Ten Forward: The Most Unjustly Cancelled Series This Decade

I think science-fiction and fantasy genre fans must have their hearts broken more often than fans of any other genre or forms of entertainment. Time and time again, we invest ourselves in a new series that hooks us, and has a lot of promise – only to have those promises broken by greedy, gutless network executives. (I have other words for them, but I’m being charitable today.)

I also wonder if the frequent abortion of the shows we come to love leads to any psychological disorders in viewers that network executives could be liable for creating. Is there room in the DSM-V for Post Traumatic Series Cancellation Stress Disorder (with separation and abandonment Issues)?

This list will only contain 10 such criminally maltreated shows. I am aware that there are a lot more, and I’m sure you’ll remind me of them! Still, since this is my column, I am going to list 10 shows that were cancelled that resulted in my own heart being broken in the past 10 years. I’m not including “Veronica Mars” in the list, because it was not sci-fi, but I consider the show to be an honorary member, since it is the red-headed step-sibling of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Moonlight."

1. "Firefly" was possibly the best series of all time ever to be cancelled. It had horses and space ships and people-eating Reavers, and, as we learned in the movie “Serenity,” it had a slayer, too. No TV series ever quite looked like this, or so successfully mixed genres that nobody could ever see mixing together.

2. "Angel" is a close contender for the best series ever to be cancelled. It was the rare show that saw its ratings increase in its fifth year, largely as people grieving the end of its parent show, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" finally decided to check out this gem. "Angel," like "Buffy" and "Firefly," could make you laugh and then cry within the uttering of one sentence. Nobody does emotional rollercoasters like Joss Whedon and his Mutant Enemy writing staff. At least now we have more to look forward to with “Dollhouse” premiering in January.

3. "Jericho" built an avid following, all of whom went nuts when it was nuked by CBS. After the valiant effort of fans to save the show by sending more than 40,000 pounds of nuts to CBS headquarters.

It worked, briefly, as "Jericho" was resurrected for a shortened season that again was nuked by CBS. The result may be radioactive fallout, CBS guys!

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