“Cancelled Too Soon” Is Theme of Journey Planet 58

Hugo Award winning fanzine Journey Planet’s issue 58, co-edited by Steven H Silver, Evan Reeves, James Bacon, and Chris Garcia, is themed “Cancelled Too Soon” and explores television shows from the ‘60s to the ‘10s that were cancelled within two seasons of their debut.  

Ranging from for the four-episode Wonderfalls to the impressive single season of 85 episodes of Battle of the Planets, the writers share their favorite shows that disappeared as well as shows that acquired another life in syndication, video release, or streaming.

Featuring more than 55,500 words covering 31 television shows with authors ranging from Alan Smale to Rich Horton to Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki the authors welcome you to the shows that helped shape their imaginations. The issue includes articles on Dark Skies by showrunner Bryce Zabel, on StrangeLuck by screenwriter Michael Cassutt, on The Middleman by screenwriter Margaret Dunlap, and on FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer, upon whose novel the show was based.

Download Journey Planet 58: Cancelled Too Soon at the link.  This is the fourth issue of Journey Planet co-edited by Steven H Silver and the first with Evan Reeves.

10 thoughts on ““Cancelled Too Soon” Is Theme of Journey Planet 58

  1. Melanie Stormm says Now I can find all the things and watch them.

    Good luck on that. Some like Max Headroom I don’t think are on any of the streaming services and that series isn’t available on iTunes for downloading as I discovered when I went to purchase it. The shortness of their longevity generally means they disappear after they air.

  2. Good luck on that. Some like Max Headroom I don’t think are on any of the streaming services and that series isn’t available on iTunes for downloading as I discovered when I went to purchase it. The shortness of their longevity generally means they disappear after they air.

    We’re lucky in the Portland OR area that the libraries do a good job of stoking the DVDs/Blu-rays of a lot of series. Both the Multnomah County (Portland) and Washington County (the next county over–I have library cards for both) library systems carry the DVDs of the complete Max Headroom series, as well as others.

  3. “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” ended on a cliffhanger & in an intriguing place. I would have loved to see another season.

    “Firefly” I enjoyed once you look past the Confederate subtext & the lack of Chinese (they are supposedly one of the two powers in this setting). The character interactions & found family themes are what worked best for me.

  4. Soon Lee says “Firefly” I enjoyed once you look past the Confederate subtext & the lack of Chinese (they are supposedly one of the two powers in this setting). The character interactions & found family themes are what worked best for me.

    I agree. I thought given time that it’d would develop into something really interesting. The characters were fascinating even when the stories weren’t terribly well thought out.

    Stephen Brust did a fascinating novel set in the ‘verse, My Own Kind of Freedom: A Firefly Novel which I highly recommend.

    Now watching the first season of FBI as I’ve a fondness for these sort of series.

  5. Wonderfalls had thirteen episodes; I’m not sure why the synopsis says it had only four. Great show, though, that definitely deserved more.

  6. Xtifr: Only four episodes of Wonderfalls aired during its initial run in the US. After it was cancelled, the entire 13 episode series ran in Canada and was later released in the US on DVD.

  7. Wonderfalls was a great show, one of my absolute favorites. I believe only four episodes of Wonderfalls were broadcast, but the DVD has all 13 episodes. IMDB implies that the network(Fox?) burned the rest later in the year. I grabbed the DVD as soon as it appeared and have watched it many times. JustWatch doesn’t have it listed as streaming anywhere, which just boggles my mind. It is apparently on YT, quality does not not look good. DVD is $12 on ebay!

    The episodes have a strong story arc, so it is definitely worth watching in order.
    I watch the last four episodes all the time. The one that ends in Jaye’s therapists office(Cocktail Bunny) is particularly fantastic.
    Caroline Dhavernas is great in the leading role, and Lee Pace(Pushing Daisies and Cleon!) is her brother. Jewel Staite from Firefly also appears.

    Maybe this show would have done well in the current timeframe, where a small audience can work. But back in the classic TV network days, it got killed. I still think it works really well as a classic BBC-style single series. I still remember “Danger: UXB” on my local PBS station back in the 70s. Single series of 13 episodes. You tell your story and finish. Don’t need to stick around for 300 episodes. Of course, you can stream Danger: UXB on Amazon Prime(BritBox). But you can’t stream Wonderfalls 🙂

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