# What are the five worst television shows of all time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833 "2009-07-22T06:15:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/141 "2009-07-29T16:42:37Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > “Handle it! Handle it!” > > Dad always said that if they did a movie where Jerry Falwell was a character, the actor playing the Mayor needed to play him. When NBC did the “Jim & Tammy” movie & Woody Harrelson did “The People Vs. Larry Flynt”, guess who played Falwell? The actor was the late Richard Paul, who was also a trained psychologist. When looking up his stuff, I forgot that the Jim & Tammy TV-movie “Fall From Grace” starred Kevin Spacey as Bakker! Of course, I did not forget Bernadette Peters was a very perfect Tammy. And Spacey was a surprisingly good Jim Bakker. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000089/bio](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000089/bio) ---
**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:** [August 1, 2009, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/142 "2009-08-01T07:01:47Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > my dad got off the couch, turned off the TV and said to me: “That show is too stupid, even for you.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/143 "2009-08-01T07:06:17Z")
Does anyone remember the live action dinosaur show on the TGIF program called “Dinosaurs”? Ohhhhh, man… ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/144 "2009-08-01T11:19:52Z")
> [@Recliner](#): > > “Oohh, we’ll show that liberal Daily Show! Conservative humor is just as funny!” > > Heh. This show needs to be smacked around more – it got off easy. Yeah. I’m a politically conservative person, and I thought this show was horrible. The problem is that it seems to have been written by conservative pundits trying to be funny, instead of comedy writers who are conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/145 "2009-08-01T11:38:40Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Really, you people aren’t even trying. Can you believe that something called [Heil Honey, I’m Home!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heil_Honey_I'm_Home!) - a sitcom about Adolph Hitler’s homelife - even got past the “you were drunk, right?” stage of development? > > But I think the record has to go to [Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia%27s_Naughtiest_Home_Videos), which was pulled off the air 34 minutes into it’s 90 minute timeslot by the TV network owner Kerry Packer, who rang his station to say - or more likely, scream - “Get that shit off the air!”. I was trying to think of that dreadful Hitler show - which I never saw. Did you ever glimpse Arcade? I think it ran for a week. As for Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos, wasn’t it because of two kangaroos trying to screw? ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/146 "2009-08-01T12:08:53Z")
A lot of good mentions here. I’ll add: Land of the Giants- Somehow worse than time tunnel, and that’s saying something. The Starlost- Bad writing and no budget. TJ Hooker- Even The Shat couldn’t save this one. Manimal- 'nuff said. Man from Atlantis- What were they thinking? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/147 "2009-08-01T15:17:08Z")
> [@BrandonR](#): > > This is a difficult question because so many shows are so terrible, they air 1 or 2 episodes, are canceled, and immediately forgotten by most. The classic example was [_“You’re In The Picture”_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_in_the_Picture), in which the second (and final) episode consisted of Jackie Gleason’s public apology for inflicting the first episode upon the world. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/148 "2009-08-01T15:58:23Z")
Amateurs. By all the powers of naughtiness, I declare this list of sucky TV shows to be really, really sucky! Presenting the most disgraceful slimes and oozes to ever sleaze their way across your television… [Sunday Dinner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Dinner_(TV_series)) [Bram and Alice](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_and_Alice) [The Richard Bey Show](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richard_Bey_Show#The_Richard_Bey_Show) [Baby Talk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Talk_(TV_series)) [The Brothers Grunt](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+Brothers+Grunt&search_type=&aq=f) (youtube link. go ahead… what are you… chicken?) ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/149 "2009-08-01T19:12:05Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > Bitches, _please_. That episode where [DJ passes out at the gym](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5qZPe8HuxI) is **classic.** > > I disagree with a lot of the nominations. The worst shows aren’t the ones that are conspicuously bad (as **Small Wonder** ); those at least afford a bit of campy fun. Instead it the shows that are utterly charmless, joyless, and forgettable, such as: > > Beauty and the Beast > Law and Order: SUV\*\* (does anyone really remember an episode of the show, and by “remember” I mean in a way that involves the actual content of the show and not just a vague sense of lurid unease and exploitation?) Since I agree with what **SSG Schwartz** said in post #69, I’ll limit my comments about the various L & O spinoffs (+ original) to just a personal dislike of any drama which fails to engage me emotionally in the protagonists, which L & O seems to go out of its way to not do. I disagree about B & the B-had a special charm all its own, tho I’ll admit after Netflixing some eps awhile back that it hasn’t quite stood up to the test of time. In any event there’s probably at a bare minimum 200 other TV shows that have been worse. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/150 "2009-08-01T19:15:23Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > I’ll come up with more but Rowan and Martins Laugh in and the old Andy Williams show immediatly spring to mind as being memorably dire. Talk about a show (LI) which hasn’t stood the test of time, at all. Firmly a prisoner of the 60’s, tho I still remember a few bits fondly (like Ruth Buzzi and Artie Johnson as the old lady and old lecher on the park bench-best clip was where she unexpectedly jumped his bones and almost gave him a heart attack). ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/151 "2009-08-02T02:03:19Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Five is just too small a number to contain the five worst. > > I’ll throw out: > > Benson > The Time Tunnel Time Tunnel was the greatest show ever (along with Rat Patrol). So sayeth an 8 year old from the year 1966. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/152 "2009-08-02T02:55:43Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Time Tunnel was the greatest show ever (along with Rat Patrol). So sayeth an 8 year old from the year 1966. Rat Patrol was BRILLIANT! Made all the more so because the Long Range Desert Group was REAL. But only one machine gun? Really, was that sufficient? Operating from memory of a Time-Life book, but they fitted one Jeep with–what was it?–eight or ten machine guns, most in fixed mountings, and drove alongside a German troop convoy emptying them into the trucks. Not exactly cricket, but it got the job done. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/153 "2009-08-02T03:07:48Z")
“The Kallikaks.” I’ve seen some mighty bad shows, but this was probably the worst. The American “Fawlty Towers,” “Chateau Snavely.” Take the script from an ep of “Fawlty Towers,” substitute Harvey Korman and Betty White for Cleese and Scales, and you end up with a disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833/154 "2009-08-02T03:28:10Z")
Just remembered “Harry and the Hendersons”. Big foot meets the Griswolds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-five-worst-television-shows-of-all-time/503833.md?page=7)