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.
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.
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.
Here’s another one. I think I got the right link, Thanks. About a family of Pilgrims which made me think ‘what the hell were they thinking!’
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
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.