Star Trek, Heroes, and the 7 Best Cancelled Shows

Culture
ByAngie Colosimo

How many hours do you spend watching television a week? 12 hours? 21? Maybe even 80 hours? What do you watch? Reality TV, infomercials, cartoons, soaps? Or do you only watch your favorites such as Criminal Minds, Jersey Shore, Rookie Blue, Bones, or The Bachelorette? How upset would you be if your show was cancelled out of the blue? I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when some of my favorite shows went off the air before their time. 

Here is a list of 7 shows that, in my opinion, ended way too early.

1. My So Called Life

Do you remember My So Called Life? When the American teen drama aired in 1994 I was only one-year-old, and I was only two when it was cancelled. Recently, after watching most of the old episodes I was confused as to why the show wasn’t still running! This show brought up important issues in every young adult’s life: homophobia, child abuse,teenage alcoholism and homelessness to name a few. My So Called Life brought a realistic take on the problems and conflicts teenagers had to endure in the 90’s without making a giant production of them.

 2.  Freaks and Geeks

What about Freaks and Geeks? The 1999 teen dramedy was about (put simply), fitting in. It followed a brother and sister on their path through high school battling the social norms of the 1980’s. This show only had 18 episodes but from the episodes I watched, you can see that the show dealt with everything with a dose of witty humor.Freaks and Geeks was entertaining as well as informative to teenagers of that time and it deserved another few seasons.

Those two are some of the oldies, but what about some of the new shows that were cancelled without ever really starting?

3. Breakout Kings

You would think that after it first premiered in 2011 and became the most-watched original drama series in A&E’s history that Breakout Kings  would have stayed running for another few seasons. This drama series, about ex cons teaming up with U.S. Marshals to help capture escaped fugitives, was canceled leaving 3.1 million viewers holding onto a cliff hanger. One of those fans was my sister, who I heard yelling profanities at the computer for ten minutes after she found the show was no longer running. While I can honestly say that the show was thrilling and intriguing, I also found there was no substance to the characters. Maybe the powers that be felt that way too.

4. A Gifted Man

This was one of my favorite series last year and was just recently cancelled by CBS. Having premiered late September 2011 the show only aired a total of 16 episodes. The series is about a skilled, self-absorbed surgeon, who begins to question his life and his role in the world when he starts seeing his dead ex-wife. Unfortunately, it was no match for the ratings. The show displayed fantastic acting by Patrick Wilson as Michael Holt (the attractive, blue eyed and blond surgeon), but most of the shows' viewers felt that the story lost its touch and slowed, down near episode eight or nine.  

5. Heroes

I must say this was an interesting series. Only living through four seasons, I was curious as to the journey this band of special and talented misfits would go on. The frail thin story line, in my opinion, showed that the writers did not think out the story's development. They chose a route by which they could create more plot lines and characters, but they never figured out what to do with them.

6. The River

This new series premiered in February 2012 and ended just as quickly as it started due to poor ratings. This American paranormal, horror, action “found-footage” television series only saw eight episodes before it was cancelled in March by ABC. Not a bad show in my book, personally I expected more out of the story which is about a famous explorer named Dr. Emmet Cole who mysteriously disappears during an expedition in the Amazon looking for “magic”. The show was dropped after six or seven episodes. While the thrill of the “unknown” had me on my feet half the time, as did the beautiful footage of the lush and vibrant Amazon, it wasn’t enough to keep me, let alone the other 3.99 million viewers, satisfied.

7. Firefly

As a Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica lover myself, I was devastated when Firefly went off the air. Although I think Nathan Fillion has a somewhat goofy face, that didn’t stop me from falling head over heels for the show. Yes it only raked in 4.7 million viewers but that’s no reason to cancel it! Ok … maybe that’s a huge reason to cancel it. The show was about nine crew members of the Serenity, a firefly-class spaceship in the year 2517, traveling through this new star system. Sadly it only aired 11 out of the 14 episodes made. Despite the imaginative story and the eccentric acting the show lacked organization. With the episodes being aired out of order and the story plot being too wide ranged, it made sense for Fox network to cancel the show. I guess we'll just have to re-watch Battlestar Galactica for now.

I felt a certain betrayal when these series went off air. These characters were a part of my life. I felt their pain and watched them struggle and climb those hills and mountains to reach their goals. But I know new shows are coming and there will be more shows . So let's not dwell on the old stuff, and instead look forward to the new. What were your favorite shows that went off the air too soon?