1 of 13 Colleen Hayes/NBC, Cliff Lipson/CBS, Colleen Hayes/NBC
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This time of year can be brutal for TV fans. In the next few weeks, a number of shows will be canceled to make room for fall's new kids. The sad reality is that for every Partners or Do No Harm sent to the TV graveyard with little to no fuss, there's a handful of beloved shows that we're not ready to part with just yet. Behold, here are the shows we're desperately hoping the execs will give one more chance.
2 of 13 Patrick Harbron/The CW
The Carrie Diaries (CW)
TV reboots are always a tricky proposition, but this Sex and the City prequel is a nice mix of '80s nostalgia (the soundtrack is tubular!) and timeless teen drama. AnnaSophia Robb fills Sarah Jessica Parker's Manolos nicely, but we're dying to see more from the show's equally charismatic supporting cast.
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Community (NBC)
The wacky sitcom has arguably the best comedy ensemble on TV. (In particular, Danny Pudi and Donald Glover continue to impress as Abed and Troy; just wait until you see them in the upcoming "body swap" episode.) NBC can't cancel everything, so we'd like the network give the new showrunners another season to find their way out of creator Dan Harmon's shadow.
4 of 13 Sonja Flemming/CBS
CSI: NY (CBS)
Yes, CSI: NY is battling for a slot on the network that has the fewest to give — and it's doing so for the third year in a row. But it's still our favorite (and the most-grounded) CSI. Although Mac proposing to Christine in this season's finale could serve as a sweet endnote, we'd love the chance to see how being in love again affects the Gary Sinise's steely crime-fighter's work.
5 of 13 Justin Lubin/NBC
Go On (NBC)
Despite its grief support group premise, Go On is not the sad trombone show it sounds like. Though few realized it after its Voice lead-in disappeared in the winter, Go On slowly grew into a touching and very funny show (see: Brett Gelman's Mr. K) because it understood one thing that is true about grief: It can make you do some weird, crazy things.
6 of 13 Nicole Wilder/ABC
Happy Endings (ABC)
You won't get bigger laughs for your buck than with this show's six crazy kids. Unlike most sitcoms that lace sentimentality with lighthearted chuckles, Happy Endings cranks out jokes, slapstick and zingers at such relentless pace that we never want to get off this wild ride. ABC wants you to save it. USA might save it. For the love of V-necks, somebody save it!
7 of 13 Michael Parmelee/NBC
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[UPDATED: Good news! NBC has renewed SVU for another season.]
Law & Order: SVU (NBC)
Still sharply ripping from the headlines with episodes about "legitimate rape" or a Chris Brown-Rihanna-like celebrity couple and diving deeper into the cops' personal lives (Benson's got a secret lover! Amaro has a kid he never knew!), the show seems to have a renewed energy. With all due respect to Chris Meloni, we like the way the new cast is jelling, particularly the slow-burn chemistry between Mariska Hargitay and Danny Pino.
8 of 13 Katherine Bomboy-Thornton/ABC
Nashville (ABC)
Since Rayna and Juliette hit the road and the show wrapped up the election, the season's best-reviewed new series has grown into a solid, soapy drama. The soundtrack has been in steady rotation on our iPods for months and we're rooting for burgeoning relationship between Scarlett and Gunnar as much as the forbidden romance between Rayna and Deaon. It'd be a shame to stop the tour bus now!
9 of 13 Trae Patton/NBC
The New Normal (NBC)
The New Normal hasn't fallen victim to Ryan Murphy heavy-handedness (yet). It's sweet but sour, conventional but edgy, and we can't get enough of Bebe Wood's Little Edie Grey Gardens impression. C'mon, NBC, give the people what they want.
10 of 13 Chris Haston/NBC
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[UPDATED: Good news! NBC has renewed Parenthood for another season.]
Parenthood (NBC)
Other shows may be bigger and flashier, but no show does the small moments better than Parenthood. Kristina's breast cancer diagnosis, Julia's bonding struggle with adopted son Victor, Sarah's unlikely romance with Hank — only Jason Katims could handle them all with poignant realism. Besides, what would become of the tissue industry without it?
11 of 13 Colleen Hayes/NBC
Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Parks and Rec is probably the safest of these to get renewed, but we'll never pass up a chance to praise the charming, sincere and goofy series that gave us a wedding dress to rival Liz Lemon's Princess Leia getup: a DIY skirt made of newspaper clippings of Leslie's greatest hits. Such delightful, thoughtful specificity makes us never want to leave Pawnee.
12 of 13 Adam Taylor/ABC
Suburgatory (ABC)
Those kooky Chatswin folk are more out-there than the rest of ABC's family sitcom Wednesday lineup, but they are also the most complex. In Season 2, the fish-out-of-water comedy skillfully fleshed out the personas underneath the Stepford-ian stereotypes and resisted dragging out a will-they-won't-they story line with George and Dallas. Our advice: Just keep it at 8:30; no one needs the post-Modern Family pressure.
13 of 13 Sonja Flemming/CBS
Vegas (CBS)
You'd be hard-pressed to find a better drama ensemble on broadcast TV. Even though it's a cop show, the 1960s cowboys-against-the-mob drama hews closer to The Good Wife's serialized storytelling than that of most of CBS' procedural glut. Although that's probably why its ratings are bad, we appreciate the network's effort to try something new.