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Series that only lasted 1 or 2 seasons before the axe that had potenti


cunningham1471
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Hi all.

 

I'm sure we've al watched shows and though this is good and then down comes the axe and it gets cancelled before it really had a chance to get going.

 

Which shows do you think had potential but never really got a shot?

 

First on my list is going to be a rare home produced dram (at that time) by Sky... Hex

The first series was a bit rocky as it was finding it's feet. However the second series was much better and had direction. If it had made it to a third series I think it could really have started to get noticed.

 

Second show on the list... She Wolf of London.

This show was stupid but so much fun. Basically think budget range episodic version of "An American werewolf in London" with the humour of "Primeval" and you get the jist of the thing. The show was never going to run and run for eight or nine series but could have made it to four or five I feel.

I think it was hampered by the time it was made in the late eighties, early nineties. The SFX for what there were, were crap. Had it been made five or six years later things would have been different thanks to CGI.

 

So that's two shows. which shows did you think I'm really enjoying this, only to see it get pulled after one or two series?

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Hex was really good i also thought it found its feet in season two and ive always fancied watching She Wolf of London :smile: The three shows i think got cancelled to early are Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles it had a great storyline and was just hitting its stride when it got axed it had loads of great stories that could have been told if it went to season 3 there was talk of a tv movie to wrap things up but no word about it for over a year,second show Wolf Lake another show with a good storyline and great

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atmosphere to it :smile: Third show Special Unit 2 a good action scifi show with good comedy elments micheal landes and alexondra lee were great as det o'malley and benson :D P.S. forgot to add Stargate Universe a great show that was diffrent from SG1 and Atlantis but was good in its own right and mayby unfairly compared to them the Godlike aliens and the message in the cosmic radition storyline was good and had a potential to go on for two or three more seasons there were hoping for a tv movie to wrap it up

 

to wrap up the story (there was also talk of a SG1,SGA and SGU movie which would have been amazing )but it was turned down.

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Firefly

Stargate Universe

Dollhouse

 

Without question the best shows I've seen that were just finding their feet but weren't given a chance to develop and ended promising so much more.

 

I'd also maybe add V and Terra Nova. Interesting as they were, not sure how much further they could have gone.

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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - I watched it but thought it was starting to sag rather than get better by the second series. By the second series Summer Glau's character was getting less and less to do. Once they were no longer running from an Terminator her character became irrelevent.

 

Wolf Lake, Special Unit 2, Brimstone and Journeyman - Never heard of them.

 

Firefly - saw a couple of episodes. wasn't impressed.

 

Dollhouse - I expected this and Firefly to be mentioned because there are so many Whedon fans on these boards. lol I watched about 3/4 of this series and just couldn't get into it. But I find that with everything Whedon has done including Buffy and Angel.

 

Tru Calling - The introduction of Luke Perry (I think it was) in the second series gave the show more direction and made it more interesting. Without him I think it was very similar each week.

 

Stargate: Universe - I saw the first series and a half of Stargate SG-1 and liked it but never got around to seeing the rest. I never tried the various spin off series which I assume were very similar.

 

V - Loved the original mini series. When it turned into an episodic weekly series it turned to pants very quickly. Then you get the remake which in my opinion didn't work as well. Each time I saw it all I could think of was Gene Roddenberry's: Earth Final Conflict.

 

American Gothic - I agree this series had a lot of promise. I think it was of it's age which worked in it's favour. Too many shows today are trying to have so many sub-plots and underlaying themes and mysteries that IMO they start trying to be too clever for their own good. American Gothic didn't do do that and was better for it.

 

Alien Nation - I agree this show was good. I liked that the aliens had already arrived and were part of society. Straight away it made it stand out form all the shows that have the aliens turn up and straight away there is a resistance to get rid of them. The TV movies were ok but not must see if you saw the series IMO.

 

War of the Worlds - This was a funny show. The first series was ok and plodded along a little repetative each week but you sensed that it was going somewhere. Then the second series came along and it just went odd IMO. It changed so much from the first series. In many ways it was as if the first series hadn't happened.

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Another show to add to the list... Demons.

 

This show was really bad and got slaughered, but if you look past the silly stories, bad acting and Philip Glenister's really bad American accent, the show had something that could have worked.

This was obvioulsy supposed to appeal to the people that liked Merlin and Primeval, but it just didn't. Maybe ot was bad scheduling. Maybe it was because it was too silly and too lightweight. Perhaps it was because the first episode was just really bad.I think the biggest problem for many people was people assumed it was going to be the British version of Buffy. If people were expecting that then they were being foolish. No british show can compete with the US shows as they don't have the money behind them.

If you watch the last episode you see that things were starting to look a lot better. You had a sense that had it been recommisioned the second series would have been a lot tighter with a proper story arc for that series and not so bitty like this series was.

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Journeyman was definitely one of my favourites in recent years that was cancelled. I really thought it could've been a modern day Quantum Leap, and had some great stories. I still watch it from time to time.

 

The most recent big loss is probably The Fades.

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Besides the ones already mentioned, these are my picks:

 

I was loving Eastwick and was annoyed that it got left on a cliffhanger, it had plenty of potential and a good cast.

 

I also really liked The Ex List which only ended up having 3 or 4 aired episodes. I hate that in the US they cut shows off before they've even given them a chance to get going, it's impossible to judge a show on 3 episodes, I dont get how they can just cancel them so quickly.

 

Another show I liked that only got 1 season was The Forgotten with Christian Slater, that had plenty of potential for lots more seasons.

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top of my head

 

space above and beyond

firefly

ROME

chicago code

Boomtown

Odyssey 5

No ordinary family

human target

Arrested Development

star trek enterprise (ok they had4)

Deadwood

V

First wave

Crime traveller (yes! lol)

Spaced (they chose to end though no?)

 

 

 

im sure there are many more though

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Similar to other replies

 

Dark Angel

Firefly

Flash Forward

Sarah Connor Chronicles

Stargate Universe

Terra Nova

Tru Calling

 

and...

Crime traveller (yes! lol)
....I know :blush:

 

 

Stargate: Universe - I saw the first series and a half of Stargate SG-1 and liked it but never got around to seeing the rest. I never tried the various spin off series which I assume were very similar.
SGU was a spin off. SG-1 was the original tv series, followed by Stargate Atlantis (similar, just a different setting), and then SGU (very different from the previous two)
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forgot about flash forward, thanks 1of2 my anger had subsided, id forgotten about it, it seems, but now its back, im still angry about that being canned and the event coming out straight after. still upset!

 

 

and...

Crime traveller (yes! lol)
....I know :blush:

 

 

 

 

I loved it back in the day, chloe was gorgeous and brilliant and ive always thought french was a good leading man, they worked well together and i liked the premise. been a while since ive watched it though.

 

I loved crime traveller! And I liked demons, if phil didn't do the accent and there was a decent title sequence it'd have worked!

 

yer i agree

Edited by timelord81r
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:blush: Sorry. I didn't even bother watching it anymore once the cancellation was announced. I should really.

 

I loved it back in the day, chloe was gorgeous and brilliant and ive always thought french was a good leading man, they worked well together and i liked the premise. been a while since ive watched it though.
Chloe was very surprised when I gave her a Crime Traveller image to sign :WAVE:
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Stargate: Universe - I saw the first series and a half of Stargate SG-1 and liked it but never got around to seeing the rest. I never tried the various spin off series which I assume were very similar.
SGU was a spin off. SG-1 was the original tv series, followed by Stargate Atlantis (similar, just a different setting), and then SGU (very different from the previous two)

 

Thanks for that. By similar I meant set in the same universe and having the same feel, ethos etc. By the time Star Trek: Voyager turned up I was all Star Treked out! Star Trek: DS9 started off similar to the previous series but soon developed it's own identity with the whole Cardassian/Founders vs Federation war. It became a lot darker and almost more grown up. Similar to Babylon 5 at the time.

When I watched the first series of Star Trek: Voyager it was like a step backwards and could so easily have been early SNTG episodes. IMO they realised it wasn't working so brought in Seven of Nine out of desperation to save the show. I gave up quickly on that and didn't bother watching Enterprise as I though ho hum yet another similar Star Trek show.

 

 

 

 

I loved it back in the day, chloe was gorgeous and brilliant and ive always thought french was a good leading man, they worked well together and i liked the premise. been a while since ive watched it though.
Chloe was very surprised when I gave her a Crime Traveller image to sign :lol:

 

But did you tell her ...It's not for me it's for a "friend"? :P

Edited by cunningham1471
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I'm not a Whedon fan generally, but I thought Firefly was a fabulous show and a big loss when it was cancelled.

I thought James Woods' LA legal drama Shark was worth more than two series.

Aaron Sorkin's post West Wing series, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip was a marvellous, gripping series.

And I had a soft spot for the spoof sci-fi series Hyperdrive.

 

(As an aside, I know that neither Spaced nor Black Books were cancelled, but I could have happily sat through more episodes of both).

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