Brilliant But Cancelled 

Life after the ax

We all have our favorite TV shows that die before their time. I was rather partial to Dana Delaney's 2001 creepy family drama Pasadena (Desperate Housewives before Desperate Housewives existed). Many on the City staff loved HBO's complicated tale of carnie folk and destiny, Carnivale. Now certain shows that didn't quite make it are getting a second shot at life at www.brilliantbutcancelled.com, a Web spinoff of cable net Bravo that cherry picks some quality TV programming that deserves to be seen.

Not every show can make the Brilliant But Cancelled cut. First, unaired episodes of the series have to exist. Second, the Bravo folks have to consider it "brilliant." And third, they have to be able to get the rights, and since NBC is the parent company you'll find a bit of an overrepresentation from that network's castoffs.

The site's current crop tends toward crime dramas. Among them are EZ Streets, the 1996 Ken Olin/Joe Pantoliano vehicle; Touching Evil, the American version of a Brit show about a renegade cop; Gideon Oliver, with Louis Gossett Jr. playing a crime-solving anthropology professor (yeah, I don't know); and from the archives, Delvecchio, with a pre-Taxi Judd Hirsch, and Johnny Staccato, a 1959 noir starring indie filmmaker Joe Cassavetes and pre-Bewitched Elizabeth Montgomery. There's also the never-aired Jason Bateman sitcom The Jake Effect, about a lawyer who ditches the big bucks to become a teacher.

It any of the above sound interesting, head over to www.brilliantbutcancelled.com and download an episode for free.