# The Best TV Series that Never Quite Took Off



## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

In my book, that would be "Sports Night." I thought it had a great cast and terrific writers. Definitely entertaining and unpredictable. I was disappointed when they didn't get picked up for a second season.

I got the DVD set and my 19 y.o. starting watching the show and couldn't stop. 

John


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Oh there's plenty of them.. Crusade, Firefly - even guilty pleasure shows like Tarzan or Birds of Prey- or derivative shows like Dragnet form a couple of eyars ago...


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## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

Miracles


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Hack


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

Lyon's Den, John Doe...


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## wkomorow (Apr 22, 2002)

Odyssey 5


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## Miner (Oct 29, 2004)

Sledge Hammer.


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## dfergie (Feb 28, 2003)

Miner said:


> Sledge Hammer.


Hammer!


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

Miner said:


> Sledge Hammer.


Great show!!!


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## durl (Mar 27, 2003)

Police Squad.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

Another vote for Firefly.

Joss Whedon's writing is sorely missed on weekly TV.....


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## jrbdmb (Sep 5, 2002)

My wife nominates American Dreams and Reunion ...


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## dfm1981 (Jan 6, 2006)

JM Anthony said:


> In my book, that would be "Sports Night." I thought it had a great cast and terrific writers. Definitely entertaining and unpredictable. I was disappointed when they didn't get picked up for a second season.
> 
> I got the DVD set and my 19 y.o. starting watching the show and couldn't stop.
> 
> John


Sports Night was on for TWO seasons, you must have found it late. I was very disappointed the second season when during sweeps they would pre-empt Sports Night and put on double episodes of some other shows. By taking it off of the air for a couple of weeks at a time they reduced the viewer base and this helped them cancel it.


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

Kindred: The Embraced
The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr


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## albert71292 (Aug 19, 2005)

Police Squad!
When Things Were Rotten
Get A Life
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Original with Darren McGavin)


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

_The Mole_ as hosted by Anderson Cooper. (Not Celebrity Mole). It's clearly a thinking man's game and an observation game. Also, Anderson actually sat down and mingled with the players during the game and was trying to figure out who mole was also.

It also says something when people applied for the second season, and all but one wanted to be the mole and forgo the prize money.


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

Yet another vote for "Firefly". I also miss it's partner in crime that ran in the time slot right after it, "John Doe". Other shows that I think got yanked too quickly (however I think both lasted two seasons) were Dark Angel & Millenium. In other words FOX has killed a lot of shows I thought were worth watching!


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## BigDaddy10 (Dec 20, 2003)

tsmacro said:


> Yet another vote for "Firefly". I also miss it's partner in crime that ran in the time slot right after it, "John Doe". Other shows that I think got yanked too quickly (however I think both lasted two seasons) were Dark Angel & Millenium. In other words FOX has killed a lot of shows I thought were worth watching!


I agree with you. I think that Fox pulls the plug way too quick. I was a big fan of John Doe, Dark Angel, Roar and the Visitor. All shows on Fox.


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## MrAkai (Aug 10, 2002)

The Inside
Wonderfalls
The next Tim Minear show that gets canceled without a complete run...
and the one after that...
and so on


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

BigDaddy10 said:


> I agree with you. I think that Fox pulls the plug way too quick. I was a big fan of John Doe, Dark Angel, Roar and the Visitor. All shows on Fox.


This is what really fires my cookies. In today's instant society, if a show isn't tracking well initially, the plug gets pulled at the drop of a hat. A lot of shows take a while to get their feet on the ground and build a loyal audience. Hate to see them killed off too quickly.

John


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## Geronimo (Mar 23, 2002)

He and She
The Hero
One of the Boys (cast inclded Nathan Lane, Dana Carvey, Mickey Rooney and Meg Ryan)


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## blabber (Jun 3, 2005)

10-8
Magruder & Loud
Sledgehammer
Dragnet (Dick Wolf)
Undeclared
Star Trek: Enterprise 

Okay, Enterprise was on a few seasons, but just as it was getting good, UPN yanked it. 


:bink:


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## Nikos09 (Oct 6, 2004)

Firefly (which still seems to have legs out there)
Space: Above and Beyond
Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
Nowhere Man (which I suffered through ST:Voyager to get to back in the day)


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

With all of the love thrown at Firefly, I still can't believe they could only scrounge together $10 million in ticket sales on opening weekend)

Here's to hoping that the DVD takes off so we get more adventures with them in the future.....


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

BobMurdoch said:


> With all of the love thrown at Firefly, I still can't believe they could only scrounge together $10 million in ticket sales on opening weekend)
> 
> Here's to hoping that the DVD takes off so we get more adventures with them in the future.....


FYI, I like Firefly so no flames please 

What a lot of people fail to consider at times is.... even though some fans are very vocal (Firefly fans for instance) they are still, unfortunately, a minority of fans... Apparently many fans saw the movie multiple times even to get as high as it did in ticket sales... but the bottom line is that there simply weren't enough fans.

I suspect Buffy was lucky that it was on WB in the beginning when they didn't have much on... so it became a lynchpin of sorts, but the early years (and even the final years really) of Buffy viewership weren't super-high. That show wouldn't have survived CBS, ABC, or NBC most likely... and FOX is almost 20 years old now as a TV network so they are starting to be more picky. Usually WB and UPN will give a better shot at a new show, but even they are being picky for some reason.

A lot of shows I have liked get cancelled... and I for one hate the trend towards "reality" programming, and yet shows like Survivor claim millions of viewers every week! Methinks that while it is fun to blame the networks for not giving shows a chance... it is at least as much the blame of the people who simply choose to watch other things.

I do wish networks wouldn't screw around with airing shows (like Firefly) out of order... or moving the airdate/time around (like Futurama that you never knew when it was coming on or if it would be new)... those kinds of things help people to NOT watch the shows.

I haven't seen it mentioned, but I also liked the FOX Tru Calling series, that was almost cancelled season 1, then got 6 episodes into production the 2nd season and FOX dropped it... only to wait a year before showing 5 of the made shows... and I don't think they ever showed the final episode... but I bought DVDs to watch.


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## mhking (Oct 28, 2002)

Profit (That one was FAR, Far too cerebral for Fox)

Wonderfalls

Firefly

John Doe (And they ended it on a cliffhanger!)

Kindred: The Embraced

Nowhere Man

Crusade

Seaquest (no, you can't throw things at me for that one - it was a guilty pleasure)

Hack

Police Squad

Briscoe County

G vs. E (another guilty pleasure)

Karen Sisco


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

The interesting thing here is, this long list that mhking posted, except for a couple I dont really know anythign about(Nowhere Man, Kindred), I liked and watched every single one of those shows...doesnt taht mean we both have really bad taste?



There is no way that these shows were bad!!!


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

CCarncross said:


> The interesting thing here is, this long list that mhking posted, except for a couple I dont really know anythign about(Nowhere Man, Kindred), I liked and watched every single one of those shows...doesnt taht mean we both have really bad taste?
> 
> 
> 
> There is no way that these shows were bad!!!


Or it could just be that the two of you were way ahead of a crowd that never caught up.  There are a lot of "successful" shows that are mindless dribble. I like interesting shows and those are the ones that make you think, or quirky, or have a really interesting cast.

john


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

Action

Enterprise

Futurama

Police Squad


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## Link (Feb 2, 2004)

Grand (on NBC following Cheers in 1990). The first season was great with good ratings. The second year they tried to make changes and it flopped.

The show had talented actors like Michael McKeon, Pamela Reed and Bonnie Hunt.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

My favorite show that never made it was called the "Outcasts" with Don Murray and Otis Young who played bounty hunters in the post Civil war west. 1968 season. Lasted one season in black and white and was great. Same time frame a series that only made it a few seasons (back then less than one season was unheard of) started in black and white but made the conversion to color was "Gilligan's Island" Folded and immediately went to sindication (all repeats) and the rest is history.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

CSI: Des Moines


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

Nick said:


> CSI: Des Moines


I think it's still playing here.


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## SerenityNOW (Jan 13, 2006)

Hi folks, this is my first post here on the forum so here goes:

Another vote for Firefly (bought the dvd set, saw Serenity in theater and bought its dvd), ST: Voyager and ST: Enterprise, parroting Mr. King with Seaquest-DSV (I recorded the pilot ep on tape but now I can't seem to find it... ) starring Roy Scheider right?

And in no particular order: Roswell, Titus, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Lexx (quirky and weird but good), Win Ben Stein's Money, and Farscape.


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

I just thought of another one. You brought up Seaquest and that got me thinking what I watched in those days. A show called Viper. It was a cop show, kind of like Knight Rider, but it had a car that changed from a Red Viper into a Silver one with all sorts of cool gadgets. It didn't last long, but the first few episodes I have on tape still hold up these days.


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## DTC mac (Oct 23, 2005)

Let me rant about.....

UPN

Killed "Dilbert" to open up room for *cough* "urban comedies"....vomit

Let the Coke II Star Trek franchises run ad nauseum yet killed "ST:Enterprise" just when it started getting good.

God I hope "Boondocks" spears UPN they way they ought to be.


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## Nikos09 (Oct 6, 2004)

Great call by mhking on Profit. A show I still think about when the office politics get heated.


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## TNGTony (Mar 23, 2002)

My guilty pleasure was "Mr. Sterling". I liked the show. I also liked the Supreme Court show that starred James Garner. Both were crap shows I liked. 

See ya
Tony


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

First Monday

That actually was a very good show...thats why it was cancelled. Good tv cant survive in this country


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## TNGTony (Mar 23, 2002)

That's the one.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

Geez, all of these posts with a lot of shows I never saw. Makes me wish we'd have one full week or two of these shows running back to back so I can check 'em all out!!

John


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