The alternative comedy movement of the 1990s and early 2000s spawned a dazzling host of boundary pushing entertainment that spanned films, television, stand-up, music, and animation. It was hard to keep tabs on all of the original voices emerging during this time, sometimes frustratingly so. For example, just when you thought you'd found a new favorite TV show, the network would abruptly pull the plug due to lousy ratings, even though raves from critics indicated that it had a high-quality series on its hands that might just need a little more time to find its audience (as was the case with "Seinfeld"). This is how we unceremoniously lost classics like "The Ben Stiller Show," "Freaks and Geeks," and "Undeclared" after one season.

While I'd like to think some of these series would've eventually caught on with a large enough viewership to justify their continued network existence, many oddball series were doomed from the outset.