# Most absolutely ridiculous sit-com episodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885 "2004-10-29T17:33:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/61 "2004-10-31T19:28:54Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > The whole “pregnant woman giving birth on a stuck elevator” was used in at least half a dozen shows, but I think it’s full flowering came on _Night Court_, when Markie Post had her baby as her labor coach(the female bailiff, the black one) had to holler her instructions down the elevator shaft. And of course, on TV and in movies, giving birth takes roughly half an hour. “My water broke! The baby will be here any minute!” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/62 "2004-10-31T20:30:13Z")
Regular cast member promises they can deliver a C-list celebrity to appear at a local function, but of course they can’t and hilaritiy ensues, then when they confess they failed C-list celebrity arrives to save the day. (_Alice_ alone had two of these episodes- once with Joel Grey and again with Robert Goulet, while the most famous is Marcia & Davy Jones; _Gimme a Break_ did this with Andy Gibb [who at the time would have appeared at a White Castle opening for food as his career was that desperate] and later with Sammy Davis Jr.). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/63 "2004-10-31T20:49:12Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > (_Alice_ alone had two of these episodes- once with Joel Grey and again with Robert Goulet, Didn’t _Alice_ also have one with Art Carney? As for the dating of the handicapped scenario, they did it right in _The Rockford Files_. Jim dated the blind lawyer, Beth Davenport, for a while and she remained as a recurring character. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/64 "2004-10-31T21:20:26Z")
Was there some kind of rule that I’m missing? Why hasn’t anyone mentioned anything about Saved by the Bell yet? About half of the shows have to be worse than any other ones mentioned here. The ABSOLUTE worst has to be Jessie on caffiene pills because she doesn’t want to make a bad grade. She starts singing “I’m so excited” but then she burts into tears and says “i’m so confused!” Absolute worst sitcom plot ever. ---
**Author:** ![JayElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@JayElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JayElle)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/65 "2004-10-31T21:46:53Z")
That _Saved by the Bell_ episode is really funny if you’re stoned. Not that I would know or anything… ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/66 "2004-10-31T22:07:42Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#): > > Was there some kind of rule that I’m missing? Why hasn’t anyone mentioned anything about Saved by the Bell yet? About half of the shows have to be worse than any other ones mentioned here. > > The ABSOLUTE worst has to be Jessie on caffiene pills because she doesn’t want to make a bad grade. She starts singing “I’m so excited” but then she burts into tears and says “i’m so confused!” > > Absolute worst sitcom plot ever. \*\*Sampiro \*\*mentioned it on page one and I referenced it too. It was “I’m so scared”, by the way. I grew up on that show and still love Tiffani Amber Thiessen a decade later. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/67 "2004-10-31T23:47:53Z")
In the spirit of the season 🆒 I’d like to nominate all the sitcoms (Cosby, Roseanne) that depict _middle class Americans_ throwing the most elaborate Halloween parties imaginable. Attn. Hollywood: Most people don’t have a $25,000 budget for their parties or in-house set and lighting directors. Then you have every person in the room donning an elaborate, imaginative, cool Halloween costume. Get real. I was just at a Halloween party last night and let me give sitcom writers a reality check: for every really cool costume, there are a dozen lame-ass ones. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/68 "2004-11-01T00:10:22Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > The problems with _The Cosby Show_ and _Friends_ were typical of those shows. Both shows were what’s been called “time pornography.” “Time pornography” – I love this concept. Reminds me of another that I came up with – “food porn,” i.e., most cooking shows. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/69 "2004-11-01T00:16:40Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Really. If I caught my sister masturbating, (or vice-versa) there would be plenty of embarassment for both of us, but I can’t imagine that we’d stop talking to each other. Well, if I had ever caught my sister masturbating the tenor of our subsequent relationship would depend on whether or not I had a camera handy at the time. And Internet access. And how much money she had. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/70 "2004-11-01T00:21:44Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Carrie–_who writes a sex column_–totally freaks out because she’s dating a bisexual and a girl tries to kiss her at a party. I quit watching the show because of this episode. It made me angry that she would act like a 13 year old and play boy-girl spin the bottle because of peer pressure, then not even have a 13-year-old’s sense of integrity to follow through when it’s your turn. And then to have the nerve to congratulate herself for being too mature and sophisticated to need to kiss someone just to be cool!? What a spineless, hipocritical twerp. It made it too painful to keep watching. A woman like that, with so little character, should never be allowed to have sex with Ron Livingston in any reality. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/71 "2004-11-01T02:34:32Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > And of course, on TV and in movies, giving birth takes roughly half an hour. “My water broke! The baby will be here any minute!” There have also been babies born with, miraculously, no umbilical cord or afterbirth; whoever ends up having to deliver it (never the father or a qualified medical professional) just picks it up, wraps it up and hands it to the mother. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/72 "2004-11-01T04:24:14Z")
> [@](#): > > I also remember this one Friends when Ross walks in on his sister in the bathroom and freaks out, and then later she comes out and he apologized and they’re embarassed and she says “I was just, uh, checking that showerhead” and it’s implied that he caught her masturbating. Just, to me, it’s not reasonable that an adult would catch his adult sister masturbating in the bathtub and they can both go on knowing each other. To me, that right there should be a whole episode, at least! But even then, I’d be saying the only realistic thing would be that it be an ongoing storyline where they have to go to therapy. It seems to me that Monica also caught her parents having sex and that Rachel walked in on Monica with her pants off and her ass in the air waiting for Chandler Bing to mount her. When you consider that I have seen friends probably about 40 times in all the years it’s been on, that’s a lot of weird sexual stuff happening to Monica. What about Alex Keaton’s therapy bill? Having to deliver your own mother’s baby is about 10,000 times worse than seeing your sister masturbating for three seconds. ---
**Author:** ![ShadiRoxan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@ShadiRoxan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadiRoxan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/73 "2004-11-01T04:25:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > There have also been babies born with, miraculously, no umbilical cord or afterbirth; whoever ends up having to deliver it (never the father or a qualified medical professional) just picks it up, wraps it up and hands it to the mother. Not to mention that the baby seems to be about 15 pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/74 "2004-11-01T05:16:58Z")
I gotta vote for most every Sex and the City episode. These women were dating like crazy, having sex with pretty much every man around, but when a guy expressed interest in anything kinkier than missionary, the women were always mortified (with the exception of Samantha, who would always LOVE the deviance, whatever it was). Boring cookie cutter sexuality. I still have watched pretty much every episode of the damn show. I have no idea why. ZJ ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/75 "2004-11-01T09:52:49Z")
> [@ShadiRoxan](#): > > Not to mention that the baby seems to be about 15 pounds. Well, most “new-borns” in birth scenes seem to be at least 2 or 3 months old, for obvious reasons: although I think they should at least paint them mauve and douse them in bloody slime for added realism. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2004, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/76 "2004-11-01T10:30:28Z")
There was a show called “Small Wonder” about a robot girl who was adopted by some couple. One episode, Robot Girl finds a liquor bottle and gets drunk, just in time for someone from the adoption agency to come by and wonder what kind of household they were running. Oh, the adoption agency doesn’t know the girl was a robot. This show was weird and creepy on numerous levels. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/77 "2004-11-01T14:20:26Z")
“Fresh Prince of Bel Air” did the “I’m getting ribbed for dancing a fat chick” episode. The “fat chick” was played by the young Queen Latifia. “Fresh Prince” also did a pregnancy test episode where Hillary described how the test worked. When her mother and aunts looked at her with stunned faces, she said “Oh, grown up.” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/78 "2004-11-01T14:27:17Z")
> [@Middlecase](#): > > Well, most “new-borns” in birth scenes seem to be at least 2 or 3 months old, for obvious reasons: although I think they should at least paint them mauve and douse them in bloody slime for added realism. All of these things about TV babies are definitely true, but the super-fast births actually do affect the plot. A lot of shows have had the elevator episode or episode where a character goes into labor and can’t get to the hospital within ten minutes, which causes utter panic. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/79 "2004-11-01T15:14:23Z")
The thing about newborns being clean and a couple months old is that there are \*\*\*STRICT \*\* \* laws in Hollywood when it comes to children and infants being on-screen, including the length of time allowed and what kind of makeup they’re allowed to wear. Why do you think twins so often portray small children? While I’m sure laziness is part of the reason you don’t seem more realistic newborns, legality is the key factor. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885/80 "2004-11-01T15:26:28Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > There was a show called “Small Wonder”… This show was weird and creepy on numerous levels. Among them, the worst child actress in the history of film. I babysat three small children when this show was on and the scenes in which the girl was “dismembered” (her dad would disassemble her for one reason or another) literally gave them nightmares. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-absolutely-ridiculous-sit-com-episodes/271885.md?page=5)