TV Talk: Television Pet Peeves 1 of 3

Welcome to the newest addition to Bowl of Stew(art), TV Talk. TV is something that I actually think about a lot but I realized I don't really blog about much (expect Survivor predictions). So I'm making it a feature until Survivor returns. And I'm going to start with things I hate about television.

As much as I like watching TV some times it makes me GRR! The biggest TV frustration is learning a show you love is canceled. But there are also smaller moments that just irk. I've complied these annoyances together for a three part series of my "Television Pet Peeves," here are the first two:

1.
Do you remember Woody's TV show in Toy Story 2? Stinky Pete the Prospector explains that "Woody's Roundup" was canceled and that the last episode ended with Woody and Bullseye leaping across a canon. Fans never knew if how it turned out. This is my first TV pet peeve, canceled shows ending with a cliffhanger. The one I really remember was a sci-fi show called Odyssey 5 ending with a kidnapping, one of the main characters being charged with murder, and the ultimate evil being left undefined. It was very unsatisfying. The other example was Jericho, but at least with fan support they were given half a season to wrap up the story, somewhat.

2. My second TV pet peeve is similar. I hate when a show is canceled in the middle of a great-take-a-few-seasons-to-tell story arch. Even if the writer's have a few episodes to wrap it up (or they make a TV movie) you know the longer version would have been so much better. The examples I can think of are Dollhouse, Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.

Do you have an example of a last episode cliffhanger or rushed show ending? Leave a comment or share your biggest TV pet peeve. Next Wednesday I'll be sharing two more of my most hated television pet peeves.

Comments

matthew said…
I am currently watching SG-1 and I didn't know it had a bad ending so my pet peeve is you ruining the bad ending for me, haha

I think Hogan's Heroes should have had an 'end of the war' episode or something. The D-day episode would have been a good ending actually, but I think it was like in the middle of the series.

Newsradio was a pretty funny show, but after Phil Hartman died they seem to have either been depressed or out of ideas (or, katie says, taking acid). It got really stupid.

I liked a show called 'Working' that was canceled before it ever really had a chance.
Elizabeth said…
Thank you Matthew for such a good response:

2) t doesn't have a "bad" ending. The first story arch runs season 1-8, they thought the show would be canceled but it wasn't so they started a second story arch which could have lasted just as long but the show ended after the 10th season...so they made a TV movie to wrap up the storyline.

3) I haven't seen any of those shows.

4) Talking about this the ending of Dark Angle was dumb too.
Nuchtchas said…
Firefly firefly, firefly! Granted that didn't end on a cliffhanger but there were a lot more stories to tell that won't be told, even in comics.

Remington Steele is the biggest cliffhanger cancelation that I can remember and it was crushing
Elizabeth said…
Yep, Firefly totally fits. I was very frustrated by the ending and the movie. I haven't read the comics yet, Alice is going to loan me them at the next writing group.