# Worst TV show ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 14, 2016, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933 "2016-07-14T22:33:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/102 "2016-07-18T17:41:58Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I’ve never seen an episode of _My Mother the Car_, but I agree with this anyway. People ridicule the premise, which was admittedly wacky. But was it really any stranger than the premises of, say, _My Favorite Martian_ or _I Dream of Jeannie_? What makes a show good or bad is what they do with that premise–are the jokes good, are they performed well, is the writing fresh and interesting? As I say, I’ve never seen _My Mother the Car_, so I can’t judge it on that score. But the strange premise shouldn’t be enough to sink it in and of itself. **My Mother the Car** wasn’t a bad show. Jerry Van Dyke was decent in it. The wife was attractive and the kids weren’t obnoxious. Of course he had to keep the fact that his mother’s spirit was in the car a secret, or else people would have feared for his sanity. What ruined it for me were the formulaic plots involving Avery Schreiber as an obsessed car collector named Captain Manzini who was always trying to buy or steal the car (a 1928 Porter) from Dave Crabtree (Van Dyke), always by unscrupulous means. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/103 "2016-07-18T17:46:14Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I’ve never seen an episode of _My Mother the Car_, but I agree with this anyway. People ridicule the premise, which was admittedly wacky. But was it really any stranger than the premises of, say, _My Favorite Martian_ or _I Dream of Jeannie_? Strictly speaking, the idea of someone coming back as a car is orders of magnitude more stupid than the idea of martians or genies. Martians and genies are “real” (mythological) things. Coming back as a car is just stupid, the Stephen King novel notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/104 "2016-07-18T18:35:56Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > This was in the last few years, right? I remember talking about it on the SDMB and not getting too far in to it, either. Yep, in the last three years even. I was so looking forward to it and then it was nothing but teh stupido. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/105 "2016-07-18T18:55:44Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > Kat Dennings continued career is proof that God is an angry and vengeful God. That’s certainly not how I look at it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/106 "2016-07-18T19:47:53Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Hey, I can still sing the theme song fifty years later! 🆒 We used to sing, “It’s about time, it’s about space, it’s about time I slapped your face!” I vaguely remember the show, it must have been pretty bad, I remember a lot of the “Gilligan’s Island” episodes. Seems like “The Time Tunnel” was airing about the same period, all I can remember of that is two guys running down the tunnel that broke down every single time they used it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/107 "2016-07-18T19:55:41Z")
_The Time Tunnel_ was a good show. It had Lee Meriwether in it. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/108 "2016-07-18T20:07:31Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > **My Mother the Car** wasn’t a bad show. Jerry Van Dyke was decent in it. The wife was attractive and the kids weren’t obnoxious. Of course he had to keep the fact that his mother’s spirit was in the car a secret, or else people would have feared for his sanity. What ruined it for me were the formulaic plots involving Avery Schreiber as an obsessed car collector named Captain Manzini who was always trying to buy or steal the car (a 1928 Porter) from Dave Crabtree (Van Dyke), always by unscrupulous means. One of the things that keeps me coming back to the SDMB is stuff like the above. I find it both interesting, and vaguely upsetting, that you can post about what prevented _My Mother the Car_ from being a good TV show, and I find myself agreeing. I would nominate a more recent entry - _The Crazy Ones_, the last thing Robin Williams did before his unfortunate death. If ever a show absolutely stank of desperation, that was it. As line after line clanked heavily to the ground, I could hear the network in the background saying “You love it, don’t you? Tell us you do! It’s great, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Robin Williams is funny! ISN"T HE!!! YOU HAVE TO LOVE THIS - MY CAREER IS ON THE LINE!!!” Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/109 "2016-07-18T20:23:39Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > It may not be the worst TV show ever, but any discussion of the topic should include [2 Broke Girls.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1845307/) That show is terrible. It’s my guilty pleasure on long plane rides. I just finished watching a show called “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” that I discovered on a plane. It’s pretty bad but also kind of endearing. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/110 "2016-07-18T20:26:03Z")
I just read about Airwolf. No, not the first three seasons. But apparently the last season was bought out by USA Network. Who didn’t hire any of the original cast. Who used a body double to kill Ernest Borgnine. WHO DIDN’T HAVE ACCESS TO THE AIRWOLF CHARACTER. So they literally used footage from the first three seasons. Surely that has to be a contender, a show in which the producers don’t have rights to the title character? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/111 "2016-07-19T03:48:33Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I won’t name a single particular show, but rather a genre- those shows detailing the lives of such people as dwarves, girls with two heads, and those unfortunates who are so obese they can’t move. The Hensel twins do not have two heads. They are, as they put it, two people who happened to be born stuck together. :rolleyes: I loved their show precisely because they are so otherwise normal. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/112 "2016-07-20T01:52:45Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I’ve never seen an episode of _My Mother the Car_, but I agree with this anyway. People ridicule the premise, which was admittedly wacky. But was it really any stranger than the premises of, say, _My Favorite Martian_ or _I Dream of Jeannie_? And don’t forget _Mr. Ed_. Talking car, talking horse. Ay, what’s the difference? That period was definitely known for unique story lines. > [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > Seems like “The Time Tunnel” was airing about the same period, all I can remember of that is two guys running down the tunnel that broke down every single time they used it. It’s been awhile since I saw it, but didn’t everyone in the past, no matter how far back or where, always speak English? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/113 "2016-07-20T02:17:46Z")
Remember in the early 1980s when some Christian-oriented wackos were playing albums backwards to expose satanic messages? Apparently the “Mr. Ed” theme song contains such a message. :rolleyes: Weren’t there some homeless people they could have been feeding right about then? :dubious: Anyway, I’m going to add the Republican Convention to this list. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/114 "2016-07-20T02:27:26Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Anyway, I’m going to add the Republican Convention to this list. And for any given election year. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/115 "2016-07-20T02:51:37Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > And don’t forget _Mr. Ed_. Talking car, talking horse. Ay, what’s the difference? That period was definitely known for unique story lines. > > It’s been awhile since I saw it, but didn’t everyone in the past, no matter how far back or where, always speak English? Close–they spoke Amurkin; even the English. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/116 "2016-07-20T04:03:02Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Remember in the early 1980s when some Christian-oriented wackos were playing albums backwards to expose satanic messages? Apparently the “Mr. Ed” theme song contains such a message. :rolleyes: > > Weren’t there some homeless people they could have been feeding right about then? :dubious: > > Anyway, I’m going to add the Republican Convention to this list. Actually if you play the Satanic Mass backwards it was Mr Ed theme. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/117 "2016-07-20T14:47:42Z")
I’m going to go with Davey and Goliath, mentioned upthread. Why? Because while there may in theory have been worse shows, there were none I could not avoid. If you were a kid growing up in the '70s, and desperate for something to watch on TV on a rainy Sunday morning, Davey and Goliath was _there_ - cluttering up the few channels available to you. I probably owe it a bit of a debt, in that being forced to either watch that, or read books, or draw pictures - well, it was so bad, it actually convinced me to stop watching TV and to do something presumably more constructive. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/118 "2016-07-20T23:00:25Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > _The Lawrence Welk Show_ Why? It’s not my cup of tea, but I’ve managed to sit through an episode or two with my grandmother and be mildly entertained. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/119 "2016-07-20T23:45:36Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I just read about Airwolf. No, not the first three seasons. But apparently the last season was bought out by USA Network. Who didn’t hire any of the original cast. Who used a body double to kill Ernest Borgnine. WHO DIDN’T HAVE ACCESS TO THE AIRWOLF CHARACTER. So they literally used footage from the first three seasons. > > Surely that has to be a contender, a show in which the producers don’t have rights to the title character? Wow, yeah that’s awful. I take back what I said about TLC having all the worst shows. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/120 "2016-07-21T03:01:03Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > That’s impossible. It’s about time was set in prehistoric times and Gilligans Island was set in the present day on an island, duhh… Huh? 😕 [![](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/33/bc/e1/33bce1425b6f4fb2e7f793037cb8dce6.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/33/bc/e1/33bce1425b6f4fb2e7f793037cb8dce6.jpg) [http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY0NTEzNjY0M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTQxNDUyMjE@.\_V1\_SX640\_SY720\_.jpg](http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY0NTEzNjY0M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTQxNDUyMjE@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-ever/759933/121 "2016-07-21T03:08:04Z")
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