Worst TV Shows Ever Made. . .

Re: Worst TV Shows Ever Made. . .

I didn't like Hogan's Heroes either.
Remember the Brady Bunch variety show? It was so awful. I'm not even sure the word awful covers it.

re: worst tv shows ever

unfortunately (?), the shows I truly consider the worst were so bad they weren't on the air very long, and I can't remember thier names -- or they are shows I don't watch, so I don't know how bad they are (of course I *only* watch high quality shows - like American Idol :lol: )

But a show that I have found truly wretched is Touched by an Angel - I only watched it once (the Tara Lipinski ep!!), and I found it totally galling. I can't believe how many people love that show. Go figure.

guinevere

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Does anyone remember "Cop Rock?" Was that the name of it? It was a police show, but it was an opera. In the middle of catching crooks the cops would stop and break into an aria.

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I'll go along with Gilligan's Island, My Mother the Car and all of the 'reality shows' including the psuedo talent competitions. Oh yes, and VIP.

But I really have to add to my list, all of the Lucy shows. I have never been able to understand the attraction Lucille Ball holds for so many people.
(Guess that's why they make Cherry Garcia and From Russia with a Buzz ice cream.)

4dk

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I think the thing about I Love Lucy is that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez were the first team who realized the potential and future of television as an independent entertainment medium. They were the first to use multiple camera angles, for instance. Show before them were just, here's Milton Berle doing his Vaudeville act and a TV camera happened to be running. Or here's a stage play, put a camera in the audience.

Mathman

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I really liked all the Lucy shows when I was a kid but now I mostly just find them annoying. I like Lucy much better in the old movies <em>before</em> she became Lucy the comedienne.

Re: Worst TV Shows Ever Made. . .

rgirl, Yes, definitely My Mother The Car came immediately to mind. If you are doing the degrees of separation thing, probably Car 54 Where Are You? and Speed Buggy and the movie Herbie about the VW bug .

BTW on Shallow Hal, a guy I know, Rene Kirby, was in it. I always wondered where on earth Hollywood would meet up with a guy with spina bifida from northern Vermont. Skiing, I guess. (Rene is the guy that skis on his hands, dances on his crutches in the movie, and used to run around IBM on a hand cranked tricycle.)

Other than My Mother the Car, Baywatch always hit low notes for me. Also Joe Millionaire, mainly for the level of duplicity involved.


dpp

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:lol: Doris, I was going to mention Baywatch but I wanted to be sure to get My Mother the Car in there. Wow, you know the spina bifida guy from "Shallow Hal!" Cool. I like that movie. I didn't like "Something About Mary" or "Kingpin"--can't remember those brothers' name that directs them--but I do love their fondness (and I think it is genuine fondness) for getting really odd-looking people into their movies. I thought it was a great move on Gwyneth Paltrow's part to wear that fat suit; I love Jack Black (ever see a movie "High Fidelity"? Jack Black is hilarious in it); putting Tony Robbins in there as himself was inspired; Jason Alexander was hilarious; and they made perfect use of that Cake song (I forget the name) but starts out "We are building a religion..." And Rene, the spina bifida guy, was another real inspiration.

I'll have to think of some Six Degrees of Bad TV show separations.

4DK: I hate Lucy, too! I didn't like her as a kid and I've never liked her. And Mathman, I disagree that it was the sophistication of the production that got people into "I Love Lucy." I think people really love that annoying, loudmouthed, whiny b****. One of my favorite Lucille Ball stories is that when her son Desi was in the pop/rock group Dino, Desi, and Billy, they were booked on "Hollywood Squares." Being a group, of course they were in one square. Well, Lucy marches in and demands that Desi get his own square:lol: The producers would have none of that and said that either DD&B shared a square or they were off the show. Lucy walked out and DD&B shared the square.
Rgirl

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Any reality show regarding "Millionaire", "Bachelor" or "Bachelorette"...oh yeah, and "Personality" (I'm proud to say I've watched NONE of these!)

Brady bunch, Three's company, and most "cop-buddy" shows of the seventies and 80's

But come on, the ultimate WORST show ever? Jerry Springer!!!!

Kasey :evil:

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SURVIVOR!!!! and any of the other ridiculous reality shows.


Ladskater

Re: Worst TV Shows Ever Made. . .

When I think of the Worst shows I have to remember the great Shirley McLaine. Sir Lew Grade(sp?) persuaded her to do an awful show called "Shirley's World"

After about 13 disasterous episodes the show was pulled. When she returned home her butcher remarked to her that he hadn't seen her in a while. She said she had been off doing a TV show. He said that it was a funny thing that he hadn't even heard of her in a TV show.


She said she learned right then and there that that was one of the few wonderful things about show business.... If you were in a flop or something terrible, you could almost be assured that no one had seen it.

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I just thought of another one:

The Weakest Link!


Ladskater

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I saw another candidate advertised the other night. Love or Money, something like that. It's like they are legalizing prostitution on TV.

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The Brady Bunch Variety Show. Every time the AI gang does a group number, I flinch at the flashbacks of "Keep on Dancin' All Through the Night."

I wouldn't even know where to begin with all the 'talk' shows over the years.

Wonderbug of the Sid & Marty Kroft fame ranks right on up there with Land of the Lost, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, The Bugaloos, and Dr. Shrinker (I always wanted to smack the snarky giril from the show into next week), but I loved H.R. Puff & Stuff. Go figure.

Shazam and Mighty Isis qualify as well, along with the Bionic Woman (I always wanted a fembot to kick her a**).

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I agree, sk8cynic, that the "Brady Bunch" variety hour was pretty dismal. As I remember, "Mr." Brady was musically inept and didn't want to be involved in the productions (with good reason)........42

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<span style="color:red;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:small;">I still love to watch old reruns of "I Love Lucy". Even RealtorGal Jr. (age 9) has laughed along with Mom! Lucy was a brilliant comedienne. It amazes me what passes for comedy so often these days--so many actors cracking sex jokes (most of them stupid)--YAWN! They should watch old Lucy reruns to see what REAL comedy was all about. Okay, 'nuf of my soapbox. (Ironically, I wasn't even born when Lucy debuted!)</span>

<span style="color:navy;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:small;">I admit to liking "Love Boat". I'm a sucker for romance, and I enjoyed watching all those happy endings! I went to music school with Love Boat Captain's son--he was a very sweet, down-to-earth guy, who wanted to be a music teacher.</span>

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Actually, Robert Reed hated being Mr Brady - he felt the role was beneath him as a classically trained actor. Based upon bio's, he did not take this out on the rest of the cast and had very good relationships with everyone except perhaps producer Sherwood Schwartz. Robert Reed (at least initially) was in favor of the variety show because he wanted to be a song and dance man. Unfortunately, he was the most lacking.

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Some of these go back a 'few' years and perhaps most of you won't remember:

Captain Video - noticeable lack of special effects or in the early 50's TV, "what special effects".
Sky King - much better as a radio serial.
The Lone Ranger - much better as a radio serial or motion picture. Remember the rock they kept riding around; the same rock!
The Cisco Kid - you want to talk about sterotypes....!
Lost in Space - who cared but the robot was okay.
Batman - too camp for it's own good.
Eight is Enough - amen to that!.
Seinfeld - and the point of the series was ?
Roseanne - brought whining to an art form.
Fantasy Island - would never win an award for set decoration.
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis - need I say more.
Emergency - makes you really appreciate ER.
CHiPs - loved the form fitting regulation(?) shirts though.
Ben Casey - Vince Edwards should have shaved the back of his hands if he was supposed to be a surgeon.

4dk

Isn't it funny that I can't remember where I put my car keys or why I'm in a particular room but the names of 50's TV shows just rolled off my fingers. Go figure.

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Heyang......I do remember the bio of the "Brady Brunch"....you're right, he did want to give the song and dance thing a go and it failed miserably.....(but I watched it faithfully every week hoping it would somehow get better) 42

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Mathman,
I remember "Cop Rock"--yes, that's the name--quite well. There was a big to-do about it because it was a new show from "hitmaker" Steven Bochco who had done "Hill Street Blues" (can't recall if he'd done "LA Law" yet). Ironically, Bochco got the TV drama/musical idea from two very popular and critically acclaimed miniseries in Great Britain written by the lauded Dennis Potter: "Pennies from Heaven" and "The Singing Detective." Both were eventually shown on PBS and "Pennies from Heaven" was made into a critical and box office failure as a 1981 film, which I loved, starring Steve Martin and has Christopher Walken's best dancing on screen (except for his soft-shoe in Fat Boy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" video). So the drama/musical concept has worked, but it sure didn't work with "Cop Rock."

On another subject: I watched "Fame" tonight on Bravo--it's like "American Idol" except the contestants have to also be able to dance and they go through a one-week training camp before they compete. I had an epiphany. Or anyway a thought. You know the idea that our attention spans are getting shorter and that everything in the media is moving at an MTV video pace? I think shows like AI, Fame, Star Search, and any like them are short attention span substitutes for ye olde variety shows like The Carol Burnett Show, The Smothers Brothers, Ed Sullivan, etc. Now we have new stars who become new stars really fast and they don't sing for very long and they don't stay around for very long. Instead of flavor of the month it's now flavor of the week and soon, or maybe it's already happened, it will be flavor of the day until we get down to flavor of the fractal. I think shows like Survivor are substitutes for dramas and game shows. Shows like The Bachelor are subs for dramas with a romantic bent. But we just have to be interested in someone for a few weeks. Agents don't have to worry about sustaining stars for years. Anyway, that was my big thought for Sunday night:lol: --aside from what Nate and Brenda are going to do on "Six Feet Under."
Rgirl