::shrug:: I know that it was groundbreaking, dealt with a lot of timely issues which dramas of the day didn’t dare touch, and was intended to be ironic…but from the opening credits (sung by Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton) to the kazoo-like whining of Sally Struthers and the dopey, spineless mumbling of Rob Reiner, all played out in that Og-awful Queens rowhouse with its nasty yellow and green '50s-era interior, the show just made me want to hurl. This was, amazingly enough, the only show I can think of where the addition of a child late in its run actually improved the show, if only by diluting the rest of its most hideous qualities.
And sorry, Happy Lendervedder, but Alice…ugh! Especially after seeing Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More. And I stand by the rest of the list, especiallyGreen Acres.
Well, I’m glad someone agrees with me. I caught about thrity seconds of it a few years ago while flipping through channels at someone else’s house, and at first I thought it was a parody of an awful variety show, but no, it was the real deal. I’m morally convinced that the entire cast of the show committed mass suicide when it was cancelled in recognition of the fact none of them would ever be hired as so much as a convenience store clerk again. Looking it up on IMDb I’m amazed to see that it survived until 1993 in first-run syndication. The single user comment in IMDb says
I live in perpetual fear of the coming of Hee Haw on DVD.
Would it have featured cowboys silently lifting their legs up and dancing around?
So, somebody out there in Hollywood thinks that Hee Haw fans a) own, and b) can operate a DVD player? Sounds like the miscalculation of the century to me.
There is, of course, the Power Rangers. More Saturday morning crapfare includes the Tri-Stars, or the Sports-Stars, or whatever the show with Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and Bo Jackson was.
I also need to step in to defend Woops! which had a bizarre concept, but was moderately amusing.
Let’s see… I agree that *Hee Haw’s * up there with the stinkers. I’m sure I’ll think of more…
Not likely. I’ve seen the pilot (it’s one of the extras in the 30th Anniversary DVD) out of curiosity and it was absolutely painful! The only thing it has in common with the movie is it features a black sheriff in some Western town.
Hey, I loved that show. One of the reasons I married my husband was because he had a reel-to-reel video recorder in the '70s, and he had taped Quark. I watched an episode not long ago, and it’s still funny stuff.
Again, I apologize to the entire SDMB community for my egregious error. I don’t know what I could have possibly been thinking. I only hope that the quality of the boards recovers from my outrageous displays of inaccuracy. We should all be grateful for your tireless pursuit of setting the record straight.
God, I had no idea that Roy Clark, who, far from being unfit to work in a convenience store, is a highly talented musician, actually stuck it out as host of that ridiculous show on into the '90s. (And Buck Owens, his original co-host, only bailed in 1986.) Shudder.
Odd trivia: The show “Turn-On” is perhaps the one & only case of a network show being cancelled while still on the air! It was an hour-long show, but at the 30-minute mark of its’ first episode, the feed abruptly cut-off and a message was substituted in its’ place reading “the network has decided not to broadcast the rest of this show”, which ran until the rest of the hour was up!
As for worst show to make it past one episode, there was the two-episode “wonder” entitled No Soap Radio. Then there’s the mindless abomination that was Supertrain: A bad ripoff of “the Love Boat”, now that takes the prize.
Honorable mention has to go to a series that never even made to the airwaves: the proposed Batman-inspired campy sitcom “Wonder Woman: Who’s Afraid of Diana Prince?” The premise was that Diana Prince was an inept & ugly, ugly, ugly superheroine who foolishly believes she’s a sexpot. Whenever she looked into a mirror, she saw a gorgeous reflection.
I’ll have to third or fourth the love for this show (whatever number we’re on).
Ok, I was 10 years old at the time, but it was one of the few shows my entire family loved. I was so disappointed when my mom told me it was only scheduled to run a short time.
Also in the vein of political satire gone horribly wrong, I’ll mention “That’s My Bush.” Tongue in cheek or not, it just sucked. Seriously, some otherwise brilliant writers need to leave their political angst out of their work.
I’ll also back up the mention of “Small Wonder.” Just remembering the opening jingle makes me want to scalp myself and bite off my tongue.
Some more:
Free Spirit: I had to read the entry on IMDB to even realize that it had already been done by Bewitched. Even when I was seven I thought it sucked. I am, however, very intrigued by the fact that Alyson Hannigan was in it. =d
Doghouse: My younger sister loved this show. It’s about a cop who gets killed in the line of duty and ends up reincarnated as a dog living with his brother’s family.
I remember a sitcom that aired in the late 80’s that involved fairy tale characters living in the present day. There was a Rumplestiltskin-esque dwarf, prince charming, and a princess of some variety, among others. I can’t remember what it was called or what channel it was on, but the more I remember, the more I think that this one oughta top the shitlist.
My mention of Doghouse is also dredging up some memories of stuff my younger sister liked that I loathed. I say we exclude any original stuff from the Disney Channel or the Family Channel. Going after that saccharine crap is like shooting fish in a barrell.
That would be The Charmings. Not great, kind of uninspired, but not the sort of true awfulness we’re looking for here. And the woman who played Snow White (first season) was a babe, which helps.
