TV thoughts
I was reading an article online about some TV shows this guy thought had been cancelled too soon and it got me thinking. He'd made the obvious choices for his list; Firefly at the top of the list, original series Star Trek, Angel and Dollhouse. I did kind of think he had a Whedon centric view of the world. And being fair I can agree with him on Firefly and Dollhouse. I enjoyed both immensely. Okay, I'll be honest. I agreed on all of his picks.
It's just I have a few of my own from years gone by that I thought were ended far before they'd achieved their potential.
The first of them is Max Headroom. now for those of you who remember the Max Headroom show as a computerised video jockey spinning tunes in the late 80s that's not the show I mean. There was also a US made scifi show set in the near future (from the 80s POV) when everything was about a ratings war and TVs couldn't be turned off. It was all a bit Philip K Dick conspiracy, big corporations controlling everything and it was wonderful. Only it only made it through two very short seasons for fourteen episodes and then it was gone. A woefully missed opportunity
Next up I'm going to choose Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the early 80s the BBC made one series of Douglas Adams wonderful scifi comedy and everyone thinks that was it. Only there were plans for a second series. It's just the Beeb decided against. The plot turned into the third book. That could have been great.
Third up is Space: Above and Beyond. This was a mid 90s show created and run by two X-Files alumni Glen Morgan and James Wong. The Earth is fighting a desperate war for survival against an attaching alien force and we see the story from the POV of one squadron of marines. It was gritty, it was compelling (for me) and it was too short lived by far.
Choice four is another alien invasion series: Threshold. About ten years ago this series managed just one thirteen episode season before vanishing. It was in a nutshell a modern retelling/reimagining of the 60s show the Invaders and it starred Carla Gugino, Brent Spiner and Peter Dinklage (the first time I encountered him). Okay, I have a real thing for secret government agencies (something which could help keep me watching Supergirl) but this ticked all my boxes. Didn't save it though.
Okay now for my fifth choice and I'm going outside of scifi for this one. I was instantly hooked with the first episode of the Newsroom when it hit the screens. I'd loved West Wing before it and when this show from the same writers turned up I had to watch. And the sheer intelligence of it just grabbed me. I like watching smart characters - especially smart characters with flaws which some of them in this show most definitely do have. It also helped that I think Olivia Munn is gorgeous (and yes I know my wife reads this blog but she knows me well enough by now to not find that surprising).
I'm going a little further left field for my final main mention - Police Squad. There are only six episodes of this fantastically surreal cop comedy show. Why couldn't they have made more. Okay we did then get the three Naked Gun films but they missed the parody of 70s cop shows feel of the original.
Now there are many, many other shows I would have enjoyed seeing more of. I'm going to mention a few more in a kind of list format below (it was inevitable wasn't it?) but these six were the worst of early cancellations for me. Just assume all the ones I mentioned from the other article are included. These are my extras
Honourable Mentions
Dead Like Me
Pushing Daisies
Alien Nation
The Tripods (mid 80s British BBC alien invasion on a homely level)
Sapphire & Steel
Alphas (superhero ish show)
FlashForward (I actually felt this was about to get good when it ended)
Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles
I did get tempted to add Sliders. I loved Sliders for precisely two seasons; then liked it for a third before finally realising just why it was going to be cancelled as I watched the fourth. I loved the cheerful optimism and camaraderie of the show for those two years. The cast worked wonderfully well as a unit and when the original cast members started to drift away the shows was on a downward slope
Anyway - I'm done now. Going to go sleep
It's just I have a few of my own from years gone by that I thought were ended far before they'd achieved their potential.
The first of them is Max Headroom. now for those of you who remember the Max Headroom show as a computerised video jockey spinning tunes in the late 80s that's not the show I mean. There was also a US made scifi show set in the near future (from the 80s POV) when everything was about a ratings war and TVs couldn't be turned off. It was all a bit Philip K Dick conspiracy, big corporations controlling everything and it was wonderful. Only it only made it through two very short seasons for fourteen episodes and then it was gone. A woefully missed opportunity
Next up I'm going to choose Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the early 80s the BBC made one series of Douglas Adams wonderful scifi comedy and everyone thinks that was it. Only there were plans for a second series. It's just the Beeb decided against. The plot turned into the third book. That could have been great.
Third up is Space: Above and Beyond. This was a mid 90s show created and run by two X-Files alumni Glen Morgan and James Wong. The Earth is fighting a desperate war for survival against an attaching alien force and we see the story from the POV of one squadron of marines. It was gritty, it was compelling (for me) and it was too short lived by far.
Choice four is another alien invasion series: Threshold. About ten years ago this series managed just one thirteen episode season before vanishing. It was in a nutshell a modern retelling/reimagining of the 60s show the Invaders and it starred Carla Gugino, Brent Spiner and Peter Dinklage (the first time I encountered him). Okay, I have a real thing for secret government agencies (something which could help keep me watching Supergirl) but this ticked all my boxes. Didn't save it though.
Okay now for my fifth choice and I'm going outside of scifi for this one. I was instantly hooked with the first episode of the Newsroom when it hit the screens. I'd loved West Wing before it and when this show from the same writers turned up I had to watch. And the sheer intelligence of it just grabbed me. I like watching smart characters - especially smart characters with flaws which some of them in this show most definitely do have. It also helped that I think Olivia Munn is gorgeous (and yes I know my wife reads this blog but she knows me well enough by now to not find that surprising).
I'm going a little further left field for my final main mention - Police Squad. There are only six episodes of this fantastically surreal cop comedy show. Why couldn't they have made more. Okay we did then get the three Naked Gun films but they missed the parody of 70s cop shows feel of the original.
Now there are many, many other shows I would have enjoyed seeing more of. I'm going to mention a few more in a kind of list format below (it was inevitable wasn't it?) but these six were the worst of early cancellations for me. Just assume all the ones I mentioned from the other article are included. These are my extras
Honourable Mentions
Dead Like Me
Pushing Daisies
Alien Nation
The Tripods (mid 80s British BBC alien invasion on a homely level)
Sapphire & Steel
Alphas (superhero ish show)
FlashForward (I actually felt this was about to get good when it ended)
Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles
I did get tempted to add Sliders. I loved Sliders for precisely two seasons; then liked it for a third before finally realising just why it was going to be cancelled as I watched the fourth. I loved the cheerful optimism and camaraderie of the show for those two years. The cast worked wonderfully well as a unit and when the original cast members started to drift away the shows was on a downward slope
Anyway - I'm done now. Going to go sleep
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