Favorites –16 TV Shows That Ended Too Soon

With everything that’s going on these days, we may have something pretty good to look forward too: another season of Young Justice. This was one show that I felt got cut down too soon. It ended with a crapload of stuff left to talk about. When you have the Lord of Apokalips show up in the last minute of your show, you better do something with it! I hate it when shows get cut off too soon. It definitely sucks when they’re just one season in. Even when it’s lasted for a few years, something happens and it’s gone like a fart in the wind or something.

So, here are a few shows that went away too soon. If you notice some popular underrated shows missing, that’s because I can only do so much. Besides, Pushing Daisies didn’t sound like my thing. There were a couple of shows that went away before I could get invested in them like Almost Human and a couple of others. Whether they were animated or live-action, there have been ones that I was pretty sad to see go. The list isn’t in complete order, but the first few are ones that I still feel jaded on.

TV Talk - seaQuest 2032 Season 3

Well, I’ve finally finished Season Three of seaQuest DSV… or should I say seaQuest 2032? That’s right, folks. Changes came once again. I vaguely remember seeing promos for the show back in the day stating that stuff would change. I also remember seeing that some balding guy was the new captain. Little did I know that this was Michael Ironside, a well-known actor and the voices of Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher and Darkseid from DC's Animated Series. So, you might be wondering what I might probably was wondering back then: What Happened?

To put it nicely, Season Two wasn’t well received. As you saw last time, I thought it was pretty subpar as a whole. Apparently, Roy Schieder (Captain Bridger) was dissatisfied with that season to the point that he wanted to leave. He was able to get out of his contract but he had to make a few guest appearances because of that. Rosalind Allen (Dr. Smith) and Marco Sanchez (Lt. Ortiz) were also let go for the third season. While I didn’t really care about Dr. Smith, it does suck that Bridger and Ortiz were gone.

There weren’t many additions to the cast. Of course, Michael Ironside (Capt. Oliver Hudson) became the new captain on the show. Elise Neal (Lt. JJ Fredricks) joined the show as the seaQuest’s sub-fighter pilot. The biggest change was the premise of the show. It was decided to bring back some of the political and reality-based elements of the first season and mix in the action of the second season. The really weird stuff from the second season was gotten rid of for the most part. There are still some sci-fi things left. The show also takes place a decade later hence the new title, seaQuest 2032.

In Season Two’s finale, the seaQuest was transported to another planet to fight in a civil war. They succeeded but lives were lost. At the start of Season Three, the aliens transported them back to Earth but a decade had passed since they were gone. When the ship went missing, the world basically went to hell with corporations gaining more power and a new faction called the Macronesian Alliance making plays to conquer the seas. The UEO does its best to keep a world war from coming to pass. Capt. Hudson spent the decade trying to find out what happened to the sub when it’s eventually found. Capt. Bridger decides to retire (his son is still alive) and Hudson takes command of the seaQuest in order to bring hope back.

TV Talk - seaQuest DSV Season 2

Season Two of seaQuest DSV… where do I begin? I guess I’ll start at the beginning and not in the biblical sense. This season started in the fall of' '94. I don’t remember seeing much of this season before my re-watch on Netflix. I might have seen a couple of episodes but I’m not sure. In doing a little research for the season, I noticed that this season isn’t well regarded. So, I came to this season with some trepidation. Was it warranted? I’ll get to that later.

After the first season of the show ended, a lot of changes were made and I mean a lot. First, production was moved from California to Florida. This move made Stacey Haiduk (Lt. Hitchcock) and Stephanie Beechem (Dr. Westphalen) leave the show. Next, Royce Applegate (Chief Crocker) and John D’Aquino (Lt. Krieg) were let go in order to bring in a younger cast. Hearing that Hitchcock, Westphalen, and even Krieg were gone was a bit of a bummer since I liked those characters.

We got a few new faces in the cast. First up is Rosalind Allen as Dr. Wendy Smith, the ship’s new doctor who’s also a telepath. Next is Michael DeLuise as Tony Piccolo, an ex-con whose part of a program to serve on the ship. By the way, he’s got implanted gills. Next up is Edward Kerr as Lt. James Brody, the new weapons officer. Then, we have Peter DeLuise as Dagwood, a GELF (Genectically-Engineered Life Form) with the mind of a child who serves as the sub’s custodian. Finally, we have Kathy Evison as Lt. Lonnie Henderson, the sub’s new helmswoman.

As you can tell by most of those new folk, the show began to insert more sci-fi and fantasy elements. Gone were the days of somewhat grounded sci-fi. This was the show’s biggest change outside of its new cast and new location. We get more aliens, monsters, ghosts, and even killer plants this time. It also became more action-oriented than the last season was. The season starts off about a year later (I think) after the events of last season. A new seaQuest had to be built since the other one was destroyed. A situation with some imprisoned GELFs gets the boat back into action. Afterwards, they end up facing the weirdness of the oceans, space, and everything in between.

TV Talk - seaQuest DSV Season 1

So, I was wondering on what I could end this month with. I knew it had to be a TV show I used to watch or still watch. I almost chose Sliders, but I’ll wait on that for now. I then found a little show that I sort of used to watch back in the 90’s: seaQuest DSV aka seaQuest 2032. Since I’ve only recently finished the first season, I’ll be looking at the show by season by season. This is definitely a show I’ll have to do that with since I’ve heard things about its latter two seasons. Besides, it came on at the same time Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman came on, so I guess Sunday’s Sci-Fi is a thing here now. I guess I have to do Earth-2 next, eh?

As I said before, this was a show I didn’t watch that much. It came on at around the same time Lois and Clark came on and I was probably watching other shows as well. I do remember the show being in syndication on the Sci-Fi Channel. I think I saw a few episodes on there too. I know I saw some of the later seasons there. Anyway, I recently found it on Netflix and the rest is history.

The show takes place in the fictionalized future of 2018… so, we’ll be getting awesome submarines by that time? Earth has been colonizing the oceans, so an organization was created in order to keep order under the seas. The UEO (United Earth Oceans) Organization tasks an experimental submarine called the seaQuest to keep things in order. The Navy gets retired Captain Nathan Bridger (Roy Scheider) to command the submarine since he helped create the thing.

Throughout the season, the crew encounters a lot of stuff. They have to do deal with disputes between certain factions, perform rescue missions, and do their own exploration under the sea. They do also encounter their own brand of weirdness from time to time but it doesn’t go too overboard with it. One of the things the show tried to do was to stay as grounded as possible. It wasn’t too sci-fi… yet. That’ll be for another day. By the way, some dude by the name of Stephen Spielberg was an executive producer on the show, so this was pretty big.