What TV series came out before its time?
What TV series came out before its time?
That would've been more successful if it released 5 or 10 years or even more later.
27 comments
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Arrested Development struggled from the serial storyline in a 30 minute sitcom slot. Fox didn’t like the show and moved its airtime around, making its viewership numbers even worse.
If it had been made in the streaming era, we would have gotten six seasons and a movie
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I swear Fox used to just kill shows for fun. Either that or their execs were just the emptiest suit dummies to ever work in television.
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When season 4 was released, exclusively on Netflix, each episode was plagued with minutes of recap footage that made no sense in a streaming series. Then the season was recut into the "Fateful Consequences" version that was supposed to remedy that, but it turned out (arguably) even worse.
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The writing on this show was too damned good. Such a great series.
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Carnivàle. I think it took a few years more for mainstream viewers to get into dark fantasy/supernatural sci-fi.
The show is out there but I really hoped to see a better conclusion than what we got before it was cancelled.
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I always use this an example! Such a great show.
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HBO’s Rome would have been a massive hit during the more recent age of prestige television.
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Knowing the names behind it, though, I can't help but feel it would have ended as a trainwreck.
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Babylon 5 is a good one. The CGI space stuff starts out looking horrendous and doesn't get much better. Partly budget (Star Trek looked much better but wasn't as ambitious) and partly too early to benefit from improvements like Battlestar Galactica did.
When it aired where I live, it was always on fairly interchangeably with other shows. At that time it would randomly be something like Star Trek TNG or Quantum Leap or Sliders or something in that time slot, usually stuff you can watch a single episode of without worrying too much what came before - it was pretty much impossible to watch a season in order, and keep track of it (esp. as a kid!).
But Babylon 5s storytelling is MUCH more like the current status quo where you expect to watch all episodes in order. The storylines are epic, political intrigue, save the world stuff, it's extremely well written, but you'd be lost if you didn't watch in order.
If they made it today it would be incredible, highly recommend watching if you never have and you like an epic space opera!
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B5's season 1 has a lot of the same problems that TNG season 1 does, the overall story hasn't gotten going so it really does feel like an adventure-a-day series, basically it feels like discount store brand Star Trek. That episode where the guy turns into the nazi monster who they defeat by pointing out he isn't PURE!!! enough, that never comes up again, that kind of thing.
At season 2, they got rid of the praying mantis puppet, the special effects and production in general improved, and the show got actually going.
Then the network it was airing on was going to shut down, meaning they rushed to a conclusion in Season 4, and then the show got picked up by another network, several cast members had other commitments because the show was going to end...so the fifth season is a lot of B-plot stuff.
It could be a little hokey sometimes but it's a really solid show, and I think Londo and G'Kar are the best developed characters ever broadcast on TV.
It doesn't really help the standing of B5 that JMS pitched the idea to someone at Paramount, they turned him down, and announced a Star Trek show set on a space station with a number in the title.
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Jericho: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_(2006_TV_series)
I think it being filmed in this exact time period dealt it a bad hand. The trends at the time that influenced it's production made it something not entirely removed from peers like Smallville - that's like how I feel watching it in spite of liking it: naive, soft-handed, dream-induced even when everything goes into a shitter. If it got filmed in 2016 or 2021, not only there would be examples of the likes of The Walking Dead, Black Mirror, TLOU and such, directors would be likely to film a more realistic, gritty portrayal of a societal collapse that, in spite of the narrative, is hardly felt in the series as they were filmed. And, if anything, 2016\2021 is a more fitting time for cold war fears than mildly annoying but otherwise okayish 2000s.
I've heard gossips about it being canceled because of how rad it was
cue in hexbear emoji with a girl thinking basedbasedbased
and I can only wonder how harsh it could've gone under\after Trump.
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Get A Life was at least a decade ahead of its time.
The premise of the show was Chris Peterson (played by Chris Elliott) was a "Dennis the Menace" type figure who was in his thirties but had never socially progressed past his teen years and was constantly annoying everyone around him.
The first season he lived with his parents, the second season he lived in Gus Borden's (Brian Doyle-Murray) garage.
The show was flat-out absurd and included ridiculous antics like Chris accidentally becoming a male escort and befriending an alien named Spewey who would projectile vomit when emotionally distressed. It was far beyond what Fox was willing to handle and the planned third season where Chris was a homeless drifter never came to fruition.
This show would have absolutely killed on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim which later featured another insane show starring Chris Elliott, Eagleheart. (and also featured many other actors who were also on Get A Life) It was the exact type of show that would have had a cult following on Adult Swim.
It's also worth noting, the episode where Chris becomes a male model is the source of the name of the 90's Dan the Automator and Prince Paul collaboration Handsome Boy Modeling School. Two songs on the album use audio clips directly from the episode from which they got their name:
Handsome Boy Modeling School - Look At This Face (Oh My God They're Gorgeous)
Handsome Boy Modeling School - Modeling Sucks
If it wasn't for Handsome Boy Modeling School, I'd still have sixty dollars.
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Maybe Danny Phantom. It ran from 2004-2007. I always wonder if the show was around during the bigger Marvel years of the 2010s if it would have had a bigger audience, possibly from parents looking for a more kid-friendly superhero media fix.
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Max Headroom.
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I feel like a lot of shows weren't really ahead of their time, but the vast majority are far ahead of the curve for culture compared to the human average on this earth.
I also think the practical effects era was so good that we've taken a big leap backwards since then.
I guess the movie Brazil 1985
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ReGenesis. They did that whole pandemic thing waaay before it actually happened and Peter Outerbridge was fucking awesome in it. Four seasons of a great show about bioterrorism, mysterious diseases and environmental changes - I believe it still holds up today.
That guy collapsing in the intro with blood coming out of his nose is still such an awesome shot.
When it came out, they accompanied the series with a webgame (in 2004) and went extremely overboard with it:
An exploratory game, the ReGenesis Extended Reality draws viewers into a conspiracy and mystery that weaves in and out of the TV series, using the internet, email, and other media to immerse the viewer, blurring the line between fiction and reality. ReGenesis Extended Reality harnesses the power of enthusiastic fans that seed the site with discussion content and collaborative investigations. Extensive knowledge of various chemistry and biotechnology issues is required to find out why the plot in many episodes can't be true (if it can't).
I wish I could've experienced that, but when I watched the series, it was already shut down.
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The soundtrack was above average too.
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Friends.
(ducks, runs)
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Unless you’re trolling, I’m genuinely curious why you think it was ahead of its time. Given the content it felt like it was a commentary of its time.
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I think I could make the case that Friends was maybe 15 minutes ahead of its time, it bucked convention in that it wasn't a vehicle for a star actor or character the way Alf, Family Matters, The Nanny, Seinfeld, Frasier etc. were. It had a truly ensemble cast. Which is why it stands out to this day, even if it is emblematic of its era.
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27 comments