The 20 Best Canceled TV Series

January 31, 1999 - November 9, 2003
May 1, 2005 - Present

Metacritic: 78

In 2003, "The Family Guy" was canceled. For most shows, that would be the end of it. But not for this one. Favorable DVD sales and high ratings on syndicated reruns forced Fox to take a new look at the show. Currently Peter, Brian, and the rest of the gang are back on the air and going strong.

November 2, 2003 to February 10, 2006
Metacritic: 88

“Arrested Development” is the most critically acclaimed show on this list, and with good reason. Superb writing and an all-star cast (featuring Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and David Cross) made this groundbreaking comedy one of the funniest sitcoms to ever hit the airwaves. Of course, when something is this brilliant, you know it's not going to last, especially when crap like Two and a Half Men is still on the air. The show only lasted three seasons, and it had to fight like hell just to get that.

August 29, 2005 to May 24, 2009
Metacritic: 65
Image: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_u2C4k6DkKyg/SfsbRR3ddEI/AAAAAAAAAUU/C5LJPJ85wk4/s400/prison-break.jpg The Fox show Prison Break told the story of a wrongfully convicted man whose brother constructs an elaborate plan to break him out of prison. How elebaorte? Well, it involves the brother robbing a bank so he can be put in jail. Elaborate enough, for ya? The show lasted four seasons, and many fans were disapointted at its cancelation. But honestly, how long can a show called Prson Break last once they characters are out of prison?

March 28,1999 to August 10, 2003 Mid-2010 to TBD
Metacritic: N/A
The Sci-fi comedy "Futurama" is similar to "The Family Guy" in that it was canceled before its time. And like "The Family Guy," Fox is in the process of bringing it back. However, contract disputes among the voice actors have led to talk of replacement voices. Hardcore fans have already been talking about a "boycott" if this takes place, so it's yet to be determined if "Futurama" will have a successful comeback.

January 13, 2008 to April 10, 2009
Metacritic: N/A
Based on the popular film franchise of the same name, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" starts off just after Terminator 2, but through the use of time travel, jumps past Terminator 3, altering the Terminator time line and erasing Terminator 3 in the process. Confused? Don't worry about it. It got canceled after two seasons anyway, despite the fact that it had a super hot Terminator played by Summer Glau, who was also in "Firefly." She might be hot, but she's also cursed, I tell you!

September 20, 2002 to July 28, 2003
Metacritic: N/A
Part Sci-fi, part western, all badass, "Firefly" gained a small but rabid following when it premeired in 2002. Unfortuantly it wasn't enough to save the show, and it was canceled after only eleven of its fourteen episodes were aired. Strong DVD sales resulted in a feature film, Serenity, in 2005. Despite positive reviews, the film struggled to recoup its budget, and the Firefly franchise went the way of the old west.

September 20, 2005 to May 14, 2009
#Metacritic: 77

Jason Lee, of Clerks and Mallrats fame, plays the scoundrel with a heart of gold to a tee in "My Name is Earl." He also has a great supporting cast backing him up with Ethan Suplee (another Kevin Smith alum) who kills it as the dimwitted brother along with smoking hot Jaime Pressly as the redneck ex-wife. Many critics were hailing this show as the best NBC comedy since "Scrubs," but after season four had ended with the caption ‘To Be Continued,’ NBC decided to kill our collective buzz on May 19, 2009. The series' producer, 20th Century Fox Television, approached FOX, ABC, TNT and TBS to continue the series, but they were unable to come to terms without "seriously undermining the series’ artistic integrity.” Whatever that means.

March 21, 2004 to August 27, 2006
Metacritic: 85

Rough, vulgar and dirty, this show is set in the 1870s in Deadwood, South Dakota, at the height of the Wild West. "Deadwood" features many of the historical figures of this period in a large ensemble cast of characters that include Al Swearengen, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, and a whole host of other badasses. Viewers beware; by watching this small screen stroke of genius you might actually learn something. The producers tried very hard to keep the behavior of that time period as historically accurate as possible, complete with a bevy of foul language and gun shootin', prostitute solicitin', card playin' drunks.

What makes this show great? First, the writing (and I’m not just talking about all of the F-bombs). Second, it is extremely well acted. Third, it reminds us that ideals such as “pride” and “honor” actually used to exist. HBO decided to cancel “Deadwood” after two seasons even though the series won 8 Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. Although HBO repeatedly talked about making “Deadwood” into a movie, nothing ever materialized.

September 22, 2004 to May 22, 2007
Metacritic: 82

Set in the fictional town of Neptune, this series stars Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars, a high school student who moonlights as a private investigator under the tutelage of her detective father. While this series may seem like some crappy Nancy Drew novel, it isn’t. In fact, the transformation Veronica undergoes is actually believable and interesting.

At the beginning of the series, Mars is a popular, smoking hot high school chick. After her boyfriend’s sister is murdered, she goes into stealth mode. She comes back with her long blonde hair cut short and her white summer dresses traded for t-shirts and jeans. Mars then rids herself of all her friends except for her father. No longer a victim, Veronica now handles her own business. She is still hot, but now she knows how to use a tazer and walk alongside an attack dog. In the words of Vince Vaughn, Mars becomes “one bad baby.” Despite the show appearing on a number of fall television's best lists, the CW decided to trade "Veronica Mars" for "The Pussycat Dolls Presents.” Oops!

August 28, 2005 to March 25, 2007
Metacritic: 68

Any idiot could tell you this show was going to be sick. “Rome” was set during the period of Ancient Rome's transition from republic to empire. The series follows two main characters, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, both soldiers who find their lives intertwined with key events in history. Full of expensive interior sets, fancy costumes, full-frontal nudity, primal rutting and brutal violence, “Rome,” like “Deadwood,” is an interesting yet entertaining take on a fascinating period in history. “Rome” dives head first into the themes of greed and power within a vicious political atmosphere where people get stabbed in the streets and officials are constantly looking over their shoulders. The action never lets up, showing us that Caesar’s murder didn’t mark the end of Rome, but instead inspired an era rife with conflict, backstabbing and romance (which wasn’t always consensual). WooHoo!

The series received a ton of media attention and was honored with numerous awards and nominations in its two-season run. Co-creator Bruno Heller even stated in December 2008 that a movie was in development. Sound familiar? Despite all the critical acclaim, “Rome” became far too expensive to produce. In fact, it was the most expensive TV series ever! In July 2006, HBO chairman Chris Albrecht announced that season two would be its last. He then burst into tears as he realized his manhood had left him.

September 26, 2007 to August 8, 2009
Metacritic: 72

Dirty. Sexy. Money. The title of the show, perhaps the most creative in years, pretty much says it all. This series revolves around lawyer and family man Nick George, who was portrayed by Peter Krause. When Nick's father mysteriously dies in a plane crash (keyword: mysterious), Nick agrees to become the Darling family's lawyer all while trying to discover who committed the murder. Dirtiness and sexiness come naturally to the Darlings, the richest family in New York. While the other family members constantly rely on Nick to solve their problems, Nick struggles to maintain his grip on reality while coping with their demands. Peter Krause keeps his character and the story grounded with his rumpled, world-weary demeanor while the interplay between him and Donald Sutherland hints at a fierce brutality waiting just below the surface. There is nothing more entertaining for audiences than watching rich people self-destruct. This show was an unfortunate victim of the 2007 writers' strike. The first season featured only ten episodes because of the strike, and four episodes of the second and final season still remain unaired in the U.S.

February 26, 2007 to April 2, 2007
Metacritic: 45

“The Black Donnellys” had serious potential, despite the fact that it lasted a little over a month. You can just hear the pitch to the studios now: “It’s The Boondock Saints meets “The Sopranos.’” And that’s exactly what it was. “The Black Donnellys” followed four young Roman Catholic Irish-American brothers in Hell's Kitchen and their involvement with organized crime. Right from the beginning, we saw the rivalry between the Irish and the Italians and we licked our lips, waiting gleefully for all out mafia warfare. The strength of organized crime units depend on strong personal relationships and unconditional loyalty to the notion of a larger mafia “family.” That being said, these four brothers seemed poised to do some serious damage. In creating the show, Oscar-winner Paul Haggis, a native of London, Ontario, strongly referenced his hometown's local history about the real-life Black Donnellys and the massacre associated with their name. Under the guidance of Haggis, “The Black Donnellys” seemed like it was headed in the right direction. Strangely, NBC has not commented on the series since they canceled it despite the fact that it ranked second in shows streamed off NBC’s website. I'm not sayin', but I'm sayin'.

September 18, 2006 to June 28, 2007
Metacritic: 75

This series had hype written all over it. In October of 2005, NBC and CBS were at each others throats as both networks fought to obtain the rights. Eventually, NBC negotiated a near-record license fee in order to obtain them. The show was also highly anticipated among the web community as it received the most online "mentions" and the most positive sentiment of any new show in 2006.

A clear parody of NBC's “Saturday Night Live,” this show-within-a-show was run by head writer and executive producer Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and executive producer Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford). The hype actually turned out to be justified when positive reception came rolling in from television critics (not always easy people to please), who named it their "Best Overall New Program" in a poll conducted by Broadcasting and Cable. Eventually, “Studio 60” fell victim to the cutthroat dynamics of network television. Despite positive reviews, ratings lagged throughout the fall of 2006, which caused finicky critics to reverse their opinions. In its December 17, 2006 issue, Time magazine listed “Studio 60” as one of "5 Things That Went From Buzz to Bust.” Entertainment Weekly followed suit by naming “Studio 60” the worst TV show of that year. The next week's ratings fell even further and NBC responded by putting the show on a “hiatus,” then abruptly canceling it.

September 24, 2001 to May 16, 2007
Metacritic: n/a

This series is a great example of a star's celebrity status carrying a piece of crap. In “Crossing Jordan,” Hollywood is up to their old tricks again, taking the crime genre and infusing it with a couple new twists to pass off the show as original. Even Puff Daddy (or is it P. Diddy... or maybe just P) could have come up with more original material. The beauty of the series is that nobody really cares. Why? One reason: Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh (played by Jill Hennessey). In the show, Hennessey is the ultimate ball-buster, the one person you don’t want to cross. Sexy, intelligent and domineering, Hennessey loves telling men what to do. And we love to listen. Nothing is more stimulating than taking orders from a woman who looks like a supermodel, especially when she is a hyper-aggressive forensic pathologist. Even sexier is the fact that she originally lost her job with the Boston medical examiner's office because she started ordering her superiors around. She is smarter, meaner and hotter than everyone else, and she hates authority. After an old ally rescues her from court-ordered anger management training (excited yet?) in Los Angeles, he rehires her to her former job in Boston. Jordan is still feisty and a royal pain in the ass, but her managers tolerate her because she’s the shiznit. Hennessey is the woman all men want to bang because we hate her almost as much as we respect her. Unfortunately, NBC decided to have Jordan profess her love for a police detective in the final episode of the final season (named Woody of all names). At least after that they had the good sense to end the show before they ruined it completely.

September 8th, 2005 to October 25th, 2006
Metacritic: 50

Another perfect example of a series that got cut down in its prime. Originally, “Reunion” was intended to chronicle 20 years in the lives of a group of six high school friends from Bedford, New York. Each episode followed one year in the lives of the six people, beginning with their high school graduation year in 1986. The episodes also featured scenes in the present where Detective Marjorino (Mathew St. Patrick) is investigating the brutal murder of one of the members of the group that died during the night of their 20-year high school class reunion. Their characters were brilliantly based on Brat Pack movies of the mid-80's offering us a chance to reminisce about life in the 80’s. Unfortunately, people couldn’t appreciate a show like “Reunion,” which suffered from poor ratings despite the fact that FOX aired it right after the O.C. In the age of OCD, texting and iPhones, shows that require actual involvement from their viewers are bound to suffer, as “Reunion” proved. Fox cancelled the series after thirteen episodes and we only got to follow the characters’ lives up until 1998. That meant we never got to learn the identity of the killer. Oh the humanity!!

September 20, 2006 to August 11, 2007
Metacritic: 68

This series could have survived because its premise revolved around kidnapping and let's face it, everybody loves kidnapping. Each season offered up a new case and cast of characters from the kidnappers to the kidnappees. The show told the story from the points of view of the victim, the parents, the investigators, and the kidnappers. All in all, it was great family fare like “Leave it to Beaver” or “Gilligan’s Island.”

The core cast included ex-FBI operative Knapp (Jeremy Sisto) offering privately contracted services to retrieve kidnapping victims along with his technologically adept coordinator and assistant Turner (Carmen Ejogo) and FBI Agent Latimer King (Delroy Lindo). Apparently, in order to even qualify for the core cast of this series, your last name had to end in the letter “o.” Thanks to unusually intelligent writing (for Hollywood), “Kidnapped” was among the more promising of many new shows in 2007 that followed in the model of suspense shows like “24.”

Ultimately the true kidnapping victim was the show's ratings (and the fact that it wasn’t “24”). NBC decided to pull the show after its fifth episode and stream the remaining episodes online. Big whoop. How un-suspenseful is it to watch a TV show on a laptop or a cell phone?

January 31, 2008 to July 11, 2009
Metacritic: 62

This is a preposterous show that is entertaining because it tries to be serious despite its preposterous-ness. Greg Berlanti, co-writer of “Eli Stone,” called the show "a Field of Dreams-type drama set in a law firm where a thirty-something attorney, whose name is the title of the show, begins having larger-than-life visions that compel him to do out-of-the-ordinary things." He could have just called it Ally McBeal with a male lead and we would have all understood. Turns out that Eli begins having visions due to an inoperable brain aneurysm that causes him to have realistic hallucinations. These hallucinations conveniently coincide with the storyline of each episode which lead some to consider him to be a modern-day prophet. A divinely inspired brain aneurysm? WTF? Furthermore, for anyone who has a taste for pop singer George Michael (anyone? anyone?), the musician was featured prominently throughout the first season of the series. In fact, each episode is named after one of his songs. There seemed to be no limits for this dramedy. One of my favorite episodes involves a transsexual minister, played by female body-builder, Dallas Malloy... 'nuff said.

Greg Berlanti smartly surrounds his supernatural hero with a terrific cast, including Victor Garber from “Alias,” Tom Amandes from “Everwood,” and Loretta Devine from “Boston Public.” With these superb supporting players diverting our attention from the all of the zaniness of the show's magical-realist trappings, Eli Stone proved to be pretty solid. However, ABC disagreed and canceled it shortly after its second season.

September 20, 2006 to March 25, 2008
Metacritic: 72

This show was so good that it was actually canceled twice. Initially, CBS canceled Jericho because of poor ratings, but after a fan campaign convinced the network to bring it back for a second season, they canceled it again because the ratings were still poor. Probably because the people who watched the first season were the ones who campaigned for a second one, which of course did nothing to increase ratings once CBS brought it back. Who said nerds had to be smart?

“Jericho” took advantage of the post 9/11 fear of terror by centering its drama on the residents of the fictional town Jericho, Kansas, in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on 23 major cities in the United States. What was most intriguing about the series was the absence of a visible enemy. With a nationwide communication breakdown, hardly anything is known about the status of the rest of America, and the focus is on keeping citizens from panicking.

Like “24,” it was another suspense show that thrived on the negative public perception of the U.S. government and the idea that government officials are inherently evil. Now that Obama is president, maybe they can make a spin-off where everyone works for a socialized health care system.

“Jericho” moves along at an effective pace and has decent stars in Skeet Ulrich and Gerald McRaney. Recommending this show is easy, because all in all “Jericho” is a suspenseful, interesting drama. Unfortunately, if it's not a crime drama it probably won't last on CBS.

April 13, 2007 to April 25, 2007
Metacritic: 52

Although this show only lasted for 12 days, it had to make it on this list for the sheer audacity of its premise. The first time I heard about it I thought it was one of those ESPN cross-country contests. The series is set across the backdrop of an illegal automobile road race with the central focus on the different competitors. This unquestionably bizarre series featured a bunch of different characters with several super-hot women, which is always nice. The driving sequences themselves are seamlessly shot employing a computer-enhanced technique that allows the camera to glide in and out of the cars (not bad, especially for TV). Also, this has to be the first series where people are stereotyped by their “rides,” from pickup trucks to minivans. That said, it's a fairly impressive cast (of characters, not cars), even though the premise makes no sense. “Drive” was an interesting series, but only six million viewers watched the two hour premiere. That is pretty bad, even for a show about something as non-sensical as a cross-country car race. FOX didn’t give it much of a chance and decided to pull the plug shortly after.

August 5, 2003 to February 22, 2007
Metacritic: n/a

Many will scoff at the inclusion of “The O.C.,” mainly because the show was targeted to teenaged girls. But despite this fact, it cultivated a loyal fan base and many felt the show met an early demise.

Waaayyy back in 2003, “The O.C.” had all of the elements of success: Girls in bikinis, alcoholic-socialites, nastiness, metro-sexual airheads with clever wordplay and shameless melodrama. When Ryan “I’m a badass” Atwood (Ben Makenzie) is adopted by the wealthy and philanthropic Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher) and his wife Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), he has to deal with life as an outsider in high-class Orange County, CA. Never-mind the fact that Makenzie stacks up to be about 5’3”. He is, by Hollywood standards, a “bad boy.”

Ryan finds himself surrounded by a whole host of narcissistic teens who have enough issues to keep Dr Phil busy for an entire season. “The O.C.” was the juiciest teen drama since “90210” and undoubtedly inspired “Gossip Girl,” which is basically “The O.C.” with richer, better looking, more worthless teens who live in Manhattan. The show’s ratings were off the charts in the first season, then experienced a steady decline as it moved to a more competitive time slot by the second season with its novelty starting to wear off. On January 3, 2007, Fox announced that “The O.C.” was going to be canceled. This came as a relief for many who felt the show had run its course, but there was still a huge fan base that was sad to see it go.