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Sun 1 Dec, 2013 01:53 am
I'd like to start a thread about TV shows that you really liked and feel were cancelled prematurely. If nothing else, it can provide other members with a list of shows they might want to look into. Here is the latest of mine.
I am a member of Netflix. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a recently cancelled science fiction show now on Netflix called "Alphas." It apparently ran on the SyFy Channel. It's about a government sponsored group of people with psionic powers who deal with crimes which may have been committed by people with like powers. It's led by a psychiatrist who has devoted a lot of his career to studying people with extraordinary abilities. The team has, for instance, one guy with excellent physical coordination beyond the point that would be considered normal, a woman whose instructions most people feel compelled to obey, a woman with very acute senses, although concentrating on one sense often mutes the others, etc.
Anyway, it is really well done and the characters are interesting. They usually show the personal cost the psionic ability has had on the people, plus other elements of their personal histories. It's clever, exciting, and stylish. Naturally, the SyFy Channel, which has any number of crappy shows, cancelled this one. I have looked at a few discussion threads about it on several message boards, including the SyFy Channel board, and lots of people were angry about the cancellation, some begging them to bring it back, etc. My wife an I have almost finished watching the whole two seasons in just a couple of weeks and are really dismayed about its cancellation. By the way, she is a tougher critic than I am. She often complains about flaws which I am perfectly willing to ignore in the shows we watch.
What show did you think should have been allowed to continue?
Amazingly only 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers were made!
It was good for at least another couple of series!
It was a great show, one of my favorites, although it retired voluntarily.
@Brandon9000,
I used to Love looking at Jennifer Love Hewitt every Frinite
on
Ghost Whisperer. She looks
good in High Definition,
on a Big Screen.
For that matter, there was
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok around 1951.
Gunsmoke was cancelled prematurely.
David
Memory Lane with Joe Franklin shud have lasted longer.
He bought me dinner in one of his restaurants on Broadway, a few years ago.
David
I loved Star Trek, the classic series,
from its beginning.
I thawt it was a crime against humanity to cancel it.
David
Blakes Seven was a smash Brit TV sci-fi series in the late 70's/early 80's and ran to 52 episodes over 4 series.
There was an outcry by it's hardcore fans when it was cancelled but my take is that sadly it simply ran out of steam and ideas.
I'd rate Blakes Seven as the 2nd best sci-fi series of all time (after 1960's Star Trek).
As 3rd best i'd say Star Trek TNG in the 1990's, but since then no more sci-fi shows have impressed me much.
Doctor Who is well past its sell-by date and should be ditched, it's degenerated into a kids show fronted by a succession of nancy-boy overgrown schoolboy doctors..
@OmSigDAVID,
OmSigDAVID wrote:
I loved Star Trek, the classic series,
from its beginning.
I thawt it was a crime against humanity to cancel it.
David
I have written hundreds (probably a thousand or more) letters and op ed pieces to newspapers during my life, David. The very first one was lamenting the cancellation of
Star Trek by NBC.
I thought the series was excellent...and that it should have had a long life.
Little did I know!!!!!
@Brandon9000,
I started watching Alphas a few months ago but got bored with it after 5 or 6 episodes. Maybe I'll give it another try on your recommendation.
I loved the Sarah Connor Chronicles from a few years ago and was shocked when they discontinued it (just as it was hitting it's stride).
Star Trek TOS was iconic of course, and it deserved at least a few more seasons. It's cancellation after only three seasons is reminiscent of other losses like John Belushi and Bruce Lee (major talents and stories that we lost way too soon).
@rosborne979,
I believe that "Star Trek: TNG" retired to make movies. I'm not just guessing. I read that at the time. A questionable decision, but voluntary.
Yes, do give "Alphas" another try. The show, rather than running out of ideas, really grew with time.
@Brandon9000,
Brandon9000 wrote:
I believe that "Star Trek: TNG" retired to make movies. I'm not just guessing. I read that at the time. A questionable decision, but voluntary.
Yes, do give "Alphas" another try. The show, rather than running out of ideas, really grew with time.
Oh sorry, I made a big Typo there... I meant TOS of course, not TNG. The TNG was good, but certainly nowhere near as iconic as TOS.
My mistake, I should have checked my post before posting... bummer (I fixed it above, but too late now I guess).
@Brandon9000,
The cancellation of Alphas is some sad news indeed.
I really lament the premature cancellation of
Dead Like Me,
Firefly,
SGU Stargate Universe, and
Terriers.
Flash Forward was just getting really good and they didn't even have a chance to have one last episode that would explain what/why was the cause of all the global blackouts.
@tsarstepan,
tsarstepan wrote:I really lament the premature cancellation of Dead Like Me, Firefly, SGU Stargate Universe, and Terriers.
Firefly was another great show. But I didn't care much for the others you mentioned. (just personal preference)
@rosborne979,
Unfortunately, as you probably know, the situation with TOS was not that simple. The network planned to cancel it after two seasons, but a letter writing campaign forced them to renew it. However, they treated it disrespectfully. They had promised "Star Trek" a certain favorable time slot, but when "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in," a popular show of the day, demanded that slot, the network went back on their word to Gene Roddenberry and gave him a much less favorable time slot. He had threatened to resign a number of times before over the way the show had been treated and did so again. The network ignored him and he knew that if he didn't finally follow through on the threat, he would lose a lot of credibility in the industry, so he quit. The network chose Fred Freiberger as the new producer and he utterly failed to appreciate that he had been put in charge of a quality product with its own, special virtues. Therefore, the 3rd season episodes are mostly inferior, for which he has been vilified in fandom ever since. Had "Star Trek" been granted a 4th season under Freiberger, it might have been more a travesty than a blessing.
@Brandon9000,
Hindsight is always 20/20 so I try not to dwell much on what could have been. The smallest changes in any direction could have resulted in completely different outcomes.
In a way it couldn't have ended any better than it did because it has left a powerful cultural mark which I don't think could have been burned any deeper into our society. Space shuttles were named after the Enterprise, and generations have grown up at least aware of the concepts of Warp Drive and Transporters and Communicators and Phasers. In one of the episodes Captain Kirk recounted that "the dream became reality and spread throughout the stars" and in this case the show may have been prescient. People only create the technology they first imagine. And now those dreams are embedded in our culture and whether we ever reach the technology of TOS our inexorable move toward it has already begun.
@Frank Apisa,
Frank Apisa wrote:
OmSigDAVID wrote:
I loved Star Trek, the classic series,
from its beginning.
I thawt it was a crime against humanity to cancel it.
David
I have written hundreds (probably a thousand or more) letters and op ed pieces to newspapers during my life, David.
The very first one was lamenting the cancellation of
Star Trek by NBC.
I thought the series was excellent...and that it should have had a long life.
[and it shud have prospered David]
Little did I know!!!!!
I attended the first 5 annual conventions to bring back Star Trek in the 1970s;
mindblowing,
at the Grand Hyatt on 42nd Street and Lexington Ave (or its predecessor, the Commodore).
3 days of concurrent
Star Trek 10AM to 2AM.
There were 1OOOs of us.
David
@OmSigDAVID,
What did you dress up as?
WAIT--- You were a TRIBBLE no?
@tsarstepan,
tsarstepan wrote:
The cancellation of Alphas is some sad news indeed.
I really lament the premature cancellation of Dead Like Me, Firefly, SGU Stargate Universe, and Terriers.
I liked
Dead Like Me. I got the DVD set,
which was lost in a
fire. I wish that had continued.
I liked Daisy Adair.
David
@farmerman,
farmerman wrote:What did you dress up as?
WAIT--- You were a TRIBBLE no?
Thay had a
TERRIFIC costume parade every year!!!
Extremely original, of the personal manufacture of the convention attenders.
The parade (with costume judging) lasted about 4 hours.
The demonstrated
creativity brought
new meaning to
*INEFFABLE*.
I always dressed in vested suits of identical sartorial architecture,
wherever I went, before I retired.
David
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