...so name a few of them that need to be watched "postmortem".

I've found that my favorite shows nowadays are all canceled (or about to be canceled), and I figure that there are probably more out there that I haven't even seen, so I'm asking for a few suggestions.

Here are mine:

Firefly: Everyone knows Firefly by now right? If you haven't seen it, grab it and the movie Serenity. Sci-Fi cowboys. 'Nuff said.

Better off Ted: Damn, damn, damn funny show. I had never heard of it (great advertising, ABC) and just happened to click over to the show while channel surfing. It's a lighter version of "Office Space," and arguably much funnier. Two seasons, not officially canceled, but not renewed yet.

Pushing Daisies: The show that brought you Kristin Chenoweth and the brother from Wonderfalls as "The Pie Maker." Again, another show on ABC that was never really promoted well. The basis - Ned, the Pie Maker can bring dead people back to life with a touch, but will return them to death (forever) with a second touch. He brings his childhood sweetheart back to life but can never physically touch her again. Meanwhile, Private Eye Emerson Cod (Chi McBride - also another amazing actor) uses Ned's gift to help solve murders. Two seasons - and the show knew it was getting canceled, so the last episode does a "wrap up" of events.

Wonderfalls: A quirky show that only lasted a single season on Fox (surprise, right?) about a rather bitter young woman named Jaye working at a gift shop in Niagara who suddenly starts hearing voices from inanimate objects. If she ignores the advice of the voices, they nag and nag her, making her daily life impossible. If she heeds their advice, generally, good things happen. Unfortunately, acting on the advice makes her take more of an active role in other peoples' lives than she's used to doing. Single season.

Boston Legal: Arguably William Shatner's best role ever. Boston Legal follows the antics of a high-powered law firm in Boston. The plots are pretty straightforward - firm gets case which just happens to be a "hot button" issue currently mirrored in society, firm argues case (usually with a very liberal stance), firm generally wins case against all odds. What makes it stand out is the caliber of the show's actors. While the roster changes quite a bit from season-to-season, the show's regulars are amazing: William Shatner, James Spader, Rene Auberjonois and later Candice Bergen. Betty White was also a pretty common sight (as a happy-go-lucky serial killer, no less). Five seasons, all of them amazing. This show also knew it was going to end and they took quite a few potshots at the big networks as well as violating the 4th wall frequently during the last season.

Dollhouse: Another Whedon show which really only gets rolling about three or four episodes in. If you attempted to watch Dollhouse previously and just got bored to tears, give it until episode 4 or 5 in the first season - that's when it really starts to take off. For those that don't know, the premise behind Dollhouse is that "The Company" can erase a person's former memories and implant new ones - making them the ideal high-class fantasy dates (arguably prostitutes). Want a woman who doesn't just call you "Daddy," but really thinks you are her Daddy? They can do that. Later on the show evolves into a more "they're trying to take over the world" tilt, but does it pretty well. Two seasons, and they knew they were ending so the last few episodes perform a hurried, but complete wrap-up. The "in the future" episodes also have Felicia Day of "The Guild" fame. It also has Tahmoh Penikett for the ladies and Eliza Dushku for the guys.

Arrested Development. Not sure what to say about it, except that it's hilarious and its 9.7/10 rating on imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367279) is well deserved. Like many of the other shows you listed, it was completely mismanaged by Fox--the final four episodes were shown back to back opposite the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies, for instance.
It's shot in a pseudo-documentary style, which means no annoying laugh track. Give it a few episodes, as a fair amount of the humor comes in the form of callbacks to earlier episodes.
(And as with Firefly, the series is being brought back as a movie, scheduled for a 2011 release).

Oh yeah, I forgot about Arrested Development, I really need to watch that. So many of my friends have told me the same thing.

Babylon 5 and especially its successor Crusade

The first series managed to complete its full five year run, despite considerable efforts by the network to kill it off (including officially cancelling the show after the fourth season (which was as a result attempting to wrap up two seasons worth of very intense story telling into one) and then postponing officially renewing until after some of the most popular stars of the show had already found a new job.

For Crusade they took off the gloves and got really vicious with ensuring it never had a chance.



Dresden Files
That is, I have heard it is good since it never even made it across the ocean. It apparently got cancelled just as it was beginning to find its stride.


All this makes you wonder how expensive it is to make a tv show and if it would be possible to show it on a website instead of trying to get it to stay on a tv network.


Eri

All this makes you wonder how expensive it is to make a tv show and if it would be possible to show it on a website instead of trying to get it to stay on a tv network.
Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Horrible%27s_Sing-Along_Blog) was released that way and it managed to recover its production costs. I don't know to what extent The Guild (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guild) or The Legend of Neil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Neil) recover their costs but this article touches on it (http://news.tubefilter.tv/2009/04/22/following-the-money-felicia-makes-220-per-guild-dvd/).

Arrested Development.
This was one of the funniest shows I've seen on television and the cast was amazing. It was a great incubator for comedy talent. Many of the people who had small roles in AD went on to much larger roles in shows like The Office. I was surprised to discover that Alessandra Torresani who plays Zoe Graystone on Caprica played the original Ann Veal on AD.

Although it hasn't been canceled I'll take the opportunity to recommend Peep Show (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387764/). It's made by Mitchell and Webb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_and_Webb) and it's absolutely hilarious. I'd never have known of its existence in the US if Panamah hadn't posted a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8-8WJxA-cI) that these guys did for their comedy show That Mitchell and Webb Look (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Mitchell_and_Webb_Look). Thanks Pan!

quote"All this makes you wonder how expensive it is to make a tv show and if it would be possible to show it on a website instead of trying to get it to stay on a tv network"

This. It is possible. It can be do able. I use many of the networks online players to watch certain episodes of Television I ordinarily would not be able to watch live do to work issues and time scheduling of my shifts. Problem is this is a much larger issue entirely, I would not want to explain in full detail on the subject with points counter points and so on, with the many sources available, with related industries, such as music, video games, movies and so on compared to "piracy". Suffice it to say, streaming television is extremely frowned upon in the U.S. do to our intellectual property rights laws.

Also, our networking issues, also suffice to say, but, our bandwidth caps, over caps charges, and our current typical ratios of network speed render these services unavailable without a massive network infrastructure bill in congress to pay for it, as being lobbied for as we speak by companies like AT&T, because, well, they simply will not pay for the infrastructure themselves.

Rather than to completely derail this thread any further, it is possible, just, not in the next 5-10 years in the US. Maybe Japan.

On the thread related note, although not canceled. Lost. In it's final season, somethings make sense looking back. Other things don't with current events.

The X files, the first 5 seasons or so anyways.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was watching the 1st couple of seasons with a friend of mine who is a twilight nut. The comparison between the two was hilarious.

Edit to add..... the old black and white zorro series. Actually, it might have even been in color, I just didn't have color television until age 7 or so. Come to think of it, I didn't have a tv until 4 or so and had to have my sister hold the clothes hanger or stand in certain spots for proper analog reception.

I just started watching "Flash Forward" and instantly was hooked. I always heard it advertised and thought it sounded dumb, but boy, when I watched the season opener it summarized all the past shows I was really caught-up. It's a sci-fi, mystery thriller. I decided last night I like it better than Lost and Fringe. Which is saying a lot. Unfortunately I just read today that they haven't been able to get a good market share with it. :(

Boston Legal was great, but I really lost interest in it after season 2.

A show that I miss was Kings.

I miss Rome. To bad for budgetary reasons.

Although Spartacus:Blood and Sand is interesting so far. It is halfway from being a complete train wreck to being one of the best shows on television, very hit or miss in content, basic story plots, and so on. The actor playing Spartacus has some kind of cancer battle he is going though right now, I wish him well, could cause a cancellation or setback......

Boston Legal really started to pick up for me in the later seasons. The last season was a riot because they seemed to pick every single "hot" issue because they had nothing to lose.

I tried getting into Spartacus, just couldn't do it.