of reaper George Lass. Clever writing along with a strong cast made the show can’t miss. From the mind of Bryan Fuller, the show spun a tale of life and death, but with an edge of sarcasm and humor. Fuller would leave the show after the first season, and after that the problems cascaded to its eventually cancellation. Fans were thrown a bone in February when Dead Like Me: Life After Death was released direct to DVD. The DVD movie picks up about five years after the last episode of the show. Lucky for you. The movie however has not lessened the cry for more.
1) Firefly (2002) – Anyone who knows me knew that this was going to be at the top of the list the minute they started reading. And for anyone who doesn’t know me, like me expound a little bit. I consider Firefly to be the best of Joss Whedon’s work. Buffy and Angel were great in their own regard and had their run, and we will have to see about Dollhouse over the next few months. But Firefly had the perfect mix of plot, humor, setting and cast. You ask yourself about it being a space western, but that was the genius of the show. It wasn’t a blatant science fiction show, but rather a story of politics and relationships that just happened to involve scifi elements. Treated like processed dog crap by Fox Television, it never found an audience. To be honest, no one knows if it ever would have. That doesn’t stop it from being one hell of a gorram television series. At least Universal was nice enough to give us Browncoats a feature film in Serenity to continue the story. And Whedon continues to carry the torch by giving us glimpses back into the ‘verse with occasional comics that are considered canon material.
So now that y’all are all seething and ready to throw that rotten fruit, what do think is missing from the top five this time around? Comment away.
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Reader Comments
The Dead Like Me movie was execrable.
And personally, while I liked the show, I could see why it was canceled. It lost a lot of its strength and purpose in S2.
The only other one of those shows I got into is Firefly, and I’m OK with it being gone, just as I am OK with Farscape being gone (which really says something, trust me). Life moves on and new addictions are born. I’m cool with that. In fact, a lot of times, when things come back, they just can’t live up to what they were. Better that they stay gone—or that decades after their death a new and better show is created from their ashes as per BSG.
As for Veronica Mars, the movie does sound like it is truly on the way, but I believe it is going to be made for TV or direct to DVD.
Oh, and naturally, I think Farscape is missing from your list. >;) Nothing touches that show, in my opinion.
But as I say, I’m OK with it being gone. I’m not at all interested in the comics, and I may not even watch the webisodes when they are released. Life goes on. I’m more excited about the new Southern Vampire Mysteries book due out in May than I am about the assured resurgence of Farscape online.
http://www.ifmagazine.com/new.asp?article=7452
http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/02/exclusive-veron.html
It does say “feature film” and “Warner Bros.,” doesn’t it? Huh. I guess I found though so hard to swallow that I skipped over it completely. I still expect it to go straight to DVD or straight to TV. That seems so much more likely to my mind. But who knows?
I never got Freaks and Geeks, I’m afraid. I am as confounded by it as I am by the popularity of Napoleon Dynamite. Neither has any basis in reality in my own life, so they never worked for me.
Arli$$ was never my cup of tea, either. For that matter, I gave up on Sports Night despite hearing how grand it is from just about everyone I know. I guess, at the end of the day, you really have to make some kind of personal connection with what you watch. If you can, if it speaks to you, then it works.
I have been told I must watch Veronica Mars on pain of being subjected to Sci Fi Original Pictures movies every Sunday for the next year. OK, then: I guess I’ll add that to the queue.
Oh, and as my final comment, are you really suggesting that Geeks and Sports are separate worlds? Have you ever seen the guys who paint their bellies and heads at sporting events? Sports fans are fans just like any other. Every pursuit has its geeks. >;)
OK, one more:
“You ask yourself about it being a space western, but that was the genius of the show. It wasn’t a blatant science fiction show, but rather a story of politics and relationships that just happened to involve scifi elements.”
All the best science fiction can be described in this way. It’s never really about space and aliens and the like. It’s about people and how they interact and solve problems and come to understand who and what they are.
Amber, I know you’re a Farscape fanatic, but I think it wound up in the right spot, and got the luxury of telling a good story. I’d hate to see it in Season 8, with half the cast replaced and everyone showing their age.
I’m pretty sure the reason I’ve avoided Firefly altogether is because I think it bugs Josh more when i criticize his favorite lovefest of a show based completely on ignorance.
Unless you think this is a good reason: Thanks to the brilliant mind of Joss Whedon, the man could only create one logo for both Felicity and Firefly.
Now, that’s just lazy.
Oh, and bring back Magnum. I need some Higgy baby!
Joan of Arcadia is definitely missing from this list. That show was clever, full of talent, and was cancelled just after laying down the ultimate cliffhanger. Bring back Joan!
Actually, I think a new Magnum would be a hit in today’s too-serious age. … now, if only Nathan Fillion could grow a real mustache…
And Yerf, I never really got to catch much of Joan of Arcadia, but I hear it was a really overlooked gem.
Wonderfalls you philistines.
Good list. I agree with everything, with the exception of Dead Like Me, but that is only because I never saw it.
A show I would add…
I really wish they would have been able to do a fourth season of Deadwood. I loved that show, and the abrupt ending of the show just struck me as a crime.
I dunno about Magnum. For all the cool that he was, that porn ’stache will have to be contemporized. And what would be his Ferrari of today? I am going to go with….a Mazda5 after Josh’s raving review a few weeks back.
Another HBO property that I considered was Rome. I am a sucker for time period pieces and my wife even more, but I didn’t catch enough of it to give it the check off.
Sorry for the run on multiple posts (man do I feel like Amber ;P), but if you bring back Magnum, you have to bring back Hart to Hart, Simon and Simon and Remington Steele.
PUSHING DAISIES. ONE AND A HALF SEASONS, WHAT THE CRAP, SERIOUSLY. First I was scared the writers’ strike would kill it, and then it was maybe going to be canceled and fans maybe saved it, and then they went and canceled it mid-season ANYWAY.
But I definitely agree with Firefly getting the top slot. As much as I loved Buffy and Angel, and as much as I’m liking Dollhouse, Firefly was different in a way I don’t think we’re going to see on TV again for a long, long time. In fact Dollhouse is making me even sadder about Firefly–I really do like it, despite what a lot of reviewers have been saying, but in a lot of ways it’s…well, a lot like what’s already on TV, like Fringe or the also-canceled Moonlight. Maybe that’s just because it’s modern-day with SF elements, I don’t know, but…yeah.
Moonlight’s another one, though I don’t know if it belongs on this list or not. I do think it’s sad it was canceled when it was, because at that point the writers were finally getting a clue. Also Journeyman, which was better.
All of these were good suggestions, but I would also have to include “Arrested Development” on the list.
I know I’m possibly opening myself to criticism but I’d have like to have seen more of My Own Worst Enemy.
I know, the premise has its flaws, the biggest being why any1 would want to make a spy w/ a dual personality to begin w/. That said, there were plenty of things the show did right. there were numerous plot threads that may or may not have played out in interesting ways if they had been given the chance. But 9 episodes? Come on..they didn’t even give it a chance to establish a direction let alone find its stride. How NBC can justify killing this show while keeping a steaming pile like Knight Rider is beyond me
Wow. All great ideas. Although, Andrew — I LOVED Arrested Development. It’s infinitely rewatchable, but I don’t know that I’d like to see it come back (but I’ll plunk down my $8 for the upcoming movie).
It was such a great series and told a nice arc. There wasn’t a bad episode in the bunch (although the Charlize Theron arc was a tad weak).
I sometimes think that we (at least us ‘Mericans) tend to let shows run past their prime. I’d be content for planned three season arcs, as long as that was the plan from the start.
And I put “Pushing Daisies” on my list of Shows I Wish I Would Have Watched.
PS: Keep the ideas coming. I’ll put the best of them in an all-new GeekDex down the left side tomorrow!
I don’t know…a GeekDex with Magnum and Remington Steele might just cause spontaneous song from Pierce Brosnan.
I totally agree with you in reference to the Firefly praise. It is the best work on television I have ever seen. I know there are those out there that will disagree with that statement, but my Husband and I can watch the 14 episodes over and over again, and NEVER get tired of that series… and not to forgetSerenity. What television show do you know that only aired 12 episodes that made a motion picture from the series. Genius! Joss is truely brilliant. I fell in love with the cast and the ship. We live firefly…use firefly-isms on a daily basis, collect movie props and memoribelia, and can’t get enough. The only think to top it all off is if it were aired again. Keep Flyin’
Nothing will ever touch Farscape for me. I’ll always want that team together. The creative team and the actors.
I agree about Pushing Daisies.
I would mention Cupid but it seems it IS being brought back 10 years after cancellation and Rob Thomas will again be creator. But alas, Jeremy Piven was too busy to reprise his role. He leaves awfully big shoes to fill in.
Yay, Farscape: totally untouchable.
Nothing I have ever seen was as much me as that show. It totally spoke to me.
Peacekeeper Wars not as much, though—and that show was made not that long after cancellation. And there’s the rub: Can you really ever bring anything back? I like Serenity, but to me it wasn’t any more Firefly than PKW was Farscape. They were both fun and good shows, truly, but they weren’t at all what another season of the show would have been. Not in any way.
As for Firefly, as much as I enjoy it it just wasn’t on long enough for me to get that attached. The characters didn’t have much time to develop, to become three-dimensional, and for me a show is first and foremost about the characters. That said, though, what Joss accomplished in virtually no time at all was incredible. That show would really have been something awesome had it lived and evolved.
I doubt Farscape would have made it if made today, I really do—especially if it aired on network TV. I love S1, but I say that as a hardcore fan. And I was not made a hardcore fan by watching S1. It’s too uneven for newbies, I think—there are too many slow and somewhat formulaic (as formulaic as Farscape ever got, that is) shows following stellar ones—and it doesn’t really find its true voice until DNA Mad Scientist, and ultimately until Nerve. It’s also, as I said, just flat out the most bizarre show I have ever seen. You have to be of a certain ilk to get it. So given how quickly shows have to prove themselves these days, I really do doubt Farscape would have gone four seasons, despite the fact that the pilot remains for me the best first episode of any show that I have ever seen. I doubt it would have gone one season, in fact.
But I’m thrilled that it did.
Most of the shows mentioned here I have never seen: I just don’t get a chance to watch much TV. Joan of Arcadia, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, Arrested Development, My Own Worst Enemy, Rome…. I only saw Dead Like Me because I rented it from Blockbuster Online, and it took me ages just to get through the two seasons that aired. Sometimes the discs sat on my counter for three months before I would watch even one episode. And that was a show I really liked, too.
Of those shows, Rome is the only one I think I will try to find the time to watch. And why? Two words: Kevin McKidd. >;)
I really did not embrace the two episodes of Moonlight that I saw, and I thought Journeyman got off to a slow and shaky start despite an intriguing first episode, but both shows might have eventually gone somewhere. But would I have stuck with them to find out where they went? I gave up on both early on. And I didn’t even bother to tune into Drive just based on the commercials, and haven’t felt compelled to check out Dollhouse despite being a big Joss fan.
It’s just really hard to find an audience these days, I think. There is so much we have to do in a day—and so many shows competing for our attention. In the past shows would repeat when new ones were not being aired. Now what happens? A new show pops up instead to fill the hole. There’s just too much. And I don’t even bother with DVR because I know myself: if I don’t watch the show when it airs, there are only a couple of shows I am going to bother to find the time to catch later on in the week when I have some time. It’s a wonder anything finds an audience these days.
But some things do, and I think part of the success often has to do with those shows not being all that serial in nature. CSI, Law and Order, NCIS…. You can watch those once a month and still follow, despite the fact that characters do evolve some, do have their own story lines. The shows may not ultimately be as creative as other shows, but they don’t demand much from the audience. Other shows, like The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Eureka, etc. I just gave up on because I couldn’t commit my time to following the story. I had to choose the shows I was going to make myself keep on top of and stick to those.
So, really, these days it is a combination of the networks giving shows less and less time to make it, and people actually having less and less time to give to an unprecedented array of TV shows. How anything makes it is beyond me.
As for Magnum, Jason, can you really see him driving a mini-van?
Er, that is, um…. >;)
As a Xena fan who wishes we would AT LEAST get a movie to fix the last episode of the series (please spare me the “but she HAD to die” arguments. Herc and Iolaus got to walk off into the sunset, WTF?), I would like to see it come back as a series.
Sorry to see Atlantis go and of course, Firefly. I thought Tarzan was okay as well as Birds of Prey although I admit both were kinda iffy.
Witchblade? I think they could actually run a whole new series with a different actress because isn’t that part of the point of the Witchblade itself?
Brisco County Jr. was fun.
And does anyone else remember Misfits of Science? I loved that show and it got thrown away. Sadness.
Xena died? What?!?
Where are the spoiler tags on this site?!?
Just kidding.
I honestly didn’t know that, but Xena got so discombobulated near the end that I stopped watching. I loved that show for a long time, though.
Speaking of shows I gave up on near the end, I know I’m in the minority, but I actually quite liked the recent X-Files movie. It gave me the closure I wanted. I was never into the aliens/government conspiracy aspects of the show, and this is another show that got so lost near the end that it sent me packing. The new movie was more small scale, more about the characters as well as disturbing events going on under our noses. That’s the side of the show I always loved. And while it wasn’t as funny as The X-Files could be, it did have quite a bit of subtle humor.
For those who may be scratching their heads with regard to all this talk about why a Mazda5 is a great choice (according to Josh), check out a recent post here: http://www.geeksix.com/?p=764
As I say, I’m really not one for shows coming back. Homey don’t play that. But that said, I can recall wishing I could get closure on two shows:
Beauty and the Beast
Early Edition
Everything else I loved I missed when gone, but I felt most shows ended well enough. They were wrapped up. These were not.
Sorry about the spoiler, Amber! Since I watched Xena I figured everyone watched Xena (since the world really does revolve around me, after all. I KID!) so I didn’t think about it. I’m sorry!
And I totally agree on Beauty and the Beast. (I missed Early Edition)
If you missed Early Edition, you missed Kyle Chandler’s hair. Good thing you can now catch the hair on Friday Night Lights.
LOL!
OK, I admit it: I had a mega-crush on Kyle Chandler. But that’s not the only reason I liked that show.
No, really.
Correction: I had a crush on the character, not the actor. I’m not a stalker. I’m just pathetically trapped in my TV fantasies.
As a french viewer, I see the US TV Show through DVD after their release, and I guess I missed some of them.
Anyway, I totally agree on Firefly being the most painful canning in the history of TV Shows for its fan. This show was Whedon’s best work, Nathan Fillion is a perfect actor to carry Whedon’s humour. And overall the cast was far better acting than in the other Whedon’s shows (I loved Buffy, but Sarah Michelle Gellar is not what I consider a talented actress). I really miss the show and will for a long time I guess.
Veronica Mars would come second in my list. This was a great character, as well as supporting characters, and the plot were fun and clever. On the other hand, the relationship with her father was also an important part of the show and having her grow up would have necessarily reduced the interactions between the 2 characters.
To expand the list of shows that I’d like to revive, I’d add Carnivàle, which greatly impressed me on many levels.
I also loved Pushing Daisies. The style was a blattant imitation of the movie Amelie Poulain but it resulted in a fresh and innovative show.
Moonlight was nice, I won’t miss it, but I would have watched upcoming episodes without hesitation.
Finally, Jericho have been wrapped up too fast in my opinion and I would gladly scratch season 2 to restart from the end of season 1.
(PS: sorry for slaughtering english)
Your English is far better than my French.
Jericho was almost awesome for me. The premise and the setting were great. But the show always left me a feeling of almost getting it, but never actually achieving it. But boy did it have its crazy fans. To browbeat CBS into a second season was a miracle in itself. Too bad Browncoats couldn’t do that with Firefly and Fox. At least we got Serenity.
Nice site! Thank you!