Marc Patenaude (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} caernarvon) wrote,@ 2006-03-19 23:27:00 |
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Defending in 2 days...In lieu of anything intellecual, allow me to present you this:
ganked from here - http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2006/0
But in the name of the common good, we arrived at this Sun-certified ranking of the 25 finest shows ever to be cancelled too quickly, cut short too soon.
1: TWIN PEAKS: Like many series consigned to an early grave, the influence of this David Lynch-crafted melodrama about murder in a small Pacific Northwest town was felt for years after its end. Would we have met Mulder and Scully or opened their X-Files had there not first been Peaks and Kyle MacLachlan's FBI agent Dale Cooper, with his deadpan demeanor and obsession with the occult? Peaks -- with its Lynchian atmosphere -- cobbled together painterly images with swelling melodies and abstract, disquieting non sequiturs. Never again would I look at cherry stems or apple pies the same way. Lynch wouldn't return to television until nearly a decade later when he produced a pilot entitled Mulholland Falls. ABC ended up scrapping the project, which led Lynch to retool it as a film.
Didn't see it, missed out on the Twin Peaks phenomena
2: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: A recent wound inflicted upon the collective unconscious was the criminally-inane nixing of this Emmy-winning family comedy. Starring Jason Bateman and filmed in a quasi-documentary style with a narrator and no insipid laugh track, Development never resorted to easy gags, deriving its laughs, ever so archly, from its characters, while refusing to underestimate the intelligence of its viewers. Both of them.
Saw it, loved it, hard to keep track of it with it always moving around
3: FIREFLY: This series from Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) billed itself as the anti-Star Trek, a futuristic western about outlaws living on the fringe of a galactic empire. The show, fronted by Edmonton-born Nathan Fillion, wasn't remarkable for special effects or mind-bending 2001 concepts, but for its sharp performances and whip-fast wit. Firefly got the short shrift from Fox, which aired episodes out of order and pulled the plug before all its instalments had aired. Whedon exacted a revenge, of sorts, when he wrote and directed last year's feature film Serenity, based on the series.
Saw it, loved it, still pissed at Fox for cancelling it...that and "Space: Above and Beyond"
4: EZ STREETS: Before he enraged gay cowboys everywhere by winning an Oscar for Crash, Canadian writer/director Paul Haggis created and produced this introspective crime epic about three violent men -- a cop, a criminal, a convict -- and the uneasy world they inhabit. With Streets, Haggis, who at the time was coming off the success of the lightweight Due South, demonstrated his skill at interweaving challenging narratives with intricately-shaded characterizations.
Saw a couple of episodes of it, thought of it as another cop show
5: FREAKS AND GEEKS/UNDECLARED: These two short-lived comedies -- about the travails of the young and alienated -- were created by Judd Apatow, an Emmy winner whose credits include The Larry Sanders Show and last summer's The 40-Year-Old Virgin. In both, Apatow juggled laughter and pathos without sacrificing reality or low-balling viewers -- in other words, no pies, flutes or Krazy-glued body parts. Just nerds and their friends, confronting freedom, responsibility, the opposite sex and more than a few hapless parents.
liked the former, not so much the latter...part of the problem was actually finding the show on TV
6: ACTION!: These days, Jay Mohr is best known for doing a wicked Christopher Walken impersonation -- oh, and there was that stint hosting the reality-TV contest Last Comic Standing, how could we forget? -- but if Hollywood were a fairer place, he'd be remembered for starring in this Tinseltown satire as a Hollywood player who's every bit the velociraptor Jeremy Piven's agent in HBO's Entourage is. Speaking of Entourage, should Piven ever bolt, we could think of no more fitting a replacement than the ever-employable Mohr.
completely missed this one
7: ANDY RICHTER CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE: Sidekicks are historically an underrated lot. Robin The Boy Wonder in the green short-shorts, Ed McMahon degenerating into a home-lotto pitchman. So perhaps Andy Richter, who rose to stardom as Conan O'Brien's right-hand man and staring-contest sparring partner, should have been braced for the lukewarm reception his ingenious, whimsical comedy Andy Richter Controls The Universe was greeted with. The gimmick of the show, co-produced by Richter, was letting viewers be privy to his inner-most fantasies (don't worry, it was all PG-rated), allowing Controls The Universe to offset its Dilbert-esque office setting with flights of imagination -- all to sublime comic effect.
Really truly funny show that Fox, yet again, cancelled
8: THE TICK: The Seinfeld curse hasn't simply hexed the primary cast members -- at times it has also plagued supporting players such as Patrick Warburton, who portrayed Elaine's on-and-off boyfriend, Puddy. In 2001, Warburton landed the titular role in this live-action comic strip created by Ben Edlund and produced by Men in Black's Barry Sonnenfeld, only to find audiences indifferent to its wry and endearing tale of an endlessly cheerful, blue-suited crusader.
Guess which network cancelled this one? :) Pretty good show, just not for prime-time
9: CRIME STORY: In 1986, while the world was watching Miami Vice, its producer Michael Mann created this sprawling crime saga set in the 1960s and starring Dennis Farina as a dogged, flawed detective who wouldn't be caught dead in a pink T-shirt. While Crime Story didn't have the immediate impact on the culture Vice did, its season-long arcs, graphic violence and hard-boiled cops make Mann seem prescient 20 years later.
Completely missed this one...on after I went to bed :)
10: BOOMTOWN: This L.A.-based procedural was at times too slick, but with its Rashomon-style storytelling -- each episode being told from differing points of view -- and jigsaw structure, it was a propulsive piece of pop entertainment. Even with former New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg in the cast.
One of the better cop shows when every new show was a cop show
11: FAMILY GUY: How does a show that's still on the air make it on this list? Because it WAS cancelled by Fox and resurrected only because DVD sales convinced executives there was still cash to be milked from Peter Griffith's udders.
I liked it then and I like it now, glad they brought it back
12: SPORTS NIGHT: Before he created The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin dazzled with this dramedy set at a sports cable network. The ensemble included Felicity Huffman, but the true star was Sorkin's mastery of the language.
One of the smartest, funniest, shows EVER
13: ANGEL: When this Buffy spinoff was slain, executive producer Joss Whedon ended things by sending his heroes to certain death because even though they'd lose, the fight itself was just. The same could be said for Angel.
Wasn't really into Buffy, so Angel was sort of "whatever" to me
14: ROBBERY HOMICIDE DIVISION: Michael Mann returned to the streets briefly with this CBS crime drama. The problem? It didn't look like every other CBS crime drama. Which is why, coincidentally, it's listed here.
Think I saw this show once or twice...not really into cop shows
15: GREG THE BUNNY: Seth Green peaked when he starred in this sitcom about a world in which muppets are real.
Chalk it up to my strange sense of humour, but I liked Greg the Bunny...interesting concept at the very least :)
16: THE JOB: Before Rescue Me, Denis Leary created and starred in this equally energetic and truthful dramedy.
If this was on a Cable network, it would still be going...as it was on CBS, it got cancelled
17: THE CRITIC: Jon Lovitz voiced the titular toon of this Simpsons spinoff.
bet you didn't know that the Simpsons had a spinoff eh? :) Pretty good show
18: CUPID: Jeremy Piven before he was relegated to playing only 1) a jerk or 2) the star's best friend.
Trying to remember this...think it was a CBS show that I saw once
19: REUNION: Memo to self: Before you start watching another serialized drama, make sure it has a full-season order so the writers can tie up all the loose ends.
Meant to watch it a couple of times, but bad programming by Fox prevented it
20: THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR.: Two universal truths about anything with Bruce Campbell: it will be cool and never find a large audience.
This, along with "Jack of All Trades" (which Fox cancelled as well), was a damn funny show...I LOVED LOVED LOVED Brisco County Jr.
21: HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET: This police drama lasted longer than most shows on this list, but like Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, we still wanted more life.
Another cop show, so I missed most of it
22: ONCE AND AGAIN: A rare drama that dealt with divorce realistically.
Never heard of this one
23: WONDERFALLS: Joan of Arcadia with brains.
Watched an episode of it, liked it...it was cancelled the next week
24: STAR TREK: The question is, would Star Trek have lasted for 40 years if it hadn't been cancelled after three seasons, since its early death only served to nourish its cult following?
before my time (obviously), but I remember watching this, Battlestar Gallactica, and the Wild Wild West with my Dad in reruns
25: NOW AND AGAIN: Not to be confused with Once and Again. Like he does with his other projects, creator Glenn Gordon Caron (Medium) subverted genre cliches with this tale of a modern-day Six Million Dollar Man
vaguely familiar, but I can't remember :)
ganked from here - http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2006/0
But in the name of the common good, we arrived at this Sun-certified ranking of the 25 finest shows ever to be cancelled too quickly, cut short too soon.
1: TWIN PEAKS: Like many series consigned to an early grave, the influence of this David Lynch-crafted melodrama about murder in a small Pacific Northwest town was felt for years after its end. Would we have met Mulder and Scully or opened their X-Files had there not first been Peaks and Kyle MacLachlan's FBI agent Dale Cooper, with his deadpan demeanor and obsession with the occult? Peaks -- with its Lynchian atmosphere -- cobbled together painterly images with swelling melodies and abstract, disquieting non sequiturs. Never again would I look at cherry stems or apple pies the same way. Lynch wouldn't return to television until nearly a decade later when he produced a pilot entitled Mulholland Falls. ABC ended up scrapping the project, which led Lynch to retool it as a film.
Didn't see it, missed out on the Twin Peaks phenomena
2: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: A recent wound inflicted upon the collective unconscious was the criminally-inane nixing of this Emmy-winning family comedy. Starring Jason Bateman and filmed in a quasi-documentary style with a narrator and no insipid laugh track, Development never resorted to easy gags, deriving its laughs, ever so archly, from its characters, while refusing to underestimate the intelligence of its viewers. Both of them.
Saw it, loved it, hard to keep track of it with it always moving around
3: FIREFLY: This series from Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) billed itself as the anti-Star Trek, a futuristic western about outlaws living on the fringe of a galactic empire. The show, fronted by Edmonton-born Nathan Fillion, wasn't remarkable for special effects or mind-bending 2001 concepts, but for its sharp performances and whip-fast wit. Firefly got the short shrift from Fox, which aired episodes out of order and pulled the plug before all its instalments had aired. Whedon exacted a revenge, of sorts, when he wrote and directed last year's feature film Serenity, based on the series.
Saw it, loved it, still pissed at Fox for cancelling it...that and "Space: Above and Beyond"
4: EZ STREETS: Before he enraged gay cowboys everywhere by winning an Oscar for Crash, Canadian writer/director Paul Haggis created and produced this introspective crime epic about three violent men -- a cop, a criminal, a convict -- and the uneasy world they inhabit. With Streets, Haggis, who at the time was coming off the success of the lightweight Due South, demonstrated his skill at interweaving challenging narratives with intricately-shaded characterizations.
Saw a couple of episodes of it, thought of it as another cop show
5: FREAKS AND GEEKS/UNDECLARED: These two short-lived comedies -- about the travails of the young and alienated -- were created by Judd Apatow, an Emmy winner whose credits include The Larry Sanders Show and last summer's The 40-Year-Old Virgin. In both, Apatow juggled laughter and pathos without sacrificing reality or low-balling viewers -- in other words, no pies, flutes or Krazy-glued body parts. Just nerds and their friends, confronting freedom, responsibility, the opposite sex and more than a few hapless parents.
liked the former, not so much the latter...part of the problem was actually finding the show on TV
6: ACTION!: These days, Jay Mohr is best known for doing a wicked Christopher Walken impersonation -- oh, and there was that stint hosting the reality-TV contest Last Comic Standing, how could we forget? -- but if Hollywood were a fairer place, he'd be remembered for starring in this Tinseltown satire as a Hollywood player who's every bit the velociraptor Jeremy Piven's agent in HBO's Entourage is. Speaking of Entourage, should Piven ever bolt, we could think of no more fitting a replacement than the ever-employable Mohr.
completely missed this one
7: ANDY RICHTER CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE: Sidekicks are historically an underrated lot. Robin The Boy Wonder in the green short-shorts, Ed McMahon degenerating into a home-lotto pitchman. So perhaps Andy Richter, who rose to stardom as Conan O'Brien's right-hand man and staring-contest sparring partner, should have been braced for the lukewarm reception his ingenious, whimsical comedy Andy Richter Controls The Universe was greeted with. The gimmick of the show, co-produced by Richter, was letting viewers be privy to his inner-most fantasies (don't worry, it was all PG-rated), allowing Controls The Universe to offset its Dilbert-esque office setting with flights of imagination -- all to sublime comic effect.
Really truly funny show that Fox, yet again, cancelled
8: THE TICK: The Seinfeld curse hasn't simply hexed the primary cast members -- at times it has also plagued supporting players such as Patrick Warburton, who portrayed Elaine's on-and-off boyfriend, Puddy. In 2001, Warburton landed the titular role in this live-action comic strip created by Ben Edlund and produced by Men in Black's Barry Sonnenfeld, only to find audiences indifferent to its wry and endearing tale of an endlessly cheerful, blue-suited crusader.
Guess which network cancelled this one? :) Pretty good show, just not for prime-time
9: CRIME STORY: In 1986, while the world was watching Miami Vice, its producer Michael Mann created this sprawling crime saga set in the 1960s and starring Dennis Farina as a dogged, flawed detective who wouldn't be caught dead in a pink T-shirt. While Crime Story didn't have the immediate impact on the culture Vice did, its season-long arcs, graphic violence and hard-boiled cops make Mann seem prescient 20 years later.
Completely missed this one...on after I went to bed :)
10: BOOMTOWN: This L.A.-based procedural was at times too slick, but with its Rashomon-style storytelling -- each episode being told from differing points of view -- and jigsaw structure, it was a propulsive piece of pop entertainment. Even with former New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg in the cast.
One of the better cop shows when every new show was a cop show
11: FAMILY GUY: How does a show that's still on the air make it on this list? Because it WAS cancelled by Fox and resurrected only because DVD sales convinced executives there was still cash to be milked from Peter Griffith's udders.
I liked it then and I like it now, glad they brought it back
12: SPORTS NIGHT: Before he created The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin dazzled with this dramedy set at a sports cable network. The ensemble included Felicity Huffman, but the true star was Sorkin's mastery of the language.
One of the smartest, funniest, shows EVER
13: ANGEL: When this Buffy spinoff was slain, executive producer Joss Whedon ended things by sending his heroes to certain death because even though they'd lose, the fight itself was just. The same could be said for Angel.
Wasn't really into Buffy, so Angel was sort of "whatever" to me
14: ROBBERY HOMICIDE DIVISION: Michael Mann returned to the streets briefly with this CBS crime drama. The problem? It didn't look like every other CBS crime drama. Which is why, coincidentally, it's listed here.
Think I saw this show once or twice...not really into cop shows
15: GREG THE BUNNY: Seth Green peaked when he starred in this sitcom about a world in which muppets are real.
Chalk it up to my strange sense of humour, but I liked Greg the Bunny...interesting concept at the very least :)
16: THE JOB: Before Rescue Me, Denis Leary created and starred in this equally energetic and truthful dramedy.
If this was on a Cable network, it would still be going...as it was on CBS, it got cancelled
17: THE CRITIC: Jon Lovitz voiced the titular toon of this Simpsons spinoff.
bet you didn't know that the Simpsons had a spinoff eh? :) Pretty good show
18: CUPID: Jeremy Piven before he was relegated to playing only 1) a jerk or 2) the star's best friend.
Trying to remember this...think it was a CBS show that I saw once
19: REUNION: Memo to self: Before you start watching another serialized drama, make sure it has a full-season order so the writers can tie up all the loose ends.
Meant to watch it a couple of times, but bad programming by Fox prevented it
20: THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR.: Two universal truths about anything with Bruce Campbell: it will be cool and never find a large audience.
This, along with "Jack of All Trades" (which Fox cancelled as well), was a damn funny show...I LOVED LOVED LOVED Brisco County Jr.
21: HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET: This police drama lasted longer than most shows on this list, but like Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, we still wanted more life.
Another cop show, so I missed most of it
22: ONCE AND AGAIN: A rare drama that dealt with divorce realistically.
Never heard of this one
23: WONDERFALLS: Joan of Arcadia with brains.
Watched an episode of it, liked it...it was cancelled the next week
24: STAR TREK: The question is, would Star Trek have lasted for 40 years if it hadn't been cancelled after three seasons, since its early death only served to nourish its cult following?
before my time (obviously), but I remember watching this, Battlestar Gallactica, and the Wild Wild West with my Dad in reruns
25: NOW AND AGAIN: Not to be confused with Once and Again. Like he does with his other projects, creator Glenn Gordon Caron (Medium) subverted genre cliches with this tale of a modern-day Six Million Dollar Man
vaguely familiar, but I can't remember :)
