10 Great Shows That Died After One Season

All of these angry looks are directed at their agents who suggested they do the show.

Do you remember when all of those advertisements went up everywhere that only featured a strange orange flag with a butterfly on them? No one seemed sure if they were promoting a band or a movie or if the gay community had suddenly decided to give up the rainbow. To this day many people never fully connected the butterfly flag campaign to the show Kings that lived and died on NBC in 2009. I am just going to bet right now that the guy who was in charge of the flag campaign is not working there any more.

I can see how the producers of Kings thought they had a surefire hit. A show based on a Bible story done in the style of Battle Star Galactica with Ian McShane, the dynamo actor who made Deadwood more than just a show of cussing cowboys. How could it miss? Most Americans love the Bible, most nerds love BSG and anyone who can actually handle the swearing loves Deadwood. What NBC didn’t realize is that Bible-loving America hates nerds, nerds hate the Bible, and people who were actually into Deadwood are a bunch of pretentious assholes who can’t put their support behind anything that doesn’t have at least one rape per episode.

Kings followed the exploits of David, a young soldier in the city of Shiloh, a fictional city set in a parallel universe that combined the worlds of Princess Diana with (I meant to use a female example from the bible here, but it turns out there are like no chicks in that whole thing). This alternative future was in some weird political landscape where the entire world split into two different countries that bordered each other, spoke the same language, and shared all kinds of the same customes and traditions. Imagine if Canada all of the sudden took over a bigger chunk of the world and went to war with us. Now go rent the movie Canadian Bacon directed by Michael Moore. Go on, I’ll wait here.

While I would have loved to see this show continue, I wasn't surprised when it got a smooth stone to the forehead. Basing a show off the Bible is a maddeningly problematic proposition. There wasn't a whole lot of inspiring stories left for King David anyway. Although it would have been great to see who played Bathsheba in season 2. It would have almost been worth it for a good bathing on the roof scene.

Nice try Johnny.

People REALLY didn’t like this show. It aired after the last season of The Sopranos which may have accounted for some of the bad feelings that the show never could quite shake (nothing like an abrupt cut to black to make you not very interested in investing your time in a new show). Despite being created by David Milch, the man who gave birth to such undeniable hits as Deadwood and NYPD Blue, America came together and collectively cast this show out much the same way we did with Yahoo Serious in the '90s.

The thing is, I think it is one of the better shows to ever be on television. Much like Deadwood, the ensemble cast was a complicated tapestry of connections and interactions and the metaphysical aspects of the show were strange and challenging without being meta or preachy.

Episode 6 of the show is where the whole thing really kicks into weird overdrive with a scene where all the characters are basically standing around looking at each other as John -- the alien Jesus sent to live amongst them -- repositions them and programs them with cryptic fortune cookie instructions. Who can't relate to that? (America raises its hand.)

Stop staring at me and look at the camera! Will you grow up already!

Doesn’t life just seem better when Eric Stoltz is around? It’s hard to say why exactly. It’s not like he's that warm of a character. In a warmness contest he’d have a hard time coming in before Jay Mohr (most unlikable famous person ever), but whenever the Stoltz man rears his coppered head I can’t help but feel like everything is going to be ok.

Caprica was the Syfy prequel to the (relatively speaking) giant hit Battlestar Galactica. It utilized cheesy Syfy-style special effects to tell the story of how the Cylons (androids who later decide to stick it to earthlings) were created. Despite looking like it was made as a senior animation project whenever the Cylon is on screen, the story was totally solid. There was also a virtual reality video game world that players started to treat like real life (which would seem more far fetched if I hadn’t just come out of a 3 week World of Warcraft binge to find all of my pets had entered into some kind of Battle Royale where amazingly only the canary survived).

Caprica was also Alessandra Torressani’s big coming out party. (Unless you count her being the first incarnation of Ann Veal on Arrested Development. Torressani only played Ann for one episode and then was replaced by Mae Whitman who is now on Parenthood and who, up until today, I actually thought WAS Alessandra Torresani minus a month or two of P90X.) But anyway this was Alessandra’s big moment to shine. And when I say shine I mean shine like the moon. She is the very definition of moonfaced. I swear I can see Neil Armstrong’s footprints on her forehead.

Everybody look at the moon! Everybody see the moon!

GOD DAMN! We are moooooody!

Oh Claire Danes. For those of us who were in high school at the time this little beauty of a show came out you played an important role. Girls wanted your eating disorder and boys just wanted to have awkward make out sessions with you. No one show so perfectly describes what it was like to be a teenager in the '90s. The sweaters were so big! The sleeves were always falling over your hands! What were we supposed to do?

My So-Called Life also gave us the pouty-faced gift of Jared Leto, who would later go on to to melt our hearts as Angel Face in Fight Club and then destroy all goodwill towards him by forming the band 30 Seconds to Mars. Leto's later rock stardom was alluded to in the episode where after their lead singer has a fit of stage fright, Jared steps up and sings the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" to a group of enraptured teens.

I am not sad the show didn't continue because it was pretty clear that Angela was going to kill herself in the next few seasons. Who wants to see that?

"I thought you were undercover, then I realized you just dress like that."

Donal Logue has been looking for the right vehichle ever since The Tao of Steve (oh man talk about one hit wonders: what the hell happened to Jenniphr Goodmam, director of Tao? It’s her ONLY IMDb credit! Her career is as MIA as the letter "e" from her first name.) And Terriers looked like it was going to be his launchboard from character actor to leading man. Alas, it was not to be.

Terriers received mixed reviews upon its launch but there was a general amelioration of opinions as the show continued. The half-hearted procedural aspect of the show began to take a back seat to the more dramatic story lines all while following a season-long plot that was well developed and actually reached a resolution. It's clear from the ending (completely lifted from The 25th Hour) that the show's future was in jeopardy. I like to think that the reason the show was canceled was because the characters decided to flee to Mexico, thus making the show impossible to continue (shut up Weeds, no one is talking to you).

I think had the show come out a few years ago while FX was still trafficking in the likes of Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me, Terriers' gritty realism would have been a welcome deviation from the channel's increasingly fantastical programming, but when drawing against the slightly similar but infinitely better Justified, Terriers really didn't have much of a shot. But don't feel bad Donal, I don't see Lights Out doing much better.