The 411 Top 5 04.19.06: Week Five
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 04.19.2006
The Top 5 Unjustly Canceled TV Shows...
Television is a harsh mistress. Every year it offers us a plethora of new shows, and then cruelly yanks away many of the ones we have just begin to enjoy before we even have a chance to get sick of them.
Sure, we could just suck it up and take a "oh well, that's the way it goes" kind of attitude. But, it's much more fun to bitch about it. And so, we proudly present:
5) Angel
4) Andy Richter Controls the Universe
3) Futurama
2) Arrested Development
1) Mystery Science Theater 3000
Twin Peaks - There is one thing I've noticed about the American viewing public. They like to pretend to be intellectually stimulated and challenged by deep concepts. But once things get a little too out there or a tad more challenging to follow, they quickly reveal their true nature and tune out. It happened to the Matrix trilogy, it's threatening to happen to Lost (if the nay-sayers who say the second season is losing steam are any indication), and it definitely happened to Twin Peaks. Everyone loved the show's first season, but when the second season veered further into the supernatural and inexplicable, the audience quickly faded away. The common perception is that the second season proved that David Lynch simply wasn't ready to handle an ongoing series. Personally, I would have loved to have seen how much further Lynch and co. could have pushed the boundaries if they had been allowed to keep this one going.
Wonderfalls - A delightfully twisted take on the Joan of Arc concept (and a much better show that Joan of Arcadia), Wonderfalls starred Caroline Dhavernas as a sarcastic Niagara Falls souvenir shop clerk, who wants nothing more than to be left alone and not help anyone. Unfortunately, this proves impossible once certain souvenirs, and any other inanimate objects resembling, begin talking to her in bizarre single sentence cryptic messages and commands. The objects would not shut up until Dhavernas did whatever they asked, which would then set off a chain of events that would eventually help somebody. The show was hilarious and touching (the "will they or won't they" love story between Dhavernas and male lead Tyron Leitso was excellently done), and should have made a huge star of the super-cute Dhavernas. The only problem? It was on FOX. The network never seemed sure how to promote the odd concept, and quickly canned it after airing only a handful of episodes. Luckily, the complete series is out on DVD. Check it out.
Profit - This show had two things going against it from the very beginning. One: it was on FOX (yes, that is going to become a very reoccurring theme throughout this week's column). Two: it was simply ahead of its time. In 1996, American audiences apparently just weren't ready to watch a series about morals-free bastard Jim Profit (excellently portrayed by Adrian Pasdar), who every week would indulge in bribery, blackmail, extortion, and even murder to get to the top of the company he worked for. Nowadays, with shows like The Shield and Nip/Tuck proving that people are more willing to root for bad guys, Profit would probably be better off. But at least we have the DVD set to remind us how ahead of the curve this one was.
5 – There really was no good reason for this one. Angel's ratings were remaining consistent, and, having finally emerged from out under Buffy's shadow, it was enjoying its most critically acclaimed season yet (I personally think season 5 of Angel was superior to any Buffy season, but then, I've always been more partial to Angel anyway). In my opinion, The WB simply never forgave Joss Whedon for moving Buffy over to UPN, and this was their chance for revenge.
4 – Hey, an incredibly funny and smart FOX series that was canceled before it's time? What are the odds? Andy Richter Controls the Universe gave Conan's former sidekick a great opportunity to break out on his own, and he did just that, creating one of the funniest surreal sitcoms to ever come along. Unfortunately, he did so on a network that never seems to get behind its high concept shows. FOX actually gave this two seasons (kinda), but, in the end, they got rid of and exiled Richter to the horrible Quintuplets. The universe will not be right until we get a DVD release for this one.
3 – I don't have much more to say about this one than some of my fellow writers will soon cover. Suffice to say that Futurama's entire run is up there with the best years of the Simpsons, and it is simply mind-boggling that it never caught on. Before Family Guy stole its thunder with a similar situation, Futurama was the first show to raise talk of a second life thanks to DVD sales and popular Adult Swim reruns. There seems to be a constant going back-and-forth on whether or not FOX is bringing it back. If they were smart, they'd resurrect it and put it at Sundays at 8:30 (instead of the terrible War at Home), giving them an entire night of animation. But then, if they were smart they wouldn't have given it the shaft in the first place.
2 – As Avery Chan points out later, this one is almost a given, as its cancellation was one of the most lamented of recent years. But there was a reason for that reaction, so I'd feel remiss if I didn't include it here. I'm gonna switch things up a little here and actually give FOX some credit (not too much, though). They did keep this show alive a lot longer than anyone expected them to, and you got the feeling that they really wanted it to be a success. The failure of Arrested Development falls more on the shoulders of the average American viewing public, who would much rather continue to watch crap like American Idol or According to Jim than the most brilliant comedy to hit airwaves in some time. And if you had told me a few years ago that I would be saying that about a Jason Bateman show someday, I would have laughed at you. The anguish we all felt when this one finally got the axe was not just sadness over losing such a great show, but also knowing that it will probably be a long time before we get another one anywhere near this level of genius.
1 – My all time favorite show, Mystery Science Theater 3000 stands as proof that basic cable networks can screw shows over just as well as the big four can. With an amazingly simplistic concept – a guy and two robots watch bad movies and crack jokes during it – it was one of the shows that originally put Comedy Central on the map (along with Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect), and for a while the network treated it with the respect that should earn it. But, over time, things began to change, and near the end of its Comedy Central run the network had saddled it with crappy timeslots and not much promotion. When Comedy Central finally pulled the plug, fans didn't get to grieve very long, as Sci-Fi Channel quickly announced they were picking it up. Despite some changes that Sci-Fi demanded (like giving the show a week-to-week storyline, thus somewhat hurting it's rerun potential) MST continued to creatively thrive at its new home. Unfortunately, Sci-Fi's feelings toward the show must have cooled after the initial love, because it wasn't long before they too gave it a crappy time slot (at one point new episodes were debuting at 11 a.m. on Saturdays and rerunning at 11 p.m. on Sundays – not exactly great times for a two hour show). Although the ratings remained steady, it never showed the huge growth Sci-Fi was apparently looking for, and in 2000 the network eventually brought it to an end for good. There were brief rumors of AMC picking it up, but they never materialized. I realize some people may say I shouldn't complain about this one, since it had a good ten year run, which is more than most shows get. But, let's face it, there's no reason this show should ever have to end. There will always be bad movies made. Hell, Sci-Fi Channel itself makes a new one every week. I'm willing to bet the folks at Best Brains Inc. (MST's former production company) would be willing to come back together and send Mike and the ‘bots back into space for more bad movie riffing, if only there was a network out there in need. The kind of network looking to forge a new identity and in desperate need or more original programming instead of Star Trek and Fastlane reruns, perhaps? That's right, G4, I'm talking to you.
Arnold Furious
5) Family Guy
4) Futurama
3) Firefly
2) Greg the Bunny
1) Police Squad
Technically #5 is cheating because it came back, but it was still cancelled after the first three series. Cancelled by Fox in 2002, Family Guy was consistently pushing the boundaries of what was tasteful, and during its first run from 1999-2002 was by far the funniest thing on TV. I was actually with the show right from the start. Now everyone has seen it. If they'd watched it in the first damn place maybe it wouldn't have got canned. #4 ran from 1999-2003. At the time of its cancellation Futurama was way funnier than the Simpsons, and characters such as Bender, Dr Zoidberg and Professor Farnsworth were beloved by the vast majority of my slacker generation. Even the smaller characters like the robot Don or the guy whos ends alls his words withs esses. Here's hoping that DVD sales can resurrect one of my favourite TV shows. If the Simpsons hadn't recently put out some of its better episodes since Futurama's inception I'd really be missing it. #3 is shocking stuff, considering that Firefly became the hit movie Serenity. Not only that, but the creative force behind it was Joss fucking Whedon. The guy who gave the world Buffy and Angel, two of the biggest money spinning TV series in recent memory. It's a reoccurring theme. Futurama was a potential merchandise goldmine from Matt Groening, who's probably sold more merchandise than everyone, bar George Lucas, over the past 30 years. Whedon himself is no fool in that respect, and Firefly had cult written all over it from day one. And yet Fox baulked at the cost and cancelled it after 11 episodes. Bastards. You'll notice they've been to blame for 3/5 thus far. #2 Greg the Bunny was at times absolutely groundbreaking. Dealing with racism by using puppets, and at times Corey Feldman, was a genius stroke. I'd like to personally thank Cris Murphy for reviewing the DVD. I picked it up a week later and I got addicted to the series. Count Blah is one of my favourite TV characters, ever. I feel robbed that this show was stolen from me before it's time. Although it was clear the show lost it edge at times, it had so much potential and so many excellent characters that it's a shame it went out the way it did. Oh, and that was also cancelled by Fox. At #1 is Police Squad. It lasted 6 episodes. I have them all on tape. It spawned THREE hit movies starring Leslie Nielson called the Naked Gun. It was essentially all the same jokes as the 6 episode TV run. ABC were to blame for this cancellation, preventing Fox from getting a sweep. The show's creators had previously done Airplane and the show got terrific reviews. For some reason ABC though the show required "too much attention" from the viewer. What. The. Fuck. Yeah, why have something people have to pay attention to when you just crank out the mind destroying pap that ABC is so famous for. In my mind, ABC has created 3 good shows. Ever. Happy Days, Lost and I'll let you guess at the third one. But then generally I hate TV. And I hate it even more when shows of this quality get cancelled. How did Police Squad get cancelled? Should be a DVD out this year. Sadly most of the good gags were stolen for Naked Gun but it's still brilliant.
Chad Webb
Honorable Mention: WWE Confidential -2002
5) Firefly 2002-2004
4) The Critic 1994 -1995
3) Futurama 1999-?
2) My So-Called Life 1994-1995
1) Freaks and Geeks 1999-2000
5. How can this not be on most people's lists? The film Serentiy has generated a huge following, and the show was equally as good. It almost seems like a crime that a decent show like this doesn't get a second run, and it's also sad that the film doesn't get a sequel. Every member of cast does a superb job in their roles, and the episodes are almost always entertaining. This is terrific sci-fi stuff, so I had to put it on my list even though I'm fairly new to the series.
4. I have always been a fan of the comedy of Jon Lovitz, and I remember this cartoon being hilarious. It was weird at times, but still great. This show went to many different networks. From ABC to Fox to Comedy Central, and then UPN was going to take it but they dropped it. Being a fan of films, and now that I critique movies myself, this show is more fun to watch now than it ever was. In this day and age, The Critic probably would have had a longer lifespan.
3. Personally, I enjoyed this show a lot more than The Simpsons. I liked how the characters were all unique and different. You never knew what to expect from these episodes. I have heard rumors of more episodes and a comeback, but I haven't seen anything concrete. The late night adult swim episodes were what ignited my interest in the show again. I own a bunch of the seasons on DVD now, and even though I don't watch a lot of TV, I would watch this if they brought it back.
2. I can't say enough of how groundbreaking this series was. Not only were the characters wonderful, memorable, and convincing, but also the storylines were extremely genuine. Claire Danes and Jared Leto have both gone on to bigger and better things, and it was this show that really started it all for them. This was back when MTV was actually great to watch. They had music videos all day, and great shows at night like this and Beavis and Butthead. My how times have changed. This show could never come back today, but it was still unjustly cancelled. It could have definitely had a better run.
1. When a friend got this series on DVD I thought it looked stupid, but after watching one episode I was hooked. This is one of the best (and accurate) shows portraying middle/high school kids that I have ever seen. Second only to The Wonder Years. James Franco and Linda Cardellini have made careers for themselves, and the other members of the cast are starting to get better roles also nowadays. I loved each episode, and I dearly wish they had made more. I cannot recommend this DVD set enough for those of you who want to check out a new show. Finally, How can you not love Biff from Back to the Future as the gym teacher?
Avery Chan
Honorable Mention: The Flash, Newsradio, The Ben Stiller Show
5) Thieves
4) Cupid
3) The Tick
2) Now and Again
1) Angel
All my picks have one thing in common that probably made them more likely to be cancelled – high concept. The deeper you go into the list, the higher the concept of the show. That's also probably why they got the shittiest timeslots. As a quick note, I just wanted to say that Arrested Development is kind of a given and there's really nothing new to say about it, so it's not on the list.
5. Thieves aired on Friday nights and starred John Stamos and Melissa George as a pair of professional um, thieves, who are blackmailed by the FBI into working for them or go to prison. Each episode involved some sort of Ocean's 11-meets-Alias type heist and constant opposites attract sexual tension between the two leads. Stamos is a charming and self-effacing while George is irresistible in the role of the intelligent British bad girl. The draw of the show for me was in wanting to be Stamos character, doing all these cool things with a really hot blonde chick.
4. The #4 show Cupid, which had an even worse Saturday timeslot, featured Entourage's Jeremy Piven as a psych patient, who may or may not be the Roman God of Love who is exiled and powerless until he can unite 100 couples in everlasting love. Paula Marshall played the shrink trying to treat him, and possibly growing more attracted to him. Is he truly who he says he is? Will the 100th couple end up being himself and the doc? We'll never know now. Those who only know Piven from his role as jackass super-agent Ari Gold will be surprised to see how versatile he is, playing a sensitive, but no less sarcastic and acerbic, character who believes true love involves more than a weekly anal sex night.
3. As for my #3 unjustly cancelled shows, people just had no idea what to make of it. The masses could not take the live-action version of The Tick seriously and Fox did not give it the support it needed. Thrown against the still strong Thursday Must See TV lineup, The Tick (which if I remember correctly, was paired up with Family Guy, another cancelled series), starred Patrick Warburton as the heroically clueless superhero fighting crime along with sidekick Arthur and other "heroes" such as Bat-Manuel and Lady Liberty. The show never took itself seriously and used the campiness to create some deliciously absurd storylines. Any show featuring Patrick Warburton is quality programming as the man has the ability to take any comedy and make it even funnier (see Seinfeld, Newsradio). Warburton as the Tick was one of those once-in-a-lifetime occurrence of dream casting that got unfairly cut short.
2. I mentioned earlier about how all the shows on my list involved high concepts. The concept of my #2 show is arguably the highest. In the pilot of Now and Again, John Goodman's character is run over by a subway (suicide or murder?) but the government saves his brain and places it in the genetically created super-body of Eric Close (now on Without a Trace). Like the Six Million Dollar man, he is now stronger, faster and also sexier but has to use those skills to do shady covert ops for the government. A pre-24 Dennis Haysbert plays his psychiatrist/overseer who makes sure the Goodman brain doesn't suffer a breakdown or try to escape. The heart of the show, what made it special, was Goodman/Close's relationship with his widow and daughter. When they meet in his new identity, she begins to fall for him and he must deal with not only the regret he feels at the way he use to neglect his family but also the fact that she is essentially falling for a new man and moving on with her life.
1. Some will argue that unlike the other shows on this list, Angel was given a five year run, which hardly makes its cancellation unjust. With the way I'm looking at it however, season 5 was the start of a new series, Angel 2.0 if you will. That season rebooted the entire series, taking Angel and his crew away from the private investigation biz and putting them in charge of the law firm of Wolfram and Hart, their sworn enemies. Throw in the addition of Spike to the crew and this was a whole new show with a new purpose and dynamic. New storylines began and characters started new arcs but they all got compressed and rushed when the WB decided mid-season to cancel. Angel and Spike's developing competitive brotherly relationship, Angel's affair with a wolf-girl, Cordelia's return, Gunn's fall and redemption, Fred's journey from nerdy scientist to evil goddess, and Wesley's ongoing evolution were all potentially multi-season plots that had to be hastily wrapped up by the finale. It's a credit to Joss Whedon and the writers that the fifth season is considered the best season of the run. It leaves me wondering how good the next season could've been.
5) This was one of the few shows that could scare me every freakin' episode. The first season was its best, and had me join the Cult of Lance Henrickson. The second season saw a little more slack and the third season was just weird. But I loved where the show was going, and I knew it still had a lot of ground to cover that would keep freaking me out. I was sorry to see it go.
4) The first of 3 shows cancelled by the geniuses at Fox. Edgy, funny as hell, and never relented in spoofing the modern age by telling the tales of the future. Futurama was The Simpsons without a leash. And who can forget you good friend Dr. Zoidberg?
3) Angel was given a great 5-year run on the WB, but you knew that everyone at Mutant Enemy was just getting their feet wet with this series. After the cancellation of Buffy and Firefly in the same year, all the ME writers came together to work on the final year of Angel...and turned in its greatest season. It managed to get puppets, demigods, and The Immortal in one season, and did so with style and wit you don't see on most horror shows. They just got started with Angel, CEO of Wolfram & Hart, storyline, and had a million places where this could go. Even though it was cancelled, the ME crew still managed to produce one of the greatest endings to a show ever...Angel and company ready to do battle with thousands of nasty demons ready to take them down. And they ended with a cliffhanger. That's genius! This show also marked one of the largest fan-based "save the show" campaigns in TV history. Hundreds of thousands of people signed online petitions and took out full-page ads in trade magazines to tell the WB network to keep Angel going. I don't care if it's been on for 5 years. If a show gets that kind of support from its fans and still gets cancelled, it's unjust.
2) Greg the Bunny was something that caught me by surprise...but was a welcomed surprise. The behind-the-scenes look at a children's puppet show in a world where puppets are real was clever and hysterical. You had Eugene Levy, Seth Green and Sarah Silverman interacting with some of the most clevery written puppets I've seen (besides The Muppet Show). I still crave Count Blah on a regular basis, and love to throw in my DVD set of the series to get a few laughs when there's nothing else on TV...and that's a lot.
1) Firefly set the standard for storytelling and science fiction. There's nothing else that can be said. The cast was fantastic. The characters were real and flushed out in a way that you couldn't resist liking all of them. The writing was some Joss Whedon's best. The concept of a space western gave a small shout-out to the old sci-fi serials like Flash Gordon and Journey to the Bottom of the Sea, while creating his own palpable world you can easily get absorbed in. But what does Fox do? The put it in the death knell of Friday nights at 8 pm EST, and marketed it as the latest Sci-Fi feature from the writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They should have marketing this as a western in space, and it would have garnered a bigger audience. Plus, Kaylie was so cute!
Bryan Kristopowitz
5) USAC Thursday Night Thunder - ESPN/ESPN2
4) Wanted - TNT
3) The George Carlin Show – Fox
2) The Critic - ABC/Fox
1) The Flash - CBS
Honorable Mentions:
WCW Monday Nitro (TNT) - Its demise ended the Monday Night Wars and real competition in wrestling
Dark Angel (Fox) - Was there a war between the government and the mutants? If so, who won?
Medical Investigation (NBC) - It was just starting to get good and then it was thrown off the air to be replaced by…
Law & Order: Trial by Jury (NBC) - Bebe Neuwirth was a great DA.
5 - This was one of the coolest race shows on television. Sprint cars, midgets, and Silver Crown cars, usually on pavement (and sometimes on dirt), racing like they do on local short tracks around the country. Helped make USAC a player in creating future NASCAR drivers. Moved to Saturday night and still provided a great show. When ESPN lost the rights to NASCAR the network basically abandoned most of its auto racing coverage (they kept the Indy Racing League, which is cool, but it would have been nice to have the midgets on like they had been). USAC then moved to the new SPEED cable channel. Not sure if they ever did a show. How many hours can SPEED fill with World Rally Racing and that car auction show? Hopefully, with ESPN getting NASCAR back, the network will shelve the fifteen hours of Sportscenter and the lame TV movies and put on some short track racing.
4 - This show didn't look promising in the commercials. It just looked annoying. And who was going to buy Gary Cole (Bill Lumburg, the second Mike Brady) as a bad butt cop? It's Gary Cole. And then the show debuted and wham! Cole kicks butt and you believe it. Everyone is afraid of him. And his team, made up of specialists from many different local and federal law enforcement agencies, have the authority to track down the top 100 criminals in Los Angeles. Great action pieces (for television), decent music, and, again, Gary Cole kicking the crap out of people. Features the first full on M-16 to the face (and they show it) and a guy getting his tongue ripped out by a woman he was trying to rape. It's too bad. It was only going to get better.
3 - One of the funniest sitcoms ever made by Fox. Carlin was a cab driver in New York City, and when he wasn't driving people around he hung out in a local bar, "The Moylan," with his pals Harry (Alex Rocco), Frank (Michael G. "Bad Billy Pratt" Haggerty), bar owner Jack (Anthony Starke), and yuppie scumbag doctor Beck (Christopher Rich). The cast chemistry was outstanding, the situations different week to week (some normal sitcomy stuff, to a discussion on whether or not Carlin saw a UFO, to Carlin holding onto guest star Tommy Chong's pot, duct taping it to his chest and them removing it in the bar bathroom, giving us the one of the greatest lines in TV history: "Ugh! There goes my one good nipple!") and Carlin showed the world that he didn't need the "F" word to be funny (although there was that episode where all of the cuss words were bleeped out. Hysterical). Carlin said that he didn't want to do the show anymore because of network interference and was happy when it didn't get picked up. It sucks that Fox didn't let the comedic genius they managed to get for their network do the things he wanted to do. The show would probably still be on the air.
2 - This reviewer remembers being shocked when he heard that there was going to be another prime time cartoon in the style of "The Simpson's" and eagerly waited for whatever "The Critic" was to come on. After the first episode, this reviewer was hooked. The main character, morbidly obese film critic Jay Sherman (voiced by the great John Lovitz), was both a snotty jerk and a lovable goof. He was a smart guy who had no control over the world but refused to bend to its rules (hence his movie review show catch phrase, "It stinks!"). The second episode, a parody of "Misery," where Sherman is kidnapped by an obsessed female fan, is memorable for the "Buy my Book! Buy my Book! Buy my Book!" bookstore talking stand in joke (it's still funny). For whatever reason it didn't catch on enough for ABC to keep it, so it was moved to Fox, which added a new character Alice (voiced by Park Overall) as a love interest for Sherman, which worked but wasn't given enough time to develop like it should have. Fox eventually just let it die (it was at this time that Fox really started to get ruthless with shows that, in the past, they would have kept on so they could build an audience. Of course, the bigger Fox got, the less patient they go with underperforming shows. They became just like everyone else). At least we have the DVD set, and the occasional showing on Comedy Central. The Cartoon Network should try to revive the show. They've done a great job with "The Boondocks." Jay Sherman, who wanted to become the world's fattest man, die while eating a sandwich, and who waited for Bronson Pinchot to kill him with entertainment stupidity, still rules.
1 - Greatest superhero show ever on TV. John Wesley Ship as Barry Allen, the police scientist, who, after a freak accident at the lab, was able to run really, really fast. He donned a skin tight red suit, called himself "The Flash," and in true superhero fashion beat the crap out of criminals and bad guys because he could. Had a great supporting cast (Amanda Pays as Allen's confidant, Richard Belzer, Biff freaking Manard, and eventually Luke Skywalker himself as a lunatic killer known as The Trickster). Great effects for a weekly TV show, nothing too outlandish (no aliens or anything. There was that bad guy who was frozen in time and was sucked into a television, but as far as this reviewer can remember that was about the weirdest thing they did. Accept for the guy running faster than the speed of sound thing). Had a weird timeslot, Thursdays at 8:30 (it was an hour show, but this was also the mega successful start of "The Simpson's" on Fox, and it was on at 8). Didn't garner the kind of ratings the network figured it should have for the cost of production and they slowly let it die. Only last one year. The 2 hour pilot movie had the great Tim Thomerson as Shipp's cop brother, who was killed by bikers and it was the event that made Shipp want to fight crime as "The Flash." It's also cool that the show was populated by "Trancers" alumni (the main writers for the series were Paul DeMeo and Danny Bilson, who got their start with Charles Band of Empire Pictures and Full Moon Pictures fame). Just a dang good show. Could have gone on for many more seasons.
Damn, that was a tough one. I didn't realize just how many shows I was pissed about losing until I sat down to write this thing. Even after stretching my own rules and allowing multiple "honorable mentions" I still found myself leaving off shows I dearly miss, like Boston Public and Action.
No surprise to see FOX pop up in here so many times. At times it seems the network gets its kicks by creating some of the best TV shows around and then promptly getting rid of them.
Still, although I'm no fan of Family Guy, at least its resurrection shows that from now on there is hope for our favorite cancelled shows. And, if not, there's always DVD.
Next week, we'll find out which movies the 411 crew can't help but love, even though it makes them feel all dirty inside, as we look at: The Top 5 Guilty Pleasure Movies.
Until then, go watch some quality TV, to ensure we never lose another quality show in favor of According to Jim.
