All the Right Shows Got Canceled (Well, Maybe Not 'Selfie')

This is usually a time when we mourn the cancellations of shows that are Gone Too Soon (remember Enlisted and The Playboy Club?). But over the past couple of days, with the networks about to announce their new fall schedules, the list of shows that have been axed, deleted, killed, wiped from existence — most qualify as good business decisions.

Related: Dozens of TV Shows Canceled as Networks Clean House

And so, a hearty goodbye to the Dreadful Dramas, including Stalker, Allegiance, Resurrection, Red Band Society, Constantine, and Forever. 

And so long, adieu, to the Simpering Sitcoms: One Big Happy, Cristela, Bad Judge, The McCarthys, and the how-did-John-Mulaney-go-so-wrong Mulaney.

To be sure, many of the canceled series featured excellent actors. But look at it this way: Cancellations give fine performers like Kate Walsh (Bad Judge) and Rainn Wilson (Backstrom) the opportunity to find new, better vehicles for their talents.

And let’s give some praise to the Slightly Surprising Renewals: Nashville, rescued for a hope-springs-eternal fourth season; Marvel’s Agent Carter; and iZombie, a good show with not-great ratings.

Then there are the usual batch of Shows Renewed Despite Not Deserving It: Extant, Undercover Boss, Undateable (for an all-live season, no less!), Mistresses, 2 Broke Girls, and Almost the Entire CW Primetime Schedule (what, CW — you renewed Beauty and the Beast and not Hart of Dixie???).

I do wish ABC’s Selfie, which had a terrible title but an ever-improving ensemble, had been given another chance. But it joins the list of ABC’s mistake-cancellations, like Better Off Ted, in the Great TV Footnotes in the Sky.