Random fact of the day: I am a huge TV fan. Well, by the number of different shows I watch, not by the amount of time I spend watching the tube I should say. I estimate I watch on average, 3 hours of television a day, but I probably have 6-7 different shows that I follow at any given time. That shouldn't be a surprise: like anything in life, I like variety. From The Amazing Race to The Mentalist, to Being Human and Grimm, I have my reality shows, westerns, fantasy shows, and so forth. I guess the common denominator is that I enjoy shows that force me to think or expose me to new things I've never seen before. I like creativity and originality. Unfortunately, it's oftentimes the most original and most thought provoking shows which are cut the fastest, and so, I've had my long list of shows that made it just 1 or 2 seasons before being cancelled and tossed on the heap.
Interestingly, almost all of these shows aired on either ABC or NBC, so I'm not sure what to make of that... either these channels are the most cutting edge with their development of television shows, or they're too quick to pull the plug. I'll let you decide as I count down my eight favorite Here & Gone TV shows:
8. Pan Am (ABC, 1 season)
Too bad we still don't have service like this on flights nowadays...
As suggested by it's title, Pan Am was set aboard the namesake airline during the mid 1960's, a time when air travel was still viewed as being unique and exciting. It largely followed one crew in particular, with an emphasis on the stewardesses which worked on board. Naturally it went heavy on the romance and scandal, but it had potential as the nature of the series provided for ever changing scenery and a seemingly infinite possibility with the script. There was even a recurrent spy under-plot which was intriguing. Unfortunately, after a strong start, the second half of the season began to slide a bit too far into the activist narrative and rapidly lost interest as it went from developing a well constructed plot to more of a "what boundaries can we push this week?" sort of deal. Don't get me wrong, television, movies, and books are natural galleries to explore the many issues of human society, but I'm just saying that filling the entire second half of a premier season with episodes on socialism, women's rights, race relations, gay rights, and of course lots and lots of sex, might not be the best strategy ever for getting a brand new show renewed. I'm not saying any of that should or shouldn't be aired over time, but doing all that in such a small time frame wasn't smart. It was too bad, but when it got cancelled it wasn't a surprise to me and by that point it probably deserved to be.
7. The Cape (NBC, 1 season)
So much potential hides in this epic picture... and yet, the show never lived up to any of it.
Brilliant concept, terrible, terrible, terrible execution. The superhero plot-line, in my opinion, is a HUGE untapped genre when it comes to television. People enjoy the classic idea of good versus evil, and there's no reason that couldn't be turned into a one hour weekly TV series. The only catch is, it actually needs to be a good show. NBC first explored the genre with their series Heroes, which had some success but perhaps outran its life expectancy. Encouraged by this, they launched The Cape, in which they essentially created their own superhero: a police officer thought to be killed who was rescued and came in possession of an enchanted cape which he was able to use to fight bad guys. Not a great premise for a hero, but not horrible either. Where it really messed up was in its production. The villains were quirky and unbelievable, the main character was lacking, and the continuity of the show as a whole was sporadic at best. I mean, who would ever believe in a circus of clown-misfits aiding a superhero and a disfigured mafia lizard man? I don't know what else to say, other than at least 'Arrow' on the CW has finally gotten it right.
6. The River (ABC, 1 season)
The River was just as creepy as its promotional picture suggested, but it was cool.
This might just be the epitome of 'unique' and 'interesting' to me. The premise of the series was that a mother and son travel to the Amazon River and join a small expedition that's searching for their father: a world renowned TV naturalist (think Steve Erwin) who has recently gone missing down there. As they sail along the mysterious and dark tributaries of the river, they come across increasingly disturbing and shocking sights, ranging from killer water-demon spirits to ghost ships to murderous shaman tribes to even a secret government research facility which has unwittingly created a zombie plague. It was a truly fascinating, if not sometimes terrifying, series. Even though I'm not a fan of scary shows or movies, I really enjoyed it because of its uniqueness and the fact that the entire thing was shot as if it were a documentary. It was a good show and it really did deserve at least one more season (it was set up perfectly for another).
Steven Spielberg + Paranormal Activity = The River
5. Crusoe (NBC, 1 season)
It made getting stranded on a deserted isle look like fun.
Loosely based on the famous book by Daniel Defoe, Crusoe combined elements of that classic tale with other narratives such as The Swiss Family Robinson and Pirates of the Caribbean. All together, it proved to be a highly engaging, if not escapist, adventure which I loved from the get go. It never caught on I suppose, as it was cancelled and no one but me seemed to take notice. It wasn't all for waste however, as it did inspire me to purchase a copy of the namesake story and read it cover to cover.
4. Awake (NBC, 1 season)
Like this image, Awake used distinct color patterns to indicate which reality was being shown.
Awake was one of the more original television series I've seen to date. At first glance it appeared to be just your typical investigative drama about catching bad guys, until you added the fact that each episode had two different cases being solved concurrently by the main character who was simultaneously living in two different realities. You see, ever after a mysterious car crash the main character (a policeman) began flipping between two realities: the switch coming the moment he loses consciousness (whether sleeping or for other reasons). In one reality his son survived the car crash and his wife died, and in the other, the roles were reversed. What was more interesting was that clues from one reality would help solve the case in the other and vice versa. It was an intriguing plot and the writers did a great job at hinting at a more sinister cause behind it all. Like so many truly thought provoking shows, however, it fell victim to what I suspect was a viewership disinterested with complex story lines. Let's face it, if you turned on the show halfway through the season, what are you going to do, spend days researching what's going on, or just watch a crime show on some other channel? The only bit of good news is that the writers must have had some inkling the show wasn't going to make it, because they closed the season with one of those perfect episodes which harks on ambiguity like the ending of Castaway or Inception. My personal opinion is that he was in a coma and that neither reality was in fact the correct one, but we'll never know. And maybe that's how it should be.
3. PitchMen (Discovery Channel, 2 seasons)
RIP Billy Mays, we will miss your loud commercials... and your beard.
A bit different than the other series on this list, PitchMen was in fact a documentary which followed infomercial kings Billy Mays (OxyClean) and Anthony Sullivan. It was a really interesting and entertaining show because it tracked the whole process of someone trying to sell their invention or product to the commercial production company to eventually having the commercial filmed. Naturally there was a little humour, but mostly I just found the entire thing to be fascinating, especially since some of these commercials I had actually seen on TV (it was neat seeing the backstory). Also unlike the other shows on this list, PitchMen was not cancelled due to lack of viewership but rather due to a much more tragic circumstance: the death of Billy Mays. While I personally enjoyed hearing Anthony Sullivan's expertise and critiques more, there is no doubt that Mays was the life of the show, and when he passed away, the show passed away with him.
2. V (ABC, 2 seasons)
No honest clue what to say about this promotional picture... it's kind of boring actually.
'V' was the remake of a 1980's series that itself was based off an old episode of the Twilight Zone. Basically, it was about an alien invasion, but what made it unique amongst the science fiction genre was that in V, the aliens were not conquering Earth by means of fighting and warfare, but rather through peace and propaganda. The first season started off a little slow as you could tell the writers were finding their ground, but by the second season the show was in full swing and bordering on brilliant in my opinion. The special effects were phenomenal (light years ahead of even current shows like Once Upon a Time which sometimes appear a little cheesy) and the acting got better and better. Unfortunately, I feel the show just never got over that first mediocre season as probably too many viewers turned away. Despite an extremely loyal following, the show got canned after two years. The really annoying bit too, was that in an obvious ploy to attempt to get renewed, the writers left what was ultimately the series finale, with a major cliffhanger, so we never found out what happened. We're all still here, so I guess we won?
Just look at the CGI! Dang, that's pretty impressive.
1. Journeyman (NBC, 1 season)
Truly a great show cut down before its prime.
My all-time favorite television series to be cut down before it could even begin to soar. The best way I could describe the show would be to say that it was like if you took two other old shows: Early Edition and Quantum Leap, and combined them together. The premise of Journeyman was that there's a newspaper reporter who inexplicably starts flashing back in time. Each episode he would uncontrollably travel back in time to different dates, following the life of some individual whom he quickly realized he had to affect in some way: perhaps it was to keep that person from committing suicide or saving a bus of children from crashing off a bridge, or whatever. What made it truly enthralling was the backstory that the writers were developing, that there was some mysterious reason this was occurring to him and even hinting as much that there was a benevolent or malevolent force behind it all. There even was another "time flasher" who made sporadic appearances in the later episodes. It was just all together an amazingly well thought out and original series, but honestly, it was too intellectually demanding I feel for most people. Time travel is always a difficult subject to follow and if you're just watching TV to rest your mind, most people don't want to think about that. It's a real shame, because it had such great potential.
So there you have my list of shows that I liked to watch when they made their brief debuts. What are a couple shows you really liked but were quickly destined for the television graveyard? Hopefully most of yours have fared better than mine!
-JT
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