It ended too soon..

[BeatrixKiddo]

What are your favourite Forteanish shows that were cancelled before its time. My faves are Firefly and John Doe.

 

[Timble2]

Dark Skies, everybody you'd ever heard of was part of the conspiracy...great fun

Invasion...a bit Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but set in Florida, with enough new twists to make it interesting.

American Gothic...great series, with Gary Cole as Lucas Buck, a as small town sherrif who may be Satan, and Lucas Black as Caleb Temple a spooky kid with psychic powers, who Buck is trying to bring over to the dark side...

 

[PeniG]

You won't have heard of this one. It was overtly a sacrifice show. Even one of their promotional ads admitted as much: The two characters with flashlights slogging through the dark discussing their premise. The straight man says something along the lines of: "But we're on at the same time as the Bill Cosby Show and Magnum, PI. Who's going to watch us?" Front man replies: "My mother."

But we loved it, all six to eight weeks of it (I'd have to dig out the old unwatchable videos to be sure). The title was Shadowchasers and the premise was that an alumnus of the University of Georgetown had given the anthropology department a huge check, provided they appointed someone to investigate paranormal subjects. The department head picked on Jonathan, the son of a great man trying to do serious work on his own and never able to get out of the old man's shadow. He had no qualifications for the job except being a skeptic, which he knew wasn't enough and kept trying to explain to the department head, but she and her bureaucracy were ruthless. So in the first episode he meets Edgar Benedek "call me Benny," star reporter of a Weekly World News sort of tabloid - who is eminently qualified to investigate the paranormal, as he knows the literature and all the frauds and dodges and has friends in low places. The only trouble is, he has to write up every case with the weirdest interpretation he can put on it. They hit it off well and between them manage to do good work.

It was like the X-files, played for laughs, with no sexual tension (though if it had ever had a chance to take off, Jonathan/Benny fanfic would have been a given). And it was head and shoulders above any paranormal investigation show I'd seen to date, not only because it was funny (my favorite episode was "The Many Lives of Jonathan," in which Jonathan is possessed in sequence by the entire population of a condemned apartment building in which everyone had died in a catastrophe, and the actor got to play little old ladies, dashing B-movie stars, small children, etc. in rapid succession. Benny's weird friend on this occasion was an aerobic exorcist.), but because you couldn't predict at the beginning of the show how it would end. They had about an equal chace of uncovering an elaborate fake haunting ala Scooby Doo or encountering a real cryptid. A lot of the time both Jonathan (looking for rational explanations) and Benny (looking for irrational ones to write up) were both able to support plausible interpretations of the data that made them happy and it wasn't always clear to the audience which the writers wanted them to choose.

Alas, the tapes have been watched to death and it's an unlikely candidate for DVD release; but if it ever is, snap it up. Yes, it's got a cheesy '80s stamp to it. But most TV is a little cheesy when you get right down to it.

 

[BeatrixKiddo]

It seems that most shows nowadays always have an end of series cliff hanger, in the hope that a second series is made. This makes it all the more disappointing when the second series never happens.

 

[GNC]

Anyone recall Strange Luck? D.B. Sweeney with supernatural good fortune? Should have been huge, but it was just too quirky. The Death Row episode was particularly ingenious.

I'd have liked to have seen more of David Lynch and Mark Frost's sitcom On the Air. The pilot was absolutely hilarious ("Who's that?!") but they only managed six episodes before it was cancelled.

I don't wish to keep harping on about Primeval, so I'll say that Clerks the animated series deserved a better shot, some really funny moments in that one and we didn't even get the cartoon movie spin-off we were promised.

 

[PeniG]

We watched Strange Luck. It was in that cursed slot right before the X-Files on Friday nights - show after perfectly good quirky show, which should have shared audience (especially in the first few seasons when XF was strictly a cult phenomenon and the mainstream people hadn't discovered it), died in that slot. The best Strange Luck episodes were much like that video of all the car parts doing a falling domino act - you knew Sweeney's character was going to come out all right, but it was fascinating to see how everything locked together. And he was so used to it, he surfed reality, committing himself to each wave that came along without fear. It many ways it was the ideal premise for a TV show, because all the improbabilities that accumulate in a typical series can be subsumed as part of his talent. How does this character live? Well, he gets down to his last five dollars and he buys five scratch-off tickets; one pays a small amount so he takes the entire amount and buys that many more, and the last one pays big enough to live on for awhile. When asked, why not buy one ticket at a time, he explains that this wouldn't work - he has to throw himself on the luck, trust it completely and accept the inherent risk that he and the luck have different priorities, or it'll turn on him. Faith in action.

Remember Briscoe County? That was a weird show in the same slot. Not Fortean, just weird.

 

[river_styx]

Brimstone Dead cop Ezekiel Stone is sent to Hell for murdering his wife's rapist only to be given a chance at redemption when 113 ne'erdowells escape the pit and take up their old hobbies back on Earth.
John Glover played Lucifer and took regular delight in Ezekiel's conflict.

 

[Stormkhan]

I rather liked Strange, with Richard Coyle as an ex-priest and Ian Richardson as his ex-boss. Such a wasted opportunity!

 

[GNC]

I never saw Briscoe County, Peni, but I'm glad someone else appreciated Strange Luck.

Other US shows taken from the viewing public too soon:

Deadwood, how could they leave it like that? I know I could read history books to find out what happened, but that's not good enough.

The Lone Gunmen, lots of fun, and the best X Files spin-off. Too quirky again. The chimp episode was a true gem.

Wonderfalls, I don't know if they could have sustained it but it would have been fun to find out. It did wrap things up, but in a really hasty and unsatisfying fashion.

Carnivale, there's a thread on it somewhere, but another case of the great cliffhanger leading to f. all when the show's support was pulled.

And a comedy, Action, all about the movie business and so amazingly scathing you couldn't believe they were getting away with it. And then it turned out they weren't and were cancelled.

 

[DougalLongfoot]

+1 for Carnivale
Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies
Ultraviolet (with Philip Quast and Jack Davenport)
Project UFO (anyone got the second series on tape or DVD they can send me?)

 

[rjmrjmrjm]

I rather liked Strange, with Richard Coyle as an ex-priest and Ian Richardson as his ex-boss. Such a wasted opportunity!

I concur, it could have grown into something beautiful.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Invasion...a bit Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but set in Florida, with enough new twists to make it interesting. ...

_Invasion_ is perhaps the one whose premature cancellation upset me the most.

The three primary US networks all introduced 'invasion theme' sci-fi shows in the autumn of 2005. CBS' _Threshold_ was a shoddy disaster that disappeared in a month or two. NBC's _Surface_ was a planned mini-series shakily extended into a rambling mess. ABC's _Invasion_ was clearly the cream of the crop, with high production values, characters of depth, intricate plotting, deep conspiracy insinuations, etc., etc.

ABC's spastic scheduling made it difficult to maintain viewer continuity, and the lack of reruns made it impossible for new viewers to 'catch up'. To be fair, it did take the series a long time to introduce and flesh out the main characters, their interrelationships, and the overall plot directions.

The show was very well done, engaging, and cryptic enough to keep viewers guessing. I thought it obviously had all the right ingredients to carry forward into a second season. ABC obviously disagreed ...

 

[hokum6]

The three primary US networks all introduced 'invasion theme' sci-fi shows in the autumn of 2005. CBS' _Threshold_ was a shoddy disaster that disappeared in a month or two. NBC's _Surface_ was a planned mini-series shakily extended into a rambling mess. ABC's _Invasion_ was clearly the cream of the crop, with high production values, characters of depth, intricate plotting, deep conspiracy insinuations, etc., etc.

I watched all three of those, but I miss Surface the most. It didn't start off well and the kid with his pet sea monster was annoying, but it ended on a cliffhanger that showed promise. There was a huge flood and they showed a secret organisation that had built an underground complex with escape craft. It wasn't a great show, but I wanted to know what that was all about.

The worst cancellation recently was The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which like so many shows started off poorly then really picked up toward the end and left everyone hanging. There was the awesome Journeyman, too, a really great time travel series. And Jericho, which plenty of people loved but the studio hated.

And going back a few years...Space: Above and Beyond. Brilliant military sci-fi show from two of the best X-Files writers, unfairly cut down at the end of its first series (leaving it on a huge cliffhanger). Had some excellent space battles that I think influenced the new BSG.

It amazes me how they can cancel Firefly and Journeyman but we get a billion episodes of Stargate crap. Someone, somewhere will be eternally punished for killing off Firefly.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The worst cancellation recently was The Sarah Connor Chronicles ...

I agree, but for a different reason. The way the cancellation occurred (more or less the same time as the latest Terminator film's arrival ...) made me wonder if that had been the plan all along - i.e., to use a short-lived TV drama as a 'teaser' for the movie.

 

[OneWingedBird]

I thought the last episode of that was a train wreck, though the run up to it was pretty good, just too much set up in the back half of season 2 that didn't come off, or seemed throwaway. Screwing with the schedule wasn;t helping either, it did better by itself on a Monday, before they shifted it to the slot with Dollhouse on a Friday night, plugged with the 'grindhouse' trailer which was pretty misleading.

Dead Like Me i would have liked to have seen go on longer, that one just seemed to get better. They did a movie follow up that's not totally bad but very wonky, Ellen Muth sounds like she's chainsmoked marlboro the whole time since season 2 finished, a chunk of the original coast were missing, and it went back on a lot of the ideas of the series.

 

[nyarlathotepsub2]

Strange Luck (why won't they release this on DVD?!?)

The Lone Gunmen

Firefly

(Stupid Fox Broadcasting)

 

[misterwibble]

Dark Skies, everybody you'd ever heard of was part of the conspiracy...great fun

Ah. So you were the other person who watched it then?

 

[Twin_Star]

Yep Carnivale for me as well, although after reading where the writer wanted it to go, i thought 6 series sounded a little self indulgent. About 3-4 would have said everything and tied up all the - ridiculous number - of loose ends.

Twin Peaks, a tragedy it only got 2 series. now that i could have watched for 6 seasons

 

[GNC]

Twin Peaks, a tragedy it only got 2 series. now that i could have watched for 6 seasons

This may not be the popular opinion, but unlike Carnivale when I think of it Twin Peaks probably finished at the right time. I don't see how it could have sustained its weirdness over a period of years, it barely sustained it over season 2, and the whole mystery factor was well served by the great cliffhanging ending. And we got a superb film out of its cancellation, too, which kind of wrapped things up.

 

[BeatrixKiddo]

Another one from the archives..

Space:Above and Beyond

We thought we were alone. We believed the universe was ours. Until one night in 2063, on a Earth colony 16 light-years away, they struck. Now we're at war. We fight when called, in space, on land, and at sea. To lose this war means more than defeat; to surrender is to never go home. All of us must rise to the call... above and beyond.

Another show with a cliffhanger ending, it was just too expensive to make another series.

 

[DougalLongfoot]

I wonder where they were going with Terminator: SCC for season 3? And after TSCC and Firefly, how long before we consider Summer Glau the Ted McGinley of her generation?

 

[BeatrixKiddo]

Also -

Dresden Files
and
Journey Man

 

[escargot]

We've come across Ultraviolet on DVD and watched the whole first series last night. Brilliant.

I'd never heard of it until recently. How could I have missed it?

Having not seen the end, and not wanting spoilers, I'm now retiring from this thread until we've had the chance to watch the second series. :lol:

Not exactly expecting a happy ending. :shock:

 

[stu neville]

I wonder where they were going with Terminator: SCC for season 3?

We touched on that in the main Terminator thread - basically, I think they painted themselves into a corner, there. When you start fiddling about with time-paradoxes you have to keep the central threads clear, which TSCC singularly failed to do. There were only two ways out from the cliff-hanger ending to series 2, and those were a seriously trite, quick and contrived resolution, or extraordinarily complicated, long, drawn-out lose-most-of-your-viewers-along-the-way resolution.

This is in amongst the wider inconsistencies of the Terminator franchise, marvellously summarised by the ever-reliable Cracked magazine, here.

We've come across Ultraviolet on DVD and watched the whole first series last night.

Terrific, isn't it? I remember when it was first on, and having to wait for successive episodes. It's one of those series that ticks over in your mind all week, and that's usually a good thing .

 

[escargot]

*foolishly revisiting thread - even more foolishly trusting Stu* :lol:

Yup, and the theme's catchy too. I also enjoyed the very firm London setting. Lots of real locations. 8)

 

[Peripart]

I wonder where they were going with Terminator: SCC for season 3?

We touched on that in the main Terminator thread - basically, I think they painted themselves into a corner, there...

This is in amongst the wider inconsistencies of the Terminator franchise, marvellously summarised by the ever-reliable Cracked magazine, here.

I fear you're rght about the TV series, especially. I watched most of series 1, which was great, but missed a lot of series 2. When I did catch it, it seemed like every episode was set in its own parallel universe. Actually, that's the problem, and the joy, with Time-Travel movies, isn't it? Everything you do changes the universe, so you end up having to choose whether you have one, mixed-up reality, or several, self-consistent ones.

I did once consider offering FT magazine a set of spoof instruction for a time machine, with a run-down of its various settings (Terminator, Sound of Thunder, Primer, etc...), to show how different films deal with, or more likely ignore, the rules of causality.

Anyway, I digress - I'd still like to have seen how Terminator TSCC got out of its self-dug hole. I suspect, though, it would have involved digging an ever bigger hole, and putting the first one in it...

That Cracked link is brilliant, BTW!

 

[GNC]

Ultraviolet? The ultra-cool British vampire series? They only made one series of that, didn't they? I recall the frustration that the last episode left, when we found out there was to be no more.

 

[escargot]

We have the lot on a 2-DVD set, six episodes in all.

 

[GNC]

Ah, OK, six episodes, that's right. I won't spoil it, but what an ending!

 

[escargot]

*fingers in ears just in case*

la la la...