The Top 5 TV Shows Cancelled Before Their Time--#5

All this week I'm going to be counting down the top five TV shows that I think were cancelled too soon. Why five? Because it was hard to come up with ten, since many shows way outlive their appeal. So, without further stalling:

HONORABLE MENTION

FUTURAMA

I gave this show an honorable mention because it has now returned with all new episodes. and, unlike FAMILY GUY, these shows are as good as the first batch were eleven years ago! So suck on that, Seth McFarlane!

Why is FUTURAMA awesome? For starters, it takes the creative geniuses behind the once-great THE SIMPSONS and lets them target the same audience with new, smarter gags. If you've ever seen any of the behind-the-scenes features on any of the season DVDs or recent trilogy of films, then you know how hard the producers and writers work to sneak in any and all geeky gags they can. From a completely decipherable alien language (that fans can use to unlock even more inside jokes), to just plain ol' one-liners, FUTURAMA is the champagne (sham-pag-in) of animated comedy, where as FAMILY GUY is more like Mad Dog 20/20--it gets you where you want to be, but there is usually lots of vomiting involved and you always end up with a headache.

#5

JOURNEYMAN

Why I liked it: This show was a different kind of take on the whole time-travel kind of genre. Whereas most shows relied on some kind of device to create a portal in the space/time continuum (DR. WHO, QUANTUM LEAP), the main character in JOURNEYMAN, Dan Vasser, just popped to the past at random--there was speculation that there was some kind of genetic cause, but the series vanished before it could be developed. His unpredictable trips in time allowed for some very awkward scenes where he'd pop off at a very inopportune time, which added to the tension between his character and those of his family/friends. Now, I can't speak for everyone, but for me, I felt the show was well-written and had a strong cast. The stories were entertaining and the production was handled admirably, especially the scenes set in the past.

Why it got the boot: To this day there is still a campaign to get this show back on the air, but all efforts are futile. NBC put this gem of a show on immediately following the horrendous downfall of their primetime wunderkind, HEROES, which was hurting badly during its seconds season and was made all the more worse in the third. Sadly, because the networks ratings dropped, so did the ratings for JOURNEYMAN. Which was all the excuse NBC needed to pull the plug. But they allowed HEROES to die a very slow, and painful death--one that Silar couldn't have dreamed up in his twisted head--for another two years! Another major factor to deeply impacted the fate of the show was the WGA's Writer's Strike of 2007. This little skirmish between studio execs and the ever-abused writers caused many shows and movies to bite the dust because no one could work on them. Even with the outcry of staunch fans, there is no hope of a return to the show as the actor playing Dan found success on GRAY'S ANATOMY (as well as films like PERCY JACKSON), and the actor, Reed Diamond, who played his brother has found a solid home on the current hit (and one of my favorite new shows, ever) FRANKLIN & BASH.