TV cancellations leave holes in hearts

By Jeff

Sports will never be canceled. We'll always have some sort of professional sports to watch and follow every year on television. Unfortunately, that's not true of television shows. If they don't have good ratings, they're cut.

I bring this up because one of the my favorite shows, "Chuck", is pulling crummy ratings (5 million) and is probably not going to make it past Season 4. "Chuck" is a very good show with a great mix of humor and action. The nerd gets the girl and kicks ass! Hopefully, NBC will give the show's creators enough warning if they are going to cancel it, allowing "Chuck" to have a satisfying ending. But the TV business is brutal, and the show could be dropped at any time.

Is there anything worse in the pop culture world than having one of the television shows you follow get canceled before it can provide certain answers you've been waiting years for? Some could argue that their favorite band breaking up is worse, but that's different. When bands break up, solo or side projects from the former band members sprout up. Fans can still get new music from the former members, the pieces are just a little different. And of course, there is always that reunion possibility because the parties involved pissed away all their money.

Once a television show is gone, all we have left are the memories and reruns. On rare occasions, fan campaigns will save the show ("Jericho"), but it rarely happens and the show usually gets canceled the next season because it didn't attract new fans ("Jericho").

Below is my favorite TV shows that came to a premature end. Some left us with many questions, while one wrapped it up with near perfection. There is no particular order.

I remember it being a lot cooler
than this picture.

"Pirates of Dark Water" (21 Episodes): OK, so no one else probably remembers this cartoon. I hardly do considering it came out back in 1991. But the premise was this Dark Water was spreading across the world of Mer and consumed everything it came in contact with. Thirteen treasures could stop it, but the bad guy hid them throughout the world. Young pirates then go on a quest to bring the 13 treasures together to stop the Dark Water from killing everyone.

They stopped the show after they found the eighth treasure! And they didn't stop it because the Dark Water spread too fast for our protagonists to stop. The last episode was actually one of optimism. But we were left to wonder what the hell happened? Did Ren (The main guy) stop the Dark Water, or was he eaten by it?

"Rome" ( 22 Episodes): The HBO series didn't end due to poor ratings, it was actually very popular and well-made. The problem was it was too well-made and BBC couldn't afford to do more than two seasons. Aside from some of the unneeded sex scenes, including incest between a brother and sister, this show was awesome. Episode 11 of Season 1 is my favorite. The two main characters, Lucius Vorenus (Sweet name) and Titus Pullo, whoop ass in the arena and leave no survivors. It wasn't just the action that made it great, but how well it was shot. One of the best scenes in television I've seen.

I'm pretty sure they knew ahead of time that they weren't coming back for Season 3, but it wrapped up with me wanting more. I wanted to continue to follow the characters and see what adventure they would take on next. Oh well.

Another reason I miss "Eli Stone".

"Eli Stone" (26 Episodes): Not exactly as manly as "Rome", but this was a fun show. A hot-shot lawyer (Eli Stone) starts having visions (Mostly featuring George Michael in Season 1) that lead him to take certain cases he normally wouldn't. Well, it turns out he is having these hallucinations because has a massive aneurysm in his brain. But wait, he meets an acupuncturist who thinks the visions are actually signs from God and Eli is a prophet!

Lame? You bet. But they also had some large musical numbers similar to the popular series "Glee". They weren't quite as good or as big as "Glee", but they were pretty fun and showed the cast's wide-ranging talents.

"Eli Stone" was doing so poor in the ratings its second season, that ABC just dropped it despite having four episodes in the can. They thought re-runs would get higher ratings. I had to watch the final episodes online and still have plenty of questions. You could tell they had no warning about the cancellation and couldn't plan a proper finale. Sadness.

"Sports Night" (55 Episodes): Fun show that only lasted two seasons. I was a little too young to get all the jokes when it was on TV (1998-2000), but now I get them and really enjoy it. The idea that sports anchors run around in their underwear is something we all think.

What's rare about this show, is that it could have come back on another network, like HBO, but the creator wanted to focus on other things. Tool.

"Firefly" (14 Episodes): And this is an example of why I hate FOX (Their NFL Pregame Show is another). They didn't even give this great show a full season! To make matters worse, FOX didn't like the season premiere creator Joss Whedon wanted to use, so they started with the second episode. The true first episode was a 2-hour premiere that gave viewers the in-depth development they needed to understand the character. But the second episode had more action, so FOX made them air that first.

I'm too sad to make a sarcastic caption. 

I didn't know about this show until the movie "Serenity" came out, which was a continuation of the show. I wish I had known about it when it was on television, because I would have written FOX every day to keep her flying.

"Firefly" was a perfect mix of comedy and drama. The characters all were so interesting, and some were shrouded in mystery. Like why the heck a simple shepherd knew so much about government agency protocol and firearms? We are still waiting for that answer, as the movie didn't give us any clues.

The idea that everyone knows English and Chinese was a cool touch. Because these two nations are the biggest super powers in the world, it only makes sense that their cultures would mix in the future. I also loved the Wild West attitude the show had. They flew around in spaceships, but still used weapons that had bullets. I think there were only two lasers shown, which was fine by me.

Graphic comics have been released to continue some of the stories, but it's not the same. Reading the words is so different than hearing the delivery of Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk. There is no comparing the experiences.

Is it sad that a small part of me holds out hope that somehow the show will be revived despite the fact it was canceled back in 2002?

"Arrested Development" (53 Episodes): Best show I've ever seen. The jokes were so fast and so many, you have to watch every episode multiple times. If you only watch them once, chances are you were laughing too hard at one joke to hear the next one. No other show I've seen has been able to accomplish this feat.

Like the guy in the $3,700 suit would get canceled!

Every character was great and the actors fit their roles perfectly. Can you picture anyone else in the role of G.O.B., Tobias, George Michael or any of the Bluth family? Hell no you can't! It's as if these actors were born for their "Arrested Development" characters.

The show won several Emmy's, but Emmy's don't mean ratings. Despite having a long leash from FOX (A rare thing), "Arrested Development" couldn't get the numbers to warrant more episodes. Fortunately, they knew they were going to be canceled and the writers created a great finale. There were no unanswered questions as they brought everything full circle. When it ended, you were satisfied and felt like it was the intended end. Not many canned shows can say the same.

Did I miss any good shows that were prematurely canceled? Let me know.

John Waite - Missing You