Shows you wish weren't axed?

Basq

There's a lot of shows out there that were axed - even though they had a strong fan base and they were certainly entertaining - the network just sees it's not got a future and pulls the plug on it!

Everyone has had a show that they enjoyed that was cancelled...

... share your opinions on your own!

PS: 'Family Guy' doesn't count! It's due back on-air next June in the US.

Mine:

- Freaks and Geeks - An amazing show set at the beginning of the 80's at a typical American High School. But instead of following the lives of the 'cheerleaders and jocks' (a la Dawson's Creek etc), it follows the least popular groups at the school - the freaks and the geeks.

Critics loved it! The writing was sharp, the characters felt real, cast (including James Franco of 'Spiderman' fame and Linda Cardinelli of 'ER' fame) were top-notch - the show was top of it's class!

So what went wrong?

Well, many reasons:
- it got the 'graveyard slot' - Friday's at 8pm (TV ratings were always very poor around this timeslot)
- it was moved around a lot in the schedules. At one point, it was taken off the air for a few weeks for American Football playoffs.
- due to this constant movement of it's timeslot, no-one knew when it was being shown.

The show only lasted 18 hour-long episodes - only had 14 of these were shown in the US. It had a short run on Network 2 a few years back but in a terrible time slot (what a suprise?!) and E4 also showed it a year or two back.

The Complete Season of the show was recently released on DVD. And they went all out on the DVD (with 29 audio commentaries, gag reel, behind the scenes, over 100 deleted scenes, TV spots).

If you haven't seen the show, i really recommend buying the DVD. Or at least getting some of the episodes off BitTorrent, it's a show that deserves to be seen! Sharper than a lot of the comedy / drama on TV today.

BuffyBot

Popular and Grosse Point Blank

MarcusGarvey

My So Called Life

Hobbes

Firefly.

I am halfway through watching the series and I have to say it is one of the best series I have seen in a long time.

At the level of Babylon 5 certainly.

Stark

Farscape (a miniseries just isn't enough).
Sliders (okay it was getting stale, but there should have been some sort of proper ending instead of just leaving the series hanging).

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by basquille
Or at least getting some of the episodes off BitTorrent

that makes baby jeebus cry

Freaks and Geeks was a good show though

LizardKing

Millenium .. I loved that show

giftgrub

i was sorry to see Miracles go but its being repeated on living so its not all bad

Sleepy

Space: Above & Beyond. My favourite Sci-Fi show of all time.

ixoy

Angel - The fantastic finale showed just how good the show could still be.
Firefly and Millennium as mentioned (must order Millennium Season 1 when I get home).
American Gothic - Great stuff, great ending. Someone's at the door...
Dark Skies - A show which had five decades of material plotted out. Proper arcs, good characters. And they cancel it.
Twin Peaks - Surprised it didn't get a mention. Leaving Agent Cooper trapped in the Black Lodge whilst his evil twin laughs into a cracked mirror? NOT FAIR. Also bring out S2 please on DVD!!

Basq

Just to let all you fans of Firefly fans know, Joss Whedon and the cast of Firefly are continuing the legacy with a film called Serenity.

And if that wasn't good enough, it'll be released in cinemas!

It'll be in cinemas in the US on April 22nd 2005

They're currently filming it.

Official Site here

jill_valentine

Originally posted by BuffyBot
Popular and Grosse Point Blank

Amen! God I miss Popular... So funny, so snarky... And I really liked GPB, somewhere between spoofin Dawsons Creek and Sunset Beach... genius.

Buffy got a chance to come to its natural end (Some say two seasons too late), but Angel was f**king murdered. The B*stards at WB are now saying that it was "a mistake" to cancel it, and are blaming Fox. Fox are blaming WB's Jordan Levin, who was forced to resign already, and Garth Ancier is muttering about spin off movies. But its too late, the sets have been dismantled the cast have moved on. Stupid b*stards cancelled one of their only shows that was actually increasing viewers...

Stark

Angel - The fantastic finale showed just how good the show could still be.

But it's not really over, there'll still be TV movies.

ixoy

Originally posted by Stark
But it's not really over, there'll still be TV movies.

There may be TV movies. Nothing confirmed. And I seem to recall you've got Farscape mentioned which is definetely being given another few hours on screen...

Evil_Bilbo

yeah - twin peaks.

It was ditched because of the whole "if you miss a coupla episodes, you dunno whats going on" thing. there was scheduling nightmares - it was shown different times every week, people lost interest, ratings dropped.

The last episode was a "tie-up" by david lynch (it did get a bit crap when he stopped being involved), so I dont think it was supposed to be a cliff hanger. Coop is stuck in the black lodge and that is that.

Who knows maybe the whole "25 years later" red room / dream sequence will be made when it actually is 25 years later - then the story could be taken up from there. (wow thats a good idea).

smoke.me.a.kipper

Futurama
Space: Above & Beyond

dave13

Boomtown- one of the most inventive cop shows in recent years.Cancelled after one season
Undeclared- From the freaks + geeks crew but set in college. very similar also cancelled after one season

emertoff

This Life.
I thought it was the outstanding drama of the 90's. They had scope for a 4th series I felt.

mike65

Beggars and Choosers a Showtime series backed with Granada UK, made it too half way through series 2 before the axeman came. Great series about a start-up TV network owned by a mad billionaire then his grasping wife. Loads of great characters and plot twists.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199356/usercomments

Mike.

Concorde

I really loved "This Life" too. My favourite comedy of all time and one I never tire of despite having watched hundreds of repeats is "Keeping up Appearances" I often wonder hows the actors kept straight faces while saying their lines! Long live Hyacinth Bucket!!

JBoyle4eva

Originally posted by smoke-me-a-kipper
Futurama
Space: Above & Beyond

Greatest anim-com ever exsisted.

Anyone remember The PJs? It was on Sky one around 1999/2000 but they repeated it late nights last year, and now channel4 show it.

However, They had struggled ratings through it's 2nd series, and Fox sold the rights to The WB(channel in the states) and they had even worse ratings, so they scrapped The Pjs after 3 seasons. Had to be Eddie Murphuy's(That's right! He was the creator/director!) best work!

smoke.me.a.kipper

the PJ's was brilliant. ive found myself staying up late to see the repeats on channel4 recently. great stuff alltogether!!

LoneGunM@n

I've said it before & I'll say it again ... John Doe ... Fecking Fox canning it when we find out who the "bad guy" is :mad: :mad:

damntheman

I'd have to agree with My So-Called Life.

How long was that on for, one season?

damntheman

Salute Your Shorts, I loved it.

ChumpStain

Undeclared springs to mind because I sometimes see it on UTV at about 2 o'clock in the morning. Family Guy aswell although it is coming back so I can't really complain about that but still we've been missing two and half years of new episodes.

Gaijin

Space:Above and Beyond...why lord WHY!!

Popular was great too.

Basq

Yeah, a few of ye have mentioned Undeclared (which i did enjoy, but not as much as Freaks And Geeks)

Most of the cast of Freaks And Geeks were in the series of Undeclared at one point.

But one of the last episode's of Undeclared, "Eric's POV" is hilarious stuff! Definantly the best of the series.

It's the one with Ben Stiller guesting as Eric's stepfather and his great acronymn for 'Relationship'.

"Wanna know what a relationship is? Real Exciting Love Affair Turns Into Outrageous Nightmare, Sobriety Hangs In Peril. Or somewhat like that... i got it tattooed on my back! Wanna look?"

CLASSIC!

Hobbes

Originally posted by basquille
Just to let all you fans of Firefly fans know, Joss Whedon and the cast of Firefly are continuing the legacy with a film called Serenity.

And if that wasn't good enough, it'll be released in cinemas!

It'll be in cinemas in the US on April 22nd 2005

They're currently filming it.

Official Site here

The movie isn't about firefly though. It is about the first 10 minutes of the first episode (the battle of Serenity).

Based on the episode the movie has the potencial to be excellent, however the after watching the series I am more pissed off that they stopped it.

There is too much left open,

like who are the blue handed guys? What happened to River? What is Shepards Agenda?

.

I would say it is better then a lot of the Sci-Fi series I have seen.

Can't think why they canned it. Offhand, maybe

the space hookers or the lesbian scene or the black bounty hunter guy threatening to rape the engineer

Cactus Col

Family Guy

Brimestone

Futurama

jill_valentine

The Invisible Man, with Vince Ventresca. It was killed and resurrected a few times, but each time they messed around with the format a little more, and by the end if was unrecognisable from the first ep. The Quicksilver transformation was sh*t cool...

Re: Angel, Joss Whedon has cautioned fans against getting their hopes up about spin-off movies...

Stark

There'll be something though I'd say. It might not be Angel in its current incarnation but I doubt they'd just let the Buffy/Angel universe die.

We'll probably have a combined project with characters from Angel and characters from Buffy.

There's an animated series of Buffy (no doubt with characters from Angel dropping in) in the works which according to Josh Whedon is just as good as the live action tv show, not dumbed down for kids or anything. All the original actors with the exception of Sarah Michelle Gellar will be doing the voices.

jill_valentine

http://ericwight.com/portfolio/buffy001.html for some of the design sketches...

http://www.fanboyplanet.com/derek/mc-buffyjephloeb.php

If the series goes ahead properly, it'll be set during Season One, but retrofitted with Dawn. So, sadly, no Faith.

Syd_Vicious

Popular was great...the fat guy (can't remember his name) was awesome although he didn't get much air time near the end of its run. Plus nearly all the girls on the show were hot! Always a plus

I wish they didn't axe Boston Public. The first series was fcuking brilliant and although the next 2 series weren't as good as the first, it was still one of the few programs worth watching on TV. Anthony Heald was a genius with his perfect portrail of Scott Guber...long live Guber!!! :ninja:

jill_valentine

Sugar Daddy wasn't a patch on April Tuna... Jesus, when she auditioned for the cheerleaders, I thought I was going to die from suffocation... the expression... the insane flailing... the music... And then when she ended up in prison, getting tattoos... Glorious... is Popular available to buy?

ixoy

Originally posted by jill_valentine
is Popular available to buy?

September 21 it's being released for R1. You can get it bout €44 here.

Bungalow Bill

I have to say I kind of enjoyed Roswell when it was on, i just sort of got hooked on the storylines.
And on a slightly different note, football Italia is gone!!

Stark

I enjoyed Roswell sometimes as well. Although the whole Max/Liz thing was very annoying. At least it was given a chance to wrap things up before getting cancelled. I quite liked the ending.

jill_valentine

Roswell had a kickass opener (and gets extra points for featuring the only Smashing Pumpkins song I ever recall hearing on a TV show), and it did have the desperately gorgeous Jason Behr... but it got a bit wet after the first episode, and raced rapidly downhill. A real shame, only Dark Angel had a pilot quite as good... Bear in mind Roswell was largely to blame for the human wave of misery that is Dido.

JBoyle4eva

Originally posted by Cactus Col
Family Guy

You certainly are both of these:

1: living in a cave with no social skills.
2: An idiot(You Didn't read an earlier post on thsi thread!)

Why?

Family Guy is returning next year!

sceptre

Originally posted by JBoyle4eva
Family Guy is returning next year!

Bet you still wish it wasn't axed in the first place though:)

My So Called Life: I would have been happy with even two or three more episodes to tie up the whole thing. There were so many questions left hanging, like did Angela choos Jordan or Brian, did Angela forgive Rayanne etc. the show never even had time to suck. Although since the show never got an ending I am able to make up one or two in my head:)

Buffy: I think that season seven was awful, where did the brilliant show go? I think that if it had not moved from the wb it would have had a better chance because the production values of UPN were crap and the strain of moving it there were too much for the show to overcome.

Popular & Grosse Point: Two really good shows from the WB I loved them!

Freeks & Geeks:

Twin Peaks: It did get crazy after they solved the 'who killed Laura Palmer?' question, but I think if it had gone on, David Lynch would have re-shapen it to something brilliant again.

John R

American Gothic. Fantastic programme, there was still lots of life left in it, one of the few genuinely original shows on a US network in ages.

User45701

Space above and beyond

Pigman II

Popular
Space :AAB
Quantum Leap

ChumpStain

I forgot to mention DO Over which I thought was pretty cool, it was funny, had a good premise and was set in the 80's. Channel 4 show it at 3AM on Fridays, I especially like the episode with the take on Ferris Bueller.

aine

Originally posted by Sleepy
Space: Above & Beyond. My favourite Sci-Fi show of all time.

I agree 110%....even with the very obvious guest appearances from David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson....it was still one of the best SciFi shows ever!

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Chong

Two Words: California Dreams.

jill_valentine

"Surf dudes... with atti-tood!"
(#Kinda groovy...)

ixoy

Originally posted by daveirl
Also Dark Skies hasn't been mentioned but that was class! Discounted by most at the time as an X-Files rip, but it wasn't at all!

Yes it was. I mentioned it here and you're right - those claiming it to be an X-Files ripoff must've watched it for zero minutes....