Thank you! I stand corrected. I love the site!
Man, that’s a lot of weird shows. Another that bears mentioning is Mystery Science Theater 3000 - -
Mad scientists maroon a guy in outer space and make him watch really bad movies. His only friends are a couple smart-ass robots. We watch the guy and his robots watch the movies.
Tell me that’s not weird.
No one mentioned “The Kids in the Hall”?
I agree, it’s pretty tame, but come on? A sketch comedy show where half the skits didn’t have a punchline? And the ones that did had the most random ones ever (“and that’s when I grew a tail!”)? And the premises (“Would you vote for a guy with meat for a hand?”)?
Come on, people!
“One Man and His Dog”.
Televised sheep dog trials on British television. There is not much more I can say.
Links:
http://www.isds.org.uk/society_connections.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/281298.stm
http://www.ukgameshows.com/atoz/programmes/o/one_man_and_his_dog/
There’s some show on TLC in the mornings called Pappyland. All I know is that there’s a creepy old man (that’d be Pappy), and some really crappy somputer generated graphics, and they show art that kids have sent it. Also, Pappy is just a creepy name.
Well, what about this one :
HEIL HONEY I’M HOME
British Satellite Broadcasting-Noel Gay TV / 8x30m-e / 1990
Writer: Geoff Atkinson / Producer: Harry Waterson / Executive Producer: Paul Jackson
Incredibly bizarre attempt to make a sitcom around Adolf Hitler’s home life painting him as a suburbanite living in an apartment with Eva Braun next door to a Jewish family in 1938. Highly controversial the show was pulled after one episode with the other seven remaining unseen. The show was made by fledging satellite channel BSB so it’s highly likely that hardly anybody saw the show anyway.
With:- NEIL McCAUL as Adolf Hitler / DENICA FAIRMAN as Eva Braun
I never saw it, but Geoff Atkinson is a decent writer so it was probably quite good. I doubt that any channel will dare show it again though.
I think we have a winner.
I read about this in Games magazine. It was part of a guess-which-one-we-made-up puzzle. Heil was originally meant as satire. However, it ‘became the witless yukfest it parodied.’
Aeon Flux certainly desrves a vote, but I was already grown up by the time that show hit TV. So what my phsychiatrist is really making his money on is the childhood classic “The Magic Roundabout”. It was only years later, when I first learned about acid, that I finally understood … well … actually I’m still confused.
Lidsville
Bugaloos
HR Puffenstuff (gotta love Witchypoo and that Vroombroom)
Sigumnd the Sea Monster
what others?
Rumpus Room was pretty bizarre. Or maybe I was just too bleary-eyed at 5 AM to understand what was going on.
The thing about Aeon Flux is the first 4-5 episodes that were made were not serialized (when it was on Liquid television, but then when it was a show in itself it developed a plot. Basically it was about these 2 factions/countries, Monica and Breen. Aeon Flux was an agent for Monica and was basically trying to overthrow Breen through terrorism/assasination. Trevor was the leader of Breen and Aeon and Trever had a wierd love-hate relationship going on. Breen also worshiped a Vishnu-like diety and there was a lot of stuff involving aliens and mutants.
A lot of people had seen the liquid television episodes, which weren’t even half-hour long. These were VERY wierd, I agree. Basically each one would have Aeon Flux dying some horrible death, either by getting chased down and chomped by an alien, falling to her death (2 eps ended that way), or getting shot and sloooowly dying from the bullet wound O_o
Oh yah what about Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent? I watched the movie when I was a teen.
Lets see…
Tear Along the Dotted Lion
Davy Cricket
and of course Cecil
Pink Lady and Jeff, a variety show with a Japanese singing duo (PL) who didn’t speak English and a comedian (Jeff Altman). Lasted 6 weeks in 1980. Whoever greenlighted this one should be sealed in a box somewhere.
I believe The Hilarious House of Frankenstein with the wolfman was the freakiest, weirdest childrens show ever. Vincent Price would always say goodbye and hello, it was refreshing to watch and as a child I loved it, still do and have fond memories of that program.
The librarian always scared me. I dont think they would show this kind of program for kids now, but I’m glad I got to grow up on it.
I loved watching Quark! And I agree that it belongs in this thread.
Carl Sagan hosted Saturday Night Live one time, and they ran a parody sketch of “Pink Lady and Jeff” (called, naturally, Pink Lady and Carl). It actually made more sense than the original.
What about Michael Potter’s The Singing Detective (1986)? I haven’t seen it in more than a decade, but it’s probably the most surreal program ever produced for television. I’m looking forward to the DVD.
Three way tie between:
** Herman’s Head** - Just your typical office worker with four voices/people in his head that made him do stuff.
** Liquid Television**- just weird weird stuff. Winter Steele was my favorite.
** Good Grief**- Howie Mandel, horrifying clients and coworkers by trying to put the fun back into funeral home.
Curse you, Sublight, for stealing Mr. Smith. That and the almost-as-weird Manimal debuted the same year. My Mother the Car, though, remains the winner in part because it was weird before it became cool to be off-center.