Top 10 Canceled TV Shows
Ratings casualties rise again, thanks to DVDs
By Dave McCoy
MSN Entertainment
There's nothing quite like having your favorite TV show axed by callous network executives that are interested only in the bottom line. Do you feel me, fellow "Angel" fans? How about you, "Playmakers" aficionados? Both those programs were sent recently to TV heaven, leaving fans to wonder about characters and storylines they'd followed for months, if not years, all suddenly...gone.
Sigh.
However, a silver lining has emerged for network cast-offs in the booming DVD market. In the past, if your favorite show was cancelled you could only hope it showed up somewhere in syndication if you wanted to see it again. Now, DVD makes the sting of cancellation a little less painful.
When the studios behind such hits as "The X-Files" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" began releasing season-length DVD boxed sets, fans snatched them up eagerly, creating a new breakout category for the format. Today, producers are mining fan loyalty for both proven hits and cult faves alike.
This isn't just great news for fans who want to own and re-watch their shows over and over, but also for folks who happened to miss a show during its initial -- and in many cases brief -- run. DVD boxes also enable viewers without premium cable to catch shows such as "The Sopranos," "Sex and the City" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," all big hits on disc.
What follows is a remembrance of our favorite shows that were cruelly killed before their prime. The good news? All except one of these shows are available on DVD for new audiences to discover or for old fans to remember forever.
A moment of silence, please... OK. Now, let's visit the graveyard of TV's most cherished ratings casualties.
10. "The Tick" (FOX)
Premiered: November 2001
Cancelled: January 2002
The earliest trailers for FOX's outlandish live action version of Ben Edlund's comic book and animated TV series telegraphed the show's slim chances: It was too absurd, too wacky, and, yep, too friggin' funny to ever make it on network prime time. Grown men and women dressing in superhero costumes and acting like it was the most normal of acts? Sadly, America just wasn't ready for "The Tick," but that didn't stop the sitcom from winning a devoted cult audience over the course of only nine episodes. The show tells the story of The Tick (dry, stupidly hysterical Patrick Warburton, best known as Puddy from "Seinfeld"), who, equipped with a bright blue insect costume and a limited understanding of human behavior, defends The City from injustice and evil. Helping our clueless hero is his sidekick Arthur, a former accountant who deems himself The Moth. If the country wasn't ready for a tongue-in-cheek superhero comedy, it definitely wasn't prepared for the sidesplitting homoerotic undertones that fueled Arthur's relationship with The Tick. FOX was baffled too, shuffling its time slot so many times, even fans couldn't find it. Happily, all nine episodes are now available on DVD.
9. "My So-Called Life" (ABC)
Premiered: August 1994
Cancelled: January 1995
"My So-Called Life" deserved a better fate than its single season. Although it only lasted 19 episodes, the series quickly became a critical hit for its portrayal of teen angst, making stars out of 15 year-old Claire Danes (as neurotic protagonist Angela Chase) and Jared Leto (Angela's dreamy crush, Jordan Catalano). The show was helmed by "thirtysomething" creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, sustaining their reputation for non-sensational treatment of very human, ordinary situations. Unlike "Beverly Hills 90210," there were no soap opera suds covering Angela's world; instead we witnessed her frayed nerves, shy demeanor and self-deprecating wit, echoing so many of our own experiences in high school. Alas, this same lack of sensationalism arguably turned away mainstream viewers. ABC dropped "My So-Called Life" because of low ratings. The show found a cult audience, however, when MTV aired numerous marathons and now the entire series is available in one DVD collection.
8. "The Ben Stiller Show" (FOX)
Premiered: September 1992
Cancelled: January 1993
Before he became a movie star, Ben Stiller was just another comic trying to make it. Right after FOX became the fourth major network, they gave Stiller his own comedy show. It was years ahead of its time, very hip and often nasty, funnier than "Saturday Night Live"... and a critical and commercial bomb. It consistently finished last or near last in the ratings, and after 12 episodes, FOX pulled the plug. But after he became a star, bootleggers generated tapes of the series that attracted a new audience. Now Stiller's quirky series is on DVD, still looking fresh and very, very funny after a decade. "BSS" arguably boasted the best cast of any network sketch series since the early days of "SNL," including Andy Dick (later of "NewsRadio" ), Bob Odenkirk (later of "Mr. Show" with Bob and David") and Janeane Garofalo, all skewering pop culture, movies, music and history with the insane abandonment. The impressions alone make the show worth watching, whether it's Stiller's uncanny Tom Cruise, Bruce Springsteen or Bono (U2 pompously playing a bar mitzvah is priceless), Garofalo's Juliette Lewis, or Odenkirk's Charles Manson.
7. "Sports Night" (ABC)
Premiered: September 1998
Cancelled: May 2000
Imagine if David Mamet wrote for "SportsCenter," and you've got an idea of "Sports Night." Focusing on the relationships and problems of a staff for an underdog sports network, this show-within-a-show featured staccato, sharp-tongued dialogue, moved at a feverish pace and quickly established itself as one of the smartest "sitcoms" on TV. "Sports Night" was the first television brainchild of creator Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing") and followed in the footsteps of such comedies as "The Larry Sanders Show," even shunning a laugh track during its early episodes until the network demanded canned yuks.
The show benefited from a stellar cast including Peter Krause (pre-"Six Feet Under") and Josh Charles as the co-news anchors, Felicity Huffman as news director and Krause's prickly love interest, and Robert Guillaume (post-"Benson") as the beleaguered executive producer. While the show topped critic's lists during its two year run, both audiences and ABC didn't know what to make of it. The show was hard to find during its second season, and then simply disappeared. You can now own the entire 45 show run on DVD and discover one of the greatest shows no one saw.
6. "Firefly" (FOX)
Premiered: September 2002
Cancelled: December 2002
Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," has said that "Firefly" was his favorite project. Of course, it's often easier to love your most troubled child. "Firefly" was screwed from the start and never recovered. When Whedon approached FOX with the idea of creating a western set in space four hundred years in the future, the network immediately gave TV's brightest mind his new genre-bending show. But they resisted his two-hour pilot, which methodically set up character relationships and backgrounds, pressuring Whedon to deliver an action-packed, hour-long debut, effectively tying the creator's hands before the show even hit the air. Scheduling the series on Friday nights amounted to a ratings death sentence, and FOX then deemed production costs too high to continue the show, airing only 11 of the 14 episodes filmed. Despite its brief run, Whedon-aholics embraced it and fought to keep it on the air. After watching the DVD box set, it's easy to see why. All of Whedon's fingerprints are there: The witty dialogue, the quirky premises and dark exploration of human fallacy that made "Buffy" brilliant found their way to this space drama.
5. "NewsRadio" (NBC)
Premiered: March 1995
Cancelled: July 1999
Unlike most shows on this list, "NewsRadio" notched a respectable network run, earning decent ratings and die-hard fans. Instead, it was the murder of central cast member Phil Hartman, as arrogant news anchor Bill McNeal, that spelled doom for the remarkably funny sitcom. The premise is simple: It follows a group of oddballs that make up the staff of all news radio station WNYX and their day to day issues while at the office, mocking corporate hell long before current critical darling "The Office." What makes "NewsRadio" stand out from most sitcoms is the hilarious and intelligent writing (shepherded by former "Larry Sanders" producer Paul Simms), and a cast of comedians that understood the importance of timing. Dave Foley (of "Kids in the Hall"), Andy Dick, Vickie Lewis, Stephen Root, Joe Rogan and Maura Tierney created beautiful chemistry and you can count on about half a dozen laugh out loud moments per episode. How many sitcoms can say the same thing? The show struggled after Hartman's death, continuing for one more season before NBC finally pulled the plug.
4. "Family Guy" (FOX)
Premiered: January 1999
Cancelled: 2001
It may sound like heresy, but given a choice between "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy," give me "Family Guy." Few shows have pushed the PC envelope as far as Seth MacFarlane's "Family Guy." Watch it and you'll gasp, chin hitting your chest, thinking, "How the hell did this ever get on the air?" The animated comedy took on racial and social stereotypes with reckless, lethal aplomb. The Griffins were truly a dysfunctional family: You had a cocaine-snorting, talking dog, a baby obsessed with world domination, and a patriarch that makes Homer look like the guy who wrote "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." Though many found the show offensive, its demented love of pop culture and prodding of taboos also found it a fiercely loyal, cult following. How loyal? Just recently "Family Guy" became probably the only show to get renewed after it was cancelled. The success of all three seasons on DVD, plus nightly airings on the Cartoon Channel, made FOX realize they had a hit that they never supported. New episodes reportedly will resume by 2005.
3. "Homicide: Life on the Street" (NBC)
Premiered: January 1993
Cancelled: August 1999
How seminal was "Homicide: Life of the Street"? It ran for seven seasons and it still was cancelled too soon. Without "Homicide," shows like "C.S.I.," "NYPD Blue" and "The Wire" would have never been the hits that they've become. "Homicide" paved the way for dramatic, realistic cop shows. Based on David Simon's gritty book, the series premiered after the 1993 Super Bowl to rave reviews from critics.
Handheld camera work, real Baltimore locations and its focus on drama and relationships instead of car chases and gunplay was unlike anything network TV had given us. Audiences, however, didn't get it. The show never became a hit, and it was only through dedicated support from then-NBC president Warren Littlefield that the show was able to last as long as it did. Looking at the first three seasons now available on DVD, "Homicide" has lost none of its power. Its portrait of cops as coffee-guzzling, chain-smoking, sleep-deprived souls who have seen way too much remains authentic, its razor-sharp scripts mixing brutal truth with sardonic wit. Best of all is the cast: With talent like Jon Polito, Yaphet Kotto, Ned Beatty, Richard Belzer, Daniel Baldwin, Melissa Leo, Clark Johnson and especially Emmy Award-winner Andre Braugher as powerhouse detective Frank Pembleton, "Homicide" had the most mesmerizing ensemble on TV.
2. "Freaks and Geeks" (NBC) / "Undeclared" (FOX)
"Freaks" - Premiered: September 1999
Cancelled: July 2000
"Undeclared" - Premiered: September 2001
Cancelled: March 2002
Need further proof that there is no justice in television? Meet executive producer Judd Apatow, the man behind three wonderful series, each cancelled after one year, on two networks. Apatow got his first taste of disappointment with "The Ben Stiller Show," but the real kick in the gut came after watching his two teenage-based shows, "Freaks and Geeks" (created by Paul Feig) and "Undeclared," earn rave-reviews and a dedicated cult following, only to have impatient networks mishandle and then dump them. "Freaks and Geeks," the best TV show, period, about teenage life, is finally getting its DVD release in early April because 40,000 people subscribed to a Web list demanding it. Set in suburban Michigan during the early '80s, the show is nonetheless timeless. No series has ever captured the awkwardness of adolescence like "F&G," which excelled at profiling cliques and the stereotyping that takes place during high school. Hilarious, painful and poignant all at once, the series was literally uncomfortable to watch at times. Audiences were apparently uncomfortable with such accuracy, and "Freaks and Geeks" was cancelled after 18 episodes. Its unofficial sequel, "Undeclared" fared even worse as it examined the dorm life of college freshmen in a half-hour comedy format. Once again, network support never materialized and "Undeclared" likewise disappeared. Like "F&G," it featured another natural, no-name cast of talented teens (not counting singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III whose portrayal of the protagonist's divorced dad was as funny and crushing as his music). Unlike "F&G," "Undeclared" hasn't been released on DVD, but if you know someone who taped the show, it's well worth seeking out.
1. "Mr. Show with Bob and David" (HBO)
Premiered: September 1995
Cancelled: December 1998
Britain had "Monty Python." Canada had "SCTV." And America? We had "Mr. Show with Bob and David." Unfortunately, most viewers didn't know it. Created by and starring David Cross ("Arrested Development") and Bob Odenkirk, the sublime "Mr. Show" broke conceptual ground for sketch comedy in America when it hit the late-night air for HBO in 1995. Each half hour episode explored a theme and wrapped it with numerous live and taped skits, plus movies, around it. Sketches meld into one another, never giving audiences a chance to catch their breath. It feels like you are watching stream of conscious humor, yet the design is tight and extremely focused. The writing was smart, blisteringly funny and dark, and no target was off limits. "If you hear about it, it's so weird," observed Odenkirk of their approach. "But if you see it you don't think that for a minute." Try describing their hallucinogenic Sid and Marty Kroft parody "Welcome to Druggachusettes" or "Jeepers Creepers," their homage to "Jesus Christ Superstar," or a tearfully ironic commercial for "the New KKK," and you'll likely get blank stares from the uninitiated. Show them the skits, and you'll be picking them up off the floor. Ironically, normally groundbreaking HBO never understood "Mr. Show"' s sense of humor, and fought with Bob and David during the entire run, finally cancelling the show after four short seasons. Fanatical word of mouth kept interest in the show alive however, and in addition to releasing the DVDs, Bob and David launched a successful live theater tour of the show in 2001.
