Best Television Shows That Ended (were cancelled) Too Soon

every year some great tv show gets cancelled because the numbers aren't good enough and the networks aren't willing to give it a chance to find/build it's audience (when Cheers and Seinfeld premiered they both had awful ratings. and we know how those turned out). often the network has some blame in the low ratings as well (poor scheduling, moving it around, no promotion, etc...).

sure, sometimes a network will stick with a great show despite the numbers. but for every Friday Night Lights, Hill Street Blues, Arrested Development (at least for a little while) and 30 Rock there are multiple shows that don't get the opportunity. like this week with tnt cancelling Men Of A Certain Age. that move inspired this sad list of the best tv shows that were cancelled too soon...

1: EZ Streets

whenever the topic of great television shows that got cancelled too soon, this is always the show i mention first. the show was dark and complex and original and i was hooked from the first moment i saw it. EZ Streets is one of my favorite shows of all time and they only aired eight episodes.

2: Men Of A Certain Age

the show that inspired this list. was one of the best shows on tv but tnt cancelled it. yet they continue to air episodes of Franklin & Bash!

3: The Black Donnelleys

again paul haggis got screwed! the creator of EZ Streets came back years later with The Black Donnelleys and again it was a great show. and again the network (nbc this time) killed it

4: Life

this was a really good show for many reasons, one of which was lead actor damian lewis and the really interesting character created for him/by him.

5: Sports Night

along with Arrested Development Sports Night is one of the two shows from this list that i hear other people mention when talking about great/lesser-known/cancelled too soon tv.

6: Arrested Development

this is probably the one on the list that is the most obvious. it lasted as long as it did because of how great it was.

7: Detroit 1-8-7

michael imperioli and the rest of the cast were great and the show did a good job of writing good single episodes while also developing characters and story lines and relationships over the course of the season. i looked forward to seeing this one sitting on my dvr every week (if i wasn't home to watch it live) and things were really getting good as the season ended. and then abc cancelled it!

8: Journeyman

this is a show that actually took me a couple episodes to get into. at first it seemed like it was going to be just one-off episodes with the main character going back in time and fixing things. but as the show developed there was much more to it than that. but then it was cancelled

9: Dead Like Me

i discovered this show a few years after it had already been cancelled. however, for some reason i didn't know that when i started watching it (on the recommendation of one of our podcast listeners). well, needless to say i really enjoyed it and after finishing season two i went to go try to find season three only to find out that there was no season three and there never would be!

10: John From Cincinnati

david milch is one of the creators of the great NYPD Blue and he also created Deadwood which ran for three seasons (although many would say that show ended too soon also). and he is currently working on bringing us his new show Luck (set in the world of horse racing). but often completely forgotten in his list of credits is John From Cincinnati.

11: The West Wing

ya, i know The West Wing lasted 7 seasons. and that's why it is last on the list. but, just because it had a good run, doesn't mean it wasn't cancelled too soon. that final season with alan alda and jimmy smits running against each other was a great season and it felt like the show had gotten a second wind (it had slipped a little after arron sorkin left at the end of the fourth season). and then it was over

Comments

[Amber]

I have to add some sci-fi (syfy?) here and mention Firefly- fantastic space cowboy show starring one of my favorite actors: Nathan Fillion and Flashforward- just on last year and intriguing enough that I still think about it and wonder where it was going. I also really enjoyed a BBC series called Survivors about what happens after 95% or more of humanity is wiped out by a virus. It only had 12 episodes but my brother convinced me to watch it anyway and I'm so glad, it was worth it.

[Jesse]

ya i had forgotten about Flashforward. i was watching it and had a bunch of episodes sitting on my dvr ready to go when they cancelled it. i thought the concept was really interested and it had potential...
as for Survivors: there is another bbc show of the same name that was made in the 70s (three seasons and 38 episodes)... the 2008 series you watched, says wikipedia: "According to the producers, the series is not a remake of the 1970s BBC television series Survivors (1975–1977), created by terry nation but is loosely based on the novel of the same name that Nation wrote following the first season of the 1970s series."

you might want to check that one out.