It might be cliché to say, but Freaks and Geeks was ahead of its time. I'm not sure why it didn't catch on, but I suspect being a comedy-drama made audiences a little unsure of what to expect. Wikipedia also says "erratic scheduling" and "poor time slots" were to blame. And Judd Apatow claims that NBC was afraid of sharing the show's website URL because "they didn't want people to know the Internet existed. They were worried about losing viewers to it."
It's always fascinating to me how television networks make decisions. I want to give the benefit of the doubt and assume there are a lot of really smart people poring over very detailed market research in order to make these challenging decisions...but then pilot season comes around and they have green-lit 5 new comedies featuring a fat husband and hot wife (only two of which have David Spade as the snarky friend/neighbour).
You guys have said most of them already. Obviously the top choices are Firefly and Freaks and Geeks. They were just getting going when they went off the air.
I have a couple more to add...
Black Adder: Just 4 seasons with 24 total episodes, all of them brilliant. Add in a few specials, but it's just not enough for such a brilliant concept, written so well, and performed with such top notch performers.
My So Called Life: Maybe it's because I was a teenager when it was on, but it addressed teen life in a shockingly realistic way, even down to the mannerisms and the way they relate to each other. Everything was inter-twined, everyone affected everyone else, even the parents' relationship made a difference to the kids. It's the only time I've ever seen a show get teenagers right. Never before, and never since.
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Another show that comes to mind is Life's Too Short, a Gervais/Merchant mockumentary with Warrick Davis playing a fictionalized version of himself. It didn't get good ratings but I found it absolutely hilarious and close to the quality of The Office and Extras. It deserved at least a 2nd season.
Speaking of British shows, it is tough to include them on this list because a lot of great shows only lasted a few seasons by design. It would have been awesome to see additional seasons of Faulty Towers, Black Adder, or the Office but I would argue these lasted exactly as long as they should have. Comparing to American shows with massive writing crews that are designed to be on the air as long as possible it is more disappointing when these are axed early as the stories and character development has not yet played out.
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Pushing Daisies - It only made it partway (3/4?) through Season 2 and basically never fully wrapped up. I was so sad when it got cancelled. The sets had a Wes Anderson vibe to it, pretty trippy.
In the early 90s there was a show called "Homefront" that was about soldiers returning back to the US after WWII. It was really neat, but again, only lasted two seasons. Kyle Chandler was the main actor in it.
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Flash Forward
Something causes everyone in the world to black out for just over two minutes. During that time, each person sees a series of events in his or her own future -- some good, some bad, some apparently nonexistent
Pitch, from last year. Cool concept with the first female in baseball. Mark-Paul Gosselaar was amazing, and Kylie Bunbury really broke out as (seemingly) able to carry a series lead.
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Journeyman was another good series.
Premise was that the main character would involuntarily leap into the past to "fix" something that had gone wrong (standard premise). What was interesting is that when he would leap his body would jump causing havoc in the present. For example if he was driving then he car would crash. So part of what made the show interesting was how he had to cope with this in his current life.
Only had a single season, but they knew they were being canceled so they were able to have a good ending with some closure centering on how he revealed to his wife what was happening.
1) Firefly - A really unique show, and you knew I was going to open with something Whedon. A show that combined a Western with a space shop, how can that not get ratings, with a at the time unknown cast, it had strong writing and strong acting and our hero's were more anti-hero then anything else. It only lasted 15 episodes before it was cancelled and it often wasn't discovered by fans til after the cancellation. Fortunately we got a movie to tie up some loose ends.
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Firefly and Jericho top my list, as does Karl Urban's show Almost Human.
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I really liked that show.
There's a special place in hell for the Fox executives that cancelled Firefly and Almost Human. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.
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Did "V" ever get resolved in his original 80s run? I loved that show.
Not really, and it got really silly in the end. I loved that show.
The new V was probably cancelled too early, I actually really liked that show, but they ended it with pretty much the Aliens completely winning on all fronts..
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