# Bad Sitcom Ideas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2001, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408 "2001-09-28T23:22:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/41 "2001-10-02T01:08:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SmackFu \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by watsonwil \* > > \*\*[hijack] > > Has ANYONE from that show gone on to do anything, other than Robbing Tyson…errr…Robin Givens? With a cast that big (and young) it is a suprise that no did anything. > > [/hijack] \*\* > > Why, oh why, do I know the answer to this? The guy who played Eric (the too-cool-for-honors-class guy) is a rather successful director named [Brian Robbins](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Robbins,+Brian+(I)). He directed Varsity Blues, Ready to Rumble, and that Keanu Reeves movie that came out last week, Hardball. \*\* Cool. A poor man’s Ron Howard. He was the one I expected to have a Kirk Cameron style career. At least hot for 15 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![pezwookiee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@pezwookiee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pezwookiee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/42 "2001-10-02T01:21:24Z")
OMIGOSH! I just remembered another bad, morbid sitcom! Howie Mandel starring in **Good Grief!** , a comedy about a guy who works at a funeral home. I believe it was on Fox. ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/43 "2001-10-02T02:48:46Z")
Small Wonder! I finally have a name for that disgusting show!!! I remember seeing it when I was three and cringing in disgust. And later in life I thought it was all a bad dream. . . Uhh… Full House. It causes physical pain for me to watch that show. And One on One, a new UPN show. Absolutely evil. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/44 "2001-10-02T04:17:35Z")
Here’s another one. I think I got the right link, [Thanks](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0208510). About a family of Pilgrims which made me think ‘what the hell were they thinking!’ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/45 "2001-10-02T14:13:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by serack \* > \*\*PJs got funy after the fist few episodes. What’s so bad about the IDEA behind that show? \*\* IMHO, it wasn’t just the idea but the lowest-common-denominator way it was presented. It was as if Fat Albert grew up and became Stanley Roper. Eddie could have done better, if it wasn’t for him the show wouldn’t even have aired. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/46 "2001-10-02T14:22:05Z")
There was a show on several years ago about pilots that never made it to the air. The one that stands out in my mind was a sitcom starring Bob Denver of Gilligan fame as a scientist who invents an invisiblity potion that they test on monkeys. They showed footage of Bob Denver wrestling with an invisible monkey that was just hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/47 "2001-10-02T14:25:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pezwookiee \* And yeah, anything with Billy Conelly. What happened to him? Wait, nevermind - I don’t care. \*\* Actually, Billy Connolly played John Brown opposite Judi Densch’s Queen Victoria in “Mrs. Brown” a few years back (movie, not sitcom), and was pretty damn good. Just goes to show what good material will do for you. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/48 "2001-10-02T15:26:28Z")
Here’s an idea… You can remake a popular old show, but instead of trying to find writers you just reuse the exact same scripts from 10 years ago. But to disguise it, hire completely different looking actors. Thus, we have the story of _The **New** Odd Couple_, a misnomer if there were ever one. The only thing new about this show was that the cast was black! My mom told me about there being a “Black” Odd Couple years back, but I didn’t believe her. Not until they started that new network called TV Land and they had it on the air at one time. What I’m told is that this show got its genesis during a writers strike, so I shouldn’t be surprised that network TV would be rummaging through Goodwill for anything to air. Hell, they do this now. But the desperation exibited in this ploy would make even hardened cynics winch. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/49 "2001-10-02T15:28:25Z")
THe Hitler programme identified above was “Heil Honey I’m Home” made by an early British Sattelite Company. It really did exist and it really did feature Hitler and Eva Braun living next door to a jewish couple. I have actually seen an episode of this and remember cringing at all times. details here: [http://www.tvchronicles.com/britishfiction/bfh2.htm](http://www.tvchronicles.com/britishfiction/bfh2.htm) Quite what they were thinking, I have no idea. Although there was a long running British sit-com about a white family living next door to a black family. It was called Love thy neighbour and was truly horrible. Perhaps they were being “clever” about that? Oh my sides. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2001, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/50 "2001-10-04T14:44:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Green Fool \* > \*\* > OOPS was another show I foundly remembered. One character survived the nuclear blast because he was in his FIA or some Swedish car, and the joke was that the country with the highest suicide rate made the only car taht could survive armageddon. \*\* IIRC it was a Volvo. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2001, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/51 "2001-10-04T23:35:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lurkernomore \* > \*\* IIRC it was a Volvo. \*\* Our hero (in the opening credits) is at a drive-up ATM. He leans over to get something from his floorboard when the remote-control-car-induced nuclear war occurs. He sits back up and stares in amazement at the post-apocalyptic devastation surrounding him. His voice-over comment was, “The Volvo proved even safer than advertised.” 🙂 It was the best line of the series (all four episodes). **Microbug** and I can’t believe we still say it whenever we see a Volvo. [sub]Okay, I may have watched an episode or two of it. Big deal.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![pezwookiee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@pezwookiee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pezwookiee)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/52 "2001-10-06T05:07:46Z")
Do cartoons count here? There was _Little Rosy_\*, the cartoon about a child Roasanne and John Goodman having advnetures. There was _Rick Moranis in Gravesdale High_\*, which was an animated Rick Moranis as a teacher in a haunted high school. And then of course _Gilligan’s Planet_, _Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space_, _Return to the Planet of the Apes_ (the cartoon series with astronauts Bill, Jeff, and Judy on the PotA), _Punky Brewster_ (the cartoon which had the magical furry Dave Coulier voiced creature)… oh man, the networks must have thought kids would watch anything as long as it was in cartoon form. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2001, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/53 "2001-10-06T13:12:26Z")
For no reason that I can explain, the theme song to “Jennifer Slept Here” got lodged in my brain, and every once in a while, at least twice a year, it surfaces and plays itself over and over and over again. “Jennifer slept here, She lived here, laughed here, and wept here, She slept here, And she never really left here…” It’s back. Please kill me. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/54 "2001-10-07T02:11:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pezwookiee \* > \*\*Do cartoons count here? > > There was _Little Rosy_\*, the cartoon about a child Roasanne and John Goodman having advnetures. > > There was _Rick Moranis in Gravesdale High_\*, which was an animated Rick Moranis as a teacher in a haunted high school. > > And then of course _Gilligan’s Planet_, _Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space_, _Return to the Planet of the Apes_ (the cartoon series with astronauts Bill, Jeff, and Judy on the PotA), _Punky Brewster_ (the cartoon which had the magical furry Dave Coulier voiced creature)… oh man, the networks must have thought kids would watch anything as long as it was in cartoon form. \*\* I actually thought that Return to the PotA was pretty interesting. The episodes were in serial form, so there was an ongoing story to follow, and it actually gave a nod to the original book by having the apes have a roughly 20th century society. IMHO, it was a more interesting take on the concept than the recent remake movie. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408/55 "2001-10-07T02:27:35Z")
Let’s take someone with a unique and funny perspective about the world, pretend to build a sitcom around them or their work, but not give them any creative input, instead hiring a bunch of hack TV writers to turn out the same tripe as we’ve seen in a bunch of other sitcoms, except for one line in every three episodesthe writers rip off that reminds of you what you thought you would get. This brings us Dave’s World, All American Girl, the Mommies and The Grass is Always Greener. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-sitcom-ideas/84408.md?page=2)