There’s nothing quite like getting hooked on a TV series. In today’s age of binge-watching, finishing an entire season—or even a whole show—over a single weekend isn’t unusual. For many, binge-watching has become the main way they consume television. Getting swept up in a story, keeping up with every new episode, and urging friends to watch too can be one of the most enjoyable ways to share an experience.
Unfortunately, not every series gets the chance to last. When a show is canceled early, it can be crushing for devoted fans. Still, that doesn’t mean those shows weren’t worthwhile. Plenty of great series never made it past one or two seasons, but they’re still worth remembering—and even revisiting today.
Here are 10 amazing TV shows that literally no one remembers—but they should.
‘Kings’ (2009)
Set in modern times but based on the story of King David from the Bible, Kings takes place in the Kingdom of Gilboa, which is ruled by King Silas Benjamin (Ian McShane). He believes he’s been divinely chosen as the King and has helped bring together the United Kingdom prior to Gilboa. The story follows King Silas, his son Prince Jack (Sebastian Stan) who is constantly yearning for his father’s attention, Queen Rose (Susanna Thompson), WIlliam Cross (Dylan Baker), who is charge of the Royal Treasury, Princess Michelle (Allison Miller), and David Shepherd (Christopher Egan), who saves Prince Jack from behind enemy lines during a war.
The show has some Succession vibes because there’s no succession plan in place for Prince Jack to replace King Benjamin. There are plenty of biblical storylines to follow, as Rose is based on Ahinoam, Jack is based on Jonathan, Michelle is based on Michal, and David is, well, David. The brilliant Wes Studi plays the head of the military. It’s a big and bold series that tries to do a lot. For those who buy in, it’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately, not enough people bought in, and NBC canceled it after one season.
‘Rubicon’ (2010)
James Badge Dale is an actor who has been around for a long time, has a face that many people will recognize, but hasn’t quite found the project that has made him a star. Rubicon was supposed to be that series. It featured Dale as Will Travers, an international intelligence analyst for the American Policy Institute in New York. He is adept at recognizing patterns and believes he’s discovered one embedded in crossword puzzles that showed up on the same day in several newspapers. He continues to try and solve national conspiracies based on the key that he discovered in those crosswords.
The series is a slick conspiracy thriller with a well-laid-out plan, great acting, and solid writing. The series also features Jessie Collins, Lauren Hodges, Dallas Roberts, Arliss Howard, Christopher Evan Welch, and Miranda Richardson. Dale leads a team of analysts in the intelligence community, and the series got good reviews. It was on around the same time as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, which may have hurt it, as it wasn’t as flashy as those. It never quite found an audience, unfortunately, and was canceled after one season by AMC.
‘Me, Myself and I’ (2017)
Bobby Moynihan is one of the more memorable cast members from Saturday Night Live in the 2010s. When he left the show, he joined the CBS pilot of Me, Myself and I, which told the story of Alex Riley, an inventor, through three stages of his life. Moynihan stars as Alex, a middle-aged man and the narrator of the series. Most of the time is spent with this version of Alex. Jack Dylan Grazer plays him as a middle school student, and John Larroquette plays Alex as an older man and billionaire owner of his own company.
The show features Jaleel White as Alex’s best friend and business partner. Moynihan’s version of Alex is trying to figure out what to do with his life after he and his wife get divorced, and she wants to move their daughter away. The show is lighthearted and features a solid ensemble, complete with Sharon Lawrence, Mandell Maughan, Brian Unger, and Kelen Coleman. It earned generally good reviews but didn’t last on CBS. Moynihan went on to success on Mr. Mayor a few years later.
‘Wonderfalls’ (2004)
Bryan Fuller is one of the more unique writers and producers working in television and film today. He is most known for his shows like Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies, and Hannibal, all of which are imaginative shows with beautiful art direction and themes surrounding death. Wonderfalls, which he developed in 2004 for FOX with Todd Holland, wasn’t as depressing as the other two shows, but did feature a strange quirk like his shows tend to have. Jane (Caroline Dhavernas), who begins to converse with inanimate animal objects in the gift shop she works in, and they push her in the direction of doing good deeds.
Lee Pace stars as her brother, and Katie Finneran stars as her sister. William Sadler plays Jane’s father, and Diana Scarwid plays the siblings’ mother. The imagination of the show was ahead of its time, as this would make a great limited series or streaming service series now. It was canceled after only four episodes aired. Dhavernas would go on to star in Hannibal, and Pace was the star of Pushing Daisies.
‘Townies’ (1996)
A standing ovation is due to creator Matthew Carlson and his casting department for finding one of the best collections of up-and-coming talent for a sitcom, perhaps ever. All the main stars of Townies went on to big things. Unfortunately, none of it was in the series highlighted here. The show focused on three friends in their 20s working in a restaurant together in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They want to move to Boston, but they can’t seem to make their way out to the big city.
The three main stars are played by Molly Ringwald, Jenna Elfman, and Lauren Graham. Ringwald had, of course, been a huge star in the 1980s. But she hadn’t quite transitioned to roles outside teen ones. Graham, Elfman, and the two male leads, played by Ron Livingston and Bill Burr, hadn’t had their big breaks yet. The show also featured Two and a Half Men favorite Conchata Ferrell. ABC only aired 10 of the episodes before cancelling it.
‘Pan Am’ (2011)
A show about the stewardesses and pilots for Pan American Airways in the early 1960s, Pan Am is a drama about the friendly skies. It features a cast filled with incredibly notable names, many of whom went on to bigger projects after the series was cancelled. It followed Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie, Mike Vogel, Michael Mosley, Karine Vanasse, and Kelli Garner. David Harbour, Annabelle Wallis, Goran Visnjic, and Jay O. Sanders also costar.
The series got into what it was like being a pilot or stewardess at that time period and built in plots around adventure and espionage to spice things up. The show was lauded for pushing the women to the forefront. It also gave American audiences their first look at Robbie in a starring role. It earned international success and ran its full first season of episodes on ABC. Unfortunately, it was not picked up for a second season.
‘Raines’ (2007)
Raines gave audiences a side of Jeff Goldblum that, honestly, could actually be envisioned happening in real life. Okay, maybe not really, but Goldblum as a quirky detective seems to fit. He stars as Michael Raines, a detective who specializes in murder investigations. Part of his process is hallucinating the victims of the crimes to learn more about them and the murders. As he’s able to solve a murder, the hallucinations disappear.
It solved a case per hour, making it a tidy detective series with a supernatural twist. Raines was created by Graham Yost, who came from the previous detective series Boomtown. It only aired seven episodes before its cancellation. Luckily for fans, Raines’ cancellation led to him creating a much more well-received series, Justified.
‘John from Cincinnati’ (2007)
Did John from Cincinnati ever have a chance? It’s probably best remembered for being the series that HBO was pushing heavily during the final season of The Sopranos. When the series’ final shot occurred and fans were left trying to figure out what happened to Tony Soprano, John from Cincinnati had its premiere episode. People, maybe justly, absolutely did not care about the series because one of the most beloved series of all time had just ended.
That’s not fair to John from Cincinnati, which was created by David Milch and Kem Nunn, and followed the residents of a surfing community who come across a man with seemingly magical powers. This was basically the exact opposite of The Sopranos. It stars Bruce Greenwood, Rebecca De Mornay, Luis Guzman, Brian Van Holt, Austin Nichols, Ed O’Neill, Willie Garson, Jim Beaver, Garret Dillahunt, and Luke Perry. The show has a solid cast. But it never quite found its audience and was cancelled after one season.
‘The Unusuals’ (2009)
Noah Hawley is well known for his series Fargo, Legion, and, most recently, Alien: Earth. But the first series that he created was The Unusuals, which ran on ABC in 2009. The series focused on the eccentric members of the NYPD’s 2nd Precinct. Amber Tamblyn and Jeremy Renner play partners on the series, with Tamblyn’s character hiding her wealthy upbringing and Renner hiding his corrupt past to work together. Harold Perrineau and Adam Goldberg are teamed up, as Perrineau’s character is afraid of death and Goldberg’s character has a brain tumor and doesn’t tell anyone.
Joshua Close’s detective used to be a thief, and Kai Lennox’s talks to him in the third person. They all report to Terry Kinney’s Sergeant. The series ran for 10 episodes and actually had good reviews from critics. But it failed to land with audiences and got the ax after its season was up.
‘Tell Me You Love Me’ (2007)
Another HBO show that just didn’t quite find its audience was Tell Me You Love Me. It featured Jane Alexander as a therapist and three couples who all seek her advice. It offered a real, in-depth look into the couples’ sex lives, making it a bit of an outlier. The show was shot like a documentary, giving it a cinema verité feel.
The show provided realistic depictions of sex, which was notable for a show at that time, even one on HBO. The series starred Michelle Borth, Tim DeKay, Aislinn Paul, Adam Scott, Katharine Towne, Sonya Walger, Ally Walker, and Julia Mond. Created by Cynthia Mort, the series was cancelled as Mort and HBO couldn’t agree on how to advance the series forward.
