TV Shows that didn't hang around long enough (aka Brilliant but Cancelled)

Read up on the history of Riverboat (a show that should have been a classic) especially Burt Reynolds thoughts on working with McGavin. His portrait of DM is not flattering.

 

And it was IN COLOR!

 

Longstreet[1971]very good series with James Franciscus and Bruce Lee,Baby I'm Back[Demond Wilson]very funny.

 

Might be time for a Richard Matheson appreciation thread, as he wrote:

A Stir Of Echoes - Turned into a movie in 1999
Bid Time Return - AKA Somewhere In Time with Christopher Reeve
Button, Button - First a Twilight Zone episode, then turned into the movie The Box
Duel - Steven Spielberg's first movie
I Am Legend - Filmed no less than three times, once as The Omega Man with Charleton Heston
Legend of Hell House - Or Return To Hell House
Steel - First a Twilight Zone episode, then the feature film Real Steel
Terror At 20,000 Feet - The famous Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner
The Incredible Shrinking Man

Along with dozens of episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, Amazing Stories, and "The Enemy Within" episode for Star Trek.

It's somewhat dumbfounding that he isn't more of a household name.

 

I liked it a lot once I turned the subtitles on. Before that the sound design was so crappy I couldn't understand what anyone was saying.

 

Better off Ted was wacky fun

 

I just remembered another one.

Space Above And Beyond (1995/1996)

A Scifi action series that ran for one season on Fox.

Space: Above and Beyond - Wikipedia

 

Wow, I totally forgot about this. I could feel the dust falling off this memory as I read your post. Maybe more details will come.

 

Flashforward. This series is the reason I no longer watch a new show until they have three or four seasons aired. I don't like investing time and interest in a show that will never reach it's conclusion.



FlashForward is a science fiction drama series, starring an ensemble cast headed by Joseph Fiennes as special agent Mark Benford. Without any prior warning or indication, the entire human race blacks out at once for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Over 20 million people died from road collisions and other accidents during the Blackout. As a result, government agencies begin to try and determine the cause of the "Global Blackout" or GBO. As stories of people's experiences during the blackout are shared, it is soon clear that the majority of people experienced visions, each taking place at exactly the same time - six months into the future. Each person saw 137 seconds of what appeared to be their future - a 'FlashForward.' However, not everybody experienced a vision, and many of those who saw nothing during the Blackout must face the possibility that they have less than six months to live.

 

Dan Curtis had nothing to do with the series. It was produced by someone else with Universal.

 

As I recall, McGavin had nothing to do with that. ABC and Universal bypassed Curtis and even Jeff Rice. Rice elected to sue them and got creator credit on it. McGavin and Oakland both agreed to return with McGavin saying he would only return if he got a piece of the action and be credited as a producer on the show (which Universal didn't do). Dan Curtis declined stating that he thought it was "a bad idea" (Night Stalker ). Without Curtis, Richard Matheson declined to return as he wanted to work with Curtis on the series.

McGavin had a verbal agreement with Sid Sheinberg that McGavin would be an executive producer but Universal didn't honor the agreement. Regardless, McGavin worked 7 days a week to make the series as good as possible but, without an executive producer to insure the quality of the scripts and supervise the show, it was a losing battle. McGavin had conflicts with producer Cy Chermak over the quality of the series but not Curtis.

 

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

 

That was a good one. I was disappointed when that was canceled after one season.

A great show on FX called Terriers was also canceled in 2010 after one season.

 

UNSUB, CSI before CSI.

 

Sleepwalkers (1997-1998) on NBC.



It starred Bruce Greenwood, Naomi Watts (in an early role just a few years before Mulholland Drive), and Abraham Benrubi (from ER) as sleep researchers who enter people's dreams to help the afflicted with their psychological problems or to solve crimes. It was basically Dreamscape meets The X-Files. If NBC had left it alone it was good enough to probably find its footing and catch on. However, only two episodes were broadcast on the east coast before it was canceled while seven episodes ended up being seen on the west coast. The last two episodes were never broadcast in North America. You can get six of the nine episodes on DVD as an import from Australia and Italy. Or you can find it on YouTube.

The best episode is "S01-E02: Counting Sheep".

 

@kinkling

Nice to see someone else realize how great Once And Again was. To me, that's one of the finest of the century so far. And they still have never released the final season on DVD!

 

The Outlaws
Invasion
Nowhere Man
Bronk

 

yes, the wife and I liked Pan-Am.

 

Life on Mars (US) Great Show that ran one season ( 2008-2009) . ABC blew it with this show. It was a great flashback to 70’s police with a modern day cop thrown back in time. Humorous, great music and storyline. ABC decided to cancel it midway through the first season and hence a stupid rushed finale was created to end the show. I haven’t seen the BBC original yet. Heard it was excellent.

ABC was stupid not to run this show at least 3 seasons . It would have made it on FX.

 

A few recent shows I forgot about. Recent for me is the 90s, which when you get to my age seems like 2 weeks ago:

Cupid
Brooklyn Bridge
Vengeance Unlimited
Grosse Point

 

Southland
The Black Donnellys
Rubicon (previously mentioned)

 

The Job...an early 2000's ABC series with Denis Leary. Basically a prototype for Rescue Me except it's a bunch of dysfunctional New York City cops instead of firefighters. Lasted about two seasons before ABC yanked it- let's just say the series pushed the boundaries of Standards and Practices one or two times too many. It was a very funny show, half hour sitcom, but Leary and Peter Tolan obviously realized they could only get away with so much on network prime time TV- hence, I suppose, why Rescue Me was on cable where there's a lot more latitude as far as what you can get away with (language, sex, etc)

 

Quark

 

Mighty Orbots (Wikipedia Link: Mighty Orbots - Wikipedia )

Great show that had potential. Unfortunately, according to Wikipedia it was cancelled after only 13 episodes due to a lawsuit.