Brilliant But Cancelled

[bigdaddy]

Has anyone said Sports Night? Last two seasons and is just excellent.

One of the guys at another forum I frequented recommended it several years back.

At the time I think it was on here very early morning and after a couple of episodes I decided to pick up the box set. I don't think it's officially available here, but that's what multi-region players are for I guess.

I thought it was great.

The USA now has two sets, which is pretty neat. I have the huge first one.

Has anyone said Sports Night? Last two seasons and is just excellent.

Yes, I mentioned it in the very first post. Such a good show--excellent cast, great writing, etc. I don't know why it didn't click with audiences. Definitely worth checking out, for people who haven't seen it yet.

(I was just trying to end the bickering.)

I watched the last several episodes, great ending. I don't think the show would have continued anyways because Sorkin wanted to move on (Like with The Newsroom) to West Wing. However most of season 2 seems to be other people anyways.

 

[auntiehill]

(I was just trying to end the bickering.)

Much appreciated.

 

[the G-man]

"Brilliant" is an adjective, and therefore subjective.

Actually, no. Many adjectives are objective, not subjective.

For example, "red" is an adjective. If one refers to the red fire truck another person cannot legitimately say the truck was blue or yellow.

 

[auntiehill]

ANYWAY....

What other Brilliant But Cancelled shows are there?

 

[Sketcher]

Carnivale?

 

[auntiehill]

^ I never did get around to watching that, but I've heard great things about it.

 

[bigdaddy]

"Brilliant" is an adjective, and therefore subjective.

Actually, no. Many adjectives are objective, not subjective.

For example, "red" is an adjective. If one refers to the red fire truck another person cannot legitimately say the truck was blue or yellow.

Someone has never been to Disney World, the fire trucks aren't red.

I said Wonderfalls right? That's probably my favorite 13 episode series, followed by Chicago Code.

 

[auntiehill]

I really enjoyed Wonderfalls; never of heard of Chicago Code before.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Chicago Code was modern Bronsen. Very dark quite serious.

An intermediate step between Wonderfalls and The Chicago Code is probably The Unusuals.

 

[Dr. Funkenstein]

I just have to say, thanks for mentioning The Neighbors in this thread.

Whenever I heard mention of it, I immediately thought people were inexplicably referring to the British soap opera so I dismissed it as soon as I heard it. But after learning that it was a comedy about aliens living on Earth, I decided to check it out. There's some great stuff there. (And Toks Olagundoye is absolutely amazing, both as an actress and a looker.)

Oh, and Dick Butkus? Amazing.

 

[bigdaddy]

I just have to say, thanks for mentioning The Neighbors in this thread.

Whenever I heard mention of it, I immediately thought people were inexplicably referring to the British soap opera so I dismissed it as soon as I heard it. But after learning that it was a comedy about aliens living on Earth, I decided to check it out. There's some great stuff there. (And Toks Olagundoye is absolutely amazing, both as an actress and a looker.)

Oh, and Dick Butkus? Amazing.

The show has the worst pilot in the history of TV, yet every episode after it is amazing and some of them are really brilliant. One of my favorite sitcoms ever.

 

[Mojochi]

My list has some already mentioned ones, but some that weren't

Deadwood (Biggest cancelling tragedy ever)
Firefly (2nd biggest cancelling tragedy ever)
Jericho
Twin Peaks
Star Trek
Carnivale
Lie To Me
Pushing Daisies
Alcatraz (It was finally starting to get good)
The Dead Zone (It was getting stale, but they should've at least finished it)
Chapelle's Show (Though he actually left it)
Heroes (Well.... it eventually stopped being brilliant, thus why it was cancelled)

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Here are some more:

The Loop- Two very short seasons on Fox, retooled for the second season, but still managed to be funny with the new premise.

Garth Marenghi's Dark Place- British show that existed all too briefly.

Eek the Cat- Fox Saturday morning cartoon made before its time.

Austin Short Stories- MTV scripted show about three friends in Austin, Texas, that seemed heavily influenced by the films of Richard Linklater. I still remember "neck-furters" fondly to this day.

The Grand- NBC(?) sitcom about a small town built around manufacturing grand pianos, with a very upstairs/downstairs premise.

World Series of Pop Culture- Game show on VH1.

Supah Ninjas- Nickelodeon show that lasted two seasons and greatly loved by members of my household.

Bunheads- ABC Family show that felt like the Gilmore Girls follow-up that we deserved.


The following only made it to the pilot stage, but should have gone to series:

Mockingbird Lane
Locke & Key
Global Frequency
The Sixth Gun

Full disclosure: I've seen Mockingbird Lane multiple times but have never seen the pilots for the last three -- their inclusion is based solely on the inherently cool premises of the comic series they're based on.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^Having taken a look at the Wikipedia page for Mockingbird Lane, I have to agree with you. It's too bad this wasn't a series.

 

[the G-man]

^Having taken a look at the Wikipedia page for Mockingbird Lane, I have to agree with you. It's too bad this wasn't a series.

I saw the pilot and thought it was...just okay. Izzard and DeRossi were excellent. O'Connell was probably miscast (Cheyenne Jackson, who played Scoutmaster Steve should have probably been Herman, and vice versa).

Overall, I think it was too dark in some places (most notably the opening) and it might have been better off if it hadn't been a Munsters reboot. Trying to do "grim and gritty Munsters" is a little like doing "grim and gritty Three Stooges." You flinch, not laugh, if it becomes too realistic.

 

[Mojochi]

^ How Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) doesn't land that part, I'll never understand in a million years. I'll always wonder if he was even offered it, & maybe turned it down for his own reasons. I think they would've had a much better cast chemistry with him in that cast.

 

[Dr. Funkenstein]

Yeah, Jerry O'Connell just didn't make any sense in that role whatsoever. I loved just about everything else about it, especially the quirky darkness, but that could be because I'm an incredibly biased fan of Bryan Fuller's style of darkness. He's basically the Wes Anderson of television.

 

[Silvercrest]

"Brilliant" is an adjective, and therefore subjective.

Actually, no. Many adjectives are objective, not subjective.

For example, "red" is an adjective. If one refers to the red fire truck another person cannot legitimately say the truck was blue or yellow.

Well, if the other person was traveling fast enough for a Doppler shift, he could legitimately say that ....

On a different topic:
I'm going to take issue with one of USS Triumphant's candidates from the first page: The original "V". I consider the original mini brilliant and the second mini decent (if you look past the bad science and the '80s styles), but they weren't cancelled. The regular series, on the other hand, was not brilliant — IMO it sucked donkey balls. It had its chance and blew it. And I really wanted to like it!

Frankly, I'm not sure the ending of the second miniseries was a very good setup for an ongoing. They had to undo most of the conclusion to make it work at all, and then they focused on all the wrong things. YMMV, I guess.

 

[Mojochi]

Yeah, Jerry O'Connell just didn't make any sense in that role whatsoever. I loved just about everything else about it, especially the quirky darkness, but that could be because I'm an incredibly biased fan of Bryan Fuller's style of darkness. He's basically the Wes Anderson of television.

Completely agree. I actually find some disagreement about Brad Garrett being a good choice, because of his being a lot like Fred Gwynne

But even if you don't see him as the right choice, you really can't help seeing what a miscast O'Connell was. In hindsight, it seems like they wanted to find someone like Lee Pace, when they really should've just gotten Lee Pace. I can totally see him doing the part justice, as they envisioned it.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Thunderbirds.