# TV Shows You Once Loved But Now Think Are Awful **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 6, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037 "2014-03-06T19:16:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/21 "2014-03-06T22:37:38Z")
**SFP** -Check out [tvtropes.net](http://tvtropes.net) specifically: Grew the Beard (for Seinfeld) and Friends Rent Control (for Friends of course) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/22 "2014-03-06T22:44:06Z")
I’ll second Twin Peaks, in fact I was going to throw that into the other thread. I LOVED Twin Peaks when I first found out about it about 10+ years ago. Then I rewatched it about 5 years ago, still loved it, then I watched it again about 6 months ago and, while I still love the show and the story, the acting as atrocious. It’s like a middle school play. I practically begged one of my co-workers to watch it ‘with’ me (at the same time anyways) and he really didn’t understand what was supposed to be so good about it. He constantly complained about the acting, but his big problem was that it wasn’t nearly as good as, say, Breaking Bad or The Wire or The Sopranos. Of course, as a 25 year old watching a show that’s 24 years old he doesn’t remember a time when Twin Peaks WAS the Breaking Bad of it’s time (for the sake of this post). It WAS the show that everyone talked about the next day, it WAS the show that had all the actors on the covers of magazines and on the talk show circuits. And, for the love of god, Kyle MacLachlan is and will always be ‘that guy from Twin Peaks’ not ‘that guy from Sex in the City’ or, even better “Agent Cooper”. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/23 "2014-03-06T22:53:59Z")
“The Incredible Hulk.” I thought it was so awesome and deep and tragic and it really has the emotional resonance of fruit. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/24 "2014-03-06T22:58:26Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > **SFP** -Check out [tvtropes.net](http://tvtropes.net) specifically: > > Grew the Beard (for Seinfeld) > > and > > Friends Rent Control (for Friends of course) You sure this is the right web address? I just get a search engine that looks like one of those sites that exist for typos of the real address. I cut and pasted your [tvtropes.net](http://tvtropes.net) and i get a very vanilla, fake looking website. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/25 "2014-03-06T23:06:33Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Edit: I’m reminded that I tried re-watching **Northern Exposure** a year ago and didn’t finish the first season. Guess it doesn’t fit the OP as “awful” but the love definitely wasn’t there. I tried it for the first time recently, and it doesn’t resonate with me at all. My father, however, is really enjoying it; he’s getting near through with season 3 (that was the only one I could find at the Wal-Mart, so that’s what I had to go with), and as he’s really enjoying it, I just ordered Nos. 1 and 2 for him. I was glad to find out that he’s enjoying it. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/26 "2014-03-06T23:10:44Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > I cut and pasted your [tvtropes.net](http://tvtropes.net) It’s [tvtropes.org](http://tvtropes.org), not .net. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/27 "2014-03-06T23:18:37Z")
Married With Children. I think maybe the first three episodes were good for the time. It got real stupid real fast after that. The audiences Wooo! whenever a cast member walked on set bothers me to no end. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/28 "2014-03-06T23:21:48Z")
**Mork and Mindy** , for reasons mentioned above. I used to think it (at least the first season of it) was the funniest thing on TV. Now it’s just sort of embarrassing. \*\*Six Million Dollar Man \*\*and **Bionic Woman** : I loved these when I was a kid. Been watching them on COZI-TV lately for old time’s sake, and man were they lame. I’m kind of afraid to watch **Fantasy Island**. I loved that one too, but mostly for the scenes with Mr. Roarke. I didn’t like a lot of the fantasy stories (many of which seemed to be nothing more than excuses for Barbi Benton to cavort around in minimal clothing, for which I wasn’t the target demographic). ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/29 "2014-03-06T23:40:15Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > **Friends** - I can’t stand any character on this show except for “Joey”. Having the perma-wimp Ross as the focal point always baffled me. It also baffled me how they could all affford their great apartments in NYC, but that’s a complaint you can have on almost any show based in NYC. I figure you have to accept it’s a tv show and roll with it. Rob Thomas says something similar about tv dorm rooms - you can’t shoot a tv show in a space as large as an actual college dorm room, and the audience has to accept that. A scene of _Early Edition_ was shot in my building and it was 20-some people shooting a scene of two people talking in a 4x8 foot space. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/30 "2014-03-06T23:45:58Z")
tvtropes.org ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/31 "2014-03-07T00:12:36Z")
I used to think **Get Smart** was amazingly hilarious, but watching it as an adult it just seemed kind of lame and corny. Some of the running gags made me smile, but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/32 "2014-03-07T00:23:49Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I figure you have to accept it’s a tv show and roll with it. Rob Thomas says something similar about tv dorm rooms - you can’t shoot a tv show in a space as large as an actual college dorm room, and the audience has to accept that. A scene of _Early Edition_ was shot in my building and it was 20-some people shooting a scene of two people talking in a 4x8 foot space. They explain the apartment thing several times throughout the show. Phoebe lives somewhere further away with a secret roommate/her grandma. The rest have all had various high-paying jobs at some point during the show, and Monica’s apartment is rent controlled. ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/33 "2014-03-07T00:29:22Z")
Thanks to Cozi TV, I recently got re-acquainted with **Charlie’s Angels** , which obsessed me back in junior high (or did until Kate Jackson left and was replaced by Shelly Hack, whom even I could see was determined to live down to her surname). OK, I know this was never intended to be good or even believable drama, but God, I’m embarrassed I ever liked this, and even more embarrassed that even as a kid I ever accepted “the girls” had actually been to the police academy. They use their real names even while undercover (you’d think the local bad guys would get to know them eventually), and they inevitably apprehend the villain by pulling out their cute snub revolvers and then just standing around until the commercial break. As we all now know from Cops, real cops put the perp on the ground, they don’t just stand and look at him. Not that private eyes have arrest powers, anyway. Which brings me to the times I find myself yelling “You’d better report that [murder, whatever] to the real police or you’ll all lose your licenses!” ---
**Author:** ![methylphenidate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@methylphenidate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/methylphenidate)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/34 "2014-03-07T00:30:11Z")
Saved by The Bell, The Nanny, Country Mouse And City Mouse, Discovery news, all kinds of junk. TV seemed to hit rock bottom in about 2007 and has been steadily getting better since netflix and the other newly founded production houses have come onto the scene. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/35 "2014-03-07T03:19:07Z")
**Kids in the Hall** has aged pretty badly in my opinion. And I can’t believe I used to like **Ed the Sock** - an example of the type of “humorous” Canadian d-bag culture that spawns people like Rob Ford. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/36 "2014-03-07T03:30:25Z")
> [@ryobserver](#): > > Thanks to Cozi TV, I recently got re-acquainted with **Charlie’s Angels** , which obsessed me back in junior high (or did until Kate Jackson left and was replaced by Shelly Hack, whom even I could see was determined to live down to her surname). > > OK, I know this was never intended to be good or even believable drama, but God, I’m embarrassed I ever liked this, and even more embarrassed that even as a kid I ever accepted “the girls” had actually been to the police academy. They use their real names even while undercover (you’d think the local bad guys would get to know them eventually), and they inevitably apprehend the villain by pulling out their cute snub revolvers and then just standing around until the commercial break. As we all now know from Cops, real cops put the perp on the ground, they don’t just stand and look at him. Not that private eyes have arrest powers, anyway. Which brings me to the times I find myself yelling “You’d better report that [murder, whatever] to the real police or you’ll all lose your licenses!” This made me laugh. But I have even one better from my youth… **The Dukes Of Hazzard** Enos, Boss Hogg, Uncle Jessie, Bo and Luke Duke, the General Lee (with a nice big rebel flag on the roof!) and let’s not forget Daisy Duke. Loved her shorts. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/37 "2014-03-07T03:37:37Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ll second Twin Peaks, in fact I was going to throw that into the other thread. I LOVED Twin Peaks when I first found out about it about 10+ years ago. Then I rewatched it about 5 years ago, still loved it, then I watched it again about 6 months ago and, while I still love the show and the story, the acting as atrocious. It’s like a middle school play. > > I practically begged one of my co-workers to watch it ‘with’ me (at the same time anyways) and he really didn’t understand what was supposed to be so good about it. He constantly complained about the acting, but his big problem was that it wasn’t nearly as good as, say, Breaking Bad or The Wire or The Sopranos. Of course, as a 25 year old watching a show that’s 24 years old he doesn’t remember a time when Twin Peaks WAS the Breaking Bad of it’s time (for the sake of this post). It WAS the show that everyone talked about the next day, it WAS the show that had all the actors on the covers of magazines and on the talk show circuits. And, for the love of god, Kyle MacLachlan is and will always be ‘that guy from Twin Peaks’ not ‘that guy from Sex in the City’ or, even better “Agent Cooper”. Damn good coffee! I don’t know id the acting was bad or just part of Lynch’s style. It was the Breaking Bad of its day. Books about it to as well as the media and discussion. Sometimes you have to pick the waiting period to review shows. Sometimes 5 years is right, sometimes 10 years. Damn fine coffee! And hot! ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/38 "2014-03-07T03:40:35Z")
Sorry… How could I forget. " **Three’s Company"** The ONLY saving grace was Mr. Roper. But when they spun them off and brought in Don Knotts, it was beyond bad. And it was very bad before the Ropers left. Some of the posts in this thread have brought back some really old memories. But one of the things that it also made remember was how good **The Brady Bunch** was and still is. Yes, it is somewhat dated, but the shows still resonate with the age group the show is targeted for. And I can still watch a show and not roll my eyes with amazement and disgust, which is what most of these shows in this thread cause me to do. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/39 "2014-03-07T03:47:33Z")
When I was 9 the original Battlestar Galactica was my favorite show ever. I fantasized about that world for years. Now it’s unwatchable. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037/40 "2014-03-07T04:04:39Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > When I was 9 the original Battlestar Galactica was my favorite show ever. I fantasized about that world for years. Now it’s unwatchable. Oh lord, yes. Apollo is so smarmy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-you-once-loved-but-now-think-are-awful/683037.md?page=3)