Shows that Ended Too Soon

[Hexadecimal*]

What were some shows you watched and enjoyed that only lasted a season, or were cancelled when they were still good?

Right away I think of Mission Hill with only one season. I caught this when it re-ran on Adult Swim and thought it was great. Sometimes the episodes focused too much on dirty stuff, but the characters were all well written and likable. What's even sadder is that there were a few episodes that were a fair ways into development before it got canned.

I should be grateful it lasted four seasons, but Home Movies really picked up steam with the second season and each episode continued to be excellent. I guess the ratings weren't there, though, since Adult Swim wouldn't pay for any more after season four. I honestly can't believe a show with that terrible of a first season showed such huge improvement and I really miss seeing Coach McGuirk's antics especially.

Road Rovers was a super good show that was a one season-er. The ratings were good, but I heard that the show crossed the line with parents a few too many times. The characters were unique, it was funny, and the action scenes never got dull.

The Sonic cartoon with Princess Sally ended with only one season and a cliff hanger. The dialog is pretty lame by today's standards, but its dark story was really interesting and Robotnik was a real threat instead of a joke.

Reboot was another victim of parents thinking the show was too dark for kids. It changed from being a lame "game of the week" show with no plot or continuity into something epic and gripping. The final season ended with Megabyte having the upper hand and our heroes not sure how to deal with it.

[CLXcool]

Jesus. I was waiting for this thread to show up. I have a few shows(some of which are animated) that should have had gone at least a few more seasons since they were good.

Spicy City is a first to get mentioned here. Not only was it the first original adult cartoon to be shown on TV(it came out a month before South Park aired) but it showed that television animation can also explore with adult themes(along with content). It had some very well detailed animation along with that gritty film noir feel to the show. Just think Tales of the crypt with film noir. It was that show. However, there was a bit of a fallout with HBO and Ralph Bakshi when it came to the second season. The show did well enough for a second season to be approved. However, HBO wanted to fire off Ralph Bakshi's crew to have some of their people do the second season. Ralph was entirely against(a similar thing happened with Ren and Stimpy with its creator John K). So HBO fired off Ralph, his crew behind Spicy City, and canceled the show altogether. If more people tuned into it. Maybe HBO would have given more of a chance for Ralph and his crew to do a second season. I still think that if Spicy City did well. 'Serious' adult animation(told through dramas with hard subjects) can be unleashed into the world rather than comical adult animation that tries to mimic the likeness of The Simpsons and Family guy.

Swat Kats. Another animated show that had bitten the dust despite being good. Ted Turner made a big fat dick move on canceling this show. He believed it was ''too violent'' and wanted people to watch more of Captain Planet. Captain planet had violence, and one of the episodes had a focus on someone having AIDS(yes, the AIDS. Not HIV full blown aids here). I'll let this sink in your head for a moment. Ted Turner is a hypocrite for not letting Swat Kats stay on the air, and letting the people behind it do more.

Sym Bionic titan and motorcity. What do they have in common? Action shows that have talented people, strong writing in terms of characters, and great animation. Except the companies didn't give a damn about the products. Genndy was very discouraged by Stuart Synder's actions when it came to canceling titan for the lack of finding a toy company to make toys for SBT. Honestly. If you screwed with someone who helped put a channel on a map, then your asking for trouble. I know that Genndy had talked about going back to Titan if he can get the pieces together(by that I can assume he means getting the funds along with most of the people who worked on titan on it). As for Motorcity. The creators tried to pitch it to Adult swim from what I have heard. Except they got a hard grip from Disney to get that out of the way for them. I would love to see more of Motorcity. So many things that should have been answered, but until then. Live fast, live free.

The Sonic cartoon with Princess Sally ended with only one season and a cliff hanger. The dialog is pretty lame by today's standards, but its dark story was really interesting and Robotnik was a real threat instead of a joke.

Sonic Satam was a damn favorite of mine back in the day(and it still is) I loved the writing. The dialog is a little silly, but thats a guilty pleasure of mine. The dark elements and themes for the story's episodes made me interested in this show. Along the fact that Robotnik was actually a menace to Sonic and his friends(completed with a dramatic scary toned voice from voice actor Jim Cummings). Lesson learned. I heard that the power rangers had higher ratings over Sonic Satam, and needless to say you can get what happened next afterward.

[gamemaster1991]

Danny Phantom. What happened to evil Danny? I need to know! Why did it have to end with that kind of clifhanger unresolved.

Viewtiful Joe. One season in America, with promise for a second season (with concept art in Red Hot Rumble). The Japanese were promised a third season but that never came. I guess the the third season will come out when Viewtiful Joe III comes out.
TT.TT

Samurai Jack. WHERES MY MOVIE?

Batman Beyond/Batman of the Future. My favrate cartoon. It was so cool, and I think it could have gone on for a longer run.

[Psychospacecow]

I wish Outlaw Star had more episodes.
It was a pretty good Sci-Fi anime, but it ends on a cliffhanger at one of the worst possible moments.

[Hexadecimal*]

I wish Outlaw Star had more episodes.
It was a pretty good Sci-Fi anime, but it ends on a cliffhanger at one of the worst possible moments.

Really? I don't think it had a cliffhanger. Just established that the whole Lei Line thing was over and the crew was sticking together.

I waited and waited for a new season because of that whole "See you again!" lie at the end. I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard the spin off of Outlaw Star called Angel Links was what put the nail in Outlaw Star's coffin since no one liked it.

Oh, and I can't believe I forgot my favorite anime, The Big O. Adult Swim told them to leave the second season open for a third but never paid for another season. That ended was one of the most confusing things I've ever seen and I want to know where they were going to take the show after that. It seemed like the whole world just reset, or something.

[G-Haven]

Firefly, for sure.

It was shaping up for something great, but was cut short to only a single season.
Even the movie Serenity wasn't enough for closure.

[Newt]

Surprised it took 6 posts before someone mentioned Firefly.

[BumblebeeCody*]

Surprised it took 6 posts before someone mentioned Firefly.

Surprised that no-one just said Toonami.

Anyway..




...Toonami. Though I agree with what everyone else said. Never heard of Angel Link though.
Only other show I can think of that hasn't been said is Malcolm in the Middle.

Samurai Jack. WHERES MY MOVIE?

Samurai Jack movie would be HYPE!

[retrolinkx]

My Name is Earl.

Fucking hell, was I the only person in the world to like that show? It had four seasons, and then ended on a cliffhanger.

Meanwhile shit shows like The Big Bang Theory continue to this day.

[TheTrueBoss997]

Batman Beyond/Batman of the Future. My favrate cartoon. It was so cool, and I think it could have gone on for a longer run.

Totally agree with that. That show was just too good we should have saw more because personally I thought Terry McGinnis was a great Batman even to some points better than Bruce Wayne.

One show that had to keep going was Spider-Man Unlimited. I mean the end of season one was just screaming a season 2 but unfortunately they had it planned to do another season only to have it cancelled so that show just kicks me in the balls each the time I see the season finale.

[Mass Distraction]

Alcatraz and Terra Nova annoyingly only got one season each, both ending in somewhat of a cliffhanger and neither got further seasons. There are only a few live action shows I tend to watch on TV and if these had continued I would have kept watching, albeit Alcatraz was a bit silly.

Godzilla: The Series. I mean come one, they leave the last two episodes unaired. How lame is that? At least those were added to the DVD set of the show, which apparently is something I need to get. Not that I ever got that far in the show to begin with, they only showed 13 episodes of the show in here, ending on Monster Wars Part 2 (out of 3). Dicks.

I would have loved for Angel Beats! to be at least the length of a regular animated show, with 20+ episodes, instead of the 13+1 we got. My favorite anime by far. I couldn't ask for season 2, though, as it ended just perfectly. I just wish it had been a bit longer.

Road Rovers was a super good show that was a one season-er. The ratings were good, but I heard that the show crossed the line with parents a few too many times.

Really? Can you tell me more, Wikipedia isn't really helpful when it comes to the show. I really liked the show when I was a kid and I can't believe there was only 13 episodes. I thought it was way more.

[Hexadecimal*]

Really? Can you tell me more, Wikipedia isn't really helpful when it comes to the show. I really liked the show when I was a kid and I can't believe there was only 13 episodes. I thought it was way more.

It's been a long time, so I don't remember a lot of details of each episode, but this was the worst offender:



There's also an episode that very quickly had to be yanked from rotation and edited, but that wasn't their fault. Shortly before the werewolf episode was going to air Princess Diana died. The episode featured her in it at the beginning, so that was removed out of respect.

[Mass Distraction]

Really? Can you tell me more, Wikipedia isn't really helpful when it comes to the show. I really liked the show when I was a kid and I can't believe there was only 13 episodes. I thought it was way more.

It's been a long time, so I don't remember a lot of details of each episode, but this was the worst offender:



There's also an episode that very quickly had to be yanked from rotation and edited, but that wasn't their fault. Shortly before the werewolf episode was going to air Princess Diana died. The episode featured her in it at the beginning, so that was removed out of respect.

Huh. Wonder what she would have done in it? Also the end of the song first made my jaw drop, then I realized that it actually wasn't that bad since they were actually dogs. It wasn't really THAT bad, though I could see some anal retentive parents getting on that.

[gamemaster1991]

One show that had to keep going was Spider-Man Unlimited. I mean the end of season one was just screaming a season 2 but unfortunately they had it planned to do another season only to have it cancelled so that show just kicks me in the balls each the time I see the season finale.

Man, I loved that show. I always thought that I missed the other episodes when I was a kid. I'm sad that it only lasted 13 episodes.

Spider-man has a history of shows gone too soon. Spider-Man Unlimited, MTV's Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man. I think a lot of marvel show have ben canceled after 1-3 seasons.

Even though it had a good, full run, the 90's Spider-Man show really aggravated me since it ended with a sort of cliff hanger.

[GameWizard001]

Surprised that no-one just said Toonami.

Anyway..


...Toonami. Though I agree with what everyone else said. Never heard of Angel Link though.

Toonami is back on but some of the shows they used to show aren't on. They do Bleach, Naruto, Space Dandy, One Piece but not some of the really good ones.

Firefly was one I would have mentioned but someone beat me to it.

Teen Titans I think ran for 4-5 seasons maybe, but ended on a cliffhanger as far as airing goes.

Green Lantern the Animated Series and Young Justice ended way too soon. Stupid ratings/studios. Only reason they canceled those two was because the "wrong" demographic was watching it more, meaning more girls than boys were watching the shows. Which to them meant no one would be buying tie-in toys and action figures......so? DVDs, video games, some other sort of collectibles that both genders would like? You can't think of something else to make money on the side with this stuff?

Mighty Max was another good one. The show ended weird too, ended with an episode that basically reset everything back to the first episode before Max went on his adventures only he remembered everything of what happened. Still a cool show though. Dark but good.