Most television shows that fail do so for good reasons, but some fail because of stupid Networks, stupid Network execs or stupid viewers.
Lee and I were talking about really great shows that died before their time. We came up with four very strong ones and are wondering what shows you think deserved better.
Firefly: By now, everyone likely knows the story. Joss Whedon’s western set in space had great characters, fun dialogue and cool action. Fox aired the episodes out of order and pre-empted the show more than once. Even as a fan that watched it, I never knew when it was on. Thirteen Episodes were made.
Sports Night: Aaron Sorkin’s look behind the scenes at a Sports Center-type show that featured Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Josh Charles, Joshua Malina, Sabrina Lloyd and Robert Guillaume. It was smart, it was funny, it was Sorkin at his finest. It was one of the first dramedy shows and many were quite sure what to make of it. It lasted two seasons. Had The West Wing not been running at the same time, Sorkin likely would have taken Sports Night to cable.
Kidnapped: This is the one that many of you are likely unfamiliar with. It featured Jeremy Sisto as a Kidnapping expert that is called in when the son of a powerful couple (Timothy Hutton, Dana Delaney) is…well, kidnapped. Delroy Lindo also starred as F.B.I. Agent Latimer King. The show was smart and kept you guessing. Sadly, NBC did not air all 13 eps in a row, folks had to watch the latter ones online to see what happened. I think that they did air them six or seven months later, in the middle of the summer.
My final pick is Intelligence. This Canadian show lasted two glorious seasons. It reminded me of The Wire in that the “good” guys were always all that good and the “bad” guys not all that bad. Ian Tracey starred as Jimmy Reardon, a criminal kingpin that loves his daughter, avoids violence whenever possible and appears to have a conscience. Don’t get me wrong, he is still a criminal and the show does not let us forget that. Klea Scott plays Mary Spalding, the head of Vancouver’s organized crime unit. She wants to uphold justice, but also climb the ladder to the top. She and Jimmy form an uneasy alliance, doing just enough to keep the other willing to co-operate.
In my mind, a Gem would have had two or less seasons. Shows like Veronica Mars should have continued, but they did a lot in the three years they had so it was not a total crime.
What other really great shows did not make it?
I have three nominations in this category: Big Apple (2001), a David Milch-created New York cop series that starred Ed O'Neill and Jeffrey Pierce; Brooklyn South (1997-1998), a show about uniformed cops that starred Jon Tenney, Michael DeLuise, and Yancy Butler; and Ellery Queen (1975-1976), a Richard Levinson/William Link series starring Jim Hutton and David Wayne, based on the famous 20th-century series of detective novels.
Cheers,
Jeff
Shows that deserved better? If you mean longer runs than they had I'd go with:
Futurama
It's sort of getting a revival now, but it was axed most unjustly and it looks like 'Into the Wide Green Yonder' is all that she wrote for this witty, fun and intelligent cartoon.
My So Called Life, Freaks & Geeks and Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip
These belong to the 'Why did they only get one season?' club.
I felt each one of them was well written and compelling. Even Studio 60 (the weakest of this trio) had me coming back each week to watch what happened next.
Arrested Development.
Sure it had three seasons, but the second and third ones were both truncated by Fox. The show is the most intelligent comedy show ever shown on TV anywhere. It's better than even the cream of the intelligent British comedies (and that's saying something imo). So while it might be a little outside of your Gem criteria I'm still going to mention it.
Anything from Bryan Fuller – Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies.
It seems that anything Bryan creates will be sweet, clever, oddball and immediately doomed to failure. Each of these shows is such a brilliant and unique creation that they should have had a chance to tell their stories in full.
I do also agree with Firefly and Sports Night.
I would also like to add Jericho and John Doe, I haven't watched all of those two shows, but I did like what I saw.
I was always very sad that American Gothic only lasted one season. And that Millennium didn't make it to the year 2000 (and suffered a terrible third season after the ahead-of-its-time second.)
I'm going to add two more contenders to this list of shows that deserved more of a chance to make it: Private Eye (1987), which starred Michael Woods and a very young Josh Brolin as private detectives working the mean streets of L.A. in the 1950s; and City of Angels (1976), a Roy Huggins-created series featuring ex-M*A*S*H star Wayne Rogers as a private gumshoe in corrupt, 1930s Los Angeles. Both showed promise. Both were terminated well before they had a chance to demonstrate just how much they could've shined.
Cheers,
Jeff
My So Called Life totally should be added.
While I liked Studio 60, it was very uneven.
I think the X-mas ep showed just how good it could be, but there were some weak episodes that were very frustrating.
Dan's suggestion of American Gothic is also good one.
Jeff, I am going to have to do some searching for many of your suggestions!
I do have vague memories of City of Angels, good ones at that.
Sci-fi show called THRESHOLD. It ran 13 episodes a few years ago, about a gov't team investigating a covert alien invasion. Sadly, it ran against two other alien invasion shows including one called INVASION. THRESHOLD was edgier and moved its plot along faster but got cut.
I was also enjoying CRUSOE on NBC which was supposedly a 13 part series but must have been conceived as a regular series given the way the last episode ended. Very good show from this year. Not sure it was great.