# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/141 "2011-03-21T21:48:02Z")
Anyone see Michael Richards short short lived post Seinfeld sitcom? Jawdroppingly bad. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/142 "2011-03-22T01:56:23Z")
This program, when my wife has it on, literally induces me to comsume intoxicants to ease the pain. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/143 "2011-03-22T03:50:48Z")
> [@Silent\_Kal](#): > > Didn’t the premiere game(s) actually have very high ratings? I seem to remember hearing the first broadcast set some kind of record, or at least vastly exceeded expectations. > > Could the XFL have set the record for most precipitous ratings drop? 14 million people isn’t that many, but you’re right about exceeding expectations. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Although the XFL began with better-than-expected TV ratings (the opening-week games actually delivered ratings double those of what NBC had promised advertisers and the Saturday broadcast had more viewers than the NFL Pro Bowl) and fair publicity, the audience declined sharply after the first week of the season, going from a 9.5 rating to a 4.6 in just one week ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/144 "2011-03-22T04:20:12Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > I looked at a few Cop Rock videos on YouTube. Funny stuff, but I can’t imagine sitting through an entire episode. This is what I came in to post. Cop Rock was BAD, but I think they actually aired a few episodes before they pulled the plug. I simply can’t imagine the brain trust of a network giving this crapola the thumbs up. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/145 "2011-03-22T04:28:08Z")
> [@Silent\_Kal](#): > > Didn’t the premiere game(s) actually have very high ratings? I seem to remember hearing the first broadcast set some kind of record, or at least vastly exceeded expectations. > > Could the XFL have set the record for most precipitous ratings drop? [Found it:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFL#End_of_season_and_failure) Facing stiff competition from the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the NBC telecast of the Chicago/NY-NJ game on March 31 received a 1.5 rating, at that time the lowest ever for any major network primetime television broadcast in the United States. I remember because Conan did a skit about it, I never actually watched any of the games. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/146 "2011-03-22T05:43:25Z")
J.J. Starbuck Just watch the opening [theme](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrMo-W5XG-U). > [@](#): > > J.J. Starbuck was a short lived NBC series about a cornpone-spouting J.J. (Jerome Jeremiah) Starbuck, a Texan millionaire who wears ten-gallon hats, cowboy boots and fancy western shirts. He drives a flashy limo with steer horns on the hood and a horn that plays “The Eyes of Texas,” and spouts a steady stream of folksy homilies. > > After becoming bored with life, Starbuck begins wandering around the country, helping out “good folks” in trouble, using his influence and contacts, and more than often doing a little detective work. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/147 "2011-03-22T15:07:59Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > This is what I came in to post. Cop Rock was BAD, but I think they actually aired a few episodes before they pulled the plug. I simply can’t imagine the brain trust of a network giving this crapola the thumbs up. Well, you have to look at in a historical context. Shortly before \*Cop Rock \*came out, Steven Bochco was the golden-haired boy of the Hollywood TV industry. \*Hill Street Blues \*was a breakthrough cop drama (some people who weren’t around back then don’t remember that if it didn’t start the whole genre of the drama with story arcs, it definitely popularized it) and was winning bucketloads of awards. He had enough cred with the studio brass that pretty much anything he suggested would have gotten a greenlight. He did go on to do \*NYPD Blue \*and \*Doogie Howser MD \*(among other less successful stuff) so \*HSB \*wasn’t his only success. But yeah, \*Cop Rock \*flopped hard. Everybody gets one oopsy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/148 "2011-03-22T19:52:08Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Any series with an episode titled **Planet of the Slave Girls** can’t be all bad.😉 Well, the only thing Slavegirl-ish in the episode was the title, so it kinda WAS all bad. (All the images from the linked article are safe for work, but there is one from a 1940s Buck Rogers Sunday comic strip that surprisingly close to not being safe for work, and there is a link in the article that is NOT safe for work, so I have spoilered the link.) [Making sure you're not a bot!](http://www.bondagerotica.com/articles/buckrogers/buckrogers.html) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/149 "2011-03-22T20:08:54Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Cartoons, back in the day… We loved Warner Brothers (Bugs Bunny, etc.). To this day, I still like the non-character Warner Brothers cartoons made in the 30’s and 40’s . We adored Rocky & Bullwinkle! (hey, we weren’t stupid even as little kids). Roger Ramjet. Popeye, appallingly violent, but marvelous to look at. Even Beany & Cecil had a certain charm. And then, Hanna Barbera took over. Waiting for supper around 5 p.m., we didn’t want to watch the evening news or a game show, we wanted to watch cartoons. And what did we get but the crude, bland, primitive, witless Deputy Dawg. Hucklelberry Hound. Magilla Gorilla. Yes, and this includes f’ing Yogi Bear. Just bumbling along. Stupid voices. Lowest common denominator. Witless animated timekillers for babies! Watch a Hanna Barbera cartoon then and now, and I think: Dumbasses. Heh I remember dreading Sunday mornings as a kid - all morning to watch TV, but all that was available for kids was either Hanna Barbera cartoons or Davey and Goliath. > **[Davey and Goliath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_and_Goliath)** > > Davey and Goliath is an American Christian clay-animated children's television series, whose central characters were created by Art Clokey, Ruth Clokey, and Dick Sutcliffe, and which was produced first by the United Lutheran Church in America and later by the Lutheran Church in America. The show was aimed at a youth audience, and generally dealt with issues such as respect for authority, sharing, and prejudice. Eventually, these themes included serious issues such as racism, death, religiou Eac... Davey and Goliath was worse. Just horribly bad. And popular/long running, too. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/150 "2011-03-22T20:11:32Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > He did go on to do \*NYPD Blue \*and \*Doogie Howser MD \*(among other less successful stuff) so \*HSB \*wasn’t his only success. But yeah, \*Cop Rock \*flopped hard. Everybody gets one oopsy. 🙂 And you have to admit, _Doogie Howser MD_ has a premise that sounds every bit as stupid as the premise of _Cop Rock_. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/151 "2011-03-22T20:15:15Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > And you have to admit, _Doogie Howser MD_ has a premise that sounds every bit as stupid as the premise of _Cop Rock_. Yeah, true. If you just looked at the premise you’d probably write it off as crap, but it was a surprisingly good show. I just watched the run of episodes recently on Netflix while leveling a WoW toon and for the most part they hold up pretty good. Neil Patrick Harris was a perfect choice for Doogie. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/152 "2011-03-22T20:55:28Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Cartoons, back in the day… We loved Warner Brothers (Bugs Bunny, etc.). To this day, I still like the non-character Warner Brothers cartoons made in the 30’s and 40’s . We adored Rocky & Bullwinkle! (hey, we weren’t stupid even as little kids). Roger Ramjet. Popeye, appallingly violent, but marvelous to look at. Even Beany & Cecil had a certain charm. And then, Hanna Barbera took over. Waiting for supper around 5 p.m., we didn’t want to watch the evening news or a game show, we wanted to watch cartoons. And what did we get but the crude, bland, primitive, witless Deputy Dawg. Hucklelberry Hound. Magilla Gorilla. Yes, and this includes f’ing Yogi Bear. Just bumbling along. Stupid voices. Lowest common denominator. Witless animated timekillers for babies! Watch a Hanna Barbera cartoon then and now, and I think: Dumbasses. A while back I was stuck in an airport while a flight was delayed, and there was a TV in the waiting area playing an episode of _The Jetsons_ (the '60’s edition). I had forgotten how mindnumbingly, wretchingly awful it was–it was beyond mere bad into “slow down and watch the car wreck” level of bad. Bad animation, bad dialogue, bad plotting, bad concept (the entire episode was based around the joke “women can’t drive”, and that dead horse was beaten until the ground no longer had measurable amounts of horse), bad everything. And The Jetsons was considered _the best_ of the Hanna-Barbera crap! ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/153 "2011-03-22T21:21:13Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > A while back I was stuck in an airport while a flight was delayed, and there was a TV in the waiting area playing an episode of _The Jetsons_ (the '60’s edition). I had forgotten how mindnumbingly, wretchingly awful it was–it was beyond mere bad into “slow down and watch the car wreck” level of bad. Bad animation, bad dialogue, bad plotting, bad concept (the entire episode was based around the joke “women can’t drive”, and that dead horse was beaten until the ground no longer had measurable amounts of horse), bad everything. > > And The Jetsons was considered _the best_ of the Hanna-Barbera crap! I’d watch _The Jetsons_ _twice_ before I’d watch _Davie and Goliath_. 😉 Both suck, but _Davie and Goliath_ sucks _Biblically_. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428/154 "2011-03-22T21:36:23Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I’d watch _The Jetsons_ _twice_ before I’d watch _Davie and Goliath_. 😉 > > Both suck, but _Davie and Goliath_ sucks _Biblically_. Aww, I used to love Davey and Goliath! And I wasn’t even religious. I just liked the Gumby vibe (it’s the same guy who did it) and the goofy adventures. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-show-of-all-time/568428.md?page=7)