Sometimes I question the taste of the general public. How is Dancing With The Stars in its 13th season? America's Next Top Model has managed to get 17 seasons. CSI: Las Vegas, CSI: New York, and CSI: Miami have a combined 30 seasons; are 3 versions of the same show really necessary?
I've made a list of shows that I feel were cancelled way too soon. 10 points if you can guess them all!
1. Friday Night Lights (5 seasons, 76 episodes, 2006-2011)
I don't think there will ever be another show that can top Friday Night Lights as my favourite show ever. It's so much more than just a show about football. It's perfect in capturing the heart, the beauty, and the hardships of everyday life. And I guarantee the show will turn you into this. I don't get how the show never got a strong following but I'm so glad it managed to at least scrape by and get 5 seasons.
2. Veronica Mars (3 seasons, 64 episodes, 2004-2007)
I miss the sass and spunk of Veronica Mars. I will never understand why The CW didn't pick it up when WB and UPN joined. It's not like they had a better lineup of shows. Veronica Mars got replaced by Pussycat Dolls Presents for goodness sake! The new idea of Veronica working for the FBI would have been amazing.
3. Freaks and Geeks (1 season, 18 episodes, 1999-2000)
The fact that the entire cast - James Franco, Jason Segal, Seth Rogen, Linda Cardellini, Busy Phillipps, John Francis Daley, Martin Starr, Samm Levine, and even the producers, Judd Apatow and Paul Feig - are all successful in their careers right now just shows how good Freaks and Geeks could have been if it was just given a chance.
4. My Boys (4 seasons, 49 episodes, 2006-2010)
It was probably all the baseball references that made me love this show but they were such a fun group to watch; I would have loved hanging out with them. For such an obscure show, I guess it's pretty amazing it reached 4 seasons.
My favourite episode: 1x19 Douchebags in the City
MIKE: Brendan, you screened my call, douchebag. You're a really big douche! If you were a superhero, you'd be Captain Douchebag. Your superpowers would be screening calls and the ability to wreck any hang, Douche. And then I drew a picture of you as Captain Douchebag.
BRENDAN: You guys are all jealous. You should feel thankful I still have time for you.
MIKE: Douchey von Douchenstein! Really?
5. Arrested Development (3 seasons, 53 episodes, 2003-2006)
It was absurd and magnificent. There's just so many great moments - the chicken dance, the fire sale audition, "there's always money in the banana stand!", "I just blue myself", The Final Countdown magic show (and now the song is stuck in my head). It took a while but I can't wait for the new season and movie!
6. Dead Like Me (2 seasons, 29 episodes, 2003-2004)
It was a great dark comedy about grim reapers. And I was in love with Mason. I need more Callum Blue on my TV.
7. Pushing Daisies (2 seaons, 22 episodes, 2007-2009)
It was such a unique and cute show. Plus, I love couples that shouldn't be together - one touch and she's dead! I blame the 2007 Writer's Strike for its demise.
8. Dollhouse (2 seasons, 29 episodes, 2009-2010)
Joss Whedon is a genius writer. The idea of human "dolls" with temporary personalities and skills - how do you even come up with this stuff? I admit, a large part of my love for this show was strictly because of Fran Kranz and Enver Gjokaj.
9. FlashForward (1 season, 22 episodes, 2009-2010)
To quote Wikipedia: "The series revolves around the lives of several people as a mysterious event causes nearly everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for two minutes and seventeen seconds on October 6, 2009. During this blackout, people see what appears to be visions of their lives on April 29, 2010, a global 'flashforward'." You gotta admit, how cool does that sound? Whoever made the decision to give this show a giant hiatus in the middle of the season, I will hate you forever for causing viewership to go down. And the series ended on a cliffhanger!!!
10. Melrose Place (1 season, 18 episodes, 2009-2010)
Okay, out of all my shows on this list, I can see why Melrose Place was cancelled. Remakes hardly ever work but I still think Melrose Place was better than 90210, as long as you ignored Ashlee Simpson's terrible acting. I loved Lauren and David together (I'm a sucker for Asian girl + White boy storylines), there was an interesting mystery going on, and Auggie was super hot. Maybe if it wasn't a remake and was just another show about hot 20-something-year-olds, it would have lasted longer.
11. Undercovers (1 season, 11 episodes, 2010)
The undercover work, the ass-kicking fight scenes, and Boris Kodjoe's hot bod were all great but to be honest, my #1 reason for loving this show was the character of Bill Hoyt. He was so adorably dorky and funny, and I was devastated when I couldn't get to watch him weekly anymore. But Ben Schwartz has now moved onto Parks & Recreation as Jean-Ralphio so that's helped a little bit.
12. Life As We Know It (1 season, 13 episodes, 2004-2005)
Sean Faris + Jon Foster + Chris Lowell. I was 15 when Life As We Know It aired so it's kind of obvious why I liked the show, haha. For a show about high school, I think it's definitely a lot better than some of the stuff that's out there now (e.g. Secret Life Of The American Teenager) so I'm not sure why it only lasted 13 episodes.
Wow, this post took forever to write. Can you tell I started getting lazy as the list went on?
Pretty much agree with you for all the shows that I've also watched. I'm a little okay with FNL though. It feels like it ended the right way and at the right time. (I guess it's because the writers already knew it was the last season and so they wrote it that way?) But I don't know, it's perfect the way it is now.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, two seasons of Dollhouse felt too short.