There’s a fantastic British comedy about prison life called “Porridge”.
is on the rocks an americanised version?
Don’t forget Women in Prison, which was on Fox in the late eighties. It co-starred that shortish, roundish woman from Bosom Buddies.
This was back when Fox was just starting out as a netwowk and was desparate to put anything on the air.
I loved Best of the West. Of course, I was 8 at the time but I thought it was hilarious too. They really should show this one on TV Land or Nick at Night sometime.
Not much has changed either. Seen Invasion of the Hidden Cameras ??
Yes, my wife and I liked it and watched it regularly. In fact, yesterday I posted to another current thread regarding shows we miss, and I mentioned that show.
It was called “Emeril.” According to tvtome.com, it lasted from Sept. '02 to Dec. '02. I watched a few minutes of the pilot, which was all I could stand.
One that was short lived was Doctor Doctor starring Matt Frewer. But it wasn’t crappy at all. He was insanely hilarious in it from what I recall.
Why is this surprising? Prison should be just as funny as a prisoner-of-war camp. Remember “Hogan’s Heroes”? Silly, and in bad taste, but it ran a long time.
How long was The Girl With Something Extra on?
I think Patty Duke was the mother and the daughter’s “something extra” was she was psychic.
22 episodes and it was Sally Field.
BAM!
So I wuz readin’ dis thre’d an’ I sez to myself: SELF! Dis thre’d ain’t rahaket sciencz! I shood join in again!
Iv I recahul k’recktly id waz aboud dat paragahn o’ bad cook’n Em’rul, who played Em’rul an said “BAM!” ahlot, which meant th’t his range o’ aktin’ skillz surpassed ‘is kookin’ skillz!
Fenris
Hmm. I guess because the idea of life in prison seems closer to home ( that is, easier to relate to because it’s more in the here and now for me ) and therefore more scary, than life in a POW camp. Actually, I always was a bit weirded out by “Hogan’s Heroes” because even as a kid, I really couldn’t find anything remotely funny about life as a POW.
Also lately, people who have lived real, horrible prison life figure rather prominently in my life, and I guess I can’t imagine a sitcom based on their experiences.
There was a show called Mama Malone about a middle-aged Italian woman with her own TV cooking show. Didn’t last too long.
And someone else mentioned the raft of Simpsons-wannabe animated sitcoms, but inexplicably failed to mention the flop Fish Police.
Remember when NBC tried to add an extra half hour to prime time (“Prime time begins at 7:30 tonight!”)? They shoved 5 forgettable sitcoms in that slot, of which I can remember only two:
We’ve Got it Maid with Teri Copley as the live-in maid for two geeky bachelors
Throb with Diana Canova in a record production office. Jane Leeves had a role in this one, too.
Does anyone remember the stupid series starring Joseph Bologna, where he adopted 6 girls to bolster his image? The girls sang and danced a lot…but I don’t think it lasted more than a few episodes.
Let’s not forget Misfits of Science…
I loved Stark Raving Mad… Tony Shaloub was great in that.
There was also a show called It’s like… you know with Jennifer Grey and this other cute girl and some bald guy that I really enjoyed. Then it just disappeared. It was also funny because Jennifer Grey was herself, and nobody believed it was her because she had a nose job. They also had Dirty Dancing posters randomly in the background.
Hey! Don’t you be dissing on Misfits of Science!! I LOVED that show… when I was 11.
I remember We’ve Got it Maid and The Charmings. What about that sitcom starring Fred Savage as a bright-eyed new recruit in a huge faceless corporation. It had its moments. Sometimes they did these vague, ominous commercials for the fictional company that put me in mind of the Archer Daniels Midland spots on PBS ("…valuing Youth as a resource…"
There was a rash of “goin to College” dramas right around the time I was, in fact, graduating High School. One was called “Class of 96” I think. All of them failed rather quickly.
You know, ever since Monk started I've been killing myself trying to think of the name of Tony Shalhoub's sitcom with Doogie Howser...well, there I am.I was about 14 or so and remember the ad campaign for Manimal. Looked great! Hero dives into a swimming pool to sneak up on bad guy. Cue “Jaws” music. Too cool.
I know I watched the pilot, but I don’t remember the specifics of the episode. All I do know is that I never watched it again. There must have been a reason for that.
I once read an article by Ben Stein (in Penthouse I believe), about an extremely ill-conceived show about political people in dog costumes(??). This would have been in the mid '70s, I think. The article was very interesting. Basically, it focused on the workings of Hollywood and how TV ideas (even crappy ones) get green-lighted and how people just plug on ahead with production with everyone knowing how terrible it is, but pretending like everything is just great.
I don’t know if that one ever even made the air.
I loved United States with Martin Mull and
Helen Shaver.
What was the name of the show PAtrick Duffy took when he left Dallas?
I recall he was a fish or something…
Patrick Duffy was “The Man From Atlantis”. Also, it was Beau Bridges, not Martin Mull in “united states”.