# What is your Favorite Show that got Cancelled?



## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

Probably a question better asked in May, but this year I didn't really have one. I guess the one I am the least happy about getting cancelled this year is _Almost Human_. I thought it had potential, clever dialog, a good cast. Maybe the procedural plots were a little ragged, but I thought it had another year in it at least. But not a tragedy that ii is gone, unlike:

In 2013? _Vegas_, an easy pick.Dennis Quaid really chewed up the furniture channeling a modern cowboy sherrif (well, modern for 1964), and Michael Chicklis is always money in the bank. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even after CBS banished it to burn-off territory. I actually never liked Dennis Quaid before this, but I thought his role as Sherrif Ralph Lamb was emmy-winning caliber.

In 2012? _The FIrm_. Still one of the best shows in recent memory. Great plot, great cast, great writing. Just no viewers. At least NBC let them finish out the season on Saturdays. And if I were casting my dream/fantasy 1940's PI series? Josh Lucas would be my first choice for the lead role of dogged hard-living private investigator. His voice alone is as good as it gets, If Peter Coyote gets tired of voicing the Ken Burns stuff, JL should be his next go-to-guy.

OK, so what were you sad that got cancelled?


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

Laff In!


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## yosoyellobo (Nov 1, 2006)

Longmire.


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## coconut13 (Apr 14, 2013)

Betrayal was a show that had some good potential, I thought. I, also liked The Firm and Vegas, too.


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

MST3K

Firefly

Fringe


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

Star Trek


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## APBIDDLE (Oct 12, 2006)

Longmire +1


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

Longmire +2

Firefly (an all time blunder there)

Edited to add a note about the reference to Almost Human: It wasn't an epic show but the casting and the delivery made it a FUN show! I looked forward to it because it was a bit cheezy and a ton of fun.

Don "the world needs more reality shows so the masses can know exactly what reality is :-( " Bolton


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## dhaze (Apr 23, 2012)

Longmire +3

Firefly +2


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## David Ortiz (Aug 21, 2006)

Voyagers!

Enterprise

Farscape

Journeyman

Longmire


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## longrider (Apr 21, 2007)

Does it have to be only one?? I have several

Almost Human

Warehouse 13

Intelligence

Revolution


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

OOH Journeyman! Yeah I liked that one



David Ortiz said:


> Voyagers!EnterpriseFarscapeJourneymanLongmire


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Longmire
Harry's Law
Detroit 187
Boston Legal


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

Star Trek and I Spy.


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## yosoyellobo (Nov 1, 2006)

Eli Stone.


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## oldschoolecw (Jan 25, 2007)

Longmire
Jericho
Picket Fences


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## Supramom2000 (Jun 21, 2007)

Longmire
Journeyman
And the Chicago police show with Jennifer Beals.
I also really liked Almost Human.

I also enjoyed Intelligence and The Tomorrow People.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Two NBC shows:

_Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip_

_Life_

*Edited to add:* That Chicago PD show with Jennifer Beals as well (_Chicago Code_).


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

lugnutathome said:


> OOH Journeyman! Yeah I liked that one


I forgot about that one. That was my favorite show that year, and it was my sister's favorite too. We were heartbroken. I thought it was really original and well-written and well-cast, as well as being a load of fun.

_Detroit 1-8-7_ +1. I think Michael Imperioli ("Christofuh") is under-rated. He's been great in everything, all the way back to _Goodfellas_, and he needs more work. And for whatever reason Natalie Martinez was about 10 times hotter in that show than she ever was in _The Dome_.

_Firefly_, _Fringe_, yep, those are both gimmes. I also was sad that _Terriers _on FX got the boot about 4 years ago.

According to TV guide, Danny Devito's Louie De Palma in _Taxi _was the best character we love to hate, and that _St. Elsewhere _was the best TV drama of all time, even with its trick ending. As much as I hate medical shows, I think I kind of have to agree with both of those.

OK, one more and I promise to quit: _Sports Night_, and really, anything Aaron Sorkin was involved in.


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## coolman302003 (Jun 2, 2008)

_The Riches_ on FX that aired until 2008.
_United States of Tara _on Showtime until 2011.
_It Takes a Thief _on Discovery Channel until 2007. (still hoping one day the reruns will be available on streaming or disc)


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

*The Double Life of Henry Phyfe.* Starring Red Buttons and Fred Clark. 
1 season (1966) 17 episodes
Fred died at age 54, which I consider amazing because even when I see him in films in which he was in his thirties, I would have guessed he was already older than 54

In every episode, Red tells Jack he isn't going to do the assignment, but Fred always overwhelms him with the pitch that is accompanied by the fife and drum, and as that music drowns out the dialog, Fred usually got Red to salute the imaginary image of a passing American flag.





*I'm Dickens, He's Fenster*. Starring John Astin and Marty Ingells.
1 season (1962/1963) 32 Episodes. 16 available on DVD
My introduction to John Astin. A picture dictionary only needs a picture of Astin to define "zany".






*The George Wendt Show* Starring George Wendt
1 season (1995) 8 episodes produced, 6 aired.










Dialog, as I remember it from the episode."Prom Night: The Return" .Aired April 5, 1995

The situation: Some kids coming home from their senior prom have a car breakdown, and George is repairing it in his shop.

One girl makes a sarcastic comment. Her naive boyfriend takes it literally. She rolls her eyes and says, "I was being ironic". Wendt says, "Actually, you were being sarcastic. What's ironic is, you're about to graduate from high school but you don't know the difference".


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

*Honey West*. Starring Ann Francis
1 Season (1965-1966) 30 episodes. All on youtube.





Her character had been introduced on this episode of Burke's Law


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

*Love on a Rooftop* Starring Pete Duel, Judy Carne
1 Season (1966-1967) 30 episodes. Reruns were shown on ABC in the summer of 1971

It actually got better ratings than That Girl, but was canceled. Duel, who had been a recurring character on Gidget, went on to Alias Smith and Jones, Carne to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.


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## philtec (Sep 11, 2011)

*Mary Hartman*, *Mary Hartman*


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## yosoyellobo (Nov 1, 2006)

AntAltMike said:


> *Love on a Rooftop* Starring Pete Duel, Judy Carne
> 1 Season (1966-1967) 30 episodes. Reruns were shown on ABC in the summer of 1971
> 
> It actually got better ratings than That Girl, but was canceled. Duel, who had been a recurring character on Gidget, went on to Alias Smith and Jones, Carne to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
> ...


In the alternate universe I come from I remember Marty Engel as the exhusband of Astin wife Kate Dickens in "I'm Dickens, He's Fenster".


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Sports Center


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

See a lot of references to Longmire. Never watched it, but from the clips and promos it reminds me of Cade's Country with Glenn Ford.

It Takes a Thief was recently running on either Saturday or Sunday on one of the retro networks, but I don't see it in my guide right now.


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

Antenna TV is presently scheduling It Takes a Thief for 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM on Saturdays.

It Takes a Thief didn't do well in syndication, even in the 1980s when more people had a fresh recollection of it. It used to be spotted on weekends because there were only 66 episodes, which is generally regarded as insufficient to sustain 5 day, strip exposure.

The problem of not enough episodes afflicts a lot of the popular "wheel" shows that ran every third week, like the Mystery Movie shows other than Columbo, and The Bold Ones.


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

trh said:


> Sports Center


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5MISefrsJRI


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## heathramos (Dec 19, 2005)

Justice League (cartoon), just to be different.


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## makaiguy (Sep 24, 2007)

One I really liked a few years ago (but appatently nobody else did) was The Good Guys with Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks.

And like lots of us I'm very disappointed about Longmire.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

AntAltMike said:


> https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5MISefrsJRI


Sorry. Another senior moment. I meant the Aaron Sorkin comedy "Sports Night" that was on ABC for two seasons in 1998-2000.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

Chicago Code
Alcatraz
Friends With Better Lives


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## hookemfins (Jul 3, 2007)

Flash forward


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## Supramom2000 (Jun 21, 2007)

hookemfins said:


> Flash forward


Yes! I liked that one a lot too!


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

Terriers

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terriers_(TV_series)

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## longrider (Apr 21, 2007)

Since we are going back prior to this year I, as many did have to list Star Trek. Also include Eureka, Alcatraz, Stargate in all its versions, and while I had completely forgotten about until the recent news of the death of Robin Williams, Mork and Mindy. That was one of the few comedies that made me laugh on a weekly basis.


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## mrro82 (Sep 12, 2012)

Boss 

Magic City 

Stargate Universe 

Sent from the jaws of my Hammerhead!


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

Anybody remember the US version of Life On Mars? Loved that show! Seems hiring Jason o'Mara is synonymous with a show having no future, yet I like him even with the fake American accent.

Don "great seventies cop show with a sci fi twist" Bolton


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## B Newt (Aug 12, 2007)

The show I liked was " Way out " it was kinda like Twilight Zone.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Obscure one...Probe. Still remember it, even though it was only seven episodes. Co-created by Isaac Asimov. Also American Gothic. I actually wonder if episodes being aired out of order is what killed it, along with Almost Human.


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## gov (Jan 11, 2013)

The 5 Mrs. Buchanans

Space Rangers

My Mother the Car

My Living Doll

Fireball XL5


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## TXD16 (Oct 30, 2008)

Gigantor (not even sure I have a close second choice):


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

trh said:


> Sorry. Another senior moment. I meant the Aaron Sorkin comedy "Sports Night" that was on ABC for two seasons in 1998-2000.


I binged watched much of this a few months ago, and it seemed quite dated, though enjoyable. And, for me, it was difficult to handle the Sorkinesque dialog hour after hour. My bad!


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

Laxguy said:


> ... for me, it was difficult to handle the Sorkinesque dialog hour after hour.


_"...you have to have ideas that relate to everyone, that everyone can understand. Not come out here and do things that are over the audience's head, otherwise you may as well be like, uh.. Dimitri in Con Disio Humane.. or Eduardo in 'The Possessed' "_.

- Steve Martin


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

gov said:


> The 5 Mrs. Buchanans
> 
> Space Rangers
> 
> ...


Are you saying that you thought those shows were good enough to renew? I mean, I like Julie Newmar (who doesn't?), but (My) Living Doll was a turkey, and the next favorable review of My Mother the Car I read will be the first.

Twilight Zone Episode Living Doll starred Tele Savalis, and the voice of Talkie Tina was provided by June Foray, who has also voiced Rocky the Flying Squirrel. "I'm Talkie Tina, and I'm going to kill you."

Was Fireball XL5 in Supermarionation? I once met a guy with bushy eyebrows and a halting manner who looked like he was living in Supermarionation.

I used to have the exact same plastic girder and panel kit that was used to make some of their prop buildings. It wasn't part of product marketing. It was an off-the shelf building toy that must have cost my parents, and the producers, maybe $10, as my parents rarely spent any more than that on Christmas gifts.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

AntAltMike said:


> _"...you have to have ideas that relate to everyone, that everyone can understand. Not come out here and do things that are over the audience's head, otherwise you may as well be like, uh.. Dimitri in Con Disio Humane.. or Eduardo in 'The Possessed' "_.
> 
> - Steve Martin


The dialog was completely transparent. What I meant by "hard to handle" was it became annoying, predictable, cloying even. Others will not find it so, and a week between eps would greatly lessen the sameness factor.


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## BobCulp (Dec 21, 2013)

I have not seen Network TV Prime-time since M*A*S*H* closed its' run.

My favorite cancelled shows
1964-1966 CBS The Munsters
1964-1966 ABC Addams Family
1967 NBC Captain Nice and Mr Terrific


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

BobCulp said:


> My favorite cancelled shows
> 1964-1966 CBS The Munsters
> 1964-1966 ABC Addams Family..


I've never heard of a person who was a fan of both the Addams Family and the Munsters. It has always been one or the other.

I was an Addams Family fan. Only recently did I learn that the Munsters got much higher TV ratings. I was also surprised to learn that the ratings for Combat were much higher than for 12 O'Clock High and that it ran for twice as many episodes.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

AntAltMike said:


> I've never heard of a person who was a fan of both the Addams Family and the Munsters. It has always been one or the other.


You should get out more.


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## yosoyellobo (Nov 1, 2006)

AntAltMike said:


> I've never heard of a person who was a fan of both the Addams Family and the Munsters. It has always been one or the other.
> 
> I was an Addams Family fan. Only recently did I learn that the Munsters got much higher TV ratings. I was also surprised to learn that the ratings for Combat were much higher than for 12 O'Clock High and that it ran for twice as many episodes.


Please to meet you.


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## makaiguy (Sep 24, 2007)

HDJulie said:


> Terriers
> 
> http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terriers_(TV_series)
> 
> Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk


+1

Forgot about that one, similar appeal to the other one I mentipned, The Good Guys.

Can't get your link to work, though -- Wikipedia comes up dry. Try this one at imdb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1493239/


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## B Newt (Aug 12, 2007)

Oh I forgot " Get Smart " I like when he and the chief would use the cone of silence. That thing never worked properly.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

My most recent one is Longmire.
I tried to go into the history of what was deleted but I found that it has either a time limit or a quantity limit. There were 253 deleted and the oldest one was a month ago.
There were 2 or 3 others. One of them I believe was called Lady Killers.
Another one was a lady and a guy, Private Investigators, that used to be part of the system and now work outside of it. They had a guy that appeared to be as dumb as dirt but in fact he was a genius and the 3 of them got along really well.

Once I dug into this I realized that almost everything I record is a cop show of some kind. Also, probably a third of them are on CBS.
If it was not for racing and golf I could just cut out the pay TV. LOL. My son would pitch a fit.


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## jpray72 (Dec 10, 2011)

Quantum leap


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## Billzebub (Jan 2, 2007)

lugnutathome said:


> Anybody remember the US version of Life On Mars? Loved that show! Seems hiring Jason o'Mara is synonymous with a show having no future, yet I like him even with the fake American accent.
> 
> Don "great seventies cop show with a sci fi twist" Bolton


I loved the BBC version of life on Mars and was prepared to be disappointed in the US version. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be.

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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Billzebub said:


> I loved the BBC version of life on Mars and was prepared to be disappointed in the US version. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be.


Ditto. It's a shame they had to cobble together that ending episode so quickly. Would have loved to see it move to cable or Netflix, similar to _Friday Night Lights, Damages_ and _The Killing_. I wish_ Flash Forward_ could have been picked-up as well.


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

makaiguy said:
 

> +1
> 
> Forgot about that one, similar appeal to the other one I mentipned, The Good Guys.
> 
> ...


And I forgot about The Good Guys! I miss that one as well


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Hmmm... Recently...

- Almost Human. I liked where it was going.
- Flash Forward. Again, promising.
- Journeyman. I really felt for the lead. I watched it because I was a fan of Kevin McKidd - which leads me to ...
- Rome (the HBO series). There was so much more they could have done, even without McKidd.

My 'all time hate that they got cancelled' list...

- Alien Nation. First time I really got PO'd at a cancellation because it ended in a cliffhanger. The TV movies that eventually followed were of declining quality.
- Firefly. Fox Strikes Again.
- Space: Above and Beyond. (...and again)
- Farscape. Sci-Fi announced 2 seasons and only delivers one. The tv-movie wrap-up was rushed.
- Star Trek: Enterprise. The 4th season was a complete and wonderful turnaround from the hackneyed 3rd season (alien space Nazis???). The last episode never happened.
- Babylon 5 / Crusade. Both in the same entry here. First the turmoil around B5's 5th season made for some juggling that didn't 100% work. But, then to cancel Crusade before it even aired - with all the interference??? DIE DIE DIE!!!

Heck, I was even perturbed at the original Battlestar Galactica cancellation - just as they were running some decent multi-episode stories. And then to bring back Lorne Green, the sets and models for the execrable "Galactica: 1980".. Ugh, what an insult!

There were so many others that fell into a blur of "shows I liked that never got picked up". For a while, when I was young, it seemed like the Kiss of Death for any show was whether or not I liked it.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

jimmie57 said:


> ...I realized that almost everything I record is a cop show of some kind. ...


It might not be you. Almost everything on TV is a cop show of some kind.

OK, that was a little hyperbolic, there is a lot of non-cop stuff, but for what gets ratings? Cop shows. About a third of the shows I record are police procedurals of some sort. I'm actually a little tired of that.

I like the trip down memory lane (what was the show with David Andrews where he had a robot partner, sort of a precursor to _Almost Human_, except that the partner was female and a knockout? OK, I just found it on IMDB, _Mann and Machine_, with the coked-out Yancy Butler, 1992) but I am wishing now that I had qualified this forum with ..."before its time". Every show, good or bad, gets cancelled, which makes every show a candidate for anyone's list as long as it is no longer with us.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Not sure about every show getting cancelled, as some have the fork put in them by the producer, or at least we are so lead to believe. But for sure, they all go away sometime.


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## dennispap (Feb 1, 2007)

Sanford and son


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## am9ac1 (May 15, 2007)

Vegas
TerraNova
Revolution
Intelligence
Stargate Universe
Flash Forward

And from the Way Back Machine... MASH


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

dennispap said:


> Sanford and son


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

Boss
Firefly
Almost Human
Utopia (Tuesday broadcasts)
Star Trek
Stargate Universe
Magic City
Crossbones
Rake
Smash
Touch
Duets
Harry's Law
Caprica
Dollhouse
The Agency
Lipstick Jungle
Jericho

... to name a few _(don't even get me started on The Carol Burnett Show)._

_*Edited to add*:_

_Battlestar Galactica (Concluded)_
_Hee Haw (?)_
_House (Concluded)_
_Dexter (Concluded)_
_Boardwalk Empire (concluding this season)_
_Treme (Concluded)_
_Whale Wars_
_The Big C (Concluded)_
_Flying Wild Alaska_
_Friends (Concluded)_
_Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles_
_IRT Deadliest Roads (Concluded)_


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## SeaBeagle (May 7, 2006)

Addams Family
Leave it to Beaver
The Names the Same
Password
Hogans Heroes
I've Got a Secret
To Tell the Truth



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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

The only long running shows that have not either been canceled or are in imminent danger of being canceled are Meet the Press, The Today Show, and maybe some afternoon soap operas. The thread originator surely meant recently canceled.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

> The only long running shows that have not either been canceled or are in imminent danger of being canceled are Meet the Press, The Today Show, and maybe some afternoon soap operas. The thread originator surely meant recently canceled.


I'm sure you're right. Some of us took this as an opportunity to vent long-held frustrations.


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

Now that I just learned of it's quiet cancellation last year, I add;

Hoarders


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Series that I continue to miss:

Quantum Leap - The fifth season suffered from bad scheduling and budget cuts, and was cancelled even though the network said the demos were good.
Firefly - I hope that some Fox executive is beating himself over mishandling that Joss Whedon series. 
Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge - I still miss that show and the challenges it posed. 
Bablyon 5: Crusade - Badly mishandled by TNT. The production was started, stopped, restarted, and stopped again.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

Chicago Code
Shark (James Woods)
Alcatraz
Million Dollar Money Drop
Falcon Beach
Wiseguy
Spenser: For Hire
Vegas
Unhappily Ever After


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## DoyleS (Oct 21, 2002)

Some of these just ended their natural run but it was just too early.
Of the oldies.
China Beach with Dana Delaney
Combat with Vic Morrow
MASH
Seinfeld

Recent
Smash
Hill Street Blues
NYPD Blues


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## SeaBeagle (May 7, 2006)

I do wish that Two and Half Men would get cancelled. That show is on like 300 times a week.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

SeaBeagle said:


> I do wish that Two and Half Men would get cancelled. That show is on like 300 times a week


Write to Chuck Lorre. He'll take care of the repeats as soon as the residuals die off.....

I hope you're not recording that many of the repeats!


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