# Crappy TV sitcoms that only lasted a few episodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 27, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149 "2002-07-27T19:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/141 "2004-04-21T06:02:43Z")
> [@Rysler](#): > > Bah, **Master Control**! > > _[Cafe Americain](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105967/)_, to this day, is the best sitcom I’ve ever seen. I knew it would be cancelled as soon as I saw it, but it was brilliant. Hehe, to each his own 🙂 I just thought of a couple of others. A couple of stars from one of my favoriate TV comedies of all times, **Wings** didn’t seem to be able to make it on their own ☹ I don’t think that **Ned and Stacy** (with Thomas Haden Church who played Lowell) lasted that long, did it? Well, a couple seasons I think, so that wasn’t too bad. And then there was **Stark Raving Mad** (with Tony Shalhoub who played Antonio) which, I think was already mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/142 "2004-04-21T06:38:11Z")
**The Golden Palace** , a spin-off of **The Golden Girls** lasted about 5 minutes. There was a spin-off of **Cheers** called **The Tortellis** that was cancelled after the first season. I remember in one episode, they were arguing whether or not evolution was true, and one brother asserted, “There’s no way men came from monkeys!” and then a third brother walks in eating a banana and scratching himself. It was funny at the time…when I was five… Shit, I had a third one, but now I can’t remember it. As soon as I hit reply I lost it… Oh, **Roc** used to come on after **The George Carlin Show**. I don’t remember that lasting for very long either. That’s not the one I was thinking of though…damnit…Oh, **Hi Honey I’m Home** , but that’s already been mentioned. I still remember the song. _Hi, Honey I’m home! They were once a sitcom family, in your black and white TV and now they’re blah blah blah BLAH!_ I remember **Thea** premiered the same season as **Grace Under Fire** , but didn’t last nearly as long. Did it even make it through the end of the season? I also remember that TGIF had a revolving door policy for their 9:30 timeslot. **Just the Ten of Us** aired then, but so did a lot of other crappy shows. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/143 "2004-04-21T06:43:31Z")
What about those **Malcom in the Middle** copies? That one with Katie Segal, and then that show…something with bean in the title, Oliver Bean…oh, something like that. Oh yeah, and poor Tim Cury. Great in the movies, but sadly, can’t do television. There was that failed attempt with Annie Potts, and then he was in that remake of **Family Affair** playing Mr. French. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/144 "2004-04-21T06:48:54Z")
As of few weeks ago, Oliver Bean was still on. It’s a cute show. ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/145 "2004-04-21T13:04:13Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > No, this wasn’t a show featuring some actors who didn’t confrom to Hollywood standards of beauty; this was a show built around the inherent hilariousness of not being beautiful. > > Here it is: _The **Ugily** Family_. Two references on the entire Internet? Do I win some kind of obscurity prize? I saw this show at one of those horrible “preview screener” things. You get invites, you sucker three friends into going, and all of you end up in a hotel conference room watching truly horrible pilots and telling the folks who brought them in what you think. I remember seeing “The Ugily Family” at one of them. I think at the same one I saw a pilot for “Sirens,” a buddy show about two female cops. IIRC I saw “Sirens” actually air for a few episodes, but they had changed it from a dramedy with “character actors” to an actual cop drama with babes. I do remember voting “The Ugily Family” as pretty much bottom of the barrel, and not staying for the third offering. There are only so many “AAAAH MY EYES!!!” 1/2 hour pilots I can take in one evening. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/146 "2004-04-21T15:56:42Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > As of few weeks ago, Oliver Bean was still on. It’s a cute show. Oh, then I guess it was another show I was thinking of. It’s about a boy growing up, the commercials reminded me of a cross between Malcom in the middle and The Wonder Years, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/147 "2004-04-21T18:06:56Z")
> [@Master Control](#): > > Oh, then I guess it was another show I was thinking of. It’s about a boy growing up, the commercials reminded me of a cross between Malcom in the middle and The Wonder Years, or something like that. No, that sounds like Oliver Beene…Hmmm, now this is curious. I know I watched it. It was on between KoTH and The SImpsons but now it doesn’t look like it’s on anymore…poking around the Internet it seems that the last 10 episodes will air over the summer. Poor Oliver. It wasn’t a bad show. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/148 "2004-04-30T12:23:21Z")
> [@JDeMobray](#): > > I only remembered Party Girl running for 2 episodes, but TVTome says 4 were aired. I can’t imagine. > > There was another terrible, loathsome, unfunny show on in the same 1 hour block, which was canceled just about the same time but I don’t remember the name. **Lush Life**. Karyn Parsons, late of **Fresh Prince of Bel-Air** , plays a spoiled princess who’s been kicked to the curb by her husband, who’s tired of her spending him into the ground. She moves in with Lori Petty, her grunge/slacker pal. The pilot did have one funny line. Petty, who is exceedingly thin with no curves, announces that she has to go to work, and emerges from her room wearing a Hooter’s shirt. “I put 'em on when I get there!” ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/149 "2004-04-30T15:07:53Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > Best of the West-a horrible Western comedy. > Wife (sweeping): “I just can’t get the dirt off this floor” > Husband:“Honey, it’s a dirt floor!” > At 13 or so, I thought it was hilarious. 😕 Holy crap! Repressed memory! Didn’t that star the guy who played the “Dad” on _Silver Spoons_? The “dirt floor” joke was on the commerical previews too. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/150 "2004-04-30T15:39:53Z")
> [@Legolamb](#): > > NBC’s version of **Coupling** \ > > You’d think they’d have learned from the American versions of Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous and Red Dwarf by now. :rolleyes: And let’s not forget the American attempt at _Men Behaving Badly_ with that guy from ER and Rob What-'s-His-Nuts. Hey, anyone else remember _Condo_ with McClean Stevenson and a Luis Avalos from the Electric COmpany? A Hispanic Family moves in next door to a white family, their kids marry… hilarity ensues. Avalos (singing in Spanish to his new grandson): “Petito… Petito…” (Lttle one, littleone) Stevenson: Objects to the fact that the other grandpa is singing “potato, potato.” > [@bup](#): > > **The Art of Being Nick** Oh, aaaaaaargh… another… repressed memory… comes flooding back… \ ---
**Author:** ![Teelo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@Teelo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teelo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/151 "2004-04-30T16:41:34Z")
**My Big Fat Greek Life** was what came to my mind. I think these shows are the reason aliens fly past our little blue planet. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/152 "2004-04-30T16:51:44Z")
Wow, I did a TVTome search on Jason Bateman and before _Arrested Development_ it looks like he had the touch of death for any sitcom – three stinkers in a row: _Chicago Sons, George and Leo_ and _Some of My Best Friends_. And anyone ever hear of _Arresting Behavior_? I was trying to remember the guy who was in the U.S attempt at _Men Bahving Badly_ and it seems that he was in some kind of cop sitcom that only lasted for August 1992 - September 1992. Ouch! Never heard of it though. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/153 "2004-05-01T02:07:28Z")
Somebody mentioned _AfterM_A_S_H\*, but has anybody here seen _W_A_L_T_E_R\* (Radar O’Reilly gets his own show - 1 episode) ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149/154 "2004-05-01T04:49:53Z")
The lousy, post-MWC Katey Sagal vehicle was called **Tucker.** Katey did as well as she could but what I esp. remember was the one where nearly-30 Seth Green visited his ‘girlfriend’, 14-year-old neighbor McKenna. This was even more disturbing because that’s my Mom’s maiden name. McKenna, that is. But it was all OK because he doesn’t sleep with her :rolleyes: It was like Malcolm if all of Malcolm’s monologues were only about sex. It was dismal. Although I seem to remember the nasty cousin, although he was the same age as Tucker, was actually a Cousin Oliver. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-tv-sitcoms-that-only-lasted-a-few-episodes/121149.md?page=7)