26 TV Shows That Got the Hook Too Soon
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SELFIE
(ABC, 2014)
Number of Episodes: 7
ABC's Pygmalion update got off to a shaky start, thanks to a pilot boasting stale references and one exceedingly gross set piece. But it didn't take long for the show to transcend its initial premise (''the Internet is making us monsters!'') and become something less gimmicky and more character-based. Stars Karen Gillan and John Cho proved themselves to have an unforced, scorching chemistry, and they were surrounded by a dynamic ensemble that only would have grown richer with time. Unfortunately, this vast improvement wasn't enough to sway the network. Dislike! —Hillary Busis
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LONE STAR
(Fox, 2010)
Number of Episodes: 2
Fox's ambitious drama was as smart as a cable show, but with a soap-operatic hook. Television gold, right? Nope: Lone Star struggled to generate an audience during its first two episodes — hovering around 4 million viewers each week — and became the first casualty of the 2010-11 season. Maybe it was its time slot (Monday at 9 p.m.), which put the newcomer up against powerhouses like Dancing With the Stars and Two and a Half Men. Or maybe the world simply wasn't ready for James Wolk's charming, Gatsby-esque con man. World: You don't know what you're missing.
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MOONLIGHT
(CBS, 2007-08)
Number of Episodes: 16
CBS' Friday-night vampire romp came just one year before the Twilight craze really sank its fangs into America. Had Moonlight arrived just 12 months later, would viewers — and, subsequently, the network — have devoured it? (And, subsequently, CBS, too?) No one can know for sure. But it's a pretty good bet it might have still been around.
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INVASION
(ABC, 2005-06)
Number of Episodes: 22
The concept was as good as any: Akin to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this science-fiction series centered on a Florida town that was invaded by water-based creatures in the aftermath of a hurricane. The sickly beings then possessed the bodies of the residents and wreaked havoc. As simple as it may sound here, Invasion was rather high-concept. And unfortunately, it got lost in the buzz surrounding the second season of the equally high-concept science-fiction show that it followed: Lost.
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TELL ME YOU LOVE ME
(HBO, 2007)
Number of Episodes: 10
First, HBO's smart, sexy drama was renewed for a second season. Then the plug was pulled because series creator Cynthia Mort said she was ''unable to find the direction of the show for the second season.'' The first season, however, was pretty much all about the relationship issues of three different couples at different life stages, their therapy sessions, and all the sex they had. And why couldn't season 2 have simply been more of all that?
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THE COMEBACK
(HBO, 2005)
Number of Episodes: 13
The hilarious series — both the comeback of Friends star Lisa Kudrow and her alter ego Valerie Cherish — was cut short much too soon. Kudrow's knowing, brave performance as a washed-up D-lister, combined with the show's satirical critique of Hollywood, made The Comeback a home run. Finally, after nine years on the bench, the show gets its well-deserved second turn at bat in 2014.
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ALIENS IN AMERICA
(The CW, 2007-08)
Number of Episodes: 18
There was something completely precious about Aliens in America. Looking for a built-in friend for her teenage son, a mother signed up for an exchange student, only to unexpectedly be assigned a Muslim teenager from Pakistan. Hilarity ensued! In a way, Aliens had a sort of wacky, Malcolm in the Middle vibe to it. Unfortunately, the laughs ran out.
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FRANK'S PLACE
(CBS, 1987-88)
Number of Episodes: 22
Shot with a single camera and without a laugh track, Frank's Place was a great sitcom about Professor Frank Parrish (Tim Reid), who worked at Brown University yet was drawn to a mysterious restaurant he'd inherited, Chez Louisiane, in New Orleans. It was a classic fish-out-of-water tale that went so much deeper, exploring the differences between the North and South and the culture of the Big Easy.
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MALIBU ROAD
(CBS, 1992)
Number of Episodes: 6
Aaron Spelling was flush with the success of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place, so how is it that his usual golden touch didn't rub off on this nighttime sudser? Anyway, you can pretty much figure out what this series was all about from its delicious title: hot young things living together in a beach house! And bonus: Jennifer Beals and Drew Barrymore were on board!
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THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, JR.
(Fox, 1993-94)
Number of Episodes: 27
Bruce Campbell played Brisco County, Jr., a cowboy who was hunting down the John Bly Gang for murdering his father. He picked them off, one by one. For years, Westerns have been a dying breed, and this one — which, thanks to future Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse, included genius streaks of sci-fi, too — had a wicked sense of humor and great deftness, with death-trap cliff-hangers in nearly every episode.
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SWINGTOWN
(CBS, 2008)
Number of Episodes: 13
Anything that's not a traditional sitcom or a straight-up procedural is quite a gamble for CBS. And Swingtown took the cake — swingers and sex and mustaches, oh my! The stylish, '70s-set series didn't have a chance in the summer slot it was given, but it was still memorable (for those who watched it) all the same. Trina Decker (Lana Parrilla), you will not be forgotten!
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MY SO-CALLED LIFE
(ABC, 1994-95)
Number of Episodes: 19
The teens on this drama — Angela Chase (Claire Danes), Rayanne Graff (A.J. Langer), Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) among them — were so painfully self-aware that we couldn't look away for one minute. And it was that striking humanity and raw passion that made the show so relevant. In a world obsessed with Gossip Girls and 90210s, it's a shame that Life lasted only one season.
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KAREN SISCO
(ABC, 2003-04)
Number of Episodes: 10
Five years after Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight brought U.S. marshal Karen Sisco (played there by Jennifer Lopez) into our lives, Carla Gugino brought her to life on the small screen. But only for a short time. Given the crime thriller's whip-smart quality — EW's TV critic Ken Tucker paid it the highest compliment by saying, ''It's a lot like The Rockford Files, except I doubt James Garner's gams ever looked this good'' — the real mystery is, Why was her stint so abbreviated?
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LIFE ON MARS
(ABC, 2008-09)
Number of Episodes: 17
Although Life on Mars could be classified as a police procedural, the remake (it was originally a British show) went one step further, transporting the main character, Det. Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) — and viewers — back to the '70s after a horrific car wreck. The story lines were driven by the conflict between Sam's modern-day values and the corrupt attitudes of New York City in the wild 1970s. No detail — right down to the 8-track tapes and the sideburns — was overlooked.
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FIREFLY
(Fox, 2002-03)
Number of Episodes: 14
Yet another Fox casualty, this sci-fi Western followed the renegade crew of the ragtag smuggling vessel Serenity. The brainchild of geek icon Joss Whedon, the show featured sharp-tongued dialogue and a wonderfully quirky ensemble cast — current small-screen stars Nathan Fillion (Castle), Adam Baldwin (Chuck), and Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), to name a few. Firefly lasted less than a season, but it spawned a feature film (Serenity), comic books, and a slew of DVD sales.
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JOURNEYMAN
(NBC, 2007-08)
Number of Episodes: 13
San Francisco newspaperman Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd) began jumping back in time, following a person at different points in his/her life. Each time, he made a change that seemed to ultimately put the person's destiny back on track. More than anything, we wanted to see where this series was going, but alas, the 2007-08 writers' strike killed our time-traveling with Journeyman.
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ANDY RICHTER CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE
(Fox, 2002-03)
Number of Episodes: 19
In the yeeeeear two thouuuuusaaaaand (and two), Conan O'Brien's sidekick landed on TV for a headlining shot of his own on the eponymous Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Richter played a corporate drone stuck writing technical manuals on the workplace sitcom, which struck a nerve with critics (like Ken Tucker) but struck out with viewers. Only 14 episodes made it to air, but five more are included on the DVD.
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NOW AND AGAIN
(CBS, 1999-2000)
Number of Episodes: 22
From the creator of Moonlighting, this drama's high-concept plot (John Goodman's insurance salesman gets hit by a subway train; the government transfers his brain to the body of a fit twentysomething superhero and charges him with protecting government secrets) made for thrilling action. But scheduling changes got in the way of its potential success. Now and Again never found its audience and failed to get a second-season pickup.
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THE TICK
(Fox, 2001)
Number of Episodes: 9
If you guessed a live-action series based on a comic about a sweet-natured, lunkheaded superhero who never takes off his blue tights wouldn't work on network TV, you were probably one of the millions of people who didn't watch The Tick. The quirky show, executive-produced by Barry Sonnenfeld, joins the ranks of Fox's ''loved by several, ignored by most'' series. As Dalton Ross wrote in his DVD review, ''It was too smart. Too funny. Too weird. So, of course, it failed.'' If you miss watching the blue-suited bug defend a bus station against the ravages of evil, you can watch all eight episodes (and a bonus unaired one) on Hulu.
Read the review Even better, talk of a pilot for a series revival at Amazon surfaced in late summer 2014.
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NOWHERE MAN
(UPN, 1995)
Number of Episodes: 25
Nowhere Man starred Bruce Greenwood as a photojournalist whose entire identity was erased (ATM cards, his wife's memory of his existence) when he gets up to use the bathroom during dinner — an act he traced back to a conspiracy stemming from a photograph he'd taken of the U.S. military killing prisoners. Too bad we never found out who was behind the act — the show never made it to season 2.
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CUPID
(ABC, 1998)
Number of Episodes: 15
Jeremy Piven played Trevor Hale, a modern-day matchmaker (and possibly the real Cupid) who had to help 100 couples find true love before he'd be allowed to return to Mount Olympus. With producers from the clever-but-canceled My So-Called Life and Veronica Mars, the writing and concept were both fresh, but the show's time-slot roulette prevented it from finding a loyal audience.
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THE JUDD APATOW COLLECTION
Before his string of box office hits, Judd Apatow had a string of critically acclaimed but tragically low-rated TV comedies. From the pop culture parodies of The Ben Stiller Show (1992) to the maladjusted high schoolers of Freaks and Geeks (Above, 1999-2000) and the maladjusted college freshmen of Undeclared (2001-02), the comedy king perfected his hilariously (and sometimes painfully) realistic portrayal of misfit-and-geekdom with cult TV hits before striking gold on the silver screen.
Read the reviews:
The Ben Stiller Show
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GROSSE POINTE
(The WB, 2000-2001)
Number of Episodes: 17
The show-within-a-show conceit can sometimes seem one-note, but in the case of Darren Star's Grosse Pointe, a send-up of his own Beverly Hills, 90210, the teen-soap satire lampooned the absurdity of Hollywood without feeling stale. Add the perfect theme song (Tom Jones' ''Sex Bomb'') and a Jason Priestley cameo, and you've got the kind of cult hit that's just begging to be canceled prematurely. Which it was.
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CLONE HIGH
(MTV, 2003)
Number of Episodes: 13
Maybe if this hilarious animated series about the exploits of historical figures' teenage clones had aired on Cartoon Network instead of MTV, we'd have more than 13 episodes of teen-show-meets-absurd-humor from Scrubs helmer Bill Lawrence. Clone High poked fun at the melodrama of high school with archetypal characters (angsty Joan of Arc, busty Cleopatra, nerdy Abe Lincoln, and womanizing JFK) and issue-of-the-week plots (JFK throws a kegger, Honest Abe lusts after the out-of-his-league Cleo) while maintaining a wholly unique concept.
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WONDERLAND
(ABC, 2000)
Number of Episodes: 8
Peter Berg's unconventional mental-hospital drama didn't have the usual gloss of TV procedurals, and when it fought ER in a David-versus-Goliath battle of the medical shows, it lost.
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WONDERFALLS
(Fox, 2004)
Number of Episodes: 13
Sadly, Fox aired just four episodes of this quirky comedy about a twentysomething who eschewed her Ivy League degree in favor of working in a Niagara Falls gift shop — a relatively humdrum life, until inanimate objects started imploring her to help strangers by playing mischievous pranks on them. The other nine episodes live on in DVD form.