This has been done plenty here, but let’s do it again anyway.
What are some sitcoms, past or present, that in your opinion were among the worst pieces of shit to ever be on television, shows that never should have made it on air let alone run a whole season or more?
I will submit this list as a good jumping off point, and I will add:
Home Improvement - Tim Allen was never funny, even before this show.
3rd Rock from the Sun - a single unfunny joke; a 5-year-old could have written this piece of shit. “Look, we’re aliens! We’re going to act goofy and mistake common household objects for something else! John Lithgow, make a funny face and everybody will laugh!”
Anything involving Tyler Perry - no comment necessary.
I think 3rd Rock would have worked much better on a Britcom template of a few episodes per year and a few series rather than running for years as it did
Yes, Dear- to me the gold standard of inane sitcoms that last forever
Wings- another Rasputin sitcom that just seemed unable and unwilling to go down
My main problem with 3rd Rock was that they never answered some questions:
How did they come by these bodies they were using? Did they just design them from scratch, and if so how did they fake credentials needed for Dick to teach Physics or SSNs for employment and the like? Clearly somebody somewhere had to have some knowledge of Earth culture to do this.
For similar reasons, I’d put The Beverly Hillbillies on the list. How it lasted for 76 years is an enigma. I know it was only supposed to be light silly entertainment but even that needs some form of underlying logic; Pearl didn’t own a bombed out 1920s truck because she thought it was chic but because it was what she could afford, and even in the 1960s that thing would have been scrapped in favor of a floor room model before they left the Ozarks as would the rope belts and ragged jeans.
I’m convinced that a fair percentage of its audience were men who muted the sound and just watched Courtney Thorne-Smith and Kimberly Williams bounce around.
Going back a few years, Too Close For Comfort- a Ted Knight sitcom- was one that wouldn’t die. Even when the network cancelled it the show kept crawling on in syndication, just like Mama’s Family.
Diff’rent Strokes was another that wouldn’t die even when the network stabbed it through the heart- they just switched networks.
And its spinoff Facts of Life was a show I really liked when I was a teenager. I saw it again after 15 years or so and wondered “WTF? I liked this?”
Then there are the sitcoms aimed at kids: Small Wonder from the 1980s- by all the gods what an atrocity.
I’ve only caught a couple of episodes of Suite Life of Zack and Cody but the girl who plays the heiress (London?) is the only thing remotely watchable. You’d think even kids would have some standards. (iCarly is aimed at tweens after all and has some production values.)
Everybody Loves Raymond Full House Fresh Prince of Bel Air Blossom According to Jim Yes, Dear
Anything involving Tyler Perry (good one DCnDC) ALF Leave It to Beaver
I’ll nominate Family Matters (the one with Steve Urkel). I didn’t watch much of it - just enough to really despise it. Every time I turned it on, Urkel was doing something ridiculous and annoying - I didn’t get the entertainment value.
I also hated “Married…With Children.” Just so unbelievably tacky.
And “Full House.” What a massive piece of shite.
I don’t care for “Parks and Recreation,” either, in spite of people here thinking it’s the best thing ever. I think I gave it a fair try - I’m just not entertained by it.
I’m surprised that it took 16 posts before anyone else mentioned Seinfeld. His stand-up is completely devoid of humor, and his sit-com was the same, except with the addition of multiple characters whose only personality trait was all that they were utter dicks.
Friends was similar, except that I’m not sure it was ever really a sitcom, but rather a prime-time soap opera.
