One Shot Shows

The recent axing of Eastwick by ABC after just a handful of episodes certainly isn’t the first time and won’t be the last time a show has been cancelled after just one season. We take a look back at some other shows that haven’t managed to make it past the first season for various reasons. Some of our shows should have returned and some are best confined to the archives.

Time-travelling children’s drama from ATV which was perhaps ITV’s attempt to rival the success of Doctor Who over on the BBC. Although this is a children’s drama that should put you off from seeking this gem out on DVD and watching it. While it was mostly filmed in colour it sadly only exists in black and white now due to the wiping policy which was wide spread in the 1970s and 1980s. The premise of the series is quite simple; two teenagers, Liz Skinner and Simon Banks, discover they can travel forward and back in time through a ‘time barrier’ at a nearby abandoned military base. 

Their first adventure takes them back to 1940 when the military base was being used to conduct RADAR experiences and is taken over by a small party of Germans for several hours. Subsequent adventures focused on two alternative 1990’s; one at a research base at the South Pole controlled by a clone and the other a global warning stricken England which forest has been replaced by jungle!  The moral message of the series was that science wasn’t always the answer to our problems and that the use of science can have devastating consequences. An excellent produced series with a memorable theme-tune and excellent writing as well. ATV considered ordering a second series but production on Timeslip was heavily disrupted by the ‘colour strike’ of 1970 which meant the drama became a costly affair for the production company and ultimately this lead to it not be re-commissioned. 

Moon-based drama from Terrence Dicks and Barry Letts who were Script Editor and Producer respectively of Doctor Who at the same time as they were working on this series. The duo hoped to create a more realistic portrayal of life in space and space action but while they may have done just that they forgot to include anything of interest to the majority of the viewers. Unfortunately even the good dialogue couldn’t save this drama from a ratings freefall.

The series lasted six episodes and to modern audiences seems somewhat dated and painfully slow with the story slow to build up and special effects shots looking very dodgy and obviously done on a limited BBC budget. It also comes across as rather middle-class at times. It has been released on DVD since but this is one show that probably did well to even last six episodes.

Spooky supernatural series which starred Louise Jameson and James Hazeldine. The series is in many ways the fore-runner for future supernatural/paranormal shows such as The X-Files, Torchwood and Seal of Souls. Journalist Tom Crane [James Hazeldine] joins mysterious government agency Department 7 after it’s discovered he has psychic powers. Through the course of the following episodes he investigates cases of paranormal activity. Story arcs across the season include Crane’s hunt for rogue psychic Drexel, who was involved with the death of his wife, and the Omega conspiracy.

 Although popular with audiences the series fell foul of Mary Whitehouse who objected to the nature of the series and certain episodes within it. Louise Jameson had just finished her stint on Doctor Who which often incurred the wrath of Whitehouse so the poor actress may have felt the television campaigner had it in for her! Whitehouse was so vocal in her objections to the show that the BBC decided not to risk another season which is a shame. However, for all those who wish to seek this series out and make up their own minds about it the BBC has released it on DVD.  

Awful short-lived sequel to Battlestar Galactica which bared little resemblance to the show it was supposedly related too. In 1980 ABC began to regret axing Battlestar Galactica as ratings for the show that replaced it continued to decline and fans of the show wrote angry letter after letter. So the network relented somewhat and commissioned series creator Glen A Larson to write a three-part special to act as a pilot for a possible new series.

ABC however, had a list of demands to go with the order; smaller budgets, children orientated and Earth based. So Glen A Larson decided the Galactica and its fleet would finally find Earth, present day Earth. Only two members of the original cast, Lorene Green and Herb Jefferson JR, were prepared or available to reprise their roles on the new production. So nearly all the original characters disappeared and in its place was one awful load of rubbish. A weekly series followed the three-part special which was even more painful to watch with such nonsense as the “super scouts” killing off ant chance the series had.

As the ratings declined and the money spent on the show rose – due to reshoots, rewrites and night scenes – ABC pulled the plug. Ironically the final episode of the series is its best as Dirk Benedict returned to reprise his role of Starbuck for the final time in a flashback episode which revealed what had happened to the once great viper pilot. A sequel was planned along with a historical based episode set in Ancient Egypt but ABC had other ideas….this time there was no protest that the axe had fallen and most BSG fans prefer to pretend the show never existed.

A crime based time-travelling drama from 1997 created and written by Anthony Horowitz who stumbled upon inspiration for the drama while adapting an episode of Poirot for LWT. Horowitz had contributed many scripts for ITV’s critically acclaimed adaptations of Agatha Christie’s famous Belgium sleuth and his work on the series lead him to create a series in which a detective and scientist solve crimes by travelling back in time to see who committed them.

Michael French, Chloe Annett and Sue Johnson made up part of the cast of this 8 part drama which aired on BBC One in 1997. Jeff Slade discovers that Holly Turner has a time machine in her flat and uses it to solve crimes and even to try and win the lottery in one episode. The unlikely couple team together across the series to solve various crimes, usually murders though. In one episode there’s even a nod to Doctor Who, long since cancelled at this point, when Slade comes across a Police Box.

 A well written and produced series with a good, strong cast unfortunately this drama was never given a second run. Anthony Horowitz blames this on a change of executives in the BBC at the time meaning Crime Traveller fell between the cracks as it were; it simple was forgotten about in the changeover. Others have argued that the drop from 11m viewers to 8m worried the BBC and they decided not to risk another run. Whichever reason is the truth it was incredible short sighted because this drama deserved a second chance.

Live action Sci Fi series from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson who had perhaps tied of puppets and model works and so decided to move into working with real actors. The successful partnership had already created such iconic shows as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Stingray. Some stations wrongly assumed that the series was aimed at children but UFO was firmly aimed as adults as the Andersons tried to create a different, more mature kind of show.UFO revolved around a secret organisation, S.H.A.D.O, which protected the world from a race of aliens who wanted to harvest humanity for their organs.

Amongst the stars of the television series were Gabrielle Drake, Ed Bishop and Wanda Ventham. 26 episodes of the series were made and aired over the course of two years from 1970 onwards – in both the UK and America. Production on the series was halted at one point for five months due to the closure of the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, Elstree, where the show was filmed. Production shifted to Pinewood Studios where Space 1999 would later be filmed.

 Popular elements of the series included the Moonbase which was occasionally featured. A second series was commissioned and early storylines drawn up. Because the Moonbase had proved to be popular with audiences plans for the second season included featuring it more heavily. However, the second season was ultimately scrapped but the pre-production work that had gone into it and research was used by the Andersons to propose a new moon-based series, Space 1999. The origins of that series were born out of the aborted second series of UFO. A movie version of UFO is currently in development.