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

Another FX screwup-and I love the network. Terriers was really well done. Big Donal Logue fan. Need to search this out to watch again.

 

Ohhh! Another Milllenium fan! seems harder and harder to find anybody who still loves this show and Lance Hendrickson. I watch my dvd's about every two years. Criminal what the network did to this show.and Mr Carter might have to shoulder some blame too.

 

you must have gotten a look at my list!!

 

I love this topic! seems that the majority of the shows on my list have been mentioned. But here goes:
#1-Wiseguy-CBS
UC:Undercover-NBC
EZ Streets-CBS
The Newsroom-HBO
Breakout Kings-A&E
The Catch-ABC
Boomtown-NBC
Hannibal-NBC
Luck-HBO
The Riches-FX
Terriers-FX
Thief-FX
Firefly-Fox
Carnivale-HBO
Pushing Daisies-ABC
Millenium-Fox
Deadwood-HBO

 

I agree that it did take a turn to wards being more kid friendly. Wish they had assembled this in high def and not on SD videotape as the entire series would need to be rescanned for a high def release.

 

I used to watch The OC, and I was disappointed that it was cancelled after only 4 seasons though I can understand why. (They killed off Marissa and their ratings were tanking.)

 

This show has been on my 'To Watch' List for awhile as the subject matter is right up my alley and heard it was a great show. Almost bought the DVD(think only was 1 Season that was made, so just looked it up and mentioned there were 13 episodes).

About the Show:

Meet the Donnelly brothers: Tommy, Jimmy, Kevin and Sean. There is nothing these four Irish brothers wouldn't do to protect each other, and for them that means lying, cheating, stealing and, occasionally, calling the cops. Narrated by wannabe gangster Joey "Ice Cream," this gritty series bears witness to the Donnelly brothers' sudden involvement in organized crime, focusing on how they go from boys to mobsters, and showing how their new life affects their relationships with friends, family and lovers.

Academy Award winners Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco ("Crash") are the creators of this gritty new crime drama series loosely based on Moresco's background.

 

How did I leave "Luck" off. Loved that flick and Carnivale

 

Airing that many seasons, it's safe to say it doesn't match what the OP had in mind for this thread.
It was an alright show, some episodes better than others. But it relied far too much on coincidence for my taste. Quite a few of the discoveries the cold case detectives stumbled across were just far too "convenient". Also, I never thought that series lead Kathryn Morris was convincing as a gritty police detective -- seemed like she'd be much better cast as a housewife type.

 

You're right- I looked the show up after I posted, and found out that it was long-lived, fairly well-known, and had achieved a fair amount of acclaim in its time (2003-2010.) Something I hadn't realized. I just stumbled across it while channel surfing at random, which is most often how I find cable shows to watch, these days.

I also learned that as of 2017, Cold Case was planned for a reboot, with a new cast of characters.

 

Two EXCELLENT crime dramas, one from the viewpoint of the police, one from the viewpoint of the crooks:

Robbery Homicide Division, from 2002, created by Michael Mann, starring Tom Sizemore, 13 episodes.

Smith, from 2007, starring Ray Liotta, and Simon Baker (who would soon find success on the execrable The Mentalist), cancelled after 3 episodes.

Both of these (but especially Robbery Homicide Division) were great shows cancelled far too soon!

 

Life On Mars ...
Any other flashback TV type series available?

 

That's My Bush!
Parodied the W. White House, made by the creators of South Park. It was delightfully silly, poking fun at both stereotypical sitcom tropes and politics at the same time. The official word was that it was too expensive to produce.

Another was Crossballs, a fake cable news show which placed real life pundits and activists on set with comedic actors designed to be extreme on both sides. It was all good and fun until the activists started threatening to sue and things typically got very heated.

 

I think The Night Strangler is good, too.

 

The early-'00s MTV cartoons Undergrads and Clone High were both really good, and both lasted only a season. The latter was created by the team who went on to success with the Lego and Jump Street movies, and was apparently cancelled in part because its portrayal of a horndog teenage Gandhi was taken as offensive in India and nearly queered a deal MTV was trying to set up there.

 

Yes, it is. The feature version released overseas was longer than the TV movie with an additional subplot added. Unfortunately, it feels a bit padded to me. Matheson did a good job with that one but was stumped on the third movie (which was never produced) which he collaborated with William F. Nolan on. It would have made an interesting movie but it would be terribly dated today (much like "Futureworld" which had a somewhat similar plot).

Matheson gave life to Carl Kolchak even if he didn't invent the character or write the original (at the time unpublished) novel. Certainly the novel does a great job of creating a memorable character but, between Matheson and McGavin, they made Kolchak memorable. That's not to slight the author Jeff Rice who's background as a news reporter gave a sense of reality to the novel but translating that to the screen can be difficult and Matheson, McGavin, Moxey and Curtis did a spectacular job with the first film (and Curtis as director ont he second).

Curiously, I think Jeff Rice had the potential to be like Stephen King as his novel was well written, breezy prose and memorable characters. He never really got the recognition beyond that that he deserved perhaps he was a little bit ahead of his time. He did write other novels including The Snake Patch, The Fifth Folio, Deadline among others. He also wrote the novelization for The Night Strangler (and also got--deserved--credit as creator of the TV series although if they had been smart they would have had him as a story editor when Matheson chose not to be involved). I guess he managed to make a living as a writer but he never got quite the fame of someone like King. I did like Rice's sort of noir hard boiled approach for the novel The Night Stalker.

 

The actual Seattle underground is such a disappointment after that '70s Kolchak tv movie!

I vaguiely remember a couple of early '80s sf series pilots that never got beyond pilot stage. They used them as summer fill-in 'movies'. All I can say is I really liked a couple of them. Also the Paul McGann Doctor Who that was basically the same scenario; never got more than the one tv 'movie length' pilot (unless the Big Finish audio productions are enough for you).

 

“Switch” starring Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert. And “Crazy Like A Fox” starring Jack Warden.

 

I liked both of those, and the short lived (two seasons) Onion News Network. The production design (and acting by "Brooke Alvarez" and the crew) was so dead on it's hard to tell from the real thing.

 

SportsNight-lasted one season on ABC, supposedly based on the workings at ESPN.

 

Are you including Ashes to Ashes?

 

As a huge fan of the work The Onion did with their online videos before the shows came I was hugely disappointed by ONN and their sports show. The tone of their online videos was completely different, a lot more silly. Their TV shows were based on characters who were mean spirited which was just a lot less clever. Where previously they were a lot more clever, they seemed to not know what to do to fill a show's time slot while maintaining that same style. So they decided to based the humor all around the horribleness of the people on the show, which just didn't resonate with me.

It's too bad, since The Onion is one of my favorite things ever. I even really dig the scarcely released Onion Movie, which lacks structure, a common theme, and is more just a series of sketches, some of which miss the mark and other ones which are classic.

 

The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

 

Two seasons. Great show.

Sports Night (a Titles & Air Dates Guide)