We’re still not ready to let go.
1) Freaks and Geeks
Imagine Netflix announced a show starring Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jason Segal to premier in Autumn 2015.
The internet would break faster than you can say Kim Kardashian. Well, that’s exactly what Freaks and Geeks was all the way back in 2000, before any of those guys became the superstars they are today.
The star-studded high school comedy centred around the lives of the biggest losers in a no-horse town and produced 18 episodes of comedy gold before NBC pulled the plug.
Last night I was in a room with the dude who cancelled Freaks and Geeks. And yes, I did totally call him out on it.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) October 12, 2014
2) Firefly
Firefly was the brainchild of Joss Whedon, famous for writing Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Avengers and Toy Story. Considering Whedon’s phenomenal resumé, it’s somewhat galling to think that his sci-fi series was doomed to fail by its own network who gave it the Friday night death slot.
The show, which ran for thirteen episodes, was a fast-paced, genre-bending thriller that combined dark humour with action and charm. Its cancellation was described by film professor Jeanine Bassinger as ‘the biggest screw-up in television.’
Like Freaks and Geeks, Firefly was put on the chopping block after one season and it has stayed cancelled despite massive fan movement to have the show revived.
3) Utopia
Some will wonder how Utopia made it onto the airwaves in the first place. The chilling Channel 4 sci-fi thriller featured a global conspiracy to cull the world’s population, graphic scenes of torture and two child-murdering psychopaths.
All of these sinister elements made for a fairly gripping story nevertheless, and the show is stylistically magnificent, with almost every scene looking as though it were filmed through every Instagram filter at once.
You can still catch season one of Utopia on Netflix before it’s removed on July 24 (or join the Save Utopia movement on Twitter).
4) Arrested Development
Rated 9/10 on both IMDb and TV.com, Arrested Development is one of the most popular shows of all time… among those who have seen it. Michael Hurwitz’s show was axed after only three seasons in 2006 because while it was beloved by those who watched it, there simply weren’t enough people who did.
The show was criticised for containing too many jokes that called back to previous episodes, rendering it inaccessible compared to shows of which each episode can stand alone like Friends or The Simpsons.
Netflix resuscitated the show in 2012, releasing a fourth season of fifteen new episodes all at once.
5) Community
Like Arrested Development, Community was another show that was saved by an online streaming service, in this case Yahoo. Even still, being cut from the NBC roster didn’t help the show at a time when it was losing stars like Chevy Chase and Donald Glover. It is also a disturbing indictment of our tastes that Community can be dropped while shows like Two and a Half Men endure.
Community is a uniquely funny vehicle that has taken tropes from every single genre on earth in order to tell the stories of seven students of an American community college who have, so far, failed spectacularly at life.
The five pre-cancellation seasons of Community are available on Netflix.
6) Luck
Luck was a 2011 HBO show starring Dustin Hoffman as a mobster and race horse owner, directed by Michael Mann. With figures of such pedigree on board, the show had all the ingredients to be a success. The show picked up successful reviews before its time on air was cut short.
Negative press around the show swelled when it emerged that three horses had died during the production of the first nine episodes. HBO killed the show when it became clear that they couldn’t prevent further danger to the horses.
7) Dream Team
We’d have watched this show forever. Between lethal injections, player suicides and bus crashes that wiped out the whole squad, Dream Team was one of the most preposterous soap operas to have ever graced the small screen.
For 419 episodes, the show told the story of Harchester United, a club that scaled the heady heights of the Champions League, endured relegation and regularly overcame the untimely deaths of its players.
We want 419 more, Sky.
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