TV Shows that died before their time...

13

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  • Mark HazardMark Hazard West Midlands, UKPosts: 495MI6 Agent
    edited May 2007
    Roebuck wrote:
    In the Seventies I liked a series called PROBE, which had Burgess Meredith running a high-tec organisation that could recover anything for a fee. All the agents wore button sized digital cameras that let a team of experts in back in the control room track the missions and provide advice. Now we all carry camera phones so it's no big deal, but thirtysomething years ago it was an exciting concept.

    Who nicked my post X-( - I'd commented on this on Monday, but it appears to have vanished. Good job I can remember (just about) what I'd commented on.

    Although I can't remember the others, Hugh O'Brian (good old Wyatt Earp - one of my favourite 60s westerns) played the main agent for PROBE. I also recall there was at least one tie-in paperback, long gone from my collection.
  • RoebuckRoebuck UKPosts: 25MI6 Agent
    edited May 2007
    Roebuck wrote:
    In the Seventies I liked a series called PROBE, which had Burgess Meredith running a high-tec organisation that could recover anything for a fee. All the agents wore button sized digital cameras that let a team of experts in back in the control room track the missions and provide advice. Now we all carry camera phones so it's no big deal, but thirtysomething years ago it was an exciting concept.

    Who nicked my post X-( - I'd commented on this on Monday, but it appears to have vanished. Good job I can remember (just about) what I'd commented on.

    Although I can't remember the others, Hugh O'Brian (good old Wyatt Earp - one of my favourite 60s westerns) played the main agent for PROBE. I also recall there was at least one tie-in paperback, long gone from my collection.

    Tony Franciosa and Doug (Trampas) McClure and were the other two.
    Which reminds me - ''Barbary Coast''.
  • darenhatdarenhat The Old PuebloPosts: 2,029Quartermasters
    edited July 2007
    A show that popped in my head this morning was "Private Eye"

    privateeye.jpg

    A 1987 detective show that was set in the 1950's - starred Micheal Woods and Josh Brolin. I liked it, but apparently I was the only one. It only lasted 7 episodes.
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent Speeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
    Am I the only one who liked or for that matter, even remembers this show?

    THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

    Spenser, Tracy & Kong

    smghostbusterspromo1.jpg


    I don't think that I'd want to see these old episodes now for fear of being jaded at how quirky they were but as a child, I watched it every Saturday - well this and Far Out SpaceNuts. I thought it could've gone longer but what did I know? B-)
    Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"

    Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
    -Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
  • darenhatdarenhat The Old PuebloPosts: 2,029Quartermasters
    Didn't they do a guest spot in an episode of Scooby-Doo?
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent Speeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
    darenhat wrote:
    Didn't they do a guest spot in an episode of Scooby-Doo?


    I can't recall if they did, darenhat but I wouldn't be surprised if they had; I mean Laurel & Hardy helped them once so anything's possible. :))

    I think it was my love for Forest Tucker and Larry Storch's characters in F- Troop that made me like this kid's show so much.
    Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"

    Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
    -Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
  • JamesbondmmJamesbondmm Posts: 294MI6 Agent
    edited July 2007
    I'd propose The Crystal Maze with Richard O'Brien. Just when the games were starting to get intresting O'Brien left and in came that strange captain bloke. It was never the same!

    A bit of a niche show, but anyone remember Five's (or was it Channel 4?) The Mole? We even had our own AJB version of it for a while :)
  • SB_DiamondSB_Diamond North Miami Beach, FLPosts: 126MI6 Agent
    I must agree with the Bruce Campbell fans myself, Brisco was great and so was Jack of all Trades, it was kind like James Bond in a Victorian era and he actually had pretty cool gadgets too. I also loved him in Hercules and Xena and thought his character was underused. Another good sci-fi show was one called Lexx. I believe they gave it late night on MTV and it only lasted 2 or 3 seasons.
    *~Orbis Non Sufficit~*
  • TonyDPTonyDP Inside the MonolithPosts: 4,307MI6 Agent
    edited August 2007
    I just saw the new straight to video movie Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, and thought this would be a good place to mention it since the show has popped up in this thread several times.

    The "movie" is made up of two loosely connected 35 minute segments. In the first, B5 Commander Lockley has to deal with a being that has taken over a crewmember and who may actually be the devil. The second skit has President Sheridan being forced to deal with a potential threat to Earth as he is journeying to Babylon 5 for the 10th anniversary of the interstellar alliance. Both episodes rely on dialog and exposition rather than action, FX and fancy sets to tell their respective stories (although the new FX shots of the B5 station and other ships are very well done and light years ahead of the old show).

    If you like the B5 universe and characters, then you should check this out, Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins and Peter Woodward fall right into their characters without missing a beat. Just don't expect another Star Wars - the emphasis here is squarely on the characters as the filmmakers clearly had a limited budget to work with.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    SB_Diamond wrote:
    Another good sci-fi show was one called Lexx. I believe they gave it late night on MTV and it only lasted 2 or 3 seasons.

    I loved LEXX. It ran for four seasons. The first was made up of 4 feature-length tele-movies, but the 2nd-4th ran for the regular hour slot. It was completely mad. One of the most inventive shows I've ever seen. It was full of ideas. It hid a bleak view of humanity behind it's offbeat humour and obsession with bodily functions. Seriously underrated and often misunderstood. I wish more people knew about this show.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    Wonderfalls

    I've only seen the pilot for this show, but it was wickedly funny. It's about a graduate working in a gift shop at Niagara Falls, who is ordered to undertake certain tasks by a toy lion and various other talking toy animals.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    I finally saw the last episode of Veronica Mars. So many storylines were left hanging, but that's it I guess. So farewell Veronica, the coolest detective to walk the streets of LA since Philip Marlowe. :'(
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    John Drake wrote:
    'Dead Like Me.' Got cancelled way too soon. Dark, funny and often quite touching. Ellen Muth, it's star, is stunning in a quirky kind of way.

    It turns out Dead Like Me is not dead after all. The reapers will be back collecting souls in a feature-length version next year. :) There's a couple of cast changes though. Mandy Pantakin is out as the head reaper, but he's being replaced by a new character played by Henry Ian Cusick, (the mad Scotsman from Lost, and Sarah Wynter is replacing Laura Harris as 30's movie starlet Daisy, which is bizarre as they both played sisters in season 2 of 24.
  • AlexAlex The Eastern SeaboardPosts: 2,694MI6 Agent
    Don't know how I missed this discussion -- I thought LEXX was terrific, probably the most original, quirky show that Sci Fi channel ever aired. I love off beat programs but especially if they're science fiction. A shame about it's premature demise, (though it's run was decent)

    That pouty lipped hottie, (what was her name again?), made my heart race.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    Alex wrote:

    That pouty lipped hottie, (what was her name again?), made my heart race.

    Xenia Seeberg. She would make a spectacular old-style Bond villainess.
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent Speeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
    edited December 2007
    Well...I can officially add

    JOURNEYMAN
    to the list of shows that have kicked the bucket ahead of time. X-(

    NBC just aired the last episode on television that they claim has been on life support for weeks yet they cling to stupid shows like CHUCK & Bionic Woman. X-(

    I was becoming a big Kevin McKidd fan and he's done a great job with this. The premise comes off as a little linear but the writing is what makes this show work so well.

    Hopefully Sci-Fi might pick it up but I won't hold my breath. :#
    Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"

    Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
    -Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    RogueAgent wrote:
    Well...I can officially add

    JOURNEYMAN
    to the list of shows that have kicked the bucket ahead of time. X-(

    NBC just aired the last episode on television that they claim has been on life support for weeks yet they cling to stupid shows like CHUCK & Bionic Woman. X-(

    I was becoming a big Kevin McKidd fan and he's done a great job with this. The premise comes off as a little linear but the writing is what makes this show work so well.

    Hopefully Sci-Fi might pick it up but I won't hold my breath. :#

    Not too surprised by this. I didn't really like the show that much. Although McKidd is a brilliant actor. I'm sure he'll find another gig soon enough. I recommend a Scots film he did called 16 Years of Alcohol. I saw the pilot for Bionic Woman and thought it was awful. The only saving grace was Katie 'Starbuck' Sackhoff as the bad prototype Bionic Woman. Pity the show's not about her. Maybe they make a spin-off show with Kevin McKidd called Bionic Scotsman. I would pay to watch that show. :D
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,488MI6 Agent
    Oooh! I didn't like 16 years of alchohol. Walked out, though the woman in it was fit.

    NP
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • darenhatdarenhat The Old PuebloPosts: 2,029Quartermasters
    John Drake wrote:
    Maybe they make a spin-off show with Kevin McKidd called Bionic Scotsman. I would pay to watch that show. :D

    Oh dear! Up-kilt shots of a Scotsman leaping through the air? No thanks!
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent Speeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
    edited December 2007
    John Drake wrote:
    Pity the show's not about her. Maybe they make a spin-off show with Kevin McKidd called Bionic Scotsman. I would pay to watch that show. :D


    Sounds too much like porn to me... :))


    Anyone know if Carpoolers should be added to the thread? I haven't seen an episode in over a month and I really loved it. Cavemen, which aired before it, I could do without though... :s
    Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"

    Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
    -Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    And sometimes they come back. Anybody else feel a tinge of 80's nostalgia when they see this teaser for Knight Rider.

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fJzqZiiM1BE

    I don't like 'KITT' using the more informal 'Mike,' rather than Michael. What's the world coming to when even talking cars have no manners? :))
  • Willie GarvinWillie Garvin Posts: 1,412MI6 Agent
    edited December 2007
    darenhat wrote:
    A show that popped in my head this morning was "Private Eye"

    privateeye.jpg

    A 1987 detective show that was set in the 1950's - starred Michael Woods and Josh Brolin. I liked it, but apparently I was the only one. It only lasted 7 episodes.

    I'm the other guy who liked Private Eye.

    And I also enjoyed Banyon,starring Robert Forster as 1930s Los Angeles P.I. Miles Banyon--a character in the mold of Philip Marlowe.This show lasted less than a season,but the mysteries were intelligent and although there were a few anacronistic elements in the pilot(i.e.:all of the men's hair was much too long for this period,and they didn't always wear hats),in general the clothing,the cars and the music were all faithful to the era.And the show improved as it went along.Banyon's office was in the historic Bradbury building in downtown L.A.,with its spacious offices and distinctive central cage elevator.Overall this show was beautiful to look at.The series' pilot was a 2-hour TV movie(90 minutes minus ads),and it still pops up occasionally from time to time.

    Anybody else remember Fortune Hunter?This was an 80s series about adventurer Carlton Dial--a 007 type who'd left MI6(under a cloud) to work for a corporation called Intersect.Intersect was contracted by various agencies and governments to retrieve stolen goods--often priceless items.These missions were inevitably dangerous.

    At any rate,for his forays into the field,Dial was equipped with special gear--including contact lenses which served as cameras.Dial had a partner--a "handler" was a sterotypical comedy relief computer geek stationed at Intersect HQ--and he could see exactly what Dial saw(via those contacts).This fellow talked to Dial via a special receiver Dial wore in one of his ears.The Intersect handler could access any special info-no matter how esoteric- Dial might suddenly require during the course of an assignment and immediately transmit it to him.

    I always thought Fortune Hunter was a kind of amalgam of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Search--the series originally called Probe in its TV movie pilot .As in both of these shows, the hero had access to advanced technology which he occasionally used while on a case.Of course,there was also a very obvious James Bond influence to the look and style of this show.Dial always introduced himself the same way 007 did,and no matter where he was in the world,Dial continually found himself meeting and working alongside beautiful women who-as a general rule-wore as little clothing as possible.And the villains were all a dangerous bunch.The late Mark Frankel played Carlton Dial,and when he was all dressed in evening clothes, he looked a bit like a short Sean Connery.Fortune Hunter had the misfortune to be a Fox series at a time when the turnover for Fox shows was more the rule than an exception.As a result,this program only lasted about 4 episodes.

    And I still miss T.H.E. Cat(1967-68).This was an adventure series about Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat, a dashing gentleman of refinement who, at an earier period in his life, was the greatest cat burglar in the world-this when he'd been a stellar wirewalker and trapeze artist in circuses that took him throughout Europe.

    Now on the side of the law,T.Hewitt Edward Cat hired out his services as a private detective and occasionally served as a bodyguard(his special circus skills always came in handy).In some ways this series was a kind of precurser to The Equalizer.Additionally,T.H.E. Cat also shared certain elements with Peter Gunn.For instance,Cat worked out of the "Casa Del Gato"-a colorful nightclub run by an old gypsy friend as opposed to Gunn's haunt "Mother's".In both cases,the heroes were friendly with police detectives who provided them with special information.Dashing Robert Loggia played Cat with considerable style, and this particular Cat attracted plenty of great-looking women.The show also had a wonderfully evocative Lalo Schriffin soundtrack.Sadly,T.H.E. Cat lasted about half a season.This one should be on DVD.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    There's an interesting show doing the rounds on one of the BBC digital channels called The Cult of.., in which people involved in a fondly remembered TV programme discuss their involvement and the reasons why it became popular. Last night they had a look at Shoestring, a detective show that ran from 1979-to 81. Martin Campbell was interviewed about his involvement as a director and his difficult relationship with it's star Trevor Eve. Shoestring would have ran for much longer had Eve not decided he'd had enough and would much rather do poncy stuff like theatre. I'd recommend The Cult of to any fans of classic British TV.
  • cbdouble07cbdouble07 Posts: 132MI6 Agent
    edited March 2008
    Not a show that died before its time but it was one that went out in a much different manner than I would have liked and wasn't treated too well by Fox at the end. I am speaking of The X-Files.

    One of the only television shows that I followed religiously and awaited each new episode with anticipation. The show had everything in its prime: scary and atmospheric episodes, a mythology that led to some incredibly intense sequences, awesome acting and very rare chemistry between Mulder and Scully, a great cast of characters, snappy dialogue, and Mark Snow's eerie scores. It was the kind of show that made you think and try to figure out what was going on even as more and more questions were raised and even answers led to more questions (Lost is the only other show that I've ever watched that has been able to do this). It was confusing at times but I loved it. When the mythology episodes rolled around we always knew we were in for a treat, but there were also dashes of this overall story in many of the standalone episodes that added even more enjoyment. There were so many classic episodes and moments in this great show, and I miss it to this day.

    But the ending of this show was not what it could have been, nor what it should have been. During the 7th season the show's creator, Chris Carter, had no idea whether the show would be coming back for another season, and Fox didn't make a decision until he was in the midst of writing the season finale. I can only imagine how hard it must have been to write a season finale that could lead to another season, while at the same time realizing that this could also be the final episode of the series. I don't know how you end a show like The X-Files at the last minute like that. The show was brought back for an 8th season, though without one of the leads David Duchovny for half the season. Still there were chances to do something great. But once again it felt like uncertainty killed the show and led to some sloppy writing and once again the future was in doubt going into the finale. This continued in the 9th and final season, this time sans Duchovny full time (except for the eventual series finale). What resulted was Carter having to string his series along every year without knowing whether this time would be the last. For many shows this would be manageable, but The X-Files was a show that required planning and thinking out plot points well in advance. With all the uncertainty surrounding the show I can only imagine how difficult this became, not to mention the pressure that comes with having to keep a veteran television show creative and fresh. I was disappointed in the ending of the show, and I've always felt that Fox had a large part to blame in the downfall.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    Wonderfalls

    Quirky drama about an underachiever working in a gift store at Niagara Falls, who starts helping people after toy animals start talking to her and giving her cryptic messages. It's from the creator of Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies and shares their twisted sense of humour, as well as their humanity.
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent Speeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
    So I was surfing the web and I find that NBC is cancelling My Name Is Earl? I am shocked. Like it or not, the show was pulling in great numbers weekly and now the network is pulling the plug on it?

    Yet Heroes gets worse and worse every week and it gets a stay of execution? Typical. 8-)
    Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"

    Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
    -Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
  • TonyDPTonyDP Inside the MonolithPosts: 4,307MI6 Agent
    I've read that one of the other networks may save Earl (ABC I think). On the bright side, The Big Bang Theory has been renewed for two more seasons. Between it and Star Trek's resurgence, I guess it's now chic to be geek.
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,912Chief of Staff
    Actually, I think My Name Is Earl has jumped the shark. I used to love the show, but it's now gone from being quirky to just being cloying and, at times, gross. Maybe all networks should just let it go.
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • scottmu65scottmu65 Carlisle, Cumbria, UKPosts: 402MI6 Agent
    I think 'Prison Break' was ended before it should have been. I just love it so much and I'm gutted it's over, they should have at least had a season 5! Oh well, here's hoping the spin-off will be just as good!
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  • Ilya KuryakinIlya Kuryakin Posts: 24MI6 Agent
    CIRCLE OF FEAR [aka GHOST STORY in it's formidable years] was one series that should never have been cancelled; it provided me a many a nightmare in the mid '70s when it screened here. :o

    Another excellent series was LOU GRANT which seemingly got the chop for other reasons than just TV ratings. 8-)
    "If God had wanted man to fly..."
    "He would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd"
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