What's your favorite obscure, really good TV show?

[Paragon]

Michael Madsen starred in something called Vengeance Unlimited a few years back that ABC put up against Friends on Thursday nights - and predictably, it was cancelled after one season.

I don't know if it qualified as "good", but I sure loved it.

[I thought so.]

1. Captain Midnight.

A really great show on TV.

[soleft]

2. The Champions

It starred Stuart Damon of General Hospital Fame, it was a British TV show made in the late 60's early 70's. 3 secret agents crash in Nepal and are revived by some Tibetans who give them special powers, nothing too overt, they just have an edge over the normal human, like telepathy, and control over bodily functions. Stuart played an American, but the other two - one man, one woman were British.

[AngryAmish]

3. Police Squad!

[darkstar]

4. Cornet Blue

I was ten the summer it's 12 eps ran. Stick with me to this day. Moody, dark, lonely vibe.

Check out comments from Jump the Shark discussion:

http://jumptheshark.com/c/coronetblue.htm

Anyone else recall this show?

[Zolok]

5. The Green Hornet...

as close to straight action noir as William Dozier ever got plus he had the good sense to hire Bruce Lee as "Kato".


www.chimesatmidnight.blogspot.com

[Nay]

7. Yeah! I loved that show! Can't remember a thing about it now, though.

[liberalpress]

11. Coronet Blue

No other Clue

Deep inside my brain I keep hearin' this sad refrain

"Coronet Blue"

[darkstar]

14. Sweet!

You don't know how many boomers have looked at me like I was crazy across the years when asking about that show! Only in the last month or so did I think to olook for it on the net. So good to see I wasn't insane.

That song, the whole show, just had a haunted feel to it, don't you think? I was fascinated by it. By the plot, yeah, but more by the uneasy tone.

You know the song that gets the same response? That cannibalism in the mine song, "Timothy."

Thanks for the post.

[UrbScotty]

6. "Winning Lines" - CBS - cancelled after four or five shows

Back when the arrival of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire to the US led to a big-money game show craze in 1999 and 2000, CBS tried a show called Winning Lines, hosted by Dick Clark.

One of my favorite questions:

Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates buy the United States and split it 50/50. When Oprah's not looking, Bill steals both the Carolinas. How many states does Oprah now have?

The first to type in 23 would be eligible for the next round.

[Jade Fox]

8. Robbery/Homicide with Tom Sizemore, directed by Michael Mann

It was on last year, not even the whole season. It supposedly got
cancelled because of Sizemore's legal problems.

I loved it.

[terrya]

9. "Oh, Grow Up!". It was a sitcom, not an insult. :-)

I should have made that clear. Sorry!

It was a sitcom a few years back from Alan Ball, before he did "Six Feet Under". It was on ABC. The premise was three guys as roommates. Two were straight, one was gay. All were cute. I thought it was quite funny and well written. The viewing public didn't apparently think so. :-)

[Deja Q]

10. SAPPHIRE AND STEEL

I'm making my own website for it... if you like sci-fi, you'll likely like this, especially if it's British sci-fi -> they're far more creative than American sci-fi, I've noticed.

[liberalpress]

12. And let's not forget...

The LAte LAmented "Sports Night"

[gratuitous]

16. "And I told many, many people"

Still causes me to laugh uproariously.

[Mr. McD]

13. Earth 2

A sci fi show on one season 1994.:)

[Feanorcurufinwe]

15. Freaks and Geeks

I don't know if it counts as obscure though, considering it made it into TV Guide's top 25 cult TV shows list ....

[daligirrl]

18. God. . . I loved that show!!!

Everybody looked like my friends in high school and junior high!

[Feanorcurufinwe]

30. Recently issued on DVD

if you're interested:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001EQHXO/qid=1086993505/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-9258554-2923324?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846

or the Special Edition:
http://www.freaksandgeeksdvd.com/

[Archae]

17. Scorch!

I loved that show!



http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-2057/Scorch/

[Burma Jones]

19. Arrested Development n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

20. "Lookwell" - never made it past the pilot...

...created by Conan O'Brien & Bob Smigel and starring Adam West as a has-been actor who, after starring in "Quinn/Martin"-esque cop shows during the 70's, decides to try his hand at solving real crimes. Hilarity ensues...:D

I saw it on Trio network a few months back & I wish they made more...

[Jokerman]

21. Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law

It's animated and only 15 minutes long but it is one of the funniest shows on television.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

22. SCTV

Few people under 30 remember this show but it was a classic.
The cast should've been household names, they were so talented.

[Malikshah]

52. And its newly out on DVD!!

At least some of them. Check out Amazon.

At least some of the folks are still around...

Catherine O'Hara (A Mighty Wind etc.)
Eugene Levy (American Pie, etc)
Martin Short (Jiminy Glick etc.)
Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding)

Alas for John Candy

Rick Moranis (Ghostbusters etc)
Dave Thomas (Bits in Sitcoms)
Joe? Flaherty (Not sure..)

God...I've got to get back to work. I'm too much an entertainment whore...

[Liberal Veteran]

23. Square Pegs....

The "Freaks and Geeks" of my generation.

Starring a not very attractive Sarah Jessica Parker.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

24. I loved that show too.

Shame it only lasted one season.

[Liberal Veteran]

25. Had a great opening song by The Waitresses.

I was bummed when it was cancelled too.

[flamingyouth]

53. A great show

"Totally different head. Totally." :D

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

26. Get A Life

With Chris Elliott. Funny as hell, but canceled in the early 1990s.

[Liberal Veteran]

27. That was funny as hell.

Especially the one where he thought he was adopted from an Amish couple.

[terrya]

28. I liked that, too! Great show. Chris and his real life dad. ...

As his dad. :-) Just a quirky, hilarious show.

[Cooley Hurd]

31. A great show!!

It aired right after the Simpsons, IIRC.

Chris is a funny guy - the Guy under the Seats, the Panicky Guy, the Conspiracy Guy, the Fugitive Guy, the Regulator Guy... (for fans of the old Late Night w/ David Letterman)...

[-..__...]

38. I used to love that show.

IIRC, it was one of Fox's earlier shows. My favorite episode was the one with "Squishy"... the alien that Chris Elliott brought home and it squirted (or should it be ejaculated), streams of goo whenever s/he/it got excited.

[kodi]

29. nothing sacred.

such potential for a dialogue on the issues of faith today. and people watched touched by an angel instead.

[Maeve]

34. That one was brilliant, thoughtful and it had heart

No wonder they cancelled it :eyes:

[Mrs. Venation]

32. Boomtown

I thought that was a very good tv show. I guess it didn't get good ratings, and NBC dropped it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

33. My mom like Vengence Unlimited too ....

although I have a hard time watching Michael Madsen without thinking about the ear cutting scene in Reservior Dogs and then wanting to hurl.

I liked "Profit" which was on for only one season in 1996 (only 8 episodes, but they were great!). It starred Adrian Pasdar.

I also liked "Strange Luck" with D.B. Sweeney and Frances Fisher. It was on in 1995-96. It had a whole 17 episodes before it got canned.

[-..__...]

35. Bearcats (1971) 12 episodes.

Two turn of the century guns for hire that took on dangerous jobs and assignments. They drove around the West in a Stuz Bearcat and their payment was a blank check. The show was part "Mission: Impossible" and part "The Wild, Wild West".

[LowerManhattanite]

36. My favorita obscuras?

Nobody seems to remember these...:(

"The Associates" (a wonderful MTM series set in a law firm w/ a young Martin Short)

"Profit" ( skeevy David Lynchian take on an amoral youg go-getter...yes...on Fox)

"Alias Smith & Jones" ( a short-lived early 70's ABC post-mod western styled on "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid---this one I really miss)

"Get a Life" (another screw-up by Fox w/ Chris Elliot as a Peter-Pan-ish guy who refuses to take on adult responsibility. The episode where he was stuck on the rollercoaster upside-down is a classic!)

[Maeve]

37. Alias Smith and Jones

One of the stars of that committed suicide, if I remember right, and that's why it disappeared. I was a Jones dating a Smith at the time...took a lot of teasing for that.

[LowerManhattanite]

40. Peter Duel was his name...

...I was 8 years old and hooked on that show! Duel shot himself around Christmastime of '72---mid second season.they replaced him and the show never recovered. The Dick York/Dick sargent thing wasn't gonna work that time.

[slinkerwink]

39. Smack the Pony! Now that's a really good show

[Lisa]

41. "Seeing Things"

People outside of Canada probably haven't heard of it. The premise was that a reporter had psychic abilities, but they were unpredictable and he could only "see" disjointed parts of what had really happened in the past. During the course of each episode, he would have to reconstruct the truth behind various crimes, but because he had to act on incomplete information, he was usually wrong up until he finally saw the crucial part of the puzzle.

The ensemble cast did a great job -- his exasperated ex-wife, the glamorous and skeptical attorney, his bizarre colleagues at the newspaper.

[Kat45]

42. On early Fox: the Ben Stiller Show; Flying Blind; Herman's Head,

The Tracy Ullman Show (where The Simpsons debuted).

Other (non-Fox) shows through the years: Life's Work, Sledge Hammer, Police Squad, When Things Were Rotten. Also a show from a few years ago whose name I forget that was about an Italian-American woman (in her thirties), and Paul Sorvino played her father, who owned a restaurant. It was a really good show, but by the time I discovered it, there were only a few more episodes 'til it was gone. There was a classic scene involving a huge fight with her parents, esp. her father, when they finally realized she was no longer a virgin (and hadn't been for some time).

[RoyGBiv]

46. I liked Herman's Head...

I thought it had a lot of potential.

I don't know who the writers were, but it seemed to me they let the ball drop on this one. There were hundreds of tangents that show could have taken.

[ThomWV]

43. Butterflys

There was a show on BBC for a while called Butterflys. I honestly thought it was the very best show made since Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

[-..__...]

44. Sliders.

Forgot about this one. Time travelers trying to get back to their own era. A mix of "The Time Tunnel" and "Quantum Leap".

[SarahB]

45. The Chris Elliot Show

Early 90's. I remember thinking it was funny as heck. And Mr. Show on HBO (not as obsure, but not super well-known either).

[flamingyouth]

47. I really liked that show "Wonderfalls"

All three episodes of it earlier this season. :eyes:

[Wapsie B]

48. "The Street"

It had Stanley Tucci playing a street cop. I liked that show.

[havocmom]

49. Cupid

I loved it.

[No2W2004]

50. I liked a few

The Prisoner: 16 episodes, the only thing explained is that a british secret agent resigns and is taken to an island where people want to find out why. Thats it. You get to figure out the rest on your own.

Police Squad!: In Color. Parodies the cop/PI shows of the 70's. Featuring the revolver that never runs out of bullets.

Adult Swim: Cartoon Network's late nite programing block on Sundays. Featuring- Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Does court cases for Hanna Barbara cariters who get into trouble. Sealab 2021. What happens to a crew of an underwater labratory when they spend a year without human contact? They go insane of course! Aquateen Hunger Force. A milkshake, a box of french fries, and a ball of meat solve crimes in New Jersey. Actually they spend most of their time anoying their fat, bald Jersey-ite neighbor Carl and swimming in his above ground pool.

[timtom]

51. Frank's Place

This was great! Tim Reid, a college professor from Boston, inherits a restaurant/bar in New Orleans. He is Everyman trying to discover the rules of engagement in a very alien (to someone from the Northeast) culture. Although about 90% of the cast was African American, it wasn't about race. It was about culture. It was hilarious. And no laugh track, either.