The Duck Factory lasted for a couple of months in 1984. Starring Jim Carey, the scary part is that he played the “normal” one.
Truly painful to watch.
That show lasted a lot more than a few episodes - How about four seasons?! God knows why…
http://smallwonder.hispeed.com/Episodes/Episode_frame.html
Eric
There were two earlier American versions of Fawlty Towers. The first was called - I think- “Snavely” and starred Harvey Korman and Betty White. It played like an overlong “Carol Burnett Show” sketch.
The other was “Amanda’s Place”, with Bea Arthur as a female (sort of) Basil Fawlty. Tony Rosato of “SCTV” played the Manuel character.
Both versions were worse than “Payne”, which was only barely watchable.
Creaky: the show was called “The Dumplings”, and it was yet another preachy Norman Lear schlockfest*.
It lasted from Jan '76 to March '76
More info here
Fenris
*Yes, I know I’m a heretic: Lear is revered as like unto a Gawd. I still say “Feh. He’s a preachy hack with two dimensional characters and straw-men situations.”
Anyone remember Shasta McNasty?
I actually rather liked it…
The weird thing about Shasta McNasty is that it was supposed to be about a cheesey pop-rap group who lived together…but I think they abandoned that premise after the first episode. And just made them slackers.
I did enjoy the Vern Troyer episode.
Small Wonder was so successful for syndication that it almost had a spin-off about the Evil Robot sister. She ended up being really popular because she had a personality. For Small Wonder that was an unusual thing.
I put forth SISTER KATE. A show about a nun running an orphange and it starred the incomprable Jason Priestly as a trouble youth.
I met one of the writers once (he also wrote for ST:TNG, Growing Pains, and Just the 10 of Us) He hated working on all those shows. When I told him I liked Just the 10 of Us, he said I had no taste.
The most important information I learned from him was:
Marina Sirtis is a bitch.
Leonardo DiCrapio was a prick even before anyone knew who he was.
He came to my high school to give a speech about careers.
Speaking of ripoffs of Britcoms:
“Reggie”: a horrifyingly sucky attempt to re-create “The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin”. Richard Mulligan was completely wasted in this piece of crap.
And Milli Vanilli were special guest stars on one episode. God I know a lot of weird stuff about crappy TV.
Anyway, to continue the thread, I’d like to mention the abysmally named Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (later changed to My Adventures in Television) with John Cleese and not much else.
5 episodes. Cancelled after two.
Ah, but it found a new life on ABC’s Saturday morning schedule after that (which, as the guy from the Complete Directory to Prime Time and Cable TV Shows 1946-present said about it, was a better place for it.)
It wasn’t really the Dinosaurs formula, though. On Dinosaurs, everyone was a dinosaur. On Aliens in the Family, it was a mixed family-part human, part alien.
Fenris: thank you! I hadn’t thought about that show in years, and then suddenly trying to remember the details was driving me crazy.
Well, if this thread was about ANY sitcom that lasted a few episodes, I’d say Clerks: The Animated Series. But, since that was a GREAT cartoon, I can’t metion it. But I think it takes the cake as shortest run ever…only two episodes ever aired.
I’m remembering “The Charmings,” about Snow White and her family (Prince, two sons, evil stepmother living in the attic with magic mirror). I watched it a couple of times and as I recall it was pretty bad!
There was also “Hi Honey I’m Home,” about a family from a black-and-white sitcom. They had a “Turnerizer” that would give them all color if anyone was going to be coming over. Very weird. The really scary thing is that I still remember the theme song.
Strongly disagree on this one. It was by far Carrey’s best role until The Truman Show and showed what he actually should be doing – light comedy instead of aspiring to be a second-rate Jerry Lewis. The show was quite funny, had a great cast, was filled with witty in-jokes, and deserved a medal for exceptionally merit for being the only TV show that ever showed the great Bill Scott onscreen.
I will always remember “Something Wilder” starring Gene Wilder for Alice Cooper’s rendition of "I love you. You love me. We’re a happy family.
Remember Hi Honey, I’m Home? It was about a 50’s sitcom family that somehow escaped from the TV and started living in a modern 90’s neighborhood. Whenever the wife gave a lecture, she grabbed her giant remote that turned everything to B&W. I was really too young to have a negative opinion on anything back then so I don’t remember if it was really bad, but the premise sounds corny.
as in “Jenny McCarthy.”
Jenny had shown that she was more than just the generic Playboy babe. She actually seemed to have a personality and a sense of humor.
The vehicle for her, though, was just awful. I saw every one that aired (a few in the can never aired), and they were all just bad.
The Ferris Bueller series, which also starred a pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston. I saw the first episode, and developed an immediate dislike for the title character, and I liked the movie.
I have to second Costello. Even worse was Fox’s reletntless hyping of that POS. It was advertised about every 10 minutes in the months prior to it’s release. I think it lasted 2 or 3 episodes, which is 2 or 3 too long.
How has this thread gotten this far without mentioning Married to the Mob, a truly horrible spin-off of a fairly mediocre movie.
A loser under two titles. Second Chance had Kiel Martin as a guy who died in 2011, judged not good enough for heaven and not bad enough for hell and was sent back in time to keep his younger self (Matthew Perry) from being the screwup he was going to become. Truly awful. After about three episodes, the producers decided to drop Martin and the whole “older self/redemption” storyline and focus on Perry and his friends getting in Wacky Scrapes and Zany Antics, retitling the show Boys Will Be Boys.
The amazing thing is, this show had a good cast. Kiel Martin was brilliant as J.D. LaRue on Hill Street Blues, and, some years later, Matthew Perry went on to fame and acclaim as Chandler Bing on Friends. The past and future of Thursday night TV…