Television shows come and go all the time. Some, like All In The Family and M*A*S*H, become treasured icons in television history, while others like Friends and Cheers define a generation. But some get cancelled before they even have a chance to get the attention of mainstream America – despite the fact that the show had the potential to become a huge success.

FOX had a show that could have been one of the most popular comedies on television. A show with a stellar cast, an awesome original concept and great writing – but decided to cancel it eleven shows into the first season, not even airing the last two episodes. In my opinion – it was the worst decision FOX has ever made. The show I speak of is Greg The Bunny.

First aired on March 27, 2002, the show is obviously focused on Greg The Bunny who is a puppet, or “Fabricated American” as all puppets walk and talk like you and I do. Living with his pal Jimmy (Seth Green), he gets a job as the lead actor on Sweetknuckle Junction, a kid show which is a cross between Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and directed by Jimmy’s father, Gil Bender (Eugene Levy), who is constantly supervised by Alison Kaiser (Sarah Silverman) the bossy executive who works for the network that airs Sweetknuckle Junction.

The “cast” of Sweetknuckle Junction includes humans “Junction” Jack Mars (Bob Gunton) and Dottie Sunshine (Dina Waters), and puppets Count Blah, who cannot say a single sentence without ending it with “blah,” Tardy Turtle, who is “not all there” as his name implies, and my favorite character – Warren Demontague – a Shakespearian trained money-puppet who has a problem with alcohol and painkillers. Sporting a white helmet with a red stripe to cover an unsightly scar he got as a child, Demontague plays “Professor Ape” on Sweetknuckle Junction, a role he despises but must play because he is contractually obligated to do so.

Before coming to FOX, Greg The Bunny was a staple on the Independent Film Channel. Although similar to its FOX incarnation, there are some differences. On the Independent Film Channel, Greg had a show, but his “pal” was Spencer, played by Spencer Chinoy, one of the brains behind the Bunny along with Steven Levitan and Dan Milano. Besides Greg, the only other characters that made the jump to FOX along with Greg were Warren and Blah, except Blah looked different on the Independent Film Channel series. But while they may have changed the show a bit once it moved to FOX, much of the IFC feel still remained and many of the scenes from those shows were redone for FOX, including the very first meeting of Greg and Count Blah – minus a few colorful expletives.

From the first episode, which was entitled, “Welcome To Sweetknuckle Junction,” I was as hooked to Greg The Bunny as I am to South Park. I loved the way the show portrayed the constant struggle between humans and puppets to co-exist. I also loved the classic storylines like when Greg joined the Puppets Rights Organization and changed his name to “Bizzleburp,” when Blah slept with Warren’s ex-wife Maggie, played by Marilu Henner, when Jimmy and Greg shared some “special brownies” with Jimmy’s unsuspecting dad – and my favorite – when Warren auditioned for the role of Claudius to Gary Oldman’s Hamlet – because nothing beats a monkey-puppet wearing nothing but a red and white helmet reciting Shakespeare with flowing eloquence.

After airing the eleventh episode, entitled “Dottie Heat” on August 11, 2002, FOX cancelled the show citing poor ratings. Personally, I think the network didn’t support the show enough or give it a chance to grow before they yanked it. I also think that their excuse of poor ratings was just that, an excuse – because after the show was cancelled, fans began a campaign to try and have the show put back on the air. But despite the pleas of tens of thousands of fans – Greg The Bunny was no more – leaving many fans to never see a second season of the show, or the two episodes that they filmed but never aired…

…every fan except me.

I was in my office at the TLC when a Director at FOX called me about having Cedric The Entertainer be a voice for the TLC’s Celebrity Talking Taxi Program. Jokingly, I told her he would not be allowed to be a voice, because his new show replaced Greg The Bunny. As soon as I mentioned Greg the Bunny, we got into a conversation about it because she worked on the show. “Why would you cancel such an amazingly unique and funny show?” I asked her. Surprisingly, she told me that FOX is notorious for canceling shows, as she put it, “before they get a chance to bloom.” She also told me that if they did not cancel the show – they would have launched Season Two with a full merchandising campaign – leaving me to sadly ponder how many Warren Demontague collectibles I will now never own.

Since our conversation was going so well, I asked what happened to the two “lost” episodes of Greg The Bunny that were filmed but never aired. She told me that they are in the FOX library – and seeing as how I was such a big fan of the show – she would FedEx them to me right away. At first, I didn’t think she was serious – until the box came. Once I saw that she really sent me the episodes, I couldn’t wait to get home and watch them, because besides being able to see two more new episodes of Greg The Bunny, I knew that no one else in the world would be able to see them. So I called all of my friends together that night and we watched the two “lost” episodes of Greg The Bunny – “Sock Like Me” and “Jimmy Drives Gil Crazy.”

When they were over, my friends actually gave me a round of applause for scoring those two episodes, which in my opinion were the two best of the series. But after we watched them, I got sad because I realized that now that we saw those two episodes, we would never see a new episode of Greg The Bunny ever again.

I really think that FOX dropped the ball and made a very crucial mistake when they cancelled Greg the Bunny. For twenty-two minutes a week, the show entertained with perfect jokes, made you think with a few subtle moral lessons – and was brilliant enough to make you feel sorry for Count Blah as he sobbed by his wife’s grave, or when Warren eulogized Rochester Rabbit, the former lead actor on Sweetknuckle Junction who Greg replaced. But whether you laughed or you cried – you always came back for the next episode – something I wish I can still do.

If you ever get a chance, look for old episodes of Greg The Bunny from its run on either FOX or the Independent Film Channel, and see for yourself why I still watch episodes of the show to this day – and why Greg The Bunny was the best television show you never watched…blah.