# What series succeeded with an unpromising premise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 20, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146 "2009-03-20T12:46:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/41 "2009-03-20T23:42:24Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Happy Days–Who knew 1950’s nostalga would make a hit? > > Mork & Mindy–Spacemen comes to earth. Been done. And Robin Williams! Who is he? Well… Happy Days was a quick 1974 knock-off by ABC meant to capitalize on the 1950s nostalgia craze started by 1973’s _American Graffiti_. And _Mork and Mindy_ was a spin-off of a _Happy Days_ episode, “My Favorite Orkan”, which originally aired in February 1978. Mork was so popular that ABC made a series out of it, which premiered a few months later in September. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/42 "2009-03-21T13:18:01Z")
Numbers,about a mathmatician who helps solve serous crimes. I wasn’t in the remotest attracted to this and only watched it when someone else insisted on having it on,now I’m hooked on it. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/43 "2009-03-21T13:21:08Z")
One could argue that the just-finished “Battlestar Galactica” was based on a bad premise in that it was a reimagining of a bad series. However, the CORE premise is pretty good, so maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/44 "2009-03-22T15:22:14Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Seems silly to say “cowboys in space” is an unpromising concept though, since the pitch line for the Original Star Trek was “Wagon Train in space”. Except Star Trek wasn’t literally about a wagon train in space. It was about a starship on patrol. BSG (both versions) is closer to a wagon train in space. But Firefly was literally about cowboys in space. They wore dusters, occasionally rode horses, had a ship that looked like a horse and even herded cattle in a couple of episodes. It shouldn’t have worked at all, yet it was IMO one of the best shows on TV. An artistic success if not a comercial one. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/45 "2009-03-22T17:09:22Z")
**Newsradio**. How many people listen to AM talk radio, let alone want to watch a whole TV series about it? The show did well because of the superb cast. It actually worked to their favor that the background was so boring - it didn’t get in the way of the quirkiness of the cast. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/46 "2009-03-22T17:41:47Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Seinfeld. A show about nothing. A summer replacement show about nothing. A summer replacement show about nothing that went nowhere at first. No fair answering your own post with the most obvious answer!! (Oh, you mean someone else would have said it too? Darn.) > [@msmith537](#): > > How about M.A.S.H.? A comedy about a combat hospital during the Korean War? No I don’t think MASH was that great a show. I mean, any show that lasts four times longer than the topic it’s emulating… \ **Red Dwarf**. I love the show, don’t get me wrong. But would the show have truly lasted on the as stated premise, that Lister was the last human in Existance, passing time with a Hologram and an Evolved Cat? I mean, I’m not knocking the show, but for 8 (Was it?) years the show did a LOT of great stuff. Not so much sticking to the as given premise. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/47 "2009-03-22T18:54:26Z")
_All In The Family_, a comedy about a racist, anti-feminist boob who treats his wife like dirt. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/48 "2009-03-23T00:47:42Z")
But a lot of those shows barely stayed aflot. “Mork & Mindy,” was only a hit the first year, then they changed it and it tanked, and barely clung on. “Happy Days” barely hung on till the Fonz took over. “The Big Bang Theory,” is a very low rated show, it’s just there are no other comedies on. Most of the time it’s below the top 40 shows for the week, and only twice has it made it past the top 20. I don’t know what the OP meant by “work.” Ratings? Or just casting a believability about it. I would say “Bewitched” is a strong contender. Largely as a result of Elizabeth Montgomery, she made a show about a witch and magic, really a show about a woman, who can have everything and gives it up for the man she loves. The witchcraft is _almost_, not quite but almost a sideline to the Samantha/Darrin dynamic. Plus Agnes Moorehead is just a hoot. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/49 "2009-03-23T01:10:34Z")
The Adam West **Batman** series of the 60s cannot have been an easy sell. The character was popular to comics readers but no one else at the time. **Superman** had been a minor hit a few years earlier, but that was a pretty straightforward adaptation of the comic. **Batman** was campy, deconstructionist and trippy. It had no respect at all for its source material. Come to think of it, **Batman** was the **Ugly Betty** of its day… ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/50 "2009-03-23T01:23:39Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I disagree about this. It’s self-described as ‘a show about nothing’ but it was a show about a standup comedian in New York City. _And_ that comedian was Jerry Seinfeld. > > _Family Ties_ certainly seemed to have nothing special when it premiered. Good thing Michael J. Fox was such a good performer and made such a real character out of a caricature. Actually, the original premise of “Family Ties” was “Hippy parents react to having materialist/conservative kids” - it didn’t take off until the premise changed to “Intellectual conservative kid reacts to his non-conservative family”. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/51 "2009-03-23T01:27:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > How about The West Wing? Who would have thought that a wordy, wonky show about politics would have succeeded? Ever since _Sports Night_, I have been impressed to hell and back again with Aaron Sorkin’s writing skills. He actually used the word “ensorceled” and I just melted in a puddle of goo. That said, where _West Wing_ succeeded, _Studio 60_ failed, so go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/52 "2009-03-23T12:33:34Z")
Who would have thought that a show about a bunch of old broads sitting around taking about everything from their grandchildren to their sex lives would have succeeded? It sounds ridiculous now and it was inconceivable back in the 1980’s. Kudos to the network for airing _The Golden Girls_ and double kudos for finding those four “old broads” that made the show a hit. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/53 "2009-03-23T13:08:13Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > …Kudos to the network for airing _The Golden Girls_ and double kudos for finding those four “old broads” that made the show a hit. Incidentally, Betty White guest-starred on _My Name is Earl_ this past Thursday. She was almost unrecognizable as a “crazy witch lady.” It’s available on [hulu.com](http://hulu.com) if you want to take a look. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/54 "2009-03-23T13:35:05Z")
I image _Barney Miller_ must have been a tough sell–A show about detectives and it only takes place in the police station? You never see them outside the station? Where is all the action, all the fights, and the gritty cop stuff? All you see is them putting prisoners in cages and shuffling papers? Never work. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/55 "2009-03-23T13:39:10Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I image _Barney Miller_ must have been a tough sell–A show about detectives and it only takes place in the police station? You never see them outside the station? Where is all the action, all the fights, and the gritty cop stuff? All you see is them putting prisoners in cages and shuffling papers? > > Never work. You know, that’s what we’re missing right now: a **LAW & ORDER** spinoff with a laugh track! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/56 "2009-03-23T13:57:07Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > You know, that’s what we’re missing right now: a **LAW & ORDER** spinoff with a laugh track! **LAW & ORDER: HA-ha** ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/57 "2009-03-23T14:55:04Z")
The Simpsons was a badly drawn series of short clips inserted into The Tracey Ullman Show that, despite its brevity, was cringe-inducing to the point of making me want to change the channel (except my TV at the time had no remote). A cartoon about an ordinary family doing ordinary things, artwork that was subpar and characters that were offensively hard to look at. Who knew it would flower into the best show ever? ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/58 "2009-03-23T15:04:28Z")
I’m mystified by the continued existence of “Lost”. I admit I have watched no more than a couple of minutes of it in all the years it’s been on, so maybe it’s all in the execution. But I can’t imagine getting into a show about a mystery that just gets more complicated and crazier and is never resolved. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/59 "2009-03-23T19:43:14Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > You know, that’s what we’re missing right now: a **LAW & ORDER** spinoff with a laugh track! > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > **LAW & ORDER: HA-ha** Law and Order: Laugh Now, Cry Later Division? ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146/60 "2009-03-23T19:46:51Z")
What about Chuck? A nerd meets a hot girl and turns into a spy. Chya, as if… I do love that show though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-succeeded-with-an-unpromising-premise/490146.md?page=4)