# What was the stupidest premise for a TV show ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303 "2005-03-07T03:22:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/221 "2005-03-15T14:43:24Z")
Excuse me **TIME EXPRESS** aired 1979. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/222 "2005-03-15T22:13:01Z")
Psst, **watsonwil** , not to nitpick, but I corrected myself first. Yes, I was the first to catch my own stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/223 "2005-03-15T22:49:42Z")
Earlier in this thread peole ripped Fish Pplice for being a horrible show. Which it was. However, the comic book was great, and even [Harlan Ellison](http://www.sequentialellison.com/gallery/fishpolice.html) was a fan of it. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/224 "2005-03-15T23:16:09Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > The show you are thinking about is possibly **TIME EXPRESS**. It aired on CBS in 1970. Vincent Price was the conducter of the train that took people back in time to relive momentus events in their lives. That’s the one I was thinking of, but the other was equally stupid as well. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/225 "2005-03-15T23:54:27Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > One of the dumbest sitcom premises of all time is one of the most “beloved television classics” (in Nick at Nite / TV Land speak) of all time, and I haven’t yet seen mentioned here. > > The basic premise is that a man dies, leaving a widow and five kids behind with no visible means of income. The kids decide to form a bubblegum ‘rock & roll-lite’ band to make money. The band produces amazingly well-produced music (given their obvious lack of musical training - the bass player, for example, _strums_, the drummer is an eight-year old) that sounds for all the world like it was performed by expert studio musicians and dubbed in as the band lipsyncs. > > Feeling the band lacks a little extra edge (to compete with contemporary bands - Led Zeppelin, the Who, Derek & the Dominoes, Grand Funk Railroad, etc.), the kids ask their _mother_ to join the band as a second pianist. The widowed family then tour the country in a school-bus sporting a psychedelic paint job, and “performing” at dinner cabaret revues. > > The show’s main stars are a former Broadway theater vet as the rock & roll mom, and a teeneybop idol as the band’s frontman. Songs “performed” by the band will be released as national singles. > > Oh yeah, there’s also this smarmy manager / agent that hangs around (apparently having no other clients to manage) as a proxy father figure. But there can be **no** sexual tension between the mother & agent, cuz’ the agent is jewish (_everybody knows_ that talent agents are all jewish!), and we can’t have any jewish guys hitting on the waspy, white-bread mother after all! Well, stripped of it’s '70s-era attributes, this is more or less the real-life story of the Von Trapp family after they came to America during WWII… ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/226 "2005-03-16T04:57:20Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > One of the dumbest sitcom premises of all time is one of the most “beloved television classics” (in Nick at Nite / TV Land speak) of all time, and I haven’t yet seen mentioned here. > > The basic premise is that a man dies, leaving a widow and five kids behind with no visible means of income. The kids decide to form a bubblegum ‘rock & roll-lite’ band to make money. The band produces amazingly well-produced music (given their obvious lack of musical training - the bass player, for example, strums, the drummer is an eight-year old) that sounds for all the world like it was performed by expert studio musicians and dubbed in as the band lipsyncs. > > Feeling the band lacks a little extra edge (to compete with contemporary bands - Led Zeppelin, the Who, Derek & the Dominoes, Grand Funk Railroad, etc.), the kids ask their mother to join the band as a second pianist. The widowed family then tour the country in a school-bus sporting a psychedelic paint job, and “performing” at dinner cabaret revues. > > The show’s main stars are a former Broadway theater vet as the rock & roll mom, and a teeneybop idol as the band’s frontman. Songs “performed” by the band will be released as national singles. > > Oh yeah, there’s also this smarmy manager / agent that hangs around (apparently having no other clients to manage) as a proxy father figure. But there can be no sexual tension between the mother & agent, cuz’ the agent is jewish (everybody knows that talent agents are all jewish!), and we can’t have any jewish guys hitting on the waspy, white-bread mother after all! > > > [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > > > Well, stripped of it’s '70s-era attributes, this is more or less the real-life story of the Von Trapp family after they came to America during WWII… For another comparison, here is [the real band that “inspired” the TV show in question.](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47D16DE4DAD7620D09E3050DCB27CD208DC51F3825023455892B72354810C66EE4FF495CEAEFB73AB7BAFFF2BE85B0DD9CBED5CFDDE764C40&searchlink=COWSILLS&uid=CAW010503160013&sql=11:87d5vwnva92k~T1) ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/227 "2005-03-16T11:32:55Z")
What?! 5 pages of really bad TV and no mention of **BJ & and the Bear**? A trucker traveling around the country in his semi with his pet monkey and his trucker nemisis is a guy named Hammer. Ummmm…yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Despite the fact I loved this show, I was also an adolescent. Oh, I also liked **Maminal** because **Simon McCorkindale** was quite the hottie. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/228 "2005-03-16T12:30:14Z")
> [@violacrane](#): > > UK: Pets Win Prizes, and that was it, in a nutshell. Reminds me of the Family Channel (US) show called “That’s My Dog” which worked under the same premise. Granted it was a game show, each episode was exactly like the last, just change out the two main characters. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/229 "2005-03-16T12:44:32Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Anything — _ **anything** _ — produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. As a product of 1982 I can say I am glad I missed all of that the first time around. “I love the 70’s” asked the question if the Kroffts were indeed Puffing Stuff. Wait… these are also the same guys that made Lidsville Right? In that vein, I propose Pocket Crap At the end of the day, I take out every thing in my pocket. Those items have adventures with each other. The Finale episode would be when the experience the pocket’s black hole. I was reminded somehow of “The Shirt Tales” which I have not seen, but only in coloring books. So; “The Shirt Tales” Disuss! ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303/230 "2005-03-16T12:49:26Z")
Ok here is an Idea; We get two Master Chefs. The two chefs have an hour to make a menu of Items using a secret “theme” ingredient perhaps _Eel Farts_ or something. Also we have a Flamboyant MC who takes a huge bite of a yellow Bell Pepper. Surprising all that Bell peppers can be eaten like an apple. …Oh wait… this is “Iron Chef”. -You tell me this show has had a good run? Well I guess somethings defy explanation. [[Yes Yes, I admit to watching my fair share of Eps, but it is still Stupid if you think about it for more than 5 minutes]] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-stupidest-premise-for-a-tv-show-ever/293303.md?page=11)