# Worst TV show of all time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428 "2011-01-21T06:37:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/81 "2011-01-23T23:26:44Z")
Seinfeld. Aw, come on. Somebody had to say it. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/82 "2011-01-24T23:13:51Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > **The Ropers** was an incredibly bad spin-off from **Three’s Company**. This [Time article](http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1845866,00.html) ranks it #2 on its list of all time worst spin-offs. Meh, it wasn’t that bad, it was just a by-the-numbers sitcom about neighbors that don’t get along. Certainly nothing so bad that it should wind up on a list. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/83 "2011-01-24T23:27:13Z")
_American Dad_. I saw that show over at a friend’s house and felt my IQ drop by 100 points. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/84 "2011-01-25T22:36:35Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > [Dads](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0799994/). Admittedly, the OP probably wasn’t thinking of a failed pilot that, AFAIK, never actually was aired, but this is a special case. > > **Dads** is a sitcom starring Steven Eckholdt, C. Thomas Howell, and Adam Ferrera as three single fathers raising their kids, with a special mission to leave no sitcom cliche behind and read their lines with less expression than Steven Hawking. Rue McClanahan shows up to do exactly what she always did, clearly getting the whole thing over with to get her paycheck. > > As I said, the show never aired. I’m sure the network executives had the same reaction as the first night audience after the opening number of **Springtime for Hitler**. There was absolutely nothing about the show that was worth wasting electrons on. > > Like everyone else who’s ever seen it, I first heard of it through a market research firm. They wanted me to test view a new TV show and comment on it. It was sent on a self-destructing (Holy **Mission: Impossible** , Batman!) VCR tape and we were to sit through it and watch the show. They would call a few days later and, for answering the questions, we would get a few bucks. > > We watched. Dumbfounded. At the time, the tape was at least five years old, as was clear by looking at the actors. There was no way in hell any sane network executive would even consider giving this a green light, let alone sent it out for audience testing. > > Then came the commercial. This was oddly more modern, like it had been produced in the past few months. > > We caught on. The point was not to watch the show, but to watch the commercial. I suppose they chose a show that would make anything else look like entertainment by comparison. > > This was confirmed when they called to ask us questions. After a couple of perfunctory questions about the show, they asked a whole lot of in-depth questions about the commercials. > > I’ve since seen comments from others that this happened to them. So you had a show whose entire audience had to be _paid_ to watch it. And none of them thought it was any good. This is interesting, because I received an invitation to see some planned TV shows where we were enticed to come by the prospect of door prizes. We ended up filling out a bunch of information about products we were interested in, and saw the above mentioned show as well as a terribly produced show about reincarnation or past lives that had to be at least 10 years old. The one review of Dads on IMDB basically sums up what happened. And we got absolutely nothing out of this evening of watching terrible TV shows and giving our opinions of products. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/85 "2011-01-25T23:04:06Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > the holy grail of bad TV: > > My Mother The Car. Dang it, I came in to post that one. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![GythaOgg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@GythaOgg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GythaOgg)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/86 "2011-01-26T01:34:15Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > This is interesting, because I received an invitation to see some planned TV shows where we were enticed to come by the prospect of door prizes. We ended up filling out a bunch of information about products we were interested in, and saw the above mentioned show as well as a terribly produced show about reincarnation or past lives that had to be at least 10 years old. The one review of Dads on IMDB basically sums up what happened. > > And we got absolutely nothing out of this evening of watching terrible TV shows and giving our opinions of products. This happened to us, too - at least fifteen years ago. The show we saw was some awful thing with (I think) Sally Kellerman that I’ve managed to totally erase from my memory. I just know it wasn’t ‘Dads’. The commercials were for Old Spice deodorant. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/87 "2011-01-26T01:41:47Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Maybe not the worse, since it was a kids show, but I cannot believe that I liked [this show](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOPB2r7lWII) when I was little. :o Well, it DID feature Shazam! (Apparently - I’ve never heard of this show before.) ---
**Author:** ![BaconAndEggs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@BaconAndEggs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaconAndEggs)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/88 "2011-01-26T03:11:00Z")
“The Pitts” It was on in 2003. It was pure awful. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/89 "2011-01-26T07:35:23Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Well, it DID feature Shazam! (Apparently - I’ve never heard of this show before.) Well it was an American show which ran between 1981 and 1982. Being Canadian, and/or if you’re younger than I am may be why you never heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/90 "2011-01-27T16:29:50Z")
Okay, I’m cheating here since this pilot was never actually aired, but it has to win some award for the stupidest _idea_ for a show ever. [Wonder Woman: Who’s Afraid of Diana Prince?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilIodk5wQ6c) - In the mid-60s heyday of the campy live-action “Batman”, the same producers thought about doing a similar campy version of “Wonder Woman.” The basic premise was that Diana Prince was an awkward, homely girl who merely _thought_ she was a beautiful superheroine. Even her superpowers were gangly - flying by flapping her arms & legs like a chicken! ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/91 "2011-01-27T18:04:01Z")
I can never remember the name of the show, but there was one being reviewed in my local paper in the early to mid 80s about a grandmother (Italian? Jewish?) who had a cooking show in her home (of course she meddled in her kids personal lives). It was never put on the air, and the reason I mention it is because of a line in the review (which I remember quite clearly): The show was “so bad they wouldn’t let you see it”. I always thought considering some of the crap shown on TV over the years, as evidenced by this thread, that had to be one really, really crappy show. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/92 "2011-01-27T18:40:06Z")
Aw, I kind of like Mama’s Family, even though her character is just a watered-down version of the truly remarkable monster she played (with the rest of that monstrous family) on the Carol Burnett Show. It employed some lucky wigmakers for years! I just saw Retired At 35 last night by accident, and if this thing wasn’t hooked up with Hot In Cleveland, I can’t imagine it lasting a month. A carbon copy of a carbon copy of every witless ‘randy senior citizen’ show that’s been on in the past 30 years. Not a scrap of wit or cleverness, just sort of embarrassing, derivative, offensive, and dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/93 "2011-01-27T18:53:56Z")
I happened to catch another late night Tyler Perry show. It was awful. Why do they let this guy make TV shows? I don’t remember the name, it might have been The Browns or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/94 "2011-01-27T18:57:16Z")
you know, just because a show isn’t to your taste doesn’t make it a bad show. i’m surprised it took past the second post for someone to name a popular show as the worst evar!!, honestly. i don’t particularly like any of the shows named (everybody loves raymond, two and a half men, seinfeld, malcolm in the middle were some of the names i saw) but i certainly don’t think they’re the worst shows ever. they’re all multi season, award winning, highly rated shows. someone’s watching and enjoying them. look at the example made by the OP, how could you possibly say any of the above shows are worse than that? good god. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/95 "2011-01-27T19:10:00Z")
> [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](#): > > I can never remember the name of the show, but there was one being reviewed in my local paper in the early to mid 80s about a grandmother (Italian? Jewish?) who had a cooking show in her home (of course she meddled in her kids personal lives). > > It was never put on the air, and the reason I mention it is because of a line in the review (which I remember quite clearly): The show was “so bad they wouldn’t let you see it”. I always thought considering some of the crap shown on TV over the years, as evidenced by this thread, that had to be one really, really crappy show. [Mama Malone](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086754/) IMDB says there were 13 episodes aired. ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/96 "2011-01-27T19:14:34Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > [Mama Malone](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086754/) > > IMDB says there were 13 episodes aired. Holy crap, that’s got to be it! I won’t ask how you came up with that, given the flimsy evidence, but it’s clear we can’t rely on my memory for much if 13 episodes aired. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/97 "2011-01-27T19:21:52Z")
> [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](#): > > Holy crap, that’s got to be it! I won’t ask how you came up with that, given the flimsy evidence, but it’s clear we can’t rely on my memory for much if 13 episodes aired. Actually, I _remember_ the show! Very vaguely, but I do remember watching at least one episode. She was Irish posing as Italian because nobody would watch an Irish TV cook, right? ETA: Just checked to see if I could find the synopsis…she WAS Italian, but her late husband was Irish, thus the “Malone”. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/98 "2011-01-27T19:48:10Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Maybe not the worse, since it was a kids show, but I cannot believe that I liked [this show](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOPB2r7lWII) when I was little. :o > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Well, it DID feature Shazam! (Apparently - I’ve never heard of this show before.) And a Superheroine named Dirty Trixie. I wonder what her superpower was. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/99 "2011-01-27T20:33:18Z")
> [@Tahssa](#): > > And a Superheroine named Dirty Trixie. I wonder what her superpower was. 😉 Sadly, [nothing that you were hoping for](http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/h/herohigh.htm#trix). But they did have the age appropriate and politically correct [Glorious Gal](http://superfriends.wikia.com/wiki/Becky_Perle) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/100 "2011-01-27T20:43:23Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > I’m thinking Automan has to be in the running. But… I _liked_ Automan! :: hangs head in profound shame :: > [@Cat Whisperer](#): > > Well, it DID feature Shazam! (Apparently - I’ve never heard of this show before.) It did air in Canada. I used to watch it but _hated_ the live action stupid singer people. Mostly it was cartoons. ETA: [Looked like this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TwPz4ppl3o&feature=fvw). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428.md?page=6)