Tuned In Poll: The TV Shows You Loved, Alone

Years ago, when I was in high school, I was a huge fan of “Covington Cross,” a drama set during medieval England starring King Arthur (“Excalibur”) himself, Nigel Terry. Two of his sons were played by the late Glenn Quinn (from “Roseanne”) who used his real accent, and –the real reason I watched it– Jonathan Firth (Colin’s brother), who I still love. I think I knew all three people who watched it.

Roswell.

And for the record I’m still watching TMYLM.

Submitted for your consideration: The Famous Teddy Z starring Jon “The Killer” Cryer. Great Hugh Wilson show about a studio mail clerk who makes the jump to full agent. Perhaps a bit too inside Hollywood but the episode where the older agent unknowingly packages Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as an over the top ’80′s action flick is hilarious. The show made me want to go west and become a big time movie player. Alas, that was a million cubicle jobs ago…

Jack and Bobby. Even though it managed to do the unthinkable – namely, misuse Christine Lahti – it was a WB teen drama that was, in some sense, about West Wing-style politics.

I really can’t explain why I stuck with this show for as long as I did when I knew it had to be cancelled (and eventually was), but the show’s premise (let’s see this future great president grow up, and see the impact his teen years had on his presidency) was an irresistible hook. I’m still perplexed as to why it didn’t work better, but I’ll place the blame on the writers for turning Lahti into a one-note, shrill disaster of a character as the title boys’ pot-smoking liberal professor mother…what a waste.

I’ve got the first two episodes of TMYLM and I will watch them, just not sure when.

As far as shows I’ve watched go down, does The Dresden Files count? I really enjoyed the playfulness of that show and the supernatural details. It wasn’t as bad as other shows I’ve seen gain success and I’m still not sure why it failed.

Even though I didn’t find it until it was already canceled (since that happened so quickly) I hold a candle for Kitchen Confidential, a show I feel could really have become a success.

Lastly, I was a fan of Six Degrees, mostly for Shiri Appleby

Young Americans – it was a summer replacement show (I think)in 2000. It lasted 8 episodes and featured Katherine Moennig (late of The L Word). She played a girl that passed as a boy at an all boys boarding school. It was a great little show and I was sad to see it go. I am not sure if it received any critical buzz, I certainly do not remember seeing any and I remember that none of my friends new what I was talking about when I brought it up!

Also – James, I love TMYLM and I was scouring this page for your “watch”. I am pleased that you will be putting one up for this show.

Ned & Stacey! Fox started scheduling it erratically in its second season, and then it just disappeared.

When I found out the never-aired second half of the second season was being shown in re-runs on USA, I was the happiest man alive for a while.

Day Break.

“G. vs. E” — which needs to be released on DVD, please!

And “It’s Like… You Know”–which fell victim to the Reign of Regis.

I’ll also cast a vote for the pure pulp goodness of Summerland….I definitely wasted a whole summer watching marathons of that wonderful show. Pretty impressive pedigree, too, launching the careers of Jesse McCartney and Zac Effron or whatever his name is from High School Musical.

The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire. Loved it, and never understood the critical bashing. Also love Tell Me You Love Me. Hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate.

Joe Millionaire 2 and Paradise Island.

I think everyone gave up on “Twin Peaks” soon after the second season started (no way it could live up to the first); and even though it started getting way, way out there and making little if no sense in some storylines (what the hell did the owls have to do with anything? never was sure), the VERY end of the show still sends chills…Great show, in its own way, up to the finale!

Dilbert and The Critic. I have the DVD’s and still watch those two show’s regularly.

Sorry to be off topic, but I’m so annoyed and really need to vent for a moment about something I just read on this site. Richard Corliss, in his review of “Across The Universe” says of the 1960′s:

Kids actually did stuff then. Those who didn’t go to war protested it. (The existence of a military draft helped.) They rebelled against their parents’ values, political views and choice of recreational drugs — from martinis to marijuana. They marched for civil rights, vandalized their universities, exiled themselves to Canada. Unlike today’s young people, they were idealistic, reckless, suicidal and interesting.

I would just like to say to Mr. Corliss– Perhaps they were ‘more interesting’, but then they went on to become self-centered, navel-gazing, workaholic philanderers who completely screwed up Generations X and Y through their ineffectual and misguided parenting. Look at Bill Clinton and George Bush and you’ll understand why I am SO tired of the Boomers and their self-aggrandizement. Thank you. Rant is over now.

Grounded for Life. I’m ashamed to say that I followed it across networks and watched it (and liked it) until the very end.

“Keen Eddie.” It was a summer comedy about an American cop working for Scotland Yard starring Mark Valley. It was very funny. Unfortunately it aired on FOX the same summer that the OC debuted, so it kind of got lost.

I’m not sure “Love Monkey” would even count, as the entire series lasted all of eight episodes… and the bulk of them were burned off on VH1, so maybe that does count for something.

Like Chaddogg, I was also a follower of “Jack and Bobby” to the end — and even though it’s not likely more than the character name, you should know that Bobby McCallister lives… that’s the name of the Republican Junior Senator from California played by Rob Lowe on “Brothers and Sisters.” AND, he’s running for President. Kind of a neat trick by Greg Berlanti, who was the showrunner on both programs. No mention yet of Jack or Grace, though. If I had to speculate, I’d say this is sort of an “alternate universe” Bobby — different timeframe, etc, even though in J&B Bobby was a Republican who ran as an independent for President… the B&S Bobby is a moderate Republican. Hmmm…

Maximum Bob. Quirky and funny and beautifully plotted and acted. I’d like to think it would do better now, but I’d have thought it would’ve done all right when it was originally on.

Roswell, Daybreak, and a cartoon called Exo-Squad

Touching Evil was the best show on television……for about 5 weeks in early 2004. It had the added bonus of Vera Farmiga. Glad to see Jeffery Donovan back in Burn Notice. I was also a very big Keen Eddie fan.

Boston Public. Out of loyalty to Chi McBride, Anthony Heald, and Loretta Devine, the only remaining awesome after Nicky Katt and Rashida Jones left.

Upside: witnessing Michelle Monaghan’s big break when she did a guest arc. Downside: Mini-Me’s appearance, and the bizarre Kelley-ness of it all that was mitigated early on with great acting. Aside: How is it that Jason Katims can run Boston Public into the ground — it was truly terrible the last two seasons, after starting as a proto-O.C. teen/adult snarky soap — then turn around and run a genius series like Friday Night Lights? Maybe this could be called Greg Garcia Syndrome.

About ten years ago (or more)I really enjoyed a show called The Good Life which starred Drew Carey before the sitcom that made him famous. He played the friend of star stand up John Caponera. The show was really funny. And I don’t think anyone would remember it.

I loved Keen Eddie, so now I know there were 2 of us.

I am ashamed to admit it, but On The Lot captured me this summer. The show was awful, the host was the WORST, but I cared about those film makers and wanted to see who won.

I liked a show called “Pacific Palisades” that was a generic Melrose Place that lasted for about 10 episodes one summer on Fox.

@MC – great call on Touching Evil. That show was phenomenal – arguably the start of the great run of USA programming we see nowadays.

I am not really sure what kind of ratings and critical praise most of the shows I watched received over the years. But I think that TGIF’s Boy Meets World wasn’t extremely popular but I watched it to the very end.

The other more recent show has to be The O.C. I stopped watching during the terrible beginning of the thrid season but was compelled to come back. However, it was kind of depressing watching the fourth season knowing that so few people were watching it. Although, most cable shows I watch get less viewers than that but they have the excuse of being on cable so it doesn’t seem as bad.

A show that I am going to begin watching that receives very poor ratings is Showtime’s Brotherhood. It seems that Showtime is trying really hard to help it succeed, putting Dexter as a lead in. Hopefully, more people tune in and gets renewed for a third season.

Hey Hermie and Mary, count me in as a Keen Eddie fan. So now we are three; guess it’s time for a fan club…

Not sure it was accalamed or not but for me it was UNDECLARED on FOX. The cast was hilarious and the show wonderful, it lasted a season and I even got the dvd

“Boomtown” on NBC! I recently borrowed the first season of “The Wire” from a friend, and its cleverly intertwined storylines and inherent awesomeness reminded me so much of “Boomtown” that I looked up the price of the (sadly, one season only) DVD set online. Neal McDonough was fantastic in it, especially.

The TV series of “Paper Moon.” Did anybody else see it? My faint memories are of a precursor to recent dramadies, and a facinating show.

Undeclared, Keen Eddie, and Touching Evil. Loved all 3, watched them to the end (and then some – I had to tape a few episodes as I was in grad school/working nights while these were airing).

For me it was My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss — which, much like Joe Millionaire 2, was an attempt to rework the unexpectedly successful one-off concept show My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, a show I never watched.

Boss’s first few episodes were a great send-up of the absurdities of The Apprentice and Donald Trump’s egomaniacal qualities: like when the losers of the first selling challenge were forced to sleep like tramps under a freeway overpass (because, come on, they were losers), while the winners got to taste “the good life” by sleeping, quite literally and uncomfortably, on cold hard cash — effectively turning the winners also into losers. Fantastic. My favorite highlight was the multimillionaire CEO boss convincing his proteges that he owned the actual Excalibur, bought with riches and proven by science.

While I really enjoyed the first few episodes, it was obvious after the last half of the series surfaced on the Internet why it was canceled early on: the writers and producers just couldn’t muster the same level of organized, sustained, and believable absurdity reached in the Joe Schmo Show. In the end, it was a fun concept that was better than its execution. But I still had to watch it all!

I followed Surface all thew way to the bitter end. The funny thing was that I thought the show was poorly acted and the plot stank. I think I kept watching it to see if it would get any better……and it didn’t. How it made it thru a whole season was beyond me.

Threshold came out the same time as Surface and it was a far superior show in my opinion. It dumbfounded me when Threshold was cancelled mid-season and Surface made it all the way thru.

Another show I really enjoyed that got cancelled was The Agency. It ended a season with a cliff hanger and it was never resolved. At the time, I didn’t realize it was doing that poorly in the ratings. I remember reading an article back when The Agency and Alias were both on and the article talked about how Alias would pass their scripts to the CIA for approval. Yeah right, the fantasy stuff that happened on Alias just might be true and hurt the security of our nation. Puh-leaze!!! The Agency was far more realistic.

Anything with Andy Richter.

OK, this was a while back but in the late 80′s there was a show starring Merlin Olsen called “Aaron’s Way” and he played an Amish man. Very good show, nice and clean. Recently, “Medical Investigations” and “Commander in Chief” were some other ones that were good and didn’t last more than one season.

The show that had neither ratings nor critical buzz that I liked the most was Jake 2.0. (In fact, I’ll be a little upset on their behalf if Chuck is successful this season, even though I’m going to watch it because, hey, I liked Jake 2.0.)

I do have something more embarassing than Joe Millionaire 2: I watched and enjoyed My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé–not because it said anything about America but because I thought it was hilarious.

A while back:

Nothing Sacred – ABC tried to do a realistic show about Catholic priests, and met some slight resistance.

Currently:

Frisky Dingo – I’m convinced I’m one of 10 people watching this show.

Studio 60 – I watched every episode. I think I even watched the last few – the ones they put off until June – twice, because I was sad it was ending. I know it wasn’t nearly as good as West Wing, but in my opinion, even mediocre Sorkin is better than anything else NBC (or ABC, CBS, FOX or a number of cable networks, for that matter) has to offer.

And just where would one find….Frisky Dingo? There is probably a reason you are one of ten people watching. I’ve never heard of it.

this goes way back – ez streets – next to the wire, the best cop show ever – made in the early 90′s (i think) – i went so far as to track down all the episodes, even ones that were never shown and bought the on ebay and even scripts of shows that were never made – you want to talk about dark, ez streets was beyond dark – i think they finally put out the first few episodes on dvd, in case anyone wants to check it out

Studio 60, Knights of Prosperity, Grounded For Life, and, ummmm . . . Beauty and the Geek.

“Windfall”. It was a great concept that they didn’t quite execute, but I still want to know how it ended.

Also, “Once & Again.”

The remake of Fantasy island with Malcolm McDowell – never missed an episode – and Keen Eddie.

Loved Keen Eddie – have the DVD now and still love it. Also loved Teddy Z. I’m careful now about starting new shows until I know they’re going to be around. Watched Heroes in less than a week once the DVDs came out so I’m caught up now! Gotta love the new technology.