I wonder what shows do you remember that seem to have debuted with such fanfare and promise. People were screaming that it was going to be the next big thing. Everyone seemed to be excited about it. The show may debut with huge ratings and is off to a good start. Every critic in town loves it, everyone at the water cooler is gushing about it at work. But something happens. You notice that the quality of the show is starting to diminish, the ratings are beginning to slip, and more and more negative buzz begins to surround it. The show's timeslot changes and then it changes again, and again. Eventually maybe after one season or maybe half of season two the show is unceremoniously cancelled. Suddenly the show that was going to be the next Hill Street Blues or ER is now just another unmarked headstone in TV's long and ever expanding graveyard of cancelled shows.

Now of course the shows I'm talking about aren't critical darlings and rating hits that simply go on for way too long like ER or NYPD Blue. Or good shows that maintain a high standard quality for most of it's run with the exception of a crappy final season. (ie Homicide) No I'm taking about the well-hyped shows that crash and burn after one (or maybe two seasons).

The show that comes to mind that fits this criteria is Commander in Chief, in fact CiC inspired me to create this thread. Everything I read about it suggested it was going take its place alongside Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy as ABC's newest hit. But now after sagging ratings, several staff shakeups and the customary time slot switch, the show is on a slow, painful march to an early death. So I ask you what other shows in annals of TV have started off with such promise only to crash and burn a short time later.

Push, Nevada, definitely. The Twin Peaks-like long term mystery, plus the very neat aspect that you could win money if you figured it out before the characters, really hooked me. Then there was the Whedon-esque twist that the guy who seemed like he would be the primary antagonist was killed off in the pilot. After that, though, it just completely lost steam both in the writing and ratings. ABC even had to keep airing it after cancelling it to get all the clues out there, and those episodes have a distinct lame duck "just marking time here" feel.

I remember Invasion having a lot of buzz before it's premiere. All the critics were calling it the next Lost. But I guess it never took off, I don't here about it that much anymore. I think it's still on the air, isn't it?

Invasion was insanely slow during the first half of the season, but something kept me watching and since then it's picked up impressively. I now look forward to it more than Lost, and check out the thread in Sci-Fi Shows and you'll see nothing but total raves and eager speculation about it.

I was very excited for Kitchen Confidential before it aired. It had three ex-cast members from three of my favorite shows: Bradley Cooper, Nicholas Brendon, and John Francis Daley. I thought it would be an interesting premise, especially if was anything like Bourdain's book. I watched every episode Fox aired, and I do think it had potential. If Fox had given it more attention and time, I think it could have been a solid comedy. Not on par with Arrested or anything, but funny and light. Instead, they had the standard knee jerk reaction to lower-than-expected ratings: ignore it, cancel it, pretend it never happened. Argh. Good cast members wasted! A funny and exciting premise totally lost! Boo.

"Murder One" started out brilliantly, IMHO, with a great cast and a fascinating concept: take one high-profile capital murder case from the first moment the lead character - a charismatic, famous defense attorney - hears about it, through each step, to the final disposition. In a way, it was a precursor of "24" with its 'time' gimmick.

The show started out with huge critical buzz, but never quite found an audience, till an end-of-season surge when the murder mystery aspects were solved. That 'surge' led to the show's renewal, but the network made certain demands for change. When "Murder One" reappeared in the fall, most of the main cast was gone, as was the 'one case followed from beginning to end' structure. There were three separate arcs, and Anthony LaPaglia was brought in as the new leading man. [no complaint here on that score - I love ALP, though I also loved Daniel Benzali, the original lead]. It became a more conventional, though still slightly edgy, show.

The new format did no better in the ratings and the last arc - ironically, the most critically acclaimed, and the one that won the show its only Emmy, for guest Taylor Pruitt Vince - was compressed and burned off. The show was then cancelled.

Why hello, Profit! Fancy meeting you here!

Well, to be fair to Profit, the writing didn't go down, it was Fox...but then it's always Fox.

Since I generally hate most of the shows that are critically acclaimed (hi Sopranos!) let me offer a show that I thought would be "eh" and was great for exactly 20 minutes of the pilot then became what its title implied.

Go back to 1985 or so, when every new show was like Magnum or Simon and Simon (or at least trying to be). Little show on ABC called "Hawaiian Heat." As you can guess from the title, it looked like it was going to be your basic SiSi ripoff.

Except for the first 20 minutes, the two leads are cops in Chicago and it's like Hill Street Blues only darker and angsty-er. I was transfixed, it was great.

Then they ditch their careers and go to Hawaii and it turns into a pile of crap. Sigh.

The Guardian got some nice critical notice and then went south in its second season when the creator pulled a "reset to zero" the Trek folks would have envied.

And speaking of Trek and pilots, let me offer Voyager. It's the best of the four "new" Trek pilots, in my mind, right up until Janeway decides to save the space creature instead of getting home! ARGH!

The real problem with Voyager was rather than follow DS9's lead with long term story arcs, it returned to the episodic nature of the first two series. Had the former been done the show could have really been interesting, almost a precursor to Firefly with the crew constantly trying to keep the ship in good condition and such. Instead, whatever damage the Voyager took was somehow repaired by the next ep, and you never really got the sense that things would have been much different had the "lost far from home" hook not been used at all.

Witchblade? This is your thread.

Witchblade was this incredibly cool show that began airing in 2001 on TNT. It revolved around Sara, this NYC cop who gets this glove that is able to turn into this lethal killing machine. The show managed to blend continuity, drama, scifi, and ass-kicking into one very compelling hour. Witchblade was actually pretty well favored by the critics and mightybigtv. Then the finale is one of the best hours of tv I've ever seen, where almost everyone dies. Then there's a big re-set.

Next season, the show seems to be pandering much more to the male demographic, and the lead actress is dealing with alcholism. The show tanks.

Which sucks. I was so excited in the summer of '02 when I started seeing those ads.

Joan of Arcadia. The first season is one of the best things on TV... then the second season starts off kind of depressing, gets darker, and the Duff sisters show up, and Adam completely, and offensively, breaks character. The finale redeemed things, but we won't know how much, because it got cancelled for the fucking Ghost Whisperer.

I'll second the JoA mention.

Started off as a very creative show about an ordinary girl having an extraordinary experience and who was able to have an impact the world around her. This gets great critical reviews, really good ratings for a Friday night, a People's Choice Award, and a Best Drama Series Emmy nomination. But, CBS is mystified that teenagers aren't suddenly staying home to watch tv on a Friday night. So, the show became more about the ordinary girl (who really got dumbed down) and her boyfriend, and God became her life coach. Teenagers still weren't staying home to watch, so CBS cast Hilary Duff and her sister for a month because what teen wouldn't skip extracurricular activities, work, or hanging out with friends to watch the Duffs? This didn't drop the average viewer age either and only drove more viewers away, and the plug got pulled.

For me, That's Life owns this thread.

It had a terrific supporting cast (Paul Sorvino, Ellen Burstyn, erstwhile "scream queen" Danielle Harris---who was my personal favorite surprisingly, and a pre-Entourage Kevin Dillion and Debi Mazur). It had a workable, likable premise (30-something Jill of all trades returns to college in New Jersey, anchored by a non-mob Italian/American family). It was on "America's Most Watched Network", CBS. So how come this ran only two seasons (2000-02)?

Well, the lead actress, while not a Misha Barton-esque total waste of space, wasn't strong enough to carry the show (especially compared to her aforementioned castmates). The show spent more time with the family than at the college (where I liked the interactions between Lydia the lead and her younger classmates, especially DH's Plum Wilkinson), though admittedly this wasn't too fatal a flaw. The love interest (one of Lydia's professors) of DM's pregnant Jackie got killed off by a horse (!) in the Season 2 premiere. Lydia herself got transterred to a campus sports clinic run by Titus Welliver. Plum and KD's Paulie (I think that was the character's name; forgot that now) fell in love and married too quickly (which would probably happen in real life anyway, but still). The show's creator got a reduced creative role as time went on....

....and this whole thing got stuck on unwatched weekend slots (two Saturday slots, with a Friday stop in between).

Yet I watched to the unbitter but definitely unresolved end. And even with all those flaws I mentioned above, loved it anyway.

There were a few filmed Season 2 episodes that never aired, so there's a good reason (in addition to the flawed gems that did air, of course) to put TL on DVD, at least.

I loved the promos for Surface, and it started out very well. Now, it seems to have disappeared. Is it cancelled?

We can't forget My So-called Life, which crashed and burned only in the sense that it was cancelled so fast, while it was still amazingly good. Maybe a blessing, though, before it had a chance to crash and burn in the sense of veering off into ridiculous plots and bad writing.

I adore the show It Takes a Thief...but it's apparently being cancelled? Darn shame.

And...Clean Sweep.

Sigh.

I have to agree with whoever said My So Called Life. I loved that show! The one I really miss Night Stalker with Stuart Townsend. I thought it had promise and could have been better had it been allowed to stay on.

Night Stalker is an interesting example, because I'd argue that they never quite had it right. They had a nice visual style (I really liked the super sharp digital look they had), and I liked the trick of having his key phrases show up on screen at the beginning and the end. However, it really just kept coming off as a second-rate X-Files knock-off.

Too many to list, nowdays, I fully expectmy favorite new shows to turn to crap by season two, I'm surprised if any last longer than that.

Agreed. Though I had hoped that if given a chance TPTB might of seen the errors of their ways. That may be a little naive of me but I had hoped.

Boston Public.

Great first 3 seasons or so. Then, cast turnover gets too much to bear, and the final season is aired in the Friday Night Death Slot, (and for good reason. The final season SUCKED).

It was once my favorite show.

Commander in Chief is the poster child for this thread.

There was a sitcom called Hearts Afire with John Ritter, Markie Post and Billy Bob Thornton,set in Washington politics. The whole thing seemed to be a set up for the "mis-matched couple/sexual tension" thing, which everyone knows only works until the couple finally sleeps together. John and Markie slept together at the end of the first episode! Instant shark-jump.

What happened to Murder One is similar to what happened to Homicide. The network insisted they replace all the fat, old cops with sexy young fashion models. The writing was still top-notch, but the show was never as real.

The show that instantly comes to mind is The O.C. It was being compared to Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills 90210 and everyone was talking about. The first season was a complete smash on Fox, but then I don't know what happened. It lost its spark. Maybe it was the contrived storylines, characters appearing/disappearing act, the stupid plot twists, not to mention the endless 'Will they or won't they' break up and get back together Ryan and Marissa relationship stuff. But I just got bored and in the second season tuned out.

Hey, I also watched it until the bitter end of that cliffhanger, so I guess you weren't the only naive one hoping that they'd figure it out.

Some oldies:

Cop Rock -- it's new! It's different! It's got singing policemen! It's ... canceled.

Chicken Soup -- Lynette Redgrave! Comedian Jackie Mason! Darling of the critics! Unfortunately, the two leads had absolutely no chemistry and the show was "poofed" very quickly.

The Famous Teddy Z -- darling of the critics, but unless you were an insider in the television industry, the jokes didn't make sense. Crashed. Burned. Buh-bye.

I'll second that. That show was awesome.

That applies to any show over the last 15 years set in show business (this means you, Action, Good Morning Miami, Grosse Pointe and Sports Night). The last hit TV show about someone with a TV show was Home Improvement (ran from 1991 to 1999, IIRC).

And now Aaron Sorkin is following his Sports Night debacle with *another* TV show about a TV show (Studio 60)? Is it too early to include S60 here already for the above reason?

I have to add "Reunion" to this. A very promising show about 6 friends, and every episode is a new year. One is murdered, and the viewers try to guess who did it. Since it aired on Fox, it was cancelled with no resoultion whats so ever. UGH. It had a unique feel and while the writing was sort of cliche it was interesting, and I was very intrigued by it.

Put me down as another "My so called Life" fan. Watching the repeats make me sad, since I never got to know did Angela want Brian? Or was she going to stick with asshole Jordan?

I have to add "Desperate Housewives" here, while it has crashed completely yet, you can just look at the ridiculous uneven writing this season to know that it will die long before seven years. It dosen't live up to the hype at all.

That is ok, as long as I can add Lost. All of the stories there are running on fumes, IMO. The hatch? Who cares. We don't even know where they are, still. Most of the mysteries from S1 are not solved, and they have brought on new characters for nothing (except Eko), as this week proved.

Wonderfalls got great press, even though it wasn't heavily promoted. And then it died after four episodes. (Which is a pity, because the second half of the season was much stronger than the first.)

That 70's show was a funny show for most of its run. It rapidly declined last season and this one is such a complete trainwreck that I couldn't watch it anymore. It really should have ended with them graduating from high school.

There was this show called Wasteland on ABC back in the late 90's. I don't remember exactly if it was good press or bad press but there was quite a bit of press attention placed on it, i.e., the dramatic counterpart of 'Friends,' 90210-ish in NYC, etc. Also, one of the lead actors looked almost exactly like Brad Pitt (Brad Rowe). That show crashed and burned pretty badly.

Okay, I have a couple I'd like to add. I don't know how "promising" these were but I was really enjoying them. First, "Freaks and Geeks"; I was really disappointed when this was canned; I thought it was never given a fair chance from the onset. Second, "Miracles" starring Skeet Ulricht (sp), it's demise occurred after only a few airings. I think we can blame the ABC scheduling geniuses for that one; they kept pre-empting it (it was running during the first stages of the overseas conflicts) so it was always hit and miss (more often miss) as to when it would be on. It too, should have gotten another chance!

It got a lot of buzz because a) it was the show that Kevin Williamson left Dawson's Creek to work on (and he was still red hot from Scream), and b) the main character was a 30-year-old virgin. IIRC, the pilot got horrible reviews and it never recovered.

And whatever DID happen to Brad Rowe?

What do we mean by promising shows? Like critics lauded them but the audience doesn't? Or the critics love it and so does the audience for like a few episodes then ratings drop off? Or everything was rigth except TPTB fuck it all up by moving the show around?

I ask b/c there are shows listed here that had a good run, like several seasons, and just naturally die off IMO. Naturally means that the show has run it's course and should end. They didn't burn like in a fiery plane crash type of thing. I think of crashing and burning like shortlived shows. Maybe that's just me.

Or, as I saw it, a clear indication that they weren't going for the "mismatched couple / sexual tension" thing at all, since they never tried for any of that tension. One of their smarter moves, in fact. The series really went astray in the second season, when the 3 characters moved out of Washington DC to run a small town paper, cast was dropped, cast was added, and it became essentially a new show.

The history of the series doesn't bear this out, though. The one regular cop in the first season was played by Dylan Baker, a young good-looking actor. As the central lawyer figure, Daniel Benzali was replaced by Anthony LaPaglia, who is younger and more personable, I guess, but hardly a sexy young fashion model. Mary McCormack and Michael Hayden, presumably the main eye-candy factor, were on hand throughout the run of the show, and the one marquee-name young stud, Jason Gedrick, was featured in season 1, not 2.

My own nominee for this topic would be EZ Streets. Fascinating, unique premise, good actors (Jason Gedrick again!), carefully plotted development -- and cancellation mid-arc. I'm glad it's coming on DVD, but that'll probably be frustrating all over again in its own way, as it stops midstream.

I'll delurk to mention Twin Peaks, which I'm surprised hasn't been brought up yet. It started off as an engaging mystery with huge buzz in the short first season. The show was a big hit on Thursday nights, and it seemed everyone was trying to figure out who killed Laura Palmer. Then, for the second season ABC inexplicably decides to move it to the dead zone of Saturday nights, and people stop watching. Creatively, the show seemed to lose any coherent plot after the Palmer mystery was solved, while too much supernatural weirdness changed the show from being merely offbeat to downright confusing.

Yeah, 'Twin Peaks,' I totally agree.

It should have been a mini-series and a mini-series only. 12 hours, 13 tops.

It was smart and interesting that they had these subplots about the various inhabitants of the town that all somehow hinted towards one incredible whole, but the execution never quite paid off on the premise. The pay-off was totally crap because like, hey, Killer Bob? Whatever.

Wouldn't it have made more sense in a crazy-ass show for the denouement to actually be cold hearted and mundane? Would that not have been the coolest twist that despite the weirdness of this little town complete with its cooky police station people, its wife-beaters, its trouble down the timber mills and its bed-hopping teen seductresses (has Sherilynn Fenn even been close to matching how good she was as Audrey Horne in that show? She showed so much promise in that role - forget Scully, this is the woman girl crushes were made for,) the solution to the murder of this troubled, f**ked up teen Laura Palmer was actually something really ordinary?

I loved the twist that it was her Dad (does anybody seriously not know now?), but honestly, Killer Bob? Total cop-out.

And why did they feel the need to go on for a second season? Beyond sheer and unadulterated greed?

Everyone should know who killed Laura Palmer by now, but there could be a teenager who's just watching the show on DVD (and will soon be pissed off to fiind that the second season is still only available on VHS.)

The revelation of the murderer was well-done, but the possession by Bob seemed like a total copout. I did like the retcon from Fire walk with me, which said that [that character] killed her because he knew Bob would torture her.

Of course, after the revelation, the show went completely off the rails. It became all about the lives of Twin Peak's residents, but Windham Earle's chess obsession proved a much less compelling central mystery that Laura's murder.



It's too bad that Boyle has become another Hollywood skeleton. In the early days of TP, her, Lee, Fenn and Amick were all incredibly attractive; but since, the others have slipped into obscurity, while Boyle became anorexic.

I think this topic has been discussed before, but I'm going to say The Critic. Yes, it got another chance on Fox after ABC cancelled it, but Fox just let it crash and burn just like ABC did. I wish Fox had renewed it for another season just to take a chance. Could you imagine all the things Jay Sherman could mock now?

Ah yes! "Hee Haw: The Next Generation."

Just the very idea of that makes me break out in hysterics! The Critic was brilliant.

One Tree Hill.

No, seriously. The show was a good cheesy guilty pleasure for much of its first season. Then all of a sudden you had high school kids acting like twentysomethings, outrageous plotlines that made no sense and character regression instead of character development (I couldn't watch anymore when Haley started lying to Nathan about hanging out with that guitar player/singer jackass). It was no longer a guilty pleasure, it became a disaster. No wonder the ratings dropped; I can't believe CW renewed this show, and I really can't imagine it lasting more than one more season. I wouldn't be surprised if CW has to cancel it midseason.

To me, "crash and burn" implies that a once-promising show all of a sudden started sucking. I can't apply that term to "My So-Called Life" and "Freaks and Geeks." Those were shows that died before their time.

I read all three pages of this thread, and all along I was thinking of this show that fit the topic *perfectly*, which no one else mentioned, But dammit, my brain is stuck and I just can't come up with the title of the show!

(ETA: I got it! It was "Boomtown". ...I think.)

It was from a few years ago, it was on NBC, and it was a real "cutting edge" and "innovative" show that all the critics were buzzing about. it was a Cops & Lawyers drama set in L.A., and L.A. was in fact advertised as something of a central "character" of the show. It had a big sprawling cast who often didn't directly know each other but whose lives were entwined with each other in surprising, unpredictable ways. An ambitious District Attorney was having an affair with a reporter who knew someone who knew the cop who busted the D.A.'s son or something, ect. The big gimmick was that the stories were told in the style of Pulp Fiction: out of chronological order, the same event being shown multiple times through the eyes of different characters, and the like, with the unexpected connections between the characters being revealed, and the surprising reasons & motivations leading up to what we saw at the beginning of the episode gradually being revealed as well.

The premier episode got great reviews & huge ratings and I personally found it very impressive, but very quickly it became apparent that you just cannot sustain this sort of convoluted storytelling on a weekly basis, and no matter how huge your cast is, you just cannot keep coming up with new "shocking" connections & relationships between them (are you listening, Lost?) Very soon, what had been a ground breaking narrative style for one episode became a tired, restrictive formula, and after not many more episodes I lost interest, along with the critics & the rest of the audience. I believe by the time it got cancelled it was much more of a conventional Cops & Lawyers soap opera, but by then no one cared and it was pretty much completely forgotten by the time it finally flickered out after no more than a season (and possibly well short of that).

Tru Calling...

That show had a lot of potential, but turned out to be crap. It had that Quantum Leap, striving to put right what once went wrong, vibe. But, it just didn't work.

Several years ago NBC had a show called "Stark Raving Mad" on Thursday nights. It starred Doogie Howser and Monk and it was HILARIOUS. It takes a lot to make me laugh, and I laughed out loud every week.

After several weeks, *poof*, the show was gone. Never to be heard from again.

The Nickelodeon adaptation of Animorphs was a big one for me. I was a huge fan of K.A. Applegate's book series, and to see such an intelligent, thought-provoking, yet still largely kid-friendly piece of work turned into...that, was incredibly depressing.

I'll third that. Season 1 was fantastic. Season 2 was just as good, but the hook storyline was a bit ridiculous. Season 3, didn't know when it came on, and when I found it, the new cast didn't do it for me.

Check out the Permanent Hiatus archives, TWoP recapped it back in the day....

Count me in on those that liked Boston Public the first couple of seasons. I thought it started to go downhill with Michael Rappaport and Jeri Ryan joining the cast. Neither did anything to improve the show in my opinion and I don't like Rappaport as an actor anyhow, so that was a big strike.

I didn't mind the hook lady storyline though. I like Kathy Baker and I thought the storyline had a macabre sense of humor that I liked.

What really began to annoy me though was the singing every week. Seemed like every week someone had to sing for some reason. I swear they had more singing competitions and talent shows at that school than any other. That's when I started to lose interest. Then I think it moved to Friday nights and I never saw it again, but didn't feel I was missing out since I was already tiring of all the singing.

I want to add "Andy Richter Controls the Universe", but I never thought that show was bad. It was just treated badly by FOX.

Why, hello, Desperate Housewives! The first season was quirky, funny, and full of Dynasty-level camp goodness. The second season? Crap on a stick. They introduce a new family (the Applewhites) and then virtually ignore them only to try to shoehorn a relationship between Betty Applewhite and Bree (who, by this season, becomes a drunk and is somewhat cured in an episode? yeah) that makes no sense. Susan gets whinier and stupider by the second, and in the meantime, my celebrity nemesis Eva Longoria just won't. shut. up. about ANYTHING. Now, I hate DH.