I thought that show was called Off Centre?

They did Viva Variety which was also cut short, a movie titled "Wet Hot American Summer" which was pretty funny... and if you look into the guys on IMDB, nearly every other comedy on TV right now has at least one of them listed in the writing credits.

When I saw the thread title, the first thing that came to mind was Freaks and Geeks.

I don't think anyone's mentioned this one yet, but what about "Harsh Realm"?

I never saw it, but it was created by the X-Files' Chris Carter and was on FOX but was cancelled after only 3 episodes. I saw where the DVD is for sale on Amazon and includes the other 6 episodes that never aired. It starred D.B. Sweeney, Lance Henriksen, Samantha Mathis, Terry O'Quinn (who plays Locke on "Lost"), and Scott Bairstow.

Anyone know if it's any good? I may have to rent it on Netflix.

Firefly definately. It was the first show I'd seen on Sci-Fi that made me want to keep watching.

That's right. I totally forgot about Wet Hot American Summer. That was a horribly underrated show, and I'm glad some people out there still remember it.


Does anyone happen to remember that one skit (or maybe special) they did where they performed a play totally straight and serious, save for the fact that EVERYONE had ridiculously stuff tights. And each person who came out to the stage had a progressively more ludicrous "bulge". I actually stole the concept and used it for a little thing my friends and I put on back in high school. Now I'm making it my mission to DL all the old episodes of that show. However, I think it lasted more than a season, so it doesn't technically fit in this thread, but it was definitely cut off way too early.

I loved this show...the enemy was a silicon based life form that couldn't breathe our air..

We had Humans and Clones called "tanks" (because they were born full size out of this tank ala matrix) as soldiers defending the human race.

Police Squad with Leslie Nielson

I liked Firefly and Sports Night. Both were great shows a that unfortunately only lasted one season.

Firefly was cancled because it was competing for time slots, and didn't get enough hype.. I didn't even know it existed untill it was cancled.. I now enjoy the box set.. If Firefly were to come back on Sci-Fi Fridays with SG1 and BSG it would work..

Good news for those Firefly fans who are out there. Look for Serenity the Motion Picture in Theaters this coming September.

Nowhere Man was pretty great, if a little stretched out. About 20 hour-long episodes, I think... they could've told the story just fine in six or seven.

I thought this show was damn funny as well. Comedy Central shows the episodes once in a while. Jay Mohr's character - Peter Dragon - was a complete ass, which made the show good.

Ill add another vote for Greg the Bunny. Im sorry but this show was absolutely hilarious, in a Muppets/South Park/Simpsons kind of way. This was the best work Seth Green has ever done.

Wonderfalls
 

Wonderfalls was a very cool show. Probably my favorite one season show.

Millennium doesn't count, it was on for three seasons...but it only felt like one season.

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Undergrads

what a fantastic show

I just wanted to add another vote for Firefly, having just seen all the episodes from the DVD.

I'm pretty sure, given sufficient capital, I could start a cable network that plays only the episodes of good shows that Fox cancelled early. Just off the top of my head, we'd have The Tick, Andy Richter Controls The Universe (the funniest show since the Simpsons was good), Firefly, The Lone Rangers, Titus, and almost would have had Arrested Development. This doesn't even include shows given more than one season but still cancelled early, like The Critic, Futurama and Family Guy.

I don't get it. Fox consistently takes risks by producing some of the most inventive, original, risky programming year after year and then winds up pulling the plug on 90% of those shows before they find an audience. I don't know, it is almost as if Fox learned that you need to take chances after The Simpsons and The X-Files, but then some sort of evil corporate mandate for homogeneity kicks in and they murder their own.

If Fox just promoted these shows properly (no more Futuramas losing entire seasons because of overtime NFL games) and gave them a chance to find an audience, Fox would probably win damn near every night in the Nielson Ratings.

Add another vote for the Undergrads, originally on MTV. I have the DVD of the only season, and every single time I show it to a friend who has never seen it before, they say "Oh man that has happened to me before!" or "I know someone who went through that!"

Chalk another one up for Clerks: The Animated Series. I actually didn't see it on TV at all, but my friend showed me the DVD and instantly fell in love. Funny as hell, albeit not really giving respect to the movie.

1- FIREFLY! FIREFLY! FIREFLY! Bring on the movie, then bring back the series!

2- Clerks: TAS

3- Greg the Bunny ("I'd like to see a magician try and pull me outta her!")

4- Arrested Development

Thought of this one earlier today:

Voyagers!
Anyone remember seeing this? According to IMDB, it ran from October '82 to July '83. I was about 8 years old and loved this show. Guess it got cancelled and the star, Jon-Erik Hexum, went on to work on another show, Cover Up, for a little less than a year before accidentally killing himself on set in October '84 by jokingly placing a blank-loaded .44 Magnum prop gun to his temple and pulling the trigger (the wadding from the blank cartridge shattered his skull). The boy in the show was Punky Brewster's older half-brother.

I'd love to see this show again.

Another vote for Brimstone. From what I remember, the show cost too much to continue with the average ratings it got. Can you imagine this show on HBO? Holy shit.

I'm also going to vote for Karen Cisco because Carla Gugino is so damn fine and Robert Forster and Bill Duke are always cool.

cupid... still trying to find copies of it somewhere. I was really disappointed when it was canceled.

My apologies if this has been mentioned already:

The John Larroquet Show.

It was a wonderfully seedy anti-sitcom with real bruises under the laughs. It lasted one glorious season in it's orginal form only to be shamlessly re-tooled for its second. John was given an apartment, a needy girlfriend, and all of the supporting characters changed from complex to "wacky". What a disappointing let down.

check out jumptheshark.com for more details

Tru Calling is back on the air as a mid-season replacement.

I'll second Voyagers! My high school history teacher showed us episodes of that show as a part of some of our lessons sometimes. It was actually part history lesson, part adventure. Quantum Leap, but set pre-1900.

I'll add The Prisoner, which was concieved as a one season show.

Also The Flash, which was a mid-eighties live action show. It was unusual, in that it ran from 8:30 to 9:30. NBC ruled Thursday Nights with The Cosby Show at 8, Cheers/Night Court from 9-10, and Hill Street Blues / LA Law from 10-11. Their weak spot was 8:30, where they kept trying out various crappy shows hoping that having ratings juggernauts Cosby and Cheers around them would make up for their being crappy. CBS counter programmed with The Flash, hoping to get kids channel switching at 8:30, and it worked. Cosby served as a defacto lead in for The Flash, which then stole part of Cheers' audience in it's second half. It was well done, good special effects for the time, and got good ratings, and was promptly cancelled. It was the most expensive show on tv, and CBS didn't want to pay for it.

It's too bad I don't have the entire run sitting around on VCD's from Hong Kong where I could watch them any time I want, but I wouldn't do that, because that would be unethical.

Most of these I've never heard of. I'd seen the advertising for Firefly but it didn't appeal to me, and the commercials were actively annoying; I think I must have seen that "Who's flying this thing? Oh, that would be me." clip thirty times in the span of a couple of weeks.

My So-Called Life (what a great show...)
Freaks And Geeks
Undeclared (from the creators of Freaks and Geeks. It's coming out on DVD soon)
Get Real (Anne Hathaway was in it. reminded me a bit of My So-Called Life)

Oh, one more, and I bet I'm the only one who knows this one:

My Life and Times

It was part of the "dramedy" trend one season, ie a half hour drama series without a laugh track. The only successful half hour drama to come out of that was Doogie Howser, MD.

Anyway, My Life and Times followed the stories of an 85-year-old man in 2035 who told storeis of his life to visitors to his retirement home. There would be one story that happened in the San Francisco earthquake, and another during the second great depression of the early 2000's, the story of his hippy wedding to his first wife (Helen Hunt) in the 70's, and so forth. I loved this show (I was maybe 14 or 15) and it got two or three tryout episodes, then was moved around a few times, preempted, and shown two episodes at a time for a few weeks to use up the episodes.

All I can think of is Young Americans, mostly because it's the only show that's only one season and I liked.

Roswell almost ended up being only one season long, thank god they changed their mind.

original ren and stimpy?

Freaks and Geeks was fantastic. Although was that only one season? I saw about 15-20 episodes of that? but i hvae no idea how long a season goes for nowadays :eek:

Anyone remember "Davis Rules" with Bonnnie Hunt and Jonathan Winters?

Maybe it's just me but just about anything that either of those two geniuses do has me in stitches.

That's my vote.

-bear

Yeah, only one season. It ran for 18 episodes. Hard to believe a show that good could be cancelled.

Another one I remembered:

http://epguides.com/Wizard/logo.jpg

I really liked this show when it first aired (I was only 12 and I think it was geared towards kids about my age).

Looking it up, it looks like it only lasted for 19 episodes (Sep. 86 - Mar. 87). Have no clue where to find episodes now.

Wow Four pages and NO ONE mentioned 'V'!!!
Actually lasted almost 2 seasons, I think....alien lizard-types in human disguise befriend us but are really sinister.

And I remember 'Davis Rules' with Randy Quaid and Jonathan Winters-once he let loose that show was crying out loud funny.

Earth 2 was an NBC show in 1994. I loved it and of course it had a clifhanger ending that was never followed up.

I am happy that the Tick, Wanderfalls, SportsNight, Brimstone, and Get Real were all mentioned.

There are some people with good taste on this site.

For older shows, I really enjoyed Witchblade, Wow it was wild! It was like a female version of Highlander. And pretty rocking. Dark Skies could have been great too, but alas, not enough viewers. Now this year, sad to see American Dreams go by the way side. Too Democratic - no doubt. Very anti-war. Geez...Guess there aren't too many of us boomers left who vote for the Neilsen ratings. All the reality shows have grown too tired and trite for me personally, so I am reading a lot more books. As far as TV, it's being just a big pile of drek, IMO.

"Wonderfalls" had Sooo much potential! What happened? And why (oh MGawd!!) why does Hollywood continue to create re-run stores, like a movie about "Bewitched" with Nicole Kidman and WILL FERREL??? Yikes!!

Wonderfalls
My So-Called Life
Action
Titus

Not one season but two for a couple shows. Get a Life with Chris Elliott made me roll and Carnivale captured my interest only to be left with many questions unanswered. Thanks HBO!

Tv Funhouse on Comedy Central and by Robert Smigle! Twisted Ugly Goodness

I really miss American Gothic. I wish it was available on DVD.

so the ben stiller show hasn't been mentioned. it's not the funniest thing i've seen, but it had moments. stiller tries to be somewhat self-depreciating, but it doesn't always mesh with his jason preistly outfits. and the protracted springsteen and bono imitations get old. but bob odenkirk's manson and french new wave bits are good, as well as the tj o'pootertoot sketch.

Thought of another one that I don't think has been mentioned: Alien Nation

another good one was doggy fizzle televizzle. mtv lowballed snoop's paycheck so the show died. hmm....black entertainer, offbeat pseudo-offensive humor based around filmed shorts... the network was probably right, that was definitely not worth the extra investment.

(a few months later -- http://images.google.com/images?q=tb...elle-title.jpg )

"Thats my Bush." That was really funny!

i agree with whoever said Clone High...
that show had an amazing concept
some deep humor like family guy and was an orginal idea

i got the DVD of ebay and its probably one of the funniest things ever...
i remember how pissed i was when they canceled it for Punk'd (i really hate that show anyway)

Just like the most of you on this thread, I too, am a big fan of Freaks and Geeks. That show produced some famous actors that are in some big name movies. I've always wanted that show to come out on DVD, so I even signed an online petition for that. I'm glad it came through.

Like the thread creator mentioned, I'm also a fan of Arrested Development. I've only seen season one, but I can't wait for season two to come out on DVD so I could watch them all at once.

Cupid was so great in so many ways...
 

I loved Cupid too. It was dealt an awful timeslot. Every so often, I'd go on a frantic search for all the episodes, usually with no luck.

However! I just got all 15 episodes and it was great being able to watch this awesome show again. If anyone is interested in trading or buying them, email me alice_period@hotmail.com

Also, I read somewhere that apparently the show was suppose to end with Claire and Trevor as his 100th couple and he thinks he's giving up immortality for her....damn, I would have killed for that show to have continued....

Freaks and Geeks is a great show and I can't believed it was only one season and I actually missed. I just saw it for the first time this past Christmas when my step-daughter got the box set.

Another show that I really liked was Freaky Links. It starred Ethan Embry (love him) and discussed occult and supernatural things. They would investigate claims like aliens, sewer monsters, ghosts, and things like that. My husband and I were bummed out when they didn't bring that show back.

Hmm Earth 2, or Kindred (a vampire show where the main actor died in a motorcycle accident if I recall).

I've seen one mention for both KAREN SISCO and POLICE SQUAD and those were the two I thought of when I saw this thread. Also, the same year of KAREN SISCO, CBS had one called THE HANDLER that I got interested in. Lost 'em both within a month or two of each other.

Technically, the Rob Schneider vehicle of MEN BEHAVING BADLY lasted a couple of episodes into the second season, but with major cast changes, it wasn't the same show save for the name. That was very funny at times in the first season.

And no one is touting the great AFTER MASH? Oh? That's right, we're talking BEST, sorry, my bad.

Surprised no one has mentioned the Ben Stiller show, canceled and then received an emmy, nice work Fox.

Happy TV Funhouse on comedy central of which Wonder Showzen is a pale imitation.

Adventures of Brisco County Jr. - hard for me to tell if this show was actually any good, but I liked it well as a kid. Bruce Campbell!

Firefly - obviously.

Just stumbled upon another one I used to watch when I was a kid that I had completely forgotten about:

The Master

Lee Van Cleef as a ninja! :lol:
Ran from Jan - Aug '84. I think I caught a rerun on some channel a few years ago and I guess it was pretty cheesy, but I turned 10 in July of '84, so I guess it would've been right up my alley. I don't think I knew who Lee Van Cleef was at the time and didn't realize until years later that he was the bad guy from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

http://doctor-forrester.home.mindspr...leef_still.jpg