# Good TV show with the worst premise **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 15, 2014, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378 "2014-10-15T05:10:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/61 "2014-10-15T19:52:12Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Two of my Wives watched _House_… What other shows do you get in Utah? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/62 "2014-10-15T20:06:16Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > What other shows do you get in Utah? According to Jewish law, I think I was married to v.2 and v.3 religiously at the same time for a couple of months. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/63 "2014-10-15T20:48:08Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Two of my Wives watched _House_, so I’ve seen bits of it. I never could get past what an asshole the guy was. It’s funny, being such an unlikeable asshole myself, I didn’t notice that Greg House was supposed to be unsympathetic until it was pointed out to me. “Sure, he’s a depressive, drug-addicted, miserable egomaniac, who has no regard for the feelings of his colleagues or patients, and is unable to form meaningful human relationships… sounds fine to me, I can relate to that. Oh, wait, people don’t like him? Actually, that makes sense, people don’t like me either.” ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/64 "2014-10-15T21:02:14Z")
Stating the premise as: “It’s Sherlock Holmes {In Space|On a Boat|In Ancient Rome}, only he’s an unlikable asshole” is flawed, since the original Sherlock Holmes was already an unlikable asshole. You don’t need to include the “unlikable asshole” part is what I’m saying, that’s built into the “It’s Sherlock Holmes” part. ---
**Author:** ![Abracadebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Abracadebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abracadebra)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/65 "2014-10-15T21:02:39Z")
A neurotic, depressed man is asked by his neighbor to watch her dog during the afternoons. The dog, at least from his point of view, is a full-grown man in a bad costume. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/66 "2014-10-15T21:11:18Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > You don’t need to include the “unlikable asshole” part is what I’m saying, that’s built into the “It’s Sherlock Holmes” part. I disagree. I don’t see Holmes, as Arthur Conan Doyle wrote him, as an unlikeable asshole. He was quirky and not always easy to get along with, but he was a genuinely good guy and Watson, at any rate, liked him; and I think I would have, too. Now, on the other hand, Doyle’s other series character Professor Challenger… ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/67 "2014-10-15T22:20:38Z")
On the Internet, nobody knows you’re really a talking dog. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/68 "2014-10-15T22:36:52Z")
Related to the OP, Happy Endings had a pretty terrible premise: “See what happens to a group of friends when two of them break-up.” Thankfully they realized that premise had no legs and abandoned it pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/69 "2014-10-15T23:02:53Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Related to the OP, Happy Endings had a pretty terrible premise: “See what happens to a group of friends when two of them break-up.” Thankfully they realized that premise had no legs and abandoned it pretty quickly. FWIW, Happy Endings was created by the same team that created Marry Me (the show mentioned in the OP) ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/70 "2014-10-15T23:43:50Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Not really accurate. I lost interest as soon as I realized everyone survives. Hence my disappointment with the show “Wife Swap.” ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/71 "2014-10-15T23:49:29Z")
Get a bunch of guys with cameras to follow a bunch of police officers around and see what happens. 25 years later if I turn on COPS, it’ll probably 2 hours later before I finally say ‘geez, I’ve got to turn this off and go to bed’. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/72 "2014-10-16T00:04:38Z")
I remember being excited for the first episode of The Greatest American Hero. When I saw the instruction manual fall from his pocket, I turned the channel, never to watch TGAM again. I had a vision that the rest of the show would be about how he couldn’t control his powers, but would still end up saving the day… which bored me. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/73 "2014-10-16T14:08:32Z")
Let’s take three stereotypical nerds (one WASP, one India-Indian, and one Jewish, all stereotypically so), add a total stereotypical nerd nutjob and then toss a pretty stereotypically dumb blonde actress into the mix. Like that show of stereotypical people could ever make a big enough bang to become the #1 comedy! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/74 "2014-10-16T14:40:42Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > A show about nothing. > [@bup](#): > > Disagree. It wasn’t a show about nothing. They spoon-fed that to critics who never examined whether it was true. It was a show about a professional comedian in Manhattan and his amoral friends. Plenty of back story, too. That’s as much of a premise as anything else out there. You’re both wrong. The show’s awful premise is that selfishness and glee in your friends’ misfortunes are actually attractive qualities. And that’s what made it brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/75 "2014-10-16T15:31:40Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Wasn’t part of the premise that Ned saved money for his pie business (The Pie Hole) by obtaining spoiled/rotten fruit and then making it fresh again by touching it? No. Ned actually bought fresh fruit and let it rot in a secret room in the shop. It’s shown in the ep where a crooked health inspector visits. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378/76 "2014-10-16T21:47:42Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Bosom Buddies**.A show about two men who dressed in drag to get cheap housing. It was derided as an excuse to shiw T&A, but it actually was funny and had a great cast. Agreed. The funniest portions of the series were the parts when the protagonists weren’t dressed in drag. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-tv-show-with-the-worst-premise/701378.md?page=3)