Say, did you know our basic cable comes with lesbian porn?
For my 19th pick,
Frozen TV Dinner is pleased to select in the
Wildcard #2 category, from Fox television (as brief as it was),
Wonderfalls.
Debuting in March 2004 in the Friday night death slot on the Fox Network in the US, and Global Television in Canada, this "international" co-production received critical acclaim, but poor ratings and was canceled after its fourth episode aired.
This continued Executive Producer Tim Minear's dubious streak of being the Exec-Producer for unique and interesting series that aired on the Fox Network that were canceled early in their first season (also on Minear's list are Firefly, The Inside, Standoff, Drive, and K-Ville)...FYI, don't expect Joss Whedon's new series Dollhouse to last long.
Set in Niagara Falls, Wonderfalls tells the story of Jaye Tyler (played by Montréal native, Caroline Dhavernas without a hint of an accent), a 24 year-old member of "Generation Y" who has a degree from Brown University, but no ambition to do anything more than go through her daily grind working "customer service" at Wonder Falls, a tacky souvenir store overlooking the Falls. Jaye's family consists of her parents, plus an older brother and sister. All of her family members are successful and driven, which makes it even more disturbing for them that Jaye appears to be content living in a trailer park and working at a souvenir shop.
One day, Jaye's life is changed when one of the wax lion souvenirs that are sold in the store starts talking to her (and only her). Soon, most of the inanimate animals that Jaye encounters are talking to her, telling her to do strange things. Generally, when Jaye follows the advice/orders of the animals, good things happen and when she ignores the animals, bad things happen.
Although only 4 episodes aired on Fox/Global before it was canceled, the show gained a small but vocal fan base. In late 2004, Vision TV picked up the full series (13 episodes) and aired it in Canada. In the US, the show was picked up by Logo. If you want some idea of what type of show it was, think about the fact that it was aired on a religious channel in Canada, but a gay channel in the US and it wasn't out of place on either network (although, not really suited to either, either). The series was released on DVD in 2005.
The show was created by Bryan Fuller, who also created Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, and was one of the driving forces behind the first season of Heroes (you know, back when it was one of the best shows on tv). Luckily, now that Pushing Daisies is pushing up daisies, Fuller will be returning to Heroes for the final part of this season.