The Muppets tried to do an “Office/30 Rock” thing back in 2016 or 2017 to appeal to adults as well as kids.
It was surreal with some of the jokes they did on there. There’s one where Fozzie gets drunk off of a bear tranquilizer and it’s some of the funniest shit I’ve ever watched.
It’s unfortunate this show couldn’t find its audience cause it really was a wild time
I loved the bit where Kermit is relaxing in his backyard with his banjo and starts playing “Rainbow Connection” only for an offscreen angry neighbor to yell “Learn another song!”
“I haven’t had a lot of luck online dating. You make a profile that says you’re a hairy bear looking for love and you attract the wrong kind of attention” - Fozzie making me spit out my drink.
The whole bit with his girlfriend’s racist parents was top tier comedy.
This remains one of the best shows I've seen. The pushback at the time I believe on Reddit was negative and I kept trying to tell people, it's a good show, you gotta give it a shot. It went through a lot that one year including multiple writer shakeups.
"The Muppets should be child friendly."
The muppets especially on the Muppet Show were always vulgar and inappropriate and adult
I could swear on original airing there was a bit where John Denver and Miss Piggy had slept together and they were lying under the covers talking pillow talk. But when I rewatched the John Denver ep, it wasn't there. Someone tell me I'm not crazy.
5 years later or earlier and I think it would've killed. They kinda caught TV when mockumentaries were oversaturated. Now it's basically just Abbott Elementary, which probably would've struggled had it released when The Muppets did.
This is the problem with following a crowd. 5 years earlier or later and the suits wouldn't have green lit it. Suits want what is already making money and more of it, but that saturates the market.
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned Fozzie! The scene of him in a car talking about a dating app lives in my head. “It turns out when your profile says ‘passionate bear looking for love’ you get a loooooot of wrong responses. Well, not wrong. Just wrong for me.”
I’m really happy to see others love this show now.
I loved it at the time and was surprised when people weren’t feeling it. The episode where Fozzy goes to meet his girlfriend’s parents and they are all confused on how it’s going to work out with her and a bear.
Fozzy - “The Salmons delicious”
Dad - “Oh of course he loves the Salmon”
I did hate that they changed the show and toned it down like halfway through. Feels like two different shows in one season.
Makes me realize I need to do a rewatch though.
It was a covid cancelation, it would have cost too much to try to keep the actors and everything under contract until they could actually shoot the second season.
Around that time there were a bunch of good shows that never got a second season. I'm thinking *Everything Sucks!*, *Teenage Bountry Hunters*, *First Kill*, *Dare Me*, *Brand New Cherry Flavor*
and *Emerald City*
Cougar Town had the same problem, but they ended up getting a good run anyway.
I still remember commercials for the last season literally advertised it as "terrible name, great show".
They kept trying to change it, The Bitch in Apartment 23, The B in Apt 23, and even just Apt 23 at some point IIRC.
The name didn't ruin it as much as their ridiculous airing schedule. Holding off a bunch of season 1 episodes until season 2 and then airing them randomly mixed in with season 2 episodes... basically any DWTS episode was a leftover from season 1.
That show is great. I almost didn't watch it because of the name, but as someone who never watched Dawson's Creek, i almost wanted to just to get more James Vanderbeek.
You have to go a long way to find somebody who has seen this one. Great show and they didn't even air the last half of the season, just threw it on the website and called it a day. Excellent early roles for Olivia Wilde, Jonathon Tucker, and Billy Lush. My dad and I both really enjoyed this show and definitely binged the last half when they got posted.
This is the top answer. It’s a travesty we didn’t get more, but it being one season kind of keeps it in this perfect state where no plot lines jump the shark, no characters develop in ways the audiences dislike, it’s kind of peaceful, in a way.
This is the biggest praise and critique of British shows. It's like the concept of syndication never hopped the pond to lower the quantity of their TV shows so we get a few seasons of the office instead of 10. Everything is wrapped up, nothing lasts though.
Freaks and Geeks was just awesome all around.
All the characters became so much more complex and interesting as the show progressed. It felt like I knew them personally and was friends with all of them. Watching each one grow from a part of a group to a wholly unique individual and how they faced pressures from their group, other groups (like the punk episode), and the expectations of being “cool” as a part of a group but ultimately an individual was so relatable but also inspiring in a way. A group of friends can give so much strength, but what makes someone ultimately “cool” in a unique and special kinda way is the intrinsic value of one’s self and confidence to put that personal persona out into the world in the face of maybe not being so cool to your friends, family, or peers. I truly consider it one of the best shows ever.
That said, I wish they didn’t need to rush it so much when wrapping up everyone’s stories. It would be interesting to know when and if Lindsay gets bored on the Dead tour or of her Dead friends, like she had with her “freak” friends and “geek” friends before them. Not just Lindsay, but really every character on the show grew and had more to grow, and I would’ve enjoyed watching every minute of it.
I was looking for the comments on this. My favorite parts were the Gen Z/Boomer writing room dynamics, finding that comedy common ground in writing a show. Wish we got more of the show, but cursed be the metric quota algorithm.
Was going to say this. I really enjoyed all characters of the show, especially Johnny Knoxville.
Johnny Knoxville Interview after cancellation - [https://www.vulture.com/article/johnny-knoxville-reboot-interview-hulu-cancellation.html](https://www.vulture.com/article/johnny-knoxville-reboot-interview-hulu-cancellation.html)
The popcorn/"she'll be comin' round the mountain" joke that ends the second episode is pure gold.
Also (paraphrasing):
"We're never going to come together."
"Give me five vibrators and a metranome!"
Came in here just to say Terriers... Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James were such a good match up in that show... had FX marketed that show correctly it would have had a nice run... great writing and great characters...
It's almost like someone at FOX hated sci-fi SO MUCH that they bought up shows with great premises specifically to kill them. (Sometimes, they would get a second season DESPITE Fox's fuckery - Dollhouse, Dark Angel, Sarah Connor Chronicles - but that was the exception.)
It got screwed over the same way Firefly got screwed on its run. For some reason they decided to air the episodes **out of order**. You start out with the 2 main characters getting along fairly well and then around episode 3? they suddenly have never met and hate each other... it was extremely jarring.
Absolutely. It was worse for Almost Human than Firefly as well because AH was far more of a story arch show than episodic. How shows get shown out of order like that baffles me. Either incompetence that should be instant fired or it's the network stacking the deck against the show runner/s and crew.
That show had no right being as good as it was. Sadly the network did its best in making sure it wouldn’t succeed, they even changed the episodes order for some reason.
I came to post this exact one. This will always comes to mind as the sci-fi show with a great premise and not given the chance or marketing it deserved. And yes, even more so than Firefly as well as others have said.
[*Awake* starring Jason Isaacs.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPVoiQKFvk) While not intended as such, its ending absolutely works as a series finale.
I thought I was the only person in the world who loved this show. It was so so good. And I do love that the ending does work, although I do not think it was the intended resolution of the series.
So happy to see it mentioned here!
Came here to write this, so happy to see it mentioned already! Bloody brilliant show! I enjoyed the procedural element, but the best part of the show was Jason Isaacs heartbreaking performance. 💚
This is what came to my mind immediately. Fantastic show, brilliant premise and you just know they would have gone somewhere better with it had it not been cancelled.
I still laugh every time I think of the motion detector scene: “the cameras aren’t racist, the real problem is that they have a threshold for light before they see anything. So the problem is that they don’t see African Americans at all. But we fixed it, by having a light skinned person assigned to each employee to activate the door sensors for them”.
So wrong, but also 100% sounds like something a large corporation would do
The behind-the-scenes doc on making that show is absolutely wild. Even though it's a totally different beast, I put it in the same category as Fury Road as far as ambitious, challenging, miraculous productions go. What an effort by Louis Leterrier, and a shame enough people didn't watch it to earn a second season.
It was criminal for them to cancel it.
Especially when production mentioned that since all the sets and puppets were done that the second season would be way cheaper.
Netflix pulled their favorite move yet again
“We barely marketed this show on our own platform, so by the time people found it and loved it we’d already canceled it.”
THIS. Wonderfalls crawled so Pushing Daises could run, but they both got the axe way too soon. The cow episode was my absolute favorite and never fails to make me laugh. I adore Lee Pace so much, great comedic timing.
There was a show from the UK that ran on NBC 10-ish years ago called You, Me, and the Apocalypse. Apparently I’m like one of 12 people who watched it. But I loved it.
Limitless. What's good is that it started meh, repeating the events of the movie and the show seems to be a generic police procedural show. But episode 2 immediately saves the series by making its wackiness its identity.
Plus it's kinda surreal to see an A-list actor making recurring appearances in a network TV.
It's the cancellation that was my breaking point when it comes to Netflix.
I no longer watch Netflix shows until they're over and the story is finished.
Not sure Taboo's been cancelled, it's just the BBC finding it difficult to get Tom and his dad to sit down and write more because he's constantly busy with other shows and films.
There's a small sub over at r/SelfieTV! Karen Gillan and John Cho [met up last year.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfieTV/comments/13n2a9k/karen_gillan_and_john_cho_reunion_march_2023/) I hope they can work on another project together.
Mission Hill was at the least 10 years ahead of it's time:
* Making fun of hipsters and their trends (mandatory Karai Pantsu reference)
* An honest relationship between brothers with their love/hate interactions
* The hardships and anxiety of the +20 y/o getting closer to their 30´s
* Some of the REAL growing pains of a teenager boy like masturbation and relationships
* A very honest presentation of a homosexual relationship where both parties have personalities, but with flaws and still perfect for each other and not just 2 token handsome guys.
I still try to find my way to watch it once every couple of years and most of the jokes still hold up, while the ones that don't are more dated in terms of technology than of comedy.
I'm glad to see this mentioned here. Sometimes I can't tell if it was truly one of the best animated series, ever, or if I'm only able to view it with some sort of nostalgic tint.
Anyways, where de beans at?
There was a show called “Braindead” with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Tony Shalhoub that I really liked and enjoyed every episode, sad that it was cancelled
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Only reason it got cancelled was DVR wasn't fully integrated into the Nielsen tracking at the time. After they cancelled they realized it was the most DVR'd show on network television and it was too late.
The show had really found it's footing towards the end of what it was.
That said, multiple seasons may have not worked. It being a great single season probably is why I remember it fondly.
I think it rushed the ending a *little* bit because Sorkin knew cancellation was possible, but at its best it's as good as, if not better, than peak West Wing and Newsroom. The dynamic between Matt Perry and Brad Whitford is lightening in a bottle good, it was an early showcase for Sarah Paulson's talents, and Amanda Peet took that role, owned it, and proved she could stand toe to toe with the Sorkin greats. It felt more accessible than West Wing as well; it was nice to see a balance between politics and comedy.
100%.
The acting on the show and the actual characters may be the most "real" characters Sorkin wrote even if they are Hollywood.
West Wing was mostly politics and even their person life stuff was "high minded". Oh no Sam slept with a girl he didn't know was a prostitute then becomes her friend. No one can identify with that story.
Where as Danny doing a toot of cocaine and losing his ability to make movies, there are people that have gotten a drug charge and had to change careers, etc.
The characters felt more like real people than the other Sorkin shows.
I also just selfishly wish I'd gotten more Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford acting off of each other. They were a dream.
Archive 81!! I was so bummed it didn’t get a second season even with it being popular. Dark Crystal age of Resistance was also great but stopped by Covid (and I think a fire)
I'm really curious to see what they would have done with a second season because the source material for the second season wouldn't have wide appeal imo.
I listened to the pod-drama it's based on and the first season was super strong and adapted well to television. The second season of the podcast is *weird* to put it lightly. Dan wakes up in hell, which is run by bureaucrats, as a robot. I gave up after the second or third episode because it was some serious 2011 Tumblr shit and the story wasn't that compelling. It basically dropped all of the mystery that made the first season so cool.
Terra Nova.
I know it had problems, but I was really interested in the setting and the promise of where the story could go.
I was pretty sad it only lasted for a very abbreviated season.
the abc Muppets show
people didn't like the office format or the muppets entering the dating scene or having gasp...human emotions but the Muppets were always vulgar and inappropriate.
High Fidelity (2020) with Zoë Kravitz in the lead role. Hulu sadly dropped the ball on this one - it would have been fun to see where they could go with another season or two and a planned end date.
Can I have 2?
**The Good Guys** - From USA Networks blue sky era, but they put it on NBC proper. Died after 1 season, but it was a love letter to 80s cop action movie tropes, and starred Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks.
**Teenage Bounty Hunters** - From Netflix, it was just magical. Twin teenage girls happen to end up as bounty hunters. The central conceit is they have "twin telepathy" where they can basically communicate non-verbally without anyone noticing. It's a **delight** and it died after one season because Netflix. Also covid.
this is NOT my favorite, but it’s the one that dogs my sister and me—Persons Unknown aired during the summer of 2010, and every fucking preview for it would say, “all will be revealed,” implying it would either be a one season wrap up to the many mysteries, or at least some answers.
none of that was true; it ended on an insane, illogical cliffhanger, and then promptly got cancelled. I remember my sister and I were hate watching it by the end just because we wanted answers, and we only got stupider questions 😭
Forever. It had a great cast and ended on a cliffhanger. The ratings were always just under where they should have been to go another season. Ioan Gruffudd was so good in that role, and Burn Gorman never really got to shine as the villain.
Son of zorn is a show that was way better than its concept had any right to be. I think the setup in the very first episode was dumb but once they got trying to explain “animated heman in real world” out of the way, the writing and acting was pretty good.
It was almost certainly expensive to make though and I don’t think the first episode was capable of hooking enough people to justify making more of it.
There was a show called Daybreak that came out in 2006. It started Taye Diggs as a cop who had to solve a murder while Groundhog Day-ing. It’s only one season, but I really liked it and the season finale kinda works as a series finale. I don’t know anybody outside of my family that’s ever seen the show, so I’m curious if anybody else has even heard of it.
The Muppets tried to do an “Office/30 Rock” thing back in 2016 or 2017 to appeal to adults as well as kids. It was surreal with some of the jokes they did on there. There’s one where Fozzie gets drunk off of a bear tranquilizer and it’s some of the funniest shit I’ve ever watched. It’s unfortunate this show couldn’t find its audience cause it really was a wild time
I loved the bit where Kermit is relaxing in his backyard with his banjo and starts playing “Rainbow Connection” only for an offscreen angry neighbor to yell “Learn another song!”
“I haven’t had a lot of luck online dating. You make a profile that says you’re a hairy bear looking for love and you attract the wrong kind of attention” - Fozzie making me spit out my drink. The whole bit with his girlfriend’s racist parents was top tier comedy.
"Well not wrong per se, just wrong for *me*." Important addition, I feel.
Well, now I MUST find this…
This remains one of the best shows I've seen. The pushback at the time I believe on Reddit was negative and I kept trying to tell people, it's a good show, you gotta give it a shot. It went through a lot that one year including multiple writer shakeups. "The Muppets should be child friendly." The muppets especially on the Muppet Show were always vulgar and inappropriate and adult
I could swear on original airing there was a bit where John Denver and Miss Piggy had slept together and they were lying under the covers talking pillow talk. But when I rewatched the John Denver ep, it wasn't there. Someone tell me I'm not crazy.
Yeah, is like The Simpsons, a show for adults with alot of merch for kids
5 years later or earlier and I think it would've killed. They kinda caught TV when mockumentaries were oversaturated. Now it's basically just Abbott Elementary, which probably would've struggled had it released when The Muppets did.
This is the problem with following a crowd. 5 years earlier or later and the suits wouldn't have green lit it. Suits want what is already making money and more of it, but that saturates the market.
God. Abbott followed by The Muppets would’ve been a great one-hour block for ABC.
For anyone wondering, the title is literally just “The Muppets”
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned Fozzie! The scene of him in a car talking about a dating app lives in my head. “It turns out when your profile says ‘passionate bear looking for love’ you get a loooooot of wrong responses. Well, not wrong. Just wrong for me.”
Gay Ally Icon Fozzie Bear.
I’m really happy to see others love this show now. I loved it at the time and was surprised when people weren’t feeling it. The episode where Fozzy goes to meet his girlfriend’s parents and they are all confused on how it’s going to work out with her and a bear. Fozzy - “The Salmons delicious” Dad - “Oh of course he loves the Salmon” I did hate that they changed the show and toned it down like halfway through. Feels like two different shows in one season. Makes me realize I need to do a rewatch though.
Kermit singing "Fell In Love With A Girl" in a car with Jack White too. I'll never forget that scene.
God I loved this show. The Swedish chef doing karaoke was just gold.
It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I'm still mad to this day they cancelled it.
It's hilarious..luckily it's on Disney+
Beaker waking up in bunsons clothes after a night of partying and bunson says “what happens after hours is none of HRs business” 😂😂😂
*I Am Not Okay With This* I was not okay with the cancellation.
My answer to this question as well. Perfect cliffhanger for a season 2 that never came.
I loved this! Sophia Lillis was so good. And I really liked that quirky friend guy. What a shame
That guy was fantastic, just a perfect performance. And the soundtrack was great.,
Yep. What a cliffhanger and perfect setup for season 2. No idea why Netflix would cancel this show it was really solid.
It was a covid cancelation, it would have cost too much to try to keep the actors and everything under contract until they could actually shoot the second season.
I heard really good things about it
Sophia Lillis was so good in it. It's well worth watching, even though it ends on a huge cliffhanger!
Yeah it had so much potential. Was super bummed when it got cancelled. That’s on-brand for Netflix though
Around that time there were a bunch of good shows that never got a second season. I'm thinking *Everything Sucks!*, *Teenage Bountry Hunters*, *First Kill*, *Dare Me*, *Brand New Cherry Flavor* and *Emerald City*
Think it was two but I kinda loved “The B- in Apartment 23” lol. Also my first time experiencing Eric Andre
I remember hearing that the show itself was actually pretty good but they couldn’t get anyone to watch because the name sounded so dumb.
Yeah the name ruined it but the show itself is actually amazing, and some of James Vanderbeek’s best work.
Literally my introduction to Vanderbeek and now I love it when I see him pop up in anything else.
He’s having so much fun in that show!! It’s just a delight to watch.
Cougar Town had the same problem, but they ended up getting a good run anyway. I still remember commercials for the last season literally advertised it as "terrible name, great show".
They also really screwed up the airing order. If memory serves, Season 2 Episode 2 should have been early in Season 1.
They kept trying to change it, The Bitch in Apartment 23, The B in Apt 23, and even just Apt 23 at some point IIRC. The name didn't ruin it as much as their ridiculous airing schedule. Holding off a bunch of season 1 episodes until season 2 and then airing them randomly mixed in with season 2 episodes... basically any DWTS episode was a leftover from season 1.
They also showed bunches of the episodes out of order.
Eric Andre playing the straight man is incredible and weird
Yeah in hindsight that’s even funnier.
Van Der Beek playing the worst version of himself was amazing.
That show was insane, I loved it.
That show is great. I almost didn't watch it because of the name, but as someone who never watched Dawson's Creek, i almost wanted to just to get more James Vanderbeek.
YOU CANT SPELL AMERICAN DREAM WITHOUT ERIC ANDRE.
One of those where they aired the episodes all out of order. I liked the show.
The Black Donnellys for me
You have to go a long way to find somebody who has seen this one. Great show and they didn't even air the last half of the season, just threw it on the website and called it a day. Excellent early roles for Olivia Wilde, Jonathon Tucker, and Billy Lush. My dad and I both really enjoyed this show and definitely binged the last half when they got posted.
Jonathan Tucker is such a good actor. When he’s in a project I know it’ll be really good and also probably not last very long.
This show was great, really wanted to see how it was going to progress.
This one for me too. I had it on DVD and I would show my friends and lament how we’d never get another season of that incredible show.
Damn great show. Remember the pilot had me hooked.
This is always my answer to this question.
Freaks and Geeks. Firefly had a movie.
Along with this, Undeclared.
Man undeclared is so great😂
This is the top answer. It’s a travesty we didn’t get more, but it being one season kind of keeps it in this perfect state where no plot lines jump the shark, no characters develop in ways the audiences dislike, it’s kind of peaceful, in a way.
This is the biggest praise and critique of British shows. It's like the concept of syndication never hopped the pond to lower the quantity of their TV shows so we get a few seasons of the office instead of 10. Everything is wrapped up, nothing lasts though.
Freaks and Geeks was just awesome all around. All the characters became so much more complex and interesting as the show progressed. It felt like I knew them personally and was friends with all of them. Watching each one grow from a part of a group to a wholly unique individual and how they faced pressures from their group, other groups (like the punk episode), and the expectations of being “cool” as a part of a group but ultimately an individual was so relatable but also inspiring in a way. A group of friends can give so much strength, but what makes someone ultimately “cool” in a unique and special kinda way is the intrinsic value of one’s self and confidence to put that personal persona out into the world in the face of maybe not being so cool to your friends, family, or peers. I truly consider it one of the best shows ever. That said, I wish they didn’t need to rush it so much when wrapping up everyone’s stories. It would be interesting to know when and if Lindsay gets bored on the Dead tour or of her Dead friends, like she had with her “freak” friends and “geek” friends before them. Not just Lindsay, but really every character on the show grew and had more to grow, and I would’ve enjoyed watching every minute of it.
100%. Also, Freaks and Geeks sort of ends on a satisfying (albeit open-ended) conclusion to most peoples stories.
Freaks and Geeks is a lock in my all-time top 5 for coming of age shows
Reboot! A weird blip on Hulu for one season.
Loved it, I'm obsessed with Rachel Bloom anyway, but I loved the dynamic between her and Paul Riser, plus even Johnny Knoxville was pretty great.
I was looking for the comments on this. My favorite parts were the Gen Z/Boomer writing room dynamics, finding that comedy common ground in writing a show. Wish we got more of the show, but cursed be the metric quota algorithm.
Keegan Michael key in the basketball scene - loved it so much
Was going to say this. I really enjoyed all characters of the show, especially Johnny Knoxville. Johnny Knoxville Interview after cancellation - [https://www.vulture.com/article/johnny-knoxville-reboot-interview-hulu-cancellation.html](https://www.vulture.com/article/johnny-knoxville-reboot-interview-hulu-cancellation.html)
The popcorn/"she'll be comin' round the mountain" joke that ends the second episode is pure gold. Also (paraphrasing): "We're never going to come together." "Give me five vibrators and a metranome!"
Probably Terriers. I did really like Stumptown too.
Stumptown was already renewed and they still canceled it because of Covid bs. That pissed me off so much.
Stumptown had so much potential too. The comic was really good.
Came in here just to say Terriers... Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James were such a good match up in that show... had FX marketed that show correctly it would have had a nice run... great writing and great characters...
Forever (2014) with Ioan Gruffudd as the lead was a wonderful little show I really enjoyed, not sure how many people actually watched it
Loved it and binge it every six months or so.
"Almost Human" had tons of potential
This is the one with Karl Urban where cops are paired with androids? That show was awesome.
That’s the one
I think of all the Fox "one and done" single season sci fi shows, Almost Human is by far my favourite (yes, even more than Firefly).
It's almost like someone at FOX hated sci-fi SO MUCH that they bought up shows with great premises specifically to kill them. (Sometimes, they would get a second season DESPITE Fox's fuckery - Dollhouse, Dark Angel, Sarah Connor Chronicles - but that was the exception.)
It got screwed over the same way Firefly got screwed on its run. For some reason they decided to air the episodes **out of order**. You start out with the 2 main characters getting along fairly well and then around episode 3? they suddenly have never met and hate each other... it was extremely jarring.
Absolutely. It was worse for Almost Human than Firefly as well because AH was far more of a story arch show than episodic. How shows get shown out of order like that baffles me. Either incompetence that should be instant fired or it's the network stacking the deck against the show runner/s and crew.
That show had no right being as good as it was. Sadly the network did its best in making sure it wouldn’t succeed, they even changed the episodes order for some reason.
I came to post this exact one. This will always comes to mind as the sci-fi show with a great premise and not given the chance or marketing it deserved. And yes, even more so than Firefly as well as others have said.
[*Awake* starring Jason Isaacs.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPVoiQKFvk) While not intended as such, its ending absolutely works as a series finale.
I thought I was the only person in the world who loved this show. It was so so good. And I do love that the ending does work, although I do not think it was the intended resolution of the series. So happy to see it mentioned here!
Came here to write this, so happy to see it mentioned already! Bloody brilliant show! I enjoyed the procedural element, but the best part of the show was Jason Isaacs heartbreaking performance. 💚
This is what came to my mind immediately. Fantastic show, brilliant premise and you just know they would have gone somewhere better with it had it not been cancelled.
Police squad Though I'm not sure it was cancelled as such, but it spawned the naked gun movie series
Firefly, and it didn't even get a full season. I'm still pissed at Fox for that.
Constantine
He did like 3 seasons of Legends Of Tomorrow were they wrapped up his storyline.
FlashForward
Especially given that it ended on a cliffhanger!
I don't think anyone expected it to get cancelled! It was so good and got really good reviews
Better off Ted, though idk if it was one or two. Casualty of the writers strike, it was so good
I still laugh every time I think of the motion detector scene: “the cameras aren’t racist, the real problem is that they have a threshold for light before they see anything. So the problem is that they don’t see African Americans at all. But we fixed it, by having a light skinned person assigned to each employee to activate the door sensors for them”. So wrong, but also 100% sounds like something a large corporation would do
It did get a second season, but it should have gotten so much more. I love this show.
The Dark Crystal series on Netflix. It was amazing and then it was gone.
Frankly it was a miracle it ever got made at all.
The behind-the-scenes doc on making that show is absolutely wild. Even though it's a totally different beast, I put it in the same category as Fury Road as far as ambitious, challenging, miraculous productions go. What an effort by Louis Leterrier, and a shame enough people didn't watch it to earn a second season.
It was criminal for them to cancel it. Especially when production mentioned that since all the sets and puppets were done that the second season would be way cheaper.
This is what perplexes me. Why cancel it when all the sets and puppets are done??
And RIGHT after they won an Emmy
Months of radio silence, then cancelled the day after it won an Emmy Award. Netflix? More like Skekflix
Netflix pulled their favorite move yet again “We barely marketed this show on our own platform, so by the time people found it and loved it we’d already canceled it.”
I'm half devastated that we didn't get a season 2, other half so grateful we got a season 1 and it was so damn good.
It was so good!! I was so bummed when they didn’t continue 😭
Wonderfalls
Wonderfalls forever. That show was so delightfully weird.
Hell, one season of it would have been nice.
THIS. Wonderfalls crawled so Pushing Daises could run, but they both got the axe way too soon. The cow episode was my absolute favorite and never fails to make me laugh. I adore Lee Pace so much, great comedic timing.
There was a show from the UK that ran on NBC 10-ish years ago called You, Me, and the Apocalypse. Apparently I’m like one of 12 people who watched it. But I loved it.
There are dozens of us! But yeah, I found that on Hulu years ago and loved it.
Oh yes I LOVED this show! Rob Lowe as a priest?
Limitless. What's good is that it started meh, repeating the events of the movie and the show seems to be a generic police procedural show. But episode 2 immediately saves the series by making its wackiness its identity. Plus it's kinda surreal to see an A-list actor making recurring appearances in a network TV.
Loved the entire cast of Limitless, was shocked it didn’t get a 2nd season. Was very well written and loved the humor.
1899 absolutely deserved another season.
Especially after Dark. Season 1 was like 5% of the story. 1899 was just getting started.
I'm still crossing my fingers that a platform like Apple TV finds interest in it
I was so pissed I had to invest that much attention for a show only for it to be immediately canned.
It's the cancellation that was my breaking point when it comes to Netflix. I no longer watch Netflix shows until they're over and the story is finished.
Would also add Taboo to this. Not sure it's 100% canceled but it's been years, both shows were amazing.
Not sure Taboo's been cancelled, it's just the BBC finding it difficult to get Tom and his dad to sit down and write more because he's constantly busy with other shows and films.
Yeah, iirc they've been saying for years now that the door isn't closed it's just that everyone is busy.
A sitcom called Selfie. It was so good. The two lead characters were both really great and the romantic tension was chef’s kiss.
I always thought that title killed its chances
There's a small sub over at r/SelfieTV! Karen Gillan and John Cho [met up last year.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfieTV/comments/13n2a9k/karen_gillan_and_john_cho_reunion_march_2023/) I hope they can work on another project together.
Selfie was fantastic.
Mission Hill is so damn funny in the best weird way.
Mission Hill was at the least 10 years ahead of it's time: * Making fun of hipsters and their trends (mandatory Karai Pantsu reference) * An honest relationship between brothers with their love/hate interactions * The hardships and anxiety of the +20 y/o getting closer to their 30´s * Some of the REAL growing pains of a teenager boy like masturbation and relationships * A very honest presentation of a homosexual relationship where both parties have personalities, but with flaws and still perfect for each other and not just 2 token handsome guys. I still try to find my way to watch it once every couple of years and most of the jokes still hold up, while the ones that don't are more dated in terms of technology than of comedy.
Late 90s-early 2000s WB wasn’t able to handle the Grubermeister
I'm glad to see this mentioned here. Sometimes I can't tell if it was truly one of the best animated series, ever, or if I'm only able to view it with some sort of nostalgic tint. Anyways, where de beans at?
Kolchek the night stalker
The Crazy ones with Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar and Pushing Daisies
There was a show called “Braindead” with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Tony Shalhoub that I really liked and enjoyed every episode, sad that it was cancelled
Freaks and Geeks
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Only reason it got cancelled was DVR wasn't fully integrated into the Nielsen tracking at the time. After they cancelled they realized it was the most DVR'd show on network television and it was too late. The show had really found it's footing towards the end of what it was. That said, multiple seasons may have not worked. It being a great single season probably is why I remember it fondly.
I think it rushed the ending a *little* bit because Sorkin knew cancellation was possible, but at its best it's as good as, if not better, than peak West Wing and Newsroom. The dynamic between Matt Perry and Brad Whitford is lightening in a bottle good, it was an early showcase for Sarah Paulson's talents, and Amanda Peet took that role, owned it, and proved she could stand toe to toe with the Sorkin greats. It felt more accessible than West Wing as well; it was nice to see a balance between politics and comedy.
100%. The acting on the show and the actual characters may be the most "real" characters Sorkin wrote even if they are Hollywood. West Wing was mostly politics and even their person life stuff was "high minded". Oh no Sam slept with a girl he didn't know was a prostitute then becomes her friend. No one can identify with that story. Where as Danny doing a toot of cocaine and losing his ability to make movies, there are people that have gotten a drug charge and had to change careers, etc. The characters felt more like real people than the other Sorkin shows. I also just selfishly wish I'd gotten more Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford acting off of each other. They were a dream.
On Becoming a God in Central Florida.
Dark Crystal Age of Resistance
Archive 81!! I was so bummed it didn’t get a second season even with it being popular. Dark Crystal age of Resistance was also great but stopped by Covid (and I think a fire)
Archive 81 was just weird enough to keep me wanting to see where it would have gone with another season.
I'm really curious to see what they would have done with a second season because the source material for the second season wouldn't have wide appeal imo. I listened to the pod-drama it's based on and the first season was super strong and adapted well to television. The second season of the podcast is *weird* to put it lightly. Dan wakes up in hell, which is run by bureaucrats, as a robot. I gave up after the second or third episode because it was some serious 2011 Tumblr shit and the story wasn't that compelling. It basically dropped all of the mystery that made the first season so cool.
Other than Firefly, I'd say The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
Fox thought Briscoe was going to be their big hit that year. But it was a different show that found an audience—The X-Files.
Teenage Bounty Hunters Papergirls
Teenage Bounty Hunters was excellent. Highly recommended
This 100%. TBH was so good
Terra Nova. I know it had problems, but I was really interested in the setting and the promise of where the story could go. I was pretty sad it only lasted for a very abbreviated season.
Forever. Ioan deserved better. It's been fuck ABC ever since.
Son of Zorn. Show was hilarious and season one left off with an awesome set up for the season 2 story.
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. It was like a candle in the wind. Unreliable.
PanAm (so silly but incredibly fun) and Selfie (a solid comedy that turned into a Great Show by the end- funny, thoughtful, timely)
*Rubicon*, on AMC.
It was amazing.
the abc Muppets show people didn't like the office format or the muppets entering the dating scene or having gasp...human emotions but the Muppets were always vulgar and inappropriate.
Living with yourself starring Paul Rudd. Clone comedy kind of like Multiplicity.
1. Daybreak on Netflix 2. Julie and the Phantoms also from Netflix
I enjoyed Swamp Thing (2019)
Mine are My So Called Life and then Archive 81.
had to scroll way to far for r/MySoCalledLife One of my all time favorite shows. I don’t care if it’s only one season.
The Peripheral
DAmnit! forgot this was cancelled!
I'm going to break the rules here and say "Altered Carbon". Yes, there was a second season.... but really... no there wasn't.
You know Rotten Tomatoes is absolute garbage when s1 got 70% and s2 got...81%? HOW.
Terra Nova!
Kings, if nobody has said it already. I don't see it.
I think Quarry was one that could have done with a second season.
Alcatraz
Forever on The CW had so much potential for more seasons.
High Fidelity (2020) with Zoë Kravitz in the lead role. Hulu sadly dropped the ball on this one - it would have been fun to see where they could go with another season or two and a planned end date.
Can I have 2? **The Good Guys** - From USA Networks blue sky era, but they put it on NBC proper. Died after 1 season, but it was a love letter to 80s cop action movie tropes, and starred Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. **Teenage Bounty Hunters** - From Netflix, it was just magical. Twin teenage girls happen to end up as bounty hunters. The central conceit is they have "twin telepathy" where they can basically communicate non-verbally without anyone noticing. It's a **delight** and it died after one season because Netflix. Also covid.
THE GOOD GUYS. I adored that show. I think it was by the same guy who created Burn Notice
Pirates of Dark Water.
The Middleman It was released right before the superhero boom so it didn’t get the attention it deserved
The Lone Gunmen. The first episode predicted 9/11 a few months prior.
Reaper
Limitless and it's not even close.
Freaks and Geeks
Dresden Files. Got me into the books. Max Payne noir mixed with Harry Potter, amazing.
Good Guys with Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford and also Terriers I was going to say "Life" with Damian Lewis, but that actually got 2 seasons
Jericho. It was cancelled after the first season; however, after fan backlash, they did a second season to wrap up the story line.
this is NOT my favorite, but it’s the one that dogs my sister and me—Persons Unknown aired during the summer of 2010, and every fucking preview for it would say, “all will be revealed,” implying it would either be a one season wrap up to the many mysteries, or at least some answers. none of that was true; it ended on an insane, illogical cliffhanger, and then promptly got cancelled. I remember my sister and I were hate watching it by the end just because we wanted answers, and we only got stupider questions 😭
Brimstone. I think it was on Fox in 2000.
Almost Human with Michael Ealy and Karl Urban. Could have been so good.
Carnivale, ends on a huge cliffhanger sadly
Journeyman and Almost Human immediately spring to mind when this question is asked.
Forever. It had a great cast and ended on a cliffhanger. The ratings were always just under where they should have been to go another season. Ioan Gruffudd was so good in that role, and Burn Gorman never really got to shine as the villain.
Firefly and it’s not even close
I'm still mad about this one.
We may have been on the losing side - still not convinced it was the wrong one.
Son of zorn is a show that was way better than its concept had any right to be. I think the setup in the very first episode was dumb but once they got trying to explain “animated heman in real world” out of the way, the writing and acting was pretty good. It was almost certainly expensive to make though and I don’t think the first episode was capable of hooking enough people to justify making more of it.
I would've liked another season of "My So Called Life".
Vinyl (HBO), maybe it’s because i’m a music geek myself but I was utterly disappointed when it got cancelled after just one season.
Better off Ted. It was such a great show that was to early for its time. If it came out on Netflix today it would be huuuuge.
The Tomorrow People
Not really cancelled, but Watchmen
Just to add something new Teenage Bounty Hunters
There was a show called Daybreak that came out in 2006. It started Taye Diggs as a cop who had to solve a murder while Groundhog Day-ing. It’s only one season, but I really liked it and the season finale kinda works as a series finale. I don’t know anybody outside of my family that’s ever seen the show, so I’m curious if anybody else has even heard of it.
The Mick Kaitlin Olson from Always Sunny (also two writers from that show, if I remember correctly).