What kind of world do we live where a shows like Cupcake Wars can thrive but Firefly gets cancelled? Earth would be the answer. I wonder if television is this messed up on Jupiter.

Here are some show I loved, but apparently not enough other people did:

Freaks and Geeks

My favorite show of all time. I have mentioned this show at least twice before here and here on this site and it deserves at least a thousand more mentions. No show has been able to truthfully recreate the horrors of being in high school and somehow still be charming and funny.

If that’s not enough to sell you, consider this: The show was created by Paul Feig, who would go on to do Bridesmaids. It was produced by Judd Appatow, who went on to do 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, ect. It stars John Francis Daily (Bones, writer of Horrible Bosses), Seth Rogen (Superbad, Pineapple Express), James Franco (127 Hours, Spider-Man) and Jason Segal (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, How I met Your Mother).

This show is viewable on Netflix.

Nowhere Man

This one holds a special place in my life as being the first show that I followed discussions about about on the internet. While this is common now, in 1995 I was relatively new to the internet and this made Nowhere Man more of an event that just a show.

The show itself was about a photographer who one days discovers after using the restroom that no one remembers him, his wife is married to another man and he has been completely  wiped from every computer and database in the world.

This show ends on a bit of an unresolved cliff hanger but all questions are answered and I believe it is worth a watch if you can find it.

Journeyman

A man time travels against his will at random times. That’s pretty much the whole premise of this show. But it worked.

The show had a bit of a Quantum Leap feel to it, as when he went back in time it was to help someone who got screwed over in the original timeline. Anything that has a Quantum Leap vibe to it has to be good.

All 13 episodes are watchable on Hulu.

Awake

One day a cop gets into a car accident with his family. When he wakes up he finds out his wife has died and son lived, that is until he goes to sleep and wakes up to find out it was his son that died and his wife was still alive. It seems he’s living in two different realities, and he can switch between the two simply by going to sleep. To make things more confusing he’s able to solve crimes in one reality by getting clues from the other.

While this show is excellent, it’s somewhat hard to recommend due to it not really ending. All episodes are on Netflix.

Life on Mars (US)

It’s another time travel show! This time a cop somehow winds up in the 1970s. This show bends genres by being everything from Sci-Fi, to suspense, to drama. Our hero has to solve crimes while also trying to figure out how he wound up 40 years in the past.

Even though the show was cancelled, ABC at least was nice enough to let the writers of the show finish up the series.

This was based on a British TV show of the same name, which ends completely differently and is also worth watch.

All 17 episodes of the US version can be watched on Netflix.