Troperville
Help us survive. All donations are anonymous on the wiki and unacknowledged, as we don't wish to create a hierarchy among Tropers.
Editing
Tools
Toys
|
"I’d like to thank our dozens and dozens of viewers." — Tina Fey, accepting the 2007 Best Comedy Emmy for 30 Rock
An intelligent, well written show, usually a subtle blend of comedy and drama, beloved of a devoted group of fans and critics. So why did it never have a chance? (Or at best, struggled in the ratings for a couple seasons.)
Well, either the mainstream just isn't interested in this show, the network never even gives it a chance to build an audience (usual translation : it's on FOX)... or it's created by Tim Minear or Judd Apatow or Bryan Fuller. Sometimes, someone high up at the network takes a dislike to the show and does everything in his power to kill it. Or perhaps sometimes the show really is bad and this is a case where the Viewers really are Morons, and would rather blame network mishandling than admit that most people really don't share their opinion.
If the show is lucky enough to be shown on a cable network in reruns, it may build up a bigger following there than it ever had in its first run.
Examples aren't limited to US television, as many shows have developed considerable followings in Canada, the UK and other parts of the EU, even after they have been canceled and re-aired in other parts of the world.
The grand phoenix of this syndrome is Family Guy, which, after being canceled due to poor ratings (twice) caused by the network assigning the show a shaky time slot, was brought back from the dead (again), completely intact, years later, due to simply outstanding ratings in reruns on Cartoon Network and high DVD sales.
The observant reader will note that the vast majority of Too Good To Last shows are from the last 10-15 years. This is likely because of the increased emphasis on ratings above all else. On the other hand, the list might be biased toward the past decade because shows like this have an unfortunate tendency to fall off the face of the earth upon cancellation, so our ability to recall and report them is inversely proportional to how long ago they aired.
There's always been an emphasis on ratings in television, but it seems to have become much more pronounced since the early 1990s. It is widely commented upon that Cheers was dead last in the ratings among all regular series in its first season (1982-83), and that a show doing that badly today would almost certainly be canceled within its first month or two. This isn't necessarily a new phenomenon, but some shows only survive by having a network president who is a fan.
Another theory is that the advent of the Internet and the explosion of cable channels has made it harder for these too-soon canceled shows to be forgotten.
See also The Firefly Effect. Contrast Long Runners. Also compare British Brevity.
Examples:
ABC (American)/ ABC Family
- The Brendan Leonard Show
- Cashmere Mafia. Made all the more painful by the fact that the similar, yet inferior, Lipstick Jungle showed up later the same season...and is returning for a "Season 2" (more like season one due to the extremely late-season debut).
- Clerks The Animated Series, one of the worst examples of a show being Screwed By The Network (from the very beginning it had basically no real time slot). Six episodes were produced, but only two were aired.
- Cupid; the ABC dramedy, not the CBS reality show.
- The Critic (ABC and Fox; both canceled it.)
- Day Break One of the best shows in recent memory, but this troper finds nobody has heard of it besides himself due to its brutal cancellation.
- Dirty Sexy Money, another sharp show that was caught in the crossfire of the 2007 writers' strike.
- Eli Stone
- Fillmore
- Get Ed: not renewed after its first season, despite the fact that the finale had a Cliff Hanger
- Invasion
- The Job: Which transmogrified into the more dramatic Rescue Me on the FX Network with much of the same cast.
- Kyle XY: One of ABC Family's most successful shows, which was canceled after its third season. And right when a dramatic twist regarding Kyle's origin is revealed! The producers soon after revealed what had been planned for later seasons.
- Life On Mars (US version) The US version of the BBC hit was just finding its own voice and establishing its own mythos when ABC announced that its first season would be its only season.
- Masters of Science Fiction
- Max Headroom
- Men In Trees
- The Middle Man
- Mighty Orbots: A well animated and stylish Voltorn style cartoon that was canceled in its first season after an ironic lawsuit was filed by the makes of Gobots.
- Miracles
- My So Called Life
- The Knights Of Prosperity
- The Outer Limits (the 1960s original)
- Police Squad: The series was supposedly canceled because the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it.
- Probe
- Pushing Daisies had "Too Good To Last" written all over it from the very beginning. The first season, which was aggressively promoted, was a critical and commercial hit: it got 12 Emmy nominations, or 1.33 nominations per episode shown. But it never recovered from the 2007 writer's strike, and ABC canceled it halfway through its second season.
- Relativity
- The Slap Maxwell Story
- Sports Night
- The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat A wonderfully surreal cartoon with a real Fleischer feel.
- Twin Peaks: though it did kinda sell out near the end.
- The Unusuals
- Vengeance Unlimited
- When Things Were Rotten: 1975 Robin Hood farce created by Mel Brooks (later inspiring his Robin Hood: Men in Tights).
- WITCH: Two 26-episode seasons, wrapped up fairly well but they'd set up for a third season and the comics gave them enough material to do at least five more seasons if they'd been able to.
CBS
- American Gothic
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Century City
- Citizen Baines - moved slowly for many viewers but had a great cast headed by James Cromwell.
- East Side/West Side was about a social worker who focused on the problems of the inner city and was probably the first American series to seriously address racism. It managed to win an Emmy, but is largely forgotten today.
- EZ Streets - too raw for CBS, this mob drama from Paul Haggis might have succeeded on cable.
- Frank's Place
- The Handler
- The Honeymooners: incredibly, only ran one season as a stand-alone sitcom, although the characters admittedly were used for many years on Gleason's variety show.
- Jericho: Was famously resurrected by a Sending Stuff To Save The Show fan campaign, but the respite would last only a season before the ax fell again.
- Joan Of Arcadia: popular, but in the wrong demographic.
- That's Life - a "chick show," but with an excellent cast (Heather Paige Kent, Ellen Burstyn, Paul Sorvino, Kevin Dillon, Debi Mazar).
- The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat A wonderfully surreal cartoon with a real 30ish Fliescher feel.
NBC
- American Dreams
- Andy Barker PI
- The Black Donnellys
- The Book Of Daniel
- Buffalo Bill
- Eerie, Indiana: Got good enough ratings during the reruns that a Canadian production company produced a sequel/spin-off several years later—which had to star new characters because the original actors for the original characters had aged out of being suitable for the parts.
- Freaks And Geeks: Possibly the archetypal example; adored by critics and fans alike, but being shuffled around in the lineup didn't help its ratings, and it got canceled halfway through its first season.
- God The Devil And Bob
- Grand was a TV show about life in a corporate town in the early 90s. With the town business being grand piano manufacture, and the clear implication being that only a few years at most separated the rich owners from joining the workers living in the nearby trailer park. Novel in that it didn't vilify the boss (the patriarch genuinely cared for his workers, but had so little common ground with them he couldn't really show it, making him almost completely an Anti-Burns). The first season's ratings were never much, so a conclusive ending was filmed... which received magnificent ratings. Sadly, Executive Meddling struck the following season.
- I'll Fly Away
- It's Your Move
- Journeyman
- Kings
- Life
- Misfits Of Science
- My Own Worst Enemy. They ended it on a cliffhanger! AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHH!!!!
- My World And Welcome To It
- Nightmare Cafe. Ran for only 6 episodes in 1992.
- The Others
- Boomtown was an innovative series aired by NBC in 2002. Each episode showed a crime from multiple points of view (the beat cops, the detectives, the paramedic, the D.A., the reporter, and the criminal.) It aired for one season, winning multiple awards. It had low ratings due to its unique style and not being given time to find its audience. After its first season it was retooled, the uniqueness drained, and at that point not even die hard fans of the first season were watching it any more. It was canceled six episodes into its second season.
Fox
The WB / Kids' WB / UPN / The CW
Disney
- Dave The Barbarian
- Phil Of The Future: Fox gets panned for dumping good shows, but the Disney Channel may be the worst offender.
- Teamo Supremo: Like with Darkwing (see below), Teamo had some planned storylines that never came to fruition.
- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! was canned after 52 episodes at the start of the final climax. The creator had an ending planned and everything. The ratings were fine too.
- It also appears that The Spectacular Spider Man won't be picked up for a third season, which is kind of depressing as it was a very intelligent show that got the ax before it's second season even aired in America. Disney is the new Fox.
Other Networks
- 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd (Nickelodeon)
- The 4400 (USA)
- AceLightning (BBC)
- Carnivale (HBO)
- Class of 3000 (Cartoon Network)
- Clone High (MTV)
- Dead Like Me: Not even quirk-friendly cable was friendly enough, alas. (Showtime)
- Deadwood (HBO)
- Exosquad (USA)
- Note that they DID finish off a couple story arcs before the cancellation hit, so it could also count as a counter example. Its later cousin, Wing Commander Academy, fared far worse (13 eps, cut off right in the middle when USA pulled all of their Saturday morning cartoon lineup.)
- Instant Star (both The N and CTV were responsible for this one)
- Invader Zim (Nickelodeon): Executive Meddling was the culprit here; the network hired a comic artist best known for a series called "Johnny The Homicidal Maniac", but were unprepared for the series' dark humor.
- Megas XLR (Cartoon Network)
- Moral Orel (Cartoon Network): Canceled as soon as it moved away from its standard formula and became dramatic and thought-provoking. Although the show's third and final season has arguably some of the best writing in the show, network head Mike Lazzo claims that the first season is the best.
- The Odyssey, a Mind Screwy Ontological Mystery for kids. Not to be confused with Odyssey 5 (below) or Homer's original epic. (Sci Fi)
- Odyssey 5 (Showtime)
- ''O'Grady (The N)
- Radio Free Roscoe: Originally aired on the Canadian network Family, then was picked up by the American network The N when Family cut the funding. Then The N cut funding as well,
- Remember WENN: Ran 3 seasons on AMC before that network changed its format. To add injury to insult, it ended on a Cliff Hanger.
- Sheep In The Big City (Cartoon Network)
- South Of Nowhere (The N)
- Space Cases: Guess what other space series this show shares an actress with. Go on, guess. She got written out of the show after season 1, though...Isn't It Sad? (Nickelodeon)
- Time Squad (Cartoon Network)
- Portal: Not canceled due to ratings, as the creator was not shy about letting fans know, but rather due to personal differences between himself and the network head. (G4)
- The Life And Times Of Juniper Lee (Cartoon Network)
- Whatever Happened To Robot Jones (Cartoon Network)
- Rome, they originally planned five seasons, chronicling the reigns of a few different Emperors, but had to cut it down to three, then two when funding was cut.
- J Pod (CBC)
- Battletech, whose network this troper forgets, was so obviously a case of executive meddle it could have warranted its own entry on that page. Though, to be fair, making an animated show based on a heavy-handed wargame for a Saturday/Sunday run back when they ran cartoons on TV was almost certain doom in and of itself. Unlike Exosquad, nobody ever died, much like GI Joe prior, everyone had to be seen ejecting or otherwise surviving a 30+ton mecha exploding. And then there was the craptacular 3D...
- Mission Genesis (known as Deepwater Black in canada where it originated.) A plague destroys earth and a ship called the Deepwater is sent into deep space where clones of specially selected people would be grown to come back and repopulate earth. Teen drama plays out with SF themes in the foreground on their way back to earth. Very intelligent, containing a few actors who would go on to fame in other sci fi series. Canceled after 13 episodes.
- Primeval Lasted three (short) seasons and consistently pulled relatively high ratings, but was cancelled on a heartbreaking Cliff Hanger in order for the Network to schedule some cheaper reality shows. (ITV)
Non-Television examples
Anime / Manga / Comics
- Aztek had a fresh hero, good crossover potential and a promising overarcing plot. Then it ran right into the 1996-97 comic book market crash and got cancelled after 10 issues. Luckily, Aztek had already been set up to join the Justice League Of America, and his plot got resolved in that book.
- Double Arts
- A rare Japanese example: Mobile Suit Gundam got poor ratings due to the fact that it was the first Real Robot series. It was canceled and Tomino had to quickly improvise an ending. Due to good re-run ratings the show was re-cut (with some new animation) into 3 movies, and Zeta Gundam was made.
- Another Japanese example would be the original Shaman King manga, which was canceled RIGHT BEFORE the showdown with the Big Bad It was un canceled very recently, however.
- Nyx
- Meister. Primed to be the hot new sports manga with dynamic characters and stimulating art. Cut from Weekly Shonen Jump two months after it debuted, forced to cobble together a sudden (and not particularly lucid) ending. Only ten chapters. They didn't even get through one goddamn soccer game.
- The Sonic X comics were, about midway through, a series of stories starring Dr. Eggman and his robots, which received great acclaim, particularly from Eggman fans. Archie executives canceled it after 40 issues, though writer Ian Flynn had a lot of future stories planned, much to the dismay of Eggman's rather large fanbase who loved the comic.
- Captain Britain and MI:13 will be canceled after issue 15, thought it would be hard to see how they could top Dracula and his vampire army's invasion from his castle on the moon.
- Futaba Kun Change Cancelled just as it was setting up some major story arcs, leading to the creator scrambling to wrap everything up in a complete Wall Banger of an ending due to time constraints. We can't help wondering if the ending would have made more sense if it'd been given enough time to play out naturally.
Games
- Xenosaga was originally planned to span six games and thousands of years worth of story, this series of Japanese RPG's was cut down to three episodes after most of the creative staff were fired from their own project.
- Although not a television show, Battlefleet Gothic had only a few months of publicity and attention before being handed over to Specialist Games (then Fanatic Press), a fate shared with many other spinoff games.
- XIII was intended to have a sequel, so the game ended in a cliffhanger. Sadly, too few people bought this great game so the sequel was never made.
- Similar to the above, Psychonauts had a great concept and story and was also given a cliff-hanger ending. Despite garning a vocal hardcore fanbase later on, it sold poorly.
- Advent Rising, featuring a story written by science fiction god Orson Scott Card. The game was planned from the get-go to be a trilogy, but like Psychonauts, was pushed out the door too quickly by Majesco (who was facing bankruptcy at the time). The result was a unpolished and glitchy (albeit still playable game). When given just a month to polish it for the rerelease of the game on PC, the average ratings jumped a considerable amount. The game ended on the definition of a cliffhanger, and the original team (who have long since left Majesco, and were recently bought by Epic) has expressed interest in finishing the trilogy, but Majesco won't release the rights to them. They're too busy with Cooking Mama I guess...
Music
- Blind Faith.
- Josef K
- The La's
- Neutral Milk Hotel
- Slint
- Uncle Tupelo.
- Although their breakup spawned a couple of bands (Wilco, Son Volt) that were pretty damn great in their own right.
- Young Marble Giants
- Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains
- Joy Division
- The New Radicals
Radio
- The Stan Freberg Show was canceled by the CBS radio network after running for only 15 episodes in 1957. The entire run has been released on CD.
Toys
- Xevoz and its tie-in comic. The toyline from Hasbro (with aid from Stikfas) was made up of figures with interchangeable parts and weapons, and a collectible card like game, using the figures themselves and "Battle Helix" dice. It only lasted for four series of figures, but that's two more than it seemed the line would support. After seemingly being cancelled after Series 2, and again after Series 3 (plus some deluxe sets), Xevoz finally disappeared for good (for now).
- Hornby's Were Bears were discontinued after 1989 despite them being very well made and original toys. They have become very sought after and collectable toys since then. A few new websites hint that they may be being made once again (much to the delight of this troper) and might even have a movie or cartoon series made after them.
Exceptions, shows that made it to the finale or at least managed more then one season:
- Angel (WB), though it should be noted that it was still cut short, causing the writers to rush and jam about three seasons of extended plotlines into the half a season they had left to get a finale out.
- Arrested Development, although this show managed at least 3 seasons, about 2 1/2 more than most of the others on this list, it still stung because of the massive positive critical response and awards won. The failure of this show to attract an audience is usually blamed on Fox's marketing and not the show itself.
- This Troper believes that Arrested Development belongs in the list with the rest of the shows FOX screwed.
- The re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica
- Danny Phantom (Nickelodeon): Creator Butch Hartman expressed interest in continuing the series but Nickelodeon wouldn't have it. At least he still managed to give it a Grand Finale.
- Daria, though some fans claim that MTV tried to kill the series during the third season.
- Dark Angel
- Darkwing Duck: Storylines planned for the show's third season (such as a resolution to the Cliff Hanger at the end of "Steerminator") never made it to production due to the show being canceled.
- Two DCU examples: Both Blue Beetle and Manhunter, which had been on the very brink of cancellation for their entire runs, were recently canceled at just under 50 issues, managing to wrap up their storylines in a satisfying way. In that time, Manhunter was canceled and revived twice.
- Both are also be brought back soon as back up features (in Booster Gold and Gotham Sirens respectively).
- Due South (CBS) had a wobbly history, including getting canceled twice, but it aired four seasons and ended on its own terms.
- Even Stevens: Disney can't resist the urge to get rid of good shows. May be worse than Fox in this area.
- Eureka. Fans kept expecting this to happen to it, and several times thought it quietly HAD, with the long wait between the first and second season and no info out of the network. But now Sci-Fi has ordered a third season (short due to the strike) and a fourth season. It seems inconceivable, but a network might actually be learning from its mistakes.
- Everwood: which was set to return for a fifth season before the CW powers that be decided to bring back 7th Heaven for one more season. Even though the latter had just run a SERIES finale.
- Extras (HBO)
- Farscape (SciFi) only received a conclusion due to a massive outpouring of fan support after its cancellation. During its run, it was repeatedly shifted to various unfavourable (and often unreliable) time slots, and at times ran out of order, by its Australian broadcaster, Channel Nine... which also happened to be a co-producer of the show, creating. (Rumour has it that this, and similar treatment for other science-fiction series, was due to a disagreement between the network's owner, who liked science fiction, and the scheduler, who didn't).
- Notably led to one of the heads of the Sci-Fi Network making an ass of himself when he stated "If everyone that wrote in had actually watched the show, it wouldn't have been canceled." Apparently he had not yet heard of Ti Vo (which had been around for several years by this point). Interestingly enough, Sci-Fi Network now schedules their shows to start slightly after their scheduled time, runs network eyecatches in the middle of commercial breaks, and other little tricks that all seem designed to frustrate people with Ti Vo and similar DV Rs. "Take That, people who enjoy our programming!"
- Freakazoid!: Reports of Executive Meddling abound.
- Futurama: aired four seasons over five years, amassing as zealous a fandom as any, but Fox's practice of shifting it back and forth in days and timeslots and occasionally preempting it altogether for months at a time sealed its fate. Vindication was had at last in 2007, when the show was Un Canceled.
- Gargoyles: Twice. Moving it out of syndication brought with it a Re Tool that frankly wrecked everything unique about it; cancellation at that point was a mercy killing. Revived later as a comic book that ignored the Re Tool, but before it could complete its first dozen issues it was canned because Disney raised the licensing fees higher than the publisher would pay.
- JAG was first aired on NBC, and then canceled after the first season. CBS then picked it up and showed it for another nine years.
- Moral Orel- They made it to a finale ("Honor") that was a nice ending, but they where forced to cut plotlines that would have come up in later episodes (like in the seven scripts that didn't get to be filmed!) mostly because it was too good for Adult Swim and because some guy thought the show was become too dramatic.
- Well, to be fair, it DID turn fairly dramatic following (and including) the two-part second season finale, "Nature"; even Dino Stamatopoulos (the show's creator) admitted that he would have eventually had to go in the direction he went with "Nature" and the show's final season. When Adult Swim approached Dino with the possibility of doing a "special" in the future, Dino turned them down, opting instead to end the show with "Honor" then move on to other projects. That Other Wiki has a roundup of the never-produced plotlines on its list of the show's episodes.
- Northern Exposure: a quirk-fest that began as a mid-season replacement, not usually a recipe for success on network TV, nevertheless managed to air six seasons and rack up plaudits and fans.
- Oz
- ReBoot: Did well in its home country (Canada), where it lasted several seasons, but ABC yanked it after two.
- SatAM Sonic The Hedgehog: was intentionally killed by Fox scheduling Power Rangers into the same time slot to steal its ratings. Twice. That's right; Fox got its start killing other networks' shows.
- Regime change also played a part in it. Despite the series doing well enough that it was airing twice every Saturday at one point, the new president of ABC just plain didn't like the show, and so he axed it once its second season ended.
- Samurai Jack (Cartoon Network): Instead of an intended Grand Finale where Jack succeeds in his mission to defeat Aku, it ended with him carrying a baby around.
- There's been a movie rumored to be in the works for a couple of years now that may wrap up the saga.
- Stargate SG 1 is a semi-exception. It started off on network TV and then Showtime and ran there for 5 seasons. It was then moved to Sci-Fi and ran for five more. Instead of an 11th season to wrap up the Ba'al and Ori storylines, we got two movies, each a little over the length of two episodes. A third is forthcoming.
- Star Trek The Original Series was canceled after its second season due to poor ratings, was revived by a fan campaign for a third (and argurably, the poorest) season, then was brought back with the animated series before finally taking off as a series of feature films before its return to live-action TV with Star Trek The Next Generation.
- Titus: The creator even said that he preferred it was canceled due to Executive Meddling and risky material than not being popular or funny.
- Undergrads
It's notable that of the exceptions, only a handful were aired on non-cable networks. A series that is Too Good To Last may have better chances on cable than on broadcast networks, in part because cable doesn't demand ratings as high in the first place for the show to be considered a success.
|
|
