What brought this post to mind was watching a fantastic episode of Dog Bites Man. It’s a canceled TV comedy from 2006 starring several people - one of them being a star of the new movie The Hangover: Zach Galifianakis (I still spell his name wrong from memory). It reminds me of how many great shows featured great people or were just too weird for popular consumption. Honestly, we live in a world where “According to Jim” gets 8 seasons and 2.5 men is the highest rated comedy on TV. Here are my favourite canceled TV comedies:

I’ll start with something fairly obscure. Andy Richter was Conan O’Brien’s sidekick but he was destined for more. Andy Richter Control’s the Universe was a great showcase of not only his talents but so many others. Thankfully the creator and one of the stars are involved in Better off Ted which is currently struggling for air. It’s a great show which I fear is too wacky for the average Joe but right now ABC is airing six more episodes of the first season so please watch and support.

Speaking of too good for TV, there was once a show called Action which starred Jay Mohr as a ridiculous asshole of a movie producer and it was just glorious. It lasted only 13 episode but deserved a million and a review of it included the phrase - too good for TV. Jay Mohr can be hit and miss but in this show he was definitely batting over 400. The current piece of crap that he is in is something that I won’t even link to or name but if you get a chance to watch Action then please do.

You’ve likely heard about the following show by now but I was one of those cool people who got on the bandwagon early. There was once a TV show starring Seth Rogen, Jason Segal and James Franco that was produced by Judd Apatow. It’s a supergroup that could barely be assembled today but at the time it was called Freaks and Geeks. It was a great show and not just because it featured great performances but the writing was wonderous. It was granted 18 episodes but I’m sure the powers that be wish they could assemble the cast and crew for more right now.

Oh, and there’s more to the Apatow legend: for some reason he was allowed to develop another show which contained the same great ideas but once again was too good for TV. This one was called Undeclared and starred some of the same people but despite being fantastic it didn’t make the cut. It shocks me a bit that with the success of the Judd Apatow brand that these shows haven’t garnered attempts to promote their existence on DVD. Oh well, I saw them and they’re great.

Another show that only got one measly season before getting the axe was The Middleman. I’ve only recently been introduced to this show but its level of wit was beyond compare. The dialogue was so beautiful that it restored my faith in the ability of networks to actually give intelligent comedy a chance. Of course, it was too much for audiences and I don’t think the fact that it aired on ‘ABC Family’ helped - there were many censored lines and it makes no sense to air it on a network with such a name.

I’ll be brief on this one since it’s a well-known example. The Ben Stiller Show aired before any of the cast members were famous and it kicked ass. Ben stiller has become a hack of late but in his early days he was fantastic - having a cast including Bob Odenkirk, Jeneane Garofalo, and Andy Dick made this show an incredible gem. Guess what, a head writer was Judd Apatow so if you haven’t seen the DVD you really should.

I’d love to hear you suggestions of shows that were canceled before their time. As we’ve seen from the ratings for American Idol the public has little regard for quality programming. Maybe someday.

Tags: best tv shows, cancelled tv shows, funny shows, funny shows you don't know about, good shows that got canned, great shows, great tv, what to watch, why they cancel shows