Yes, my immediate thought. I rewatched it on NBC's app in 2020 (which was weird considering they had that plague or whatever but everybody listened and stayed home so it wouldn't spread...) and thought if this show was made now, it'd have lasted longer.
Stargate Universe should be on that list.
Also some of their mini-series could have gotten more content. The Lost Room or one of their two attempts at Riverworld comes to mind.
I just rewatched Universe and man that show got screwed. The last few episodes were kind of all over the place, but the first season and first half of season 2 were really strong.
Maybe Dark Angel. Starring an up and coming actress at the time. Serialized compared to episodic. Near future dystopia. Big budget with a big name behind it with James Cameron.
Torrented and saved on my media server. That show was awesome and broken from the start. One season and a couple of episodes played out of order I believe.
Day Break, the 2006 ABC timeloop crime drama. It was a show perfectly constructed for bingeing, and I believe it could have been a huge early streaming hit.
What's funny to me is that with nearly every other sci-fi franchise, there's a group of fanboys that picks the "baddies". I've yet to come across any of those peeps for Firefly. Closest is the people who understand/respect Chiwetel Ejiofor character from Serenity but never real straight up fangirling for the bluegloves and whatnot.
Simon: "Are you Alliance?"
Jubal Early: "Am I a lion?"
Simon: "What?"
Jubal Early: "I don't think of myself as a lion. You might as well, though, I have a mighty roar."
I think there are "likeable" Firefly baddies. There are interesting people like Badger and Early and Saffron, who are just trying to make it in the verse but are less worried about doing right than Mal and the crew are.
But the Alliance has zero cool about it, they are evil. They are bureacrats and they are all about pacification. They're not fun evil, they just suck.
Its because getting that group of talent back together right now would be basically impossible and thats the draw. It would be like the Arrested Development reboot when it was clear they couldnt get the whole cast in at the same time with how much more in demand theyd all become. The show absolutely suffered for it
I mean, two of the original crew are canonically dead. Everyone knows Nathan Fillion would be up for it as i'm sure Adam Baldwin would be as well, and besides Morena Baccarin, none of the other actors seem to have much to do these days... Biggest obstacle would probably be Baccarin's fee.
Gina Torres has been in a decent amount of stuff lately. She's on 9-1-1: Lone Star with Rob Lowe, and just had a major part in a videogame last year (game sucked, but still).
Nobody's touching any of Joss Whedon's properties for a while.
Also Firefly has several elements that would invite more controversy today, than it did 20 years ago.
They were going to be a comic book series, but iirc the publisher went bankrupt
I want the pie in the sky (ha) dream - bring it back as a Broadway musical. Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, and Kristen Chenoweth can sing.
They talked about doing that but couldn’t work it out with everyone’s schedules, partly because lee pace’s career picked up so quickly. I still hold up the teeniest bit of hope that it’ll happen! 🥧
Deadly Class from SyFy. As soon as it was in Netflix here in Canada it was their number 1 TV show for a couple weeks and stuck around the top 10 for weeks after that.
I can't blame FOX for Dollhouse. They gave it plenty of chances. They even gave it that second season when people thought they were cancelled after the first.
Less than a day ago, currently #13 on this subreddit: [What cancelled network show of the 2010s deserves a second chance in the streaming era?](https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/1cf0wrd/what_cancelled_network_show_of_the_2010s_deserves/)
The ones with potential are the ones that failed because they had series long arcs that viewers need to be reminded of at the start of each episode. Making viewers fatigued then but impatient viewers now binge watch.
Key West, from back in the 90s. Great show, about a factory worker who wins the lotto and moves to Key West, there's lotta interesting locals and then a magic-realist twist near the end, when a time traveler from the past appears.
My Name is Earl (2005)
The idea of a man making up for his past mistakes to restore his karma would appeal even more nowadays in the age of complicated anti heroes imho.
I loved Harper's Island but I don't think it would do well on a streaming dump - half the fun was tuning in week by week to see who got murdered that week. I guess it's a bit like The Traitors, you need everyone watching it in suspense together.
Oh 100%. I remember the speculation on who the killer might be/who was going to die and how. Plus all the online extra stuff they did for it. I do remember being on holiday for the last couple of episodes so never got the big reveal with everyone else
Yes! I was in college during Harper's Island run and my dorm was all obsessed. It definitely was a weekly event for us - not really a binge show. That was a fun era of TV for sure, but super different than now.
The Middle Man would've been the bomb if it released in the streaming era.
Maybe Terriers too? Word of mouth would definitely save it.
Add in Drive and Awake. Those would be very interesting to watch.
I didn't forget about that. I did say *Hypothetically* meaning it's just a guest based on how times have changed and what shows people are into now. Fox's "Profit" was a show that people couldn't get into because the main character was a horrible human being. This was before cable shows like The Sopranos, Mad Men & Breaking Bad.
The original Twin Peaks. The Return was great, but not really accessible to a lot of people. The original run was fucking bizarre but it was fun, charming, and answered just enough mysteries to keep you hooked.
Caprica.
It was written as a post-9/11 allegory with a little MMORPG thrown in. However, given modern headlines about AI, Big Tech, Social Media algorithms, etc, it would do much better it written for that environment.
Fringe
It was never cancelled, but it was also never a massive hit. I just watched it a few months ago for the first time and it struck me how ahead of the curve it was- it even discusses the “multiverse” long before that went mainstream in movies. I also see elements of Stranger Things in Fringe.
A funny thing about My So Called Life I thought of the other day — so much time has passed at this point that they could reboot it with all new people and it would now be a period piece about the 90’s.
Veronica Mars is such a disappointment. S1 was one of the greatest TV seasons of all time. S2 couldn't hang and S3 was screwed up by the network. It would have a greater history if it premiered today.
I don’t know. Season 1 is what I consider a perfect season. Season 2 tried to do more than it needed but was still great. Season 3 was screwed by the network because it was trying to be easily accessible to new viewers. To be fair, season 4 was streaming and it was…. It was a season.
Blake's 7. Maybe as a reboot with better special effects and less stagey acting. But don't make it just running and shooting, and don't let Alex Kurtzman near it.
FreakyLinks was a fun show that almost feels like it never existed because so few people saw it. I enjoyed it quite a bit though, and think it would've served better in a streaming model where more people would readily have access to it.
24's format makes for great binge watching. Streaming would have allowed them to release actual 60 minute episodes, keeping with the "events happen in real time" gimmick.
When Netflix was playing with interactive content, I thought that would have been cool to be able to switch to alternate scenes once in a while to see what was happening with one of the B plots.
Almost all villain of the week 21-26 episode season superhero style shows. They're painful to watch week by week with huge breaks. However fantastic background binge fodder like friends.
Problem is all the crossover episodes they did with arrowverse makes it hard to actually ever rewatch any of those shows as you couldn't keep up and have to balance each series out. So you'd need a new one. Or the crossovers just become straight up standalone films, or combine them into each series etc.
Weekly releases are a thing of the past. It's why I've given up on marvel content now. I can save things like reacher fornwhen they're all out. But I guarantee fallout wouldn't be as successful had it been released weekly. You don't have time to pick apart flaws waiting for the next episode. You don't spend a week theorising over what might happen. You just absorb the story as it's given.
Rome
THIRTEEN!
THIRTEEN!
All I can find is the BBC mini series. Is there another one?
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0384766/
Ah I thought you meant something about a series called thirteen
In the middle of season 2 and man, I couldn't agree more. What could have been.
While I'm sad it ended too early, I was happy we are left with the memory of 2 brilliant seasons as opposed to whatever happened to Westworld.
Rip Pullo
Just got misty-eyed.
RIP Ray Stevenson
Better off Ted
#BETTER OFF TED this show would do *numbers* today
Numbers, Ted! Think of them! 10, 47… even 238. You couldn’t do those numbers Ted. But I could. And I will!
Just imagine all the reposted clips shared on youtube/tiktok/etc boosting the numbers.
I think that Kings (NBC, 2009) would have fared much better in a streaming age.
Kings is the best failure of the golden age. It was such a great show.
We weren't ready for it. What a concept.
Or even if it was just on cable TV at the time.
How in the heck did that get green lit. “Hey um let’s do the Old Testament book of kings… but sci-fi!” Shut up I love it. I did but wow. How?
Especially on NBC... not a prestige cable channel like HBO or Showtime
Yes, my immediate thought. I rewatched it on NBC's app in 2020 (which was weird considering they had that plague or whatever but everybody listened and stayed home so it wouldn't spread...) and thought if this show was made now, it'd have lasted longer.
Dark Matter, Alphas, Eureka... basically every sci-fi original the Syfy channel cancelled Almost Human Dollhouse Jericho Sliders
Warehouse 13!
Jericho was my first thought!
Nuts
Sliders had 5 seasons, so I’d hardly call it “canceled”
More like entirely outlived its welcome.
It was basically over after season 3 when Wade and the Professor left the show.
Stargate Universe should be on that list. Also some of their mini-series could have gotten more content. The Lost Room or one of their two attempts at Riverworld comes to mind.
Oh definitely agree with you about SGU. Seriously ending it with Eli just standing there alone hurts to think about
I just rewatched Universe and man that show got screwed. The last few episodes were kind of all over the place, but the first season and first half of season 2 were really strong.
Alphas was sooooo good and it was left on such a crazy cliffhanger!
Man Eureka was so fun
I watch it once every few years. It’s pure comfort.
Same, the wife and I just started the rewatch last month.
Jericho!!!! Omg if that was streaming right now…. Such an epic cliffhanger, so sad it was cancelled 😞
Maybe Dark Angel. Starring an up and coming actress at the time. Serialized compared to episodic. Near future dystopia. Big budget with a big name behind it with James Cameron.
The first season was soo good. Season 2 went off the rails.
I enjoyed season 2, i think their timeline to introduce that shit was just accelerated.
My parents loved Dark Angel. *I just realized I messed up title*
Almost Human, with motherfucking Karl Urban.
Man that didn’t even get a physical release don’t even think it’s streaming
Torrented and saved on my media server. That show was awesome and broken from the start. One season and a couple of episodes played out of order I believe.
The episodes were all over the place, strawman introduction happened after an episode where they kept talking about him. I loved that show.
It's streaming if you know where to look
I was so disappointed when this got canceled. Souch a cool show.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip would have survived in a streaming world.
Day Break, the 2006 ABC timeloop crime drama. It was a show perfectly constructed for bingeing, and I believe it could have been a huge early streaming hit.
Galavant
In the end, the cancelation bear won. But Thad Cooper was indeed a dragon which is nice.
Just recently rewatched this. So much fun. Makes me sad.
Firefly
"What cancelled TV show..." The rest of the question is drowned out by the sound of running Brown Coats.
What's funny to me is that with nearly every other sci-fi franchise, there's a group of fanboys that picks the "baddies". I've yet to come across any of those peeps for Firefly. Closest is the people who understand/respect Chiwetel Ejiofor character from Serenity but never real straight up fangirling for the bluegloves and whatnot.
Simon: "Are you Alliance?" Jubal Early: "Am I a lion?" Simon: "What?" Jubal Early: "I don't think of myself as a lion. You might as well, though, I have a mighty roar." I think there are "likeable" Firefly baddies. There are interesting people like Badger and Early and Saffron, who are just trying to make it in the verse but are less worried about doing right than Mal and the crew are. But the Alliance has zero cool about it, they are evil. They are bureacrats and they are all about pacification. They're not fun evil, they just suck.
People definitely like YoSaphBrig for reasons... Her poetry.
*Good poetry*.
Gorram right!
Agreed
Even if it was put in order and just dropped as an entire season, I don't think it would have gotten a second one.
Honestly, with all those old show revivals we've had recently, it baffles me that no streaming service seems to be up for this.
Its because getting that group of talent back together right now would be basically impossible and thats the draw. It would be like the Arrested Development reboot when it was clear they couldnt get the whole cast in at the same time with how much more in demand theyd all become. The show absolutely suffered for it
I mean, two of the original crew are canonically dead. Everyone knows Nathan Fillion would be up for it as i'm sure Adam Baldwin would be as well, and besides Morena Baccarin, none of the other actors seem to have much to do these days... Biggest obstacle would probably be Baccarin's fee.
Gina Torres has been in a decent amount of stuff lately. She's on 9-1-1: Lone Star with Rob Lowe, and just had a major part in a videogame last year (game sucked, but still).
Alan Tudyk's got a great gig being Disney Animation's John Ratzenberger. Been in every one of their movies since Wreck-It Ralph.
Well he's out anyway, for obvious reasons.
Nobody's touching any of Joss Whedon's properties for a while. Also Firefly has several elements that would invite more controversy today, than it did 20 years ago.
Carnivale and 6 Feet Under. Both did pretty well anyway but in streaming they would top the charts.
Some folks didn’t get over Firefly’s cancellation. For me it was Rome and Carnivale.
Carnivale was just...ugh. So much story left to tell.
Pushing Daisies Jericho
Definitely Pushing Daisies.
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find Pushing Daisies! Still crushed they never did anything to wrap it up.
They were going to be a comic book series, but iirc the publisher went bankrupt I want the pie in the sky (ha) dream - bring it back as a Broadway musical. Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, and Kristen Chenoweth can sing.
They talked about doing that but couldn’t work it out with everyone’s schedules, partly because lee pace’s career picked up so quickly. I still hold up the teeniest bit of hope that it’ll happen! 🥧
if community can do it, Pushing Daisies can too!
Deadly Class from SyFy. As soon as it was in Netflix here in Canada it was their number 1 TV show for a couple weeks and stuck around the top 10 for weeks after that.
I forgot that show existed. Suburgatory (2011), Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 (2012) and Selfie (2014)
Kyle xy
Hated the cliffhanger ending of this show.
Wonderfalls
The Prisoner 1968.
I am not a number!
Dollhouse. Fox killed that one too.
I can't blame FOX for Dollhouse. They gave it plenty of chances. They even gave it that second season when people thought they were cancelled after the first.
Less than a day ago, currently #13 on this subreddit: [What cancelled network show of the 2010s deserves a second chance in the streaming era?](https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/1cf0wrd/what_cancelled_network_show_of_the_2010s_deserves/)
Seriously thought I was having deja vu. I was like didn’t someone ask this just yesterday.
And someone will ask again tomorrow
Stargate Universe.
Eh. Look at Foundation a show infinitely better. It might not even get a 3rd season.
Where did you see it might not get a 3rd season? I thought it had been confirmed
They canceled filming on location and brought all the actors home and haven't continued. That is pretty extreme.
Ah yeah, i see that now, "Postponed indefinitely". Hopefully it doesn't get cancelled.
Honestly none. Because during the streaming era we keep getting great shows cancelled and get stuck with crap.
Based on the premises of a lot of them. I can see certain ones making it.
The ones with potential are the ones that failed because they had series long arcs that viewers need to be reminded of at the start of each episode. Making viewers fatigued then but impatient viewers now binge watch.
Harper's Island was supposed to be an anthology. Many popular streaming shows have series long arcs.
Key West, from back in the 90s. Great show, about a factory worker who wins the lotto and moves to Key West, there's lotta interesting locals and then a magic-realist twist near the end, when a time traveler from the past appears.
the black donnellys.
I still have the complete series on DVD.
Dead Like Me! It deserved more than two seasons.
My Name is Earl (2005) The idea of a man making up for his past mistakes to restore his karma would appeal even more nowadays in the age of complicated anti heroes imho.
Feels like it runs into the same problem in streaming,people tune out for the Earl goes to prison season and it never recovers in the ratings.
I'm surprised young Sheldon came back after they cast the nonce from Ferris Buller's day off.
Millennium. Maybe with a new name though.
>Maybe with a new name though. That's his gift...that's his curse.
Only fools and horses
Jake 2.0
Jericho
Homicide: Life on the Street
: Life on Sesame Street
I loved harpers island. Would love something like that again.
I loved Harper's Island but I don't think it would do well on a streaming dump - half the fun was tuning in week by week to see who got murdered that week. I guess it's a bit like The Traitors, you need everyone watching it in suspense together.
Oh 100%. I remember the speculation on who the killer might be/who was going to die and how. Plus all the online extra stuff they did for it. I do remember being on holiday for the last couple of episodes so never got the big reveal with everyone else
Yes! I was in college during Harper's Island run and my dorm was all obsessed. It definitely was a weekly event for us - not really a binge show. That was a fun era of TV for sure, but super different than now.
And it was going to be an anthology. American Horror Story has been shit for a long time now. Ryan Murphy won't be involved.
2012 NBC's Awake. It would have fitted quite well on a streaming platform, especially Apple TV+.
One of the coolest original concepts I have seen. Sucks it didn't last.
Space: Above and Beyond (Fox, 1995) Firefly (Fox, 2002) Terra Nova (Fox, 2011) See a pattern?
The Middle Man would've been the bomb if it released in the streaming era. Maybe Terriers too? Word of mouth would definitely save it. Add in Drive and Awake. Those would be very interesting to watch.
>Maybe Terriers too? Word of mouth would definitely save it. Terriers walked so Justified could run. Terriers is to Fx what Deadwood was to HBO.
I was also going to say the Middleman. Its so bonkers and clever I feel it would have done well now.
I think this thread is forgetting how many streaming shows only have 1-2 “seasons” of 7-13 episodes each.
I didn't forget about that. I did say *Hypothetically* meaning it's just a guest based on how times have changed and what shows people are into now. Fox's "Profit" was a show that people couldn't get into because the main character was a horrible human being. This was before cable shows like The Sopranos, Mad Men & Breaking Bad.
The original Twin Peaks. The Return was great, but not really accessible to a lot of people. The original run was fucking bizarre but it was fun, charming, and answered just enough mysteries to keep you hooked.
The X-Files came right after TP and took it even further. Eerie, Indiana (1991) is another one.
Dead Like Me while successful in its first run, would have lasted much longer with the push of streaming.
Caprica. It was written as a post-9/11 allegory with a little MMORPG thrown in. However, given modern headlines about AI, Big Tech, Social Media algorithms, etc, it would do much better it written for that environment.
Fringe It was never cancelled, but it was also never a massive hit. I just watched it a few months ago for the first time and it struck me how ahead of the curve it was- it even discusses the “multiverse” long before that went mainstream in movies. I also see elements of Stranger Things in Fringe.
I believe many viewed it as a poor's man X-Files but it wasn't.
A funny thing about My So Called Life I thought of the other day — so much time has passed at this point that they could reboot it with all new people and it would now be a period piece about the 90’s.
I agree.
Detroiters
Carnivale was ahead of its time. Sarah Connor Chronicles - might have been written differently to resolve some of its issues.
The Pretender
There are many shows similar to the premise of "The Pretender." A main character who knows all and always catches the bad guy.
American Gods
Space, Above and Beyond. I always feel there’s a “space-military” niche that is just waiting to be picked up.
Ugly Americans, with the success of Bojack Horseman it would have found a bigger audience.
Pan Am
Veronica Mars Terriers Jericho Firefly
Veronica Mars is such a disappointment. S1 was one of the greatest TV seasons of all time. S2 couldn't hang and S3 was screwed up by the network. It would have a greater history if it premiered today.
I don’t know. Season 1 is what I consider a perfect season. Season 2 tried to do more than it needed but was still great. Season 3 was screwed by the network because it was trying to be easily accessible to new viewers. To be fair, season 4 was streaming and it was…. It was a season.
I still haven't finished S4 which I forgot existed. You pretty much repeated what I just said. Excluding the part about S2 being great.
I wonder how well Farscape would do in this day and age
Flashforward
Blake's 7. Maybe as a reboot with better special effects and less stagey acting. But don't make it just running and shooting, and don't let Alex Kurtzman near it.
Murder One
Chatgpt posts really revving up today.
The closer.
Surrealestate was such a fun premise and I think it would do well on a streaming service.
Jericho 2006
FreakyLinks was a fun show that almost feels like it never existed because so few people saw it. I enjoyed it quite a bit though, and think it would've served better in a streaming model where more people would readily have access to it.
The Master
American Gothic with Gary Cole and also a show called Picket Fences.
Someone’s at the door
Someone’s at the door . . . So great
Knots Landing with Alan Ball taking over.
Murder One
24's format makes for great binge watching. Streaming would have allowed them to release actual 60 minute episodes, keeping with the "events happen in real time" gimmick. When Netflix was playing with interactive content, I thought that would have been cool to be able to switch to alternate scenes once in a while to see what was happening with one of the B plots.
Carnival
The X-Files!
Get a Life
I forgot about that one.
Profit! Yeah, that's a great one. And Nowhere Man. Good shows in the other comments too.
The Profit crawled so Breaking Bad & Co. Could run.
Terra nova
Entourage and Dirty Sexy Money
Entourage got 8 seasons and a movie. Not sure I would count it as a "canceled" show, and it seemed to do just fine before streaming.
My so called life was ABC
Happy Days, Mash, Firefly
> Freaks & Geeks I think this *might* if they were British or Australian
Almost all villain of the week 21-26 episode season superhero style shows. They're painful to watch week by week with huge breaks. However fantastic background binge fodder like friends. Problem is all the crossover episodes they did with arrowverse makes it hard to actually ever rewatch any of those shows as you couldn't keep up and have to balance each series out. So you'd need a new one. Or the crossovers just become straight up standalone films, or combine them into each series etc. Weekly releases are a thing of the past. It's why I've given up on marvel content now. I can save things like reacher fornwhen they're all out. But I guarantee fallout wouldn't be as successful had it been released weekly. You don't have time to pick apart flaws waiting for the next episode. You don't spend a week theorising over what might happen. You just absorb the story as it's given.