5. Day One
The ancient and unspeakable Gods that govern TV networks are fickle creatures. One moment they can be your best ally, they're ecstatic with the premise for your show, they're promising you a thirteen episode series in a prime time slot, they have faith and enthusiasm for the story you want to tell. In short, you think they've got your back. Then in an instant they can turn on you like a cornered pack of feral Pomeranians. Such was the case with NBCs much hyped end of the world, Lost-esque sci fi series "Day One". The plot revolved around a disparate group of (no doubt plucky yet troubled) characters banding together following the appearance of bizarre, monolithic structures that cause a worldwide cataclysm. So far, so very J.J Abrams. Aiming to fill the post-Olympics "Heroes" time slot, the show simply seemed to drop out of favour with NBC, with its initial thirteen episodes getting reduced to a four part mini-series then a one-off TV movie (the pilot plus concluding material) before eventually simply vanishing altogether, doomed to henceforth appear on nothing but incredibly niche pop culture lists such as this.