Travicity
01-15-2011, 04:20 AM
15 TV Shows Too Awesome To Stay Alive
Nothing is as painful as losing a great TV series to cancellation, except maybe bears. Fight back with our handy guide to the Greatest TV shows Cancelled Way Too Soon!
15
Firefly
Premise: Oh don't even. It's literally the only show about actual space cowboys, set approximately 500 years in the future. Nobody could take the sky from them.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Did we mention the part about space cowboys? With Joss Whedon's ear for dialogue and incredible storytelling, Firefly quickly became a unique blend of awesome that made for exciting adventures mached only by the incredible charisma of its leads.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Without Firefly's heart-breaking death, we would never have lived to see its epic big-screen counterpart, as Joss' vision far eclipsed the scope of TV.
14
Freaks and Geeks
Premise: Freaks and Geeks centers on teenage girl Lindsay Weir, and her brother Sam attending William McKinley High during the 80s, her relationships with her new friends forming one central strand of the show and her brother's the other vantage point.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because even if your high school experiences weren't cruising the streets of Michigan in the 1980s, Freaks became the iconic encapuslation of all that teenage apathy we've grown so fond of. Not to menion that the show becomes especially fun to re-visit as origins some of comedy's most bankable stars.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Because Freaks and Geeks turned Judd Apatow into the comedic powerhouse he is today, and launched the careers of nearly every member of the cast.
13
Clone High
Premise: Way, way back in the 1980's, secret government employees dug up famous guys and ladies, and made amusing genetic copies. Now the clones are sexy teens, and they're gonna make it if they try.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Created by Scrubs helmer Bill Lawrence, Clone High maintained rapid-fire absurdist humor with some impressive comedic voice talent, the likes of Will Forte, Michael McDonald, Nicole Sullivan and numerous celebrities of the then-MTV generation. Our favorite? Have to go with Tom Green.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: If Scrubs was any indication, Clone High would've had a hard time maintaining quality after the first few seasons. Ah well. 'Tis better to have loved and lost.
12
Aliens In America
Premise: A show that we were surprised to learn wasn't about little green men, Muslim foreign exchange student Raja Musharaff comes to stay with the Tolchuck family, who had expected a suave European boy to help son Justin's social standing.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: A sensitive subject though it might have been, Aliens in America was a smart, and necessarily light-hearted at the cultural differences between future generations of different backgrounds in a post 9/11 world.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Subversive as it was we doubt it could have run for long without getting melodramatic and overly serious about its subject matter, as only The CW can.
11
Chuck
Premise: Nerd Herd retail-employee Chuck Bartowski's life starts taking him in new directions when an old friend forcibly implants a government super-computer into his brain, thus beginning spy hijinks with more Geeky Guest Stars than a Battlestar Galactica convention.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: In addition ot the afforementioned geek guest stars, Chuck was a love-letter to nerds everywhere with its sci-fi references, hot babes, and inventive action sequences.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: What? This show isn't dead yet? How is that possible?
10
Arrested Development
Premise: Despite repeated attempts to make it on his own, Michael Bluth and son George Michael come to the rescue of their sociopathic, self-involved family after patriarch George faces indictment for his less than honorable business practices.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: With Ron Howard behind the genesis of the series, Arrested Development became one of the most smartly written comedies of all time, with an incredible amount of planning and background detail going into each episode. It was essentially the LOST of sitcoms.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Without the cancellation of Arrested Development, we'd have far fewer reasons to hate the Fox Network or a movie to look forward to. Eventually. Some day. Maybe. Okay, never.
9
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Premise: A show eerily in the same vane as 30 Rock, Studio 60 took a more dramatic approach to exploring the behind-the-scenes world of the production of a major sketch comedy show under the leadership of Danny Tripp and head writer Matt Albie.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because everyone loves a bit of meta, and it was written by that Aaron Sorkin guy. You know, he did The West Wing, and that movie about Facebook. Whatever that was called.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: There can be only one! Not that the premissial similarity to 30 Rock should have necessarily cancelled either show out, but there's only so much to be mined from the cavern. Team Tina, all the way!
8
Journeyman
Premise: Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter suddenly finds himself with the ability to jump through time, becoming a Quantum Leaper of his own sort as he continues helping specific individuals in the past.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Not since Rome have we seen Kevin McKidd in such top form, and modern television doesn't encompass nearly enough time travel. Not to mention, anything with Moon Bloodgood is at least worth a watch. With that said, the series actually contained a deep and engrossing mythology that could have extended years were it not for the Writer's Strike hampering production.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Because it freed Moon Bloodgood up for Terminator: Salvation! Groan.
7
Huge
Premise: Based on the Sasha Paley books, Huge gave Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky another empowering role for her weight as Willamena Rader, one of several characters sent to weight-loss "Camp Victory" for the summer.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Now we know what you're thinking, anything from ABC family couldn't be a good show (we refer you to The Secret Life of An American Teenager), but we respected Huge's willingness to cast unknown actors and break the mold of picture perfect young TV stars with drama.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Because now we can make jokes about Huge not being able to carry its own weight.
6
Jericho
Premise: An ensemble cast that mainly focused on Skeet Ulrich's Jake Green, Jericho told the story of a group of post-apocalyptic survivors in a rural Kansas town struggling to eek out lives for themselves in the wake of major nuclear attacks on America.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because everything post-apocalyptic is awesome. Red Dawn jokes aside, this little post-apocalyptic drama really grew on us. With decent writing and engaging characters with compelling performances we'd have happily fought to bring this little number back for a third season, and will settle for the Dark Horse Comics.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Having miraculously returned at the behest of its fans, the second season failed just as spectacularly to gain ratings, and we couldn't take the heartache of losing it a third time.
5
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Premise: Having apparently failed yet again to prevent Judgement Day, Sarah Connor and son John set out to learn as much as they can about the coming war under the watchful protection of beautiful terminator Cameron (Summer Glau)
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Initially skeptical, the show managed to successfully adapt the mythos for television and offered compelling action, thoughtful story-telling and gratuitous shots of Summer Glau in lingerie.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Trying to comprehend how the timelines and alternate realities sync up with movies and convoluted histories is enough to cross anyone's wiring.
4
Undeclared
Premise: Undeclared centered on a group of college freshmen at the fictional University of North Eastern California, as a cross section fof the modern collegiate lifestyle. Namely, young people getting drunk and f#$king.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Strike two for Judd Apatow. While Undeclared lasted even shorter than Freaks and Geeks, it brought together impressive comedic talent (before they were all so ridiculously famous) and brilliantly captured college as the reward for surviving high school.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Apatow's failures on TV with both Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared eventually channelled him into success on the big-screen, and were Undeclared to become a major hit, we might never have gotten such gems as The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, and generally anything else that the Apatow alums have touched.
3
Kings
Premise: Set in the fictional modern-day land of Gilboa (which looks strangely like Manhattan), Kings told the story of young David, a soldier who quickly rises through the ranks after rescuing King Silas' son from behind enemy lines, and as David becomes a public figurehead, the King realizes his days are numbered.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: It only lasted for thirteen episodes, but Kings provided a unique vision of monarchial drama and deep re-telling of religious tales. That and Ian McShane is completely awesome at everything.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Then again, Ian McShane was frightening enough without being an actual god-chosen king. It also freed Sebastian Stan up for roles in both Hot Tub Time Machine and Captain America.
2
Twin Peaks
Premise: A series pre-dating The X-Files and almost destined to never find a lasting home, it followed FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper's efforts to uncover the murder of a young woman in the increasinly eerie, and surreal town of Twin Peaks.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because it was completely the weirdest thing we'd ever seen. Coffee, cherry pie, Giants, and solving crimes through dreams. Eat your heart out, Inception.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Because for every Twin Peaks, you have Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. We'll save you some time. Yeesh.
1
Caprica
Premise: Set 58 years before the events of the original Battlestar Galactica, Caprica set out to explain the origins of the Cylon menace in the man who wanted nothing more than to resurrect his lost daughter.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because it was the complete tonal opposite of it's parent series, and eschewed gritty action sequences for intriguing moral complexity. It sounds boring in principal, but Caprica became a fantastic character study for new and old viewers of Battlestar Galactica alike.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Sigh. Don't talk to us. We're still in the mourning phase of this one. At least we have Blood and Chrome to look forward to!
UGO
Nothing is as painful as losing a great TV series to cancellation, except maybe bears. Fight back with our handy guide to the Greatest TV shows Cancelled Way Too Soon!
15
Firefly
Premise: Oh don't even. It's literally the only show about actual space cowboys, set approximately 500 years in the future. Nobody could take the sky from them.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Did we mention the part about space cowboys? With Joss Whedon's ear for dialogue and incredible storytelling, Firefly quickly became a unique blend of awesome that made for exciting adventures mached only by the incredible charisma of its leads.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Without Firefly's heart-breaking death, we would never have lived to see its epic big-screen counterpart, as Joss' vision far eclipsed the scope of TV.
14
Freaks and Geeks
Premise: Freaks and Geeks centers on teenage girl Lindsay Weir, and her brother Sam attending William McKinley High during the 80s, her relationships with her new friends forming one central strand of the show and her brother's the other vantage point.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because even if your high school experiences weren't cruising the streets of Michigan in the 1980s, Freaks became the iconic encapuslation of all that teenage apathy we've grown so fond of. Not to menion that the show becomes especially fun to re-visit as origins some of comedy's most bankable stars.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Because Freaks and Geeks turned Judd Apatow into the comedic powerhouse he is today, and launched the careers of nearly every member of the cast.
13
Clone High
Premise: Way, way back in the 1980's, secret government employees dug up famous guys and ladies, and made amusing genetic copies. Now the clones are sexy teens, and they're gonna make it if they try.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Created by Scrubs helmer Bill Lawrence, Clone High maintained rapid-fire absurdist humor with some impressive comedic voice talent, the likes of Will Forte, Michael McDonald, Nicole Sullivan and numerous celebrities of the then-MTV generation. Our favorite? Have to go with Tom Green.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: If Scrubs was any indication, Clone High would've had a hard time maintaining quality after the first few seasons. Ah well. 'Tis better to have loved and lost.
12
Aliens In America
Premise: A show that we were surprised to learn wasn't about little green men, Muslim foreign exchange student Raja Musharaff comes to stay with the Tolchuck family, who had expected a suave European boy to help son Justin's social standing.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: A sensitive subject though it might have been, Aliens in America was a smart, and necessarily light-hearted at the cultural differences between future generations of different backgrounds in a post 9/11 world.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Subversive as it was we doubt it could have run for long without getting melodramatic and overly serious about its subject matter, as only The CW can.
11
Chuck
Premise: Nerd Herd retail-employee Chuck Bartowski's life starts taking him in new directions when an old friend forcibly implants a government super-computer into his brain, thus beginning spy hijinks with more Geeky Guest Stars than a Battlestar Galactica convention.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: In addition ot the afforementioned geek guest stars, Chuck was a love-letter to nerds everywhere with its sci-fi references, hot babes, and inventive action sequences.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: What? This show isn't dead yet? How is that possible?
10
Arrested Development
Premise: Despite repeated attempts to make it on his own, Michael Bluth and son George Michael come to the rescue of their sociopathic, self-involved family after patriarch George faces indictment for his less than honorable business practices.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: With Ron Howard behind the genesis of the series, Arrested Development became one of the most smartly written comedies of all time, with an incredible amount of planning and background detail going into each episode. It was essentially the LOST of sitcoms.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Without the cancellation of Arrested Development, we'd have far fewer reasons to hate the Fox Network or a movie to look forward to. Eventually. Some day. Maybe. Okay, never.
9
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Premise: A show eerily in the same vane as 30 Rock, Studio 60 took a more dramatic approach to exploring the behind-the-scenes world of the production of a major sketch comedy show under the leadership of Danny Tripp and head writer Matt Albie.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because everyone loves a bit of meta, and it was written by that Aaron Sorkin guy. You know, he did The West Wing, and that movie about Facebook. Whatever that was called.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: There can be only one! Not that the premissial similarity to 30 Rock should have necessarily cancelled either show out, but there's only so much to be mined from the cavern. Team Tina, all the way!
8
Journeyman
Premise: Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter suddenly finds himself with the ability to jump through time, becoming a Quantum Leaper of his own sort as he continues helping specific individuals in the past.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Not since Rome have we seen Kevin McKidd in such top form, and modern television doesn't encompass nearly enough time travel. Not to mention, anything with Moon Bloodgood is at least worth a watch. With that said, the series actually contained a deep and engrossing mythology that could have extended years were it not for the Writer's Strike hampering production.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Because it freed Moon Bloodgood up for Terminator: Salvation! Groan.
7
Huge
Premise: Based on the Sasha Paley books, Huge gave Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky another empowering role for her weight as Willamena Rader, one of several characters sent to weight-loss "Camp Victory" for the summer.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Now we know what you're thinking, anything from ABC family couldn't be a good show (we refer you to The Secret Life of An American Teenager), but we respected Huge's willingness to cast unknown actors and break the mold of picture perfect young TV stars with drama.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Because now we can make jokes about Huge not being able to carry its own weight.
6
Jericho
Premise: An ensemble cast that mainly focused on Skeet Ulrich's Jake Green, Jericho told the story of a group of post-apocalyptic survivors in a rural Kansas town struggling to eek out lives for themselves in the wake of major nuclear attacks on America.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because everything post-apocalyptic is awesome. Red Dawn jokes aside, this little post-apocalyptic drama really grew on us. With decent writing and engaging characters with compelling performances we'd have happily fought to bring this little number back for a third season, and will settle for the Dark Horse Comics.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Having miraculously returned at the behest of its fans, the second season failed just as spectacularly to gain ratings, and we couldn't take the heartache of losing it a third time.
5
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Premise: Having apparently failed yet again to prevent Judgement Day, Sarah Connor and son John set out to learn as much as they can about the coming war under the watchful protection of beautiful terminator Cameron (Summer Glau)
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Initially skeptical, the show managed to successfully adapt the mythos for television and offered compelling action, thoughtful story-telling and gratuitous shots of Summer Glau in lingerie.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Trying to comprehend how the timelines and alternate realities sync up with movies and convoluted histories is enough to cross anyone's wiring.
4
Undeclared
Premise: Undeclared centered on a group of college freshmen at the fictional University of North Eastern California, as a cross section fof the modern collegiate lifestyle. Namely, young people getting drunk and f#$king.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Strike two for Judd Apatow. While Undeclared lasted even shorter than Freaks and Geeks, it brought together impressive comedic talent (before they were all so ridiculously famous) and brilliantly captured college as the reward for surviving high school.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Apatow's failures on TV with both Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared eventually channelled him into success on the big-screen, and were Undeclared to become a major hit, we might never have gotten such gems as The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, and generally anything else that the Apatow alums have touched.
3
Kings
Premise: Set in the fictional modern-day land of Gilboa (which looks strangely like Manhattan), Kings told the story of young David, a soldier who quickly rises through the ranks after rescuing King Silas' son from behind enemy lines, and as David becomes a public figurehead, the King realizes his days are numbered.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: It only lasted for thirteen episodes, but Kings provided a unique vision of monarchial drama and deep re-telling of religious tales. That and Ian McShane is completely awesome at everything.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Then again, Ian McShane was frightening enough without being an actual god-chosen king. It also freed Sebastian Stan up for roles in both Hot Tub Time Machine and Captain America.
2
Twin Peaks
Premise: A series pre-dating The X-Files and almost destined to never find a lasting home, it followed FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper's efforts to uncover the murder of a young woman in the increasinly eerie, and surreal town of Twin Peaks.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because it was completely the weirdest thing we'd ever seen. Coffee, cherry pie, Giants, and solving crimes through dreams. Eat your heart out, Inception.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Because for every Twin Peaks, you have Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. We'll save you some time. Yeesh.
1
Caprica
Premise: Set 58 years before the events of the original Battlestar Galactica, Caprica set out to explain the origins of the Cylon menace in the man who wanted nothing more than to resurrect his lost daughter.
Why It Was Completely Awesome: Because it was the complete tonal opposite of it's parent series, and eschewed gritty action sequences for intriguing moral complexity. It sounds boring in principal, but Caprica became a fantastic character study for new and old viewers of Battlestar Galactica alike.
Why We're Glad It's Dead: Sigh. Don't talk to us. We're still in the mourning phase of this one. At least we have Blood and Chrome to look forward to!
UGO