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Dollhouse curse: 16 sci-fi TV shows killed in season 2
So Joss Whedon's low-rated Dollhouse bites the dust, after clinging to life for a second season. Its partisans will mourn. But the series didn't die alone. The history of sci-fi TV is littered with season-two casualties, many of which are now considered classics.
Check out which other series escaped cancellation in their first seasons only to fall to the Nielsen gods in their second.
- The Outer Limits (1963) The classic anthology series managed multiple classic episodes in its brief time on-air, among them “Soldier” and “Demon With A Glass Hand (above),” the two Harlan Ellison outings that James Cameron drew from (and had to belatedly pay for) when he created The Terminator. Naughty, naughty, Mr. C. (A sequel series, which began in 1995, lasted much longer.)
- The Munsters (1964): The Universal Pictures monsters completed the transformation Abbott and Costello began for them, from creatures of horror to creatures of comedy, in this lovable sitcom about the ghastly family at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. The presence of a competing monster family at another network (see next entry) may have hastened the ultimate ratings demise of both.
- The Addams Family (1964): The “mysterious and ooky” clan from the New Yorker cartoons by Charles Addams brought their insanity to television for a short sitcom stay, prompting endless debate among the children of the time over just which monster family was “better.” If longevity is any clue, the Addamses won, but not on television, where the battle amounted to a draw. That would have to wait until they returned for a series of bigger-budget (and considerably darker) movies.
- The Invaders (1967): They can travel interstellar distances. They can assume human form. They can infiltrate our society at every level. The one thing they can’t quite do is make their pinky fingers work. Everybody who extends one pinky finger while drinking tea might be one of them. Architect David Vincent discovers their evil plans to take over Earth and fights a valiant, if short-lived, one-man war against the alien dainties.
- Land of the Giants (1968): A trans-Atlantic shuttle encounters an odd lightning storm in space and is transported to a strange alternate earth whose inhabitants are all the size of skyscrapers. Produced by Irwin Allen, the show was essentially a re-casting of his longer-lasting Lost In Space, right down to the irritating comic-relief character with the disconcertingly close friendship with the show’s little boy.
- Space: 1999 (1975): A nuclear explosion knocks Earth’s satellite out of its orbit and leaves the hapless inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha holding on for dear life as it somehow achieves faster-than-light speed and escapes the solar system, considerately slowing down on a weekly basis whenever it nears another planet where an adventure can take place. The presence of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, both of whom starred in the much more successful series Mission: Impossible, led some people to call this, “Premise Impossible.”
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979): Props from the original Battlestar Galactica and a mid-series retooling to make the show even more like Battlestar Galactica surround the time-displaced Buck and a cast of characters that includes a robot voiced by Mel Blanc who begins almost every sentence with “biddie-biddie-biddie.” The show went biddie-biddie-biddie bye-bye in its second season.
- Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories (1985): The director’s showcase anthology series featured worthwhile contributions by Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, and Martin Scorcese, and writing that included contributions by the great Richard Matheson; unfortunately, anthology shows are a hard sell even at the best of times, and it didn’t help much that many of the episodes were so weak they left viewers scratching their heads.
- Max Headroom (1987): An investigative reporter in the near future acquires a stuttering, jerkily-moving, computer animation of himself. The computer-generated character’s annoyance value helped the show last long enough for viewers to decide whether he qualified as interesting-annoying or was just annoying-annoying. Many viewers decided he was the first. More viewers decided he was the second.
- James Cameron’s Dark Angel (2000): An escaped genetically-enhanced superwoman (Jessica Alba) attempts to make a living as a bicycle messenger in the Pacific Northwest, but somehow her past keeps coming up. The ratings, alas, do not.
- Dead Like Me (2003): Bonked in the head by a toilet seat from the MIR Space Station as it plummets back to Earth—yes, really—Georgia Lass dies only to find herself returned to a life of sorts, that includes being assigned to duty as a Grim Reaper. Her new lease on existence ends when the show reverses its initial premise and goes down the toilet itself two seasons later.
- Carnivale (2003): An ancient battle between good and evil rages—all too slowly—in the persons of a carnival roustabout and evangelical preacher, during the years of the Great Depression. A deeply atmospheric series that may have been one of the greatest fantasy shows in the history of television, it was planned by its creators to last five years … but the suits at HBO tired of enduring the long wait for the two principals to finally meet up and fight, and presumptively declared the story over after what was only supposed to be their first skirmish.
- Jericho (2006): Prodigal son Jake Green returns to Kansas just in time to be stuck there when a massive nuclear war fragments America and leaves his home town forced to defend its fragile resources. A massive mail-in campaign by loyal viewers kept the network from canceling the show at the end of its first season, but failed to keep the struggling burg alive past the second.
- Pushing Daisies (2007): Piemaker Ned can revive dead people, but the gift comes with some serious limitations. Sparkling whimsy, genuine heart, a brilliant cast, hilarious production design and occasional musical numbers didn’t save this initially high-rated show from the writer’s strike that cut its first season in half. By the time the second season rolled around, momentum was lost. The two seasons, put together, totaled only as many episodes as a single, full-length season might have. But what’s there was choice.
- Eli Stone (2008): The lawyer of the title comes down with a brain aneurysm that causes him to hallucinate elaborate production numbers that amount to personal instructions from God. (He may be dying, but he’s also a “prophet.”) The people who loved the show really, really, really loved it. Alas, there just weren’t enough of them.
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008): An additional bout of time-travel both transported the Sarah Connor of the James Cameron movies to the present day, and relegated her reported death by cancer to something else she had to worry about in between fighting homicidal alien cyborgs. The series of colossal bummers life had in store for Sarah extended to shifting time slots and a death by Nielsen in her show’s second season.
By aaron at 1:30 PM ON 11/18/09
Hard to believe The Munsters only lasted 1 full season.
By John Paradox at 1:55 PM ON 11/18/09
If you included Pushing Daisies, why not Reaper? I considered those two as 'somewhat similar' in that they had the Real World intersect with a Fantasy World.
By MrKaine at 1:57 PM ON 11/18/09
Is it just Me or does that pic of Jessica alba in Dark angel look like Summer Glau?
By Dr. Malcolm Long at 2:08 PM ON 11/18/09
'Carnivale' was a good show and the series ended surprisingly well
By IronOre at 2:13 PM ON 11/18/09
I liked Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone. ABC's treatment of these two shows has made me very reluctant to get into any of their new series.
By Onie at 2:25 PM ON 11/18/09
No The Invisible Man or G vs E? I was sure, at least, one would have made the list.
By yo at 3:02 PM ON 11/18/09
Pushing Daisies was the biggest loss of all the more recent shows.
Some great old scifi on the list.
By abbycat at 3:46 PM ON 11/18/09
Exactly what Onie said, what about Vincent Ventresca's "The Invisible Man"? It was even produced by the SciFi channel itself. That was one of my and still is one of my favorite series. It had great dialogue and acting from the brilliant cast.
I will miss Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies, they were so good that ABC couldn't handle them, I guess.
One thing I'm happy about is that Chuck survived past its second season and now we have a third coming up. I just hope it does so well, that we will be able to watch a fourth and so on.
By Strick at 3:52 PM ON 11/18/09
Amazingly good company.
By Odayakaki at 3:58 PM ON 11/18/09
Yes, I-man. I so miss Darien and Bobby Hobbes' banter. Watch both seasons on Hulu recently. Total joy.
By athelred at 4:03 PM ON 11/18/09
What, No love for Space above and beyond? I know it was only 23 episodes, but i liked it.
By Daroru at 4:22 PM ON 11/18/09
"Twin Peaks"...?
By Hush at 4:37 PM ON 11/18/09
I don't exactly see why Pushing Daisies is on this list other than the fact that it died in its second season. It always seemed more Black Comedy-Fantasy more than Sci-Fi.
By islesfan at 4:46 PM ON 11/18/09
Don't forget UFO (since you included Space 1999). Also, Tru Calling.
Unfortunately, the curse is well named, as Dollhouse is, by far, the best qualty of the list!
By Estefferson Torres at 4:48 PM ON 11/18/09
It's incredible that so much good series had been canceled along the time... This makes me angry!
By Theodosia at 4:53 PM ON 11/18/09
Wait, G vs E had more than one season?
By Ken Morrison at 5:39 PM ON 11/18/09
Space: 1999 and Buck Rogers definitely were hurt by the second season "retooling curse".
Space: 1999 - reduced one major cast member to cameo status and replaced him with someone not even on the show in season one! They also took out "the thinking" and put in more of "the shooting"... Tragic.
Buck Rogers - ok, we get it. Earth is trashed and resources, water, etc are scarce. But plenty of room for character development and stories about getting the planet back in line thanks to someone from the 20th century who remembers "how to do stuff".
Season two - WTF? They suddenly have an intergalactic "Love Boat" cruise ship in space (But no resources to help revitalize Earth), no real action sequences (unless you count the talking hawk man plots...) and a large snooty BS talking robot.
Thank the suits for ruining that show too.
May you all rot in hell.
By PALADIN at 6:36 PM ON 11/18/09
What about " NOW AND AGAIN "...?
We`ll never know the fate of artificial man Michael Newman / Wiseman and his fugitive family.
Talk about a tough cliffhanger !
By Red Mask at 6:51 PM ON 11/18/09
I can't believe Wizard Magazine called Dollhouse a TV hit in their November issue.
By J at 10:01 PM ON 11/18/09
Don't forget "Tru Calling." Another decent show that Fox axed just as it really got rolling.
By Lexile at 10:20 PM ON 11/18/09
Theodosia--it depends. it was a USA network show and since they cut their shows in half seasons to air in the summer and winter, it really only had enough for a season.
I can't believe I-Man didn't make the list either, though I don't remember if that was a victim of bad ratings, or of SciFi deciding it didn't wan to foot the bill...
By vorlon57 at 10:52 PM ON 11/18/09
JMS's Jeremiah.
By bladerunner101 at 11:28 PM ON 11/18/09
ok was pretty good list, but i couldnt see most the info. was there a bug? or this being a new set up to show the article(least to me) was there something that i missed doing?
By FigNeutron at 11:35 PM ON 11/18/09
Carnivale and Dark Angel used to be the shizz!
By Nightowl at 11:41 PM ON 11/18/09
These schmucks, forgot War Of The Worlds which ran from 1988 to 1990. What killed this show, was the change in producer, which came after much mishandling by some of Paramounts excutives, and setting it in a futuristic setting. War Of The Worlds had gotten better ratings in it's first season.
If Paramount had left the original producers alone, stopped their fighting in the board room, including having turned production of the show over two Frank Mancuso Jr., this show would have lasted more than two seasons. Also Paramount made the mistake of not giving the producers a large enough budget, and would only give the producers a budget of something I think it was $675,000 an episode, things would have been far better.
In the end, somebody, might be the top execs at that time, saw what the ratings of this show had dropped to, and I'm guessing got tired of what the lower execs did, cancelled the show.
At the time, this was one of my favorite tv shows.
By Dark at 2:51 AM ON 11/19/09
Duuuude! War of the Worlds! I TOTALLY forgot about that one, though I effin' LOVED that show's first season. That show REALLY pushed the edge in the kind of gore you could show on TV, even for a syndicated show. I remember a pull-back after a demo of a new laser weapon that revealed the cantaloupe-sized hole that said weapon had just shot through a hapless test subject's head! They TOTALLY trashed the show in the second season, which is probably why I've blocked it. Loved Richard Chaves' Ironhorse character: complete bad-ass!
By QuantumSam at 10:00 AM ON 11/19/09
What about "Earth: Final Conflict" and "Journeyman" or "The Questor Tapes" and the awesome "Quark" starring Richard benjamin as Captain Quark who a plant for a first officer and was in love with one of a pair of clones - he just didn't know which one?
By illogicaljoker at 10:09 AM ON 11/19/09
I love that people here actually remember G vs. E, one of my favorite shows. And yes, Reaper really should have been on this list.
By Thresher_V at 11:18 AM ON 11/19/09
I-Man lasted until it's 3rd season I beleive, so it wouldn't make the list. Earth: Final Conflict had a few, not sure the total, but it's at least 3-4.
By Nightowl at 11:25 AM ON 11/19/09
@QuantumSam, Earth Final Conflict was written to last 5 years, which it did by the majority of Earth Final Conflict's producers. Gene Roddenberry's widow gave up her producer status after she realized, I think it was just after the second season, she had finally realized the producers had ruined EFC, as it is commonly known.
EFC, was and is supposed to be about William Boone and his search for what they Taelons had come to Earth and were on Earth.
@Dark, I liked the War Of The Worlds, was my favorite show at the time, just wish it would have had a larger budget, and would have been kept like it was in the first season. Didn't like the idea of killing off Ironhorse and Norton. The only thing about the second season, was that the writing seemed better to me.
By Daniel at 12:55 PM ON 11/19/09
It's irksome they kill off these series early, but even more maddening that they leave most of these show in the middle of a cliff-hanger with no resolution. Remember Invasion? Networks- if you're gonna kill the show, at least let the producers resolve everything in a grand finale.
By abbycat at 3:38 PM ON 11/19/09
Thresher_V, "The Invisible Man" lasted exactly two seasons, so the show deserves to be on the list.
By Jack at 4:23 PM ON 11/21/09
Let's not forget Quark! It lasted two seasons.
Space Above and Beyond was only one.
As was the original BSG
By Shadow Chaser at 10:03 PM ON 11/25/09
You forgot Jeremiah, another post-apocalyptic show that was cancelled after Season 2. Sadly, it also featured some excellent writing by JMS post Babylon 5.
By hotdvdmovie at 8:14 AM ON 12/07/09
great
By ghosty191 at 12:56 AM ON 12/21/09
I also was quite unhappy with the most recent death of the show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was brought back for the second season reprieve, only to get shot down when the last Terminator: Salvation movie was released. I thought it was going along quite well, especially with Summer Glau in the role of a female "Terminator."
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ghosty191:
I also was quite unhappy with the most recent death of the show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was b...More »