The television industry is a cutthroat business. Of the plethora of shows that make it to the air, only a handful survive past their first season and even fewer last long enough to become considered successful. In recent years, however, some shows have been hauled out of mothballs after fan reception has been so great that the networks decided to give them a second chance.
For instance, Fox’s Family Guy was cancelled twice—only to be brought back after achieving record DVD sales and unprecedented popularity on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Another animated Fox offering—Futurama—was cancelled by Fox and then revived due to DVD sales, albeit on Comedy Central.
Considering that these shows were saved and brought back and that throughout the history of television shows like Star Trek and The X-Files were also saved thanks to fan intervention we’d like to offer this list of ten shows that were cancelled before their time and deserve a second chance.
10. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Capturing the dark grittiness of James Cameron’s T2 while ignoring the train wreck that was T3, this show revisited the series’ original hero – Sarah Connor – in her fight against the machines, protecting her son John who was destined to be the leader of the human resistance in the future war. The show debuted as a mid-season “filler” show in 2008 with only nine episodes in the first season.
In spite of this-or perhaps because of it-The Sarah Connor Chronicles immediately gained a fanbase and scored in the top 50 ratings for its time slot with over 10 million viewers. Critical reception was positive and fan reception was favorable which locked in a second season.
With a full 22 episodes to produce, a broader, continuing story arc was introduced and more time was spent developing a teenage John’s humanity, taking him through a series of young adult storylines (read: Teen angst) while simultaneously tackling the issue of cancer. These types of stories are necessary for character development; however, in the case of The Sarah Connor Chronicles the characters were not given a chance to develop.
The second season did not fare as well as the first, pulling in only half of the viewers reported for season 1, and the Fox network announced the show would not be renewed for a third season – to the dismay of fans, the show ended on a cliff hanger and left many unresolved plot lines. Cancelled before its time, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a bright spot in the Terminator story and deserves another chance – and fans deserve a resolution to the cliff hanger.
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21 Comments
Dollhouse. Party Down. Bored to Death. I was always curious about Caprica. I’m about to start watching Deadwood. Even though Buffy and Angel both had long runs, especially Buffy, they were ready to keep going with plans for the future, and although Buffy knew it was living on borrowed time those last 2 seasons, I think Joss had very little notice with Angel’s cancellation. I’ve been told The Dresden Files had much promise and was cut down before its time. I hope Community doesn’t need to be added to this list. Oh and did Arrested Development have too many episodes to qualify? Eh, screw it, it shoulda been number 2 :) I’m catching up on Alphas now, hopefully it gets to live up to its very exciting potential (unlike Heroes or The 4400). Carnivale actually makes me think of The 4400 in that they were both very intriguing but never seemed like they knew what to do with themselves, too damn slow.
Fun list. I miss Dead Like Me.
Excellent list. Let’s add Sports Night and Defying Gravity.
Surprised to see The Event wasn’t in there. That was a great show!
Yea The Event was a great show I would have loved a second season atleast!
Dark Angel?
Twin Peaks.
With some tweaking of course.
I was very sad when Reaper got canceled…on a very intriguing cliff-hanger no less! I also enjoyed Undeclared more than Freaks and Geeks, but obviously just a personal preference. I also would have loved more Drive, Veronica Mars, Awake, and Life. So baffled junk like Two and a Half Men is still going on though.
Even though it’s completely obvious, I was surprised Arrested Development didn’t make the list, but also glad you didn’t just go for the easy ones.
However, I’m still bitter Police Squad only lasted 5 episodes. :(
I’ve got to throw Cupid with Jeremy Piven into the mix. Great show, screwed over by ABC bouncing it all over the place before giving it the kiss of death in the 10pm slot on Saturday night.
Geez. Again I run into this site and it’s stupid ten pages for top ten lists. Stop doing this! The internet hates you for it!
Veronica Mars! The Killing!
Early Edition!
No Journeyman? Wow.Not even from a fan perspective I remember when it went off after 1 season everyone was confused
I know some might troll me, but i was expecting to see Heroes in there… i mean, it was an amazing series, and even though, it aired the episode “Brave New World” as a series finale, it was not worthy…i think some misdirection and the freaking screenwrite´s problem back in 2007 were the main reasons the series sunked
Um, Odyssey 5 anyone? My 2nd favorite sci-fi show ever… ended with a friggin’ cliffhanger.
And I really hoped you won’t put Firefly as #1. First, it’s so tiring to still keep hearing about FF. Second, while I really loved the show, it has a built-in flaw – it’s a Joss Whedon TV Series.
Which means, it would quickly descent into a series that’s 90% utterly boring filler, sometimes interrupted with one amazing episode. I mean, the last 2 episodes of FF were already not very good.
Case in point: Dollhouse – nice show, but really slow 1st season. After the producers knew they’ll get only one more season, they packed it with everything they had. I’ll much rather take 1 awesome season than 5 boring seasons. And Whedon tends to take the 2nd route.
John Doe???
Some people will argue with me on this one, but I honestly think Prison Break could have carried on for another season or two. Ok it didn’t end well but that’s because they were rushed by Fox especially when the third season got cut short. I just think they had alot of more tricks up their sleeves!
I was in the pilot of Terminator:SCC. Good riddance. I’m glad all the staff got paid for their hard work but it was a clusterf***.
Jericho shouls never have been cancelled.
Firefly.
/end
“John from Cincinnati”. Firefly Rulz. That’s all I wanted to share.