CS Weekly Archive > The Big Picture > 6/10/05

One-Year Wonders:
The Seven Best Cancelled TV Shows on DVD
(1999-2004)

by jason davis

With TV's rapacious ratings race and a multitude of competing channels, sometimes the good shows slip past -- or don't last long enough for you to catch them. Jason Davis gives you a head start on catching up on some of the best TV that never made it to the syndication finish line.

Second chances are a wonderful thing. This is especially true in the cutthroat world of television, where a new show often has a mere three or four weeks to garner acceptable ratings or find itself cancelled, it's unaired episodes consigned to the realm of unrealized possibilities (or, once in a while, Trio). That, as they say, used to be that. The episodes that made it to the air would be lovingly hoarded by those who had the foresight to videotape the initial airings, and the unseen shows would be briefly wondered about until the next doomed offering gripped the audience's attention before prematurely biting the dust.

Happily, cancelled TV shows have found an afterlife on DVD. The format offers viewers a chance to see what they missed while providing the studios some consolation for the money they spent on these supposed failures. Now the audience that never had the chance can take a look at these offerings and make their own judgment on shows that just might have been too good for TV. With that in mind, here are a selection of shows that didn't even make the full season mark before finding their timeslots squatted in by repeats of popular perennials.

Crusade (1999)
Created by J. Michael Straczynski
A spin-off of Straczynski's epic five-year Babylon 5, Crusade followed the adventures of an eclectic starship crew seeking a cure to a disease poised to wipe out all life on Earth. An archaeological science fiction series centered on Captain Matthew Gideon (Gary Cole), who gambled the lives of his crew on the cryptic messages he received from a sinister alien artifact concealed in his quarters. The wonderfully drawn characters, including an exiled sorcerer (Peter Woodward), an arrogant corporate archaeologist (David Allen Brooks), and an alien thief from an extinct species (Carrie Dobro) were carefully designed to drive a variety of stories with a maximum of drama. Sadly, after only five standout installments were in the can, TNT shut down production to re-tool the show. A mixed bag of eight creatively compromised stories were then produced before the series was cancelled -- before a single episode had even aired. Luckily, the success of B5 on DVD led to a lean Crusade set featuring a handful of featurettes and a couple of commentaries. Alas, Straczynski's no-holds-barred commentary recorded for the original pilot episode was subsequently edited to obscure his account of the network's interference with his series. Per his wishes, all future pressings of the DVD will omit the truncated track, leaving the true history of the series untold.

Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)
Created by Paul Feig
Nominated for a writing Emmy a year after it was cancelled (one episode aired in the summer, qualifying it for the following year's ceremonies), Freaks and Geeks chronicled the lives of teenagers Sam and Lindsay Weir (John Francis Daley, Linda Cardellini) as they attend McKinley High School in '80s Michigan. Filled with more embarrassing moments and teenaged terror than any show has the right to visit upon unsuspecting viewers, the series truly captured the essence of the high school experience for those of the titular categories. Honest dialogue, uncompromising humor, and memorable moments abound, but several schedule migrations made sure that the show wouldn't find an audience. Still, the faithful were duly rewarded when the show's producers put together a grass roots movement to release the series on DVD. Perhaps the most astonishing presentation of a television series the format has ever seen, Freaks and Geeks features more commentaries than there are episodes, hours of excised material, and (if the special yearbook edition is purchased) more series ephemera then one could shake a stick at. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that a week's vacation would be needed to fully digest this televisual feast.

Firefly (2002)
Created by Joss Whedon
From the mind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Joss Whedon came an irreverent hybrid of the western and science fiction genres. After ending up on the losing side of a galactic civil war, Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) abandoned civilization for the frontier where he could work in smuggling…er…shipping aboard his dilapidated starship, Serenity. Unfortunately for Reynolds, a mysterious passenger (Sean Maher) and his cargo (Summer Glau) lead to serious complications that kickstart this Western story with SF trappings. Whedon and his writers are masters of characterization, and Firefly backs their status with a host of memorable personalities. Like the previous Whedon productions, the show steers nimbly down the drama-comedy divide, specializing in offbeat humor at the most tension-filled moments. Episodes like "Out of Gas" and "Objects in Space" highlight the show's potential but failed to inspire Fox executives. The DVD release, assured by the cult of Whedon's fanatical devotion to the show, is rich with writer commentaries and features a healthy overview of the show's production. Serenity, a feature film continuing the Firefly crew's adventures, is due in theatres later this year.

Miracles (2003)
Created by Michael Petroni and Richard Hatem
After a career of debunking miracles for the Catholic church, Paul Callan (Skeet Ulrich) sees a message in his own blood and joins a group dedicated to exploring mysteries that point to a higher power's presence in the world. Co-creator Richard Hatem crafted the pilot from a feature script by Michael Petroni; when former Angel showrunner David Greenwalt arrived to work on the series, Miracles' quality was assured. At first glance, Miracles seems to echo The X-Files in its investigation-of-the-week format, and though it does feature a coalescing mythology in the background of several episodes, the series was much more centered on character than story. The various mysteries presented provided a lens through which the audience could view Paul Callan's subtle steps into a broader philosophical world. Recently brought to DVD by the folks at Shout! Factory (responsible for the previous year's Freaks and Geeks extravaganza), the set boasts commentary for half the episodes, along with deleted scenes and interviews with the minds behind the show.

Wonderfalls (2004)
Created by Todd Holland & Bryan Fuller
Fox's secular take on the girl who hears voices subgenre (shared with CBS's Joan of Arcadia), Wonderfalls centered on Gen Y slacker Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas) who begins to hear cryptic messages from a variety of animal-themed knickknacks. Often misinterpreting the comments as a result of her self-centered worldview, the ambitionless retail clerk inadvertently finds herself making a difference in a world she could generally care less about. Starring an uproariously sarcastic misanthrope, Wonderfalls manages to tell a complete story across its thirteen episodes. Credit for this closure is due to former Firefly executive producer Tim Minear, who, heartbroken by the Western's abrupt cancellation, decided to build in a satisfactory ending to his next project in order to fulfill his own desire for completion. Stacked with commentaries from the show's creators and a featurette detailing the show's evolution from concept to cancellation, Fox Home Video makes amends for its network sibling's short-sightedness.

Keen Eddie (2003)
Created by J.H. Wyman
A study in cultural collisions, Keen Eddie followed the titular New York Detective Eddie Arlette (Mark Valley) to the UK, where his wisecracking, rule-bending ways find themselves under scrutiny from his Scotland Yard counterparts. The fish-out-of-water clichés the set-up would suggest are overcome by impeccable dialogue and social commentary disguised as run-of-the-mill schedule fodder. Outrageous plots and a skillful disregard for the usual TV conventions combine to deliver a fast-paced romp through an ostensibly alien world in the company of the most irritating ambassador America has to offer. Sadly, the DVD release fails to offer any supplemental material to contextualize the series or its origins, but the extant episodes are more than enough enticement to sample an adventure from across the pond.

Kingdom Hospital (2004)
Developed for U.S. television by Stephen King
Based on the mini-series The Kingdom written by Lars Von Trier and Niels Vorsel
Adapted from the Danish miniseries chronicling the strange goings on at a haunted hospital, Stephen King's American adaptation was a unique endeavor in American television. The entire season was scripted before a single frame of film was shot, allowing King and co-writer Richard Dooling the luxury of layering in subtle foreshadowing of future events while contributing a measured evolution to the show's strange cast of mysterious characters. There's a marvelous specificity that comes from a definite knowledge of narrative progression, and the cohesion added by a lone director tackling each installment really reinforces the writing's homogenous quality. Though a second season was suggested by the final scenes, ABC clearly considered the experiment a failure and the series quickly ambled off to DVD, where its subtextual flavors could be sampled by a more discerning connoisseur of quality entertainment. An array of extras focus on the unusual challenges the show's block-shooting schedule imposed while offering insights on the benefits to starting production with a season's scripts in hand.

So, what bygone executive abortions of genius can we look forward to on the horizon? The aforementioned David Greenwalt's co-creation, Profit is due from Anchor Bay. Airing only a few episodes on Fox in the mid-'90s, Profit was much praised by critics, though half the people who talk about it seem never to have seen a single episode. [Ed. note: I saw Profit when it originally aired, and heartily recommend this dark Shakespearean take on How to Sociopathically Succeed in Business Without (Necessarily) Killing. Also want to put in a plug for the currently available and quietly brilliant Boomtown, another one-year wonder (plus a few second season switch-up eps).] [Asst. Ed. Note: Since we're interjecting here, allow me to give a shout out to Ben Edlund's maniacally surreal The Tick, and express my fervent wish that somebody would put Andy Richter Controls the Universe out on disc already.][Ed. Note: I can't believe you hijacked my hijacking, David. Damn, you Texans are as sneaky as you look.] Undeclared, the improvised follow-up to Freaks and Geeks by executive producer Judd Apatow, will receive a similarly loaded treatment from Shout! Factory. Still, a wealth of short-lived shows remain, entombed in the vaults of their respective studios. Shaun Cassidy's small-town terror, American Gothic, and Karl Schaefer's quirky Strange Luck leap to mind…

At the age of 21, Jason Davis was hit in the face with a car. He has since devoted his life to writing. His words have appeared on TBS, MSN.com, and CS Weekly, where he serves as DVD Coordinator. He lives in Burbank.

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