Premature Cancellation: Top 5 TV Shows That Were Taken Off Air Too Soon2

by A.J. Focht

The airwaves are going to get a lot less crowded over the course of the next year. Many long running TV shows are bowing out and opening up room for new series. Some big names including Smallville, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Entourage are currently in the process of wrapping up for good.

Not every TV show is given this opportunity however. Most shows never make it past puberty, and some are never given the chance to wrap things up elegantly even in old age. A lot are cancelled early with good reason. However, there are always those shows that were taken off air far before their prime. In memoriam of those that showed such promised before the axe came down, I present my top five shows cancelled far to soon:

5. Birds of Prey
This little gem aired on The WB back in 2002. The story followed Helena Kyle, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. Barbara Gordon (Oracle) and Dinah Redmond (Black Canary) also had main roles in the series. The action took place in New Gotham City, shortly after Batman has disappeared. Helena, Barbara, and Dinah work fighting crime and solving mysteries involving powerful meta-humans with the help of Detective Jesse Reese.

The show was an interesting response to the success of Smallville the year before. It maintained strong ratings, and had the largest 18-34 audience demographic on the network at the time. Still, somehow it came and went without much notice.

4. Eli Stone
San Francisco attorney Eli Stone was one of the best lawyers on TV. It might help a little that he was also a prophet. That’s right, if you believed his best friend and acupuncturist, he was fully sanctioned prophet for the big guy upstairs (whoever that may be). And for those atheist naysayers, like Eli Stone himself, he was just a guy with a brain aneurism who had some bizarre – but very entertaining and helpful – visions. No matter how you chose to look at it, Eli Stone was a fantastic show.

Eli received visions from his aneurism that gave him insight into the cases he should take. Many times, these visions came in the form of a song and dance number (several classic episodes notably featured George Michael). In a way, Eli Stone’s musical numbers are a pre-cursor to the musical styling of Glee. Eli Stone brought the perfect combination of comedy and drama. The first season is fantastic, but the second season feels rushed. It’s as if the networks gave them about half a season’s notice on the cancellation, so, they tried to cram what feels like two or three seasons in to the last batch of episodes. I can only imagine how great it would have been if they were given a chance to flesh out the storyline properly.

3. Freaks and Geeks
Judd Apatow’s comic genius was given only one season for Freak and Geeks. The show followed two groups of teens (the freaks and geeks) through their high school experience in 1980. Many of Apatow’s posse of actors got their start on the show including Seth Rogan, James Franco, and Jason Segel. Each of the eighteen episodes is a gem. Just like his other short-lived series, Undeclared, Freaks and Geeks gained its own cult following. While the loss of the show sucked, it opened the door for all of our favorite Judd Apatow movies.

2. Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and Firefly
There are a few lessons everyone has to learn in their lives. For the good of all the fanboys and girls out there, I hope Joss Whedon learned his: Don’t work with Fox. They are responsible for canceling two of Whedon’s greatest projects, Firefly and Dollhouse. While I could complain for hours about the atrocity of taking either of these shows off air, I will refrain and focus on the good. While it is unforgivable that Firefly was scrapped, Whedon was at least given a chance to wrap the series up with Serenity. And even though Dollhouse was shutdown in its second season, Whedon did a good job of wrapping things up (perhaps he was ready with an exit strategy the second time around). Like every brown coat, I dream of the day Firefly is put back on air; but in reality, I am just happy these show were given a chance to begin with (and that I have DVD access to them whenever I want).

1. Arrested Development
“…And now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together… It’s Arrested Development.”

Of all the shows Fox has cancelled over the years, cutting this critically acclaimed comedy might have been their biggest mistake. An all-star cast, including Jason Bateman and Michael Cera, make up the Bluth’s, a family of incestuously eccentric liars (who’ve apparently never laid eyes on a live chicken).

From the start, critics praised Arrested Development, and the series won several awards. The ratings, however, did not live up to the critical reception. The show’s cult following was all but absent during its actual run on Fox. It only ran for three seasons, each season shorter than the last. The final season had only thirteen episodes, four of which were controversially mashed together and ran as the series finale, in opposition of the opening ceremony for The Winter Olympics. The good news is, the long awaited Arrested Development movie is finally going to see production.