How can you say shows like Alf and Small Wonder were terrible? <lower lip trembling> I watched too many sitcoms as a little kid…
The worst shows, ever? Anything that is refered to as “reality tv” For the life of me I can’t imagine anyone being so much a dullard that that type of show appeals to them. The Real World on MTV was boring, and these new shows are far worse. I was deeply saddened today to read that Survior, The Mole, Temptation Island and Bootcamp will all be back next season. Oh well, maybe they’ll knock Who Wants to Be a Millionaire out of the top ten…due to laziness after watching desirable shows, I’ve seen a handful of episodes, and those have been enough to convince me that my brother and his friend’s idea that they should add a 4th lifeline- kick Regis in the @#$$% would make the game more interesting. I’m the only one who roots for people to lose, right? The lowest amount I’ve seen someone loose at was the $1,000 question, and they used 2 of their lifelines to get that far.
I don’t doubt that there are small towns in the rural south with no black people. Hazard was a county. Are there entire counties with no black people?
There have been a lot of bland shows listed, and a lot of truly awful, but little watched shows. Small Wonder (saw it) was terrible, but was syndicated junk. Dukes reached an entire other level of badness. Many others I have never heard of. The topic was the worst popular show.
I think Dukes is in a class by itself. It is Robot Monster bad. It is I Spit on Your Grave bad. It was awful across the board, and immensely popular.
Imagine the scene in Dead Poets Society in which the student is reading the introduction from the poetry book:
You can measure the awfulness of a television show by plotting it on a graph. If the badness of the show is represented on the horizontal axis, and its popularity on the vertical, you can determine the exact awfulness by shading the area represented by the two factors. Small Wonder, while truly bad, was little watched, so its total area would be relatively small. Matlock, while popular, was merely bland. The Dukes of Hazard, however would rank high in both popularity and in badness, resulting in a very large area.
I cannot be rational about this. There is a difference between Ishtar bad (merely inept) and The Conqueror bad (terrible and offensive). Dukes is clearly in the second camp.
There have been at least two guests on Who Wants to be a Millionaire who screwed the pooch on the first question. Oprah or Rosie had both of them on their show in which, after being embarrassed again on national television, were given consolation prizes. Which proves something, I guess.
As for bad TV, I have to limit it to shows that I’ve watched, and we’ve gone without a TV for almost five years now, despite two offers to be given a set by relations, who seemed disturbed about our TV-less status.
For successful shows, Dukes probably takes the cake. Love Boat was interesting just to see what former stars showed up (Harvey Korman) and what they looked like. I remember seeing Jan Smithers (Bailey from WKRP) on one episode, and rather regretted it. She did not age well. ::sigh::
Naw,just joking. Instresting site though,and yes they took it way WAYYY seiours (though IMHO the guy does bring up intresting points about A.I and family.)
And what about the Nanny? Not only did that show last six or seven looooooooooong seasons, but it made Full House look good by comparison. And it seems to be going on forever in syndication!
I can’t BELIEVE no one’s mentioned the obvious choices of “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Beverly Hillbillies”. (Willing suspension of disbelief indeed!)
Currently, my vote goes to “The Weakest Link”, or as I call it “Adults Behaving Badly While Robot-like Host Spews Venom”. I’ll take Millionaire over Link any day!!
Does anyone remember Land of the Lost? It was about a father and his daughter and son and the beginning credits have them on a rafting trip and somehow they end up in the world with dinosaurs, cavepeople, etc. It was so bad it could be called evil.
I’m surprised by all the mentions of Ally McBeal. Out of curiosity, what is wrong with the show? I watch it every week,and while it’s not the smartest thing on television, I think it’s pretty amusing.
ALF, My Robot (the one where the guy builds an eight year old maid-robot), Car 54 Where Are You, That show with Jim J. Bullock, The Facts of Life, Diff’rent Strokes, Full House, Family Matters, Blossom, Moesha, All TGIF, Veronica’s Closet, Grace Under Fire, Roseanne, Mad About You, and The Beverly Hillbillies all tied for second place. THE WORST SHOW OF ALL TIME *** WHO’S THE BOSS?***
Mambo and I seem to be thinking along similar lines. Worst popular show ever? I consider very nearly every popular sitcom in history a contender. (The exceptions being “MASH" and…well, "MASH”.)
“Just Shoot Me” sounds like a very tempting invitation. “Grace Under Fire” is depressing. When some alien race eventually receives and decodes “Roseanne”, they will undoubtedly start an interstellar war out of sheer annoyance. I could go on with the list, but what’s the point? They suck. They all suck. They suck worse than 70’s quiz shows and after-school specials combined. Everyone, please stop watching them (no matter how bored you are) so that the studios will stop making them.
