Canceled Shows: If they were popular from the start

[Mr. Adventure]

^ He had no film career to speak of, according to IMDB before Bosom Buddies he had done one episode of the Love Boat and some role in a movie called He Knows You're Alone.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Journeyman would have been a good ride for at least one more season.

Of all television shows cancelled after one season or less, Journeyman was the only one that truly upset me.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ He had no film career to speak of, according to IMDB before Bosom Buddies he had done one episode of the Love Boat and some role in a movie called He Knows You're Alone.

But if the show had lasted longer, Hanks would probably not have stayed for the whole thing, because the longer the show lasted, the more likely it would conflict with his film career when it DID take off.

 

[the G-man]

If Bosom Buddies had stayed on the air, would Tom Hanks be one of those guys like Michael J Fox or Ted danson with a few hit movies but a big TV career?

^ If that show had lasted longer, Hanks would have probably left. His film career was already starting to take off, amirite? Famous actors like him rarely do TV for long.

^ He had no film career to speak of, according to IMDB before Bosom Buddies he had done one episode of the Love Boat and some role in a movie called He Knows You're Alone.

But if the show had lasted longer, Hanks would probably not have stayed for the whole thing, because the longer the show lasted, the more likely it would conflict with his film career when it DID take off.

But you're assuming his film career would have taken off.

Think Tom Selleck. Sure he had a few movie hits but he's basically a TV actor. And, in one case, his TV show (Magnum) kept him from a role that might have made him a huge movie star.

If BB had stayed on the air its entirely possible it would have kept Hanks from making some of those movies.

Or, to use Fox and Dansen and comparisons again: Both MJF and TD had hit shows they didn't quit. Both had some successful movies. In the case of MJF, some were hugely successful. But, after a few years, Fox's movie career faded. He went back to TV and (Parkinsons aside) tended to stay there.

Hanks had a huge hit, Splash, followed by Bachelor Party, but then a series of films that weren't successful: Money Pit, Nothing in Common, Every Time we Say Goodbye, the Man with One Red Shoe...even Dragnet wasn't a big hit IIRC. And, again, after "Big," a series of flops until "A League of Their Own" in early 90s.

If, during that time, Hanks had still been on BB, would he have really quit the show? And would the show have prevented him from taking one or more of the films that were hits and made him a superstar?

 

[cardinal biggles]

"It's BUFFY meets DEADWOOD."

If it were co-written by Joss Whedon and David Milch, I would totally watch this.

Firefly - Western in Space, that's what went around and why Firefly was dismissed by so many initially. I really wish the internet archive had a TrekBBS snapsot when Firefly premiered. A lot of people didn't give it a chance based on that.

Ironic, considering Roddenberry's "Wagon Train to the stars" sales pitch from 1964.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'm possibly the only person in the world who thinks this, but...I wanted more Flash Forward! I was excited to find out what sequence of events was leading to 'The End', and I loved the way all the visions played out in the finale. Yeah the hero was the poor man's Jack Shephard, but he got the job done. (And that doesn't stop Person of Interest from staying on the air).

But, if it hadn't been cancelled after one season, it's likely the show would have gotten ridiculous by now.

Other, 'What if it had been cancelled' situations.

What if Lost had been canceled after season three? Abrams probably would have still left it with future Jack screaming 'We weren't supposed to leave', but it would have been assumed everybody got home directly following that episode and much more of the weirdness and mystery of the island would be open mysteries, and all the time travel stuff would never be part of the story.

What if The Simpsons had been canceled after the first few seasons? People would probably be begging for it to come back the same way they did with Futurama and Family Guy, and it'd probably be even more popular now.

 

[lennier1]

Ironic, considering Roddenberry's "Wagon Train to the stars" sales pitch from 1964.

Roddenberry had one advantage: In the days of TOS the Western genre was still a popular thing that made a lot of money.
Nowadays, productions of that genre are a rather rare sight, making it harder to pitch things like that successfully.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ I think timing played a part as well, Firefly came out between Voyager and Enterprise, when Farscape, Stargate, Andromeda were on the air as well as oddball shows like Lexx and Starhunter. With a lot of material out there I don't know if people were as ready to experiment as they might have been a few years later.

 

[Greg Cox]

"It's BUFFY meets DEADWOOD."

If it were co-written by Joss Whedon and David Milch, I would totally watch this.

Actually, that's the pitch I used to hype The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher, a novel that came out last month from Tor.

If you're interested, the book is getting fabulous reviews and there's even a book trailer on YouTube. Check it out.

Thanks for giving me an excuse to plug the novel again!

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ you're shameless Greg Cox

 

[Greg Cox]

^^ you're shameless Greg Cox

Or I'm a just a very proud editor.

Seriously, it's a great book that would make a cool (non-cancelled) TV show.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I agree that Firefly would probably fare better with audiences now that it did back then. The space sci-fi field was a bit crowded back then, whereas it's almost deserted now (aside from Doctor Who & The Clone Wars).

Still, it wouldn't hurt if Joss could try to come up with names that aren't completely counterintuitive or vague. Serenity doesn't sound like an action movie. Firefly tells you absolutely nothing about the show itself. And Dollhouse really confuses everyone when they first hear it, even if the metaphor is suitable.

I do think that the overtly "Western" trappings on FIREFLY initially confused and/or turned off some people. I know that, among my own circle of friends, it caused some head-scratching and took a little getting used to.

"Is it supposed to look like a cowboy movie?"

"I think that's kinda the idea, yes."

"Oh. Not sure what I think about that."

I think America currently has a very ambivalent relationship with Westerns. There was a poll not too long ago (on NPR or something) about which cancelled TV shows would you most want to see come back on the air. The top 2 vote getters were Firefly & Deadwood.

Then there was Cowboys & Aliens. I had been reading about the movie for a while online but most people had never heard of it. I recall seeing one of the first trailers for it in a packed theater (opening weekend of either Iron Man 2 or Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 as I recall). And when the title "Cowboys & Aliens" came up, you could hear half the audience groan with dread while the other half went "Huh?"

So far I haven't come across any tv shows which were almost impossible to figure out eventually.

It's more an issue of how much initial patience the show asks of its audiences. Wonderfalls was a great show but with a quirky premise and a subtle tone that made it hard to really put across the idea in 30 second spots.

There's also the time-honored "X meets Y" formulation.

"It's BUFFY meets DEADWOOD."

"It's GOSSIP GIRL with elves and fairies!"

"It's THE SOPRANOS--in space!"

Lost Girl-- "It's like Angel but with lots more fucking."

Firefly - Western in Space, that's what went around and why Firefly was dismissed by so many initially. I really wish the internet archive had a TrekBBS snapsot when Firefly premiered. A lot of people didn't give it a chance based on that.

OTOH, in my circle of friends, I've found that Firefly was generally a much easier sell than Buffy/Angel. Even though I'd say Buffy/Angel was the much better series, my friends seem to find spaceships far more appealing than vampires. Go figure.

Imagine what could've been if they had given Earth: Final Conflict a second season instead turning it into some worthless piece of crap that only kept some minor details?

Awhile ago I was watching season 5 of Earth: Final Conflict. It seemed like a completely different tv show, than the previous seasons. No taelons.

(Besides the first and fifth seasons, I haven't really watched the other seasons, other than some random episodes).

They basically made it worse with every season because they tried to "fix" what didn't need fixing.

At the end of season 4 the showrunners merged the Taelons with a competing alien race to get those space vampires (failed attempt to merge two offshoots of an ancestral race back together). That's when they flushed even the last reasons to be still watching that train wreck down the drain.
Guess after the terrible seasons 2-4 they wanted to create something so bad, it actually made the previous ones seem almost bearable.

I actually started the show with Seasons 3 & 4 and only recently got around to seeing Season 1. Personally, I'd say that Season 1 is a bit overrated and Season 4 is way underrated. I loved all of the conniving backstabbing going on between Sandoval & Zo'or in Season 4. Plus, I thought Liam Kincaid was a much more charismatic lead than William Boone. (Season 5 was certifiable, unmitigated shit but I've never heard anyone dispute that.)

 

[TheSeeker]

Journeyman would have been a good ride for at least one more season.

Of all television shows cancelled after one season or less, Journeyman was the only one that truly upset me.

My wife and I were pretty bummed out by that too.

Another show I would have loved to see get at least one more season is John Doe.