MSN Entertainment, not usually known for it's cutting edge showbiz reporting, nevertheless has a list of some interest: Top 10 Canceled TV Shows. And what would a list featured on APCB be without searing clinical analysis? Completely out of character, that's what.
10. The Tick (November 2001 to January 2002): Yeah, okay...I enjoyed the three episodes of The Tick I actually caught (there were nine total), but this one never had a chance. It featured a lead character maybe a hundred people over the age of 25 have ever heard of, and I don't think it played consecutively for three weeks in the same time slot, as Fox predictably abandoned any pretense of support (this from the same network that aired 20 episodes of The Crew).
Inexplicably, the entire run is available on DVD, which has to make it the shortest-lived network television series ever to be released on disc.
9. My So-Called Life (August 1994 to January 1995): Bleagh. I wasn't that far removed from my teen years when this series aired, which goes a long way towards explaining why I couldn't stand it. Oh, it's better than, for example, Beverly Hills 90210, but that's like saying COPS features more realistic police brutality than Real Stories of the Highway Patrol. The acting in this show was uniformly decent, but my complaint about MSCL is the same for all shows of this ilk; who the hell wants to revisit adolescence? If you're going to subject audiences to horrible memories of acne, unrequited love, and afternoon thrashings behind the band hall, at least put a humorous spin on it (see #2).
8. The Ben Stiller Show (September 1992 - January 1993): Proof that Ben Stiller actually used to be funny, Janeane Garofalo used to wear make-up, and Bob Odenkirk is still criminally underappreciated. Several sketches still hold up ("Ask Manson," "Cape Munster"), even if many seem hopelessly dated ("The Grungies," "Melrose Heights"). Taken on its own merits, TBSS is a nice warm up for the much better Mr. Show (see #1).
7. Sports Night (September 1998 to May 2000): Again I say 'bleagh.' Sports Night's enduring popularity is further proof of Aaron Sorkin's Mesmero-like hypnotic powers. How else do you explain critical accolades given to a show featuring a bunch of people repeating their lines back to each other? Repeatedly?
The mind boggles...only if Sorkin wrote it, it would be more like this:
Dan: The mind boggles.
Casey: The mind boggles?
Natalie: How does a mind 'boggle?'
Dan: It just does.Where's my Emmy? Better yet, why isn't Get A Life listed here instead?
6. Firefly (September 2002 to December 2002): The wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompanied the cancellation of Firefly demonstrated that geeks have yet to learn that genre programming stands little chance of making it on the networks. For every Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there are two dozen fantasy/sci-fi/horror TV shows without hot blonde girls in the lead that don't make it to syndication. Firefly, like The Tick, never got into a groove. Fox strikes again.
5. NewsRadio (March 1995 to July 1999): Fans of NewsRadio had to wait until the 11th hour every season to hear if it would be back on the air the next year. And a four-year run is really better than I expected for this, even though I consider it one of the funniest network TV shows ever made (and that for the "Stargate Defender" episode alone). Great ensemble cast, highlighted by Phil Hartman, Stephen Root, and Dave Foley. The show couldn't survive Hartman's death and NBC pulled the plug after 97 episodes, meaning we'd never learn if Mr. James really was D.B. Cooper.
4. Family Guy (January 1999 to 2001): Given that Family Guy is coming back to TV, I don't know if it really merits inclusion on this list. I run hot and cold with the show, myself, though there have been some great moments ("Diamonds: she'll pretty much have to").
3. Homicide: Life on the Street (January 1993 - August 1999): Does a show that aired for seven seasons really deserve to be included with those that didn't even break the ten episode mark? Besides, HBO's The Wire (written by Homicide creator David Simon) is doing it better these days. Homicide was a great show in its time, but The Wire may be the best show on TV.
2. Freaks and Geeks (September 1999 to July 2000)/Undeclared (September 2001 to March 2002): Pity poor Judd Apatow, creator of F&G and Undeclared; both cult sensations, both canceled after one season. Unlike My So-Called Life, Freaks and Geeks managed to make high school something I could look back on without wincing. Well, without wincing much. I never saw Undeclared, however.
1. Mr. Show with Bob and David (September 1995 to December 1998): There's a reason people get HBO, and it isn't the movie selection. HBO's original programming is top notch, as long as you ignore crap like Arli$$ and the bowel cramp-inducing Sex and the City. I've already mentioned The Wire, but by far my favorite series - on HBO or anywhere - was Mr. Show. MSN's wrong, though: HBO didn't cancel it. Bob Odenkirk and David Cross (if their website is to be believed) more or less grew sick of dealing with shoestring budgets (expressed in the occasional swipe at other HBO fare) and timeslots of the "Mondays at 1 AM" variety, and pulled the plug themselves. Some sketches were weaker than others, but I don't think there was a bad episode in its four season run. You can also see Jack Black and Sarah Silverman at the beginning of their careers, and Tom Kenny before he became the voice of Sponge Bob. The first three seasons are available on DVD, with the 4th coming (hopefully) later this year.
Now, what about Misfits of Science?
Hell, I'm still bitter about Max Headroom.
Anybody remember Quark?
And I was a huge fan of The Marshall Chronicles...brilliant Randy Newman theme song never to be heard again.
Patrick Warburton appeared in 2 of these series.... coincidence? Well OK he was also in "Seinfeld" so I guess there goes any sort of link to series that died prematurely. And I've still never seen an episode of "Get a Life" but I see them on DVD on Amazon. I always heard how funny they were, and I'm one of those people who find Chris Elliott funny.
The best show to get canceled (at least in my opinion) was Millennium. Lance Henriksen's character Frank Black was awsome. It was darker, creepier, and cooler than the X-files ever was. Chris Carter really took the gloves off for Millennium and I was hoping it would at least run through 1/1/2000 with some sort of spectacular finale involving Black's descent into hell.
The Clerks animated series ran on ABC for not even its initial six episode run. It ranks up there with The Tick as shortest network series on DVD. I enjoyed it, especially for the episode where Jay sues Dante and the Quick Stop...and the whole anime trial sequence at the end.
The Tick never had a chance. It was too expensive to make, and its humor was a little too bizarre for Jane and Joe America.
Still. I'd like to have seen what it would have done with a Sunday Night 8:30 or 9:30 timeslot.
The Clerks animated series was one of the great underappreciated comedy moments of this century (well, all four years of it so far, anyway).
"You can't handle truth!"
Hey, I liked SportsNight!
Then again, I'm the kinda gal who'd put Late World With Zach on the list.
AMELIA!!!