22 Cancellations That Cut Deep

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From one-season wonders to long-running shows that still felt like they had great potential, many beloved series have bitten the dust.

Yes, the list of painfully canceled television shows is a personal one, and one that could run longer than we have time to cover here.

But we polled the TV Fanatic staff and came up with a rundown of sitcoms and dramas that we still can't believe have been shut down.

Some of these go back many years now.

Some of these just recently occurred.

But all of them hurt. A lot.

Gather up your strength, break out the tissues and don't give up hope, because in the modern TV landscape, anything is possible.

Heck, if Full House and The X-Files can come back in some form, who knows what the future holds for these fan favorites...

1. Firefly

Admittedly I didn't watch Firefly until fellow Castle fans compelled me to buy the dvds, but by 30 minutes into the pilot I knew I'd be broken hearted by the end. The writing, the characters, the unique setting, I fell in love with it all. I laughed out loud during "Our Mrs Reynolds" gasped during "War Stories" and almost cried during "The Message" Like a leaf on the wind, I will always get a wistful ache in my heart that there isn't more Firefly to enjoy. -- Christine Orlando

2. Veronica Mars

The modern day answer to Nancy Drew. Veronica Mars only lasted 3 seasons, but became a cult hit and eventually became a highly successful and much talked about movie. Veronica was everything missing from other female characters on TV. She was a complicated, tough, smart, witty, resilient, emotional, badass who just happened to be a teenage girl. The series followed Veronica as she tried to solve various mysteries in the fictional Neptune, California. This show may have seemed like a teenage show on the surface, but the writing was so brilliant and way darker than one would expect dealing with rape, murder, abuse, class warfare, and race. The show was cancelled after 3 seasons, but thankfully fans got closure when the Kickstarter funded movie came to fruition last year. -- Amanda Steinmetz

3. Happy Endings

The cast was ah-mah-zing, as was their undeniable chemistry. When it got unceremoniously canceled, all I wanted to do was crawl into a Max-like hibernation until Jane and Brad had their Annual Spring Smackdown on ABC and got them to reverse its decision. That sadly never came to pass. But at least there's the DVDs! -- Winston Rice

4. Ghost Whisperer

The show aired on CBS for five years and never got below 7 million viewers on average. While it was being aired on the Friday night death slot, seven episodes of the fourth season garnered more than 11 million viewers. Unfortunately, in 2010 it was canceled and viewers, characters and ghosts were all left with some unfinished business. -- Amanda Wolf

5. The OC

Ryan, Marissa, Seth, Summer, Sandy, Kirsten, Julie Cooper-Nickel! We watched as Ryan's life was turned around by his being brought into the Cohen household, and none of us were ever the same. Ryan Murphy wasn't afraid to kill a main character, so we said goodbye to Marissa Cooper at the end of Season 3. Then we said goodbye to everyone else when the series was canceled at the end of Season 4, just 8 episodes shy of syndication. Sigh. Californiaaaaaaaaa! -- Miranda Wicker

6. Enlisted

Enlisted was a rare gem: a network comedy that was truly funny, but at the same time completely endearing and heartwarming. You could be laughing so hard at the 3 Hill Brothers to the point of your stomach aching in one moment, and then not realize your eyes welling up with tears in the next. Enlisted was dealing with a stacked deck from the get go as Fox buried the show on Friday nights, refusing all logic as the show would've fit perfect alongside other Tuesday night comedies such as The Mindy Project and New Girl. The show was cancelled after only one perfect season, and instead of ripping the band-aid off all at once, fans were continually given glimmers of hope for a renewal, first by Fox and later by Yahoo (who had already saved cancelled Community from death). I think we're all in need of a serious "Hands on Head" moment of silence for one of the best comedies on TV in recent memory. I'll forever be like Randy, ugly crying over what could have been out of this perfect little show. -- Bridget Liszewski

7. The Lying Game

I'm going to represent the ABCFamily vote over here and say I really wanted to know what happened at the end of The Lying Game!!!! The twins, the murder mystery, I was into it. -- Leigh Raines

8. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

The show propelled itself into the next episode each week with deep mystery, a fast pace and an incredible amount of detail matching the movie franchise. Lena Headly before Cersei was still a force to be reckoned with and the rest of the cast was also superb; Summer Glau, Garret Dillahunt, Shirley Manson, Busy Philips, Jonathan Jackson and more. Thomas Dekker became John Connor and the cliffhanger that thrust him into the future and the middle of the war made it absolute torture to witness the cancellation.

9. The Ringer

That was supposed to be SMG's comeback. It was a sexy, murder mystery, also involving one shady twin and one good twin. Totally wanted to see what happened with that. What's with my fascination with twin shows? -- Leigh Raines I reviewed Ringer. The cast was great! SMG, Ioan Gufford. The writing was all over the place. Thrilling one moment, eye roll worthy the next with huge stretches of groan inducing boredom in between. Then just as they had me wanting more they pulled the plug. I really couldn't blame them. -- Christine Orlando

10. The Glades

Granted, I had some issues with the show, but it was a fun summer series. And that cliffhanger! Awful. At least Matt Passmore moved on to another summer show, but I miss him as Jim Longworth! -- Ashley Bissette Sumerel

11. Eureka

Sadly, it was the first major causality after Comcast purchased NBCUniversal (who owns SciFi er, Syfy) in 2011, Eureka was considered to expensive to produce by Comcast. The final 13 episode season was used to attempt to wrap-up all of the on-going story lines. Colin Ferguson was absolutely amazing as the resident "non-genius" Sheriff Carter, who got pretty good at saving the town from itself. I miss spending just another day in Eureka! -- Jim Garner

12. Dallas

It's still too close to comment on without tears. I'm heartbroken. The show is a legacy but TNT did a poor job of promoting it over this last season and splitting it into two short seasons did nothing to build viewership. I'd literally pay money to see what happens after that cliffhanger. It would have rocked the Ewings to their core. The TV gods can be cruel. -- Christine Orlando

13. Terriers

I get the terrible ratings. I get the confusing title. But few shows have done as impressive a job in slowly building drama and storylines to such a tense crescendo. And that's before we even get to the dynamic between Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. Outstanding series all around. -- Matt Richenthal

14. Journeyman

Journeyman was one of the unfortunate victims of the 2007 Writers Strike, and only 13 episodes were ever produced. Despite suffering from low ratings, it had an intriguing time travel premise and a good cast, including Reed Diamond (as the titular time traveler's skeptical detective brother) and Moon Bloodgood (as the main character's fellow time-traveling ex-fiancee). -- Kathleen Weidel

15. Guiding Light

Thinking outside the box, my grandmother, my mother watched and then I all watched Guiding Light. Granted, it was sporadic through my adult years, but I graduated from high school with some the key characters who remained on the series until it ended. I fell for John Wesley Shipp as Kelly in the 80s and he's now on The Flash. I watched Kevin Bacon, Allison Janney, Taye Diggs, Matt Bomer and Frank Grillo on GL, but I really miss the core families and the sense of loyalty and friendship their sagas inspired over 72 years and more than 15,700 episodes. Long live Reva and Josh, Beth and Phillip, the Spauldings, the Bauers, the Lewises, the Marlers, the Coopers and the Reardons and all the others who went down with the ship. I think about them all far too often to admit. RIP -- Carissa Pavlica

16. Suburgatory

I'm still not over Suburgatory ending. There were some top notch comedians on that show, including Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell, Ana Gasteyer and Alan Tudyk. That's comedy gold right there! After 3 seasons, I was really excited to see where the show would go with the girls getting older and Lisa and Malik married. There were so many things that went unanswered at the end and it still makes me sad to think I can't swoon over the body, Ryan Shay, anymore. RIP Suburgatory, you will be forever missed by me! -- Whitney Evans

17. Longmire

Longmire's fans were shocked when A&E pulled the plug on this show despite its popularity. The third (and final) season was arguably the best of the series and ended with a surprising cliffhanger. The gorgeous landscapes as well as the cast's undeniable chemistry will surely be missed. Here's hoping another network snaps up this gem! -- Stacy Glanzman ... UPDATE: Netflix has picked up the series for Season 4!!

18. The Finder

A fun, quirky spin-off to Bones, The Finder is a show that should have lasted longer than one season. Its cast was dynamic, and its concept was unique. Geoff Stultz played Walter, an odd war veteran with an uncanny ability for finding almost anything. He solved crimes, helped find prized possessions, and got himself in plenty of trouble. The worst part is that the season finale ended with a pretty serious cliffhanger as Walter was sent to jail. The show began as an episode of Bones, and also featured crossover episodes with visits from Jack Hodgins and Lance Sweets (RIP). -- Ashley Bissette Sumerel

19. Forever

It only lasted on season on ABC, but there seemed to be a great deal of potential in Forever. We wish another network would pick it up.

20. Battle Creek

CBS never really gave Battle Creek a chance. From the mind of Vince Gilligan, this mismatched cop drama had untapped potential.

21. Hart of Dixie

We know, we know: the ratings weren't very good. But Hart of Dixie was simply a cute, fun, harmless television show... which we mean in the nicest way possible. We're gonna miss spending one night per week in Bluebell.

22. Hannibal

Hannibal was a critical darling and it did last three seasons. But it's a shame more viewers never caught on.

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