Category talk:Cancelled Series

This category seems to be kind of useless since almost all shows are cancelled eventually. I could see making a cancelled after less than a season category or something similar but a general cancelled shows category if completely implemented would be huge and unwieldy and not very a useful resource. Plus it gets really sketchy in some cases like The Wonder Years is currently listed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was until I unlisted it both these shows had long runs and fully planned finales so why do they qualify as cancelled shows but others don't? The-jam 23:29, 25 June 2006 (EDT)

Maybe this means we just need a stricter definition for "cancelled", like just series that were actually yanked off the air entirely, perhaps with unaired episodes, like Kitchen Confidential and Emily's Reasons Why Not. -- Lampbane 23:46, 25 June 2006 (EDT)

I really think we need more discussion on this category before it gets used any more. If taken to it's logical extreme it will encompass almost all shows. It's current application seems to be shows that fans were mad they ended which is really stupid. There needs to be some sort of logical cut off for what qualifies a show. A category for shows cancelled after less than a season or after only one season could be functional and much less all encompassing with a clear cut off.The-jam 12:15, 11 August 2006 (EDT)

I was placing shows in this category last night and I had this problem also. I was particularly conflicted as to whether Everwood should fall in here.

I think that shows which are not allowed to finish their complete season should be placed in this category. Even if it's the fifth season (though a show that lasted that long would rarely be pulled in that manner). For example, Arrested Development was cancelled after less than a half a season last year; I don't think the fact that it had been around for a while makes it any less cancelled.

I think that any show that is allowed to finish a season, whether first or eighteenth, shouldn't be placed here. --MateoP 12:33, 11 August 2006 (EDT)

I agree. To pick an example, putting Dark Angel into this category just because it was not renewed for a third season is nonsense. —Naddy 13:05, 11 August 2006 (EDT)

Okay that criteria works pretty well but we need some sort of cut off as to what constitutes a whole season. Last year Related got 18 episodes and Surface got 15 it could be argued that this was a full season for both shows as they were able to complete the season arc and have a sort of conclusion but both were kind of rushed (Surface more so). These were both cut back from their initial orders but sometimes a returning show will only get a shortened season order if its ratings are sinking or for other extenuating circumstances and this is known from the beginning but hard to tell looking back (Such as The OC's likely final 18 episode season this year). Doing a straight number of episodes as a cut off doesn't always work either because many series were only planned to have 13 or less episodes in a season (such as Thief, it's six episodes were a complete season).The-jam 13:31, 11 August 2006 (EDT)

That is tough. A number cutoff point obviously doesn't work for the reasons you gave and because season length varies depending on the network, country, etc. I think it can be done either one or two ways: 1) The number of episodes aired is reduced from the number originally ordered at the beginning of the season. Or 2) there are unaired episodes.

Personally I think the first method works best, because many networks would rather air already complete episodes than eat the cost of production. Many shows that almost everyone would consider cancelled had all finished episodes aired (in the case of Arrested Development, they were even allowed to create a series finale... but I have a hard time thinking about that show as not being prematurely cancelled) --MateoP 13:40, 11 August 2006 (EDT)

So, I hope we can resolve this soon. What does everyone think? It seems to me that our only possible distincts will either be A) shows which had filmed episodes which went unaired or B) shows which had their order reduced from the beginning of the year. I prefer the latter because I think A will leave out a lot of shows that most people consider to be cancelled. --MateoP 08:07, 15 August 2006 (EDT)