The Upfronts are coming, and you know what means: the big networks have carved their axes and they’re ready to chop away at their underperforming programs to make way for new series to be introduced in the fall and midseason of next year. To keep it as short and sweet as possible, jump after the break for a full listing of every 2013-14 cancelled show categorized by network. Later this week, with news from the Upfronts, you will learn which shows will be returning to their respective schedules at the networks. For now, the slaughtering is after the jump.
CBS
Bad Teacher
The Crazy Ones
Friends with Better Lives*
Hostages
Intelligence
We Are Men
NBC
Believe
Community*
Crisis
Dracula
Growing Up Fisher
Ironside
The Michael J. Fox Show
Revolution*
Sean Saves the World
Welcome to the Family
FOX
Almost Human
Dads
Enlisted
Raising Hope
Rake
Surviving Jack
The X Factor
ABC
The Assets
Back in the Game
Betrayal
Killer Women
Lucky 7
Mind Games
Mixology
The Neighbors
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
Suburgatory
Super Fun Night
Trophy Wife*
The CW
The Carrie Diaries
Star-Crossed
The Tomorrow People
*Personal aside: These specially marked series are ones that I believe did not deserve to be cancelled so fast.
At CBS, Friends with Better Lives practically just started and was simply not given enough time to develop a proper audience. The show was like Friends for a new generation of viewers and its young cast and multi-cam live audience energy was firing on all cylinders as of late.
It seems like Community lived on the bubble but its cult fan base willed it to survive five seasons long. Creator Dan Harmon was fired and then rehired to reignite the wacky sitcom in what was arguably the strongest and most creative season yet this year (Chevy Chase & Donald Glover’s departures were handled remarkably). And then there’s the whole #SixSeasonsAndAMovie movement. NBC canceling Community is a tough blow to fans, but I can’t help but think that Harmon will save the show (just as the study group saved Greendale this season) by resurrecting it some way whether it be new episodes premiering on Netflix, Hulu, or something of that nature. [Harmon took to his blog to speak directly to fans about his feelings on the matter. In a nutshell, he is happy with what he created and the 97 episodes it outputted; today he is not actively campaigning for a comeback but he “will not be standing in the way” if negotiations ramp up.]
A quick note on NBC sci-fi drama Revolution. This Bad Robot production from Supernatural creator Eric Kripke admittedly started to wane creatively in its second season. The show premiered to big numbers and its exciting premise involving all of the lights and electronics fading from the earth was surely captivating at the start. It even managed to inject a fun, sci-fi-y element this year with the nano tech starting to take things over. But the show has never been able to hang on to a sizable audience and for that reason the network is letting it go. Now here’s my issue with this: there are only two episodes left this season and with the news of cancellation so close to what will serve as the series finale there is no way it can be tweaked properly with closure for fans. Creatively speaking, even if there was time to go in and shift things around there is no way they could end it all without it seeming insanely rushed. In my opinion, the network should have greenlit a final, shorter (maybe 13 episode) season to gives fans at least some closure here. Revolution set out to tale a big adventurous tale and it’s getting cut short after two seasons; the world in which the show lives and the characters that make it up have grown pretty tremendously since the pilot and out of respect to that it deserves a proper ending. Will we get one? Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it.
And last there’s Trophy Wife on ABC. This single-camera sitcom that could is certainly one of the smartest, funniest comedies on network TV right now. It’s quite laughable that this show isn’t making it to at least a second season. The whole situation reminds me a lot about another golden comedy that ABC killed prematurely a couple seasons back: Happy Endings. Like Endings, Trophy Wife featured an ensemble cast that meshed perfectly and each week it told a genuinely funny story with laughs coming from all sorts of unexpected places. Trophy Wife, though, also included a real familial element that was more broad and relatable. Sad to see this one go.