I'm sitting here pondering through the doldrums of summer and man, I miss TV.  Of course there are a few new shows here and there such as The Philanthropist which I could care less about.  All of my favorites are gone though until late August, September, or heaven forbid December or January.  No new Chuck, Reaper, or My Name is Earl for months.  What's that?  Both Reaper and My Name is Earl have been cancelled?  Chuck is barely holding on as a upcoming midseason replacement?  Go figure.  I get attached to a show, the stories, and most importantly the characters and the evil network execs go and axe it to spite me.  What a rip!  I would kill to be able to watch all my favorite shows go on forever until the point that the suck and I want them cancelled, but NO!.  I'll just sit in my room and pout about it and boycott TV for the whole season.      We've all had that same shock and sinking feeling when a show we vested ourselves and our time in is on the "bubble" or is actually cancelled.  Usually the feeling passes and you move on.  In some rare instances, the feeling lingers for a long time and  you always remember what could've been.  The shows listed above are examples of both.  I really enjoyed Reaper, especially Ray Wise as Satan.  That guy was hilarious.  I also liked My Name is Earl, but more so for Jason Lee's killer mustache.  Will I miss these shows?  Yes.  Will it keep me up at night?  No.  Chuck on the other hand is a different story.  Any show with that great a cast, Scott Bakula, Chevy Chase as a bad guy, and tons of Spies Like Us references (Emmett Millbarge, GLG20 chips, "Doctor/Doctor") has to stay on TV. (Search the web for other cool Chuck Easter eggs.  I got the one for Weekend at Bernie's)  Had it been cancelled, I would've held a grudge for a while.  Eventually, I would've gotten over it.  I got over Jake 2.0 right?  Right?!  This close call (or temporary stay of execution) with Chuck brought up some questions in my mind about the merits of cancelled TV shows and more importantly what can be done to save them and with whom that responsibility lies.  
    The first part of the salvation equation lies with the writers and creators of the shows themselves.  Make something of quality.  Make something that people care about.  Now this isn't always a guarantee for success.  Some of the best shows on TV were cancelled before their time.  Off the top of my head Veronica Mars and Serenity come to mind.  Those shows were great and people (myself included) still love them voraciously today.  If you start off making crap, most people will treat it as such.  Yet even so, there are a lot of crap shows on TV.  I wouldn't know which ones they are, I don't watch those.
    Second part, writers and creators listen up again.  Have an idea where you want to start and where you want to end.  Now I'm sure that everyone says they have this in mind, but who sticks to it?  Rob Thomas, creator of Veronica Mars, has said he had future plans for the series (Veronica at Langley, etc.), but he didn't stick to a proven formula long enough.  In the final season, Veronica Goes to College and Has Sex, he took away Veronica's bite and made the great season long mysteries of old a midseason dud.  Now you can say that this was the network execs fault.  That they pressured Thomas to make those changes to save the show and make it more "accessible and friendly."  In the end though, Thomas made the concessions and the show suffered and was cancelled anyway.  A fine example of doing it right is the braintrust on Lost (Heroes braintrust take note).  After the show began to suffer, they sat down and planned out the rest of the series to the end in spite of the network.  The show has been great ever since.  
    Third (or 2b) part is for the network executives.  Stay out of the way.  The best way to let a show succeed is to just write the checks.  Now I'm sure there's much more to being on the network side of things.  There's marketing, scheduling, revenue streams, and a bunch of stuff I have no clues or cares about.  I'm sure you know lots more about the "TV bizness" than I ever will.  One thing I do know is that if you pigeon hole a creator by trying to fix a show your way, it will fail.  Support it the best you can through the things you know:  marketing, scheduling, revenue streams, etc.  As I said, just write the checks.  
    Fourth and final part is for me and you and you and me.  The audience, the viewers.  Watch the shows you love.  Don't give excuses like "It's on Friday nights" or "I was washing my hair." With DVR's and almost any show available somewhere on the internet, there's plenty of ways to watch.  Talk your favorites up and spread the word.  In a day with Facebook and Twitter, you can tell thousands if not millions of people how great 'Til Death is (Not!).  Start cancellation campaigns early.  Instead of wasting time trying to save a show by sending Subway sandwiches or Mars candy bars to the networks, start writing the networks now telling them that some shows suck and need to be canned.  I'm starting mine on American Idol right now (Not!  My wife would kill me).  
    The hard truth of the matter is that good and sometimes great shows are going to be cancelled.  What makes it worse is that the crap shows are still going to keep going along clogging the tubes.  You're rarely ever going to see a show get saved for more than one season, if that.  If you're really, really lucky, you may see them come back after cancellation like Family Guy or Futurama (Yeah! for Comedy Central).  More likely, you'll just end up crying yourself to sleep or griping about it on the Interweb.  Like me.

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