A sci-fi western starring Bruce Campbell? An X-Files competitor that did it better? These
shows may have been considered failures at the time, but they hold up surprisingly well today.
Kid-centric horror was all the rage in the '90s, from "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" to
"Goosebumps" and beyond. Given the popularity of the subgenre, it's pretty surprising that "Eerie,
Indiana" was only a single-season wonder — especially when it was probably the best of its
kind to be released during that era. Perhaps it's because it was on NBC and had a prime time slot,
so it needed to have major network prime time numbers to survive. Had it been an afternoon show,
or on a less-discriminating network, it might have had the longevity it deserved.
Starring Omri Katz, "Eerie, Indiana" was about the titular town and all of the
bizarre goings-on that seemed to always be happening there. Sometimes the show tackled
popular myths like Elvis faking his own death to live a private life, while plenty of other
episodes were built around entirely new — and often extremely inventive — scenarios. Critics
often referenced creators like Stephen King and David Lynch in their praise of the show.
"Let's go bag a werewolf. When that's done, I'm taking aim at this Warren Commission thing."
"Yes!"
Sadly, good reviews alone don't keep a show on the air, and "Eerie,
Indiana" got only 19 episodes before it was canceled in 1993.
Another genre that was having a moment in the '90s was sci-fi. Not only did three different
"Star Trek" series overlap during the decade, but shows like "The X-Files," "Babylon 5," "Earth:
Final Conflict," and "seaQuest DSV" all found an audience and brought their own unique spins to the
genre. There was even an extremely successful sci-fi sitcom, "3rd Rock from the Sun," that
proved to have surprising acclaim and longevity for a show with such a novelty-type premise.
But there were plenty that didn't make it as well, even ones that deserved to. One
hidden gem that got lost in the shuffle was "Earth 2," another single-season NBC show
that couldn't find the viewership it needed despite strong reviews — even after earning
three Emmy nominations and winning the award for Visual Effects. Taking place in the year 2192,
the show imagined a future where Earth has become unlivable and what remains of mankind is forced
to live on space stations, trying to reach a distant planet that seems to be inhabitable.
Beyond the dated special effects, "Earth 2" remains watchable today — even if its depiction
of a future uninhabitable Earth feels even more uncomfortably close now than it did in 1995.
This one is a lot more well-known than most of the other shows on this list,
and has had plenty of recognition for what a great show it was — and still is. But that
doesn't change the fact that "Freaks and Geeks" got a criminally short run
of only 18 episodes after its September 1999 debut before NBC pulled the plug. Meanwhile,
critics were nearly unanimous in their love for the show, and two different
episodes were nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series at the Emmys.
"You wanna make out or something?"
"All guys want to make out."
The Emmy that "Freaks and Geeks" actually won — Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series —
shouldn't come as a surprise given that its ensemble included multiple soon-to-be-A-listers.
There are no shortage of coming-of-age shows that look back at a previous generation,
but "Freaks and Geeks" stood out both for its honest depiction of the less-popular
crowd as well as paying tribute to its era without descending into parody. Oh,
and its creator and executive producer? That would be Paul Feig and Judd Apatow,
respectively, who would become some of the biggest comedic voices in Hollywood a short time later.
Plenty of cartoons come and go. In fact, it's actually somewhat rare for a kids'
cartoon to have more than a season or two, especially during the '90s,
because that was usually all that was needed to rerun it for the next five-plus years. But
there were still a few that got cut short yet stuck around long enough that they are
still looked back upon — and still watched — with the same reverence as the likes of "Animaniacs"
and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." One of those shows is "The Pirates of Dark Water."
A Hanna-Barbera production that ran on the now-defunct Fox Kids programming block, "Pirates"
hit that rare older kids/younger teens sweet spot flawlessly. A hybrid of old-school swashbuckling
pirate adventure with hints of sci-fi and fantasy, the show started with an epic five-part miniseries
that told a much bigger story than most cartoons at the time would have even attempted. Only the
five-part Phoenix Saga from "X-Men: The Animated Series" came close in terms of ambition and scope.
But like so many kids' cartoons that tried to tell deeper, more complex stories with
elaborate worldbuilding — not to mention having a higher caliber of animation than was typically
seen on TV at the time — "The Pirates of Dark Water" was not long for this world and got
only a single full season and an extremely truncated second season, before being sunk.
"Failure has only one reward."
"The pit, the pit, the pit."
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
Cult film favorite Bruce Campbell has long been just as prolific on the small
screen as he has in movies, most notably as a series regular for all seven seasons
of the spy-based 2007 to 2013 action series "Burn Notice." But the television role that's
a lot more in line with what people expect from Campbell came nearly 15 years earlier,
when he starred in the Western sci-fi comedy "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr."
In the show, Campbell played Brisco County, a wise-cracking bounty hunter who doesn't seem
particularly good at his job but somehow always seems to fumble his way out of trouble. Created
by the writing team behind "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," the show definitely has elements
of that film series, with clever writing and consistently satisfying action throughout.
"Where's Brisco, Comet? Find Brisco."
"That's what I thought you'd say."
So what went wrong? Well, it was perhaps a bit too subversive for the time, and Campbell wasn't quite
the household name yet that he'd eventually become, with his loyal but still relatively
niche fan base not yet large enough to sustain a pricey network television action/adventure show.
No one can deny the impact "The X-Files" had on the sci-fi genre and television as a whole.
"Yeah, that's a bleeping dead alien body if I ever bleeping saw one."
"The X-Files" was a huge series throughout its run, and it had
other networks — as well as Fox itself — trying to replicate the show's success.
NBC took a crack at it with "Dark Skies," which was dismissed by some critics as a
mere clone of "The X-Files" due to just how similar the two series were. On the
other side of the coin, there are some, particularly in retrospect,
who have made the case that "Dark Skies" is actually the superior of the two shows.
Ultimately, "Dark Skies" didn't have the ratings to grant it more than 20 episodes,
causing it to suffer the same fate as most "X-Files"-inspired shows.
But it was arguably the best, with a unique premise that saw it taking place
in an alternate history 1960s in which aliens had been on Earth since the '40s,
with the government having kept their existence a secret from the public. It also didn't shy
away from depicting real people, including politicians, actors, musicians, and more.
A lot of people probably dismissed this show outright based purely on the title, since by
1997 a lot of people had grown tired of the '90s marketing tactic of calling everything "extreme."
"Extreme dinosaurs."
Plus, the "Ghostbusters" brand was languishing a bit at this point,
years removed from the last movie or previous cartoon series.
Basically, a lot seemed to be working against "Extreme Ghostbusters." But the show itself
was great, seemingly a kids' show but with enough depth and cleverness to the writing
and the stories to appeal to adults as well. It was the perfect show for older fans of the
franchise to watch with their children as a means of introducing it to them. "Extreme Ghostbusters"
also did a fantastic job at introducing a new generation of characters while also including
the old ones, and having them all co-exist and be equally important to the plotlines.
"Waiting on your signal, Garrett."
"On three. Three."
The show did get a commendable 40 episodes, but it never got a second season.
Prime time sketch comedy on regular network television is something that rarely works. But
that hasn't stopped many from trying it over the years, including a group of young up-and-comers
in the early '90s that came together to write and star in "The Ben Stiller Show."
"That's all right, you can get on,
you little lizard king. At Oliver Stone land, we question authority."
After getting its start on MTV, the version of "The Ben Stiller Show" that people are generally
more aware of is the one that ran on Fox for only 12 episodes, leaving an unaired episode
that Comedy Central later added to its rerun package of the show. Like most sketch comedy,
the scenes could be a bit hit or miss, but the talent and chemistry of the cast couldn't
be denied. The writing was also worthy of an Emmy win, even though the show had already been
canceled by the time the crew took home their trophy. It's still worth looking back at these
soon-to-be-stars taking what is, for most of them, their first real crack at an on-screen career.
Typically, Saturday night prime time is where networks put shows that the execs
aren't sure about. The rare shows that do well on a late Saturday evening are
usually aimed at older viewers. So when 1998's "Cupid" was launched in the 10
p.m. Saturday time slot by ABC, it was pretty clear the network didn't fully believe in it.
The series followed a man named Trevor Hale who is convinced that he's the mythological god Cupid,
but is institutionalized. But that does allow him to meet Claire,
a psychologist who doesn't fully believe Trevor but does decide to roll the dice
and set him free to complete his mission to bring 100 couples together — at which point,
he claims, Zeus will reinstate his powers and let him return to Mount Olympus. We
never learned if Trevor was telling the truth, as "Cupid" was canceled after only 15 episodes.
Interestingly, "Cupid" was revived in 2009 with a similar premise but a new
cast — and that one only got half the episodes of its predecessor.
MTV's "Liquid Television" was a series that ran sporadically during the first half of
the 1990s and would feature various clips of animated projects. Some would be one and done,
while others became recurring segments on the show. And though the vast majority sadly died
with the show, a few did wind up turning into full-fledged series of their own — most notably,
"Beavis and Butt-head" and "Aeon Flux." In the same year that "Liquid Television" signed off,
MTV launched a series called "Oddities," which expanded the "Liquid Television"
format by giving each animated project an entire miniseries of full-length episodes.
The first was the bizarre and ultimately forgettable "The Head," but that was
followed by the excellent and certainly before-its-time "The Maxx." Based on the
comic series of the same name, its main character was a homeless man looked after
by a social worker named Julie in the "real" world, who also lived in an alternate reality
where he was a powerful warrior tasked with protecting the Jungle Queen — who was that
reality's version of Julie. He was aware of the two realities, while she was not.
"He just may be out of his mind."
It was one of the few darker comic adaptations to exist at the time,
predating HBO's "Spawn" series by several years. While it was technically only ever meant to be a
limited series, had it been more popular it might have earned a couple of full seasons.
"The Dana Carvey Show" seemed like it had the potential to buck the curse of the prime time
sketch comedy show. First and foremost, it was headlined by — you guessed it — Dana Carvey,
who was only a few years off his award-winning run as one of the most popular performers in
"Saturday Night Live" history. That should have given it a leg up over,
say, "The Ben Stiller Show," which was led by an actor that most of America hadn't heard of yet.
But despite the clout and talent of Carvey, in addition to a cast that included both Steve Carell
and Stephen Colbert, "The Dana Carvey Show" fell into the pit of failure like so many other prime
time sketch comedies. Rather than play it safe and be an extension of his "SNL" work — though
there was some of that — the show's humor was often abstract, weird, and often a little too
gross for prime time audiences. It's the kind of thing that has often thrived on cable,
but it was way too out there for the '90s sitcom crowd and only got eight episodes.
"The days are rushing by, children. It'll be over before you know it."
In the wake of "The Simpsons" becoming not only a hit television show but an entire pop culture
behemoth, a whole new wave of prime time animation kicked off in a big way during
the '90s. But for every "South Park" and "King of the Hill," there were dozens of
shows that came and went so quickly that barely anyone noticed or remembers them. To be honest,
most of them weren't a huge loss — but there were some that deserved more success.
The excellent "Mission Hill" got only a single season and 13 episodes to find its audience.
It didn't bother to have kid characters or be about families, focusing instead on the
lives of teens and young adults. It was also the unfortunate victim of airing on The WB,
the now-defunct network that couldn't even reach its 12th birthday. Like many gone-too-soon
animated shows, it saw increased visibility when reruns hit Adult Swim in 2002, but that wasn't
enough to revive the show. Those original 13 episodes are all we'll ever have to enjoy.
One of the biggest pioneers in the sketch comedy genre was "The Carol Burnett Show,"
which ran from 1967 to 1978 and helped to establish many elements of the genre that
are followed to this day — particularly the shows that are filmed in front of an audience.
And Burnett herself would be a trailblazer once again 12 years later with "Carol and Company."
What set "Carol and Company" apart from most sketch shows up to that point is that,
rather than multiple short sketches within an episode, each episode was a single,
extended sketch. Modern shows have certainly used the format,
but this was one of the trailblazers. With two seasons and 33 episodes, "Carol and Company"
lasted longer than most shows on this list, but it still wasn't as long as it deserved.
Author Elmore Leonard saw a lot of screen adaptations of his works during his life,
including popular films like "3:10 to Yuma," "Out of Sight," "Jackie Brown," and "Get Shorty,"
to name a few. But one adaptation that's been lost to time is 1998's "Maximum Bob."
The "Bob" in question is Judge Bob Gibbs, who earns his nickname via his tendency to always
seek the maximum sentence for the defendants in the cases he presides over, no matter the crime.
"Pending your appeal until such time as a date can be set for your execution."
"For drinking a beer?"
But this was no generic courtroom show — "Maximum Bob" was compared
to more offbeat shows like "Twin Peaks" and "Northern Exposure" by critics at the time.
That's because in addition to Bob, there was also his wife, a former mermaid performer turned
psychic. The cast of wacky characters goes on from there, all surrounding Bob and challenging
his small-minded conservative sensibilities. We probably don't need to explain why this
delightfully bizarre show didn't find the audience it needed to last more than seven episodes.
Jay Mohr starred as floundering Hollywood producer Peter Dragon in the subversive
satire "Action." An unflinching look at the movie business and the fickle nature of fame,
"Action" was a network television series with cable ambitions, pushing the boundaries of what
was typically seen and heard on one of the major networks. It would go down in history
as the first Fox show to be rated TV-MA, something that was unusual at the time for non-cable shows.
"Do you think any major network would put this on without censoring,
pixelating, and bleeping the hell out of it?"
"You bet your f—ing ass they would."
Critics were generally positive on the show, and even many of the negative reviews praised the
accuracy with which "Action" mocked its targets but ultimately found it too mean to be enjoyable.
Fox canceled "Action" after airing only eight of its 13 filmed episodes. The unaired episodes
— along with the original eight — would later run on cable channels like FX, Comedy Central,
and IFC, all of which would have been a better home for the series in the first place. Nowadays,
you'd be lucky to find the show anywhere; with the generic title, it's even tough to search for.
Another great show that was the victim of the '90s was the 1995-96
sci-fi series "Nowhere Man." Airing on UPN, "Nowhere Man" never really had a chance.
The show followed a photographer named Thomas Veil, who wakes up
one day to find that none of his friends or family seem to know who
he is — including his own wife, who now has a different husband.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
"It's not funny."
Thomas sets out to discover why his existence has essentially been erased,
deducing that it may have something to do with a photo he's taken.
Ratings started off well enough, but they dropped off sharply as the first season went on. That,
combined with creative struggles behind the scenes, led to the show's demise after only 25
episodes. As long as you're okay with watching a series that doesn't have a resolution and
never will, "Nowhere Man" is one of the most overlooked shows of its kind from that era.
In "Stark Raving Mad," which debuted in the fall of 1999,
Tony Shalhoub is a quirky horror novelist and Neil Patrick Harris is his phobia-prone
editor. The two being forced to find a way to make their partnership click
is admittedly just another variation on the well-worn "Odd Couple" theme. But it works,
due in no small part to the talent of the two actors and their terrific chemistry together.
But this was the era when "Friends" was in full swing and "Seinfeld" had just finished with a
historic series finale. The bar was extremely high in terms of the ratings that were expected of a
prime time network sitcom. On top of that, NBC put the show in direct competition with the first
season of ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," which of course was becoming a full-blown
phenomenon at the time and was going to demolish pretty much anything that tried to take it on.
"Is that your final answer?"
Needless to say, "Stark Raving Mad" was canceled after one season.
Another "too weird for prime time" show was Fox's "Get A Life," a surreal comedy
starring and co-created by Chris Elliot. Elliot plays manchild Chris Peterson who,
at 30, still lives at home, still has the same paper route he had as a kid, and still doesn't
have a driver's license. While that might seem like the premise for a fairly standard sitcom,
"Get A Life" was anything but, with episodes about everything from finding a vomiting alien — which
Chris barbecues and eats later in the episode — to Chris inexplicably discovering he can see a
few seconds into the future. Oh, and Chris is also killed in 12 of the show's 35 episodes.
"That tastes weird. Uh oh, wrong bottle."
Ratings were never great for the show, but "Get a Life" was actually given a second season. It's
easy to see in hindsight how ahead of its time the show was, plus how influential it would be
for the blossoming alt comedy movement on TV, and it's a blast to watch today with that perspective.
There was an embarrassment of riches in the 1990s for cartoon-watching comic book fans.
In addition to the biggies like "Batman: The Animated Series," "Spider-Man," and "X-Men:
The Animated Series," there seemed to be a handful of animated comic adaptations on the air at any
given time that were well worth watching. There were so many, in fact, that there just weren't
enough viewers to keep them all afloat, and a few great ones slipped through the cracks.
Running for only three months and 13 episodes in 1998, "Silver Surfer" wasn't just the best of the
lesser-remembered comic book cartoons but is one of the best of the era, period. Mimicking Jack
Kirby's art style with a combination of hand-drawn and computer animation, the show already set
itself apart with a look that was both retro and also futuristic at the same time. Though the
Fantastic Four were disappointingly absent despite their connection to the character in the comics,
the show did bring in classic characters like Galactus, Ego the Living Planet, and the Watcher.
It was also a bit heavier than most of its peers and willing to address
complex political and social issues, which most comics did, but much of which was lost
when transforming the properties into kid-friendly cartoons. Frustratingly,
it wasn't low ratings that led to the demise of "Silver Surfer," but rather a rights dispute.
"Better to perish for what I believe in than endure forever as a traitor to life."
Like "Freaks and Geeks," "My So-Called Life" has been on so many lists of shows canceled too soon,
and has been re-broadcast so many times in so many different places since its initial run,
that it almost feels pointless to spotlight it here. But this list isn't only meant to highlight
shows that people might have forgotten about or never knew existed. The key angle here is that
these shows are still worth a watch, and boy, is "My So-Called Life" certainly still worth a watch.
While its depiction of teen life circa the mid-'90s might feel very much of its time,
particularly when it comes to the music, the clothing, and the overall vibe,
there is still a timeless quality to the angst depicted in the show. Every
generation of current or former teenagers can find themselves in one of the show's
characters. That's a big part of the reason why "My So-Called Life" has sustained such a
lasting legacy for nearly 30 years, since its cancellation after a run of only 19 episodes.