A look back at five exceptional television shows over the last 10 years that were axed before their time, taking their potential to the grave.

Vaudeville, radio, and television personality Fred Allen once said something to the effect of: “Television is called a medium because anything well done is rare.” More than fifty years later, the line still rings true, mostly because today’s money-minded television networks can’t afford to hold out for viewers or advertisers to catch on and often end up canceling the rarest gems of all. In this feature, I analyze five shows since the year 2000 that have come and gone in almost blink-and-you-missed-it fashion, but have since left lasting impressions on dedicated television viewers over the last ten years.

While I am one, lone television viewer and cannot reasonably have watched every single television show that ever aired since 2000 (nor would I have wanted to), I have made it a point upon myself to be sensibly informed on many hidden and buried gems to have aired since the millennium. Do note, however, of the five shows on this list, two of the series (#4, #3) I watched from premiere to finale—that is, every episode the day each first aired—another two (#5, #1) I only even heard of and fell in love with years after their respective cancellations, and another (#2) I discovered the true essence of only through my research efforts. Needless to say, this entire article, therefore, boasts nothing more than my humble opinions and is in no way meant to be a statement of fact (though I’d like to think so).

That said, if you “hated” any of these shows, please refrain from rioting and/or lambasting me, as I’d have to argue that you probably didn’t stick around long enough to see the show get good. If you’ve never even heard of one or any of these shows, consider this a checklist of what to buy or rent the next time you go to the video store looking for some quality entertainment. And, of course, if you loved any of these shows, sit back, relax, read, and reminisce as I delve into the pure magic each of these shows exuded on a weekly basis and dissect and mull over the doomed fates of each.

P.S. I had two stipulations for qualifying as canceled “before their time”. (1) The show ran for no more than an average major network show’s full season’s worth of episodes (approximately 22 episodes). (2) The show had a large enough sample of episodes to establish the quality of content (at least 10 episodes). Note that no show on this list lived to see a third season.

P.S.S. Please forgive the apparent Kevin McKidd bias. I am fully aware that he starred in two shows on this list. What can I say? The man simply has a knack for signing on to great, yet short-lived television.

5 | Rome

NETWORK: HBO / BBC
EPISODES: 22
RUN: August – December 2005; January – March 2007

PREMISE: Rome follows the fictitious lives of two semi-fictitious soldiers in Julius Caesar’s 13^th legion, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson), as they witness the historically-based lives of Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds), Marc Antony (James Purefoy), Marcus Brutus (Tobias Menzies), Cleopatra (Lyndsey Marshal), and Octavian/Augustus Caesar (Max Pirkis & Simon Woods).

PRIDE & GLORY: Over-the-top-ness. If you can look past and not take offense by the often gruesome violence, the occasionally vulgar language, and the intermittent nude/sex scenes (it was an HBO production, after all!), I promise you won’t be disappointed because from the extravagant sets, to the spectacular, incredibly intense acting and poignant portrayals of historical scenes, Rome never had a dull moment.

IN AN EPISODE: It is difficult to define this series in one episode with it being a timeline of history, and all, but if you’re seeking a testament to the exceptional writing and powerful acting performances, take a look at the first season’s finale, “Kalends of February” (1×12).

THE STORY: The show has been regarded as one of the most expensive in television history. Between the marketing, set construction, location, and salary costs, co-financial backers HBO and the BBC just could not afford to keep Rome afloat. So just how expensive was it, you ask? According to IMDb, the show’s five-acre outdoor set (built on the back-lots of Rome’s Cinecittà studios) is distinguished as the largest of its kind ever built. Like I said: extravagant sets! Unfortunately, in late 2007, long after the show had filmed its final episode, a hefty portion of the set burned to the ground.

CONSOLATION: Essentially, the show felt like an extended miniseries (it had, indeed, originally been conceptualized as a not-so-extended miniseries). There was a beginning, a middle, and an end to the story of the characters of Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo—even though both were alive in the end. Fortunately, their story may yet live on through the big screen in a movie rumored for release in 2011.

AIN’T IT A SHAME: Though creator Bruno Heller had the show scoped out for a five-season run (despite being only contracted to do two seasons), he learned half way through the second season that it would indubitably be the show’s last. Therefore, viewers got a very rushed history lesson over the final episodes in order to cover all the bases Heller had planned to cover (1). Despite taking us through the history of Ancient Rome at a “blazing speed”, the writers, for the most part, ended the show, closing off the story lines of the two fictional main characters in as satisfactory a way as any viewer could ask for. And, really, there’s no shame in that.

GO GET IT: Download & Watch | Buy: Season One / Season Two / Complete Series -  DVD or Blu-ray

4 | Pushing Daisies

NETWORK: ABC
EPISODES: 22 (canceled after 19)
RUN: October 2007 – December 2008 (19 episodes); May-June 2009 (3 episodes)

PREMISE: Since he was a boy, Ned (Lee Pace), now a pie maker, has been able to wake the dead with the touch of a finger. The catch: if said corpse is alive again via Ned’s touch for more than one minute, another creature must take its place as a “sacrifice”. Ned uses his gift on his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel), when she turns up murdered.  In order for Chuck to remain alive-again, she and Ned must never touch skin. If they aren’t kissing through plastic wrap or dancing in beekeeper suits, Ned and Chuck can be found solving Coeur d’ Coeur’s zaniest crimes with the help of their voracious, yet trusty private detective friend, Emerson Cod (Chi McBride). Kristin Chenoweth also stars as Olive Snook, Ned’s lone (and lonely) employee and not-so-secret admirer, while Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene co-star as Chuck’s reclusive, unsuspecting, agoraphobic aunts.

PRIDE & GLORY: Writing. Quirkiness. Originality. So it’s pretty much been established that writer/creator Bryan Fuller has an odd fascination with death (see: Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls). But he’s also able to find the sick, twisted humor in it. The scripts had to be some of the most insanely brilliant, wildly sardonic and funny ever written for television. Full of puns-galore and fast-paced double speak, not to mention the wacky, alliterative and repetitive people and place names (e.g. Charles Charles, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles, Mother Mary Mary, Nils Nilson, Boutique Travel Travel Boutique, Darling Mermaid Darlings), there was always something to keep even the straightest faces laughing.

IN AN EPISODE: 2×13 “Kerplunk” – Though its final episode, reminds viewers how great of a show it was, is, and could have been.

THE STORY: Despite being critically acclaimed, the Tim Burton-esque show just wasn’t among the viewing habits of enough of the people that count (aka Nielsen box holders) and Disney-owned ABC wasn’t going to hang on to the Warner Brothers-owned show any longer than they felt obligated to. If you ask me, I think Nielsen Media Group needs to get a more open-minded, whimsical sample audience.

CONSOLATION: Virtually none. The show was replaced by Lost re-runs mid-season, despite a near-promise that the show would return in January. After being pushed back from March, the month they aired in Germany, the final three episodes ultimately aired in the US between May and June of 2009. Fortunately, (in every ironic sense of the word) Fuller had an inkling that his beloved show was on the chopping block and drew up an episode that could have served simply as the season finale of a show making story-line progress or as a satisfying series finale of a show that could have been.

AIN’T IT A SHAME: ABC has taken a lot of heat for its perennial renewal of the critically undermined, lackluster, laugh-less sitcom According to Jim over the past eight seasons, yet the alphabet network still insists on keeping the lemon on the air. The bitter taste has yet to vacate my mouth.

GO GET IT: Watch it (first nine episodes) | Buy it: Season One – DVD or Blu-ray / Season Two – DVD or Blu-ray

3 | Journeyman

NETWORK: NBC
EPISODES: 13
RUN: September – December 2007

PREMISE: Bay Area Metro Beat reporter, Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd), has been endowed with the very powerful ability to travel backwards through time—indicated by a sudden, sharp migraine—though he doesn’t know why or how. The only help Dan receives on his life-saving, fate-altering missions comes in the form of his presumed-dead forwards-time-travelling fiancée, Livia Beale (Moon Bloodgood), who is just as clueless as to why they are doing what they are doing. When he’s not year-hopping, Dan struggles to keep his marriage healthy, given he can’t explain to his wife (Gretchen Egolf) his abrupt disappearances in a way that sounds even remotely sane—and his skeptical, vindictive cop brother, Jack (Reed Diamond), provides Dan no relief from his troubles.

PRIDE & GLORY: Premise. Sounds like Quantum Leap revisited, right? Not quite. While the series delves into multiple theories concerning quantum physics, husband, dad and reporter, Dan Vasser, is no Dr. Sam Beckett. For starters, Dan always returns back to 2007, usually late for something important and often to a disconcerted wife and inquisitive young son. And secondly, he doesn’t just change one event in someone’s life and let fate handle the rest, it’s Dan’s duty to track the life of his charges, preventing or instigating incidents so that they live on to, in most cases, change the fate of the world—or at least San Francisco.

IN AN EPISODE: 1×12 “The Hanged Man” – A very insightful episode that touches on the dangerous conundrum of time travel when Dan experiences, first hand, the drastic consequences of—in this case, inadvertently—meddling with the past. Dan also receives a very important clue regarding why he and Livia can do what they do.

THE STORY: Just when everyone significant in Dan’s life was starting to take his unique ability seriously…there came along a little thing called “The Writers’ Strike”. Was Journeyman one of The Strike’s countless victims? Most signs point to “Yes.”

CONSOLATION: Because Dan Vasser is, in fact, not real and cannot go back to 2007 to tell the Powers That Be at NBC what a disservice they’d be doing to loyal American TV-watchers by canceling the series, the revelation of the “secret” behind the premise, as recently revealed by Kevin McKidd in an interview with AOL’s InsideTV, will have to do:

“[The creator] Kevin Falls told me … that each episode was a procedural story where [my character, Dan Vasser] would help that person and get them back on track. All those people that he helps … have to be in that position that Dan gets them into for his son. It’s not about Dan. This is about Zack, Dan’s son, who has some kind of special power. Whatever it is that’s controlling this needs all of these people to be in a certain position or alignment for Zack, [so that] when he comes of age, his power erupts … It was all about getting his son to the place that these people could help him achieve this power and help the world.”

(And I suppose there’s also some consolation in that the discontinuing of this show allowed Kevin McKidd to be inserted into the cast of a then-scuffling Grey’s Anatomy as half of my favorite Grey’s couple!)

AIN’T IT A SHAME: NBC’s ridiculous remake of Knight Rider lasted longer than an insulting 13 episodes and was actually granted a DVD release.

GO GET IT: Watch it | Buy It (Not currently available on DVD or Blu-Ray)

2 | Kings

NETWORK: NBC
EPISODES: 12
RUN: March-July 2009

PREMISE: A re-envisioning of the biblical story of King Saul and David, Kings follows David (Chris Egan) in a modern-day, alternate reality as he defeats a “Goliath”, saves the king’s son (Sebastian Stan), and is branded a national hero by his country’s people. King Silas (Ian McShane), king of Gilboa, takes the young, humble champion under his wing and appoints him as the voice of Gilboa’s military, and essentially the voice of the king himself. As country boy David attempts to settle into big-city life and come to terms with his sovereign’s tyrannical tendencies, jealousies arise among the country’s first family and those closely associated with them—specifically, David. The mounting tension leads to chaos within the kingdom and young David Shepherd soon realizes he is in over his head, but can’t find a way out.

PRIDE & GLORY: Spirituality. Don’t get me wrong. Every single thing about this show absolutely rocked! From the acting and writing to the sets, costumes, and editing. Everything. But the one element the viewer really takes out of Kings is the spirituality of it all. I’m not necessarily talking about the term in a religious or biblical sense, but in terms of life and its lessons learned and how powerful and important they are, much of them hitting close to home. The characters (most loose portrayals of biblical counterparts) represent humanity’s extremes—persons we should strive to be and persons we should take heed not to emulate. Still, each one is relatable and I found myself feeling sympathetic toward each at some point in the series. Despite several references to God and speakings of “signs” from God, the show ultimately refrains from shoving its religious undertones in the viewer’s face and even seems to stray away from the holy book in some facets. It’s because of that, I truly think, regardless of one’s beliefs, Kings is a fantastical story that nearly anyone can easily become invested in—after all, it is based on what is considered to be one of the greatest stories ever told.

IN AN EPISODE: It’s virtually pointless to guide you to just one episode that embodies every element of the show because, really, every episode does. Honestly, once you watch the pilot, you won’t want to stop watching.

THE STORY: As far as this list goes, I’d consider Kings the most hidden gem of them all. I remember when the show first aired in early to mid- 2009, and I admit it: I didn’t watch. Though I now recognize and regret such an oversight on my part, I also realize it didn’t have to be. Let’s forget the fact that NBC buried the religious-themed show on Sunday nights and during the summer, no less.  The more pressing issue is more extensive than that. When it comes to getting the word out about a television show, there are essentially two means production companies rely on: advertisements and critics. I, personally, tend to be swayed more heavily by previews and commercials, since they allow me to analyze the content for myself, as opposed to relying on another person’s opinions to dictate my viewing habits. Simply put, the reason I—and I’m sure the rest of Kings’ non-watchers—didn’t tune in was the complete and utter lack of good publicity on NBC’s part. I say “lack of good publicity” because there was publicity—I saw it; I heard it; I even mocked it—I just had absolutely no idea what the show was about! While the vast majority of critics expressed an overwhelming admiration for the show, they too seemed to fail when it came to elaborating on why. Truth be told, I only recently watched the show on hulu.com as part of my “research” for this feature—hesitating greatly before doing so, for fear of wasting my sweet time—and, as a result, I appear to have found one of my favorite shows of all time. I only now weep that its prolonged existence was not meant to be.

CONSOLATION: What good could possibly have come out of the cancelation of one of the most brilliant shows I’ve ever seen? Since as of this writing, very few of the show’s magnificent, yet little-known actors have yet to find work again, on TV or otherwise, I must assert that the only consolation would be that Kings get picked up by a more appreciative network and that it continue from where it left off. I could see it effortlessly lasting at least another two or three seasons.

AIN’T IT A SHAME: (See Journeyman)

GO GET IT: Watch it (avail. until Sept. 19, 2010) | Buy It (a bit pricey for a 3-disc set, but arguably well worth it!)

1 | Firefly

NETWORK: FOX
EPISODES: 14 (canceled after 11)
RUN: September-December 2002 (11 episodes); July 2003 (3 episodes)

PREMISE: In the words of Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion): “Here’s how it is: The Earth got used up, so we moved out and terra-formed a whole new galaxy of earths. Some rich and flush with the new technologies, some not so much. The Central Planets—[they] formed The Alliance—waged war to bring everyone under their rule. A few idiots tried to fight it. Among them, myself. I’m Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity. She’s a transport ship, Firefly class. Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher for some reason, and a bona fide companion. There’s a doctor, too, [who] took his genius sister outta some Alliance camp, so they’re keepin’ a low profile. You understand. You got a job? We can do it. Don’t much care what it is.”

PRIDE & GLORY: Concept. Witty dialogue. If Joss Whedon did not in fact invent the sci-fi-western, he at least deserves credit for legitimizing it as a bona fide genre. I’ve never been a fan of westerns and have rarely been interested in science fiction anything, but the blending of the genres strangely fascinated me. It was creative, original, and intriguing and I’d never seen anything like it before. The true heart of the show, though, was its clever and witty dialogue. The main characters were presented as rebels—essentially, renegades—and Whedon was not going to allow the censored vernacular by which network television shows were and still are ruled to limit their radical, outspoken personalities. The writer’s work-around became a uniquely creative mesh of Whedon’s made-up futuristic language (featuring curse words such as “gorram”), English, and Mandarin Chinese—adding an extra dose of awesome to Captain Reynolds’ spirited retorts and bully Jayne’s (Adam Baldwin) combative tantrums.

IN AN EPISODE: 1×08 “Out of Gas” – It felt like the first episode, or at least the second, revealing the backgrounds of Mal’s main crew and providing some insight into the relationships among them.

THE STORY: The episodes initially aired out of order on FOX, while three were never even broadcast until Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy) ran the series, adding in the three previously-unaired episodes, while playing them in the order Whedon intended. Friction between FOX and creator Joss Whedon was also likely to blame: one tiff Whedon allegedly had with FOX was that the network refused to air episodes in widescreen, the format in which Whedon had shot them and preferred them to be viewed.

CONSOLATION: Nearly three years after the series was axed by FOX, Joss Whedon gave Firefly fans the swan song they were pining for in the form of the follow-up movie, Serenity. If not for the death of one of TV’s most beloved characters (in my mind), I might have actually been able to consider it a worthy send off. For now (or until I come to terms with said character’s sudden death upon multiple reviews of the movie), the verdict is still out.

AIN’T IT A SHAME: FOX is actually willing to give the unique sci-fi-western genre another go around—and, no, it’s not a revamping of Firefly, nor is it from the mind of Joss Whedon.

GO GET IT: Watch it (first five episodes) | Buy it: Complete Series – DVD or Blu-ray / Serenity – DVD or Blu-ray

- Megan

“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”
(Howard Aiken)

Popularity: 2% [?]