Remember when TV shows were given a chance to find an audience before they were yanked unceremoniously from the schedule? I think of classic shows that might never make it in today's cut-throat world of broadcast television... Cheers, Seinfeld, and of course Star Trek all received low ratings early in their runs and almost certainly would be cancelled if they premiered and performed the same way now.

CBS featured a show called "Smith" in their fall lineup. It looked very promising with an interesting premise and some notable actors. The show features a group of professional thieves who are starting to have trouble separating their criminal lives from their otherwise relatively normal personal lives. The leader of the group is played by Ray Liotta. He's looking to end his criminal career after a few more big scores. His wife, played by Virginia Madsen is becoming more and more suspicious of his frequent "work-related" absences. Each episode centered around a different heist.

Although I enjoyed the show and thought that it had lots of potential, "Smith" did not perform well and was the first show of the season to be cancelled after only three episodes.

Anyway, the point of this entry isn't to whine about CBS' decision to pull the show. It's to applaud CBS what they have decided to do for the fans of the series regarding the remainder of the series. From the Smith Website...

Now you can catch all the episodes of this controversial and exciting drama series, including four that never aired on TV. You can also read how the story arc plays out, what happens to all the characters, and how the series concludes, with detailed synopses of the last five episodes.

I'm not happy that the series is over, but at least we get to know a little about what might have happened.