This month's monthly five is in honour of the new season of television shows on the air and the many great shows from the past that have had their runs cut short way too soon. So without further ado here is my list of the top five TV series cancelled after only one season.
5. Wonderfalls (2004)
Wonderfalls is a comedy-drama programme from 2004. The show focuses on Jaye Tyler who has recently graduated from Brown University and is now stuck in a dead end job at a gift shop in Niagara Falls. She has no direction and is aimlessly walking through life. Suddenly a Lion figurine starts talking to her and after a period of freaking out about her sanity she discovers the lion is pointing her in the direction of people in need of her help. Each episode follows a similar formula where inanimate animal objects talk to Jaye and indicate who needs her help, to which she does her best to put into action. This is a great show from the mind of Bryan Fuller who also created Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, shows that are equally as cooky and original. Wonderfalls follows Jaye on her weekly missions to help people and her friends and bizarre family who spend most of their time wondering what is going on with her. The cast is brilliant too with Caroline Dhavernas as Jaye who is great as a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown at any minute. Then you have Jaye's family; her closeted lesbian sister Sharon (Katie Finneran), her weirdo brother Aaron (Lee Pace) and her divorcing parents played by Diana Scarwid and William Sadler. Although the characters are wacky they are well rounded and the actors bring the witty humorous dialogue to life.
Unfortunately the Fox network cancelled the show after airing only four episodes. Other than the fact they kept changing the airing schedule without publicising the changes I think the show was so original and different the audience needed time to see where it was going. The problem with originality is people's immediate reaction is generally 'uh...what....?' because they don't immediately recognise it they have no expectations and so keep getting surprised and thrown. Personally I love when I get surprised by films or TV shows as it is something new and that I find very interesting and exciting. Luckily after much demand the series was released on DVD with all thirteen episodes but is only available on Region One and so if you do purchase it please make sure you have a multi-region DVD player first. Wonderfalls is weird and wacky, I highly recommend it.
4. The Inside (2005)
The Inside is a crime procedural drama centring on the FBI Violent Crimes Unit headed by Special Agent Verbal Webster played by the brilliant Peter Coyote. Webster is an FBI legend and can pick his own cases but has limited personal skills as he only cares about solving the case whatever the cost whether that be his agents or the victims themselves. He personally selected each team member largely due to their strengths and weaknesses but most importantly due to their secrets which he uses to his advantage when need be. The promo below is the first ten minutes of the pilot episode which sees the team called to a crime scene of a serial killer they have been tracking but this time he appears to have struck close to home.
The immediate next step for Webster is to hire a replacement, a rookie Agent Rebecca Locke whose past is even more mysterious that Webster's as she has a unique insight into predators as she was abducted as a child and escaped 18 months later. Webster knows this and uses her secret to push her to embrace her darkness and see 'inside' the killers mind. Rounding out the cast is Jay Harrington as Paul Ryan, Katie Finneran as Melody Sim and the fantastic Adam Baldwin as Danny Love who brings a much needed comedic relief to the sometimes harrowing narratives. The Inside aired the summer before the debut season of Criminal Minds both of which deal with similar subject matter. However, the main difference between the two was The Inside was grittier and darker than the CBS show but also Criminal Minds puts a greater emphasis on the scientific probabilities of profiling an unsub and explains why in greater depth. With The Inside most of the focus is on one member of the team, Rebecca, whose understanding of unsub's comes from her own childhood trauma which allows her to get 'inside' their minds. That said I love both shows and wish that Fox had given The Inside a proper shot as it was a very interesting show with a great cast and showed potential.
The Inside managed seven episodes before it was cancelled by Fox due to poor ratings although all thirteen were aired in the UK on ITV4. The series is not currently available on DVD but several episodes are currently on youtube.com.
3. Threshold (2005)
Threshold was a sci-fi show that aired on CBS in 2005 starring Carla Gugino as Dr Molly Caffrey, a high level government crisis management consultant who formulates contingency plans for various emergencies. One such plan, Threshold, involves what to do in the event of first contact with aliens. After a US Naval crew encounter a UFO they lose contact the rescue team find the majority of the crew dead and some missing. After a videotape is found with footage of the UFO the Threshold plan is activated and Molly assembles her team. The team are a micro-biologist Dr. Nigel Fenway (Brent Spiner), an aerospace engineer Lucas Pegg (Rob Benedict) and a mathematics and linguistics genius Arthur Ramsey played by the fabulous Peter Dinklage. The show also stars Charles S. Dutton as the Deputy National Security Advisor and Seas Cavennaugh (Brian Van Holt) who is a paramilitary operative who is assigned to protect the team. The series involved the team delving into the many questions the first contact provoked like what do they want? why are they here? etc.... Whilst attempting to answer these questions the team also have to track down the missing crew members from the US Naval vessel as they are believed to be infected by the alien UFO.
As you can see from the promo the show has aspects of horror, sci-fi, drama, psychological thriller and action and so may be one of the factors that led to the poor ratings. Genres work because people know what they like and want to see their genre expectations met. With a show that crosses genres it will always run the risk of alienating the die hard genre specific fans as what would make a horror fan happy might turn off a drama enthusiast. That said the varied style is one thing that appealed to me as an audience member as I love all genres and thought the show had an interesting premise. The cast is great too, the stand outs being Carla Gugino and Peter Dinklage who are brilliant. The full series is available on DVD but only on Region One again so please make sure you have a multi-region DVD player. Thankfully the writers knew the show was getting cancelled halfway through the filming of the final episode and so they were able to re-write the ending to at least give some closure to the series. Although there are still many questions frustratingly unanswered and there was a lot of potential for the series to explore in a second series.
2. Firefly (2002)
Firefly is a sci-fi western from the fantastic mind of Joss Whedon. The show follows the crew of the firefly-class space-ship Serenity captained by Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds who fought on the losing side of a civil war along with his second in command Zoe. The rest of the main cast mostly consists of the rest of the crew the pilot and Zoe's husband Wash, the companion Inara, the hired gun Jayne and the engineer Kaylee. The three final cast members are picked up in the pilot episode which includes the shepherd Derial Brook, Dr Simon Tam and his sister River. The series follow the crew on their travels around space and there attempts to make money, hide River and their true actions from the Alliance, the now governing body. Each episode generally involved a money making scheme or some situation the crew had to get themselves out of. The biggest appeal to the show though is the cast and the writing both of which are superb.
The writing is smart, quick and hilarious and the cast deliver the lines with such skill and great comedic timing that you get the whole package. Since its cancellation Firefly has become a cult classic and has thankfully been released on DVD and more recently Blu Ray. It also spawned a film aptly named Serenity in 2005 which was largely due to the shows popularity with fans since the cancellation. I highly recommend both the TV series and the film as Nathan Fillion and Joss Whedon are brilliant when they team up.
1. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006)
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was a 2006 dramedy which aired on NBC and was created by Aaron Sorkin. The series was set behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live style show which had just had a production team shake up as the producer loses it on air and so the network call in two guys who left the show and are now big stars to come back and save Studio 60. To give you some idea of what they are dealing with below is a video of the speech in which the original producer loses it and vents his frustration to the viewers.
The two guys that are called in to clean up this mess are Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford) who take the roles of head writer and producer respectively. Joining them is the new network president of entertainment Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet) and the cast of the live show. To add complications Matt's on and off again girlfriend Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson) is one of the stars of the show which does not make things easy but they certainly add to the comedy. The cast are superb and have great comedic timing. Add that to Sorkin's script and snappy dialogue and you have a great show.
I am a huge Aaron Sorkin fan and loved The West Wing so when Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was announced as his 2006 follow up I was hyped up. Studio 60 is a behind the scenes look at a Saturday Night Live style show much like 30 Rock. The main difference between the two is that Studio 60 is an hour-long show and rather than a straight comedy like 30 Rock, Studio 60 is more a dramedy as it has moments of both comedy and drama. Personally I hated 30 Rock as I found it silly but with Studio 60 you had a similar premise but with an emotional depth and witty, humorous dialogue rather than the slapstick style of 30 Rock. As they were premiered the same year there was inevitably going to be comparisons drawn and unfortunately Studio 60 was cancelled where as 30 Rock is now on its seventh season. My main theory for why it ended up being cancelled was due to the continuing narrative as there was several episodes that picked up immediately where the last left off and so if you missed it you were lost. In my opinion though this gives a TV show the greater ability to explore characters and situations and therefore produce quality television. I highly recommend this show and if you like this check out Sorkin's other shows The West Wing, Sports Night and the brilliant new HBO series The Newsroom.
Honourable mentions to: Standoff (2006), Criminal Minds Suspect Behaviour (2011), Medical Investigation (2004), Deadline (2000).
I am sure I have missed some great shows as there have been so many that unfortunately only lasted one season. Let me know what you think or what some of your favourites are by posting a comment below.
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