One season TV shows you loved

If I love a new show, it’ll get canceled such as the recent Perfect Harmony. There’s a ton from the sixties with Time Tunnel and The Green Hornet as examples. From the turn of the century I loved No Ordinary Family and adored Trophy Wife which had the funniest Christmas episode ever.

So what TV shows did you love that bit the dust too soon? The only rule is the show lasted for just one season or less.

 

Police Squad!
(In Color)

 

Hmm The Dresden Files was not bad for that kind of thing. Constantine was another decent show and oh yeah, The Beast but nature taking its course was the enemy on that one.

 

Freaks and Geeks has always been a favorite. Also loved ABC's Sons and Daughters. It was up against the American Idol and couldn't compete. It had a silly disclaimer before the show stating that the dialogue on the show was partially improvised. Unfortunately, the only way to watch the show now is through videos online, many uploaded by the show's creator Fred Goss.

Edit: Almost forgot The Grinder. Great show with Fred Savage and Rob Lowe.

 

Baby I'm Back with-Demond Wilson And Kim Fields...The New Breed with Leslie Nielson...Maya with Jay North and Clint Walker...Stoney Burke with Jack Lord...Destination Moon with Ed Bishop...Search with Hugh O'Brian and Doug Mc Clure.

 

Journeyman

The concept of going back in time and fixing things has been done a million times, but this show did it really well with great acting and a great cast.

 

Awake starring Jason Isaacs. It's basically about a detective who seems to be in a constant dream state. In one, his wife was killed in a car accident but his son survived. In the other, his wife survived but his son died. The show was getting close to explaining what was going on when it was cancelled by NBC.

 

Firefly

Freaks and Geeks

 

Space: Above and Beyond
Crusade (Babylon 5 spinoff)
Firefly
Nowhere Man
Rubicon

 

Hello Ladies (HBO)

 

Firefly
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
Dig

 

<-----------this one.

 

Hello Ladies

Freaks and Geeks

A to Z

 

Freaks and Geeks, of course.

Cafe Americain with Valerie Bertinelli

I was going to say "It's Like, You Know" but although only a total of 19 episodes aired, it was across two seasons. An intro 7 episodes spring of '99, then a regular 99/00 season when it got cancelled after 12 episodes.

There was a show in the 90s about two twenty-something (nerdy?) guys who shared a place with a cranky old woman roommate, but I can't for the life of me remember the name, any actors' names, or any other details. Helpful, huh?

 

My So-Called Life

 

Wait...that was IN COLOR?!

 

Fox and ABC appeared to be the most notorious for propping-up shows their audiences wouldn't support, and then pulling the rug out from under them before they had the chance to build a following. Perhaps it's not their fault, of course, as it IS all about market share, and not all sequentially-paced dramas give viewers a good jumping-on point. You've got to intrigue them from the beginning, with a Lost-sized "wtf" as a hook. If you don't see viewers responding to it immediately, well, that's all those viewers you'd hoped for, tuning-over to the competition every week at that same time, for the whole season.

NBC of course is famous for giving Star Trek enough rope to hang itself...and then watching the show finally catch critical-mass-sized fire in local syndication. The Peacock paid for it, and put it on life support for three seasons...then watched Paramount scoop up the profits later on.

 

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Clearly the bottom of the Aaron Sorkin TV universe, but I found it entertaining despite its flaws.

John Doe
I never understood why this was cancelled. I loved the show. It had a great cast. It seems like other shows borrowed from it after the fact. (Blindspot comes to mind.)

 

I really enjoyed Vinyl and was sad to see that HBO cancelled the second season.

 

Dresden Files

I didn't love the actual series, but it got me to thinking about how much better they could have done with it - make it grittier, be truer to the characters in the books, etc. If Hollywood can make "Grimm," "The Flash," "Fringe," etc., they sure as heck could have done a better job on noire/urban fantasy.

 

The Dana Carvey Show 1996

 

It was actually a season and a half, but "Brackens World" was a terrific show about the Movie business.

And NBC found a way to screw it all up.

 

“Undeclared”....another Apatow one-season wonder, with Charlie Hunnam, Seth Rogen, Jason Segal and Jay Baruchel.

 

Missed it. Great cast!

 

Century City, a sci-fi legal drama (if that makes any sense) starring, among others, the incredibly handsome Ioan Gruffudd. Only 4 episodes aired in the US, although 9 were filmed (I think all 9 aired in Canada).