Strange Luck was a brilliant show and they even wroe an episode that left it open for an X-Files crossoverthat was never capitalized on. It was quirky and fun and FOX was proven to be run by monkeys for cancelling it!

A perfect list.

Since you didn't say "sci-fi" shows . . . does "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" count? I frikkin' LOVED that show, and Fox killed it like they kill everything else I love (though Firefly was, as you correctly noted, the most egregarious examples).

How could Fast Lane not make this list?

Where is Space: Above and beyond ??? Nobody ever gives that show credit.

1.The Gary Shandling Show

2.Herman's Head

3.Paker Lewis Can't Lose

4.Flying Blind

This is an excellent list, particularly your inclusion of Profit, a show of cold, twisted brilliance. If there is any justice in this world, Profit would be back on the air--or, at the very least, we'd have a Profit vs. Dexter movie.

Where's ZachT to tell you that you are wrong to complain and FOX has the right to cancel anything they want? Let's hope he's face down in the tub.

Shepherd Book! Why did you have to go!

Sorry Im still not over that.

And so many more...I was always a fan of Freakylinks with Ethan Embry...

Who a lot Anti-Fox bias! What a news?

ToplessRobot you are out of my bookmarks.

Space: Above and Beyond and Andy Richter could have easily been on here as well. See, the list just keeps going.

You left out my favorite:

Kindred: The Embraced

Based on the White Wolf pencil and paper games, it was about political war between vampire bloodlines in Los Angeles, all while trying to maintain the illusion that vampires do not exist. My opinion is skewed by my slavish devotion to White Wolf: I once had 240 books in my collection, and know just about all of them by heart. I'm also certifiably insane as a result.

I think the main reason these shows get cancelled is the enormous amount of money Fox pumps into a show before it's been on the air for a while. The Tick's costume cost over $250,000 to make. That's a steep investment for the first season. Compare that to the special effects and costumes in the first season of Star Trek: TNG. They started off low budget and cheesy, but after season 2, they were able to increase budget, improve sets, and get new costumes. It really made a difference.

By the way, Nestor Carbonell as the mayor of Gotham City in The Dark Knight was awesome. If Bruce Wayne ever failed, Batmanuel could have saved the day!

And yet Hannity, Bill O'Reily, and Glen Beck have the shelf life of Spam. I know Foxnews is a different branch of the octopus-like newscorp than Fox TV, but it still doesn't convince me that newscorp isn't an front company for an organization like SPECTRE and that Rupert Murdoch lives in a volcano or undersea base.

Some of these hurt a little more than others on this list. Firefly, Wonderfall, Drive. You know? The ones that didn't even get a chance at a full season before having the rug pulled out. Fox's treatment of Firefly was borderline criminal. If they wanted to be dicks about it, they could have just cancelled it, but no. They preempted it, they showed it out of order, they showed the pilot last. It was like they used the nightstick on Joss Whedon, tasered him, and then hit him with the pepperspray.

Herman's Head should be on this list. I thoroughly enjoyed that show, but like some of the others on this list, it had its chance. The Inside should also be here. It made me like Peter Coyote again. That hasn't happened since Timerider and ET.

I'm going to go cry in the corner about Brisco some more. I thought I was over this, but the cancellation of Sarah Connor just...you know...sob...brought it all back.

(And, yes, I think Fox made the right decisions with VR5 and Mantis.)

Great idea and great overall list but "Wonderfalls" is the clear cut number one. Although it's not surprising that yet again another overrated piece of Joss garbage took the top spot. I also have never understood the love of "Futurama." It's good but far from great.

Still this is a pretty solid list overall. If anything it's painful to know that you can get a top 20 out of this topic. Screw you, FOX.

Ah, I was wondering when a list of this type would show up.
It's even more depressing in list form though, isn't it?
I remember staying up with my parents watching Brimstone when I was perhaps all-to-young to do so...oh there's too many memories on this list. It's too painful, take it away! *huddles up with her Firefly box-set*

(Extra bonus points for including 'Profit' and 'Undeclared' as well.)

Oh...and chalk up another one for Kindred: The Embraced. However, due to death of star, and being close to pickup from another network at the time, I can see it being overlooked. On the other hand...Kate Vernon sucks blood. Who wouldn't want to see that?!

As soon as I saw the title of this post I said,"I will never read TR again if Firefly wasn't #1." I'm glad we TR and I were on the same page. :)

Is it me, or does it seem like Brian Thompson was a bad guy on ALL of these shows?

Or none of them? See, I know he wasn't, but it seems that way.

What about Freaky Links?

I never really got into many of these shows EXCEPT........for John Doe. That show rocked and I was totally bummed when they cancelled it.

BUT......hearing their explanation of why John was the way he was......I'm kinda glad they cancelled it. It just sucks when cool TV shows turn stupid (e.g. Lost, Heroes)

Heat Vision And Jack

# Of episodes: 1 (unaired)

Wow, the mystery of John Doe was literally going to lead up to "God did it!"? At least with battlestar it was more like "god did part of it!"

Agreed with some of the post sentiment about wonderfalls deserving higher placing. Hearing the plans for later episodes reads like an anti John Doe ending. I mean they were going to have the main character committed to an insane asylum for a season. That's a pretty daring and awesome move. I'm just as annoyed that there was talk of finally getting some closure on it with a pushing daisies crossover, when it got the ax as well.

DEja VU . this topic has been bugging me for quite a week now , since ive fall madly in love with the canceled fox show UNdeclared . it might be hard to believe , but fox is saving the viewers .Any good show living past season 1 ,starts to suck . Umm for one , prison break .who wants to watch people on the run? Heroes is not on fox , but it should be ,because it wouldve been canceled during their excellant season 1 and saved us viewers from the horrors of upcoming seasons .SO FOX has saved us by canceling these shows , they didnt want to be put on pressure to make new episodes that are good , so they canceled the shows saving us from disapointment . Fox has no integrity anymore , might as well get sold to disney or some shit , like Power Rangers -.-

DEja VU . this topic has been bugging me for quite a week now , since ive fall madly in love with the canceled fox show UNdeclared . it might be hard to believe , but fox is saving the viewers .Any good show living past season 1 ,starts to suck . Umm for one , prison break .who wants to watch people on the run? Heroes is not on fox , but it should be ,because it wouldve been canceled during their excellant season 1 and saved us viewers from the horrors of upcoming seasons .SO FOX has saved us by canceling these shows , they didnt want to be put on pressure to make new episodes that are good , so they canceled the shows saving us from disapointment . Fox has no integrity anymore , might as well get sold to disney or some shit , like Power Rangers -.-

Oh God, I was finally able to overcome all the pain and suffering, and you just bring it back?!?

From the list, I clearly recall seeing (and weeping for) John Doe, The Lone Gunmen, The Tick, Wonderfalls, Keen Eddie Arrested Development, Futurama and Firefly.

And here I am again, weeping for the good ones that are goners..

Kindred was another one right there that could have done better.

And Fast Lane was a Fox? Seriously? Another one to weep at?

(I Agree with ManwithPetz, VR5 and Mantis were good calls)

"Werewolf," huh? Never heard of it. It wasn't, perchance, a spinoff to the 1995 "Werewolf" 'starring' Joe Estavez and wonderfully mocked by MST3K, was it? Because if it was, then it's too bad that we didn't get to hear anymore about "warwilfs."

I've always thought the dude from keen eddie should have played Duke in the Gi Joe movie - he looks just like Duke from the cartoon!

Wow, I thought I was the only one who remembered Brimstone. It was written by some of the same people who had done Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight. I remember searching every week for a new episode, never missed one. That was a great show, it's tied for me between that and Firefly.

fastlane was awesome

It still sucks that VR.5 ended on a cliffhanger as bad as the one that was never resolved from Sliders season 1 when that show almost didn't get renewed.

+1 for Andy Richter Controls the Universe.

Get a Life should be #1. The fact that it's not even on the list is ridiculous.

@GUMBERCULES!

I think K:TE got canceled when Mark Frankel was killed between seasons. That and Vampire 90210 wasn't as big a sell then as it would be now. Aaaaaand C Thomas Howell was abysmal.

Have to agree with Michael on this one. Andy Richter Controls the Universe was a fantastic show and should've been on this list, possibly Freaks and Geeks too. Other then those discrepancies, good list. I wouldn't have minded Tru Calling so much except that it was only just getting really good towards the end of the shows life.
Also, fair play points to you for putting Wonderfalls so high. ‘Twas a great show.

Great list, but I third "Space: Above and Beyond". It was certainly before its time. And oh, how I miss you, John Doe... that one season was a great time to go without cable on my poor, poor college budget.

A possible devil's advocate: do the other broadcast networks ever give shows like these (sci-fi or more experimental or whatever you want to call them) a chance in the first place?

They may -- I don't pay a lot of attention. I'm just wondering if Fox has piled up such a bodycount because it's generally more experimental than the other 3 networks.

I also don't care much, as cancelling firefly is unforgivable regardless of how many other "different" new shows you may have put on the air.

Hey, I've got an idea for a show: it's about a suburban family living a regular life -- BUT! The husband if a doofus and his wife's always trying to keep him in line. And then they resolve conflists with their children by talking to them and not hitting them.

I remember seeing Profit on swedish TV and I think they showed all 8 ep... back then I thougt that was one of the coolest shows ever

Ugh. I need to go have a drink now and it's not even 10am yet.

I'll be honest, I scrolled immediately to the end to make sure it was Firefly before even reading this list.

God I loved the Tick show.

Huh, I'd forgotten all about the Werewolf show!

Thanks for the reminder why I don't usually bother to watch Fox anymore! I gave TSCC (Sarah Connor) a chance, but of course Fox fudged that all up too....

Agree with ManWithPez... The Inside was a really great show. Between that, Wonderfalls, and Drive, the case could be made that Fox doesn't like Tim Minear or any other person associated with Joss Whedon.

John Doe was not "God did it". Go look it up on Wikipedia. The Phoenix Organization or what not are the ones who did it. They perfected technology to resurrect people after death. From what I can tell, God plays almost no part in the plot, it focuses on using the tech to produce someone with that kind of knowledge.

And dammit, you failed to mention Family Guy's opening "If all these shows get canceled, we might have a shot" speech.

First, I wanna say that my two fav FOX shows were on here. Thank you for getting it right in my opinion.

Second, I wanna say that Bruce Campbell is to film what Jesus is to the Bible. And just like Jesus was persecuted, people judge Bruce's acting and misinterpret his acting abilities to B movies. When Bruce was the main character in his own show as Brisco, that was really some of his best acting. Don't get me wrong, he's great in Burn Notice too. And he had a great supporting cast in Brisco. But I really wish that before this guy really goes to pot in age, that someone give him back a series as THE main character. Hey, even William Shatner won two awards for his portrayal as Denny Crane on Boston Legal! And although I love the Shat, Bruce is a waaaaaay better actor.

Third, finally someone agrees that The Tick was nothing less than brilliant when he was played by David Warburton. David really fit that role of The Tick perfectly. I wish this show had lasted longer, because they didn't even pin prick the zany characters and events that happened in the comic books.

Thankfully, I own both series on DVD, so I can keep watching them.

Oh well. These are just my opinions. You may or may not agree with me, but hey, that's the beauty of free America!

You know why I didn't watch Firefly on FOX? It's because I knew there was no point getting attatched. I've done this FOX song and dance for too many years. I know better. You know what I do several times a day ever since buying Firefly's DVD box set? I cry to myself how wrong it is that this series got axed. It's the closest thing to a live action Outlaw Star or Cowboy Bebop, and the characters reciprocate just as well as the CSI cast. To this day I'm shocked and amazed that The Simpsons are still on the air. I almost wish FOX never got ahold of The Simpsons, Married with Children, and that god awful but very popular Martin Lawrence show. Without those 3, FOX would have sank, and that would have been justice served.

@Roland: Fuck off then. Fox is horrible.

I don't even know these shows simply because I've lived in the superior Europe for quite some time. Hell, if I'd know The Tick got a live action TV show I would've been all over it.

Not sure why Tru Calling is on the list though... it was bad.

@Chad:

The Simpsons have definitely overstayed their welcome on TV! I stopped watching that show years ago.

No show with more than 36 episodes deserves to be on this list. Sure, Fox has made some terrible decisions, but if it hasn't caught on by then...

Millennium dug its own hole by being confusing for the sake of confusion.

Good list, but it could easily be a Top 50 instead of 20. Also, it would also be fitting to have a similar list for Fox Kids. I can't remember how many times they'd announce a new cartoon/Japanese import, only to have it disappear after about 2 episodes (Xyber 9, Escaflowne)

Wow, I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Dark Angel. While not a brilliant show it was smart, a lot of fun, dealt with cyberpunk/dystopian future themes, and most importantly, introduced Jessica Alba to a very grateful viewing public.

It deserved better than it got.

Doc

Seeing as how the TV Movie for Doctor Who was a back door pilot for a series revival in the states, could it also be considered a victim of Fox's douchebaggery?

To parrot what has already been stated aleast five or more times.

Space: Above and Beyond.
Which did thankfully have 1 session. While absolutely fantastic! I do not think is belongs on the list because it was not actually "cut short" like the rest of the list.
~And they should bring it back anyway.
I thought the author was being cute by having the last line in Firefly say "Above an Beyond," about a space show. Reading to much into that?

Andy Richter Controls the Universe. With 19 episodes, Since he controls the universe it should be brought back, and make it a sin to cancel it before a proper run in a GOOD time slot.

darkmagician66699 said: "...David Warburton..."

It's Patrick, actually, but you're right he was awesome as the Tick. Vastly underrated show.

I'll also second the support for Andy Richter Controls the Universe and add that I really liked Titus when it was on. I think that's one that deserved better.

To parrot what has already been stated aleast five or more times.

Space: Above and Beyond.
Which did thankfully have 1 session. While absolutely fantastic! I do not think is belongs on the list because it was not actually "cut short" like the rest of the list.
~And they should bring it back anyway.
I thought the author was being cute by having the last line in Firefly say "Above an Beyond," about a space show. Reading to much into that?

Andy Richter Controls the Universe. With 19 episodes, Since he controls the universe it should be brought back, and make it a sin to cancel it before a proper run in a GOOD time slot.

Thanks Rob. You made me cry.

Great (but infuriating) list. What bothers me are when Fox neglects a good show in favor of a bad show. Case in point- Undeclared.

It started airing around the same time as another show- "That 80s Show". "80s" was produced by the same people who had done "That 70s Show", but was much worse (if you can imagine that). Since "70s" was a hit, Fox was sure "80s" would be, too, so they put all their time and effort in promoting that at the expense of "Undeclared."

Nothing on God's green Earth could make "80s" a hit, though, so it ended up getting cancelled anyway. And "Undeclared", which could have done well, got shafted and ended up cancelled, too.

@GUMBERCULES!

Kindred wasn't cancelled for budget or lack of following or any of the standard Fox idiocy. Kindred is more accurately considered abandoned in the wake of Mark Frankel's (Julian Luna) very untimely death in a motor cycle accident Sept 24 1996. If that date seems familiar, it should because it's only weeks after Kindred aired it's last episode. I'm a big fan of the show myself but Fox doesn't get the blame for that one not staying on the air.

Fox always gets the rap for cancelling shows, but the justification we usually apply is "because they're dicks and obviously like screwing with us." When the simple fact is that it always comes down to money. Cost of production vs ad revenue from viewership.

From Wikipedia:
Since its launch on October 9, 1986, Fox has grown from an upstart "netlet" to the status of the highest-rated broadcast network in the coveted 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2009.[2] In the 2007–08 season, Fox became the most popular network in America in general household ratings, dethroning CBS.[2] In the 2008-09 season it was placed second place in ratings, behind CBS.
You don't go from nothing to first place in the relatively "upstart" time of 20 years without being good at what you do. Sadly, I think reality TV has as much to do with the tragic show death as anything else. I would like to have seen this article go into a little bit more evidence on Fox's willful dickery with each show. Cancelling a show after 4 episodes, I get. Cancelling a show after 2.5 seasons when it's consistently failed in its time slot to come in better than 3rd the whole time and has only had one or two time changes? C'mon. A little bit more original research please.

For the record here are the longest running shows on Fox:
America's Most Wanted 940+
COPS 750+
The Simpsons 441+
Power Rangers 650+
MADtv 321
King of the Hill 253+
Married...with Children 259+
Beverly Hills, 90210 296
Not that they'll ever get any credit for The Simpsons or Married...with Children being in slots 3 and 7.

I loved the Lone Gunmen.

No love for Greg The Bunny? For shame!
I also second (or is it twentieth at this point?) the love for Andy Richter Controls The Universe. The racist girlfriend episode remains one of the funniest TV episodes ever!

Lack of Kitchen Confidential = failure of list.

But, seriously... you know why Fox pays more attention to sports than these shows? Because the NFL and the World Series are two of the biggest properties on television, period. I never understood people who complained when NFL coverage bumped Futurama - did they seriously expect a niche animated show to take precedence over the freaking NFL?

I still remember the Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., and loved Brimstone, but I have to disagree with everyone here about John Doe. Tried watching it on Hulu, and barely made it to episode five.

The acting was horrible, but I don't know if I can blame that on the actors, or in fact the director/writers since 'all' of the acting was horrible. Not to mention there were lapses were the dialog/scenes were just laughably bad.

I'd nominate Pushing Daisies and Life on Mars (yes, the American version) for that list. Both were wonderfully done and brought new ideas to TV. The fact that more ridiculous dancing, singing, clapping idiot contests show up on prime time schedules is a sign of the apocalypse.

Whoops, neither of those shows were on Fox. My bad. But you get my drift.

What about Sliders?

Wow, I really hate Fox now. Is there a cooler idea for a show than Brimstone? A cop resurrected by the Devil to capture escaped fallen souls. I loved that show and it mysteriously disappeared--damn you, Rupert Murdoch! Ditto for Briscoe County, the Ben Stiller Show, Futurama, and Firefly.

I always enjoyed Chris Elliott's Get a Life Show. It's too bad it was canceled and there is no DVD release of the show. To quote WikiPedia, "Many of the executives at the Fox Network hated the show and thought it was too disturbing and that Elliott's character was too insane." This show was way ahead of its time.

I also enjoyed Sliders and was pissed it was first raped by FOX changing the basic premise and trying to make the cheesy horror movie of the week show, but then when they canceled it that just sucked. I guess it was nice it somewhat survived on Sci-Fi in a lesser quality version.

They canceled America Most Wanted

They are asshats.

Oh god, I love this list. I'm constantly spewing hatred about Fox to anyone who will listen. I fucking hate them, and thinking about Firefly, Arrested Development, and Wonderfalls still fucking hurts.

Oh, and Keen Eddie! I loved that show. Grr. I'll never understand why they're so eager to fuck over things that they've paid for.

So... mad....

Another "love it or hate it" show: Get a Life. I loved it, but I think most people hated it. It was surrealist comedy at it's finest. I'm actually surprised that it lasted two seasons, but it was in the very early days of FOS, so maybe that's why it was given a longer run than some of the other shows on this list. Chris Elliot FTW!

Firefly *sob*

Okay, look, that's a great list. But it's okay to just make it 19 and have an odd number. Why? Because John Doe was unmitigated shit. I saw re-runs on SciFi, and it sucked even for SciFi, which I wouldn't have thought possible.

At one point, he shared his knowledge of meteorology by letting everyone know thunder is created by two lightning bolts colliding. That was the last episode for me; I wouldn't even keep it on for background noise.

Knife in my heart every time I am reminded of the death of Firefly. But it does deserve the #1 spot. Maybe like Star Trek in the '60s, if the fans write enough letters it will be revived again? And THANK YOU for including Brisco County, Jr. Seriously whoever okayed that cancellation should be strung up by his balls and beaten with stick.

Here are some of my favs cut down before their prime that aren't on your list:

Titus
Greg the Bunny
Sliders (although it had a good run)
M.A.N.T.I.S. (just kidding...kind of)

IMO, if a show got to air 50 episodes, it was not cancelled before it's time.
Space:Above and Beyond. One of the best sci-fi shows ever!

What, Roar didn't make the list?

Thanks for adding Werewolf. One of my fave shows of all time, and almost no one remembers it. For my 8th grade Halloween party, I even got a werewolf mask and painted the pentagram on my palm. One of the priests at the party (Catholic School :p ) saw it and made me scrub it off though....

How can you list only 20? That's a great 20, but no where near enough.

I echo the Andy, Kindred, Greg, Titus, Inside, Herman, etc... Though I suppose any of these that got a shot at a second season are at least partial successes. It's the ones that got cut short their first season that sting the most.

as an old otaku i wonder if any one even remembers the horrid butchery fox kids had done to a lot of anime?
most painful one i can remember was visions of escaflowne that fox kids had "improved"

btw fox is a well known show killing network in industry and it always makes me dread when some goood show with great potential gets premiered on it. i usually win the bets on how long before they axe it.

i wonder if that axe should be used on execs at the network?

totally saw the last three, expected firefly as number one, my favorite sci fi show of all time, seriously fox sucks... how many seasons of american idol are there? or some other shit hole reality tv show... cant dis the simpsons i still enjoy it.. but seriously you could make a network based on stuff fox has canceled

I loved Profit. I think it played at the same time as The Roar, which was another great show that was canceled.

What no love for VR5?

I find it sad that Fox has canceled more quality shows than the other major networks have actually aired.

The top 3 are a three-way tie. RIP all of them. Except Futurama. Hooray for resurrection!

Didn't Fox kill Harsh Realm as well? Never going to get an ending for that one either...

There was never any doubt in my mind what the top three would be. We agree entirely. Still, I would have put Greg The Bunny on the list as well.

The Simpsons

" Paw, paw - he's shat on the damn rug agin, paw...ah thinks it's time to take the old fella out behind the stable and put 'im out of his misery, paw...ah mean, can you imagine the pain he's in, paw ? an' how much worse it's a-gonna git if'n we don't ...can you ? "

Does Dark angel was in fox ? if so, it'a another cancelation story, I miss the beautifull dark angel !

Not sure how you missed [i]Dark Angel[/i], one of the most messed-over shows on Fox. I rarely watch the network any more, unless there's a football game I want to see.

I hate it when shows get cancelled before they've even had one season. A few years ago, USA Network had this great American version of "Touching Evil" starring Jeffrey Donovan. It was a great show, but only aired 13 episodes (I think). And now it's nowhere to be found. They haven't even had the decency to release it on DVD yet.

You left out Virtuality which had a really great pilot. Canceled before it was even aired and given two unadvertised and craptastic time slots.

"Who a lot Anti-Fox bias! What a news?"

That's what ~I~ want to know!

WHAT A NEWS??

*sob*

Oh, and thank you for remembering Werewolf.

Fox's recent handling of Dollhouse (which, by all usual Fox measures, should have been axed mid-season) really makes me optimistic that they've realized they are too short-sighted, given the string of post-cancellation successes (Family Guy's DVD sales and resurrection, Futurama's DVD sales and resurrection, Firefly's DVD sales and feature film, Arrested Development's rabid fanbase).

Some of these shows may have been great (I loved Strange Luck back in the day), but none of them turned around and proved that they still had luck until very recently.

That said, I'd love to see a counter-article to this one that covers the shows prematurely cancelled by other networks. You rightfully point out that NBC is a lot more patient; Cheers, arguably one of the most successful sitcoms in television history (especially when you consider its spin-off Fraiser), was nearly cancelled in its first season.

Patience is often rewarded in television, while explosively popular shows are very much the exception, not the rule. A shame, since the rise in more complex shows (such as Lost, Heroes, or Battlestar Galactica) means the networks have a broader base with which to further capitalize on (such as a couple of made-for-TV movies for BSG: Razor and The Plan, as well as a spin-off in the form of Caprica). The chance for profit is much higher if they give shows a chance, but the networks are far too risk-averse. A damn shame.

For what it's worth, as a fan of the show, I feel I need to say that Terminator really tended to putz around in it's second season.

...and managed to actually pull it together, *juuuust* when it did the seasion/series finale. Cue slamming-head-against-wall smiley.

Perhaps it would not be entirely out of place to suggest that it might have been a better idea to trim down the number of episodes, and use the budget to increase the overall explosion and robot skeleton content.

A hawkeye:

I stand corrected my friend. You are right. My bad.

AWESOME list! I totally forgot about Keen Eddie. I saw about 4 episodes,, before I could no longer find it due to the weekly schedule change :(

Burn Notice on USa reminds me a lot of that show. But Kudos to You for bringing up several shows that Fox murdered, so we could watch "Temptation Island 3: Revenge of the Douchebags"

Good list (although Andy Richter and Greg the Bunny could certainly be on here), but I'm going to step up and defend Fox (Fox the TV network, not Fox the movie studio, which objectively sucks).

Arrested Development was a very low-rated show, and Fox stuck with it for 3 seasons. Dollhouse was extremely low-rated and got picked up for a second season. Family Guy was low-rated and actually cancelled and they resurrected it (something that basically never happens).

On top of that, they do pick up more unusual and interesting shows. They air more sci fi in a year than the other networks probably do in a decade, despite only having 2 hours of primetime (vs 3 for CBS/NBC/ABC).

Turn on any other broadcast network and you're likely to find a show about cops, lawyers, or doctors, or a piece of crap reality show. Turn on Fox, and you will see the occasional cop/lawyer/doctor/reality show, but you'll also see robots and aliens and things talking that shouldn't talk. This is the network that gave us the X-Files, that is giving us Fringe, that promoted the hell out of Dark Angel (and only bailed after a talking dog-man became a major character and anyone with any sense (read: not me) would have quit watching.

The shows on this list got cancelled because there weren't enough people watching them. If there was money to be made by making more of them, Fox wouldn't have cancelled them. Even Futurama and Family Guy really only gained traction through adult swim reruns and DVDs, nobody was watching them in their initial runs. Blame the poor taste of the American people, who really do eat up American Idol and Wipeout and According to Jim or whatever, not Fox. They give more quality shows a chance than any other broadcast network by far.

AMC is the new (and better) Fox.
Schedule your recording devices accordingly.
(and to some extent: HBO, Syfy, USA, BBCAm)

"Scripted TV" is being dragged back on the air slowly but surely. Because paid cable's making all the money listening to it's viewers. Go figure.

You forgot Mantis

As much as I absolutely loved the Tick comics and cartoon (still have a lot of them tucked away somewhere), the live action series sucked. I wanted to love it so much. Patrick Warburton was perfectly cast. But the show ended up being too much of a ripoff of Seinfeld-with-Superheroes. I think I watched two episodes before I gave up. There were no wacky villains. Just a lot of sitting around in a coffee shop and talking. I think that one earned it's cancellation.

Awwww, love for Strange Luck, Brimstone and Brisco County! This is why I love this site.

No "Action!" on the list? Come on. It was brilliant. Even if you only count Peter Dragon's tirade against Congress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL0SILzGs4g

firefly
the tick
futurama
the original family guy
terminator

man i actually liked those shows

yet they let trash like this on the air
american dad
the cleveland brown show
24 (its gotten old as fuck)
prison break (finally ended)
all their shitty reality shows

Just F*** Arrested Development. Can we please stop saying that a series that got THREE F***ING SEASONS was cancelled before its time? Please?

Space: Above and beyond never gets any love

While I loved the Tick cartoon and comic I couldn't get into the live-action show, maybe because it couldn't do the crazy stuff the cartoon did due to budget

good list this proves why fox should never ever be allowed to have shows that deserve long life or are ahead of their time like wonderfalls. and firefly. or shows that built a fan following that kept bringing them back like brisco. at least there are always the dvds as for werewolf the series is suppose to be coming out on dvd in oct. and sadly dollhouse and fringe will no doubt end up a future version of this list

echo support for:
Titus (one of my favorite shows of all time)
Greg the Bunny (I honestly didn't think anyone would even remember this show)

and Andy Richter

Why anyone would want to pitch a show to FOX at this point is so odd to me....

And OMG yes Keen Eddie. I loved that show so much.

I am shocked and appalled that, while The Lone Gunmen made the list, you neglected to include FREAKS AND GEEKS??? I know you put in Undeclared and mentioned Freaks and Geeks there, but seriously? I know you said you loved The Lone Gunmen...I hated it. Despised it. It was a sheer bastardization and waste of 3 wonderful characters from my most beloved series ever. And then not even to include Freaks and Geeks on its own on the list? Foreshame!

Otherwise, loved it.

Oh, and to Vincent Murphy: Canceled before its time doesn't necessarily refer to how many seasons it was on the air. It means being canceled before its story is told and plot has been played out. If you're so upset about Arrested Development, why not whine and scream about Millennium? That was on for 3 seasons! And you should be LIVID about all this love Futurama is getting--5 seasons, and they're whining about being canceled early? You must be pissed as hell about all this attention for Family Guy...They even managed to come back...

If fox's habit of cancelling great shows with forboding silence wasnt abhorrent enough, their god awful generalizing news station proves fox believes in a hypocritical system noone will adhere to.

Family guy got cancelled for the cleveland brown show cause the audience wanted more racially stereotyped themes.

Sarah conner from what I understood was based off a popular movie franchise that had ground breaking excellence, yet fox and their prude hypocrisy had to can it cause it didn't appeal to people with meek taste in shows.

I don't know, I'm thinking that you left out a gem. I never saw "Women in Prison", but it's advertised in the middle of the "Werewolf" clip and it looked pretty special.

And by special I mean terrible.

Harsh Realm! That one was another show that Fox took off the air without telling anyone after 3 episodes. A Chris Carter show about soliders trapped in a virtural reality combat world. How can you cancel DB Sweeney

What about "Space Above and Beyond" !

Wheres Titus? It was the funniest show they had but of course they ended it due to the comibnaation of the 9/11 issue (one episode dealt with air travel and mentioned terrorism that came out not to long after 9/11) and the fact that Titus kept on calling the head of Fox a idoit.

"Just F*** Arrested Development. Can we please stop saying that a series that got THREE F***ING SEASONS was cancelled before its time? Please?"

No. It kept getting better.

Seriously any show with more then 20 episodes should not be on this list, thats just silly.

67 shows and they didnt give it a fair shake? REALLY?

Maybe they didnt try hard enough to sell the show or something or it never found it audience but after 67 shows you cant put that on a list like this.

Your list is flawed, very very flawed.

Having looked through the list here are the shows I remember watching on Fox before they were canceled:
Werewolf
Brimstone
Millennium
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Arrested Devleopment
Futurama

Most I had only watched intermittently, and then just forgot about before they were canceled.

I will third or fourth Titus. This was one of funniest shows on Fox that I watched continually.

What about 'The Riches'? One of the greatest. Oh wait, that was FX - my fault. Still had to put this out there, did anyone see it? It was cancelled in the middle of the season with a giant cliffhanger - fuckin pissant pieces of shit.

Approve of most of it, but I have to say Titus is probably my second most missed after Firefly. To this day I still watch the episodes.

list is missing "Get a Life"

Great list, and it still hurts that Firefly was cancelled so quickly (and scheduled so badly). I wonder how much the decision to renew Dollhouse was because they want to see if that show can garner a following as loyal as Firefly's.

You have to wonder how many people just avoid sci-fi shows on Fox now so they don't have to go through the pain of seeing a fantastic show cancelled.

Yeah, I wondered what happened to the brilliant Strange Luck. The main character was freaking John Constantine. I mean the Hellblazer. Without the Magic and the demons and the english accent, but still..... And FOX cancels it!
When the Tick got taken off I was angry as hell, he's one of my favorite superheroes of all time!
Millenium was a MUCH better series than the X-files, and ofcourse FOX takes it off!
I know there was a whole preaching about the negativity and all, but screw it!
I FUCKING HATE FOX!!!!

Oh I also would like to see a list for other good shows that were canceled by the other networks. If the networks used their current rule of bad rating after a month worth of showing we would never have had the Twilight Zone, as it had low rating when it started.

aznsong50,

Freaks and Geeks was on NBC. I even said so.

I loved Andy Richter Controls the Universe but I have to disagree on Space Above and Beyond, I had fond memories of it so I went back and rented a disc of it....it was horrible. Not just horrible really really horrible. I don't know what I was thinking a decade or so ago when I looked forward to seeing it.

Sci-Fi Chan- uh, I mean the SyFy Channel (gay name, but that's a topic for another discussion) should take these shows - they should ell cheap - and run a series called "Dead Before Their Time."

There's enough material in in the Sci-Fi shows alone to easily fill a timeslot, even give it a weekday mini-marathon day.

epic fail for not having Space Above and Beyond on #2 or #3.

Doesn't anyone remember Alien Nation? They replaced that with something called "Big Fat Mommas". Keen Eddie was great as was VR5 (Lori Singer can call me up anytime).

Freaks and Geeks was on NBC. That's why it's not on a list of Fox cancellations.

wonderfalls only aired like two episodes before being killed for The Swan. It was only because they'd finished post-production on 13 that the DVD set was able to be released.

My personal list of shows i liked that were canceled before their time (not all at fox)

1.-Parker Lewis Can't Lose

A show so awesome that kids skipped school to see it here. From what i know it was canceled not because it was not successful but because parent boards and school boards rallied against it. That alone makes it more awesome.

2.-Do Over

A show about a guy who somehow his mind returns in time, with his adult knowledge intact and gets to relive his past.

The best thing about it was that he had returned to the 1980 so he was going to relive the eighties.

3.-Smith

This one was incredible and filmed like a movie. it had ray lliotta, johnny lee miller, etc. It was canceled because it was too expensive for a new series. each episode cost was 5 million dollars or so they say.

4.-Death Last

Think Supernatural meets Scooby Doo.

This show was what actually could be see and the predecessor to both Reaper and Supernatural (which i like a lot). it features a traveling rock band that had to resolve supernatural problems while touring.

It was canceled post 9/11 from what i know in the 6 months phase where media auto censored itself.

5.-Keen Eddie
6.-Freaky Links
7.-Freaks & Geeks
8.-The Lone Gunmen
9.-Dark Angel
10.-Andy Richter Controls The Universe
11.-The Loop

I also don't understand how arrested development is on the list or how someone thought that undecided was any good compared to freak & Geeks..

I can't believe not one person has mentioned Shasta McNasty! :)

@GUMBERCULES!

"Kindred: the Embraced" was alright, but it was truly a show aimed towards White Wolf fans, and it simply wasn't faithful enough to the clan descriptions for WW fans to watch and enjoy the show.

I can't beleive Sliders is not in here

One show that should have been canceled long ago was fox news.

If you really want the ultimate Fox show cancelled before it was even aired, click here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/09/02/DD31373.DTL&type=printable

"Fox Broadcasting Co. is developing a television special in which it would crash a Boeing 747 jumbo jet -- live -- somewhere in the California or Arizona desert.

The program would purport to be a public service broadcast about airline safety with the title ``Jumbo Jet Crash Live: The Ultimate Safety Test.'' But Fox's specials specialist, Mike Darnell, knows a ratings- getter when he sees one. ``I mean, are you going to watch `Friends' or a jumbo jet crash?'' he is quoted as saying in this week's TV Guide. An advance copy of that report got to the New York Post, which ran a story on it recently."

As for the guy who was talking about how Fox will never get credit for Married... With Children, how quickly you forget that Fox unceremoniously kicking the show off the network without even so much as a series finale. After much bad blood, Fox finally allowed for a "look back" at the 11 seasons of the show as a final send-off.

Firefly: Meh. I can actually live with that being cancelled pretty easily.

Notable omissions: Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
Space Above and Beyond (I met the actor who played Capt. Eisen at a party once, and it was just after the Canadian DVDs of Space came out. I commented on how sad I was that the show didn't exist anymore, and he agreed with me.)

Brisco County Jr. is probably my favorite of the bunch here. I'd be all for a Brisco County Jr. game, as well as a Space Above and Beyond game.

I can't believe nobody's mentioned QUINTUPLETS! Andy Richter, a hot blonde, that douchebag kid what's his face, and I think a hot mom too if I remember, plus, what, three other kids I forgot...

THAT show was great! Very funny. I was very disappointed when they dropped it.

If canceling Keen Eddie and Firefly doesn't indicate a developmental disability, nothing does!

And what about New Amsterdam?

I'll just say one thing:

Torgo's Executive Powder

excellent list. i would have put Arrested Devleopment
#1. but great list anyways.

war at home was a hilarious show. canceled by fox as well

List FAILS without G the B. BLAH!

The list is also missing Reunion.

Andy Richter Controls the Universe -- One of the funniest comedies ever. To see Andy now as a sidekick on a late night show is a travesty.

Space: Above and Beyond -- way ahead of its time, spooky, creepy and absolutely brilliant.

The Tick -- Patrick Warburton can do no wrong.

What about Titus, that man is hilarious

Why was Starved not listed? That was a great Fox show that was canceled!

Agree that Get A Life, Parker Lewis, Freaky Links, Gus The Bunny, Andy Richter, and Dark Angel are also shows that were terrific, or at least weird or funny enough to last longer.

Get A Life is still one of my all-time favorites; ditto Andy Richter Controls the Universe. That cast was so great! And Gus The Bunny: Eugene Levy, Seth Green AND Sarah Silverman all on one show?

Unfortunately, Dark Angel never lived up to the potential of its first show. (And James Cameron showed once again how he likes to rip off others' ideas--this time William Gibson!) Sliders started out well, but declined for me when characters started changing personalities, and stories started exhibiting the "writers who don't know anything about sci-fi" syndrome.

Sorry I never got to see "Werewolf"; and I must have stopped watching TV by the time "Keen Eddie" came on. But I love me some "Firefly"! Great list overall!

Agree with everything...I remember: VR5, Space: Above & Beyond, both awesome shows FUX ditched way too early. And don't forget Reunion. That show was a guilty pleasure. it's nice to se Strange Luck get some respect, I was thinking I might be the only one who remembered that show.

Forget all these niche genre shows. The greatest show ever cancelled too soon by Fox:

GET A LIFE with Chris Elliot.

Genius, I tells ya.

The ones I miss the most are:

Greg The Bunny
Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Brimstone
Titus
Get A Life.

Such great shows that deserved so much better.

Is it just me or are most of these show list were on FOX?

What, no Titus?

Luis was a really funny show that I really enjoyed and it only lasted two episodes. I tuned in the next few weeks and found, to my disappointment, that it was no longer showing.

Greg The Bunny blah!

Alright people, lets be reasonable for a second. I loved many of these shows with a passion (Keen Eddie being a special favorite), but in many cases it was just not feasible to keep them on the air. I work as a television ratings analyst, so I have a bit of insight into why some things stay on the air and others don't. The network DOES take into account what night and time a show is airing when they are assessing the ratings. Everything in television is relative. That is why some shows with lower ratings continue to thrive. A show on Friday night is not expected to post ratings that are in the same ball park as a Thursday or Sunday night. They are looking for it to beat other shows that are on at the same time, or to rank competitively for the night - which means in the top 5 among the demographics that matter. A show typically doesn't break even and start making a profit until there are at least 70-100 episodes in the can, the studio and network bleed money on it until then. Many times they have to make a decision very early as to if they believe they can turn a show around. Most of these shows had VERY low viewerships. When you start as low as they did, even if you build and double your audience you are still looking at an unprofitable show. I know it sucks, I am a huge geeky nerd and love my TV sci-fi, but I also have some appreciation for the fact that FOX even gives them a shot. How many other networks have put this much quality sci-fi on the air? At least they get a shot ya know? FOX screwed over a number of shows, FIREFLY in particular and people have every right and should be upset for when they make idiotic scheduling choices, but some of these were canned simply because very few people were watching the - and there was very little chance that anyone would start. Ok, this post is stupid long, I will stop now. But if we want to hate FOX, lets not do it because of the sci-fi stuff, lets do it because they have kept til' death on the air this long...i mean really....til' death????

No Andy Richter?! that show was hilarious.The true identity of the sandwich cart guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7of0_IGq9T0
Space above and beyond. Come on it should have been up there.
How bout a list of 10-20 shows that were on fox shows that need another season/ decent ending.
John doe ended on a super cliff hanger.
Or better yet 10 shows MTV canceled that were actually good and wasn't a "reality" show

I can't claim to have watched all of these shows, but at least one of them was Drive, and sorry, Drive sucked.

What about COP ROCK? That was epic! (Oh wait that was on ABC, nevermind.)

how could king of the hill not be on this list.

shows that should be on this list:

1. Action!
2. Andy Richter Controls the Universe
3. Greg the Bunny
4. Garry Shandling's Show
5. New Amsterdam
6. Alien Nation
and maybe some special credit to Space: Above and Beyond

You can take out Millenium (67 episodes is A LOT), Terminator (the 1st season was pretty weak), Brimstone, John Doe, Wonderfalls to make room.

Another vote for Space: Above and Beyond. This show was brilliant, funny, at times creepy, and even deeply moving. The episode "Who Monitors the Birds" - which scarcely featured any dialogue at all - was so well-done that it should have gotten an Emmy. The fact that Space: Above and Beyond, Brisco County, Jr., and Firefly all got the axe way before their time makes me so upset at FOX that mere words are inadequate to describe it.

In response to the list itself, I'd like to say that while I'd change the order around some on the first page, and that "Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles" never held any interest for me, this is definitely one of the best lists I've seen on here. Period.

And while Fox technically does have legal rights to cancel whatever they want, they're still idiots and jackasses. Fuck Fox. Fuck them with garden weasels. Fuck them to the lowest pits of Hell and then fuck 'em some more so that Satan has to put in sub-basements just so that those dumbasses can get the full karmic punishment they deserve.

I'm glad you made this list, and I agree with you on nearly everything, but seriously, Arrested Development is the funniest show in the history of television. Funnier than Seinfeld, funnier than The Simpsons, and DEFINITELY funnier than Futurama (which I really enjoy, but I take as mostly fluff). And no show (except perhaps Firefly) got fucked over by the Fox network quite the way they did. I mean, you win that many Emmys and can't get viewers? Clearly, the show was marketed poorly, and the time slot kept changing, and they dumped the last four episodes when no one would be watching so they could say they aired.

Just saying, no way is Futurama a better show than AD. Same with Firefly (though I would put Firefly as a strong #2).

Family Guy and Futurama has Adult Swim to thank. Running back to back episodes nightly for years created a huge following for these shows. That translated into DVD sales.

Fox sucks dick

Wow, what could have been. At least Futurama got 4 solid seasons in despite Fox's jackoffery and got picked up by a another network, for that I truly great full, but my heart really goes out to Firefly and Millennium, you think sci-fi(I'm sorry SyFy) would pick up Firefly knowing its loyal fanbase and potential. Oh well

as an old otaku i wonder if any one even remembers the horrid butchery fox kids had done to a lot of anime?
most painful one i can remember was visions of escaflowne that fox kids had "improved"

It was insipid.

Loved the list. Just wanted to say that I pimp the Ben Stiller show whenever sketch comedy comes up in a conversation. Despite being one of my favorite sketch series from the 90's (also kids in the hall!), I find that almost nobody knows that Ben Stiller did sketch comedy, much less had his own show. And the cast! It included Jeanine Garafolo (close enough) and Andy Dick to name a few, and as with Stiller this was before they gained any mainstream success. A classic.

Oh and the firefly, futurama, and especially arrested development cancellations were acutely heartbreaking for me.

Much props to Keen Eddie, I had forgot how pi$$ed I was when they canceled that...Obviously Arrested Development too...

Obviously Firefly deserves to be at the top of this list as it was probably the most original creation of a Sci-Fi Western ever to be made and I cry a little inside aswell when I think how amazing the show could have been in a 3rd, or 4th season as the INCREDIBLE mystery of the aggressive mutation gene in those zombie creature would have been accurately explained, but it was this cancellation that proved to me that FOX would never be more than a superficial piece of $hit network...

LOL no love for FORTUNE HUNTER (The poor man Bond show from the late 90's) or GET A LIFE!!!! (Quite frankly the funniest show ever to be canceled period!)

No mention of THE MANTIS either?? God Fox had some great geek shows that never made it...

Does no one remember The Inside? I would put that on this list. Adam Baldwin, Rachel Nichols, Peter Coyote...it was very compelling.

Firefly ;( Damn you, Fox.

Also Fox killed a very good redo of a old series. On the Time Tunnel DVD collection, there was a unaired pilot, from 2003 I think. Looked alot like stargate, but it was still pretty good. But the reason they didn't pick it up was, they already had Firefly. So, they killed two good shows in one swope.

No Get A Life? Where the EFF is Get A Life?

This is the problem with moronic lists like this. The writer often has no clue. GET A LIFE #1 and not even on the list? A pathetic occlusion.

Sorry. Every episode a master piece.

Harsh Realm.

Chris Carter breaks my heart.

I'm with you on Firefly and Ben Stiller, but you've got a pretty broad definition of "before their time." 72 episodes of Futurama, 67 of Millennium, 41 of Family Guy, even 31 of Sarah Connor. Seriously, exactly how many shots should a show get to grow an audience and sustain itself? And while I love Arrested Development, 53 episodes ain't exactly small potatoes either AND they got to go out with a pretty sweet and symmetrical finale that was stuffed with winking meta jokes. Good shows, sure, but hardly "before their time."

What the hell? Where's the love for "Greg the Bunny," one of the greatest puppet/human live-action comedies since "The Muppet Show?"

Firefly, one of the best shows to hit tv. Fox and the government, thanks cocksuckers.

Wonderfalls only aired 4 Eps, the rest were unaired in the US. they had adverts for the 5th ep but axed it for repeats of "The Swan" ...

not that I am bitter or anything.

Firefly sucked and deserved to be canceled, but Brisco was the best, and Liz Vassey is every reason to watch The Tick (the rest of the cast was cool, too).

And I second the call for Greg The Bunny to be honored here. It was awesome.

This cancellation stuff will stop once someone works out an independent ala carte internet television network that can stream to the living room via media center, Roku, Xbox, or other set-top boxes. Shows will survive based on their profit, i.e., if the show continues to sell significant numbers of new episodes or subscriptions, it stays on.

This is painful for me to say, because I am a huge fan of both Ben Edlund and Patrick Warburton, but FOX's decision to cancel the live-action version of The Tick was not a crime, but a mercy killing. Frankly, the show stunk on ice. Except for the pilot episode, the characters never did anything heroic on camera (oh, hell, most of the time, they never did anything FUNNY, either, so they failed Edlund's concept on both counts). The plots were formula sitcom standards (The Tick gets a driver's license; The Tick gets jealous of Arthur's old girlfriend; The Tick gets invited to join an exclusive club that turns out to be a bunch of misogynist racists) with nothing to set them apart from any other sitcom. And FOX's decision to run the show through a political correctness blender killed whatever chance it had to be good. American Maid became "Captain Liberty" because someone at FOX thought having a heroine dress up in a maid's costume was "demeaning" (as if dressing her in spandex and hooker boots wasn't?). And the decision to change Der Fliedermaus to "Batmanuel" was done because a) FOX thought most Americans would be too stupid to know that "fliedermaus" is German for "bat" (alas, they're probably right about this, but still...), and b) they wanted a minority character on the show. What finally made it onto the screen bore no resemblance to the comic or the cartoon, and I was glad to see the end of it.

Excellent list, I agree with all of them. Firefly and Terminator hurt the most!

You forgot to mention Tru Calling was renewed for season 2, then cancelled after 5 episodes! WTF?? Fox's stupidity continues to repeat itself year after year...

So little love for action? Better than 75% of the shows on the list

Honestly what if got enough people together and enough capital to start your own network? You wouldn't even need to search out the shows. You could just wait for Fox to get rid of them like they always do and when they did you come by and buy them and start playing them. A couple of years after Fox drops them the network buys them and lets the fan base grow till they are huge hits on your own network.

Fox CEO and corporate middlemen will begin to throw themselves off of sky-scrapers versus the wrath of Rupert Murdoch hunting them down, killing them, and eating their livers with fava beans on Fox. (Which would be a pretty awesome show).

Fox is a toilet. To this day, I can't eat lucky charms without quoting Ben Stiller's parody of Bono: "One bowl... is never enough!". We even begin statements with, "As the fake Bono says...". The Tick, on the other hand, and as much as I both adore and own it, was WAY to goofy for America at Large.

Dude, KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. This show was smart, entertaining and hilarious. Bradley Cooper was insanely good as Jack Bourdain, the Anthony Bourdain character, and the rest of the cast (lead by Buffy's Nicholas Brendan, as well as John Cho) just rocked. The mere notion that shows like "Will and Grace" and "What I Like About You" survived on competing networks makes me want to scream. Ludicrous, Fox. Ludicrous.

What about The Critic?

Good list and naturally Firefly is #1. I have a love hate relationship with Fox. So many of my all time favorite shows have been on Fox. Sadly many of them also make this list getting cancelled way too soon. I do give them credit for airing shows that a lot of the other networks would never consider. But they make really stupid decisions, letting The X-Files go on well after it was time to let it go, while cancelling such excellent shows such as Brisco, The Lone Gunmen and Wonderfalls.

I also have to agree that any show that got a third season and still didn't pull up in the ratings makes it hard to blame Fox for. Clearly they gave it a chance. There is plenty of stuff to blame them for especially Firefly that we don't need to dump on them when they do actually attempt to give a show a chance.

Honorable mention to Dark Angel and The Inside. Not perfect shows but more interesting than your basic procedural.

I also want to say a lot of the blame does fall to the American viewing audience who prefers shows where they can shut off their brain or watch a stupid reality show (which has absolutely no reality in it) to a scripted drama that actually makes you pay attention.

i'm glad someone else remembers Keen Eddie, loved that show.

i'm glad someone else remembers Keen Eddie, loved that show. fox only has room for bad reality shows now and having learned my lesson, i never start watching new fox shows.

A great list. Some of my personal favorites were Andy Richter Controls The Universe and Greg the bunny. Even Titus was a blast. I don't even watch Fox anymore, I can't even remember the last time I did!

Yes, Fox is so evil to spend millions of dollars to give these shows a shot to begin with. Wait. That doesn't make any sense. If they're evil how do you have this topic to complain about to begin with? You could do this for any network, the only difference is Fox took chances on better shows that the other networks did not. They gave Arrested Development three years while ABC sat comfortably on The World According to Jim.

just reading this list makes me sad. There were so many shows that i loved, and was greatly invested in, that were barely given a chance. Although i knew Fox did this alot, i didn't realize it was this much. That is just ridiculous. I loved Firefly, Wonderfalls,True Calling, Drive, Futurama......Firefly does make me want to cry.

Werewolf was one of my favorite shows. I've waited for years for someone to reinvent it and put it back on the air. The effects for the time, for television, were awesome. And Conrad was an evil bastard. I'm hoping, with the supernatural gold rush in television shows, that someone picks it back up. And I loved Keen Eddie, Wonderfalls, Get a Life, Brimstone, and Firefly. I liked John Doe and Lone Gunmen. I thought I'd learned my lesson after the whole Family Guy thing, but I just kept hoping. I didn't watch them for a long time after Firefly, because I was so pissed. Now they've gone and canceled Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I'm just glad that other channels are getting into the game. HBO and USA are putting out quality shows. True Blood is awesome, Burn Notice is great, and I gotta give CW props for Supernatural. Californication and Hung are pretty good. At least there are other venues for off the wall TV now, and Fox doesn't get to monopolize and cancel the odd or different the way they have in the past.

No Greg the Bunny?

You know what the truly sad thing is about a list like this? That even though 20 shows is a lot, everyone here could probably name at least 5 more that fox gave the almighty screw to. I still remember getting the Firefly DVD (Cos I'm in Australia, if it get's canceled in the states we don't have much hope of seeing it on TV here) and being shocked that such a fantastic show could be canceled. Tru Calling, Family Guy, firefly and Futurama are all on my list of shows that I adore and luckily 2 out of 4 of them came back, though really they never should've left.

Why are fox acting like this? They weren't always this bad. Married with Children being a prime example, that was back in the days when no one even knew where Fox was so that show was allowed to slowly build it's audience and become the much beloved sitcom it is today. Would it really kill fox to at the very least air all the episodes made of a series before cancelling it? Maybe those 3 extra episodes would've saved Firefly... maybe airing them in the order Joss wanted to would've done that too but beggars can't be choosers.

Thoguh I do agree with an earlier poster, the lack of Kitchen Confidential from this list is just wrong, but again it just goes to prove this list is only the tip of the iceberg, I'm just waiting to see which awesome show Fox fucks up next

I don't know if anyone posted this, but only four episodes of WONDERFALLS was aired before it was cancelled. Most of the episodes appeared for the first time on the box set.

But all this spewing against FOX overlooks something really huge: nearly all of the people who were responsible for all those cancellations are gone.

Kevin Reilly and the others in charge there now have not engaged in wanton cancellations. In fact, Reilly renewed TSCC even after it had terrible ratings in its first season. Then after it had more bad ratings in the first half of Season Two, Reilly extended it another 9 episodes. And then he renewed DOLLHOUSE, which while having better ratings than TSCC on Fridays (TSCC had better ratings when on Mondays, but it was weak for a Monday).

So I think the current group in charge at FOX is building a much better track record. My complaint in the past was that shows were cancelled without giving them a chance. TSCC was given three chances before being cancelled. This isn't your old FOX at all.

you know, i was waiting for justice to appear on this list... seems even the under-under-appreciated are under-appreciated on these lists. by the by, did TR do this right after 11points.com did a similar list by coincidence? hmm...

nah man...Get A Life tops this list (tied with Firefly) and Profit is a close second. Kudos for remembering that show because that motherfucker slept in a box. Badass.

You forgott Flying Blind. Dang I miss that show.

Uh, Greg the Bunny? Top five fo sho.

FOX is not an entertainment network, it's a brainwashing experiment. If you volunteer for such a thing (watching the channel) expect to get f***** around.

Get a Life was one of the best sitcoms of all time. Absolutely hilarious and way-ahead of its time. Leaving this gem out really hurts the credibility of this list. Dark Angel was also a pretty good show.

Why isn't Dark angel on her. That show was good. But they canceled is after 2 seasons.

Profit was awesome! Wasn't Kindred: The Embraced also on Fox? That was some cool vampire shit!

Well....now I remember why I like to call them FUX
Brimstone, Wonderfalls and Firefly *sob* were my faves on this list and particularly it sucked because they didn't even get the benefit of a season.
And lets not forget dickhead moves like cancelling Angel with short notice (and despite a HUGE fan campaign)so that Joss had to scramble to give us closure. And then FUX had the BALLS to air a "thank you" to the fans at the end of Angel for all their support!

Andy Richter Controls the Universe
The Critic
That '80s Show

I loved all 3.

I know most folks panned That '80s Show, but it's worth noting that the first season of That '70s Show wasn't too great either...it needed time to find its legs. That '80s Show was just beginning to when it got the shaft.

The Critis is easily THE best show ever in all of sitcom history. Unfortunately, Fox wanted an instant "Simpsons"-like hit, and wouldn't give the show a chance.

Andy Richter Controls the Universe...it's sad to think that the shows that were a hit for him were these lame "by the numbers' sitcoms that aired after, as well as some ok movie appearances. This show was simply fantastic.

It's funny too...cause neither Cheers nor Family Ties was an instant hit either.

Damn, whoever wrote this needs to get a life! Have you seriously watched all of these shows? Do you ever leave your house?

GO FIND A WOMAN

freaks and geeks is missing from this list

While some of the other shows were good, I was glad to see you listed Firefly at the top of the list. I could not believe they cancelled it. What idiots.

I am glad they made the movie. Its one of those dvd's that I pull out once in a while to watch when there is nothing else on worth watching. It doesnt grow old.

I really wish someone else would wake up and pull that show back together. I nominate SyFy for the task.

Excellent list. FOX continues to annoy me with their horrible decisions. >.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of every browncoat in the northern hemisphere, I have to say that I disagree with all of the hate Fox gets by genre fans. Sure, Fox has cancelled tons of quality shows; no one is denying that. But going through the list, I see a ton of shows that wouldn't of been given a chance by other networks. Firefly? The Tick? Wonderfalls? NBC/CBS/ABC wouldn't give those shows the time of day.

Fox gave a ton of offbeat shows a chance, something other networks wouldn't of done; they just didn't pick up a sizeable audience. It's easy to say that Fox should of given those shows more of a chance, or should of purchased more episodes or given them a better timeslots, but television is a business, not renaissance-era patronage. The shows didn't make money, and got cancelled.

Also: I really think the author of this list needs to look up the definition of "before their time". Futurama got 5 seasons, Arrested Development, Millennium and Family Guy got 3,and several other shows got either 2 seasons or at least a full season.

I think all shows now should have some kind of cancellation clause that they commit to 6 additional shows after the network cancels. It is so aggravating investing time into a show and just when they are getting to a great point, it is canceled.

I thought ABC's Invasion was a great show and they had it to an incredible point and then....canceled. If they had the cancellation clause, then maybe there could have been at least some resolution by the final show.

Firefox is absolutely the best show in television and there are so many back stories that need to be resolved that I would give up all the other shows just to watch them.

Say what you will about FOX; but the reason they have had so many scifi shows to cancel is that THEY PUT THEM ON THE AIR IN THE FIRST PLACE!! Unlike most nets. They had one of the best most successful scifi shows, The X-Files, so they have been trying to recreate that success ever since. Look what they have on the air now, Fringe and Dollhouse!! 2 great but low-rated scifi shows that they did not cancel. Give them props for that at least. ITA that those other shows were awesome and should have been given more of a chance, but I am not in charge, and neither are you...

Greg The Bunny was amazingly funny satire.

Also, one show I absolutely loved that got the scheduling shuffle by Fox and was canceled before its time was SPACE: Above and Beyond. I know others mentioned it, but it needs to be said again. I see many elements of that show in the new Battlestar Gallactica.

Yeah, I won't watch Fox anymore. Canceling Firefly was the final nail in the coffin. I actually get angry thinking about it. I'll only watch Dollhouse on Hulu or DVD.

PS UPN/WB/CW is just as bad, you could come up with a similar list for them.

Jake 2.0, Outer Limits, Buffy, Angel, Nowhere Man, Haunted, Legend, All Souls, Burning Zone, Legacy, Mercy Point, Seven Days, The Sentinel, Twilight Zone, Special Unit 2, Roswell, The Watcher, Veronica Mars....

And btw some of those you listed, like Drive, sucked.
Arrested Development was never funny.

PS UPN/WB/CW is just as bad, you could come up with a similar list for them.

Jake 2.0, Outer Limits, Buffy, Angel, Nowhere Man, Haunted, Legend, All Souls, Burning Zone, Legacy, Mercy Point, Seven Days, The Sentinel, Twilight Zone, Special Unit 2, Roswell, The Watcher, Veronica Mars....

And btw some of those you listed, like Drive, sucked.
Arrested Development was never funny.

I say. Fox have used up more good show that most networks get, Wonderfalls, Briscoe county, Firefly. The tick, lone Gunman,,, Man the list goes on...Each and eaveyyone of those I would be still watching every week..I have recorded and still watch those those shows...What idiots, what drunkards, what morons. I have recorded and still watch these show. I guess only morons need to used Excel to see what works at the moment. The future is bullshit. Profits are NOW. Come on Fox... See the future. Get with the people who love the scifi genre and get ricj in the future

I say. Fox have used up more good show that most networks get, Wonderfalls, Briscoe county, Firefly. The tick, lone Gunman,,, Man the list goes on...Each and eaveyyone of those I would be still watching every week..I have recorded and still watch those those shows...What idiots, what drunkards, what morons. I have recorded and still watch these show. I guess only morons need to used Excel to see what works at the moment. The future is bullshit. Profits are NOW. Come on Fox... See the future. Get with the people who love the scifi genre and get ricj in the future

Goddamn, Fox pisses me off so much. At least we got Serenity, which is basically the purest, most kickass embodiment of a silver lining there ever was. In fact, the top three shows on this list ended up getting some sort of closure, so that's something.

It's Terminator that pisses me off the most, just because of the cliff hanger ending.

With the exception of the Tick and Family Guy(though it's back now), I'm glad the rest of those shows got the axe. They all sucked, especially Firefly and Terminator. And with Terminator, with everything before it, it shoulda been a great show. Instead, it pissed all over the franchise with a taint I won't soon forget(though I haven't seen Salvation yet, and I'm told it's really bad).

Though, I do agree, American Idol shoulda been shit canned before it started.

My pet nickname for FOX is "The Sargasso Sea". 'Cause any show launched on it is fucking losssssssssssttttt, summabitches...

I barely bother watching any more, for reasons like this.

I'll throw in that I liked Titus and The Critic as well.

And w00t, Power Rangers was third-most episodes. I guess it would be more, except they switched stations after Saban was bought by Disney.

Oh, and I meant to add: I enjoyed Beans Baxter as a kid. I remember that one seemed to end abruptly.

Add the 1993 Fox series "Key West" to the list. Only ran 13 episodes. Jennifer Tilly was one of the stars. Great show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbacROeExNI

Firefly was a terrible, derative rip-off of Blake's 7 with bad acting and silly dialouge to boot. I barely got through three episodes for turning it off.

As hundreds of thousands did.

Because it was rubbish.

Now John Doe, Space Above & Beyond, Brimstone, and Tru Calling were real tragedies. Better acting, stories, and universes than number 1.

I gotta side with Avatar X. All the shows on this list were high-concept and expensive to produce. Good as they may have been, Fox was not wrong about the math: odds are they would never had turned a profit after the way Fox mismanaged them. The question is: why does Fox keep greenlighting such programs that it clearly has no idea how to wrangle?

But shows like "The Loop" and "Andy Richter" are Fox's bread and butter. They shouldn't be dumping them just because they don't have a cozy relationship with the producers. This is where the "Seinfeld" analogy is actually appropriate. Half-hour sitcoms are cheap. Not as cheap as Fear Factor, but close. Hell, look how long "Married With Children" lasted after they stopped paying the writers to write jokes!

+1 for Dark Angel and Harsh Realm. Truly brilliant and original shows. At least Dark Angel got a couple of seasons, and Jim Cameron put a nice finish on it. Harsh Realm aired three episodes before it was yanked? Idiots. And, oh my yes, Firefly and Brisco. Two of the most beloved shows ever. Up there with Twin Peaks (which managed to get canceled prematurely even though it wasn't on Fox; guess Fox isn't the only network run by morons).

I would have put "The Inside" and "Freaky Links" on the list... but that is just me.

You left out REUNION, one of the best drama shows I've ever seen.

You forgot to mention James Cameron's Dark Angel.
Fox got rid of it to make room for Firefly cuz they didn't think they could have two "sci-fi" shows at the same time. Which is ridiculous, just air the two shows back to back & make a themed night of it, which is exactly what they did last season with Dollhouse & Terminator:TSCC. And Dark Angel was also cursed with the scheduling shuffle & being left on a cliffhanger season finale.
I was so angry that I boycotted Fox for a while & refused to watch Firefly even tho I love Joss Whedon's work. This turned out to be a blessing since they killed that show too! (tho that meant I could devourer the entire Firefly DVDs in one sitting before going to see the movie.)
Stupid move by Fox, letting so much talent get away from them with Dark Angel. Movie star Jessica Alba in the lead with huge hit NSIC's Micheal Weatherly as her romantic interest & teen heart throb Jensen Ackles coming in to steal the second season.
Now since I started watching Bones last season it'll probably be axed soon as well!

Space:Above and Beyond should be NUMBER 1. That was an absolute fantastic show that was in a terrible timeslot and was pre-empted or cut short about every week. Firefly and John Doe were a great combo as well. Wonderfalls was so damn good and Fox pissed on it every chance they got. Arrested Development is a shocker that they were dumb enough to cancel that show and it's even more shocking that ABC or CBS didn't pick it up and continue the series. Fox and Showtime are the kings of canceling great TV shows

Evil is a foot!

Loved The Tick; the comic, the animated series and the live action one are all favs of mine. And I watched Brisco County Jr faithfully; what an awesome show. Fox sucks.

Good list, but you included the wrong Tick. The animated version was brilliant and canceled for a shitty Ninja Turtle live action show that lasted 3 episodes.

I can track the course of my life through these cancellations, from the moment of horror when I realized that mommy and daddy couldn't bring Briscoe County Jr. back to the jaded devastation of losing Futurama and the silent scream when my soul died at the abrupt end of Firefly.

Some wounds never heal. And others can only be partially salved by obsessive DVD collecting. Oh, how I weep for my lost youth!

Wow, I didn't realize that there were quite so many of my favorite 'unusual' shows that Fox gave the ax too.

I am thankful to Fox that they gave these shows a chance at all. Would I like to have seen more of them? Absolutely!! But I'm glad that I got to see what I did.

Also, saying that shows which got to air over 50 episodes were prematurely axed is stretching things a bit. I was looking at the number of episodes aired as I scrolled down through the list. There are a few that had multiple full seasons. I don't consider that premature.

What the author fails to mention is that Fox often played an active role in these shows failure. Take Firefly as an example. "No, Mr. Whedon, that episode is too slow, you can't use that as a pilot." "No, that order doesn't make sense to us." And then they would also play musical days and times. That's no way to keep an audience. Let the creator present his material to the audience more or less without oversight at a consistent time. That way they will be able to follow the story line and know when to watch.

Are the executives at Fox royal bastards who have a penchant for canceling awesome shows before their time? Yes. But they did give them at least a glimmer of sunshine. And often they gave them multiple seasons. But they also actively participated in destroying their own ratings and then blamed the show's creators for it. So they *do* suck.

John Doe was awesome - I saw it on Scifi (annoyingly and stupidly now Syfy).

No K-Ville? No Fastlane?

And, of course, poor ratings had nothing to do with any of this.

Iron Rule of Television number 1: If people don't watch a show, it's going to be canceled.

I'm sure plenty of the people moaning about how Fox killed these shows never watched their original run. I remember also how many people bailed on Firefly after the first episode (which was pretty damn good) after being disappointed by it.

Ultimately, where were you all when these shows were running? Hands up if you watched them all. I didn't (I also don't think some of these were worth watching anyway; Wonderfalls and Tru Calling were never better than mediocre).

Fox probably should have run the two-hour Firefly pilot first, but I doubt it would have made any difference in the ratings. And they can't be faulted for Arrested Development, a show that would have been canceled before the end of the first season on any other network. And, of course, they brought back Dollhouse despite the lowest ratings for a renewed series in the history of TV.

These anti-Fox rants are growing tedious and don't even begin to mesh with the facts.

@Roland: I think, you are a fox-bot. that would explain your horrible grammar: they must have cancelled your programmers contract in the middle of development... you poor thing.

space above and beyond...my fave. fox is the evil clone twin of the wb...er, uh the cw or whatever they call themselves these days. i wouldn't be surprised at all to see fringe in next years list of the shows that might have been. the execs at fox are like the mythical blind men in a room with the lights off, groping around for the doorknob. OR shall we say, "ring, ring, clue phone, it's for you"?

Screw you fox. You keep so much crap and get rid of so much goodness. Really and truly screw you I'm done with you.

Although Firefly was excruciatingly short and it came close to shedding a tear or two for when it was cancelled, the length of the show was perfectly done. I find it comparable to Cowboy Bebop, one god-like season that leaves me screaming for more, but I know it would be ruined if more shows came out.

Would have added The Inside and Dark Angel. Was 'G vs E' on Fox or the USA Network? Can't remember which network cancel it, but that was one of the best written yet most absurd premise for a show, but Richard Brooks made it work.

No "Get A Life" on the list? Whatever you're smoking, Guhl, pass it on over.

Joe: I agree Space: Above and Beyond was amazing.

Trouble is, there are just too many to squeeze in since Fox has more money than brains and no business sense beyond short term quick gain schemes and then on to the next.

Where's the complaint about shows NBC canceled before their time? Journeyman anyone?

I know the "cool" thing is to bash Fox, but the broadcast networks have done this quite a bit too. Journeyman was one of the best shows that season and they never really gave it a chance, so it just sticks out for me.

Fox are indeed utter dickends but I do have to disagree with one thing on here...

The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

How can you say it expanded the back story when it clashes entirely with the other films! Jesus, as if there wasn't enough timeline issues after the awful T3 and onwards! Suddenly there's a million more robots in there and it's all just one giant mess.

Terminator should have been left at T2 and The Sarah Connor Chronicles is retarded.

After reading through the comments i will must add 3 i had forgotten about so the list now goes for 14 shows (original 11 list show list is :

1.-Parker Lewis Can't Lose
2.-Do Over
3.-Smith
4.-Death Last
5.-Keen Eddie
6.-Freaky Links
7.-Freaks & Geeks
8.-The Lone Gunmen
9.-Dark Angel
10.-Andy Richter Controls The Universe
11.-The Loop
12.-Action!

This one is obvious why it got canceled. it actually pissed off hollywood back then. but it was a good show.
13.-Hash Realm
14.-The Inside

Wow,i loved this one. i remember reading it got canceled because people considered it "Too Intense" and "Disturbing".

I loved it because of those reasons. it truly handled things from a more psychological angle that you would expect.

I must say that i am really surprised that i seem to be the only one who remembered "Do Over", "Death Last" and "Smith". I guess it was true no one watched them then....

Not to be a jerk but i think there must be a list of shows that should not be in your list for the following reasons:

1.-The Show actually sucked (yeah , i know this one subjective)
2.-The Show had more than 2 seasons (Negating the "Before their time" what you point out with the title of you post

1.-John Doe

Actually watched all episodes and i did so because it was nothing on. it was mediocre, even if passable. but hey, it landed him the role for Prison Break (a show that should go into the "Shows that should have finished earlier because they went out of their own original story track"

2.-Tru Calling

This Show was HORRIBLE. at the end i remember seeing a episode where her nemesis is Brandon Walsh..it reminds me to Dollhouse. i truly don't know how dollhouse got renewed.

3.-Family Guy

???? a show with 50+ episodes can be considered short lived???

4.-Millennium

again a show with 67 episodes is "short lived"?

I loved millennium, but the last season was insane...not as bad like the two last X-Files seasons but close.

5.-Terminator: S.C.C

This one was a show that should had never been made in the first place. Saying it was short lived is also pushing it.

6.-Arrested Development

For me, one of the overrated shows in this decade but again. a 50+ episodes show can be considered short lived???

7-Futurama

72 episodes and the show is no longer canceled. why it is on this list again?

----

Yeah. am being a cynic. but still a good list overall.

Why the hell isn't Bakersfield, PD on this list?

For those compiling the supplemental list, Freaks and Geeks was not on Fox. But Action! and (especially) Andy Richter Controls the Universe (love that show!) are good adds.

And for whoever said these were merciful because shows get bad after their first season...you're so right. First season Simpsons and Buffy were totally better than everything that came later.

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, "In case you can't tell, I was being sarcastic!"

Canceling Terminator:TSCC = gd u fox.

I stayed home on Fridays to watch this show.

This season IF I am home I will watch it on dvd during Dollhouse's time slot.

Kindred: The Embraced was canceled because the main character died in a motorcycle accident.

Why does anyone still even watch a new show on FOX? You know they're just gonna fuck you up the ass after a dozen episodes anyways. If everyone would just stop watching FOX, maybe they'll get the message at some point.

Series creators will definitely get it though, and will take their shows elsewhere.

Then in five years, FOX will rename itself into American Idol 24/7, and we can all forget the fucking shithole every existed.

I thought Titus was a pretty decent show. It's kind of like a dysfunction Herman's Head where Christopher Titus narrates and comments on his dysfunctional life from a room inside his head. It went for about 50 episodes, but there was a lot of potential for more. Once again it was the victim of multiple time slot changes and lack of advertising.

Also Standoff was an awesome show, it had Ron Livingstone (Peter in Office Space) as a hostage negotiator. It had a full season, but Fox axed it after 12 and aired the rest later.

@Cog - G vs. E was on USA, so you can blame NBC for that one :)

@luthien26
One of my all time favorites episodes of any show.
"Who monitors the birds" did deservedly win some awards.
As for Fox. They cancel any show that shows a Government as bad and rebels as good.
Do not want us citizens getting ideas. This is old news and has been discussed going back to Dark Angel days.

My favorites not on the list but should be- Dark Angel and Space: Above and Beyond.

And yet people wonder why I don't like Fox. Fuck Rupert Murdoch.

FOX are fucking jerkoffs. They should fire everyone who's responsible for keeping/cancelling shows. Instead of torturing us with last 2 seasons of stupid Breaks you should have kept Jorneyman going. Idiots!

Favorite cancelled shows I still enjoy re-watching (in no particular order, and not necessarily from Fox)
Firefox
Keen Eddie
Moonlight
Drive
Justice League Unlimited
Bionic Woman (I know, I know, I liked it though)
Journeyman
New Amsterdam
Special Unit 2
Stargate Atlantis
The Dresden Files
Veritas - The Quest
Enterprise (it really started to pick up the last season)

Great list. I agree. But let me remind everyone FOX is not the only network to let gold thru their fingers, they just do it more often. I loved Pushing Daisies and it was cancelled( i know its not a fox show). I am sure Better off TED will cancelled this year, because I am just getting into it. Its at the point I try not to watch any new shows. Why bother. You can only get your heart broken by someone so many times before you say " Screw You." If it last 3+ years I'll rent them or buy them.

Excellent list, I loved Firefly,drive and space above and beyond.
I think Veritas, Eli Stone and nowhere man should be on here though!
With Sliders I loved that show but with changes to characters and style it went downhill I thought.

Remember Reunion??? They shows something like 6-7 episodes After the last episode had aired they said something like "You've just seen the last episode of Reunion. Log on to fox.com and tell us what you think." Yeah, I told them what I thought. Those bastards. Fringe fans beware!

Where's Sliders? Greg The Bunny? Get A Life? Andy Richter Controls The Universe?

I think The Lone Gunmen would have done better if it came out around 1995, when the hype on them and X-Files was HOT. When the show finally debuted in 2001, the buzz had died, and X-Files was circling the drain after Duchovny and Anderson left.

Couldn't agree more on the sentiments for Firefly. I still feel a pang of sadness every time I think of how it was cut short, but those 14 beautiful episodes never get old. There was a lot left in that show that never had a chance to get told.

Gotta disagree on The Tick, though. The animated series was worlds better, and as much as I love Patrick Warburton, I couldn't stand the live action version.

Does anyone remember a sketch comedy on FOX called "The Edge"?
It ran from 92-93, and starred Julie Brown, Wayne Knight (Nedry on Jurassic Park / Newman on Seinfeld) and a pre-"Friends" Jennifer Anniston. That was some of the funniest shit ever shown on TV. Until it gets a DVD boxset, YouTube will have to suffice...

why no love for Life on Mars? Or do you have to be from NYC to appreciate it?

anyone remember a show around 1979 called "Hello Larry" it was with McLean Stevenson (Col. Blake from MASH) playing a divorced radio talk show host. Sound familiar??

You left out Alien Nation.

Excellent list Rob- and it couldn't have been complete without the inclusion of Profit. They released all of the episodes on DVD a few years ago (including the unaired eps) and I highly recommend picking it up- it was one of David Greenwalt's first projects before he teamed up with Joss Whedon. It was way before its time and is still one of my favorites.

Firefly goes without saying, but Kindred: the Embraced...Christ, that was a bad show. But it was the bad in an amusing way.

@Xf4Ever- Holy shit, someone else who remembers Blake's 7? I really, really loved that show. I can't say I agree that Firefly was terrible, but I can agree that when Blake's 7 was good, it was very good indeed. And seriously underrated due to its effects.

My afternoon was going pretty well until I read your list. I had not realized how many of my favorite (cancelled) shows were Fox creations. Personal favorites on the list are Firefly and Millenium with Brimstone and Drive as honorable mentions.

If there is a guide to writing TV pilots/scripts, a key piece of advice should be, "Do not, under any circumstances, take your idea to Fox unless you have exhausted every other option - including selling your soul to the Devil (and may he be played by John Glover)".

The characters on The Tick that were changed from the cartoon to the live action show were not changed for all the reasons that guy upthread made up. They were changed because the live show only had access to characters that appeared in the comic book. Characters created for the cartoon, like American Maid and Die Fleidermouse had to be changed because of copyrite issues.

This post got a lot of comments and for good reason. I'm pretty sure someone already mentioned Andy Richter Controls the Universe, but I feel I should drive home the point. The two episodes I actually saw of this show rocked and then it was gone. Seriously, fuck Fox!

Fox has along history of idiot execs.I can remember the 80's
when they would take a decent new show and throw it up against something like the Cosby Show and then cancel it because it could not beat the highest rated show in the nation right out of the box.

One of my guilty pleasures was to watch Over There. It was a good show! For some reason I have a feeling that Sons of Anarchy are going to be cut short to. Another great show with a good cast that could keep a good audience. Too good for Fox though

How the hell is Doctor Who not on this list? 1996 should be considered the starting point of Fox's dickery. While it's true that Doctor Who enjoys a wonderful revival now, Fox created an army of enemies by never following through with a series starring Paul McGann.

Excuse me...

But where the hell is The Ripping Friends on this list?

I'm sorry, i cannot take anything on here seriously since you failed to list The Ripping Friends.

And I further laugh at you for putting Family Guy on here at all.

That miserable show was not only past it's prime after 2 whole episodes revealed it's painfully unfunny, unoriginal, and monotonously bad joke structure to be way past the point of old halfway into the pilot....

But it's hiatus was short-lived until misguided people, (apparently more outraged over the fact that an animated show was cancelled rather than a GOOD animated show being canceled), had brought the bloated show back to eat up many more seasons afterwards with it's drivel. Then it went on to further irritate a generation for nearly forever.

And yet, Spumco's Ripping Friends, a show that was actually gaining it's foothold on an actual direction and getting much better, was unceremoniously dumped before it ever had a real chance.

You guys need to do a little more research and list ACTUAL shows that were TRULY canceled before their time, instead of just lazily listing a bunch of mediocre shows that ran their natural course. (And in some cases, like Family Guy, wore out their welcome nearly forever)

What you said about Firefly?
Amen.
>:o(

p.s. AWESOME list you put together here! And reliving what happened with some of my favorite shows just ticked me off all over again and reminded me that I shouldn't invest too much attention in any one show 'cause it's apt to disappear no matter HOW many fans want more. *cough* Moonlight *cough*
(yeah, I'm still a little bitter about that.....)

U got #1 right. I nearly weep when I think about it. But #2 should be (and it doesn't make your list at all!) is GET A LIFE. I'll never forget ZOO ANIMALS ON WHEELS, CHRIS MOVES OUT, and that one where Chris and Dad build a two man submarine in the bathtub. Priceless stuff!

You missed a big one. Greg The Bunny was one of the most innovative and incredibly funny shows I've ever seen. Fox sucks.

One major point here:

Although some of these were definitely canceled before they ran out of steam. I would like to give some credit to Fox for trying these shows out in the first place.

I simply cannot imagine almost all of these shows coming from ANY other over the air TV network.

"So Mr. CBS, ok...it's about a giant blue superhero who calls himself 'The Tick'. He's extremely stupid and has a sidekick who's a moth. What? Oh no, it's live action. I need about $650,000 an episode."

Someone at Fox said...you know, that sounds pretty sweet...to THAT.

Haha. Love this post.. hate Fox.. some great shows here.. Firefly is so legendary.. And I think I would like to really watch 3# here =)

I'm with someone somewhere...where is Bakersfield P.D. on this list??? A comedy gem ripped from view by FOX way before its time. It would be 3rd on my list behind AD and Keen Eddie...shows that still cause a little wrench in my mind. Action was another missed one. As for Bakersfield PD, luckily I got all the episodes from the old TRIO network when they did their "Brilliant but Cancelled" series.

You should have included Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Prison Break, Fastlane, Life on a Stick, Stacked, Arrested Development (Hello? McFly?), Quintuplets, Malcolm in the Middle, King of the Hill, Futurama, Happy Hour, Sliders and Millenium

Like other posters, I don't really consider shows that ran for 50 episodes as cancelled before their time. There are some others I miss that barely got a season on Fox like Wanda at Large (with Wanda Sykes), New Amsterdam, K-ville (took place in post-Katrina New Orleans), Alien Nation.

Someone mentioned Parker Lewis Can't Lose, that show was ruined when the wacky antics were replaced by boring relationshipper crap. Getting a steady girlfriend ruined Parker, like what happens to your real life friends.

I agree with the listed Herman's Head, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The Critic, Kitchen Confidential, Get a Life, The War at Home, Titus, Starved, Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles, That 80's show, Sit Down Shut Up and The George Carlin Show.

Shows on other networks cancelled too early for my tastes include Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis, Journeyman, Jake 2.0, Moonlight, The Chris Wylde show, Twenty Good Years, Dilbert and The Goode Family.

Just thought of another one. It was the 1996 Doctor Who Movie to be co produced with the BBC. Fox ran it on the Tuesday Night Movie. And then canned it for the lack of interest. Seems weird that the BBC brings it back a few years later and its a Big sucess. Another thing that is weird is that it is not availible on DVD in North America.
HHHMMMMM?

I hereby OFFICIALLY rip off Fox's head and SHIAT down their THROAT.

ARSE-PIRATES, the LOT OF YA.

:PPPPPPPP

rawr

Strange Luck is still to this day one of my favorite shows ever!

You forgot Kitchen Confidential with Bradley Cooper and Dark Angel with Jessica Alba who are both now HUGE stars.

Awesome for remembering John Doe and Undeclared. Didn't even realize Seth Rogan was on that.

I fucking miss Firefly. :(

I'm still fucking mourning Firefly.

I remember every single one of those, and liked most of them. I was so young at the time i didnt even know werewolf was one of the original fox shows. and i miss some of the shows mentioned by the commenters as well. but some people are listing shows that should be included in the list when they already are on the list? i wonder if some of them even bothered reading the post.

another one not on the list i liked was reunion it was interesting

Anybody remember "Get A Life" starring Chris Elliot as a 30-something paperboy who still lived with his parents? Chris's real father, comedy legend Bob Elliott, played his father on the show and always wore a flannel bathrobe. Hilarious! (for 25 epidsodes at least)

And looking into my crystal ball, I see "Dollhouse" will make this list sometime around December 15 of this year.

No, Wonderfalls should've died a quick death. Mainly because no one cared about the main character. I get it that she's not sure what to do with her life and she's in her twenties. That doesn't mean that she has to be whiny or unempathic.

I loved Brimstone, mainly for John Glover's twist on the devil. I don't think that audiences were ready for Peter from Thirtysomething to be in that dark of a role. Plus, Lori Petty braying like a mule can kill anyshow.

John Doe was awful, again, why should the audience give a flip about the main character and the out of the box love interest?

And thank you for not putting Dark Angel on the list. That should've ended after season 2 at the latest, going into the cult and bringing Beauty and the Beast 2.0 was stretching for it.

I get that Firefly has a serious cult following so it should be high on the list. But there's no way that Futurama should be above Arrested Development.

My brother came up with a rule for FIREFLY which he and I have followed dilligently:

You must buy a brand-new copy of FIREFLY on DVD and give it to someone who has never seen the show. Before they take the discs, though, they have to agree to buy a copy for someone else if they love it. And the do love it, always.

Pay it forward. . .

i think from this we have all realized that Fox are stupid Cunts, Firefly Worst mistake they made(Hail Brown Coats!),Family Guy, Futurama, Drive. its safe to say that the are fucking idiots

I've about given up on TV, I can pretty much guarantee that anything I like they will take off in short order and anything I detest they will keep on.. It's not just Fox, the other channels have done it as well. Maybe Fox is a bit more egregious about it, but they are all guilty!

I've about given up on TV, I can pretty much guarantee that anything I like they will take off in short order and anything I detest they will keep on.. It's not just Fox, the other channels have done it as well. Maybe Fox is a bit more egregious about it, but they are all guilty!

Brisco County, Jr. rocked! It really was some of Bruce Campbell's best stuff, back when he was the right age to play the hero that always gets the girl. He has always been lead actor material, but his natural ability to parody his own characters requires the right role. Brisco was perfect, because the show never took itself too seriously. It was light hearted, self-deprecating, funny action. And that's Bruce Campbell to a tee.

We're all just lucky that the one and only season they got produced a whopping 27 episodes! Also, since it had to end, I'm at least glad it ended well, without aggravating cliff-hangers.

Another vote for "Flying Blind," as well.

I'm not going to read all 300+ comments, so forgive me if some else already addressed this. Three words: Get A Life. That show was fucking hilarious. Where are the season boxed sets?

Don't forget about "Get a Life" staring Chris Elliot back around 1991.. It was by far the funniest sitcom ever! Chris played a 30 year old paper boy living in his parents basement... The best episode was when he had a alien called Spewy come visit!

Great now I'm angry about these shows all over again!

Where did I put my blood pressure meds?

Prison Break surely must be added. Although originally Fox signed them for a 7 year contact, the actors decided to cut it after season 4. This show was so innovative and shown that everyone is capable of good and evil (see Alexander Mahone, Theodore "Teddy" Bagwell, or even Sarah Tancredi -s.2-) can see that this is a cult classic. It lured you in and wouldn't let go and made you cry at times (I cried at least 40 times). My only beef with Fox is choosing to shoot at lA at their studios (s. 1 was shot at an actual prison in Illinois)...might as well shoot in a sewer or a concrete jungle! I hate the writers on strike too, 13 episodes instead of 22! It made half of s. 4 horrible, but picked back up after donald self's turn in career, the bad assness of a true villainess (Gretchen Morgan. I love her), the finale left me in an almost comatose situation! Any ideas on choosing a pick up show to replace the void that has been left? I'm thinking Ugly Betty again and maybe starting over on Smallville (I've missed so much of the show).

Also, I think there was a show (can't remember the name because I doubt it survived 3 episodes) about the acting industry and there were young adults trying to become actors while forming relationships with each other. All I remember from an episode is a scene involving a kiss and the two actors faking it and whispering that they hated each other. It seemed really promising.

I'm just glad that a) FUTURAMA's coming back and I hope Comedy Central gets millions and Fox exec's weep, and b) they didn't cover Dawson's Creek (one of my classic favorites.period)
-kendra

+1 vote for Greg the Bunny. Sheer brilliance that 99.99% of the world has no idea even exists.

Somehow, I knew when I began to read the post that "Firefly" would be #1. I'm in complete agreement!

The corollary to this list would be interesting - "Top 20 Shows Fox Held On To For Too Long". Like American Idol. And the X-Files (the Scully and Mulder-less seasons were not great). And King of the Hill. And...

Firefly should definitely be #1. There are a few I would add:

Freaks and Geeks - What a show! The only show that depicts what living through high school is REALLY like! And though it is timeless in it's themes, I went to high school in the early 80's so I really could relate. Those authentic props (the aluminum foil on the Ho Ho's; the Faygo TIN cans!). Plus, just count the future stars on this show.

Pushing Daisies - "The facts were these:" You've already included Wonderfalls, which I loved. Just quirky enough for me to be interested when it was on...for three eps on a freaking SATURDAY! Nice programming decision there. Yet, the other Brian Fuller show was just a gem. The colors, the music, the narration, the fun plots....all things we haven't seen before.

Which gives me an idea why all of these shows didn't make it. It's simple, they were too original. Does it seem like the general public want the same things on TV.

I enjoyed the Tick, but it paled in comparrison to the cartoon of the mid-nineties. Now that was cancelled way too soon. "Spooooon!"

Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.

Note to the author: the same Strange Luck clip can now be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVe7EGk2ia4

Can we now add Mental to the list of shows that Fox screwed up on?

It's my opinion that all writers who pitch shows should boycott FAUX for their devil worshiping ways. Devil, as in the Almighty Dollar.

Can you imagine if Battlestar Galactica was a FOX show? *shudders*

Oh man, PROFIT was the Shiznit.!!
I was so pissed off as a kid when they cancelled it.

Am I th only one that misses The Loop? That show was hilarious. That and Drive. And I'm still a little confused over MadTV. Is that show currently cancelled, or was it resurrected again?

Sadly, I watched the Firefly opening theme and I did in fact openly weep.

Okay...maybe not. But I did get a little teary eyed...I miss my crew so much! I can't be satisfied with any TV show since Firefly...the song tells the truth, there IS no place I can be since I found Serenity.

...I'm pathetic.

No mention of Get A Life!?, It was Effin roflmao Comedy Greatness.

I weep for Firefly once again now that I read this and am reminded.

I forgot all about that john doe show,
and i fucking Love freaks and geeks and Undeclared.
I found them on G4Techs channel, does video game reviews an some other weird shit.

Greg the bunny was hysterical

Couldn't agree more on Keen Eddie. Great show. Loved it so much, in fact, that, when we heard a rumor that Pete, the bull terrier from the show, was in danger of becoming homeless, my wife wrote the production company to inquire about adopting him. The dog had a great story, having been rescued from a crack house.

Alas, one of the PA's on the show fell in love with Pete and adopted him.

They forget to mention that FOX forced the Firefly episodes to air out of order, then canceled the show before the pilot (explaining the origins of the characters and the world) even aired.

This is so weird, I was having a conversation with my girlfriend literally last night talking about how much I despise Fox. So many great shows, I agree with Firefly being so high but Tru Calling was a fantastic show..i wish i could fight whoever's idea it was to cancel it

We (Fox) also wanted to buy Seinfeld, Lost, The Office, My Name is Earl, and The Cosby Show so we could cancel all those, too.

So we canceled crappy shows like Firefly, Futurama, Arrested Development, Terminator, and the like. So what? We still have Cops.

We'll soon be canceling Dollhouse, Fringe, and 24 to free up more room. We're extending Family Guy to an hour and making spin-offs The Quagmire Show and The Chris and the Old Pervert Show.

And we're only bringing Futurama back so we can cancel it again.

I would quite gladly murder whomever was responsible for cancelling Firefly.
I mean it, stab them in the eye, many many times, until my arm was too tired to continue stabbing.
Stabby stab stab.

FOX seems to have a nice little criteria formula for axing shows before their time:
1. It's not the Simpsons
2. It's not sports
3. It's not made by Seth McFarlane
4. It's in a time slot where they want to show any of the above 3 items

If it passes these criteria, it's gone, ratings and quality of the show be damned.

Wow, you REALLY hit the nail on the head! I HATE FOX! I really do. And now, I'm watching them fuck over "Dollhouse" the same way they've fucked everything else, and it's making me so furious I'm considering just boycotting them for good -- the only thing I watch on FOX with any regularity now is "Bones," and I can watch that online, damn it.

You did leave off "Dark Angel," as well, and then let's not forget FOXKids' excellent "X-Men" animated series where episodes were aired out of order, pushed back to later seasons, got its budget slashed, and then was allowed seven (really crappy) final episodes to finish its run off before FOX cancelled that too.

Did I mention that I fucking HATE FOX? I'm gonna go hug my "Firefly" DVD case and cry for a little bit now while I wait to add "Dollhouse" to this list, because unless a major miracle happens between now and the end of December that one's a gonner, too. Way to go, FOX. Way to go!

I'm so pissed off with Firefly being cancelled. We get nothing but crap TV here in OZ and when we find something bloody awesome US TV Gaints cancel them..... Not Happy....

What about Jericho... NUTS....

why is standoff not on this lst that was my favorite show before it got cancelled. i also loved the show drive.

Add Dollhouse to the list now... *sigh*

You should add Dollhouse TT.TT So much potential. It is the essence of your Seinfeld example. Another Whedon creation, screwed over by FOX. Damn republicans. At least Family guy got back on the air. Maybe we could convince CBS to pick up Dollhouse?

FOX did horrible at advertising. I didn't even see an add about DH in my country. I found by flipping channels. Not to mention they didn't feel as though they even supported Dollhouse as much as they do with GLEE. FOX is shit. I hate their whole network. If i ever buy out FOX i would

1) Fire everyone and hire new people
2) Get all these shows back on air (Especially Firefly and DH)
3) Get a different name. WHO WOULD WANT TO BE AFFILIATED WITH FOX?? Xp

know why this is happening? because fox execs are really backwater-town hicks who struck gold or oil and bought tons of shares so they can get on the board, cancel promising shows, and air shit-dipped braincell killers such as "When Animals Go Wild". oh, and don't forget the TITSANDASS, TITSANDASS, TITSANDASS, and a pinch of TITSANDASS.

eat shit and die, fox!

Greg the bunny, FTW! I love FOX...but they are soo damn stupid. Many good shows canceled. Way to go dip-shits!