In 1997, before the days of DVRs, the American reality TV explosion, and the Bush administration, USA debuted a series based on a French film with a similar title. La Femme Nikita was the number-one drama on basic cable during its first two seasons.The premise of the show focused on a counter-terrorist organization, not unlike creator Joel Surnow's later work, 24.

Nikita (Peta Wilson) is falsely accused of manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison. Soon thereafter, the government fakes her death and she is transformed into an expertly trained assassin for Section One. Michael (Roy Dupuis) spends two years training Nikita to use her beauty as a weapon. As an innocent woman, her compassion constantly conflicts with the merciless missions assigned to her, and although she is initially disinclined to kill, Nikita eventually finds a balance between her new role and her sense of humanity.

Some of the magic of Nikita lay in its low budget, as the lack of funds forced writers to de-emphasize expensive action sequences and instead rely on well-crafted dialogue and intricate plots. Unfortunately, the show's success quickly slumped when USA switched presidents from Rod Perth to Stephen Chao. The network made drastic cuts to Nikita's promotional budget and had unsuccessful attempts to exploit its popularity. The most notable and bizarre of Chao's actions was requiring that Nikita cast professional wrestlers in leading terrorist roles as a way to cross-promote USA's broadcasts of the World Wrestling Federation. The series was eventually canceled in 2000, but devout fans mounted an extensive campaign to revive it.

"Save LFN" was a valiant effort. Fans were inventive, writing over 25,000 letters, forming online petitions and eventually getting a full-page ad printed in The Hollywood Reporter, with requests that USA and Warner Brothers reconsider the cancellation. As a result, Chao announced in September 2000 that La Femme Nikita would return for a final fifth season (albeit condensed to eight new episodes), which began airing in January 2001.

There's no doubt that Nikita had an enormous impact on other works. The show debuted around the same time as Buffy, helping start the genre of dark, ass-kicking action heroines on television like Dark Angel (2000) and Alias (2001).

Despite everything, while Joel Surnow went on to create 24, most of the actors vanished as far as American television viewers are concerned. Peta Wilson wasn't in anything afterward except for the underwhelming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Roy Dupuis pretty much stuck to Canadian productions.

Still, it's incredible to see how devoted Nikita fans were to the series. The largest unofficial fan page was updated as recently as October 2008, and a long-running "Save LFN" message board has been revived because of the CW news. I'm curious if fans would watch a reboot, or if this is the sort of show that should remain untouched in history.