Ten obituaries for shows canceled too early.

We all have our list of TV shows we truly miss. There’s some that lasted a long time, but we kind of wish could last a bit longer. There’s also shows that only got a season or two before we took them out back and had them shot. Losing these shows can sometimes feel like a traumatic event – like a death of a close friend, or at least someone you liked to get a beer with from time to time. You truly miss them, and you wonder what might have been. We almost want to have a funeral for these shows, and write obituaries. So this is exactly what I’ve done with ten of these shows that I cherished during their runs. Some might surprise you, others, not so much. No, I do not have Firefly on this list (though it was considered), and yes, I do have shows that….well. You’ll find out.

Here they are – ten obituaries for ten shows canceled too early.

1) Freaks and Geeks / Undeclared – I lump these two shows together, because while they were two different shows with two different continuities, both shows were the same group of brilliant people and it can be argued these shows happen in the same universe. The same reason The Wonder Years was such a great show. These shows were about a group as they came of age. It was about their struggles, their triumphs, their love lives and their lack thereof. The shows were about humanity – about times changing both in the character’s lives, and the world around them. It was about high school / college age students learning the best they could the lessons their classes couldn’t teach them. I do have one question about Undeclared though – what kind of sadistic professor assigns Atlas Shrugged to a bunch of Freshmen? RIP Freaks and Geeks. RIP Undeclared. If you couldn’t relate, at least partly, to one of the characters in theses shows, I question your emotional state.

2) Ringer – If there’s one rule about what shows to cancel, it’s this: Never cancel a show involving Sarah Michelle Geller. Never. Apparently, the WB/CW doesn;t abide by this commandment, because they’re also the one that canceled Buffy the Vampire Slayer. To be fair, maybe they only needed a couple more seasons – we’ll never know though. And the show left more loose ends than a badly tied knot. The last line uttered in the series – well, I won’t ruin it, but it’s not what you’re expecting. Ever. There was even a huge surge of fans, including a petition with 16,000 signatures – all demanding the show be UN-canceled. But in the end, the ratings spoke more the network execs more than the loud fans. I hope they’re fans of some shows that got canceled before their prime, because they deserve to be treated the same way. (middle finger pointed strait at them). RIP Ringer. Don’t let the bastards bring you down.

3) Primeval – What the CBC did to Primeval may never be forgiven. New World sucked so badly, that (well, I really shouldn’t repeat myself). This is why I want at least two more seasons of Primeval proper produced by the BBC. Usually after the fifth season, the series tends to lag – but not Primeval. The series felt like it was nowhere near peaking. Maybe that’s why they stopped when they did – maybe they were afraid of the possibility that the show would become stale, I mean lightning can’t strike twice (ahem – Doctor Who anyone?). Eh, what can I say – British TV is weird. RIP Primeval. I said I wouldn’t repeat myself, but I do a hope T-rex rips apart the doppelgangers that replaced you.

4) Futurama – Yes, yes, this series has been resurrected more times than Lazarus stuck in a time loop – but I want more. The show is funny, yes. The show is brilliant, yes. The show makes us love people we would not normally love (what about Zoidberg?). The show is just, quite frankly, the best 30 minute show produced in the last 20 years. Every summer I re-watch the entire series because, well, why wouldn’t I? Sure, I cry every time I get to Jurassic Bark, and sure, I cringe every time they show the Professor Au-natural, but the show just leaves me wanting more. I feel like even if they resurrect it again, I’ll still want more. RIP Futurama. I guess all good things must end. But maybe, just maybe, the ending could have been prolonged a little more.

5) Victorious – Don’t watch this show, as you’re probably not going to like it. My target audience and the target audience of this show do not overlap much. And unless you watch it with your kids, you’re probably going to look creepy watching it. Having said that, I have to admit I kind of loved this show a little more than I should. The writing was pretty good, the jokes were pretty funny, and every so often they’d have a lot of fun (one episode is a shot by shot recreation of the Breakfast Club). The ratings were strong too. And yet for some reason it was canceled. There was some rumors going around that they canceled it because they only allowed Nickelodeon shows to go four seasons usually – but come on. That’s a bunch of crap and everyone knows it. They canceled it because they wanted to do the terrible spin off which I shall not even name here. To add salt to the wound, if they hadn’t canceled this series, maybe, just maybe, a certain annoying pop star wouldn’t be all over the media now. She was in the series, but only as a supporting role. She was also a star of the spin off….Yes, I blame the cancellation of this series for the evil, doughnut hating queen of sheer slutty stupidity…well, I think you can figure out the whore’s name. RIP Victorious. Your death gave birth to a new breed of pure terror, heard on every pop radio station in the nation. Your resurrection might be the only weapon we have against her.

6) Stargate Atlantis – This show just ended awkwardly. The Wraith were still out there, and they might even know the location of Earth. There’s still millions (maybe even Billions) of humans in the Pegasus galaxy waiting the be culled, and Atlantis just kind of sat there, bobbing away in the San Francisco Bay. Come on people! There’s so much more to the story here. At least give us a movie! We deserve that! We need some freaking closure on this sucker. Even Firefly got Serenity! RIP Stargate Atlantis. I do hope the wraith make our ultimate culling as quick and painless as possible, though they are the wraith – so they probably won’t. Yikes.

7) Stargate Universe – And this one….this one is just as bad! At least the crew of Atlantis got to go home – but not the crew of Destiny. Nope….they’re doomed to never know the true mission of the ship, doomed to never explore the rest of the massive spacecraft, doomed to never go home, and doomed to – you get the idea. Stupid Canadians – they probably canceled this show so they could focus on Primeval: New World. RIP Stargate Universe. I hope you someday finish your mission – I hope you find what you’re looking for.

8) Terra Nova – I pretty much stopped watching FOX after the canceled this series. Sorry, buh-bye, no more. OK, ok, I still watch Fox on Sunday nights, but that’s different man, I gotta have my Simpsons! But back to Terra Nova. It was a fun show at first. Kind of light, had the appeal of Jurassic park, only there’s like an entire colony instead of just a few tourists – and nowhere to escape. But then you started getting good. Then you started showing the real reason Terra Nova existed – the politics, and those that didn’t believe in the cause and what that meant to the citizens of Terra Nova. RIP Terra Nova. You escaped into the past of a parallel universe, looking for a new home. I hope you find that new home in the future of another network.

9) Selfie – This show looked really dumb – and perhaps that was its downfall. To be fair, it was indeed very dumb at times – but when it stopped trying to appease the masses and started finding its voice, it because a brilliant commentary on post-modern America and the age of social media. It described a woman who was a slave to her technology, how her Facebook and twitter and Instagram and Tinder lives ruled her real life. One wonders how many people like her our society fosters. Note: I’m sharing this on a blog which most of you will find through social media. So yeah, no wonder this show got canceled. Americans don’t feel comfortable with introspection. RIP Selfie. You may have been shallow at times, but you really did know what punches to throw.

10) The Crazy Ones – This is going to hit us all in the feels, but if this show hadn’t been canceled, we might still have Robin Williams with us. I’m not an expert on the subject, but a quick google search shows that Robin viewed the cancellation of the show as a personal failure, and that his depression which lead to his suicide started with this event. It makes me wish I had a time machine. I seriously loved the show, and looked forward to it almost every week. It really made me happy. Maybe if I could travel back in time and somehow tell him how much I adored it….maybe we’d have Robin with us still. RIP The Crazy Ones, and RIP Robin Williams. You were too good for your critics and you are severly missed. And again – there’s the whole don’t cancel a show if Sarah Michelle Geller is involved!!!