When I first got satellite TV, one of the stations I found was called Trio. Trio was a station that thrived on reruns, but not the same shows that most other stations showed… instead, their pool of shows tended to skew more towards the cultural or kitschy side of things. It was a great channel, and they had a block called "Brilliant But Cancelled", which ran episodes of shows that were on the air for extremely brief periods of time. Below the cut is a list of some of my favorite shows that lasted for a handful of episodes before getting the plug yanked on them.
CARTOON SUSHI (MTV, 1997-1998)
I love animation. It is an absolutely brilliant artform, and it’s one of the things that I truly enjoy. Cartoon Sushi was a continuation of sorts from MTV’s hit Liquid Television, which spawned Beavis & Butthead. While Cartoon Sushi had it’s own successful spinoff, Celebrity Deathmatch, the shorts were often hilarious. To this day, I can still quote the penguin "documentary" that was aired on this show ("The tallest penguin, the emperor penguin, is 40 feet tall. The smallest penguin, the fairy penguin, is gay"), and I barely remember what I had for dinner last night.
ROCKO’S MODERN LIFE (Nickelodeon, 1993-1996)
While I don’t know if a four-year run for an animated show is really something that can be considered a "short lifespan", Rocko’s Modern Life follows a classic formula in cartooning; write the show for adults and kids will love it. There were loads of double-entendres and adult jokes in Rocko’s Modern Life, enough adults got the humor in the show that they could enjoy it along with their children, which means better parenting overall. Or at least, that’s what I’m told. Rocko’s Modern Life has been sadly ignored by the wave of DVD releases of shows from the mid-1990s, and hopefully someone will consider rectifying that soon.
BOB PATTERSON (ABC, 2001)
I really have no reasoning for liking this show aside from the fact that Jason Alexander was involved, but I guess he will never be able to escape his stint as George Costanza on Seinfeld.
THE GEORGE CARLIN SHOW (FOX, 1994-1995)
Growing up, I loved George Carlin’s stand-up comedy. When I first started watching Carlin, he was the curmudgeonly grandfather everyone wishes they had, the guy that would set you straight and be funny while doing it. Then I started watching his earlier stuff and found that he has always been that kind of guy. So when The George Carlin Show arrived as a mid-season replacement in January 1994, I was thrilled. While it didn’t capture the same edge as his stand-up, it was a solid entrant into the TV realm, but I understand why it was taken off the air. That logo was hideous, though.
GET A LIFE (FOX, 1990-1992)
The holy grail of ridiculous comedy shows lost to mainstream ignorance is Get A Life, a Chris Elliot project which may be the best thing he ever did. In between Elliot’s character dying in one-third of the episodes, outright surreal humor, and gross-out comedy that even FOX in the early years couldn’t handle, Get A Life is a show that anyone who has seen it will remember. It’s an outright shame that the show has only had two out-of-print DVD releases which only contained a quarter of the series’ run. If you notice, almost all of the shows I’ve listed have no DVD release, something that hopefully this article can help change.
What are people saying about "Brilliant But Cancelled"?
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Axel Night Re: Brilliant But Cancelled Angel Wasn't Angel on the air for five seasons? Not too sure if that counts. |
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DrDetroit Re: Brilliant But Cancelled Angel had to go through a change of networks and Charisma Carpenter's ego, so I think those two things qualify it for an honorable mention here. I think the show was set up to go on indefinitely, but David Boreanaz aged about 50 years from the first season of Buffy to the end of Angel, and that's not very becoming of a guy who is supposed to be immortal. Still, I think the show could've used a couple more years to really complete the story in a more satisfactory way. Anyway, for me, this topic begins and ends with Arrested Development. One of the smartest shows ever written, and the way it was treated by Fox was just criminal. |
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Sasha Kenzan Re: Brilliant But Cancelled Gah! How did I forget about Arrested Development?! Thank you, Doc. |
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themantisofdoom Re: Brilliant But Cancelled Ok. Now that I understand this thread... Mr. Show -- constantly moving timeslots; poor promotion by HBO; the best sketch comedy show I've seen. |
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DrDetroit Re: Brilliant But Cancelled Oh yeah, Mr. Show is a great one. I think the thrust of the topic can go either way, be it shows that didn't last a season or shows that went longer but got screwed over by the networks. I thought about trying to make an argument for MST3k being on this list, because they got mugged by Sci-Fi, but 10 seasons and the fact that they're basically still running (in multiple forms) might make them the most successful show to ever get jerked around. Just throwing that out there. |
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