7. Manimal
We're digging way into the archives for this one, but it created such a furore when it first aired we just can't overlook it. Manimal wasn't based on a comic book but it did have a pretty interesting concept: Its main character Jonathan Chase has the ability to shapeshift into any animal he wishes. And when I tell you he did, he did.
The show ran on NBC for just eight episodes, during which it was taken off the air for a number of weeks. Unfortunately for Manimal, people were dragging it left, right, and center. One of the main reasons was that not many people took the idea of a shapeshifter seriously back then, but if you look at the popularity of Beast Boy and Mystique today, then Manimal was pretty ahead of its time when you think about it.
The program was negatively received and even fellow NBC series Late Night with David Letterman took part in the dragging, which is absolutely insane. By today's standards it's easy to see why audiences didn't respond well (outside of the shapeshifting aspect, that is). The fact that it took this man far too long to transform into various animals didn't exactly seem logical considering the criminals he was chasing could be long gone by the time he transformed. But that's by today's standards, and even though the special effects have aged significantly, they were impressive for the time.
Manimal had a rough time and people just weren't kind to it. It had a certain charm to it, and it's a real surprise that someone hasn't tried to make a darker modern-day reboot of it yet. It will happen one day.