Books instead of readers for a bit. James Reasoner mentioned a movie with John Corbett on his blog last week, and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed Northern Exposure in its day. Quirky (okay sometimes too quirky), different setting, varied plots, arcs but not ones that shut you out if you missed a week. Men and women of different ages and different economic means.
What show do you miss?
33 comments:
I was bummed when they cancelled Life on Mars last year. Seems like anytime I like a show, it gets axed :-)
The British version was just amazing. If you can rent it, do. It managed to be sad, funny, exciting, insightful and riveting. And wonderfully cast.
STAR TREK in any of its forms.
FIREFLY. It had everything going for it except an audience. I was hoping the film SERENITY would kick start a film franchise but that looks to be withered on the vine now that Fillion and Whedon have moved on to other projects. Damn shame.
Btw Patti, I think you would like THE BOOK GROUP. It's a UK show you can pick up on Hulu. Very funny.
Of older shows I guess "Seinfeld" is the one I miss most, although I can't blame them for going out on top. And I really miss "Deadwood", especially since the idiots at HBO didn't give it the fourth season it needed, so that it's forever hanging there unfinished. I still think the best thing ever made for television is the first season of "Twin Peaks", although it wouldn't have worked on a long range basis. Hell, it didn't even work in the second season.
that's a hard question, because on the one hand there are shows that had amazing runs and ended before they ran out of steam. As much as a new season of The Wire or Veronica Mars would be great, I hate to think that they would not be as good as the first run of those shows.
That said I am going to have to go with a show called three Moons over Milford from a couple of years back. I would have liked to see where it would have gone.
ONCE AND AGAIN had at least another season in it. I agree about THE WIRE (and its predecessor HOMICIDE),DEADWOOD, the US LIFE ON MARS (which I thought was definitely picking up its own steam, and I didn't even hate the improvised ending)--US public stations are now getting UK LIFE ON MARS, FIREFLY (though SERENITY had serious dumb working against it), the relatively bad second season of TWIN PEAKS (though a good ending to the series), have also plugged THE BOOK GROUP (which also runs, a bit censored, on cable station Ovation), and wish PBS had been more supportive of sitcom anthology TRYING TIMES and had continued to fund AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE (or its '70s antecedents like HOLLYWOOD TELEVISION THERATER [briefly revived in the '00s] or VISIONS), CBS had been more supportive of WKRP and particularly FRANK'S PLACE...and that SUNDAY NIGHT/NIGHT MUSIC could've continued, or SCTV been more consistently supported...hell, NERO WOLFE, in the last incarnation on A&E. Or such fine women-starring crime drama as THE HUNTRESS (USA) or KAREN SISCO (ABC)...and definitely NBC's LIFE a season back, and even more the fantasy series JOURNEYMAN (NBC) the season before (DAY BREAK on ABC almost as good).
For that matter I wish Boris Karloff had been able to do the brilliant anthology THRILLER till he wanted to retire.
The West Wing. The first four seasons (the Aaron Sorkin years) are pure genius.
I was just getting into THE UNUSUALS last year when it died quickly.
I miss AMAZING STORIES.
MONK.
Wonderfalls.
- kieran
I do not know if I miss these shows more than others, but several come to mind as ones that I thoroughly enjoyed and would love to see again: RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY series; MIDSOMER MURDERS series; INSPECTOR MORSE series; and--something really different from the foregoing but sorely missed--Marlin Perkins and WILD KINGDOM, which was simultaneously so good and so funny (especially when Perkins would get bested by the animals) that the series deserves to be rerun on some cable channel.
Deadwood. They were supposed to do two HBO movies after the final episode but that never happened so the ending was too unresolved. Of course, I wanted that show to go on forever so any ending would have depressed me.
Seems a lot of comedies don't get a chance. Arrested Development. Andy Richter Controls the Universe, The Knights of Prosperity were all favorites killed too soon.
Of course any show I've worked on that I liked I wish had more seasons to keep me employed. I would love to still be doing Freshman Diaries for Showtime. Hell, I'd love to still be doing Fear Factor but we had a good run.
I'd have top say Deadwood from HBO. I actually preferred Rome but they wrapped that series up so well I can't complain as much about it being gone.
Deadwood on HBO. My goodness I love that show.
And Rome.
And, yes, The Love Boat.
The Bob Newhart Show (the first one, with Suzanne Pleshette)
St. Elsewhere
One Foot in the Grave
Deadwood
The West Wing
The Unit
Several of the other shows mentioned are not to my taste, by why be specific? You asked for shows we missed, not shows we didn't.
Some shows (like Seinfeld and ER and NYPD Blue) are still running on various other channels.
Jeff M.
Let me put some authentic history into the discussion by mentioning that I miss the following:
I REMEMBER MAMA
THE MOLLY GOLDBERG SHOW
CAPTAIN VIDEO
THE BUSTER BROWN SHOW
ROMPER ROOM
FULTON J. SHEEN
and OMNIBUS
Now, let any of you out there without gray hair just try to remember those television originals.
West Wing, Firefly, Star Trek The Next Gen, Millennium, Karen Sisko (I'm still sore about that one), and St. Elsewhere.
nitpicking, Jeff: the first BOB NEWHART SHOW was his Peabody-winning variety show in the early '60s, cancelled after one season. For that matter, both he and Carol Burnett with Caterina Valente flopped as the hosts of THE ENTERTAINERS a few seasons later.
OK, RT--FARAWAY HILL. So there. (I vaguely remember the OMNIBUS revival on ABC.)
BTW, Patti, let me be the first to give you congratulation for being selected as one of the 50 Best Blogs for Crime & Mystery Book Lovers! Well deserved.
Well, Todd, with your alleged recollection of FARAWAY HILL, you certainly have a better memory than I.
Of course, my family did not have a TV until the very early 50s, so--of course, in any event--we would have missed the several months of FARAWAY HILL at the end of '46 (a period of time when I as an armistice baby was more concerned with eating, sleeping, and diaper changes than any sort of soap opera on Dumont).
Once and Again for sure. Also Thirty-Something. I'd love to have Star Trek TNG back. I loved Serenity and wished I had seen Firefly. I have watched every episode of Seinfeld at least a dozen times.
I must watch Deadwood. I watched two episodes and we gave up HBO and I have never gotten back to it. West Wing was so good in the Sorkin years, wasn't it.
St. Elsewhere except for the last episode. R.T. I remember most of those shows. Monk-Such a great and indelible role for TS. Karen Sisko-isn't she gorgeous. Frank's Place-now that was another one they didn't give a chance.
Well, I didn't write that I saw FARAWAY HILL at the time. Stills in a documentary about DC's channel 5, one of the two founding core stations of DuMont, on its 50th aniiversary, as I recall.
Golly, Patti, now you have me wanting to see the subsequent seasons that weren't for RELATIVITY, the predecessor to ONCE AND AGAIN that was nearly as good. KAREN SISCO's Carla Gugino in doing a lot of films with her husband these years, which I've been seeing a number of of late. Lucky man. FIREFLY is very available on dvd, btw. And I'll certainly endorse Kieran's call for an unstrangled WONDERFALLS.
Recent shows: THE SOPRANOS and DEADWOOD
Older shows: Monty Hall's LET'S MAKE A DEAL and the original THE OUTER LIMITS
Really old shows: Groucho Marx's YOU BET YOUR LIFE and the original DRAGNET
THE BUCCANEERS. I've been meaning to see this Gugino (and Mira Sorvino and...) miniseries since learning of it some months back. It's on video, too. Sadly, RELATIVITY (TWENTY-SOMETHING to O&A's FORTY-SOMETHING, and both with serious intergenerational involvement largely missing from THIRTY-SOMETHING), like the third season of ONCE AND AGAIN, isn't.
I loved the science fiction shows-all of them. And The Sopranos was really riveting.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. There should have been a series 3.
FFB on blog
I'm missing Nip/tuck and it still has one episode to go.
Rockford Files and the old Wonderful World of Disney.
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