Off the Air

Everyone hates to admit that they watch television, but we all pay our monthly cable television bill so that we can visit with our pixelated serial friends every week. Over the years television has been a friend, a lover, and a vile enemy to each and every one of us. We've laughed with the television, we've cursed at the television, and we've starred at the television in dumbfounded shock. Here are some of my favorite shows that were thrown off the air before their time.



Aaron Sorkin made his fame with West Wing, a television series based in a fictional White House, but before that he showed us what life might be like behind the scenes of an evening sports news program. Sports Night showed us 30minute vignettes of an adult drama series disguised as a sports comedy. Characters had a life to them that network television in 1998 was not accustomed to. Audiences were presented with a series loaded with interpersonal drama that did not nauseate or make them want to change the channel due to the characters being unbelievable. Sorkin proved to the network, that a laugh track wasn't needed to make a comedy series comical.



These days’ folk talk casually about considering making an emergency kit, setting up a family meeting place, and what their zombie plan consists of. The town of Jericho Kansas has to make these plans a reality as unknown forces detonate several nuclear weapons on American soil. The post September 11th fears of terrorism have become reality for a small midwestern town, and they have to make tough decisions on how to go forward with their lives. Everyone who was forced to read Lord of the Flies in high school has considered "what they would do if...” Fans of this series were able to get it put back on the air, but when piggie lost the conch the series faded from view.



Fifteen years ago a hormone driven plague decimated the population of the world, and a young boy named Jeremiah had to fend for himself. Based on the comic book series by Hermann Huppen Jeremiah is a tale of a wanderer who shows us a world where the schoolyard bullies have taken over, and it's everyone for themselves. When children are left to shape the world without the aid of their elders, what might possibly happen? Jeremiah is our tour guide to this new world the audience discovers the plot and the pockets of humanity that have survived as our title character discovers them. At times the show relies heavily on realism, and at other times realism is forgotten in an effort to further the plot line, though the entertainment is consistently solid.



Who doesn't remember a children's television show with cute animal puppets that taught us how to count and to spell? Well Greg the Bunny is not your parents puppet animal show, it's a satirical and often profane take on children's television. Much like those puppet shows of our youth, these puppets teach us valuable lessons about life. But this time we learn about violence in the work place, alcohol use, psycho girlfriends, and dysfunctional father son interactions. If you've ever wanted to see have your childhood memories mocked and desecrated, this is the comedy series for you.



Fox Television has a habit of releasing edgy adult cartoons that mock the establishment, and eventually strangle their own funding off the air. John Luvitz lent his voice to the title character of The Critic. Jay Shermin, a balding, overweight, single father movie critic mocked his way through a Sunday night time slot. It must have been difficult for this show to gain sponsors, as it would mock each and every one of them during its short run. Eventually Fox cancelled the series, as it has countless other intelligent and well written storylines. No doubt Fox has earned the ire of their own character, ”it stinks."