Wow was that punching-lasers-in-space clip from the OP ridiculous. I’m surprised that’s not a GIF meme to signify nonsensical flailing at big problems.
Neither compare to the stupidity of a sitcom with Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun as main characters. Their neighbors are a Jewish couple!!!
I doubt 44 episodes would be concidered a “flop.” (And I wouldn’t concider GAH “bad” so much as “good.”)
Yeah, it seems like it’d be horrible, but the personalities of Ralph* and Agent Maxwell* saved it. Robert Culp was so self-important as he chewed a lot of scenery. Perfect for a great just-over-the-top FBI agent.
*WHY the hell do I remember these things, and not important stuff?
Anything by Lars von Trier.
Ironically, Jerry Van Dyke turned down Gilligan because he thought the island was too strange.
But then you also have JoJo Rabbit and The Producers.
Or a movie like Tropic Thunder where 90% of it is Robert Downy Jr in blackface.
A lot of ideas seem like they should be stupid or offensive or at least simply unfunny, but for some reason they end up working.
The show only lasted 11 episodes and the cast broke the fourth wall in the final episode to sing with the crew.
This - painful to watch even for a moment
Well, there’s absurd and absurd. When My Mother the Car debuted, one TV critic commented the joke wasn’t the show’s premise but the fact a show with that premise was green-lit by a major TV network thereby making it one joke less than a one-joke show. Amazingly, many of the writers for My Mother the Car went on to create and write some of best-regarded shows of the 70s and 80s like Barney Miller and Mary Tyler Moore (e.g.,James L. Brooks got his start on the show).
Anyway, I’ve said this before but, from the hindsight of more than 50 years, one can’t avoid thinking drugs were behind the show’s production, placement on NBC’s schedule, and popularity among a small cult of viewers during its run. The premise of “My Mother the Car” seems like the product of an LSD trip, its approval by the networks suggests a decision made after too many martinis, and the fact enough people watched it to keep it alive for one season suggests there was already a segment of the viewing public that liked to watch TV while “herbally enhanced.”
I must disagree. I loved Cop Rock from the first episode and I still miss it a little.
The Secret Life of Desmond Pfeiffer. A sitcom about a Black butler of Abraham Lincoln who was the one who ran the White House. Lincoln was shown as an absolute dolt. Everyone hated it.
He’s not in blackface, he’s a dude playing the dude, disguised as another dude!!
The writers of Stalag 17 sued the producers of Hogan’s Heroes for infringement and lost. You and I may feel one was based on the other but a judge disagreed.
That show’s show’s premise was only the second reason why I hated it. My main objection was it was an unauthorized and badly executed knock-off of Blackadder the Third. I think even if the show had held on for a little longer, it would’ve been sued out of existence by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis.
I’m aware of the lawsuit.
But it was based on Stalag 17.
The idea that you can just take a successful English show and convert it to an American show while keeping only the jokes, sometimes completely misses the point.
Same here. Some of the songs were very touching. I’m wondering if network pressure killed it more.