Cancelled TV Shows: Science Fiction
Cancelled tv shows-list of television shows cancelled too early. Science fiction tv shows with a great potential.
Firefly
TV Network: Fox
Air date: 2002, one season
Cast: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Summer Glau
Firefly is a sci-fi western created by Joss Whedon.
In the distant future, Captain Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds is a renegade former brown-coat Sargent now turned smuggler/rogue who is the commander of a small spacecraft named Serenity.
According to Joss Whedon’s vision, “nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today.”
TV Network: CBS
Air date: 2006, 27 episodes
Cast: Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James, Ashley Scott, Kenneth Mitchell, Brad Beyer, April Parker-Jones
Excellent show full of conspiracy theories.
United States after nuclear holocaust caused by own people. Fight for survival in a small Kansas town. A lot of speculations are going around the internet on the decision of CBS to cancel the show. One of them is that CBS got ordered by the US government. The storyline contains companies like Jennings&Rall (Halliburton) and Ravenwood (Blackwater) that resemble their real life examples in a rather scary way.
After the show was cancelled, six million people in the US alone found the time and effort to mail a nut to CBS headquarters.
TV Network: SyFy
Air date: 2004-2009, 5 seasons
Cast: Joe Flanigan, Torri Higginson, Rachel Luttrell, David Hewlett, Jason Momoa, Paul McGillion, Amanda Tapping, Jewel Staite, Robert Picardo
Stargate Atlantis is USA-Canadadian sci fi show from Stargate universe. The story of Stargate Atlantis follows the cliffhanger episode on Stargate SG-1’s seventh season finale “Lost City”, where SG-1 found an outpost made by the race known as the Ancients in Antarctica. After the events of Stargate SG-1 season eight premiere “New Order”, the Stargate Command sends an international team to investigate the outpost. Soon, Dr. Daniel Jackson discovers the location of the greatest city created by the Ancients, Atlantis. The story unfolds when the members of the expedition encounter the Wraith, the race that defeated the Ancients ten thousand years ago.
Stargate Atlantis was honored with numerous awards and award nominations – Saturn Award, Emmy, Gemini, Leo, People’s Choice Award and more.
After Stargate Atlantis was cancelled, the show’s co-creators began working on the already conceptualized Stargate Universe.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
TV Network: Fox
Air date: 2008-2009, 2 seasons
Cast: Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, Brian Austin Green, Garret Dillahunt
Terminator TV show with Summer Glau.
TSCC revolves around the lives of the fictional characters Sarah and John Connor, following the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Bear McCreary said “At the last spotting session, I begged Josh Friedman for the answers to these questions, and he told me enough that I know season 3 would have been our best.”
TV Network: Fox
Air date: 1996-1999, 3 seasons
Cast: Lance Henriksen, Megan Gallagher, Klea Scott
Sci Fi TV series created by Chris Carter following the success of his previous show The X-Files.
The series takes place during the years leading up to the turn of the century, and follows the investigations of ex-FBI agent Frank Black, a law enforcement consultant working for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group.
Although the series premiered with impressive ratings, viewership declined throughout its three-season run, and it was finally cancelled by Fox in the spring of 1999.
TV Network: Fox
Air date: 1989-1990, 22 episodes
Cast: Gary Graham, Eric Pierpoint, Michele Scarabelli, Lauren Woodland
Los Angeles police officer reluctantly working with “Newcomer” alien George Francisco.
The storylines generally revolved around morality plays on the evils of racism and bigotry using Newcomers as the discriminated minority. As fictional immigrants, Newcomers could stand in for hot-button social issues about African-Americans and Mexican-Americans as well as (sexual minorities like gays) and invert the usual expectations.
The weekly series ran for one season, from 1989 through 1990, and was one of the few successes the fledgling Fox Network had at the time. However, the network suffered from financial shortage caused by lower-than-expected advertising income. As a result, Fox executives cancelled all of their dramatic series for the 1990-1991 season.
Star Trek: The Original Series
TV Network: NBC
Air date: 1966-1969, 3 seasons
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, George Takei
Star Trek is a science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that aired on NBC from September 8, 1966 to September 2, 1969. Though the original series was titled simply Star Trek, it has acquired the retronym Star Trek: The Original Series (ST:TOS or TOS)
When Star Trek premiered on NBC in 1966, it was not an immediate hit; ratings were low and advertising revenue was lackluster. Even prior to the end of the first season of Star Trek, there were already calls in the network for the cancellation of the series due to its low Nielsen ratings.
TV Network: Fox
Air date: 2001, 1 season
Cast: Tom Braidwood, Bruce Harwood, Dean Haglund (X-Files trio), Stephen Snedden, Zuleikha Robinson
Pilot was about a government conspiracy to crash a plane into the World Trade Center – the episode aired six months before Sept. 11!
Spin-off of The X-Files featuring the trio of computer-hacking conspiracy geeks popularly known as The Lone Gunmen.
TV Network: USA
Air date: 2004-2007, 4 seasons
Cast: Joel Gretsch, Jacqueline McKenzie, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Laura Allen, Patrick Flueger, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Chad Faust, Kaj-Erik Eriksen, Samantha Ferris
A large group of people disappears from the planet (for various length of times) and when they are returned to their homes they don’t remember being gone (even though in some cases their loved ones have been dead for years), but they have abilities like telepathy and telekinesis due to neurotransmitters in their head. The government realizes this large group could be dangerous and tries to inhibit its abilities, but some of the 4400 wanted more people to have abilities, and so it went for four seasons on USA until it got axed. With layered plots and with a massive cast of characters, this intriguing sci-fi show had a loyal fan base that tried hard to keep it going, sadly to no avail.
TV Network: WB
Air date: 1999-2004, 5 seasons
Cast: David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Glenn Quinn, Alexis Denisof, J. August Richards, Amy Acker, Vincent Kartheiser
Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. A Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off managed to last for five seasons on The WB, which was pretty remarkable, but it was just hitting its stride when it got axed. Fans were left hanging about the fate of Angel (David Boreanaz) and his crew of unconventional private investigators as they fought the forces of evil in a world-ending battle. Plus, the final season also marked the entrance of Spike (James Marsters) and these two big egoed vampires with souls who were both in love with the same woman, made for some terrifically tension-filled TV.
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Defying Gravity was show with a huge potential.
I loved that show. They should never have canceled that
I’ve been trying to remember the name of the tv show. A family, mom, dad, son and daughter, travel from town to town trying not to be discovered as humans. I remember just a few scenes, the mom shoping at the grocery store, all canned items labeled black n white generic, “Meat”, “Vegetable”, etc. and the son attending a highschool class and not as smart as the other kids, learning about agriculture, 3D graphics of plant parts rezzed in the class room, the other kids were not human…but humanized robots able to resist the effects of the high radiation in the town. I keep thinking the name of the show was just one word…but not sure. Must have been late ’80’s early ’90’s. The show lasted a very short time.
I liked Jeremiah – an post apocalyptic series created by J. Michael Straczynski with Luke Perry.
Jericho was the best!!! In Comic book form now with a movie in development.
Star Trek Enterprise.
Firefly will start over again.Next perfects series were X-Files and Outer Limits.
Does anyone remember the name(and what network it was on) of a sf show that only ran a few episodes in September ’09? Something about a deep-space mission?
Defying Gravity with Ron Livingston, Paula Garcés and Malik Yoba?
hello says:NO. I think everything they do is setgad. Even their interactions with one another, like when one member forgets something, and the boss gets mad at him, etc. It is all set up to make it look as if they are legitimate, when, in all actuality, they are a group of con-artists who are pulling the wool over the viewers of the Sci-Fi channel and the people they are helping . I just think these bunch of losers are pretty obvious that they are liars and con artists. They never have any solid proof of any type, it is all just whispers and light and dust motes that they capture on film. Anyone can whisper or throw their voice in the dark.
Firefly was the best sci fi series ever. Browncoats rule!
so many great series cancelled…so many craps still running
I love to watch them and Most Haunted. I believe that there ioogsd and evil out there. I believe that there are entities out there that some help and some are purely bad. I think that there are some peeps that were blessed with somethingwhere they help the police solve cases and are telling the truth.That said , there are just too many peeps stating that they seea presence and can tell you someones life history. There is alady that tells you what animals are thinking , thats too odd tobe true.I do believe in a local woman who told me I was going to winmoney and I did that month and at a later date told me I wasgoing to be sick and I was. She seems to be right on the button with her answers to quite a few peeps. I think she is oneof the blessed.
Twin Peaks!
Alien Nation had a great potential. What about remake?
Defying Gravity, Twin Peaks, Andromeda, Dead Zone, BSG. You can cancel Stargate Universe and bring back Stargate Atlantis!
I agree with all titles. Next great cancelled shows: X-Files, Bionic Woman, Invasion, Joan of Arcadia, Dollhouse, Dresden Files, Farscape and i am terribly missing Stargate SG-1, it was the best sci-fi ever.
Jericho was awesome. CBS sucks.
I am sure Bush’s bureaucrates had a big problem with Jericho series.
Jericho was awesome. Shame!