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Have you ever
wondered about all of the series that make
it as far as an episode or two, only to
be yanked off the air before giving anyone
a chance to see them? It has happened time
and time again, for as long as TV has been
around. In most cases, these shows are pretty
bad and they're probably better off not
being seen again. However, there are many
instances of excellent shows being pulled
and/or screwed with in their time slot so
they die before they could show the network
how big a hit they had on their hands. Most
recently it happened with "Firefly",
which was arguably one of the best shows
to ever air. Only a handful of episodes
made it on the air before it was summarily
cancelled and it wasn't until they were
all released in a DVD set that the studio
(based on sales) went, "Uh-oh."
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But there are tons of other great cancelled shows
out there just waiting to be seen, if only someone
would get the idea to air them. Interestingly
enough Bravo recently teamed with Universal to
start showing some of their cancelled shows, calling
it the "Brilliant But Cancelled" series.
It now has its own website, and now they working
to release some of them on DVD, the first two
set which were released last week.
One of them features episodes of a series called
"EZ Streets", which was a crime drama
starring Joe Pantoliano, Ken Olin and Jason Gedrick.
The main premise was basically 'cops against the
criminal underworld', but because of the sharp
writing and excellent cast, it was geared for
success. But it was pulled shortly after airing
just a few episodes and it disappeared.
I watched the episodes that were included in this
DVD release and agreed that it was, indeed, a
great series. The only problem? This disc only
has three episodes. This might have been fine
if that were all that were produced, but I understand
there were at least nine or ten episodes total.
Where are the rest? If Universal was going to
release it, they might as well put them all in
the set.
The second release features 1 episode each of
four different shows. "Johnny Staccato"
(1959), which starred John Cassavetes as a private
detective working in the ultra cool Greenwich
Village scene; "Delvecchio (1976), which
featured Judd Hirsch as a police detective striving
to become a lawyer; "Gideon Oliver"
(1989) with Louis Gossett, Jr. as a college professor
who uses his knowledge of anthropology to solve
crimes ("Bones" anyone?); and "Touching
Evil" (2004) which followed the FBI's Organized
and Serial Crime Unit as they pushed the limits
of the law in order to get the bad guy.
All of these were pretty good series, from what
I could tell from the episodes featured here.
"Delvecchio" was the only one I was
familiar with, having watched it back when it
originally aired. And while it is a great concept
to release these shows on DVD, I have several
nitpicks. First off is the overall quality. The
episode from the oldest series "Johnny Staccato"
looked pretty good quality-wise, but the rest
of the episode looked rather bad. "Touching
Evil" wasn't bad, but it was a very new series.
The other two looked horrible. The worst being
"Delvecchio" which was even lacking
an opening title or credit sequence. Then there
is the matter if only making one episode from
each available. If they are going to release them,
why not go ahead and give us what was filmed?
While I applaud Bravo and Universal for their
idea, and hope that they continue, I would hope
they would strive to improve the quality of the
releases and perhaps consider releasing full series
DVDs, no matter how short the episode list.
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital 2.0
Surround Sound
Studio: Universal
Release Date: 5/23/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website
We'll give Brilliant But Cancelled a D.
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