TV series cancelled in their prime or before they really got started - a major gripe

That really pisses me off about the US style of television, how some series can be cancelled a couple of episodes in because it isn't an immediate hit and it is often clever stuff that could have gone on to be big cults. Short sightedness will only harm them in the long run. Anyway, here are some of the series that got cancelled WAY too early.

Brimstone

Ezekiel Stone is a cop killed in the line of duty. He wasn't a good guy and so he ends up in hell. But one day, 113 of the most dangerous souls escape back to the land of the living. Satan (played superbly by John Glover) cuts a deal with him... track down the souls, all of them, send them back to hell and Stone would be given a second chance at life. Among them are a Nazi war criminal and the man who raped Stone's wife... the man Stone killed.

13 episodes were aired before it was cruelly cut short. When it first went to air in 1998, Fox were expecting a hit as big as The X-Files and cruelly pulled the plug to much criticism. It had a loyal fan base, but it wasn't big enough for Fox.

Jeremiah

In the near future, a deadly disease wipes out everybody past the age of puberty leaving the world's children to fend for themselves. Many years later, we are introduced to the post apocalyptic world through the eyes of the title character played by Luke Perry. On his journey across ruined America, Jeremiah comes across warring factions, those who want to create a new and peaceful world, and a group worried that the virus didn't go away. Jeremiah is searching for the mysterious "Valhalla Sector" which he believes will be the key to ensuring humanity's survival.

This lasted two series and was left on a cliffhanger. The chief writer (Babylon 5's Joseph Michael Straczynski) chose to cancel the series himself when MGM tried to make him bow to their demands and make changes to suit them. It wasn't the first time JMS had done that, it also happened with Babylon 5 but then the network allowed him to make the series his way.

Odyssey 5

A high concept SciFi series starring Peter Weller (Robocop) and Christopher Gorham (Harper's Island). A group of astronauts witness the destruction of the Earth. Cold and alone in space, they suddenly encounter a strange entity that had been investigating similar destructions. He sends them back in time 5 years, believing that sufficient time to find out what happened and stop it happening. Along the way they have personal demons to bury including the loss of a child to cancer, a marriage break up, a hit and run, losing your virginity for the second time and a son going missing.

Odyssey 5 mixed high concept scifi with human interest drama and it made for a great combination. It got a single series and again left on a cliffhanger.

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You know every time I think of those TV series, I have to ask myself why so much crap gets made and gets renewed every year. TV just isn't challenging any more and it seems the viewer no longer wishes to be challenged.

Yeah, i agree. Look at Star Trek. 3 fµqqing seasons and they bit the dust. Now it's a major deal even after all these years.

Then you have series that were good but had sh!tty writers. Darrin McGavin had a horror show back in the early 70s called The Night Stalker. There were some good episodes and a lot of sh!tty ones. It's a writer thing. I was a fan of that show back then.

Andromeda, Charmed and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer seemed to go on forever. Charmed was cancelled and resurrected.

Charmed was cool. Buffy was kinda cheesy at times even though Sarah is a hottie. I can ignore cheesiness for hotness.

I was very late for both Charmed and Buffy. I only got into Charmed in 2008 (after being cooped up in the hospital for two weeks with pneumonia ), and from the first second, I fell in love with it. The first episode I saw still had Shannen, but I just loved the story - and thought the girls were hot, and became an instant fan. After getting out of the hospital, I immediately bought all eight seasons on DVD - and then proceeded to fall seriously in love with Alyssa Milano. Pfft! I even bought myself a Phoebe poster. As for Buffy, I (finally) discovered it late in 2008. Someone loaned me season 1 on DVD and I watched it. I thought it was cute (mainly due to Buffys character), and I loved whats-his-face (Giles?). But I quickly found out that I hated Xander (worst TV character ever!) as well as a lot of the plots. Anyway I ultimately bought six seasons of that, but have had a difficult time watching them. Most are just stupid.

I have a cousin who's about 6 yrs younger than me who bears a very, very striking resemblance to Sarah Gellar. So striking that it's creepy.

The biggest crime against television was the cancellation after two seasons of the Emmy Award winning series Pushing Daisies.

The series is very Burton-esque but 1950s America and revolves around a pie maker called Ned who discovers he has a magical power. He can bring people back from the dead by touching them. However, if they are reanimated longer than one minute, somebody else dies in their place. Also, if he touches that person again, they die again and cannot be brought back this time. Though Ned is a pie maker by trade, and owns a pie shop, naturally, he moonlights as a sidekick to Private Detective Emerson Cod. Together, they piece together the clues from murders (including getting a 60-second eyewitness account from the victim) and pick up the rewards on offer.

Ned's first case is the murder of his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte Charles (played by an adorable Anna Friel) whom he allows to live beyond the one minute. Gradually he allows her to discover his secret. Despite the nature of the subject matter, this is very sweet, largely played for laughs with clever storylines, great characters and an early success that most TV producers can only dream of. Everything about it screamed success and the awards soon came rolling in. It was affected badly by the writer's strikes of 2008 but could have made a strong comeback had ABC decided to not to carry on. There was no logical reason to cancel this amazing series.

Never watched that show. You like Yankee television. huh?

Not always but Pushing Daisies was amazing, clever, funny and different. I highly recommend it.