# Why do they cancel the best shows?



## Princess Ivy (Aug 23, 2004)

I am getting tired of just getting into a new sci-fi series, only to have it cancelled.
Such as The Chronicle - News from the Edge
John Doe
and many others. 
Why oh Why do the bosses in TV land feel the need to cancell perfectly decent programs?


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## dwndrgn (Aug 23, 2004)

This happens everywhere, not just in our favorite genres.  Unfortunately, producing a series is costly and companies don't want to take the time to allow a new show to 'mature' and to earn an audience because they are afraid that if early numbers are low that their advertisers will then back out.  Somehow, someway, we need to overhaul that system.  At least to get our message out there.  I'm hoping that recent issues like with Firefly being cancelled and the movie being made almost immediately, they (the production companies/broadcasters) will see that their impatience/timidity is losing them more revenue than it is saving.  That is the only way they will change their system.  Because, just like quite a few other areas of everyday life, money changes everything.

But, it certainly can't hurt for anyone who gets upset by the cancellation of a show to let those companies know.  The more feedback they get from the actual viewers, the better they can judge what they should do in certain situations.  I'm not sure if this is an actual result of this or not but it seems as if this type of thing worked for Farscape.  Basically, don't keep your ideas/thoughts/annoyances in...let them know.

So, write your congressman if you dislike some law and write your broadcasting company if you dislike/love a new show.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 23, 2004)

The interview with the Farscape producer effectively said that after the show was cancelled, a whole bunch of fans wrote up a viable business plan for its continuation, which helped get them a mini-series and the show back on air.

 And, I guess, that's the big part of the problem - entertainment is effectively run now on a strictly profit basis. If you don't cut above the targeted viweing figures, then your ad revenue is compromised and the show is a loser. 

 Yet many shows we grew up on were broadcast simply because someone thought it was good, so they broadcast it. Monty Python were basically given a TV slot with no better justification than they mostly had some experience, and wanted to write a sketch show. No business plan, no marketing plan, no cut-throat viewing figures - or dumbed down writing for the masses.

 Let's see if some maverick can put some vision back into it all...


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## littlemissattitude (Aug 23, 2004)

I think Brian has hit the crux of the problem exactly.  Decisions in the entertainment industry are made on a strictly profit-oriented basis.  Nobody cares if a show is any good; they only care that it is going to draw the right demographic to bring in the highest amount of advertising dollars, with the least expenditure of production dollars.  This is why there are so many "reality" shows on now.  They hook people into watching week after week (allowing the networks to charge higher advertising rates) while costing much less than traditional series programming to produce.

And Ivy...I miss "John Doe" as well.


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## McMurphy (Aug 23, 2004)

*The Others*

Great discussion topic!  

A great example of premature cancellation of a favorite television series that comes to mind is the very short lived weekend series, The Others.   It came out slightly before the film of the same title, and it was, in a sense, the supernatural version of The Misfits of Science (I don't know if other people liked that series as much as I did, though).  

Unfortunately, The Others had the displeasure of coming out during the US's early reality television craze, and, like many other serials, got destroyed by Survivor, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, and the like.


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## Princess Ivy (Aug 24, 2004)

*Re: The Others*

I miss the misfits as well,
And I hate reality TV, unless, well, maybe the 'contenstants' of past reality game shows, in a starship, heading for the sun?
Winner gets to keep its useless 15 mins of fame... (Very Evil Grin)


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Aug 26, 2004)

Great idea. They could use Floyd's 'Set The Controls' as the theme song. And rig up a virtual Douglas Adams as host.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 26, 2004)

Lol! And call it "No Survivor"?


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## Princess Ivy (Aug 26, 2004)

Maybe have cricket games on the holo deck? (yes, i'm mixing my authors and gendre's)


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## Seth God Of Chaos (Sep 9, 2004)

Well due to the theory that history repeats itself in twenty years youll be able to watch all those shows again.


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## BookStop (Sep 1, 2006)

*The great shows always get cancelled*

Have you ever noticed this? Really clever tv shows seemed to get cancelled quickly. Is there a plot of some sort, or is tv ruled mostly by the not-so-...

Examples:

Firefly
Arrested Development
Wonder Falls
Everything's Relative


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## Alia (Sep 1, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

It's a conspiracy against us!


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 1, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

I have to admit that I didn't clue into _Wonder Falls_ or _Firefly_ until after they'd already disappeared off the air, then I watched all the episodes on DVD and cursed the series' cancellation.


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## dwndrgn (Sep 1, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

Brown Rat - I think that is the main reason they were originally cancelled, there wasn't enough advertising and hype out there to get people to actually tune in when they were on.  When they realized that nobody was watching they figured that nobody liked them - not that they screwed up by forgetting to tell anyone they were there...


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## jackokent (Sep 1, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

I've never heard of any of them.


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 1, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

I agree about the lack of advertising--or the ineffectiveness of that advertising.  I remember seeing ads for _Wonder Falls_, but the ads didn't really convey (to me, at least) the fact that the series had fantasy elements.  

I wish they would give series a chance to settle in and find their audiences (or give their audiences a chance to find them).


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## BookStop (Sep 1, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

Tv execs also have a strange habit of putting brilliant shows in horrible timeslots. I think that's what killed Firefly. I tried to catch it when it was brand new, but it conflicted with other things - I think it was on Friday nights.  Some shows, like Everything's Relative only aired around 4 episodes I tink. Now seriously, that is not enuogh time to for anyone to decide if they like it well enough to watch every week (and that show was hilarious).


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 2, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

_John Doe_.

I'm still bitter about that.  They just ended it, and left everyone hanging after what was obviously meant to be a cliffhanger.


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## carrie221 (Sep 2, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

There was a show called Veritas: The Quest that seemed really interesting and I got to see one episode before it was cancelled. 

A lot of really good shows are cancelled before anyone has a chance to even catch them but the horrible shows seem to stay on forever...


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## jenna (Sep 2, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

aargh John Doe! i was so pissed about that! i loved Veritas: The Quest too, and Firefly and don't forget Jeremiah. thankfully shows like Family Guy and Futurama can be cancelled and then come back!

the problem with all these shows are that they're either sci-fi or off-beat, non mainstream type things. therefore all the common plebs with no brain and no imagination or appreciation of clever plots or humour, don't get them and don't watch them. and stupid common plebs make up the majority of the television watching population, therefore the ratings are low and they get cancelled. there's also the problem with lack of advertising, switching the days of the shows, only giving them a couple of episodes etc.

sometimes the good shows manage to creep through. like, Lost is a sci-fi show, duh, but don't tell anyone. most people don't realise and if they did i don't think it ever would have done as well as it has!  just goes to show that the right amount of promotions, and putting the right spin on a show will do wonders...(oh, and a couple of super hot actors doesn't hurt either!)


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## steve12553 (Sep 2, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

Frequently the ads for shows that I might like are geared for the totally mainstream audience. I don't watch a whole lot of mainstream TV shows. If I don't know it's got a little something special, I ain't gonna bother.


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## j d worthington (Sep 2, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

Since they go by demographics, they indeed do not understand anything that's genuinely creative or original ... they want things that repeat past successes, forgetting that the shows that were both successful and critically acclaimed were often resisted by them for years before given a chance. That's the way it has been with television executives, on the whole, since the inception of t.v. Frankly, it is likely to remain that way until the end of time....


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 2, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

Oh, I really hate that "repeat the same formula" thing.  Which is why I watch _CSI_, but will not watch the Miami or New York iterations.  They are just missing something that the original still has, even after all these seasons.  And, I don't want to encourage them to create, oh, _CSI: Albuquerque_ or _CSI:Nashville_ or _CSI: Seattle_.


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## carrie221 (Sep 2, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*



			
				littlemissattitude said:
			
		

> Oh, I really hate that "repeat the same formula" thing. Which is why I watch _CSI_, but will not watch the Miami or New York iterations. They are just missing something that the original still has, even after all these seasons. And, I don't want to encourage them to create, oh, _CSI: Albuquerque_ or _CSI:Nashville_ or _CSI: Seattle_.


 
I have to admit I am one of those people who sometimes get caught up in the formulas. I am addicted to the orginal csi but I also sometimes watch the other two which I think were better in the first season and now are losing something but in the Law and Order Series the orginal is not my favorite but SVU.


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## BookStop (Sep 2, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*



			
				littlemissattitude said:
			
		

> Oh, I really hate that "repeat the same formula" thing. Which is why I watch _CSI_, but will not watch the Miami or New York iterations. They are just missing something that the original still has, even after all these seasons. And, I don't want to encourage them to create, oh, _CSI: Albuquerque_ or _CSI:Nashville_ or _CSI: Seattle_.


 
But a Deep South CSI - hee hee - that would be worth watchin'!


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## Aeris (Sep 5, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

I was so sad when they cancelled *Arrested Development*.  I saw a couple of episodes of *Everything's Relative*, but they kept changing the day and time, so I never knew when it was on.  In my opinion, really good shows get cancelled for two reasons:
1) They don't dumb them down to appeal to the general public.
2) Crappy marketing.

I have all of the seasons of *Arrested Development *on DVD, but it makes me sad that they only got 3 seasons.  I'm glad someone shares my grievances.


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## Ash (Sep 6, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

I'll add Carnivale to the list. I really miss that one. And Freaks and Geeks. Some shows just don't get a chance. I miss Arrested Development too, but at least we got three series, stuff like Invasion and Surface only got one and just got cancelled as they were getting interesting.

I think one of the problems is that shows are a lot less episodic now and are more likely to tell an ongoing story. This actually has two problems. The first is it makes it hard to get new viewers (at least until it's released on DVD), who wants to start an ongoing story in the middle? It also hurts a lot more when the plug gets pulled because we're left hanging.



			
				littlemissattitude said:
			
		

> _John Doe_.
> 
> I'm still bitter about that.  They just ended it, and left everyone hanging after what was obviously meant to be a cliffhanger.



The guy(s) who made it have given details about what was going to happen and what was going on in general. It should be fairly easy to find out there in internetland.


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 6, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*



			
				Ash said:
			
		

> I think one of the problems is that shows are a lot less episodic now and are more likely to tell an ongoing story. This actually has two problems. The first is it makes it hard to get new viewers (at least until it's released on DVD), who wants to start an ongoing story in the middle?



Good point, Ash.  The very thing that makes these shows great is what makes them prone to cancellation.  Frustrating!


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## BookStop (Sep 6, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*



> And Freaks and Geeks


Yes! I loved Freaks and Geeks!


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## Joel007 (Sep 7, 2006)

BookStop said:
			
		

> The great shows always get cancelled


 
Eventually they all do...

In firefly's case I blame the lack of appropriate advertising... I didn't even hear of it until the DVD collection (including cancelled episodes) came out.


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## Perpetual Man (Sep 7, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

I'd also add Crusade to the list.

It was never great and certainly not up there with Babylon 5 (to which it was a sequel) but having just rewatched it, and working out which episodes were added later, there is certainly a feel of potential there... what might have been. A few plot threads that were intriguing for later. My favourite being the Apocalypse Box...

And I'll second Carnivale and add Joan of Arcadia and Tru Calling which started averagely but kept getting better...


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## Highlander II (Sep 7, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

There are also the shows that were cancelled before they were finished b/c the network had a 'brilliant' idea that flopped horribly - 

_The Pretender_ and _Profiler_ were both doing very well (or relatively well), but NBC (that network running them) had this brilliant idea that Saturday nights needed something else, so they canned the 3 shows (Freaks & Geeks was the other one) and put on...

The XFL!  Shortest running sporting event ever!  Everyone tuned in the first week - just to see what it was (my sis and I spent the entire time making fun of it) - the next week - HUGE FLOP b/c everyone hated it.  They tried to 'revive' it by changing some of the rules - when that didn't work, NBC cancelled it and started running movies until it got the bright idea that running even MORE repeats of _Law & Order_ was the way to go.  Stupid NBC - they tried to fix something that wasn't broken.   *grumble*


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 7, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

I never did watch _The Pretender_ much, but I liked _Profiler_ a lot.  I always thought it got short shrift, which kind of ticked me off.


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## SteveR (Sep 7, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

I'd agree with Tim on Crusade. Wobbly start to be sure, but if you watch the first 6 eps of B5 you'll think they are horrible - and look what happened to B5! Definite potential - I too wanted to know about that box 

Cancelled shows are frustrating for us fans - a real shame. I think Sci-Fi is the worlds largest fan club - but the one the accountants take least notice of. The best sci-fi out there has been written by sci-fi fans.


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## the_faery_queen (Sep 7, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

yeah! i wanted to know what happened next in john doe, tho i never really enjoyed the show that much. didn't like wonderfalls either.
its just one of those things, it hink! some shows they take too far, into boring land, like buffy and charmed, and others they cancell too early, like dead like me!


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## Steffi (Sep 8, 2006)

*Re: The great shows always get cancelled*

They've cancelled Dead like me.....  I didn't knw that


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## McMurphy (Sep 8, 2006)

*The Others gone like a Flash*

The Others on the ABC network.  It was about a group of people, each with an unique supernatural gift, who investigated cases in association with the paranormal.  It had a lot of potential with internal conflicts, and the show pushed the boundaries as to how scary it attempted to be for a prime time evening show.  

It lasted only half of a season due to the misfortune of the network's habit of cancelling their entire evening line-up in favor of showing yet another round of "Who Wants to Be a Millioniare?".  It seems that 2000 was around the time The Others was first broadcasted.

Another show I was sorry to see leave far too soon, was the early '90s Flash television show.  While the ratings for the program was not all that bad, it wasn't astonishing enough to warrant the its title as the most expensive television series per episode.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 9, 2016)

Lack of ratings numbers.


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