TV NEWS FOR 11/16 SANCTUARY, SCI-FI PILOTS, CANCELED SCI-FI SHOWS

Learn Sign Language from Sanctuary’s Creature from the Black Lagoon

Bigfoot, a werewolf, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon walk into an episode of Sanctuary, and what do they do? Mostly, they trade sign language, perform mundane medical procedures, and wait for the episode’s true villain to emerge.

I’m not sure what I could have hoped for from this classic monster match-up — certainly not a cage match, but maybe abnormals playing poker? Alas, Sanctuary has not time for such frivolities. Our rubber-suited movie monster is Jack, a creature called a Plesky who has been living in captivity with werewolf Henry’s pal Rachel. Rachel has been socializing Jack and teaching him sign language; he’s basically like Koko the gorilla if Koko occasionally shot out deadly spores. Yes, Jack has shot his deadly, deadly spores into Rachel, who will die if Magnus and her team can’t find a cure.

More here

We review the 2009 sci-fi pilots you’ll never see


Just before every fall TV season begins, the excitement of new possibilities swirls through the air as we anticipate what new shows are in our future. That excitement fades once we realize that only a couple of shows are actually worthy and is dashed once we see promising shows like Eastwick and Dollhouse killed off.

So now that the cancellations have begun, let’s take a look at the season that might have been. Here are four pilots the networks passed on, with our take on whether they missed an opportunity to unleash something great (or even just mildly entertaining) on viewers:

Back, CBS
Boldy Going Nowhere, Fox
Captain Cook’s Extraordinary Atlas, ABC
No Heroics, ABC

More here

12 Sci-Fi Shows That Were Canceled Too Soon

Joss Whedon has become something of a tortured artist since ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ ended its highly successful seven-season run in 2003. Since Sunnydale was destroyed and ‘Angel’ got pulled right when it was finding its own identity post-‘Buffy,’ Whedon has yet to find another long-running hit. It’s still hard to believe that a show as great as ‘Firefly’ only lasted one season!

Whedon’s bad luck continues with the recent announcement that Fox is pulling the plug on ‘Dollhouse,’ a series that had enough of a following — and potential — to warrant another season. Would ‘Dollhouse’ have really hit its stride further down the road? We’ll never know. Here are some other sci-fi television series that met their makers too soon.

‘Angel’
‘Bionic Woman’
‘Birds of Prey’
‘Brimstone’
‘Firefly’
‘Invasion’
‘Jericho’
‘The Lone Gunmen’
‘Millennium’
‘Star Trek: TOS’
‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’
‘Tru Calling’

MORE HERE

Some of the Sci-Fi Pilots – it’s a shame we won’t ever see them. A few of them don’t sound that bad.

As for the shows that were canceled too soon, I at least agree with Angel, Firefly, Bionic Woman and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Which pilots do you think would have been good shows?

And which of the canceled shows were your faves?