Brilliant but Cancelled Round 4!

Today we have some Brilliant but Cancelled odds and ends. Three of the shows I’m familiar with and fond of. The other one I choose rather randomly from TV without Pity’s excellent Brilliant but Cancelled archive. Feel free to take a look at that archive, refresh your memory of your favorites and suggest contenders for Round 5! Or maybe I should start categorizing the shows by genre and put ones I’ve already featured head to head. What do you think? Anyway, for today:

Strangers with Candy ran for 30 episodes and featured the excellent Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello. The series was inspired by after-school-special, scared-straight type videos, and it turned that genre on its head. Probably not for everyone (my mom would hate it), but if you can get past (or embrace!) Jerry’s grotesque facial expressions, it’s hilarious and occasionally heartwarming.

Undeclared was Judd Apatow’s project right after Freaks and Geeks. Sadly, it too got cancelled after 17 episodes. Many of the Freaks and Geeks cast made appearances on Undeclared – Seth Rogan, Jason Segal, and Busy Phillips all had roles. Linda Cardellini, Lindsay from Freak and Geeks, would have had a role had the show continued. Although Undeclared didn’t capture me like Freaks and Geeks did, I’m a sucker for this crew.

Popular was a WB high-school comedy-drama that aired 43 episodes. Ryan Murphy, who went to create Glee, was responsible for this gem. I watched this show when it aired and I haven’t seen it since but I remember loving it. It was much more clever and ridiculous than most shows in its genre.

Southland. This is a fresh wound, or so I hear. All I know is that Ryan from the OC is on it, and NBC decided this cop drama set in LA was “too gritty” to continue. Lame. The show ran for 23 episodes, aired from April 2009 to May 2009, at which point NBC promised a second season, only to cancel the show in October right before the premier. 

Brilliant but Cancelled Round 1, Round 2, Round 3

Eleanor Brown