Canceled animated TV series

I

Illese

New member
With all the animated movies being discussed, why not take the other side too ? animated TV series or TV specials that were canceled?

Off the top of my head, I know Nickelodeon was going to do something called Diggs Tailwagger, but it never left the planning stages (and as a result, its page was deleted from Wikipedia). There might have been at least one other canceled Nick original around the same time, because I seem to remember that Diggs was located next to a red link on the Nickelodeon navigational template.
 
I heard that there was a planned animated show based on the comic Calvin and Hobbes but that never came to be. Too bad, it wouldve been a good cartoon though.
 
Possibly...but I kinda doubt it, really, the more I think about it. The thing about the comic is, I don't feel like it's specifically played for laughs. It's not always dramatic, either. And it can get heavily into philosophy. Who would it be aimed at? I think the only way it could've worked is if it was pretty much exactly like recreating a regular Sunday story in motion, then moving on to the next one. Again, who would that be aimed at?
 
I know in the early-90s there were rumblings of an animated Aliens spin-off to go with the toyline that came out around that time, with various new aliens like the Bull Alien, but it never got off the ground.


Given Bill Watterson's refusal to license out Calvin & Hobbes, such an animated series was probably never anything more than just wishful thinking on the part of some executive. Watterson once said he was in awe of really well-done animation, but couldn't imagine trying to find a voice that sounded like it belonged to Calvin. I would love to have seen a (really good) C&H series, though.
 
Bill watterson couldve at least got an adult to voice calvin instead of hearing a kid do it. Most adult actors provide the voice of kid characters in cartoons.
 
Comedian Arsenio Hall had at one time planned to make an animated series for ABC called Cleveland City Limits, which would been a vehicle for his character 'Chunky A.', whom Hall played in a couple of music videos, but the series never happened.

Quincy Jones had a planned animated series for Fox titled A Hard Place, which would've centered around an urban teen named Orlando (voiced by Tommy Davidson), his family and his friends. The only episode which ever aired was the pilot, which doubled as its' Christmas episode, "A Cool Like Dat Christmas".

Interestingly, Ralph Baskhi also had a series in development for Nick @ Nite called Tattertown, about a young girl named Debbie who follows her runaway doll into a surreal land of living junk; had the series happened, Tattertown would've been N@N's first original animated series. But like A Hard Place, the only episode which ever aired was the pilot which was also the Xmas episode. Nick @ Nite did air the Tattertown pilot for a couple of years under the title "Christmas in Tattertown".
 
I have heard rumors of a Larry the Cable Guy animated series. I think that it was about him becoming in charge of a TV station (I don't know why I am thinking this). Does anyone know whatever became of this?
 
What do you mean by "canceled" TV series? Shows where the pilot was made but didn't make the cut? 'Cause there are a LOT of that.

That said, here one from the top of my head:

In the late '60s CBS ordered two pilots from Terrytoons. The trouble was, the studio closed down, so the studio head Bill Weiss had to farm the production out to west coast at Fred Calvert's studio. The two pilots they ended up making were "The Ruby Eye of the Monkey God" and "Sally Sargent". Neither were sold.

"Monkey God" was given a theatrical release by the 20th Century Fox, but the Sally Sargent pilot was in dormant until it eventually showed up alongside other Terrytoons properties (including Mighty Mouse and Deputy Dawg) in a syndication package.

Both cartoons had Iwao Takamoto doing the designs. Needless to say, they were Terrytoons in name only.
 
Not just those, but also ones where names, storyboards, planning, etc. were made but it never finalized. For instance, I don't think Diggs Tailwagger went beyond preliminary planning ? there doesn't seem to have been a full episode animated.
 
The most notable example is Garbage Pail Kids which had a full season animated but due to parental complaints the show was never aired. Before that CBS also had a show produced by Marvel Productions/Sunbow called "The Young Astronauts" which would have aired in the fall of 1986, but after the Challenger disaster it was scrapped (as well as an accompanying comic book) and unlike GPK (which had a dvd release), Young Astronauts has remained unseen.
 
Wasn't Diggs Tailwagger retooled into TUFF Puppy?

Adult Swim has a ton of canceled animated series or pilots intended to jumpstart series that never came to be.

Spacecataz, Welcome to Eltingville, That Crook'd Sipp which ended up becoming the one off Freanik: The Musical.
 
Hey Arnold creator Craig Bartlett pitched a series called The Patakis, which feautred an older Helga (the star of the show) writing letters to Arnold, who has moved away. He offered the show to Nick who rejected it for being "too dark", and to MTV, who felt it was too similar to Daria.

A pilot episode script and some character designs were all that was made - I hope they pop up on the internet some day, as I'm insanely curious to see them.
 
That series sounded very interesting. I read that it was going to be a lot more targeted towards teens and adults, which would have been a really interesting way to take it. I believe they were going to actually adress Helga's mother's drinking problem from what I read online.
 
Lou Scheimer plan to creates a He-man series in 1996 call "He-Ro: Son of He-man and the Master of the Universe," animation done by
Dic entertianment. Unrelated to the prototype figure He-ro whow was
part the the unrelease Power of Grayskull toyline.

The story tell about a orphan boy call Dare who been adopted by Adam who is now king and Teela who is his queen. He now following in He-man foot step to battle against Skeletor. A series bible was produced, but was never made. According the He-man triva on Tv.com. Mattel didn't want to give Lou the rights to make the series.
 
Speaking of Filmation, there were two shows that was in production but never released: "Bugzburg" and a BraveStarr spinoff called "Bravo".

The reason they were canceled was because the studio suddenly shut down.
 
Two Jurassic Park cartoons were cancelled, first one after the first movie and second one was tried after lost world which is where the Chaos Effect toyline took its ideas from.
 
Really? Weird. I never heard anything about a Jurassic Park cartoon.

I do remember Warner Bros. was trying for a Gremlins cartoon back in the late 80's.
 
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