• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

TV shows that were canceled after only a handful of episodes

I was watching the Adam West biography on the Bio channel last night, and he starred in a pilot for NBC in 1991 called Lookwell that did not get picked up.

It was created, written, and produced specifically for West by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel. Apparently it's been circulating through Hollywood ever since, and Bill Maher said it's perhaps the funniest 30 minutes of television he's ever seen.

With all the magic of the internets, I'll bet it''s probably out there, but with dial-up I couldn't watch it even if I found it. :(

Sounds like it might have been a real miss for NBC to pass on it. According to the Wiki article, it was even a "personal favorite" of NBC Chairman Brandon Tartikoff. Maybe it was just too wacky and a bit ahead of it's time? Too bad.

edit: I tried and tried to figure out how to embed the video, but gave up.

LOOKWELL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBQ3HbB0c8Y


watch
 
Last edited:
SKIN
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GlOtNSb4UA[/yt]

THE LYON'S DEN
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tITnCmm1nnY[/yt]

THE HANDLER
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTiva1dznSY[/yt]

A MAN CALLED HAWK
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zge345LB5ZM[/yt]



Well I thought this show was garbage, but it does belong here:

BIRDS OF PREY
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzJT9zqVZtY[/yt]
 
Blue Thunder
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmBIk5RA0EQ[/yt]

Street Hawk
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCItnKrXvMM[/yt]

Max Headroom
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFFMRXGjfNI[/yt]

The Highwayman

I used to love this show. It took place in the not too distant future and had that Australian guy from the Energizer commercials. The one who went "Oy!" Didn't know Tim Russ and Jane Badler were in it until I looked up the intro.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLLyS88_DB8[/yt]
 
Found a few that I totally forgot about on youtube. Remember the 1983 film The Outsiders. How many remember the 1990s tv series on FOX?
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBBOe51A6XY[/yt]

Before the singing and dancing of Glee and Cop Rock there was NBC's Rags to Riches:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D4UShuRUaw[/yt]

And does anyone remember the show The Bradys, when the Bunch got too serious. The only things I can recall from the show was Bobby being paralyzed and Martha Quinn playing his wife.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73BrsCvbLjM&feature=related[/yt]
 
Last edited:
The call on Raines above was a good one. That was apparently canceled before it aired.

Miracles was crushed by the invasion of Iraq.

On Fox, Strange Luck was rather good, especially for a show that regularly relied on luck for resolving the plot jeopardy. As a show dedicated to the proposition that jeopardy is not the sum of drama, it should be required study for would be television writers.

Also good calls for Nightmare Cafe and Brimstone and Profit .

Threshold, of course.

A serial crime show called EZ Streets, with a lovely score.

A legal show, called In Justice, about defense lawyers righting wrongful convictions. This was pretty good and had the blessing of greater realism about police work, as well as novelty.

A Fred Savage sitcom, The Crumbs, got only crumbs of airtime.

But a comedy video sketch show called, I think, Turn On! lasted all of one episode. And a psychiatric ward drama called, I think, Wonderland, lasted all of two.
 
Last edited:
A true crime when it ended was Over There. A gritty production of the Gulf War, it had memorable characters, good production values and stories ripped out of the headlines. It died due to low ratings-but I've heard rumors that the government "didn't approve" of it due to the realism level. Musc like the short-lived ESPN drama about pro football that got crushed by the NFL.
 
Joeman said:
I was watching the Adam West biography on the Bio channel last night, and he starred in a pilot for NBC in 1991 called Lookwell that did not get picked up.

It was created, written, and produced specifically for West by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel. Apparently it's been circulating through Hollywood ever since, and Bill Maher said it's perhaps the funniest 30 minutes of television he's ever seen.

With all the magic of the internets, I'll bet it''s probably out there, but with dial-up I couldn't watch it even if I found it. :(

Sounds like it might have been a real miss for NBC to pass on it. According to the Wiki article, it was even a "personal favorite" of NBC Chairman Brandon Tartikoff. Maybe it was just too wacky and a bit ahead of it's time? Too bad.
Click to expand...

I mentioned it on the previous page, but it's good to know others liked it.

As funny as it is, i'm not sure it would have survived long if it had been picked. it's not mainstream at all and West wasn't exactly a big star in the 90's. I would have loved it though.
 
Making Waves managed what? About three episodes before it was shelved. I'd been quite enjoying it up til then.

Hardwicke House - oh that was such a disappointment when it vanished like that. Especially since they'd really plugged it - TV Times cover and everything. And all just because of some complaints from the right wing press.

Sin on Saturday - pretty dire, I suppose.
 
Mercy Point - E.R. in space. Even the intro steals it's style from E.R.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK8TAF6K80A[/yt]
 
Kirkman1987 said:
I mentioned it on the previous page [Lookwell!], but it's good to know others liked it.

As funny as it is, i'm not sure it would have survived long if it had been picked. it's not mainstream at all and West wasn't exactly a big star in the 90's. I would have loved it though.
Click to expand...

Oops I missed it. I honestly didn't look at all the posts since I can't watch the videos. I assumed no one would have mentioned it, so my hat is off to you. :techman: [edit: looks like you had trouble putting up the video as well. All I could ever get was jumbled code, so I ended up just putting the link.)

I actually waited the 2 hours for the d/l so I could watch it, and I wasn't disappointed. I think they pitched the show a dozen or so years too soon. Adam West is priceless, and it's really a shame that he was so typecast due to Batman. I really enjoy him on Family Guy, as no one has ever had a delivery quite like his.
 
Does anyone remember a show called 'Doing Time on Planet Earth' about an alien guy and his space orb that followed him around? It was on like once.
 
Joeman said:
Kirkman1987 said:
I mentioned it on the previous page [Lookwell!], but it's good to know others liked it.

As funny as it is, i'm not sure it would have survived long if it had been picked. it's not mainstream at all and West wasn't exactly a big star in the 90's. I would have loved it though.
Click to expand...

Oops I missed it. I honestly didn't look at all the posts since I can't watch the videos. I assumed no one would have mentioned it, so my hat is off to you. :techman: [edit: looks like you had trouble putting up the video as well. All I could ever get was jumbled code, so I ended up just putting the link.)

I actually waited the 2 hours for the d/l so I could watch it, and I wasn't disappointed. I think they pitched the show a dozen or so years too soon. Adam West is priceless, and it's really a shame that he was so typecast due to Batman. I really enjoy him on Family Guy, as no one has ever had a delivery quite like his.
Click to expand...

Yes, I find it interesting that West would have a comedic ressurrection years later doing this almost exact same type of humor in animation.

It would have liked to see how this show would develop. We could see more auditions, and guest stars playing themselves. We also would have seen more retro Bannigan clips.
 
Charlie Jade. On the surface, it was about a P.I., the title character, working to unmask an evil corporation called Vexcor. But the series took place in three parallel universes - Betaverse (our universe), Alphaverse (heavily overpopulated, overtechnological, corporate-run and polluted), and Gammaverse (Greenpeace's wet dream). Charlie is from Alphaverse but is accidentally thrown into Betaverse by an explosion. He discovers that Vexcor, also from Alphaverse, is trying to siphon off energy from Gammaverse, but this will endanger Betaverse where he now finds himself.

24 fans will recognize one of Dana Walsh's redneck friends in this series, playing a character named '01 Boxer' (who works for Vexcor and seems to change personality depending on which universe he's in).

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etRMoD2034o[/yt]
 
And I thought Drive was pretty horrible. :p

Surprised to find out Emma Stone played Dylan Baker's daughter.

The ladies who still wanted to race and wouldn't quit even though they were told they'd been eliminated, and what subsequently happens after that, was extremely stupid. Had the show somehow lasted a full season, I suspect there would've been your winner because of what happened.
 
bigdaddy said:
Wonderfalls - 4 episode shown by Fox.
Odyssey 5 - 13 episodes (out of 20 ordered) before it was canceled because the Showtime president didn't understand Sci-fi.
Click to expand...

I doubt there are any 2 series cancellations that ever saddened me more than these 2. My mother & I were both huge fans of Wonderfalls. We taped every episode. It was excruciating when FOX even reneged on the ads that promised us that they would air the 5th episode. The fact that FOX put out a DVD set with all 13 episodes proves that there is (occasionally) a god. Even better, while the final episode does leave things totally open for a 2nd season, it still resolves things well enough that you can just cap it off with a "They all lived happily ever after... except for Heidi because she was a bitch.";)

I didn't see Odyssey 5 until it came out on DVD. Still, that show was totally love at first sight for me, in a way few shows have ever managed. And since the world didn't end in 2007, I gotta say, great job, Commander Taggert!:techman:

FreezeC77 said:
God. Imagine if Quantum Leap had gone with that idea for every time Sam lept into a person? A new guest star every week being the lead of your show.
Click to expand...

I dunno. It worked pretty well for The Twilight Zone.

stj said:
A serial crime show called EZ Streets, with a lovely score.
Click to expand...

The 1st 3 episodes were released on DVD as part of Universal's Brilliant But Cancelled program. Honestly, I thought it was boring shite.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top