The Cancelled Shows you Remember .....

[Deathstroke]

Some really really great mentions in this thread. Shoutout to Daybreak

Daybreak was a fantastic show that never caught on with TV viewers. I remember how the leftover episodes were streamed online for fans of the show. While more seasons would've been nice, at least the Season 1 story finished.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I remember watching at least some of this show. But in the cold light of day, it really wasn't all that good.

To be fair as I posted a lot changed from the actual planning of the show and what happened after. Originally O'Conner's writers on Archie Bunker was supposed to do the show. CBS suddenly stepped in and decided to remove them and put a new team there. They then removed the Archie character from the pilot. This pissed O'Conner off who would never appear on the series. I think CBS was pretty much really ready to move on from Archie Bunker , hence why they did this move. At the end of 1983 , the series was cancelled and never given a final episode. Which so pissed Carol O'Conner off.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

In terms of 1 night dominant performance , NBC held onto one special night for 20+ years of TV. Its almost hard to believe that for a lot of the 1980's and 1990's , NBC was the #1 network and CBS itself suffered through some bad performances. Hell one year CBS had the lowest ranked network in a year and they fired the network president and then recruited Bill Cosby , Bob Newhart and others to revamp the networks lineup. But that is a story for another day.

NBC itself had a 20 year run of brilliant programming choices on Thursday nights. In fact from 1984 to the early/mid 2000's these shows were scheduled on Thursdays on NBC.


Cheers
Night Court
Cosby Show
Family Ties
Hill Street Blues
L.A. Law
A Different World
Dear John
Wings
Seinfeld
Mad About You
Frasier
Friends
ER
Caroline in the City
Will & Grace
Just Shoot Me
Scrubs


With such a successful run of shows created , NBC really had developed this ego that whatever they programmed on that night would work. And a lot didn't and we don't really remember them as much. But in the 1990's NBC was rolling after the creation of Friends and had came up with a new sitcom to be the perfect 8:30 slot companion for that show.




Basically the show was about a struggling writer and playwright named Michael who living in New York's "Union Square" takes influences of the wacky cast of folks around him. The show would be a series again about 20 somethings set in New York struggling with life , loves and more. It sounds like Friends but with a different cast and 3 years younger as a show. But the real story was behind the scenes.

NBC had saw Mel Gorham an actress of Cuban/Jewish descent and felt she needed a vehicle after several films. Gorham was to loosely base some of her life ala Jerry Seinfeld around the series as a struggling actress in New York. NBC even had James Burrows direct the series pilot. Its then things fell apart quick. The test screenings hated Gorham as the lead actress and NBC feeling they had something special here , dumped her from the series and retooled the show into an ensemble sitcom. Focusing more on the Michael character. Gorham's character was replaced by actress Constance Marie and the struggling actress character she portrayed was reduced in this revamped series.

The series still failed as we know and died within 13 episodes. Even as NBC gave it the special timeslot between Friends & Seinfeld and promoted it hard , the series would end in January. Of course what happened to all those involved ?

Actress , Harriet Sansom Harris (Suzanne Barkley) was already a TV/Film character actress who had a busy career before Union Square. After the series ended her biggest claim to fame was portraying Frasier Crane's agent Bebe Glazer. Harris also had a decent role on Desperate Housewives and recently was on Supergirl. Jim Pirri (Jack Pappas) has done a lot of voice work for video games and has done TV guest spots the last 2 decades. Jonathon Slavin (Albie) has been busy as well with various TV roles and was part of Better off Ted and is now in Dr. Ken.

Christine Burke (Carrie) seems to have left the industry and hasn't had a role since 2004. Her career really was never big before or after Union Square. Jeffret Anderson-Gunter (Vince) had a career from the late 1970's and 1980's. Things have slowed down for him since. Michael Landes (Michael) has been busy since the series ended as well. He's been in various TV and film projects since. And finally Constance Marie who was cast in the retooled show with a reduced role has had a busy career in TV. She starred in the George Lopez Show in the 2000's and the last 6 years has been part of the series "Switched at Birth".

But what happened to the lady who the show was supposed to be about before NBC retooled it ? Actress Mel Gorham would do a couple more films in the 2000's and retired from the industry in 2012. She never achieved the level of stardom that some of the cast or what Marie did. Things would end there but someone a couple years ago found the rejected pilot from Union Square with Mel Gorham and put it on youtube.

[AndrewBatman82]

here is my list of shows this list makes me lose faith in the TV industry as a whole.

Young Justice (2010-2013)

Green Lantern: The Animated Series (2011-2013)

Beware The Batman
CN (2013-2013)
Adult Swim (2014-2014)

Vegas (2012-2013)

Constantine (2014-2015)

The Following (2013-2015)

both Constantine and The Following were announced to be canceled on the same day.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

In watching a lot of classic Married ...With Children episodes (I have the complete box set now with 262 episodes) , the show was a classic in its time. Al Bundy became an American icon with his family in the late 1980's and 1990's. The show nearly didn't make it on the air due to the subject manner and fact originally the show was called "Not ...the Cosby's." A dig at Bill Cosby's perfect family where he'd solve all problems in 30 minutes and children would listen to the father all the way. NBC rejected the show to not anger Cosby , ABC and CBS also rejected it to not face his wraith. Only a fledgling Fox would air the show.

After a name change and recast on the children after the pilot , the show exploded for Fox in popularity. Married ...basically made the Fox Network and its existence should be credited to Al Bundy those 1st , 3-4 seasons it aired. With the popularity of the show Fox faced a problem. They needed more live action shows and the typical idea was for a spin-off show to launch from a hit established one. At times it would work in cases like Benson , Maude , and Jeffersons. And at times it would fail. In Married ...with Children's case there was 3 attempted spin-off attempts. One actually made it to a series order. And had a wacky history.

1st lets detail the ones that didn't make it to a series.


In the shows 9th season , Bud Bundy had grown up and was now written as to being in college. The local community college was called Trumaine where Bud attended as a student and it would follow him partly there. In essence we were gonna see Bud at college and also at home with his family in Married ...with Children. Also the show had a very solid idea.....bring back Steve Rhodes. If anyone remembers David Garrison had asked to be released from his Married ... contract due to the fact he had hated the attention the show was getting. Also as he joked , he was a Broadway actor and people would yell out , "Hey Steve !" during performances or ask where Al Bundy was. Plus he wanted to return to the theater and do other roles.

Its considered one of the worst decisions and ranks up there with McLean Stevenson leaving M.A.S.H in its prime after 3 seasons. Garrison never found a show as steady as Married as he's mainly done TV guest star work since. He would return to the show in guest spots from 1990-1995 and his last one was this attempted spin-off show in episode #211 , the 26th episode of the 9th season.




Radio Free Trumaine : The Premise was as posted above , the show would focus partly on Bud's college life but with college kids added who worked at a radio show and Mr. Rhodes returning as the Dean of Students in this attempted spin-off. The ad above was misleading as the episode really didn't focus much on Bud at all , as the show more or less focused on 2 college boys who run the free radio show for Trumaine College. They uncover shocking details of Mr. Rhodes past as he's the new Dean , they get expelled and somehow manage to get allowed back due to Marcy's help at stopping her ex-husband.

The show really helped launch the career of a young Keri Russell. She would go on to play in Felicity a couple years later and never look back. The episode also helped Eric Dane launch his TV and film career as well. You can see him on The Last Ship now. Joseph D. Reitman who had a minor role as a stoner in the episode has also became a TV/Film actor and recently was in "Money Monster" with George Clooney ! Beyond that however , no one else from that cast of the episode has done much.

Fox saw that this attempted spin-off just really had no real need to exist after it was made. Deciding against a TV series attempt for it. This was Garrison's last guest spot on Married...with Children.


The next season Fox and creators went back to the well again. With the current era of shows in a FRIENDS type cycle (whenever something gets hot on TV...make it repeatedly) , well Married ...fell under the same attempt. Only this was gonna be a comical parody against those type of shows. This spin-off came in the 10th season , 23rd episode of that season.


Enemies - Was a spin-off about a couple and room mates that knew each other. A parody of Friends in a sense , the people wouldn't get along but somehow would co-exist. The episode had the Bundy's involved limited and Kelly took part in the episode. This episode also had Alan Thicke involved (no clue if he'd have starred in the series or not) and in a special deal had the parents of Ron Howard in a spot. You had Jean Speegle Howard and Rance Howard in the episode. Fox rejected this pilot and this one is considered the worst episode of Married ...with Children made.


But before these late attempts at TV spin-offs , Fox approved one to TV. One they spun-off from an episode of Married in its 5th season. This episode would focus on a very scheming , get rich quick father and his dim witted attractive son who could get any woman he desired possibly. But the father Charlie Verducci wanted his son Vinnie to marry a rich girl so she could take care of them. The character of Vinnie Verducci was in the pilot of this that aired as mentioned in the 5th season of Married....its there his dim witted lovable goof character really jelled with Kelly as he presents her a book....of Garfield strips.




The show's focus was the father/son relationship and Charlie's attempts to get his son and them the easy rich life. Or as he claimed "The Verducci Master Plan". The series had Joseph Bologna as the father and he had a 20+ year career in TV and film work before this role. Joey Lauren Adams would play the potential love interest and under-age Mona who desired Vinnie. Charlie was constantly trying to keep his son away from 16 year old Mona since he knew she wanted him and would derail his plan. Adams has had a long TV and Film career since and is known for her role in Big Daddy and Mallrats a couple years later.

Rita Moreno (Alixandra Stone) has been acting for the last 6 decades in TV and film , and still going . Short actor Leslie Jordan (Emmet Lefebvre) has been in various TV and films the last 30 years as well. But the biggest star of that spin-off as you can tell was Matt LeBlanc. Fox saw something special in LeBlanc who was 24 at the time and quickly gave him the lead role in the spin-off.

Of course Fox themselves hurt the show or the writers did. Almost every episode felt the same and within 7 episodes in 1991 , the show was cancelled. That should have ended it right ? Well....wrong. In 1992 Fox decided a reason it failed was that the show needed to drop the Verducci Master Plan deal and let the father character be written out. A very bad idea since Charlie and Vinnie shared a nice chemistry onscreen. This new retooled show was now called "Vinnie & Bobby".

This one had dim witted Vinnie now living with his best friend Bobby Grazzo (Robert Torti) and various new supporting characters. Like "Top of the Heap" it too would die after 7 episodes. This was the last vehicle LeBlanc would do for Fox and 2 years later he'd land the role that made him a star ...Joey in Friends.


Comically Fox its claimed had 2 other spin-off concepts in mind once Married ...with Children ended in 1997 after 11 seasons. One was involving Kelly Bundy and the other No Ma'am. The anti-feminist group Al had created in later seasons. In both cases the shows never happened because Christina Applegate signed with NBC for her sitcom "Jesse" while Fox felt that they'd lose a huge part of the female audience if they pushed a No Ma'am show on the air.

[Surf]

In watching a lot of classic Married ...With Children episodes (I have the complete box set now with 262 episodes) , the show was a classic in its time.

The early Married ...With Children I wasn't so into but by the time Ted McGinley and Harold Sylvester who played Griff showed up I was hooked. Normally the local morning news is on first thing in the morning but just last week I was flipping through and realized TBS airs several early morning Married episodes. The one with the garbage strike was on where and Al and Griff joined the national guard, I was laughing my ass off first thing in the morning.

I don't watch Modern Family but I wonder have any cast members from Married With Children show ever came on for and episode.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

A big trend the last 40+ years of TV shows is to take a popular movie , and translate it to a possible TV series. The success rate of popular films to TV usually begins with Dukes of Hazzard , Alice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All 3 were spun from successful films and fitted to fit the small screen and worked. In the case of Dukes of Hazzard that was based on the 1975 film called "Moonrunners".

More often than not a TV show that comes from a film is absolutely terrible. Its so terrible that people turn it off and would rather watch the popular film instead. Its rare , very damn rare a movie gets 2 , TV shows inspired after it. Nearly 30 years after it came out. In the case of the Uncle Buck film from 1989 , that is the case.




The 1989 film by John Hughes and starring John Candy was a big comedy hit for Candy , plus launched the short career of Macaulay Culkin. The film story was that a very upper class family needed a babysitter on short notice for their kids , so the wife reluctantly gives her slob brother a call to do it. Uncle Buck smokes , drinks , gambles but has a heart of gold for his nieces and nephews.

So the film naturally has a way to be a TV series as the idea is , Buck comes to live for good with the family and becomes a nanny in a sense to them. The network that picked it up quick was CBS who scheduled it on their big Monday Night lineup.




The network needed an Uncle Buck and in some weird as hell casting , cast Kevin Meany . Who was 23 years old at the time and had only been in 3 credited appearances onscreen (Saturday Night Live in 1986 , BIG --yes that film as an Executive #2-- and a TV movie). Candy as Uncle Buck was noticeably older at 38 when he was cast as Uncle Buck. So you had a very much younger man suddenly asked to play a role where its supposed to be an older slob.

The Russell children in this was played by Dah-ve Chodan (Tia Russell) , Jacob Gelman (Miles Russell) and Sarah Martineck (Maizy Russell) . The show was soon bound for controversy as this was the 1st time on network TV a character told the other one "They suck". CBS seemingly got scared then and moved the show to a dead Friday night slot where it soon died after 18 episodes. Uncle Buck was dead for good. And almost all of these involved , never had a career beyond Meany who has done rare TV/Film appearances and animated voice work. Choden's career ended in 1999 it appears. Gelman's career summed up child actors at the time and his career ended in 1992. And finally Marineck's career ended in 1996.

Comically actor Dennis Cockrum who played "Skank" has went on to a steady TV/Film career since. Cockrum just appeared on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.


So that should end Uncle Buck right ? The show died 26 years ago. Well...no. See in a weird idea twist , ABC has seen huge success with a group of minority led shows. One being Blackish and the other called Fresh Off the Boat. The shows have done huge and ABC went looking for ideas to do another minority led show. This one they came up with would stun everyone.





Yes ...Uncle Buck after a 26 year absence to TV , is back. This time he was played by Mike Epps who at least fit the age range of what Buck was (Epps is 46 , 8 years older than Candy). This show was placed on the schedule and soon ABC would realize , no one really wanted to see Uncle Buck , even with a black cast. They recently announced its cancellation.

There is no word yet if NBC isn't planning to do Uncle Buck as a TV series in 26 years with Zac Efron yet.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Anyone remember Drive on Fox? I always thought it was an awesome concept, shame it died so quickly

[GozertheGozarian]

God, the Devil, and Bob. Religious wingnuts got it cancelled after three episodes.

[ejbookie]

Probably not well remembered or even watched, but I liked Riverworld on Sci-Fi. The 2003 pilot that never took off, not the 2010 TV film.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Anyone remember Drive on Fox? I always thought it was an awesome concept, shame it died so quickly

I liked that, was interesting, Nathan Fillion, Taryn Manning some other TV folks

[Ambaryerno]

Covington Cross



@#$%ing Ross Perot buying up its air time.

FarScape



@#$%ing Bonnie Hammer.

Chuck



Not TECHNICALLY cancelled, and to its credit NBC did everything they could to keep it going, but so much could have been handled better from the production standpoint on all ends. And ultimately it was a victim of NBC's general ratings malaise at the time.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Syfy cancels 'Hunters'

[The Cool Thatguy]

Syfy cancels 'Hunters'

I love the show, but I'm not surprised in the least.

Why the hell did they kick it to midnight though?

[Tracer Bullet]

Eyes with Tim Daly had some potential.

And I loved Andy Richter Controls the Universe