You may not even know it, but your heart has probably been broken at least once by a television cancellation. It happens stealthily: you’re watching a show, you’re thrilled to be so engaged, and then: WHAM. Where is it? Gone. You can’t find it anywhere. But why? WHY?? Because good shows die fast deaths: it’s a joke I have with my friends –if I like a show, it will last three seasons, tops. TOPS. What are some examples of great shows that were offed before their time?
Freaks & Geeks (and later Undeclared) was a Judd Apatow vehicle with a whole mess of people you know and love today. Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Samm Levine, James Franco, and more played kids who are just …just different (and as such, totally normal). The humor was off-beat, the jokes were dry, and it just couldn’t last. Undeclared was much of the same. Both were so smart, so sharp, but so warm and full of heart, that it’s a deep pity the shows didn’t stick around longer.
Arrested Development is the victim of sheer lunacy for being axed. Granted, its characters were supremely un-relatable –but that was the entire point. That family was so off its rocker, you had to just hang on while they went on a wild ride. It was great! But it was also deliciously complicated. Jokes and references made in Season 1 played into Season 3, wordplay was a constant source of fun for the writers, and despite the fact that the show was utterly brilliant, it has too small a niche for people to understand it. And off it went, to TV heaven.
Andy Barker P.I. starred probably one of the most adorable human beings alive. Andy Richter is just the bee’s knees. I love him. But this show was weird. Probably the weirdest on this list. That’s what was so delightful about it –it was just bizarre. Andy plays a guy (Andy!) who gets involved in the P.I. business unwillingly and unwittingly: so off we go to solve crimes! What the hey! And they’re weird crimes with little to do with actual criminal activity. It was sweet, bizarre, and totally unmarketable because it was so out there.
Pushing Daisies is like a gaping wound in my heart. It was a show made for me. There were bees, there was pie, it was told like a storybook… it was ludicrous! I loved it. It was probably just too hard for people to follow: if you don’t have a strong sense of the ridiculous, even the premise is tough to chew. Some guy can bring people back from the dead. Also, he makes pies. Also, he solves crimes. So while I sure as heck dug it, the plot moved too fast, the shots felt like they belonged in a music video or as an homage to Moulin Rouge, and it never took off.
Veronica Mars kills me. The strongest first season I can think of was followed by an “okay” second season that really lost its footing, then concluded by a decent third that barely managed to rediscover itself. AND WHERE DID IT GO? Television graveyard. The producers were clearly not done with Veronica: they pitched a “Veronica as a grownup” show to the network (it was passed on). Something about modern-day-Nancy-Drew wore out as Veronica went to college, but franklym it oughtn’t have. Veronica was a smart, sassy girl in line with Buffy and Scully, and she should have had more time.
So, what happened? Well, as outlined above, these shows were just too “too.” If they weren’t ahead of their time like Freaks & Geeks, they were too intelligent or too off-the-beaten-path for mainstream America to understand and to love. If you think of America as a bell curve (for everything: politics, humor, intellect…), all television programming (and politics, etc…) has to ride in the middle of that bell curve. Generally speaking, the aforementioned programs were too much to one side: too smart, too punchy, too critical.
It’s a shame, a crying shame, but that’s what happens when you aim a little too high: as you lose audiences, you lose sponsors and advertisers, and networks pull the plug. Chuck almost went off the air (it’s a little weird, too: some yahoo somehow has all the governments secrets in his head? But it’s very, very charming and a cute, fun show) because it’s so different (and expensive to make), but Subway came in after fans petitioned and saved the day. So, hey, it is possible to save the TV you love, but it’s hard. Darn hard.
