For someone of a similar generation, growing up it was always a treat to be able to see an animated program on television at any time other than Saturday morning. Some of my first experiences with prime time animation was during the holiday seasons when the California Raisins would do a special each year. Well, since then, prime time animation has really taken off. There was a period when networks like Fox were running four animated half-hours a week. The genre got a little too saturated and resulted in a lot of animated shows being canceled. Shows like The Simpsons and South Park have gone on to legendary status by surviving the over saturation, but during this time there were a few shows that I wished could have continued.

Waste this weekend with canceled prime time animated TV shows.

For the Clay-mation Fan – The PJ’s (1999-2001)

Created by Eddie Murphy, Larry Wilmore and Steve Tompkins, The PJ’s was produced in traditional stop motion animation. Each half hour episode took nearly two months to create from beginning to end, and although each episode was quite wonderful, the high budget ultimately cost The PJ’s their existence. If you were lucky enough to catch a few episodes on Fox or the WB, then you were treated to one of the more refreshingly funny animated prime TV shows ever to be canceled. Taking place in a Detroit public housing complex, the show followed main character Thurgood Stubbs (voiced by Murphy) as he tried to weave his way through life as a superintendent. But the show succeeded mostly because of the cast of characters. Thurgood was funny, but accompanied by characters like his wife Muriel, Smokey the crack-head and Jimmy Ho, and The PJ’s is a great way to spend the weekend.

For the Comedy Fan – Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law (2000 – 2007)

If you are a fan of some the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons series’ from back in the 1970′s then Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law is both a hilarious trip and a trip down memory lane. The show originated as a spin-off series of the Adult Swim show Space Ghost Coast to Coast, but soon after the pilot Harvey Birdman established a strong identity. The show centers around Harvey Birdman, a superhero turned attorney at law. If you were a fan of the old cartoons, then you’ll probably recognize Harvey from Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. The follows Harvey through his various Hanna-Barbera inspired cases, but never strays too far away from the superhero with a real job concept. His old enemies are no longer evil scientists out to take over the world. They are now opposing lawyers pit against Harvey in cases that involve recognizable cartoon characters. For a taste of nostalgia and some off-beat comedy, Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law is a great way to waste the weekend.

For the Groening Fan – Futurama (1999-2003, 2010-???)

When it comes to fan appreciation and devotion paying off, no other show can compare to the Matt Groening sensation Futurama. After The Simpsons, Groening went on to create and produce Futurama which first became an underground phenomenon, then an unnoticed gem and finally a recognized and reborn star. Futurama is the hilarious show about the future through the eyes of Fry, a cryogenically frozen young man from our time who wakes up in the future. Fry finds a job with his new friend Lela, Zoidberg, Hermes, Professor Farnsworth, Amy and the robot Bender at Planet Express shipping and together the gang do everything from traveling to Mars to traveling back to their teen years. Futurama uses traditional sci-fi gimmicks like time and space travel, Dungeons & Dragons and aliens in one of the more hilarious and brilliant animated shows ever to be aired, then canceled and then put back on the air. The show originally aired for four seasons on Fox and was then canceled. Although the resurrection of television shows in their original formats are hardly ever heard of, Futurama has managed to pull it off. Back in 2007, Futurama came back in the form of movies that went straight to DVD and were chopped up and aired as half-hour episodes on the Comedy Central. They were so successful that Groening has announced that the show will once again be airing brand new episodes in June of 2010. Although Futurama has been revived, it is still one of the best animated prime time shows ever to be canceled.