... Or how every show I like gets cancelled. The latest is Stargate: SG-1 which is currently in its 10th season. What a special present for the fans, a cancellation announcement after the 200th episode aired last Friday. I was a late comer to the series as it was on Showtime and syndication originally, with my only chance to see it being around 11 PM on Saturdays (if that). Once it came to the floundering SciFi channel, it became a much bigger series and I was able to catch up with most of the previous seasons. One of the charms of SG-1 was its sense of humor and willingness to poke fun at itself, which is a nice change from the relentlessly grim scifi and fantasy of the current era. It always struck a nice balance between character development and action, all on a tight budget and under the perpetual threat of cancellation. Some fans didn't like the changes to the cast that happened last year, but I really liked Cam, Vala, and Landry coming in and shaking things up.
Oh well, at least its spinoff, Stargate: Atlantis is getting a 4th season. That series has been banging away on all cylinders this season after having an inconsistent 2nd season. Hopefully, there will be a future for SG-1 as a movie or on another network.
Now for a tally of series that I liked that died early or premature deaths:
Space: Above and Beyond
Profit
The Tick
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr
Wiseguy
Sledge Hammer
The Night Stalker (original)
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Ned and Stacy
The Flash
Buffalo Bill
Slap Maxwell
Brimstone
RIP.
I still marvel at how 6000 Nielson families control what we get to see on TV, they are simply too small a sample given the many millions of TV viewers out there.
Reviews of movies, anime, and the occasional TV show mixed with warnings on Blogger spam. Also to be found are musings on whatever I am thinking about - all from the point of view of being left to watch everything from the sidelines of life.
I'm not sure that after 10 seasons you can say it's terribly early/premature, but I guess it's sad. As I think I told you, we lost track of SG1 after about season 3, and haven't followed it since. One of these days we'll have to watch all the episodes from the very beginning.
ReplyDeleteBut thanks for reminding me that I should see if "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr" DVDs are at the library. Good stuff. That one definitely died too soon. We were watching Sky High a couple of weeks ago, and I stared and stared at the coach, until finally it dawned on me: "That's Briscoe County Jr!!".
In SG1's case, it is premature rather than early. This 10th season has been strong in storytelling if weak in ratings. Much of that has to do with SciFi not promoting it like they used to and showing an inclination of wanting to be rid of it. Why? The thinking of their execs has always been a mystery to the fans and producers of more than one show. They just paid failing Paramount studios a bunch of money for Enterprise and some failed pilots, then cancelled SG1 when MGM was talking about starting a third Stargate series!
ReplyDeleteIt was a long wait for Brisco to come out on DVD, wasn't it?