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14 TV Shows We Want Back
Popular
When Popular premiered in 1999 on the WB, it looked on the surface to be a typical teen trifle about high schoolers scrabbling for popularity. But creator Ryan Murphy (whose new show, Glee, debuts on Fox this fall) used the show to address social issues other teen shows wouldn’t touch, like a transgender teacher and childhood leukemia. All while maintaining a wacky, campy tone that even John Waters could admire. The ratings took a dive when the network moved the show to Fridays in its second season, and it was canceled shortly after.
Dark Angel, Tru Calling, and Birds of Prey: Fighting Crime Doesn’t Pay If You’re a Woman
For every Alias or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there’s a show featuring a butt-kicking woman that gets canceled too quickly. While some deserve a quick death (we’re looking at you, Bionic Woman), a few deserved better fates. James Cameron’s Dark Angel, a futuristic sci-fi thriller starring Jessica Alba as a genetically modified supersoldier, was cancelled by Fox after two seasons to make room for—irony alert—Firefly. Fox also canceled Tru Calling after two seasons. The show starred Eliza Dushku as a morgue attendant who gets sent back in time to prevent untimely deaths, but unfortunately, the show couldn’t prevent its own. And the WB’s Birds of Prey, based on the comic-book series of the same name, lasted only one season before getting yanked.
Greg the Bunny
Greg the Bunny was probably a hard sell from the start. Seth Green, Sarah Silverman, and Eugene Levy starring in a sitcom about a world where puppets—sorry, fabricated Americans—walk freely among humans? Not as easy to sell to audiences as, say, “funny, schlubby guy has hot, patient wife.” Greg the Bunny was Sesame Street meets South Park, it was hilarious, and it was canned after one season.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Why America Must Learn to Bow
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
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Miss 'em? I never even heard of most of 'em.
That makes two of us.
Me three!!!!!
Let me get this right, you two spend all of your free time reading classics and listening to opera, as a way to relax from your days of performing open heart surgery, or, better yet, you have spent the past 20 years working at a remote African aids hospital and only now got the internet and the first thing you did was come here to make this comment. Spare me.
Me four!!
Easton - no, I don't spend my free time reading classics etc ...
I live in Europe ;-)
You people need to watch more good TV!!! Firefly and Arrested Development - I shed tears over their death ... criminal ax'ings.
They did lump in some losers with some great shows. While "Dark Angel" was borderline OK, "Birds of Prey" sucked major sewage. Apparently the whole justification for that section was the old tired "Women need to kick ass more."
The idea that a ninety-pound-soaking-wet thin-boned female can physically dominate a big beefy bruiser is the most often-repeated ludicrous piece of television garbage in their arsenal. (And I taught and competed at the highest levels of martial arts for thirty years, and taught some women that *dominated* their divisions, so this isn't just reactionary angry-white-male B.S. speaking).
If you *do* want to read fiction where a woman *legitimately* kicks ass, try Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield novels. Everything she does *would work*. That makes it pretty much one-of-a-kind.
"Arrested Development"'s primary crime seems to be that it was made for *smart people*. "Veronica Mars" made me watch a 'teen' show for the first time ever. Another underrated show was "Action" with Jay Mohr... probably the single funniest opening sequence I've ever seen.
I'd tell you to go watch it on Netflix "Watch Instantly", but their new Silverlight-based movie player crashes, freezes and stutters so badly that I'm cancelling my account and would advise everyone else to do the same, to teach them a lesson about jumping into new Microsoft technology (can you say, "worse even than Vista"?) versus satisfying their customer base. (Rant concludes)
My So Called Life was a good show. It was ended far to soon.
Absolutely.
VERONICA MARS was the best broadcast TV show of the 21st Century, a perfect collaboration between a writer and an actress, which resulted in a fantastic character.
Another show that disappeared before anyone knew about it is PROFIT. From 1996, it was about a ruthless business man's rise to the top. Do yourselves a favor and check it out on DVD.
That's a little overwrought. Veronica Mars was good, but if you really want to see Kristen Bell at the top of her form, check out the episode she did of "Deadwood" -- ANOTHER show that REALLY ought to still be on.
How the heck is Freaks and Geeks not on this list?!?!
My thought exactly
My so called life was a very cool show so was Arrested Devolpment which might even have a second life in the movie screen (very cool), But Good riddence to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles it was a very stupid show with a lot of filler and about five minutes of great scenes I guess that is what happens when you try to make a TV show look like a movie.
"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles", "Popular", and "Veronica Mars"?
PLEASE!
"Undeclared" and "Carnivale" alone completely blow the rest of your list away ("Arrested Development" aside).
Agreed, Carniv�le needs to be on this list.
"The Comeback" on HBO with Lisa Kudrow was pretty brilliant....Valerie Cherish rocked!
What about Firefly? Excellent Sci-Fi series with a wonderful cast and great writing.
Best ever TV series.
They have Firefly on the list in the same section with Angel.
Hello, Daily Beast? I think you meant to have a list of 15, including Freaks and Geeks.
Huff!, Dead Like Me, John From Cincinnati, Carnivale, The Riches. . .all shows too good not only to cancel, but too good for broadcast network channels.
Arrested Development is the best by far.
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amen to that
They should have gone back to the eighties and included "Sledgehammer."
When I saw the headline on this article, I opened it JUST to see if Sledgehammer was on the list. I absolutely LOVED this show - and I have the DVD's of the entire first season. I've watched it with my kids so many times (they weren't even 2 years old when Hammer was canceled) that we all have memorized about 80% of the show! My favorite: the episode "Gumm on the Street", where Sledge explained why he preferred granola over doughnuts! If you don't have the DVD, you HAVE to get it!
Dead on, sam.
LOVED sledgehammer!
I'm producing a reality show that I hope will be picked up for the 2009-2010 season. Because the television networks have been cutting costs, I'm putting my detective show on hold. All the networks have passed on my crime show about an alcoholic bipolar homicide detective and his sexy young female partner who work the streets of South Central L.A. looking for murdered tourists. Even filming in Vancouver would be too expensive, so even though CBS likes the pilot script, it's just too expensive to film, especially if I get my first choice, Christian Slater, who commands a high salary. ABC was initially interested. They wanted Pauly Shore for the lead, but he wanted too much money and his own trailer, so they passed. It's all about the budget, so that's why I'm switching to reality shows. I'm pitching my new show, called "Dumb Factor," a remake of "Fear Factor," which ran on NBC from 2001-2006. For $5,000, contestants will bungee-jump off a freeway overpass with an extremely frayed rope. The cars will run over the contestants until someone is stupid enough to get out and help, also getting splattered onto the pavement in slow-motion. This scenario will keep repeating until the commercial break. All that we'll see after the commercial will be a bunch of dead bodies and a massive pile-up of Camrys. The winners will now compete for the second stunt, jumping out of an airplane with a placebo parachute, after which an internet poll will be taken for the viewer to guess the winner. For those wanting to be a contestant, sign-ups will be on our website at www.stupididiot.com . This show will be perfect for ABC's schedule, because they're in the process of cancelling all scripted shows.
http://www.paulsolomon.blogspot.com
I love Arrested Development, and am hungry for more of it.
I worked in network television for a number of years. The longer I worked in it, the more surprising it became when anything good made in on the air in the first place.
There are some very good books out there that state that point of view exactly. Damn, can't think of the titles right now, but the drift of several of them was exactly what you're saying now.
How about Civil Wars, an outstanding but short-lived 90's drama starring Mariel Hemingway and Peter Onorati?
The Sarah Connor Chronicles jumped the shark with the casting of Summer Glau as the terminatrix.
Loved her in Firefly; just did not make sense as a hunter-killer machine.
I miss and adore: BOSTON LEGAL!
I don't see CASTLE, the witty detective series with Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, mentioned here. It was on after "Dancing with the Stars" and then got parked behind a truly dreadful comedy series that ABC will continue this summer. I'm sure there was a drop-off in viewership when that happened because no one wanted to watch "Surviving Suburbia" before it.
CASTLE is smart, catchy, has interesting characters and is great fun. I hope it will run again next fall -- OR hope that a cable channel picks it up because they seem to have a better clue on quality programming. If anyone knows the fate of this show, please post your news.
Castle has been picked up for a second season.
Castle has been renewed for the fall, big hit actually.
I'm pretty sure Castle was picked up for another season...
I was really getting engaged with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I'm sorry to see it go. It had really hit it's stride in the middle of last season and was exciting to watch. Character development was great.
I also miss Boston Legal, and Joan of Arcadia.
Sports Night! What about SPORTS NIGHT?
sports night was great
I love love loved my so called life. That show is amazing. I've rented them all again on netflix and think although now im 23, i can still relate. I would like to add that show quantum leap! That show was awesome!
Bring back "Cop Rock"! (I'm only half-kidding....) LOL.
Thank you.
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