2014’s Forever offered a Prime Time friendly procedural with a twist and did very well in delayed viewing, but its network was unwilling to support the show.
What Is It?
This series followed Dr. Henry Morgan–a man who has lived two hundred years and can’t die–who has taken a job as a medical examiner to study death and to see if he can find the answer to his own immortality. He is also being stalked by another immortal who goes by the name of Adam and who claims to have lived over two thousand years.
Aired: ABC, 2014-15, 1 Season Totaling 22 Episodes
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Judd Hirsch, Lorraine Toussaint, Alana De La Garza, Joel David Moore
Created By: Matt Miller
Why Was It Cancelled?
This show combined elements of Sherlock Holmes, The Highlander, New Amsterdam, and more and delivered yet another procedural with a twist to Prime Time television. But it did manage to stand out in a large part because of the excellent cast led by Ioan Gruffudd in the main role as well as the supporting players which included Judd Hirsch, Alana De La Garza, Joel David Moore, and more.
Forever debuted in the Tuesday 10 PM EST timeslot, an hour which ABC had struggled with for several seasons, and it produced decent premiere ratings. Its numbers slipped to marginal at best levels shortly after that, but it did score well in delayed viewing, and ABC did give it a full-season pickup suggesting at first that network execs had some confidence in the show. But as it turned out, they apparently just wanted to use it as schedule spackle, plugging up the Tuesday 10 PM EST timeslot until the season ended. After November, it never aired more than two new episodes in a row which stifled any chance for it to build up momentum.
Its numbers remained low, and despite the lip service the networks were giving to the delayed viewing stats at that time, ABC cancelled it at the end of the season. Forever received high marks from critics and topped most season-end polls as the show least deserving cancellation. And a very vocal fanbase lobbied hard to convince the network to bring it back for a second season or to move it to another venue. But it remained cancelled as would NBC’s Constantine that season and Limitless on CBS the next year, both of which were genre shows that also performed well in delayed viewing. The networks were still far too focused on the same-day numbers (despite what they would say in press conferences), and cancelled the show far too soon despite the fact that it showed plenty of promise.
Can It Be Revived?
It has been nearly ten years since Forever first debuted, and the fact that the show is about an immortal who does not age would make it difficult to bring it back with the same actor after so much time has passed. But perhaps with sufficient application of makeup or some sort of some sort of explanation that Henry had started to show signs of aging, the show could make a return. The clock is definitely ticking on this one, though, and any sort of revival would have to happen soon lest they go the complete reboot route. Fans showed a strong outpouring of support after it was cancelled by ABC, so perhaps they could pull back together and target one of the streaming services as the landing place for a revival.
One or two seasons of eight to ten episodes each could bring Henry back and give the show the opportunity to wrap up its storylines, leaving it with a binge-worthy run. But if much more time passes, it seems unlikely that Ioan Gruffudd could return to the role unless they did CGI de-aging. With the streaming services looking for properties that are less expensive than the mega-dollar productions they have been putting out, Forever might draw some attention because it would have a reasonable budget and it comes with a built in audience. And Max would be a good service for fans to target since the show was originally produced by Warner Bros. But they would need to organize something soon otherwise time will expire on this immortal.
Where Can You Watch It?
This show has been released on DVD, and it is also available to purchase VOD. It was streaming for free on the CWSeed site that was part of The CW, but new ownership has done away with that. It is not on any of the other major streamers at this point, but it could show up on Max at some point.
Did you watch Forever and would you support fan efforts to bring it back? Chime in below in the comments.
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I just came across this show and watched every episode. I can’t believe it wasn’t renewed, it was so good.
shows such as Forever are doomed to an early death because network execs view them as being too cerebral, because viewers are encouraged to actually focus instead of merely watching. Plots actually have ‘body’, cast members are believable, even with the main focus on the star of the show being an immortal.
Another series that vanished too soon suffered the same fate, an intelligent show called ‘Beauty and the Beast’, starring Linda Hamilton (yes, THAT Linda Hamilton) and Ron Perelman who played Vincent, the beast. Vincent was highly intelligent, often quoting Shakespeare and was in love with Catherine (Hamilton). While Catherine lived above ground in New York City, Vincent and many others lived beneath it in caves, tunnels and catacombs.
90% of all shows on TV now are cops/robbers, schmaltzy s0-called love stories and brainless comedies. Sadly, the age of quality television has vanished just like Henry Morgan, except these shows will never re surface from the HUdson like he did
I hate the way stations do that. It was done to StarTrek all those years ago, and I really thought that that error would change the way they deal with scifi shows. If we don’t see the ad, we don’t know they are scifi, and if they keep skipping the episodes for other programming. No one sees them! I really liked this show and finally found it on BluRay. I also found it running in line. I love scifi, though the scifi channel seems to have terrible taste in scifi! When a channel finally has a good one, it gets cancelled. It’s very frustrating!
I just finished watching the first season, I had not heard of it before. I would 100% support another season!!
I watched Forever back when it was on TV. I was so upset when ABC canceled it. I would support it if it miraculously came back after a decade but it is super unlikely that it does. I will never forgive ABC for robbing us of more seasons of the show.