Pop Vultures

With television renewals for next year coming fast and furious, diehard fans of certain shows are starting to get a bit nervous. They can’t shut down Friday Night Lights! How I Met Your Mother can’t end before we meet the mother! Cavemen shouldn’t be made history…nah, I can’t even pretend to care about that one. But, on the whole, these shows have at least been given a chance to prove their worth and accrue an audience. In the past, some of television’s best shows were yanked off the air after a measly handful of episodes. Today’s Friday 5 looks at the shows that were canceled too soon. Many of these STILL have mourners.

5. Action
Why it was brilliant: Actionwas a blacker than black comedy and a merciless satire of Hollywood. Starring Jay Mohr as uber-producer Peter Dragon (imagine Brett Ratner and Jerry Bruckheimer had a short, snarky love child), the series focused on Dragon’s attempts to get his latest blockbuster, Beverly Hills Gun Club, from development to the screen. Naturally, this involved Russian mafia producers, drug-addled starlets, and a hooker with a heart of gold. The show was rude, crude, explicit, and hysterical. It’s also, to the best of my knowledge, the only TV-on-DVD set that still holds an NC-17 rating.
Why it was canceled: Fox, the network that brought you Married by America and The Littlest Groom, was always a bit nervous about the reception of this envelope-pushing sitcom. After all, some people might consider it tasteless! It was all well and good when the show’s publicity helped cement Fox’s reputation as the “edgy” network, but the network never fully committed itself to the risky show. Action only aired for eight episodes. When the ratings failed to impress the execs, they deemed America unready for such a raunchy comedy and pulled it.

4. Grosse Point
Why it was brilliant: Much like Action, Grosse Pointe told the behind-the-scenes story of Hollywood, this time focusing on a Beverly Hills 90210-inspired nighttime soap. Considering that Grosse Point was produced by Darren Star, who also worked on 90210, the parallels between the shows were undeniable. Aaron Spelling actually called the WB to complain about the portrayal of Marcy Sternfeld, the transparently Tori Spelling-esque costar. The show was clever and catty and managed to confirm everything we suspected went on behind the scenes at 90210. It turns out Shannen Doherty was a crazy bitch and Jim Walsh was a pervert. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.
Why it was canceled: Despite the fact that it was the funniest thing ever shown on the WB (since 7th Heaven was unintentional comedy, it doesn’t count), the show never really caught on. Maybe the niche of “90210 fans wanting to mock their favorite show” was a bit too narrow for a network program. Although 18 episodes were aired, the show never earned decent ratings and was given the ax — an especially sad fate when you consider that it was replaced by the painfully unfunny (if more successful) Reba.

3. My So-Called Life
Why it was brilliant: Perhaps you’ve heard of this little show about teenagers in a fictional Pennsylvania high school. Twelve years after it was canceled, My So-Called Life still has a devoted fan base. It turns out that people really want to know whether Angela stays with dreamboat Jordan Catalano or sees the allure of the devoted Brian Krakow. These are what we call invested fans — I can’t think of anything I’ve held onto for twelve years. In large part, the appeal of this show lay in its effort to present teens realistically. Not only were the actors age-appropriate, but they captured the confusion, angst and desperate joy of adolescence perfectly. And for those that weren’t interested in a quality drama, they could still tune in to see Jared Leto playing the most perfect teenage rebel ever (sorry, Luke Perry). Thanks to this show, a whole new generation of girls were warped by the belief that true love could rescue the bad boy.
Why it was canceled: The show was put up against the NBC powerhouse of Friends and always struggled to earn decent ratings. Still, there was so much support for a second season that the network might have taken a risk — if Claire Danes had been on board. The then-teenage actress found herself overwhelmed by the demands of starring in a weekly television show and expressed reluctance to return for a second season. When news of this got out, fans were outraged. Never before had a 16-year-old actress been so vilified by so many. I’d feel sorry for her, but considering the film choices she’s made since, I’m thinking Danes should have stayed with the show.

2. Firefly
Why it was brilliant: Well, it was written by Joss Whedon, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. In addition to smart dialog, Firefly had an interesting concept (space western!) and extremely likable characters, including Adam Baldwin in the breakout role of Jayne Cobb. Though it was something of an unstable mess in the beginning, it was an interesting, creative and captivating mess. As the show settled into its stride a bit, the high energy of the earlier episodes was able to focused a bit, producing some of the smartest, funniest sci-fi episodes TV has ever seen. It was immediately canceled, of course.
Why it was canceled: Freaking Fox and its Friday night slot of doom struck again. Despite having already lost every quality sci-fi show scheduled in that time slot, the execs decided that the one time the young, urban target audience for this show would be sure to watch it was Friday night. I’m beginning to think that Fox has an image of the sci-fi geek as a friendless, dateless wonder who stays home on weekends, communicating via Internet chat rooms and desperately waiting for the next sci-fi show to air. Fox was, of course, wrong, and the show never did well in the ratings. It didn’t help that the network had so little faith in the show that it aired episodes out of order and frequently preempted it for sporting events. In the end, the show was axed after eleven episodes had aired. On the plus side, it did get a feature film, which is more than these other shows can claim.

1. Freaks and Geeks
Why it was brilliant: Much like My So-Called Life, Freaks and Geeks presented a realistic version of adolescence and, in many ways, schooled MSCL on how it should be done — reality, but funnier. Set in the early 80s, the show focused on the lives of the “freaks” and “geeks” of high school, characters to whom anyone who has ever been a teenager should be able to partially relate. The attention to detail was impressive, from the period-accurate clothing (striped shirts and military coats, oh my) to the soundtrack choices — after all, in the early 80s, what else could a man use to serenade a woman other than Styx’s “Lady”? The acting, writing and direction were all subtle and believable. Filled with awkward pauses, realistic fights, and cringe-inducing humor, it often felt like you were reliving your adolescence from the sofa. Perhaps that’s why it struggled to find viewers: no one really wants to go back to high school.
Why it was canceled: As always, it was a ratings issue, though it didn’t help that NBC kept moving it around and replacing it with sports. The marketing of the show was also problematic, making it unclear how universal the show’s themes were. It seemed people felt they had to be either a freak or a geek to truly understand and appreciate the show, and not enough people wanted to admit to being one or the other (myself, I’m both, though I alternate on a weekly basis). In the end, 12 episodes aired before it was canceled. Oddly enough, this subtle, clever show has spawned some of the broadest comedy of the decade, as it launched Judd Apatow’s and Seth Rogan’s career. If only NBC had seen fit to keep this show on the air, we might never have been exposed to the crowning scene in Knocked Up. I can only imagine that better world.

What about you? Do you still miss any of these shows? And which ones would you bring back, if you could?