RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Media Tragically short-lived TV shows

I'm sure we all have shows that we wish lasted longer. I'm talking shows that only lasted a season or two before getting yanked. Here's a few off the top of my head:

Lateline

Al Franken's baby, back before he came across as being so bitter. A spoof of network TV journalism. It was a brilliant show because it was political, but didn't have a political agenda, and thus there were appearances every episode of Franken's political opposites like Jerry Fahlwell and G. Gordon Liddy(a couple of times!). The cast was excellent top to bottom, and there were some classic lines from this show that I still use on a regular basis.

I'm dying for this to come out on DVD. Even though Franken ain't popular on these boards(and with good enough reason, I think), I guarantee everyone would like this if they give it a chance. It's only shortcomings came when the show included the lame "derp!" sitcom shit that you see on shows like Friends, but those moments were few and far between.

A few great episodes include The Death of Buddy Hackett, Conan O'Brien feuding with Lateline's anchor, Al Franken ruining the production of a $100 million Rob Reiner movie, and possibly the greatest moment in network television history, Franken shooting Liddy.

Andy Richter Controls the Universe

I loved this show. It was so completely unlike everything else out there. Apparently people just didn't "get" certain things like Andy talking to the ghost of his company's bigoted founder. I think this will eventually be placed alongside Police Squad as a comedy that people just weren't ready for at the time.

Clerks: the Cartoon

This never had a chance. The best part of it was that it had almost nothing in common with the movie, and took advantage of the fact that it was a cartoon by having a much more anarchic style(imagine a Bugs Bunny cartoon blended with Kevin Smith's love of sexual humor). Smith even anticipated people complaining about the show not being like the movie with an episode featuring a bunch of geeky fanboys complaining to the main characters about that.

*****
Those are the first three off the top of my head. Anybody else have any?

Maximum Bob

This was a quirky summer replacement show that unfortunately didn't get picked up when the '98 season started.

Duckman - This still had three or four more really good seasons to be milked.

Clerks - Bastards never even told me it was on. Fuckin' ABC must have been afraid of it. I only learned of its existence through Comedy Central AFTER it was taken off the air.

The Critic - I don't know how to explain this. I LOVED this show, I laughed every episode. A large mix of Jon Luvitz along with the concept of giving him one of the most meaningless/annoying/influential jobs in the world. The fact that he was intelligent was a topper. I just found it plain hilarious--I don't know what everyone else's problem is.

Dilbert - I can understand why most people didn't watch this. It's because most of the viewers don't know how true to life the comparison of the inside of an office building is. I laughed my ass off all the way through each episode cuz' o' those experiences. I'm bitter cuz' of the huge amount of ignorance in the air, but I still understand.

The Job - Another case of a bad time slot. I and many other people would have watched this if only ABC would put it on a good schedule. But no, they had to make it go the way of Family Guy. Anyway, I'm a big fan of Dennis Leary, he always made me laugh, and the cop thing was a cool place for his personality.

Farscape - It had SO MUCH life left. So many potential REALLY REALLY good ideas.

Undeclared and Freaks and Geeks as well as Andy Rictor.

Everytime I see another reality show or repeat on fox I think why they can't show Andy Richter Controls the Universe.

Some of which I listed in another topic:





The Tick:



A scant 9 episodes, now available on DVD.






Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

http://www.awit.com/phBrisco.htm?s=1





The original b & w Outer Limits:

Which ran from 1963-1965, and for my money, still sets the standard
for tv science fiction. Some of the coolest monsters and aliens ever.


These photos in order show:
a prehistoric fish/reptile from "Tourist Attraction"
(13th episode broadcast),


one of the giant bug-eyed alien ants, from "The Zanti Misfits" (episode 14),
woman screaming when seeing her transformed husband
in "A Feasibility Study" (episode 29),


one-eyed alien invader, from one of my favorite
episodes, "O.B.I.T" (episode 7),
earth astronaut prisoner speaks with his alien
interrogator, in "Nightmare" (episode 10)


a sand-shark, from second-season episode
"The Invisible Enemy" (episode 39).


The whole first season is also now available on DVD (the series
ran 1 and 1/2 seasons, a total of 49 episodes).

other original series OUTER LIMITS photos at:

http://www.innermind.com/outerlimits/pictures/olpits.htm






American Gothic:



(out in 1996, as I remember.) A brief but interesting series.






Arrest and Trial:

Which I think was a very interesting 30-minute
documentary series, investigating real crimes, the police
investigation leading to finding the criminals, and the
result of their prosecution.
I actually like it better than Dick Wolf's other series,
the three different incarnations of Law & Order.

One episode of particular interest investigated the 1993
World Trade Center bombing.

Although most of the episodes investigated more simple
murders and crimes of passion.





Kolchak: The Night Stalker:

Crime reporter Carl Kolchak investigates mysterious crimes
that turn out to be vampires, the resurrected dead, and
other creatures of the paranormal. it lasted 20 episodes,
and was ended abruptly for copyright infringement of the
character and concept of the series (The series ran during
the 1975-1976 season).
Although X-Files pretty much later fulfilled the promise
of the one-season Kolchak show.



~




Oh, and Pariah, I loved Duckman ( out around 1992-1993,
if I recall). Interesting animation, and very funny.




--------------------


"This Man, This Wonder Boy..."

The Cape--A great drama about the space program and an unfortunate victim of high production costs

Thats My Bush

Great show. Killed by budget.

Andy Richter has something new coming out. The Andy Richter Project. But still I am very, very angry that FOX, a network that let Married with Children and Beverly Hills last for 10 years, gave Andy the heave after less than 20 episodes. I loved it.

Oh, The Maxx was great, too.

What about Profit?

the pitts.

What about Holmes and YoYo?



Surely you haven't forgotten B.J. (heh) and The Bear?

Yup.

I don't think Aeon Flux was a part of Oddities.

I don't remember much about Mxx except that the ending left me depressed.

Not exactly the most uplifting movie.

Incidentally, the Julie character reminds me somewhat of Uschi. Especially the dead bunny stuff from her childhood.

I loved American Gothic.

It was sooo much better than Twin Peaks. Problem was that the show was damned and Shaun Cassidy had to "Wrap it UP" (taking a line from Chappelle). Kind of ruined the final few episodes involving the boy, his sister, and pop.

Gary Cole's best role ever. I mean, sure he was fun as the evil boss in Office Space, but this was him playing the Devil. The town was fucked, and when you have a town that cannot win against an insurmountable force, it keeps you coming back, to see how they manage to sway oblivion or come out with a draw in each episode. THAT, is good writing.

It's the opposite of most television series (95%+) out there. They have closure in each episode. Happy ending. Especially Miller Boyett productions (Family Matters, Full House) made a mistake, lesson learned, group hug. Then there are soap opera tv shows, where the problem is just continued and new ones created, to get you attached. Some questions answered, relationships forged, and old ones destroyed. Mainly soap operas, but 24, ER are like that too. Keep you coming back with suspense.

Now AMERICAN GOTHIC... That did have suspense, but a different kind. Each episode retained a strong sense of closure. Course, there was always the bigger picture. The lives of the townspeople would never be safe, or peaceful so long as the Sheriff was in town. Then there was some curiosity surrounding the relationship between him, his son (did we know he was his son?) and the boy's dead sister.

Essentially, the town was the Devil's playground, and if people ever managed to come out okay, it was because old Gary Cole's character simply thought "Eh, they got grit. I'll let them have this one. Makes it fun." Course, he would have his strings attached.

Again, good writing.

Also, American Gothic was filmed here in Wilmington, NC. Hard to pass streets downtown where some shooting went on at one time or another. Course, having a DVD of the series would help me look back.

Sheriff Lucas Buck back on Duty?
Posted on Mon, 28-Jul-2003

We posted a rumour last week about a possible feature film version of cult series “American Gothic” being in the works, and were inundated with emails from active fans of the series. I got in touch with the President of the Fathom Motion Picture Company Craig Marquardo, to see how just accurate the rumours are – and see whether the fans actually do have something to get keyed up over.

Good news is…it’s definitely on the boards. Not only is a film version being prepped, but the TV series is likely to be resurrected.

“It was my idea. Two years ago I talked to Sean Cassidy about it. Everyone was receptive, but no on had any time to dedicate to it. Obviously the AG fans didn’t go anywhere. And so much of the world never got to see it, that I thought it would be something that could be reintroduced without much trouble”, says Marquardo, who’s worked on such films as “Die Hard 2” and “End of Days”.

“I Will Exec Produce, and the film adaptation was my idea. Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert (original producers of the series) of Renaissance Pictures are also attached to the film. Sean Cassidy, series creator, is not affiliated with the project, and won’t be”.

Marquardo says Gary Cole is signed to reprise his role as the charming, but literally devilish, Sheriff Lucas Buck.

“The following members of the original cast will reprise their roles: Gary Cole. Jake Weber, Brenda Bakke and Nick Searcy. Paige Turco will not return. Lucas Black and Sarah Paulson will not return due to their significant age change since the series run”.

So who’s going to take on the role made famous by Black, that of pint-sized devil spawn, Caleb? According to Marquardo, they’ve found an unlikely fan of the series in wonder child, Haley Joel Osment. In addition, Fathom is also in talks with “Traffic” writer Stephen Gaghan about writing a screenplay. “It will be based upon elements from the early part of the series.”, he says.

So is it going to happen? “Right now, the fate of the film rests with Universal. Uni TV owns the rights. Universal Studios is making the decision as we speak. They are the ones who will have to decide whether to greenlight it. Even if they say no, there are other options, one of which is Fathom (my company) buying the rights from Uni and making it ourselves”, he says.

In addition, Fathom are also looking at getting a new series of the TV show off the ground. “Sci-Fi Channel wants to continue the series. The subsequent series will be a season one picking up where the movie leaves off. The new series is 'American Gothic: Revisited'. The original series will then be ignored.” He says. Marquardo says that they’ll be hard lucked to get Haley Joel Osment to do the series too, but the other stars will do both.

Good news for fans of the series – we’ll keep you posted. Now if only, someone would get “Twin Peaks” going again.

Firefly, really great scifi show, not Farscape great, but good nontheless. It only aired 14 episodes, and then it got canceled. Too bad, it was really really good

IMO, Firefly was horrible. *shrug* To each their own I suppose. Mighty I ask what you thought the best qualities were?

I've heard a lot of people say that Firefly was sort of a "Guilty Pleasure" show, much in the same vein as Angel and Buffy(the other Joss Whedon shows).

I don't watch FOX, so I've never actually seen an episode.

Angel and Buffy were only guilty pleasures for me when Spike was in the eps. He's the coolest and ONLY cool character those shows had.

OT: I want John Marsters to be Mr. Zasz.

Really good shows which got cancelled too soon:

The Ben Stiller Show: I remember watching this when it came on. Though I didn't get some of the pop culture references at the time, the sketches were very creative. The entire run (about a dozen or so episodes) is out on DVD now, and every now and then Comedy Central will air a few episodes of it.

Get a Life: I loved the first season of this show. I lost interest in the second season when too many changes were made, but I can't say if the show got worse in quality or not (one episode from the second season I did remember liking). Some of these episodes have been released on video and DVD.

Working: Short-lived sitcom featuring Fred Savage as an office worker. Very surreal office situations. Personally, I loved the pilot episode, and a few episodes after that. I guess the show lost its way and I stopped watching after a while, but it held such promise...

Instant Recall: No one will remember this show (even IMDB doesn't list it). Basically one of a growing number of nostalgia shows that began airing in the early 90's (a similar show was Memories... Then and Now). Instant Recall aired late nights on NBC (I only got to check it out several times on Friday nights, since it wasn't a school night). All they really did was air a story pertaining to a particular date in history (for example, the guy who shot up a California McDonald's in the mid-80's, the first American space flight, the polio epidemic, etc.). I loved this show and I'm probably silly for saying it, but I was disappointed when it wasn't on anymore.

Someone else said Dennis Leary's "the Job." I agree.

In fact, I think its a shame that Leary hasn't cut a deal with Bochco to bring that character over to "NYPD Blue."


And I'm surprised that no one here has mentioned Jay Mohr's "Action," a great spoof of Hollywood, ala "the Player"

Firefly was one of those shows I didn't care for after checking it out the first episode. A friend was just crazy about it & said to try giving it a second try. And the characters just clicked for me. Even the really jerky guy on the ship, was interesting. Glad to hear that their doing a movie, since the boxed set sold so well.

Kolchak, the Night Stalker is a big favorite. I was surprised to see a comic book series for this show. I'll have to see if their any good. The series had some genuinely scary moments (for me at least) & the supporting cast was great.

Another one I thought of:

Greg the Bunny

Eugene Levy and Seth Green are two of the best comedic actors around, and this show was really unique and entertaining. It never had a chance.

Plus that Sara Silverman was one hot piece of ass!

I just remembered two more:

Rocko's Modern Life and Max Hedrum (we hardly knew ye).

More photos from the original OUTER LIMITS tv series:



The Sixth Finger (episode 5), with a virtually unrecognizable David McCallum, as a scientist who evolves thousands of years beyond present humanity, and becomes coldly logical and evil


"The Man Who Was Never Born" (episode 6)
, with an equally unrecognizable Martin Landau. Until recently I liked Landau best for his work in the Mission Impossible and later Space 1999 tv series, but in the the last few years he's come back with some terrific portrayals in two of my favorite movies, Ed Wood (playing Bela Lugosi), and Ed TV(where Landau played Ed's stepfather, and Ed's mother was played by another "Outer Limits" actress, who also played a role in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the first televised episode of the original Star Trek series, actress Sally Kellerman)


"The Bellero Shield" (episode 20, which is the episode with Sally Kellerman, where she and her scientist boyfriend try to steal an alien's force-field technology),
"Second Chance" (episode 23, featuring an alien of a bird-like race, who takes visitors aboard a theme-park spaceship ride, which turns out to be a real ride into outer space),
"Moonstone" (episode 24, where fishbowl-dwelling aliens are rescued from a moon crater, and turn out to be fugitives from an alien empire)



"The Chameleon" (episode 31, 2 photos shown, featuring a man turned into an alien, to spy on earth-bound aliens, whose loyalties begin to shift to the other team),
"The Forms of Things Unknown" (episode 32, that plays with the concept of time, and changes the outcome of a murder)



"Cold Hands, Warm Heart" (episode 34, a pre-Star Trek William Shatner is an astronaut who returns from space, and begins to mutate into an alien he was exposed to. His wife isn't too happy about it.),
"I, Robot" (episode 41, a robot is put on trial for the murder of his creator, and explores where technology ends and humanity begins. This episode is one of two episodes that feature a pre-Star Trek Leonard Nimoy)

Like the Rod Serling Twilight Zone episodes, these shows have charming and often thought-provoking plots, and are, I think, far more sophisticated and have better special effects than Twilight Zone does. I also enjoy the eerie music, odd camera angles, and well-crafted bug-eyed monsters.
And it's fun to see the actors who played parts on this series, who also played other roles in tv series and movies of the time.

I saw the first trailer for the Will Smith "I, Robot" movie. Looks awful. Asimov fans will be in uproar.