These are the top eight shows that were canceled way too soon for most people to be able to catch on to them. Numbered from one to eight for my increasing stages of anger that they were canceled.
1. Sit Down, Shut Up, FOX- Oh man. FOX has a distinct place of shame on this list. It is, in my opinion, the network most likely to screw over any good shows that it accidentally places on the air. Examples of good shows that were canceled too soon but don't quite make this list include The Tick, Arrested Development, and Family Guy(you know, the first time). Anytime I get excited about a show appearing on FOX, I distance myself from it, because I'm afraid to make a commitment to something that I'll just have to leave in six months.
Anything with Will Arnett in it has me sold. Okay, maybe anything but Let's Go to Prison. And hey, it doesn't hurt to have his former Arrested Development co-star Jason Bateman on board. And yes, that's the adorable Kristin Chenoweth's voice being used for the character Miracle. There's nothing much that can be said about this show except that it's damn funny. It's better than Futurama ever was, and it's better than the garbage that Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, and The Simpsons are spewing out these days. Sadly, FOX didn't even let it finish its initial run, forcing the show's final episodes to air on Comedy Central.
One Season, 13 Episodes. 2009
2. The Unusuals, ABC- This one is probably a surprise to everyone, including myself. But I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy the hell out of this show and don't miss it like crazy now that it's gone. Picture Law and Order: Total Crazies Unit. This felt more like a real cop show than Law and Order, but the crimes were just nuts. The only show with weirder stuff going on for the crimes was Pushing Daisies. Castle is actually pretty comparable sometimes, but the writing on that show is much more episodic, predictable, and straightforward. Here, characters have more than one trait that defines them. They shift and grow. The cast is great here, too. Amber Tamblyn(best known as Joan of Arcadia) takes the lead, but is supported by Adam Goldberg(best known as Chandler's crazy roommate on Friend's when Joey moves out), Harold Parrineau(best known as Walt, from the first season of Lost), and Jeremy Renner(best known as the lead of the Best Picture of 2010, The Hurt Locker).
Don't pigeon-hole this one, either. It's not just kooky crimes. There are plenty of grey areas explored in this cop world, and you're likely to end up on a different side of the law than what you expected coming in to the show. Worth a look.
One season, 10 Episodes. 2009.
3. Life, NBC- This show has the unlikely honor of being the longest running show to make this list. It went two full seasons before the writer's strike blew it to hell. It makes the list because it was just so damn good, smart, and intriguing, and it had so much juice left. Detective Charlie Crews is played by Damian Lewis(best known for portraying Winters in Band of Brothers) to perfection. He is a former cop who was wrongfully convicted of murder, and, upon his release, gets an enormous settlement, and returns to the force as a detective. Oh, and he's really into zen. This show was surprisingly funny and endlessly quotable.
Two Seasons, 32 episodes. 2007-2009
4. John From Cincinnati, HBO- How do I describe this show? Weird. Very, very weird. Maybe it's about God? Maybe it's just insanity. It is, for sure, about the Yosts, a surfing family that is pretty dysfunctional. The tension of the first and only season is whether or not the family can come together. The mysterious John arrives to help them, but the endgame of his appearance is never revealed. He is the center of the strange and somewhat supernatural events surrounding the family, including Mitch Yost levitating, John being able to pull almost anything from his pockets, visions for several characters, and resuscitating Shaun Yost from a vegetative state. For me, Ed O'Neill was the highlight of the show as the slightly insane neighbor with a large collection of pet birds that he talks to. If you're looking for something thought-provoking and funny, check this one out. But if you're looking for something that wraps itself up neatly, stay away. HBO canceled this show before it got to answer any real questions.
One Season, 10 Episodes. 2007.
5. Wonderfalls, FOX- This show was brought to us by the great Bryan Fuller, one of the men responsible for bringing Pushing Daisies, Star Trek: Voyager, Dead Like Me, and Heroes to the world. Another one of the more inventive and unique visions that television has seen in a while, this show has a similar premise to Joan of Arcadia: mysterious force talks to main character and helps her to help others. But, this one is a comedy, and it probably isn't God doing the talking. Here, the talking is done through objects shaped like animals. That includes things such as a brass monkey, a plastic lion, and a milk saucer shaped like a cow. The main character has a rather narcissistic sense of humor, and the show follows suit. Oh, gooey, goofy, insane goodness.
One Season, 13 Episodes. 2004.
6. Firefly, FOX- This show was the best sci-fi has ever been on television. That's right folks. Star Trek, Buffy, and Battlestar Gallactica all fall incredibly short of this show. Star Trek had the concept, but its characters fall well short of the brilliance shown here by both the writers and the actors. Buffy certainly had originality, but it used and reused monsters that the world had seen before. The characters were good, but the acting could get campy. And Battlestar Gallactica... well, they had a lot of money to spend to make stuff blow up good... Firefly got it done without the money. The humor was character and situation-driven, the premise was original and engaging, and the writing was a perfect balance of over-arching theme and character-driven self-contained episodes. The acting was brilliant. The effects were as good as it gets for tv.
Nathan Fillion is Captain Malcolm Reynolds. No, seriously, he should change his name. Alan Tudyk is perfect as the loveably goofy, somewhat insecure, but totally awesome pilot, Wash. Adam Baldwin as Jayne is my favorite ever conflicted good guy who is still kinda bad(Yeah, that means you, Snape. Severus is nowhere near as cool a name as Jayne). The western vibe of this show was a perfect fit for the crew and its ship. Truly, even if you don't normally like sci-fi's, you should still give this masterpiece a shot. It's a different experience. No magic-whatever-devices will solve all our character's problems. Their medical supplies are similar to ours, their ships were scraped together and could break just as easily as one of our cars, and the characters themselves are more similar to us than any other sci-fi. They don't have the glorified perfection of Star Trek, the high-school melodramatics of Buffy, or the manic, emotional frenzy of Battlestar Gallactica. They are men and women just searching for a piece of the universe to call their home.
I always had the feeling that the cast of the ship and the cast of the show were equally attached to one another. The chemistry on screen was almost too real to be faked. This show's cancellation is solely responsible for my deepseated loathing of the Fox network. Okay, I lied. This show's cancellation, and the cancellation of Wonderfalls and Arrested Development. Okay, I lied again. The cancellation of Firefly, Wonderfalls, Arrested Development, and the fact that The Cleveland Show is still on the air. Really, FOX? You canceled Firefly, but decided to re-up the spin-off of Family Guy that uses the least popular character from a show that lost its originality the first time you canceled it?! The only way to take out my anger is to have a HITLER RANT. Tag, you're in, Adolf.
One Season, 14 episodes. 2002-2003
7. Pushing Daisies, ABC- As expressed in the blog entry previous to this one, I love love love this show. Just makes me feel happy. Every episode feels like a complete movie unto itself, and you find yourself wondering what else they can do the next episode. But they always find a way. Cute, hilarious, original, colorful, and heartwarming, this show is epic.
Two Seasons, 22 Episodes. 2007-2009.
8. Kings, NBC- Easily the most original and exciting concept on this list. In fact, it is one of the most unique and best ideas for a television show I've ever seen. A drama based in an alternate present about a young boy's rise to power, Kings is an allegory for the Old Testament story of David. Ian McShane is brilliant as King Silas(effectively King Saul), and Christopher Egan shows great promise as the young Captain David Shepherd. It's impossible to try to describe this world, except to say that one should imagine our country as a monarchy, complete with capitalism and corporations and politics. The lines of war are redrawn in this world, but the enemies look familiar. Greed, warfare, lies, and love all play a huge part in this show's repertoire. I think this show is easily the coolest and most intriguing show I've ever watched, making it all the more tragic that NBC canceled it so quickly, before all the episodes had even aired. This cancellation is easily the most baffling and tragic to me. It is all the more painful because I know of not even one other person who watched it. You should. You won't regret it, I promise. It's a complex entanglement of political and social intrigue mixed with some good old fashioned romance.
One Season, 12 Episodes. 2009.
Try a few of these shows out, and you won't regret it. Promise.
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