Many cancellations are deserved. Many shows are still on the air that should have been ended a long time ago. Then there are the ones that died before their time. These are the shows with enormous cult followings, that are talked about years later and fans of which you’re slightly afraid.
5. “Friday Night Lights” (Canceled after five seasons in 2011)
“Friday Night Lights” is the little show that could. A drama series based around a high school football team and coach Eric Taylor’s family in Texas, this show became one of the most powerful series ever to grace television. The show deals with difficult issues important to American culture, including family values, life lessons, racism, drugs and economic inequality. No show has portrayed life in Middle America as well as “FNL.” The series was met with critical acclaim and an avid fan base, though it struggled in the ratings. The show was almost canceled after the second season, but due to fan uproar, NBC made a deal with DirecTV to co-produce three more seasons, first airing on DirecTV and then on NBC. I wish the show hadn’t ended. There is still so much more we can learn from the Taylor family. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
4. “Pushing Daisies” (Canceled after two seasons in 2009)
This cute and quirky show sadly met its demise after only two seasons. The premise is incredibly unique: A pie-maker, Ned, has the ability to bring dead people back to life just by touching them. However, one more touch will render the person dead again, forever. Ned revives his childhood sweetheart, and the two of them, along with a private investigator, solve murder mysteries by asking the victim “whodunnit?”
3. “Firefly” (Canceled after one season in 2003)
You would never think a show billed as a “space-western” could be so incredible. Set 500 years in the future, “Firefly” follows the adventures of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, and his motley crew around space. Reynolds is a former galactic war veteran on the losing side, accompanied by a diverse range of people, including a “companion” (prostitute, but respected in this society), a preacher and two fugitives from the ruling body, the Alliance. Fox canceled Firefly after only nine episodes, after airing them all out of order. The pilot was aired last, as the 13th episode. Of course ratings would suffer if the network airs the show incorrectly. However, “Firefly” lived on in the form of a wide-release film “Serenity.” The show’s fans, known as “Browncoats,” are probably one of the largest cult followings around today.
2. “Freaks and Geeks” (Canceled after one season in 2000)
The beauty that was the high school comedy-drama “Freaks and Geeks” was tragically canceled in its prime, after only 12 episodes had aired. The show centered on brother and sister Sam and Lindsey Weir, and their interactions with their respective high school crowds, “geeks” and “freaks.” The show was complicated, emotional and, above all, incredibly relatable. Thankfully, it helped introduce us to the genius of Judd Apatow, Jason Segel, James Franco and Seth Rogen, among many others. The whole season is on Netflix. Go watch it.
1. “Veronica Mars” Canceled after three seasons in 2007
“Veronica Mars” is my all-time favorite show. The adventures of title character Veronica Mars, played by Kristen Bell, still had so much potential. It was witty, it was brilliant, it was heartbreaking, and it was amazingly acted. The first two seasons of the show on the WB network were unbelievable. However, in 2006 when the new network CW replaced the WB and UPN networks , “VMars” lost a lot of its shine. The show moved away from season-long mysteries that involved heavy topics like murder, rape and suicide, and into more shorter arcs in an attempt to make the show more accessible. It clearly did not work. However, the fans, known as “marshmallows,” have spoken, and thanks to a fan-funded Kickstarter page, “Veronica Mars” will get a second chance in the form of a movie, to be released March 14.
Originally published: http://dailynorthwestern.com/2014/02/05/thecurrent/5-tv-shows-that-never-should-have-been-canceled/