# Sit-com Rasputins: Worst sit-coms ever to last 5 or more years **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365 "2005-05-11T06:46:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**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:** [May 14, 2005, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/161 "2005-05-14T12:32:57Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Other shows with totally pointless pregnancies (i.e. the actress wasn’t pregnant in real life): > _Fresh Prince of BelAir_- we have to do something with Vivien- knock her up. Janet Hubert-Whitten, the actress playing Vivian at the time, was pregnant. It’s always a question what to do when this happens: write in a pregnancy (Fresh Prince, Murphy Brown, Family Ties) or try to work around it (The Nanny, Kate & Allie, Seinfeld). Either way, the show has a shark. ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/162 "2005-05-14T13:11:08Z")
I know it didn’t last five years, but if you combine them What’s Happening, and What’s Happening Now lasted five years. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/163 "2005-05-15T03:44:03Z")
Actually, _Newhart_ was pretty funny, but not because of Bob Newhart. It was the rest of the cast that made it great, especially Larry, Darryl and Darryl. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/164 "2005-05-15T04:41:42Z")
> [@RobuSensei](#): > > The actresses had learned the St. Olaf fight waltz for the occasion. Fight waltz? [sub]Really not being judgemental here. I can’t; my college mascot is a mollusk.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/165 "2005-05-15T05:29:16Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > That’s why Chachi was seen for an entire season wearing a bandanna around his leg (Marshall was trying to start a fad among high school age boys) \ I don’t know about your school, but at my middle school, there was a period when _all_ of us boys wore bandannas around our legs. I wasn’t allowed to watch TV at the time, so I’m just now learning that I was emulating Scott Baio. I suddenly feel like I need a shower. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/166 "2005-05-15T05:40:48Z")
> [@jackelope](#): > > I don’t know about your school, but at my middle school, there was a period when _all_ of us boys wore bandannas around our legs. > > I wasn’t allowed to watch TV at the time, so I’m just now learning that I was emulating Scott Baio. I suddenly feel like I need a shower. Would this have been late 70s/early 80s? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/167 "2005-05-15T05:48:52Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Janet Hubert-Whitten, the actress playing Vivian at the time, was pregnant. It’s always a question what to do when this happens: write in a pregnancy (Fresh Prince, Murphy Brown, Family Ties) or try to work around it (The Nanny, Kate & Allie, Seinfeld). Either way, the show has a shark. My bad- I’d forgotten that Daphne Reid only assumed the role and that another had played it first. Candice Bergen’s daughter was born before _Murphy_ (she’s now 20). I know that Meredith Baxter (formerly Birney)'s pregnancy was real on _Family Ties_, but just had to mention- that was a pretty bad long running show itself. It had a cute premise that it quickly forgot about, became totally a star vehicle for MJF, couldn’t have cast kids who looked less like their TV parents, gave high-paying employment to Marc “Skippy” Price (still against the law in most countries), had umpteen and three dozen “special” episodes (Alex loses his best friend [who has strangely never been seen or mentioned before on the show] being one that comes to mind), had the “amazingly fast aging kid” stunt, characters who became cartoons very quickly and one of my personal pet-peeves- a house that was just absolutely architecturally impossible (and ironically the mother was an architect). No wonder that Meredith went on to receive 832 diseases in her later movies. Trivia: Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter were born the same mm/dd/yyyy. His sister is SNL alum Mary Gross and her mother was Grace Whitney (who played the mom on Hazel and later became a very successful producer/director [_One Day at a Time_ being her most lucrative creation]). ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/168 "2005-05-15T06:51:09Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Would this have been late 70s/early 80s? Yeah, maybe 1983ish? I was in 7th or 8th grade in Atlanta at the time, so it would have been somewhere in the '83-'85 range. Now that I think about it, maybe it was in '84 sometime. That’s about as close as I can get. ---
**Author:** ![RobuSensei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/169 "2005-05-15T11:03:08Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > Fight waltz? > > [sub]Really not being judgemental here. I can’t; my college mascot is a mollusk.[/sub] Yep, fight waltz. As far as I know, the only college fight song in the U.S. in 3/4 time. Here are the lyrics; think “oom-pah-pah” band, and you’ll get the correct impression. (syllables in CAPS are on the downbeat) We COME from Saint OLaf We SHURE are the REAL stuff our TEAM is the CREAM of the COLleges GREAT. we FIGHT fast and FURious our TEAM is inJURious toNIGHT Carleton COLlege will SURE meet it’s FATE. UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! YAH! [Link](http://www.stolaf.edu/about/umyahyah.rm) to RealMedia recording of the St. Olaf Band playing the song. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/170 "2005-05-16T04:20:44Z")
> [@RobuSensei](#): > > Yep, fight waltz. As far as I know, the only college fight song in the U.S. in 3/4 time. Here are the lyrics; think “oom-pah-pah” band, and you’ll get the correct impression. (syllables in CAPS are on the downbeat) > > We COME from Saint OLaf > We SHURE are the REAL stuff > our TEAM is the CREAM of the > COLleges GREAT. > > we FIGHT fast and FURious > our TEAM is inJURious > toNIGHT Carleton COLlege will > SURE meet it’s FATE. > > UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! > UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! > UM! yah! yah! UM! yah! yah! > UM! yah! yah! YAH! > > [Link](http://www.stolaf.edu/about/umyahyah.rm) to RealMedia recording of the St. Olaf Band playing the song. OMG. That’s just… breathtaking. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/171 "2005-05-16T15:00:01Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > … one of my personal pet-peeves- a house that was just absolutely architecturally impossible (and ironically the mother was an architect) … I know I’m gonna regret asking this, but why do you say the house was “architecturally impossible”? Do you mean that you can’t make any kind of sensible floor plan(s) from whatever information you can glean from the various sets? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/172 "2005-05-16T15:52:17Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > I know I’m gonna regret asking this, but why do you say the house was “architecturally impossible”? Do you mean that you can’t make any kind of sensible floor plan(s) from whatever information you can glean from the various sets? That’s what I thought was meant. I don’t remember enough about the _Family Ties_ house, really. I remember the foyer/living room and the kitchen sets. So far as I remember, there was no impossibility in those two, but I’m sure if you looked at all the sets in detail, there would be some problems. Sitcoms are notorious for these architectural anomalies. The most famous one is the _Brady Bunch_ house, in which there is no way to draw a floorplan of the second floor. The bigegst problem with that one is that the girls’ room and the boys’ room share a bathroom, but when they show the upstairs landing, you go in two different directions to get to the rooms; they don’t look like they could be adjacent. I also believe that the house on \*That '70s Show is architecturally impossible. Notice that the exit from the basement to the outside is on the right (viewer’s perspective), but when someone comes up from that way, he or she ends up on the left side of the house (next to the garage). ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/173 "2005-05-16T16:17:45Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Not Magnum! C’mon! Stuffy British guy! Tall dude in short shorts! Helicopters! Eyebrow wiggling! A character named Icepick! > > Magnum is my favorite show. I was at a jail recently (not in jail yet) and the deputy at the booking desk had Magnum on. I watched about five minutes and saw Rick running around being generally useless. Now, Magnum is the leader. TC is the pilot and old Vietnam buddy. I think Rick was also an old 'nam buddy. But what did Rick _DO_? Was he supposed to be the ladies man? Because if he is, he was one of the smallest ones I’ve ever seen. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/174 "2005-05-16T16:30:28Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > I was at a jail recently (not in jail yet) and the deputy at the booking desk had Magnum on. I watched about five minutes and saw Rick running around being generally useless. > > Now, Magnum is the leader. TC is the pilot and old Vietnam buddy. I think Rick was also an old 'nam buddy. But what did Rick _DO_? Was he supposed to be the ladies man? Because if he is, he was one of the smallest ones I’ve ever seen. > > -Joe Rick was the one that ran a club and had all the underworld contacts–like the aforementioned Icepick, who Rick was always bringing up in conversation. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/175 "2005-05-16T16:30:40Z")
Rick was the guy with “street smarts”. He ran a club and, by logical extension in Hollywood, he knew shady characters who could help out a private eye. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/176 "2005-05-16T16:53:03Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > I know I’m gonna regret asking this, but why do you say the house was “architecturally impossible”? Do you mean that you can’t make any kind of sensible floor plan(s) from whatever information you can glean from the various sets? Yep. The back door is on the front. Sometimes there’s a formal dining room and an office that are somewhere between the living room and K (rather like sometimes the _Brady_ attic is 3 feet high and sometimes it’s huge) and other times there’s not. Where the bedrooms are in relation to the staircase landing upstairs would defy the laws of gravity (unless they’re built on stilts over the front lawn). IIRC there’s been a whole thread devoted to this, and _The Brady Bunch_ is mentioned below, but other impossible TV floorplans that come to mind: _The Jeffersons_ (where are the bedrooms?), _Happy Days_ (which also had the most unrealistic outdoor sets of all time) and lots of other shows. (Shows in which the architecture makes perfect sense include _Bewitched_, _All in the Family_ and _Dallas_, though few of these agree with the exterior shots of the house used in the credits.) Geek rant out. ---
**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:** [May 16, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/177 "2005-05-16T17:25:46Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > The best abreviation for “the writers made her have a baby because they had run out of ideas” I’ve ever heard. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/178 "2005-05-16T17:29:26Z")
I’m pretty sure that Oscar’s garbage can is also architecturally impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/179 "2005-05-16T18:23:45Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Yep. The back door is on the front. Actually, I remember a lot of houses from the '70s whose “back” door (leading into the kitchen) was next to the driveway and garage and the “front” door (which no one used) was around the corner on the side of the house. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365/180 "2005-05-16T20:01:02Z")
I’ve posted this elsewhere, but not everybody loves Raymond. That show was soooo bad. And everyone is all weepy and orgasmic over it. You’d think their brother had died when the show’s end was announced. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sit-com-rasputins-worst-sit-coms-ever-to-last-5-or-more-years/303365.md?page=10)