Another show I would add should be Lost.
I didn’t think it would be a good drama series and sci fi show at the same time. I was expecting some lame show based on Survivor because at the time there was a show based on Amazing Race where there were “teams” that had to race to a checkpoint to stay in contention, it had Nathan Fillion starring in it, this race ripoff was pretty bad, but Lost wasn’t bad.
I thought Glee was just another show jumping on the High School Musical bandwagon and didn’t bother to watch it until the local station here ran a marathon of the first 13 episodes recently.
Okay, I’m a fan now.
Oh, oh, oh, just remembered another one. Couplings, the original British version by Steven Moffat. A group of friends hanging out on a couch in a bar. Seriously, Steven? Turned out to be very very good. The ‘Giggle Loop’, the porn buddy. My favourite episode is the one when the wacky guy tries to chat up this Israeli girl but she doesn’t speak English. “BREASTS!”
Sons of Anarchy. I admit it’s ridiculous, but it’s entertaining. My SO insisted we start watching it because it’s about a motorcycle gang, but after a few episodes I was hooked, to my shame.
Cougar Town. It’s about a 40-year-old divorcee and has the word Cougar in the title. That alone made me want to run screaming. Early promos played up the older women/younger men angle, too, which isn’t really what the show is about. Turns out it’s witty, goofy, and endearing.
It just needs a better title.
I thought the same thing - basic cable program based on an extremely campy '70’s sci-fi show? Yeah, I think I’ll pass.
Boy, was that a mistake.
That would be the show “Drive” that lasted all of four shows before being canceled.
I was quite ticked. Just as it was getting to the really good stuff, they cancel it!!
Rats. Missed the edit window…
This reminds me of when I first caught this show. I just thought the name sounded uninteresting. I knew nothing about it. One day, I was trying to find something to watch and caught an episode (already in progress) and laughed myself sick. I was hooked from then on.
Same thing with Ballykissangel. Again, stupid name…caught an episode just after it started, didn’t know what it was, got sucked in and found out at the end it was a show I’d been avoiding!
Seinfeld. I watched the first few shows and was unimpressed.
I think about 92 it started getting funny.
Sopranos. Big deal, gangsters. After my third show, I was hooked.
In Living Color. I was too bored to watch anything else. It was great.
The Simpsons. It was overhyped big time. The first one I saw was the Halloween one with a rendering of 'The Raven." Talk about a waste of time. About 2 years later, I caught it again.
Beavis and Butthead. Whoa! Too many cool people liked it. A pox on them! I was too bored to watch anything else, and it took me about 2 watchings to get hooked.
That’s about it for now.
Best wishes,
hh
I too thought it was a Friends clone and refused to watch it for some time, despite the huge draw of having Buffy’s Willow on it and NPH in an apparent copy of his role in Harold and Kumar. I don’t know how I ended up starting to watch it, but it’s now one of my favorite shows.
Yeah. I started watching BBT partway through the first season, and the first episode I saw was IMO one of the weakest. At first I dismissed it as another “Dweebs,” but it’s become my favourite show.
I just hope that it doesn’t morph into The Sheldon Show. ( Like the Balki Show and Urkel Show.)
It happened the other way at my house. My husband loved the show but I always found something else to do when it was on. I thought it was all about the tits and the violence. I don’t remember why I finally started to watch – probably an episode featuring Olivia.
I thought I’d hate The Real Housewives of Atlanta – I don’t like reality shows or vapid women with fake boobs – but it turned into a real guilty pleasure. I even set Google alerts for news about Nene and Kim.
Didn’t think I’d like Freaks and Geeks – yawn, another show with high school kids who think they have problems. It’s amazing.
That 70s Show – a show they can’t even bother to name properly has to be bad, right?
The first episode I saw was where they find a beer keg, and need to find a tap in order to have a party in the empty pool. Laughed my butt off.
Everybody, including the critics, thought that way, and the first few epiodes were not very good But it really came together.
I don’t like doctor shows, but one day whle flipping channels I stopped at a scene with a white guy and a black guy just talking that totally enthralled me. I thought “You do not see acting this great on television. Whatever this show is, I wish someone had put a guy to my head and forced me to watch the first episode.”
And that’s how I got hooked on House quicker than I could have gotten hooked on crack.
Beavis & Butthead. Once I got the point that you were supposed to think they were totally stupid, instead of thinking what they did was cool, it became hilarious. My appreciation for Mike Judge’s other work, especially King of the Hill, made it easier to like B & B, as well.
Interesting image. Would it have mattered *which *guy? 
I wouldn’t mind putting Hugh Laurie to my head. 
I think the biggest example for me is Angel. I didn’t even start watching Buffy until it was well into its 6th season. I was a freshman in college, I didn’t have cable or money, and over the winter break (which spans January as well as 1/2 of Dec at that school), I had a lot of time on my hands. My neighbor let me borrow his VHS recordings of BtVS, and I was hooked, literally watching hours and hours every single day. I threw myself into the show and fandom, took it all way too seriously, and had a great time. But I would not watch Angel. I really, really, really, really loathed Angel. I couldn’t imagine subjecting myself to hours and hours of his mopey, brooding ass once he left Sunnydale. A good friend of mine kept insisting I would like it, so in the summer before season 5 premiered, I bought the S2 dvds (that’s when she assured me it would get good), and I fell so hard. I’ve never loved a show like I love Angel.
Well, until a few weeks ago, when my sister and I decided to give Mad Men a chance, since everybody was going on and on about it. I didn’t think I’d like that one either, but it pretty much owns my soul.
Well, I still have the cast on my arm and am having trouble typing, but that one was strictly Freudian–Hugh Laurie or Robert Sean Leonard will do.
I’m not sure I thought I would hate it, but I didn’t think I would enjoy Bones, and mostly I do.
Second for House. For the first three years people raved about it, I wasn’t even remotely interested. For one thing, I’d been told it was ‘‘disturbing’’ so I took that to mean every episode featured some kind of gross, graphic disease. I think I also believed there was some supernatural element as well. I basically thought it was like the exorcist, with doctors.
And one day Sr. Olives was like, ‘‘Hey, let’s Netflix House.’’
Wow. Just, wow.