Bringing TV Shows Back to Life, From 'Firefly' to 'Pushing Daisies'

What happens when a beloved series gets canceled before its time? Creators turn to other media to finish the story, including film, novels, and comic books.

Twitter/Bryan Fuller

Fans of Pushing Daisies, the vibrant and inventive gumshoe comedy that aired for two short years on ABC, are still smarting from its cancellation in 2009. The critically beloved series, with its mesmerizing, fantastical visual effects and sweet, earnest dialogue, turned Broadway darling Kristin Chenoweth into a bonafide TV star, made a viable leading man out of Lee Pace (look out for him in the final Twilight films), and spawned a deeply passionate group of followers.

After it became clear that their numerous petitions to save the low-rated show were ineffective, the legion of fans turned their attention to a comic book series promised by Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller. (While the show waited word of a third-season pick-up, Fuller pledged to wrap up the series' storylines in a comic series in the case of cancellation.) After two years of teases, updates, and setbacks, Fuller tweeted the first official page of the comic book this morning. He didn't give any more specifics as to when the completed publication would be released, but, for fans who had been missing the charming pie-maker and his crime-solving friends, the page gave hope that their beloved series would live on in another medium.

Pushing Daisies isn't the first cancelled-too-soon TV show to find an afterlife in a different medium. From Naked Gun to video games, here's a look at how some of the most adored short-lived series lived on long after they were canceled: