Favorite quickly cancelled television series

Others have mentioned "The Invisible Man" and "Orleans" today. Enjoyed both of them. "Baa Baa Black Sheep" went two seasons, IIRC. Remember how depressed I was when it went off the air.

 

Never got the "the sketches aren't funny" complaint about Studio 60. We hardly saw anything of them.

Sadly, the show seemed to peak with it's first few minutes, with the Judd Hirsch rant.

 

Not really. It actually got a couple of chances, including a jump from ABC to Fox. Great show, but it had its shot to gather traction and never could. Liked Jon Lovitz a lot more in that role than in NewsRadio, for example.

As for Studio 60: It's easy to say "oh, that show was just too smart for stupid-dupid Applebees-loving lowest common denominator Amurrikuns who don't get life as deeply as I do," but for ostensibly being a show about a live sketch comedy, it was cloying and plodding and downright insufferable. And as pointed out, the sketches themselves sounded like the show they were contained in, which sounded like West Wing (or Sports Night, for that matter). I gave it a chance, and thought it would do better than 30 Rock. That's why I'm glad network upfronts aren't on the card at the local OTB.

 

--Good and Evil, starring Teri Garr and the Indians' owner in Major League, and made by the same folks who did Soap.
--Profit, about a business mogul who had a cruel childhood.
--Nightingales, about sexy nurses. That would so have a cable home if it came out in this era instead of in 1989

 

Police Squad
Life on Mars
The Nine

those top my list.

 

One from this year, I was a big fan of Chicago Code. Pretty ticked off that it got cancelled after this season.

 

great pull. i'd forgotten it ever existed, it eame and went so fast. i'll always be grateful for my first intro to olivia wilde, too...

P.S. -- JUST REACTING TO THE POST THAT MENTIONED SWEARING OFF 'MONEYBALL' DESPITE IT BEING A SORKIN SCREENPLAY -- I HAD NO IDEA HE WAS ATTACHED TO THIS FILM. THIS ACTUALLY LEAVES ME LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING IT. OTHERWISE, I'D HAVE NO INTEREST IN THAT I FIND THIS ODE TO BILLY BEANE TO BE AN OVERRATED SHAM.

 

For all the crud NBC has received (and deserved) they did manage to put on a good show here and there. I really liked Journeyman, one of the first shows I can remember actually talking about newspaper layoffs and people getting out of the biz.
I liked Daybreak with Taye Diggs and Moon Bloodgood, kind of like Journeyman; and Vanished and Kidnapped (Fox and NBC respectively), both were serialized kidnapping conspiracy stories, Kidnapped had a hell of a cast (Delroy Lindo, Jeremy Sisto, Dana Delaney, Tim Hutton, Linus Roache, Mikelti Williamson (boomtown!)

 

I thought Journeyman had potential as well, but I wasn't too invested in it to care that it got the hook so quickly.

The thing that always cracked me up about Daybreak was they promoted by basically saying they would definitely run the entire season and then it did so poorly they ran the last six episodes or so online. I think the original tagline was something like, "You WILL find out what happens." So I guess they technically didn't lie, but I have a friend who would never watch TV on his computer who was quite miffed by the whole thing.

 

Is there a reason you're shouting? Turn off the damn caps lock.

I have no interest in seeing Moneyball because based on what I've seen of it, Sorkin's turned it into Major League. Plus, I have no clue what their end play is - it's not like the A's really did anything with this new revolutionary method of building a team. Is winning a division title a good enough way to wrap up a movie?

 

The Oblongs. Suck on it.

 

Not a terrible show, but I could never really get into it. Still amazes me, though, that it was a pit stop in Will Ferrell's career at a time when he could probably still get a huge paycheck for any movie he wanted to make.
Speaking of cartoons, two I loved that died pretty quickly were "Mission Hill" and "Duckman."

Mission Hill survived on Cartoon Network longer than its original run on (I think) either WB or UPN. It was about two brothers -- one a hipster, one a geek -- living in a hipster neighborhood.

Duckman was on USA Network in the mid-90s and had Jason Alexander as the title character. I think he was supposed to be some sort of private eye, but his Joe Friday-like partner (a pig) did most of the heavy lifting. Duckman was more or less a foul-mouthed alcoholic with a shrewy ex-wife and a couple of bratty kids.
It came on USA really late at night most times, even after the Up All Night movie. When Rhonda Shear is your lead-in, it's probably a sign that the network doesn't have a lot of faith. Still, it seemed to last a couple years. I'd catch it coming home from the bars in college. It really was pretty good.
There's some full episodes up on YouTube, but here's a quick clip: