>The closest thing I can think of is Veronica Mars which was Kickstarted many years later and raised ~5 million dollars from 91,000 backers to make a single movie.

That everyone regretted backing.

The Firefly series got enough support (in the form of written letters - this was pre-kickstarter) to be made into movie after a comically botched distribution through normal channels (The first seasons episodes were aired out of order in random time slots on Fox. It never had a weekly time that was consistent. This was the only season, natch.)

Family Guy also had a similar fate, but not because of a botched launch, but because its audience existed, but did not consume television through mainstream sources. It was canceled after 2.5 seasons and then went on to become the best selling animated DVD series. Fox brought it back the next year.