A big part about being a geek is looking back at your childhood and saying, “Man, [blank] was freaking amazing! I wonder what happened to [blank]?” You then fill the blank with whatever nostalgic thing you remembered enjoying while you were growing up. It could be a toy or a brand of candy or even a TV show. Whatever that blank is, you then grow a melancholic smile on your face as you remember the joy you had for whatever that thing was and feel sad it’s gone forever.

But sometimes, you do need a little help recalling whatever that blank was as there are so many things that have just vanished despite being a big part of your childhood. This is where the 2023 nostalgia documentary series Discontinued comes in.

If you haven’t heard of Discontinued, well, I wouldn’t be surprised because even I forgot this series was even in production. I do remember Andre “Black Nerd” Meadows promoting the first iteration of this show way back on his YouTube channel. I never really got to see that since it was on the CW Network and that version of Discontinued only lasted for a single episode! Like with a lot of things nostalgic, I don’t think I would’ve even remember this existed if I didn’t lazily go on Tubi TV and look for some crappy stuff to watch while I was super bored! No offense to Tubi TV and its fans but the amount of content you have in the Philippines is disappointing to a hilarious degree! Still, kudos to them for actually having a series that even Wikipedia doesn’t have a page for!

Anyway, even though they could’ve just made a very direct premise to Discontinued with a bunch of people waxing nostalgia to products of the past, they decided to plug in a cheesy storyline involving the host, Bruce Campbell. The premise has Bruce Campbell hiding out in a secure bunker in the future after AI has taken over the planet. However, they generally leave him alone as he is surrounded by the items that AI can’t seem to comprehend: the stuff we discontinued. Honestly, I could’ve done away with the story excuse but, then again, if they did, we wouldn’t have an excuse for Bruce Campbell to talk about silly things. So, I am a little 50/50 on the idea.

Like with a lot of these kinds of shows that talk about the past, Discontinued do have a lot of “experts” who actually do most of the discussion regarding the discontinued subject of that segment. Some of them can, well, be a little grating or just a little too enthusiastic to a degree that I believe they’re acting instead of really liking the cancelled product. Then again, these guys are probably like you and me (AKA geeks) so being a little overenthusiastic is kind of par for the course. There’s also Andre “Black Nerd” Meadows and Andrea Lopez to introduce the items before throwing it to bits with the “experts” as well as do some “man on the street” segments, which were cool as we do get to see the non-geek community react to some blast from the past products. Also, it was nice to see the Black Nerd in the show. After all, he was in the first iteration, you know.

Weirdly enough, one of the biggest hurdles for me to actually enjoy Discontinued is, in all honesty, I’m not nostalgic for some of the discontinued products they talk about. While I do remember a lot of the stuff the world has cancelled, such as Blockbuster and MacGyver, and I do look at them with rose tinted glasses, some of the other items they do discuss, I simply don’t. I mean, it’s not like we had a Videopolis over here in the Philippines. Heck, the only time I actually saw a Talkboy was in Home Alone 2! That may have been brought over here to the Philippines but I never saw it in my local toy store! So, if I never encountered it, how can I be nostalgic for it? However, even though I don’t have the slightest ember of nostalgic heat for them, I guess I can try to see their love for these discontinued items through their eyes. It’s not exactly the same but I get the sentiment.

Still, there are some odd products Discontinued tackled I feel don’t think anyone had fond memories of. Examples would be Google Glass and Quibi, products that died a swift death. In fact, I believe they died so fast no one could have developed fond enough memories to feel any love for them. In general, we only remember them just to make fun of. So, I kind of wish they focused on other beloved products which were discontinued. Things like the Dreamcast or even television shows like Aaahh!!! Real Monsters could have easily took their place. Maybe they were saving them for a second season?

Alas, this was not to be as, ironically, Discontinued was discontinued after only a single season. While it really didn’t get the time to develop a strong following, I do think this show had a lot of potential to be a very good show. Being the geek that I am, I do love it when fellow geeks talk about stuff they love and me getting sucked in by that love. But, in some way, I kind of understand why hardly anyone has seen it or talk about it. This does feel like a rather niche program and something only nostalgia nerds would care about.

Perhaps if they featured some kind of unifying discontinued thing that everyone loved deeply, more people would be checking it out. But, if a product like that exists, then I’m not sure why it would be discontinued in the first place. Still, this version of the show, the one with Bruce Campbell, was the second version of Discontinued. Maybe, sometime in the future, when AI does actually take over the world, Black Nerd will revive the show to fight off our AI overlords. Who knows?

Have you seen Discontinued? What other nostalgic cancelled products do you know and remember fondly? Let me know in the comments section below!