# Worst TV decisions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 14, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171 "2002-10-14T01:43:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/1 "2002-10-14T01:43:24Z")
I’ve been toying with this idea for a thread, and the “Five Best Things About TV” reminded me. I **do not** mean decisions like “Cop Rock” or your other least-favorite show. I’m thinking more behind-the-scenes blunders that made TV less stellar.
In the 1970s, they bungled “Kung Fu” by not casting Bruce Lee. Granted, giving him the series wouldn’t have kept him from dying before the second season.
In the 1980s, “Laverne & Shirley”… without Shirley. Just let it die, guys.
In the 1990s, CBS spiking the Big Tobacco story, as seen in _The Insider_.
For the 2000s, we’ll see how well HDTV pans out.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/2 "2002-10-14T01:49:20Z")
Without a doubt, Cousin Oliver on _The Brady Bunch_.
Haj
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### Author:  [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/3 "2002-10-14T02:04:00Z")
Cancelling American Gothic, one of the very few American TV series with a planned out storyline, before the end of the story.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/4 "2002-10-14T02:50:48Z")
_Mork and Mindy_: changing the cast after the first season
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### Author:  [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/5 "2002-10-14T02:55:46Z")
Probably spinning off CSI into CSI Miami.
Can’t leave well enough alone.
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### Author:  [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/6 "2002-10-14T03:02:19Z")
The Sci-Fi Channel’s mandate that “Mystery Science Theater 3000” could only show science-fiction movies when it moved to that network. The show is already set in space, so the only thing that decision did was make the movies seem more repetitive and cut out the short films, which was where the crew really excelled.
(I’m not saying that that alone brought about the end of the show – it had run for a long time and you could tell that everyone was getting kind of tired of it. Besides, I never had the Sci-Fi channel so it was a moot point for me anyway).
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/7 "2002-10-14T03:14:26Z")
Having Maddie and Dave “do it” on _Moonlighting_. Cousin Oliver sucked, true, but he didn’t ruin a quality production.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/8 "2002-10-14T03:29:26Z")
Cancelling ‘Star Trek’.
The second Darrin on Bewitched, dammnit.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/9 "2002-10-14T04:25:30Z")
Actually, cancelling _Trek_ is just the last bad decision in that chain, preceded by three years of giving it an inappropriate time slot (Fridays at 10 p.m.) Had it been shown at 7 or possibly 5 (as it was frequently in post-cancellation syndication) they might have managed to finish that 5-year mission.
In a larger sense, I find a horrible decision in the industry was to designate certain months as “Sweeps”, when ad rates are set and all the networks try to put on their best first-run material. This means the rest of the year is a wasteland of crap and reruns and crappy reruns. Surely by now there can be a more accurate and frequent sampling method.
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### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/10 "2002-10-14T04:29:32Z")
Messing with the concept and then cancelling Crusade.
Idiots.
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### Author:  [@Bullwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullwinkle)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/11 "2002-10-14T06:54:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by JohnT \*
> \*\*Having Maddie and Dave “do it” on _Moonlighting_. Cousin Oliver sucked, true, but he didn’t ruin a quality production. \*\*
It’s dangerous to put these two sentences next to each ther.
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### Author:  [@Bullwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullwinkle)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/12 "2002-10-14T06:55:19Z")
Drat, I’m out of o’s.
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### Author:  [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/13 "2002-10-14T07:23:31Z")
Making programming decisions based on catering to the 18-49, and now the 18-34 demographic, to the exclusion of other age groups. This is a major reason Friday and Saturday are such dead zones of TV programming these days, especially on the networks.
NBC picking Leno over Letterman.
Joan Rivers walking away from her guest host gig on _The Tonight Show_ for her own talk show which died a quick death.
Giving Chevy Chase a talk show.
Disney’s handling of ABC during the past five years. Including overplaying _Millionaire_ as a fix-all ratings solution, the lack of appeciation for _SportsNight_ and other prestige shows, among other bungles.
The CNN/Time Magazine Tailwind scandal.
_Dateline_’s “assisting” the visuals in their exploding pickup truck gas tank story.
Geraldo Rivera still having a career after the Al Capone’s vaults incident.
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### Author:  [@Bad\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_Hat)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/14 "2002-10-14T07:43:08Z")
ummm after M_A_S\*H, anyone?
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/15 "2002-10-14T07:55:36Z")
Scrappy Doo
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/16 "2002-10-14T07:57:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by widdershins \*
> **Making programming decisions based on catering to the 18-49, and now the 18-34 demographic, to the exclusion of other age groups. This is a major reason Friday and Saturday are such dead zones of TV programming these days, especially on the networks.**
I’ve always been annoyed with this. But at least now I understand why they do it, and there is some merit in it. Some. By the time people are my venerable age (44) they are pretty attached to their brands, and it’s hard to get them to switch. Much, much easier with the young folk to sway their tender brains by plying them with advertising. We wise ones don’t fall for that shit.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\* NBC picking Leno over Letterman.\*\*
Can I hear a HALLELUJAH, brother!
J
> [@](#):
>
> \*\* oan Rivers walking away from her guest host gig on _The Tonight Show_ for her own talk show which died a quick death.\*\*
Hardly. Anything that gets Joan as far away from TV as possible is a good thing. She is the most grotesquely embarassing person on TV, bar none.
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### Author:  [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/17 "2002-10-14T08:20:07Z")
I’m no fan of Joan Rivers either, I just think it was a horrendously bad TV career choice. She reportedly destroyed her professional relationship with Johnny Carson by leaving. Not a smart move to burn bridges with the man who still dominated late night TV at the time.
For a different view of the networks’ devotion to demographics:
(registration required, BTW)
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/18 "2002-10-14T12:45:42Z")
George Cloony leaving both \*\* Facts of Life \*\* and \*\* Roseanne \*\*.
Cancelling \*\* Bosom Buddies \*\* after two seasons. A show that had Donna Dixon, Holland Taylor, Thelma Hopkins, Peter Scolari and TOM HANKS?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/19 "2002-10-14T13:22:27Z")
1 - The paradox of how everytime an original concept succeeds, dozens of other shows duplicate the idea. Maybe someone should explain the concept of “originality” to these people.
2 - The fact that television executives apparently assume they are far more intelligent than other people (in the face of massive evidence to the contrary) so they need to set the stupidity level of popular entertainment lower than their own, so that the “average viewer” will be able to understand it.
3 - The way that every show, no matter what its format, must demonstrate every episode that every regular character is a fundamentally a warm, decent, caring person who loves every other character in the show. TV writers have a word for these heartwarming scenes; they call it the “moment of shit”.
4 - The whole Nielsen ratings system. Voodoo statistics.
5 - The fact that the whole system is run by and for advertisers and not producers or viewers. This creates a system that’s neither democratic nor elitist, and has the disadvantages of both with the advantages of neither.
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### Author:  [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2002, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/20 "2002-10-14T13:30:13Z")
The Magic Johnson Show, hell, the whole “Let’s give the celebrity of the week his/her own talk show.” thinking.
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