64 Shows That Were Canceled…Too Soon? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

R.jsheedy · 07-30-2010, 10:06 AM

Where was DirecTV when they needed them?!

Last week DirecTV announced it had secured the exclusive US rights for two seasons (20 episodes) of Damages, thus saving the show from the cancellation scrap heap.

We’re certain one outcome of this will be that fans of shows with bad ratings will begin mounting campaigns for DirecTV to save their show, no matter how awful the ratings are.

That inspired me with the idea to do a silly weekly top ten list next year: “The DirecTV Top 10” for the shows most in need of saving from DirecTV.
To be clear, it is just intended as fun and to have yet another forum to discuss show ratings. There is no reasonable expectation, at least by us, that DirecTV will actually pick up any of the shows. Consider this: literally dozens of shows have been canceled in the last few years. DirectTV has had a hand in saving two of those shows, Friday Night Lights, and Damages.
While I plan to have some fun with it in the coming season, one idea that popped up was doing a bracket style tournament to produce an ultimate winner at the end of the season. While that idea didn’t work great for me in terms of how to handle next season’s shows, I thought it was a great idea in terms of going into the archive of already canceled shows to produce a winner. Basically, just like the NCAA basketball tournament come up with 64 shows, create brackets that produce various match ups with the winners advancing.

The first trick — coming up with 64 shows. Fortunately for us, Julia already did the work of trying to come up with a list of 64 shows. She included a lot of shows that were canceled since we launched the site in 2007, but for shows before that she tried to only include shows fans are still lamenting today (e.g. Arrested Development and Veronica Mars).
Edit: to be clear Julia is NOT suggesting (and neither am I) that these shows were actually canceled too soon or that they shouldn’t have been canceled. It’s just a list of shows that were either canceled in the last 3 years or still have fans lamenting the cancellations.

Here’s her list, it’s sorted alphabetically:

Canceled Too Soon?
Andy Barker, PI
Arrested Development
Back to You
Better off Ted
Bionic Woman
Boston Legal
Cane
Cold Case
Dead Like Me
Dirty Sexy Money
Dollhouse
Drive
Eastwick
Eli Stone
Everwood
Firefly
FlashForward
Freaks & Geeks
Gilmore Girls
Greg the Bunny
Heroes
Jericho
Journeyman
Knight Rider
Kyle XY
Las Vegas
Law & Order
Legend of the Seeker
Life
Life on Mars
Lipstick Jungle
Melrose Place
Men in Trees
Moonlight
My Name is Earl
My Own Worst Enemy
New Adventures of Old Christine
New Amsterdam
Numb3rs
October Road
Party Down
Prison Break
Privileged
Pushing Daisies
Raising the Bar
Reaper
Roswell
Samantha Who?
Scrubs
Shark
Smith
Star Trek: Enterprise
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Terminator: TSCC
The 4400
The Beautiful Life
The OC
The Unit
Ugly Betty
Veronica Mars
What About Brian
Without a Trace
Women’s Murder Club
Wonderfalls

If you have shows you think should be added, what show would you remove? Or perhaps, like the NCAA we will merely expand the bracket to include 68 or even 96 shows.

Can You Think Of Any More????

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/07/29...too-soon/58510

JT · 07-30-2010, 02:35 PM

The presence of Law and Order makes this list null and void.

dakert · 07-30-2010, 02:55 PM

Planet Of The Apes -1974
Invisible Man-1975

both of these were canceled way too soon

McGillicuddy · 07-30-2010, 02:55 PM

Scrubs? That was on for 9 seasons!

Prison Break What else can you do with this show once they broke out?

JamesG · 07-30-2010, 03:01 PM

Another one here I disagree with is "Prison Break".

My opinion is that the show lost its mojo after the second season. It had a decent run of four seasons, plus a direct-to-video movie, so it ended at the right time.

Also, though I wasn't a regular watcher of it, no idea why "Gilmore Girls" is here. It had a good run of 7 seasons, plus I hear that the original creator wasn't even involved during its last season.

MickeyMac · 07-30-2010, 04:46 PM

Shindig: September 1964-January 1966

Hullabaloo: January 1965-April 1966

They both had some light left in them.

JulieSomoski · 07-30-2010, 05:14 PM

What the hell kind of list is this? Many of these shows ran for years. Law & Order? Really? It ran for 20 years. Isn't that enough? Scrubs ran for 9 years (3 too many), Gilmore Girls and Wiithout a Trace ran for 7 (a perfect amount). Other shows just don't deserve to be on here because they were simply atrocious to watch. While I would agree with some (Old Christine, Boston Legal, Samantha Who?, Back to You), this list is pretty....weird.

factsoflife · 07-30-2010, 07:11 PM

My So-Called Life (ABC, 1994-1995, a total of 13 episodes produced)

Popular (The WB, 1999-2001, 43 episodes)

Kitchen Confidential (FOX, 2005, 13 episodes)

Grosse Point (The WB, 2000-2001, 17 episodes)

tv star collector · 07-30-2010, 07:17 PM

Moonlight and Roswell: definitely
Heroes: maybe (a finale tying together the loose ends would be nice)

Also: Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Sledge Hammer!

DSfan · 07-30-2010, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tv star collector

Moonlight and Roswell: definitely
Heroes: maybe (a finale tying together the loose ends would be nice)

Also: Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Sledge Hammer!

I always thought the sitcom with Bob Saget, Raising Dad, was pretty good when it aired around 2003 on the WB. It lasted one or two short seasons and that was it but it was of the same level, in my opinion, as What I Like About You, and could have lasted a little while longer.

Tubehead · 07-31-2010, 12:25 AM

Numbers i argee iwish they never got canncled. it was their number one hit show for years it was myfaovoite show. it even had henrywinkler gues stared.
The 4400
Moonlight
jouranyman
life on mars leastitgot a ending
Early ediiton need a endingreally bad why doees gray ge t the paper? were does the paper come from?
Daybreak
seven days usedtwatch it on upn then it moved to fox. so itdidn't lastlong i wish spike tv wouldair it agig. they air it early in the moring.
martial law
promise land
now and aging
the invisable man
the dead zone
Quatmaleap even thoughit did end i still think sam should have leaped home.

browneyes106 · 07-31-2010, 03:05 AM

I think Gilmore Girls and Prison Break ended at the right time. I remember reading somewhere that the creators of Prison Break only wanted it to be a four season thing. I was ok with Cold Case ending this year but a series finale should have been filmed as an alternative.

Nick@Nite · 07-31-2010, 02:06 PM

Note: these aren't all shows that I watched.

CBS:
The Unit
New Adventures of Old Christine

ABC:
Pushing Daisies
Samantha Who?
Ugly Betty
Men in Trees
Better off Ted
Boston Legal
Dirty Sexy Money
Eastwick
Eli Stone
FlashForward

NBC:
Heroes
Knight Rider
Las Vegas
Life
Lipstick Jungle
My Name is Earl
My Own Worst Enemy
Bionic Woman

FOX:
Terminator: TSCC
New Amsterdam
Dollhouse
Arrested Development
Back to You

CW:
Privileged

OTHER:
The 4400 (USA)

Plus: Kath & Kim, The Nine, Eleventh Hour, K-Ville, Close To Home.

That's 32.

browneyes106 · 07-31-2010, 05:17 PM

I thought The O.C. ended at the right time. I didn't like the series finale but looking back the show really couldn't go on longer. At least The O.C. didn't end up like One Tree Hill which has run it's course creatively.

browneyes106 · 07-31-2010, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesG

Another one here I disagree with is "Prison Break".

My opinion is that the show lost its mojo after the second season. It had a decent run of four seasons, plus a direct-to-video movie, so it ended at the right time.

Also, though I wasn't a regular watcher of it, no idea why "Gilmore Girls" is here. It had a good run of 7 seasons, plus I hear that the original creator wasn't even involved during its last season.

I agree Gilmore Girls had a good run. Amy Sherman Palladino had a contract dispute with the CW which happened because her contract with the WB was about to end around the same time that it was announced that UPN and WB were going to merge. Also Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel stated they were ok with the show ending after seven seasons.

07-30-2010, 10:06 AM	#1
R.jsheedy Member Senior Member Join Date: Nov 06, 2008 Posts: 1,035	64 Shows That Were Canceled…Too Soon? Where was DirecTV when they needed them?! Last week DirecTV announced it had secured the exclusive US rights for two seasons (20 episodes) of Damages, thus saving the show from the cancellation scrap heap. We’re certain one outcome of this will be that fans of shows with bad ratings will begin mounting campaigns for DirecTV to save their show, no matter how awful the ratings are. That inspired me with the idea to do a silly weekly top ten list next year: “The DirecTV Top 10” for the shows most in need of saving from DirecTV. To be clear, it is just intended as fun and to have yet another forum to discuss show ratings. There is no reasonable expectation, at least by us, that DirecTV will actually pick up any of the shows. Consider this: literally dozens of shows have been canceled in the last few years. DirectTV has had a hand in saving two of those shows, Friday Night Lights, and Damages. While I plan to have some fun with it in the coming season, one idea that popped up was doing a bracket style tournament to produce an ultimate winner at the end of the season. While that idea didn’t work great for me in terms of how to handle next season’s shows, I thought it was a great idea in terms of going into the archive of already canceled shows to produce a winner. Basically, just like the NCAA basketball tournament come up with 64 shows, create brackets that produce various match ups with the winners advancing. The first trick — coming up with 64 shows. Fortunately for us, Julia already did the work of trying to come up with a list of 64 shows. She included a lot of shows that were canceled since we launched the site in 2007, but for shows before that she tried to only include shows fans are still lamenting today (e.g. Arrested Development and Veronica Mars). Edit: to be clear Julia is NOT suggesting (and neither am I) that these shows were actually canceled too soon or that they shouldn’t have been canceled. It’s just a list of shows that were either canceled in the last 3 years or still have fans lamenting the cancellations. Here’s her list, it’s sorted alphabetically: Canceled Too Soon? Andy Barker, PI Arrested Development Back to You Better off Ted Bionic Woman Boston Legal Cane Cold Case Dead Like Me Dirty Sexy Money Dollhouse Drive Eastwick Eli Stone Everwood Firefly FlashForward Freaks & Geeks Gilmore Girls Greg the Bunny Heroes Jericho Journeyman Knight Rider Kyle XY Las Vegas Law & Order Legend of the Seeker Life Life on Mars Lipstick Jungle Melrose Place Men in Trees Moonlight My Name is Earl My Own Worst Enemy New Adventures of Old Christine New Amsterdam Numb3rs October Road Party Down Prison Break Privileged Pushing Daisies Raising the Bar Reaper Roswell Samantha Who? Scrubs Shark Smith Star Trek: Enterprise Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip Terminator: TSCC The 4400 The Beautiful Life The OC The Unit Ugly Betty Veronica Mars What About Brian Without a Trace Women’s Murder Club Wonderfalls If you have shows you think should be added, what show would you remove? Or perhaps, like the NCAA we will merely expand the bracket to include 68 or even 96 shows. Can You Think Of Any More???? http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/07/29...too-soon/58510

07-30-2010, 02:35 PM	#2
JT Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 29, 2001 Location: USA Posts: 7,223	The presence of Law and Order makes this list null and void.
	__________________ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrEbJBFWIPk

07-30-2010, 07:11 PM	#8
factsoflife Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Sep 11, 2000 Posts: 8,744	My So-Called Life (ABC, 1994-1995, a total of 13 episodes produced) Popular (The WB, 1999-2001, 43 episodes) Kitchen Confidential (FOX, 2005, 13 episodes) Grosse Point (The WB, 2000-2001, 17 episodes)
	__________________ "and to the fans. I was only supposed to be on every other Tuesday. But, thanks to you, I'm here, and I promise! I will try my best never to let you down. I am going back into that studio on Monday, and I'm going to play Erica Kane for all she's worth!"-- Susan Lucci, May 1999 Daytime Emmy Speech.

07-31-2010, 03:05 AM	#12
browneyes106 Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 01, 2008 Posts: 6,097	I think Gilmore Girls and Prison Break ended at the right time. I remember reading somewhere that the creators of Prison Break only wanted it to be a four season thing. I was ok with Cold Case ending this year but a series finale should have been filmed as an alternative.
	Last edited by browneyes106; 07-31-2010 at 05:11 PM.

07-31-2010, 02:06 PM	#13
Nick@Nite Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jul 27, 2010 Location: USA Posts: 21	Note: these aren't all shows that I watched. CBS: The Unit New Adventures of Old Christine ABC: Pushing Daisies Samantha Who? Ugly Betty Men in Trees Better off Ted Boston Legal Dirty Sexy Money Eastwick Eli Stone FlashForward NBC: Heroes Knight Rider Las Vegas Life Lipstick Jungle My Name is Earl My Own Worst Enemy Bionic Woman FOX: Terminator: TSCC New Amsterdam Dollhouse Arrested Development Back to You CW: Privileged OTHER: The 4400 (USA) Plus: Kath & Kim, The Nine, Eleventh Hour, K-Ville, Close To Home. That's 32.
	Last edited by Nick@Nite; 07-31-2010 at 02:22 PM.

07-30-2010, 02:55 PM	#3
dakert Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: May 10, 2007 Location: Altoona PA Posts: 3,411	Planet Of The Apes -1974 Invisible Man-1975 both of these were canceled way too soon

07-30-2010, 02:55 PM	#4
McGillicuddy Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Sep 28, 2002 Posts: 5,179	Scrubs? That was on for 9 seasons! Prison Break What else can you do with this show once they broke out?

07-30-2010, 03:01 PM	#5
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,049	Another one here I disagree with is "Prison Break". My opinion is that the show lost its mojo after the second season. It had a decent run of four seasons, plus a direct-to-video movie, so it ended at the right time. Also, though I wasn't a regular watcher of it, no idea why "Gilmore Girls" is here. It had a good run of 7 seasons, plus I hear that the original creator wasn't even involved during its last season.

07-30-2010, 04:46 PM	#6
MickeyMac Member Forum Star Join Date: Jun 18, 2008 Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan Posts: 19,004	Shindig: September 1964-January 1966 Hullabaloo: January 1965-April 1966 They both had some light left in them.

07-30-2010, 05:14 PM	#7
JulieSomoski Roseanne Reboot - March 27! Forum Veteran Join Date: Nov 06, 2004 Location: Michigan Posts: 7,558	What the hell kind of list is this? Many of these shows ran for years. Law & Order? Really? It ran for 20 years. Isn't that enough? Scrubs ran for 9 years (3 too many), Gilmore Girls and Wiithout a Trace ran for 7 (a perfect amount). Other shows just don't deserve to be on here because they were simply atrocious to watch. While I would agree with some (Old Christine, Boston Legal, Samantha Who?, Back to You), this list is pretty....weird.

07-30-2010, 07:17 PM	#9
tv star collector I Love Susie Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Oct 18, 2005 Location: South Carolina Posts: 4,486	Moonlight and Roswell: definitely Heroes: maybe (a finale tying together the loose ends would be nice) Also: Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Sledge Hammer!

07-31-2010, 12:25 AM	#11
Tubehead Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Feb 12, 2007 Location: chattanooga.tn Posts: 5,139	Numbers i argee iwish they never got canncled. it was their number one hit show for years it was myfaovoite show. it even had henrywinkler gues stared. The 4400 Moonlight jouranyman life on mars leastitgot a ending Early ediiton need a endingreally bad why doees gray ge t the paper? were does the paper come from? Daybreak seven days usedtwatch it on upn then it moved to fox. so itdidn't lastlong i wish spike tv wouldair it agig. they air it early in the moring. martial law promise land now and aging the invisable man the dead zone Quatmaleap even thoughit did end i still think sam should have leaped home.

07-31-2010, 05:17 PM	#14
browneyes106 Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 01, 2008 Posts: 6,097	I thought The O.C. ended at the right time. I didn't like the series finale but looking back the show really couldn't go on longer. At least The O.C. didn't end up like One Tree Hill which has run it's course creatively.