Worst TV show of all time

[Duckster]

Seinfeld.

Aw, come on. Somebody had to say it.

[TBG]

@AnalogSignal

The Ropers was an incredibly bad spin-off from Three’s Company. This Time article 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.

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

American Dad. I saw that show over at a friend’s house and felt my IQ drop by 100 points.

[glowacks]

@RealityChuck

Dads. 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.

[sinjin]

@BMalion

the holy grail of bad TV:

My Mother The Car.

Dang it, I came in to post that one.

[GythaOgg]

@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.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Nobody

Maybe not the worse, since it was a kids show, but I cannot believe that I liked this show when I was little. :o

Well, it DID feature Shazam! (Apparently - I’ve never heard of this show before.)

[BaconAndEggs]

“The Pitts” It was on in 2003. It was pure awful.

[Nobody]

@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.

[Don_Draper]

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? - 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!

[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.

[salinqmind]

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.

[Wile_E]

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.

[expectopatronum]

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.

[jayjay]

@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

IMDB says there were 13 episodes aired.

[Prelude_to_Fascination]

@jayjay

Mama Malone

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.

[jayjay]

@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”.

[Drunky_Smurf]

@Nobody

Maybe not the worse, since it was a kids show, but I cannot believe that I liked this show 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.

[Nobody]

@Tahssa

And a Superheroine named Dirty Trixie. I wonder what her superpower was.

Sadly, nothing that you were hoping for.

But they did have the age appropriate and politically correct Glorious Gal

[Swallowed_My_Cellphone]

@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.