TV Series That Were Cancelled Too Soon

Once you get hooked on a TV show, you’re most likely to stick with it–through its highs and lows, its time slot changes and its writing slumps–which makes it all the worse if a show you love is cancelled without warning. Here’s a list of some TV series that unfortunately, were cancelled too soon.

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1. Firefly. In 2002, the Joss Whedon futuristic space sci-fi TV series was cancelled by Fox after airing only 11 of the original 14-episode first season and starred Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres and Alan Tudyk. The show aired on Friday nights at 8 p.m. and averaged a 2.1 rating by viewers and was yanked off the air due to low ratings, which could’ve been partially blamed on the network airing episodes out of order, making the plot more difficult to understand and follow.

Additionally, the Friday night time slot has been called the “Friday night death slot” as most shows airing then are moved there because they’re on their way to being cancelled; “Firefly“ debuted on TV in that time slot.

The premise of the show is that 500 years in the future, a ragtag bunch are on a small spacecraft traveling around the galaxy trying to survive and not gain attention from the authorities after them or the battling groups of the galaxy.

It won a 2003 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series. Though only on the air a short while, it managed to garner a very devoted fan base and partially due to them did the 2005 feature film “Serenity” by Joss Whedon come out as a sort of continuation and wrap-up of the show.

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2. Pushing Daisies. The ABC comedy-drama starring Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride and Kristen Chenoweth was cancelled in 2009 after just two seasons consisting of 22 episodes.

“Pushing Daisies” followed Ned (Pace), a pie-maker, who can bring the dead back to life with just a touch, and also helps solve murders with his brought-back-to-life childhood sweetheart, a waitress, and a private investigator.

The show was nominated for three Golden Globes and 14 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning seven Emmys during its two-year run. “Daisies” was well-loved by critics and averaged 9.46 million viewers in the first season, dropping to 6.10 million viewers for its second and last seasons.

Factors that contributed to the show’s demise was the 2007-2008 writers’ strike as well as ABC’s decision to not air the rest of the episodes originally meant for the first season (which ended up being just 9 episodes) but rather designating them as the 13-episode second season.

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3. Veronica Mars. The UPN-turned-CW crime drama series was cancelled after just three seasons in 2007. Created by Rob Thomas, the show starred Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Percy Daggs III and Enrico Colantoni and took place in the fictional Neptune, California.

Bell starred as the title character who was a high school girl as well as a private investigator, working at her Dad’s (Colantoni) PI agency, Mars Investigations. “Veronica Mars” never had the highest ratings and only had about 2.5 million viewers at its peaks but still gained much critical acclaim and had an extremely loyal fan base.

In 2013, Bell and Thomas used funding platform Kickstarter to try to fundraise their goal budget of $2 million to make a “Veronica Mars” movie; in less than 10 hours, fans of the show had pledged funds surpassing that amount and overall $5.7 million was raised to fund “Veronica Mars: The Movie” which came out in 2014.

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4. Happy Endings. Created by David Caspe, the 30-minute comedy on ABC had a great cast consisting of Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans Jr. and Casey Wilson but was cancelled after just three seasons.

“Happy Endings” was about a group of six twenty-somethings living in Chicago trying to navigate adulthood, relationships and whatever other bumps life puts in their roads. The pilot of the show aired at 9:31 p.m. after “Modern Family” on Wednesday followed by another episode during its regular time slot of 10 p.m. and averaged 5.04 million viewers. ABC then opted for a time to air two episodes a week, at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Wednesday nights and the 10:30 p.m. episodes averaged 3.63 million viewers.

Season two of “Happy Endings” saw the show get some more stability as far as time slots, as they settled in at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and attracted 6.64 million viewers. However, ABC again messed around with the show’s schedule, changing the times and days the show was on air and by the end of the third season, they had only 2.83 million viewers tuning in.

Amid rumors that “Endings” was circling the drain, Rolling Stone published an article about why people should watch the show, calling it “the most underrated, under-watched series on TV [that]  may also be the funniest” but the show was still scrapped after the end of its third season.

Other shows cancelled too soon include “Freaks and Geeks,” “Kyle XY,” “Lie to Me,” “Chuck” and “Terra Nova.” Of course, just because these shows are gone doesn’t mean they’ve been forgotten or that they can’t still be watched and enjoyed. This summer is the perfect time to pick one of these shows — or all of them! — and add them to your summer TV binge-watching list — you won’t regret it.