Cliffhangers of Cancelled TV Shows (SPOILER ALERT!)

VamPyroX

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Have you ever watched a television series and came upon a cliffhanger during its last episode of the season only to have the television series canceled?

Which show did you see this happen with?

Which was the worst? Why?

List the name of the television show, how long it ran, and what happened in the final episode that made you think it was the worst.


If you know why the show was cancelled, feel free to mention that as well.

WARNING... SPOILER ALERT!




If you haven't seen the television series and don't want read about how it happened, do not proceed further... :nono:




(You probably will anyways as it's curiosity that usually gets the best of you!) ;)
 
I've seen my share of shows like that. A few come to mind...

List of episodes (without spoilers)
  • V (1984 version)
  • V (2009 version)
  • Sliders
  • Dark Angel
  • Angel

... with SPOILERS
  • V (1984 version) - After a ceasefire is ordered, the "Leader" arrives to bring back the "One" (human-visitor hybrid) to their homeworld to guarantee peace. As their ship leave, a human stows away into the ship... along with a going-away "gift" left by the visitors' evil leader. What happens next? CANCELLED!!!
  • V (2009 version) - Something major happened with all of the main characters at the end. One was killed. One disappeared. One got brainwashed. One was put in a dungeon and replaced by a look-a-like. One was caught.One was abducted only to find out about an organization far bigger than the organization she was running. What happens next? CANCELLED!!!
  • Sliders - All four (who have always purposely "slided" together) arrive to a universe where there's a weapon to use against their worst enemy. Someone tells them that the next time they slide, they will die. They then lose their only chance of sliding. After defeating someone who purposely tried to keep them from leaving, they find something else that lets them slide... only to find out that it can only be used on one person. One immediately volunteers himself with promise that he will return... then he slides out. Did he make it? Did he die? What happens next? CANCELLED!!!
  • Dark Angel - All the mutants were finally brought to public attention... resulting in a huge standoff between the mutants and the humans. What happened next? CANCELLED!!!
  • Angel - The good guys manage to shut down one huge evil organization... resulting in a huge war between good and evil. You can see the few good guys standing in front of a huge crowd of everything evil approaching. What happens next? CANCELLED!!!

... why cancelled?
  • V (1984 version) - They attempted to "continue" by creating a television series after the mini-series. Actors started quitting mid-season. Good characters started getting killed for no reason. It became a mess.
  • V (2009 version) - According to ABC, there was a decline in viewers and they received too many critical reviews.
  • Sliders - Fox screwed up the order of the episodes during the first and second seasons. Then actors started quitting due to quarrels with other actors and directors. Sci-Fi was not showing interest in (or reading) the script.
  • Dark Angel - The show had sagging ratings during the second season.
  • Angel - WarnerBros cancelled because Joss Whedon asked for re-newal too early.
 
Oh, yeah, "Tru Calling." I really liked that show. They were supposed to have two seasons but really, the second season isn't completed so clearly that would keep everyone in suspense.

What is the show about?
Tru, the main character, works at the city morgue and she finds herself having an ability she cannot control when she's next to a corpse. Whenever a corpse died from not natural causes or needed a peace, they'll simply say "Help me" when Tru comes near it, and then Tru wakes up the way Phil did in Groundhog Day. She then plays detective to try to figure out what came to the conclusion of that person's demise and do her best to prevent that.

Why was it cancelled?
I don't really know. According to Wikipedia, "On the last day of filming the sixth episode, the cast and crew were told that the show had been cancelled. FOX felt that their new series Point Pleasant would work better following The O.C. than Tru Calling."
 
This bump up got me remaindering to look up one Anime series that I was going to post a while ago.

The Anime series called "Zipang" that ended in cliffhanger - but not in manga.

For reason why they stopped at episode 26 is unknown - more likely due to not popular.

The story is strike similar to our film "The Final Countdown" but on Japanese side.
 
Back in high schol, I had liked a show called "My So-Called Life".

Plot (IMDB.com)
My So-Called Life" is a realistic mid-nineties teen drama series that takes a look at a 15 year-old girl and her trials and tribulations with being a teenager and dealing with friends, guys, parents and school.

Reason for Cancellation
Claire Danes (played main character Angela Chase) had a big role in the show's cancelation, as she approached producers and said that she didn't want to be part of a second season. Couple that with not stellar ratings, and the show was off the air after just one season.

Loved this show for its snapshot of what it was like to be a teenager in the early nineties. I've never had a serious interest in other shows until 2 1/2 Men came along, which was not a short lived series.
 
TERRA NOVA!!!!!

LOVED that show. LOVED IT. I made sure to always be home. It only ran one season 2011-2012.

Plot: Humans have screwed up Earth to the point that we needed to get away. Some guy figured out how to make a time machine and the government was sending folks 80 million years in the past to live in a perfect world. The drama was focused on
  • Not being eaten by prehistoric creatures
  • Building a life in the past with modern weapons/politics/new colonists
  • Deciding who go to come to the new world
  • Figuring out if the colony would be run like a free society or a police camp (was run by a Marine iirc)
It ended just as a new group of people were being sent from the future and one of them (probably) had the secret if the gov't meant to build a weapon or something in the past and send it to the future

It was cancelled because FOX ALWAYS CANCELS GOOD SCI-FI shows. They always do. ALWAYS. Watching SciFi on Fox is like being in a bad relationship. You know it will only end badly, but you keep going back.

Examples: Terra Nova, Defying Gravity, Space:Above and Beyond, Dark Angel and don't even get me started on that glorious show FIREFLY! All of these killed by Fox.

I don't watch SciFi on Fox anymore.
 
Alphas on SyFy, what a dick move!
I've only seen a few episodes of the first season, but I did enjoy the series. I've been busy. So, I've always missed the show. I'll have to rent it though.
 
This bump up got me remaindering to look up one Anime series that I was going to post a while ago.

The Anime series called "Zipang" that ended in cliffhanger - but not in manga.

For reason why they stopped at episode 26 is unknown - more likely due to not popular.

The story is strike similar to our film "The Final Countdown" but on Japanese side.
I looked up both titles.

I remember someone telling me about Zipang a while back. It sounds like something I would like.

I looked up on the anime and the manga. It seems that the anime only ran one length because the manga wasn't complete.

A similar situation happened with Hunter X Hunter. It started with the manga, but stopped after one particular story arc (leaving us with a cliffhanger). They did the anime, which did the same thing... ended the way the manga ended. But, the manga started up again years later continuing where it left off. With this, they re-started the anime starting from the beginning. It's currently running right now and has gone past there the previous anime series ended.

So, with this in mind... now that Zipang manga has ended (after they anime was already done), they might re-start and go through the whole thing?

After reading about The Final Countdown, it sounds like a movie I saw years ago (and the actual story behind it)... The Philadelphia Experiment. :)
 
Back in high schol, I had liked a show called "My So-Called Life".

Plot (IMDB.com)
My So-Called Life" is a realistic mid-nineties teen drama series that takes a look at a 15 year-old girl and her trials and tribulations with being a teenager and dealing with friends, guys, parents and school.

Reason for Cancellation
Claire Danes (played main character Angela Chase) had a big role in the show's cancelation, as she approached producers and said that she didn't want to be part of a second season. Couple that with not stellar ratings, and the show was off the air after just one season.

Loved this show for its snapshot of what it was like to be a teenager in the early nineties. I've never had a serious interest in other shows until 2 1/2 Men came along, which was not a short lived series.
I remember watching a few episodes of that show. It wasn't appealing to me as it made teenage life seem too depressing. :( (But, that's just my opinion... as I'm not a huge fan of dramas.)
 
TERRA NOVA!!!!!

LOVED that show. LOVED IT. I made sure to always be home. It only ran one season 2011-2012.

Plot: Humans have screwed up Earth to the point that we needed to get away. Some guy figured out how to make a time machine and the government was sending folks 80 million years in the past to live in a perfect world. The drama was focused on
  • Not being eaten by prehistoric creatures
  • Building a life in the past with modern weapons/politics/new colonists
  • Deciding who go to come to the new world
  • Figuring out if the colony would be run like a free society or a police camp (was run by a Marine iirc)
It ended just as a new group of people were being sent from the future and one of them (probably) had the secret if the gov't meant to build a weapon or something in the past and send it to the future

It was cancelled because FOX ALWAYS CANCELS GOOD SCI-FI shows. They always do. ALWAYS. Watching SciFi on Fox is like being in a bad relationship. You know it will only end badly, but you keep going back.

Examples: Terra Nova, Defying Gravity, Space:Above and Beyond, Dark Angel and don't even get me started on that glorious show FIREFLY! All of these killed by Fox.

I don't watch SciFi on Fox anymore.
I saw previews for that show and it looked like something I would enjoy. I have a friend who wouldn't shut up about the show. Now that I see it's been cancelled, kinda makes me disappointed in those producers who can't finish something they started. I remember being disappointed with how Dark Angel ended. :(
 
I looked up both titles.

I remember someone telling me about Zipang a while back. It sounds like something I would like.

I looked up on the anime and the manga. It seems that the anime only ran one length because the manga wasn't complete.

A similar situation happened with Hunter X Hunter. It started with the manga, but stopped after one particular story arc (leaving us with a cliffhanger). They did the anime, which did the same thing... ended the way the manga ended. But, the manga started up again years later continuing where it left off. With this, they re-started the anime starting from the beginning. It's currently running right now and has gone past there the previous anime series ended.

So, with this in mind... now that Zipang manga has ended (after they anime was already done), they might re-start and go through the whole thing?

After reading about The Final Countdown, it sounds like a movie I saw years ago (and the actual story behind it)... The Philadelphia Experiment. :)

Zipang is actually pretty good series and it's one of my favorite anime series but disappointed that they stopped at cliffhanger. I have no idea if they will ever restart it...

Maybe I'll pick up manga.
 
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