The Cancelled Shows you Remember .....

[Jim Kelly]

Yeah, NOW AND AGAIN is on my list of favourite, gone too soon, TV shows. A lot of these tend to be high concept and often broadcast on Friday evenings--where now the networks send shows to die.

When I was a kid, all the great TV shows aired on Friday nights--but that was back in the 1960s and 1970s--when broadcasters made shows for kids and teens, who might not have had time during the week for TV (homework), but Friday evening was when you could watch everything you want and your parents would even let you stay up late, because you didn't have school the next day.

[Riv86672]

There have been so many shows that were cancelled too soon, but one that sticks in my head is "Now and Again" from 1999. That was a great show that really deserved another season. It ends on a cliffhanger with no resolution.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212395/?ref_=nm_knf_t2

Man i HATE when that happens. Cancellation’s bad enough.

[Riv86672]

The Middle Man comes to mind for me.
It was a quirky little comic book adaptation w. an engaging cast...







and seemed to have potential.

[caj]

Anyone remember The Fantastic Journey from the late 1970s? Cool Sci-Fi show that was cancelled way too soon.

[Riv86672]

^^^i never watched it, but I know about it...!

[Osiris-Rex]

Already missing The Big Bang Theory on Thursday nights.

[GozertheGozarian]

I thought it was an amazing show.....and once the Catholic church came out against it, I knew it wouldn't last long.

They got God, the Devil, and Bob cancelled where I lived at the time. I didn't have a chance to watch the entire series until a decade later.

[ROM Spaceknight]

Can't remember if I responded to this thread or not. But, here goes:

-The Flash (1990-1991): Short lived DC superhero show, starring John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen/The Flash. Great effects (for the time), and good stories. Too bad this only lasted 1 season. I remember reading that The Flash's outfit was extremely expensive to produce/make, as were the effects for the show.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: (1992-?!): Excellent & underrated historical TV series.

HUMAN TARGET - the original tv series with Rick Springfield. Much truer to comic version. It was by the same producers of the first Flash tv series.

What a blast from the past. I saw every episode of the original Human Target (HT) show on TV. Excellent espionage series; the disguises were extremely well-done, and some elements of the show reminded me of the original Mission Impossible TV series.

I remember this was on in Summer '92, and only ran for a handful of episodes. I got the impression that the show didn't "make the cut" during the regular TV season, so just got dumped on the station for the summer - but that it was never intended to be renewed for the Fall. Note to those who weren't around during that time, the summer months were typically a "slow" time for TV broadcasting - and mainly consisted of re-runs, etc. The early '90's was also a time when cable companies weren't really producing as much original programming as they are now.

It's too bad this show has never been released to home video. I would buy a DVD/Blu-ray set in a heartbeat, even though there weren't enough episodes to justify that much of a set; the whole series could easily fit on 1 (or 2, at most) disks. IIRC, I did find a crummy stream of at least one old episode a while back, but the picture quality was so poor I found it unwatchable.

It's also worth noting that there was a later HT TV show (in the 200X's?). I saw the first?! season, and while it was OK - I felt the original Rick Springfield HT series was far superior.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

This will be a 1st , I have covered sitcoms , dramas and even pro wrestling shows. But this one will be a drastic shift folks. This concerns a day-time soap opera. Yes , the soaps. A classic staple of Americana for years daytime soap operas thrived on the major networks. ABC , CBS and NBC would air 3-5 hour blocks of these shows competing for viewers. Classics like Another World , Guiding Light , As the World Turns and Days of Our Lives would air 50-70+ years in some cases. With thousands of episodes done.

Now with soap operas its harder to really judge it on terms we do this list. While some run 4-5 years and are considered failures , that is considered a decent run for a regular TV series. But this list has one that comically was such a failure it only lasted 1 year...in both forms.

Ok to start this off it was the 1970's and "Another World" was a top ranked soap on daytime TV. The venerable soap was near the top of the ratings and NBC realized they needed to create spin-off shows off this success. One had ran a few years called "Somerset" and it never really had done what NBC wanted. Even its final season where ratings had rose the network decided to cancel it and create a new series.



NBC tasked Paul Rauch with creating another day-time spin-off show of Another World (or indirect spin-off as I have read) . Its here he created "Lovers and Friends" as a daytime soap that would air in January 1977. The series would be set in suburb of Point Clair, Illinois, and focused on the trials and tribulations of two neighboring families, the wealthy Cushings and the more middle class Saxtons. The location was based on the community of Lake Forest.

It had the typical soap opera storylines that we all know involving drama etc. But here is where things got funny. The show was such a dismal failure that within a few months NBC put the series on hiatus. The series was paused in May of 1977 which has to be a record for a series. Its what NBC did next that is pretty funny.





They retooled and revamped the series with a new name and character changes. This time the series returned as "For Richer , For Poorer". This revamp included changes to several characters (with one having his name changed !) . Some characters even changed their motivations comically. In all this too didn't work as the new series returned in December 1977 and finally ended in September 1978.

What is unique is how NBC took a daytime soap opera and within months saw it as a failure and decided to retool the series and reboot it months later.

[caj]

Another World also spun off the character of Iris Wheeler to a show called 'Texas' in 1980. It lasted two or three years. I believe Somerset was also a spin off of Another World.

I loved Another World and watched it through the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s but then it took a turn in the writing that I didn't care for so I stopped watching. I think it was cancelled in the late 90s.

[Phoenixx9]

Another World also spun off the character of Iris Wheeler to a show called 'Texas' in 1980. It lasted two or three years. I believe Somerset was also a spin off of Another World.

I loved Another World and watched it through the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s but then it took a turn in the writing that I didn't care for so I stopped watching. I think it was cancelled in the late 90s.

I believe Iris Wheeler (Carmen Duncan) died earlier this year.

I loved Another World and watched it it to the finale (July 1999).

I was hoping to see all of the stars from it appear on other felevision shows (prime time) after it ended, but I never saw them.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Sometimes prolific TV/Film stars chose a wrong vehicle that is more a blip on their resume. In fact some over the years have chosen TV shows that died so quick and years have passed that many have forgotten them. In this case we look at legendary tough guy actor Brian Dennehy who after doing numerous TV and film roles decided in 1982 to take a detour and do a TV sitcom on ABC.

The show was called "Star of the Family" and Dennehy played the tough as nails fire chef father of a 16 year old (played by Kathy Maisnik) who did the them song to this. Dennehy was Buddy Krebs and his daughter was Jennie who was becoming star in country/pop area of music then. Stories focused around his struggle to handle that as well as the fact the supporting cast supplied him silliness. His one fireman who worked at the station comically lied to his mother telling her he was a doctor. Another was a sex addict.



ABC launched the show next to Joanie Loves Chachi in 1982 and you can get the feeling looking back now that this was the worst hour of TV possible. With the shows focused around lead characters singing their own theme songs. Star of the Family's theme was done by Maisnik as you can tell from this. After a run from September to December and 10 episodes the show was cancelled . Dennehy would go on to comically play a recurring role as Dennis Finch's father on "Just Shoot Me" where he was a Fire Chef and had a family back home. (possibly the creators did a bit of wink to that)

One member of the supporting cast Todd Susman was more known for his recurring roles on Newhart from 1984-1989 and M.A.S.H where he played the PA announcer. Kathy Maisnik who starred in this actually would join Jimmy Buffet's band as a back up in Coal Reefer Band in 1989/1990. She would do stand up and is married now.

[Nate Grey]

Sometimes prolific TV/Film stars chose a wrong vehicle that is more a blip on their resume. In fact some over the years have chosen TV shows that died so quick and years have passed that many have forgotten them. In this case we look at legendary tough guy actor Brian Dennehy who after doing numerous TV and film roles decided in 1982 to take a detour and do a TV sitcom on ABC.

The show was called "Star of the Family" and Dennehy played the tough as nails fire chef father of a 16 year old (played by Kathy Maisnik) who did the them song to this. Dennehy was Buddy Krebs and his daughter was Jennie who was becoming star in country/pop area of music then. Stories focused around his struggle to handle that as well as the fact the supporting cast supplied him silliness. His one fireman who worked at the station comically lied to his mother telling her he was a doctor. Another was a sex addict.



ABC launched the show next to Joanie Loves Chachi in 1982 and you can get the feeling looking back now that this was the worst hour of TV possible. With the shows focused around lead characters singing their own theme songs. Star of the Family's theme was done by Maisnik as you can tell from this. After a run from September to December and 10 episodes the show was cancelled . Dennehy would go on to comically play a recurring role as Dennis Finch's father on "Just Shoot Me" where he was a Fire Chef and had a family back home. (possibly the creators did a bit of wink to that)

One member of the supporting cast Todd Susman was more known for his recurring roles on Newhart from 1984-1989 and M.A.S.H where he played the PA announcer. Kathy Maisnik who starred in this actually would join Jimmy Buffet's band as a back up in Coal Reefer Band in 1989/1990. She would do stand up and is married now.

What, no mention of Michael Dudikoff who got third billing after the two leads? Three years after this he was in the first American Ninja.

[Koriand'r]

"Dallas" had a reboot a few years ago and it was GREAT! It was a mixture of the old cast and grown up versions of their offspring, J.R.'s son John Ross and Bobby's son Christopher were the main stars. It was everything I loved about the original but it ended too soon partially because of the death of Larry Hagman (who still had his charisma right up to the very end). Afterwards they had another "Who shot J.R.?" storyline that was fine, but when Judith Light played an evil character that was a coke head I knew it had jumped the shark. Something about seeing that nice lady from "Who's the Boss?" snorting cocaine was just too disturbing.

ABC's reboot of "V" was really good too, but over time it became unbelievable too convoluted to last.

I still miss ABC's "Friends" knock off "Happy Endings" it went out of it's way to avoid sitcom stereotypes and that was probably a little more progressive than most audiences could stand.

[gorosaurus]

"The Pitts" with a teenage Lizzy Caplan that aired on Fox in 2003. The family's constant cloud of bad luck was usually supernatural in nature, with evil ventriloquist dummies and lycanthropy. It was a comedy.