Cut Down in Their Prime and Gone Too Soon: Series That Were Axed Before Their Time?

[Trollheart]

The realities of television as a business of course mean that some series that could have been great don't get the ratings and so get cut off at the knees, while others which (imo) don't deserve to breathe the same air get multiple renewals. Which series do you remember that you would have wished got picked up but didn't, and what are the ones on now, or which have been on, that you feel were unfairly promoted?

Dark Skies: should have been renewed
Dark Matter: Loved this and was just getting good when it got cancelled
Threshold: I will never forgive them, never...
Brimstone: Smart, sassy, funny, so of course it was cancelled quicker than you can say "Get back to Hell!"
V: Loved the reboot, but they left it at a cliffhanger. Boo.
Colony: Had real potential but I guess not the numbers.
Charlie Jade: Different and clever. Never had a chance, did it?

As for the unworthy...
Warehouse 13: I just thought this was a miserable pastiche of ideas and I hated it. I think it's on season four now?
Haven: Come on, really? This is taken as original? By Stephen King, so maybe that's why it got picked up
Continuum: Started well but then just seemed to become another cop show. Again, in something like season four at this point.

What about ye?

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

The Magicians on SYFY needed one more season.

Not SFF (though not without its magical realist moments), but Mozart in the Jungle on Amazon Prime definitely needed one more season to wrap things up.

 

[Overread]

Firefly which was horrifically abused by an executive who was able to ensure that the series never even completed its first season. They showed its initial episodes out of order, at different times and at time slots which often competed with major other shows/programs (eg sports). Basically did everything to ensure that it would never live.

That it went on to fan-fund a full film shows how much energy and enthusiasm there was for it. Sadly with many years past and with many of the cast having moved on in life (and sadly the actor who played Shepherd Book has now passed on); its now an impossible dream.

 

[Vince W]

I can think of several series that were killed too early for me:

Millennium
Almost Human
Blake's 7
Dark Angel
Stargate: Universe
Space: Above and Beyond

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

I can think of several series that were killed too early for me:

Millennium
Almost Human
Blake's 7
Dark Angel
Stargate: Universe
Space: Above and Beyond

Which Almost Human?

 

[Vince W]

Which Almost Human?

The one with Karl Urban. It came out shortly after Dredd and it was quite good and had a number of nods to the Dredd film.

 

[Astro Pen]

I'm sure I remember one called "Wild Palms" late 80s or Early 90s Billed as the new Twin Peaks it was gone before I caught an episode

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

The one with Karl Urban. It came out shortly after Dredd and it was quite good and had a number of nods to the Dredd film.

Oh, OK. I was spacing out. I was thinking of Being Human.

 

[BAYLOR]

I can think of several series that were killed too early for me:

Millennium
Almost Human
Blake's 7
Dark Angel
Stargate: Universe
Space: Above and Beyond

Space Above and Beyond would have served is some network genius had not put it on football night where it could get preempted . It should have been on the same night as XFiles.
Stargate Universe did get enough of a chance at the very least they could have given the show closure.
Blake 7 was victim of the idiocy of the people running the BBC at that time

Millennium at least closure but as an epside of the XFiles what might have helped Millennium is if they had done a few crossover episodes with X files and overlapped the two series storylines

Almost Human and Dark Angel has the misfortune of being on Fox had they been WB series the would have far longer runs .

Add to that list Firefly which Fox alos screwed up

 

[Danny McG]

Space: Above and Beyond

Ditto

 

[Trollheart]

I can think of several series that were killed too early for me:

Millennium

I have to say, that was the most unremittingly dark and depressing series I ever watched. It made me miserable just sitting through it. Not even the barest shaft of light to balance out the darkness. I don't think you can ever get away with that on television; even now, certainly not then. Got to admit, I don't miss it.

Blake's 7

Blake's 7 got like five seasons, didn't it? It may have ended abruptly, but I don't think really you could say it was cut down before its time. I mean, where was it going to go in another season? I'd love to see a reboot, though then again....

Thank Christ for The Peacekeeper Wars: that was a rotten way to end Farscape, after having invested so much in it. Oh, and there's a special place in Hell for the person who dropped the axe on season three of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Definitely Farscape. Still my all-time favorite series and regularly re-watched by me. It did eventually get closure, but I had much preferred an entire season (with good-old-days 22 episodes per season) as decent closure, if it had to close at all.
I have mixed feelings about Stargate Universe. IMHO a series totally screwed up. And, after the axing, a never fulfilled promise.
Firefly. Cut in its infancy, after being mutilated first.

 

[Vladd67]

I'm sure I remember one called "Wild Palms" late 80s or Early 90s Billed as the new Twin Peaks it was gone before I caught an episode

From what I can remember you didn’t miss much. It was released with a big build up which it failed to match. I think I was quite disappointed at the time.

 

[Foxbat]

A couple I really enjoyed were Hannibal, which lasted 3 seasons and Carnivale, which lasted only two. I thought both were excellent.

 

[Rodders]

Firefly and Farscape both were able to get a conclusion to their story, so I don’t count them. (Although I would’ve loved to have gone the long way round and seen the conclusions by way of a series.)

Dark Matter was pulled after three series as the Sy-Fi channel couldn‘t afford to run it in conjunction with Killjoys. I liked it.
Space: Above and Beyond.
Wonderfalls. (A nice, quirky series with a lot of fantasy elements included. It was created by Pushing Daisies Brian Fuller.)
Outsourced. (Not Sci-fi, but it was a very nice, sweet comedy.)
Crusade. I thought this had legs and would’ve liked to have seen it drawn to it’s conclusion.

That’s it off the top of my head. There will be others.

 

[Astro Pen]

Maybe Re 'Wild Palms' But having checked out the trailer I'm going to track it down and persevere. I suspect it was premature and it's time has now come...

 

[Narkalui]

Community





#andamovie

 

[CriticalCarrot]

This seems like a generic answer but I'd definitely say Firefly, I would have loved at least a few more seasons.

 

[Mouse]

Yes, Firefly and Farscape even though they got their endings.

Also
Alphas
The Fades
Emerald City
Dollhouse

 

[Rodders]

The Covid lockdown has had me binge watching all kinds of TV. There were a couple that I got into that only had one series.

JPOD - a quirky program that I rather enjoyed. There are no consequences from what I can see, but all of the characters were rather enjoyable and I would've really liked to have seen a conclusion. Good fun.

Daybreak - On the face of it, a teenage apocalypse dramedy, but it had a lot more going for it. Again, likeable characters, great music and excellent use of flashbacks. It actually dealt with many teenage issues in quite a mature fashion. As is always the case, it ended on a cliff-hanger.