“Whoops!” had its moments, though… and I still quote one of the opening lines: “The Volvo proved even safer than advertised.” (Said after Our Hero survives nuclear devastation by sheer virtue of sitting in his Volvo as the world ends.)
That line cracks me up every time.
I remember seeing at least one episode of a sitcom called A Year at the Top starring Paul Shaffer and Greg Evigan (so you know it’s quality entertainment. The premise was two musicians who sell their souls to the devil for a year of fame. I don’t know if it ever even made it past the “aired pilot” stage given the paucity of information at IMDB.
Speaking of Norman Lear and bad TV, didn’t he do a short lived series called All That Glitters ? The gimmick was that all male and female roles were reversed: The take-chart female executive, the submissive male secretary, etc.
It was thought provoking, at least to me, in that it made me evaluate why some of the scenes were just outright uncomfortable . . .
But NOT good TV.
“take-chart” = “take-charge.” Man, that’s gotta be something Freudian.
Yep, I wasn’t hallucinating: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075658/
I remember seeing Carey on a talk show after the show ended, and him lamenting its cancellation. I was thinking, “Never gonna hear about this washed-up loser again…” Heh.
Love & War lasted a few seasons, though Ms. Dey did not.
Too bad. The second season premiere could have been interesting.
The aptly named The Pitts demonstrated that drug-addled TV executives were still greenlighting unfathomably awful shows as recently as 2003.
Does anyone remember a series about an Italian family having dinner together once a week? If so, why?
What about a show that I thought was called the “Ugily Family” but apparently wasn’t, with the hilarious premise being that the main characters weren’t terribly attractive?
[QUOTE=watsonwil]
Cop Rock?
There was a comedy on in 1985 or so about the President and his family (not the Fox George C. Scott series, Mr. President).QUOTE]
I dont remember that series (probably because i wasnt born) but I do remember a sitcom about our current president made by the creators of South Park called “That’s My Bush”. Actually, it was a satire/sitcom which means they mocked everything about the sitcom formula such as laugh tracks (which i really hate), deliberate dopey, predictable plots, and cheesy catch phases. The show made its point the first 5 minuts, but after that, the episodes were mind numbing like every other 80’s sitcom.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Capitol Critters, a truly heinous show that (i believe) was the first to attempt to capitalize on the “Simpsons” phenomenon.
Also, what about Monopoly: the game show? I can’t find any documentation that it ever existed, but I remember it, and the horror…
Family Dog , an animated show about, well, the family dog. Even though it only ran a month, it did somehow spawn a SNES game (a fairly uninspired platformer).
And I do remember Monopoly. Og, I can still hear the theme music in my head. Now where did I put that icepick?
Carlton Your Doorman, the mystery voice from Rhoda gets his own animated show. (yes, a spin-off of a spin-off) It lasted one episode.
Speaking of awful American remakes of classic British, shows, its only fair to point out that we Brits made a dire remake of The Golden Girls. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105961/
Oh, and I’ll predict that Joey will be cancelled after 7 episodes.
For years after it’s debut (and subsequent cancellation) Fox’s Party Girl was the standard of sitcom futility among my friends. We didn’t know Emeril was lurking in the future.
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.
Bagdad Cafe with Whoopi Goldberg and Jean Stapleton.
and
Cafe Americain with Valerie Bertinelli.
So remember, when you see anything with “Cafe” in the title, turn and run away. Far, far away 
According to this site, three episodes were aired.
TWDuke asks:
“Why” is beyond my powers of guess-hazarding, but I believe you speak of The Montefuscos. As for the show you thought was called “The Ugly Family”, We’ve Got Each Other comes to mind. Oliver Clark (Mr. Herd on The Bob Newhart Show) and Beverly Archer certainly don’t conform to conventional notions of attractiveness.
Hands up all those who knew The Mulletts was doomed after seeing the first commercial.
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned the abominable Townies which I only watched cos it had Molly Ringwald in it and I think she’s hot.
American versions of successful UK sitcoms are usually pretty dire … and it works the other way, too. I remember, they did a remake of Married with Children, with Russ Abbott in the “Al Bundy” role … painful. And let’s not go into Brighton Belles …
I saw several episodes - possibly all the episodes - of Emma Thompson’s sketch show. I may be the only one who ever did. Ugh.
I remember several seasons ago, one network advertising a sitcom starring Christopher Lloyd. My memory is vague and I can’t find anything about it in a quick web search, but IIRC, it was about a desposed king or dictator who moved to America and managed a laundromat. The show was pulled from the lineup without a single episode being aired.
Ah, that’s the one. Twenty-three minutes of ethnic stereotypes standing around in their house yelling and waving their arms, as I recall. At least they didn’t spend a lot on sets and locations.
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?
http://jmtoyzilla.tripod.com/rantugly.html
http://stephan.com/Headshot/
Bah, Master Control!
Cafe Americain, 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.