What's new

The 25 worst sitcoms ever (1 Viewer)

WillG

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
7,563

I wouldn't be too sure of that. Time can truly be a bitch when it comes to comedy. Look at, pretty much his old comedic partner, Dan Aykroyd. Brilliant on SNL and in the early 80s, but has had some horryfying lows in his later career. Need I say more than Caddyshack II
 

John Dirk

Premium
Ambassador
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 7, 2000
Messages
6,720
Location
ATL
Real Name
JOHN

Well, you do have a point there. Dan's a strange bird though. He's still brilliant, but has always had a taste for the truly bizarre. Some might call him cutting edge. I think his true talent is writing material, either for himself or others.

Jim is just not cut out for the entertainment business. I'm sure he's a decent guy, but if he weren't John's brother, I suspect he'd be selling tires or something.

John
 

Pete York

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 1, 2004
Messages
610
Surprised not to see The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, which wasn't just universally reviled upon its arrival, but was actually called the worst sitcom ever to air by more than one critic.
 

John Dirk

Premium
Ambassador
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 7, 2000
Messages
6,720
Location
ATL
Real Name
JOHN

Wow. According to IMDB.com this "series" only aired 4 episodes. How did you manage to catch it? You can tell from the brief plot synopsis, it must have sucked pretty bad. Funny, I just watched Chi McBride in Undercover Brother last night. One of my more recent favorites.

John
 

Pete York

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 1, 2004
Messages
610

The venom of the reviews in the papers was so strong, even ten years later it stands out in my mind like a beacon of vitriol.
 

RyanAn

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 5, 2004
Messages
1,523
Well, there's more than 5 on that list that I've seen every episode of and I'm not going to say which. (I love you Kelly Kapowski and I wish Grant Lubbock was my dad!)
 

Josh Dial

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2000
Messages
4,503
Real Name
Josh Dial
How can this list not simply be "Joey," 25 times? Anyone who laughed at that show (other than in mockery) should be forced to forfeit their TV, for life.
 

Rhoq

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 1, 2004
Messages
734
That show with Flavor Flav is easily the worst "sitcom" I have ever seen (out of morbid curiosity, I watched it once about a month or two ago). I think it's called Under One Roof.
 

Joseph DeMartino

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
8,311
Location
Florida
Real Name
Joseph DeMartino
I have a nodding internet acquaintance with one of the producers of According to Jim and I have to say that the show was exactly what the network (and to a lesser degree the actors - note the plural) wanted it to be. And I think if Jim's last name were Smith he'd be regarded as what he is - a perfectly adequate actor and comic second-banana. He's only considered "crap" because he's constantly being compared to his brother, who was a comic genius. He's no worse than 90% of the people who have passed through the ever-changing SNL cast. But because his name is "Belushi" people hold him to an impossibly high standard and then dump on him when he fails to meet it. Which is a shame, because by all accounts he is a very nice guy and probably deserves better.

I find the show an OK way to pass an idle half hour. (OK, I've also got a thing for both Courtney Thorne-Smith and Kimberly Williams, so that does make it easier.) Of course, I also like its polar opposite Two and a Half Men, which has also taken its lumps in this thread, so what do I know? :D

Regards,

Joe
 

Aaron Silverman

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 22, 1999
Messages
11,411
Location
Florida
Real Name
Aaron Silverman
This whole concept is dumb. Comedy is too subjective. At any rate, I think about half of that list doesn't even qualify as "bad" by sitcom standards (not that those standards are very high ;) ).

You could easily fill the list entirely with stuff that ran for half a season and was forgotten. There are very few sitcoms that lasted more than a year or two that didn't have some merit. A lot of them got lame by the end, but people forget how funny they were in the beginning (see: Friends).
 

DaveF

Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Messages
28,687
Location
Catfisch Cinema
Real Name
Dave
All lists of this sort are fundamentally broken because they have to appeal to broad audience. A true list of the "worst" would entail really awful dreck that no one's seen or heard of. But a best-of list with shows that you've never heard of is no fun to read. So a list of the best-worst shows is made. These are the shows that everyone's seen, remembers being guilty pleasures or were amusingly bad, but not so terrible as to die too fast. And a few actually-good shows are put in to raise the ire of readers and make for good feedback.

As for the list: Perfect Strangers? Punky Brewster? The first was simply beloved when it was on. The second was a fun kid-friendly sitcom (do they make those anymore?) that was just fine for its time. Even Joey is not utter dreck; just a mediocre sitcom that couldn't make it in today's market.
 

MatthewA

BANNED
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
9,727
Location
Salinas, CA
Real Name
Matthew

As much as I despise Friends, I owe their fans an apology, for even they wouldn't watch Joey.

There are kid-friendly sitcoms on the air today, but they are not fun at all. Punky Brewster is is Shakespearean compared to any of the Eisner Channel or Nickelodeon sitcoms (If I had kids I wouldn't let them watch any of those). I was surprised it held up at all, let alone as well as it did. The animated version, however, was terrible. It wasn't on the TV Crunch list but on the post starter's list.

I was tempted to buy Perfect Strangers on DVD but I heard the picture quality was not good, and for the price I think I'll wait for it to come down.

Webster shouldn't have been on the list either, but in hindsight the show was much better in the later seasons. Less of the heavy-handed musical cues, extraneous characters and "very special episodes" that were some of the worst of that reviled genre. The first couple of years, which coincide with the show's highest ratings, were awkward, and I always felt Cathryn Damon and Eugene Roche, who were great on "Soap", were shoehorned into the show by ABC.

Most of that list I've just never seen.
 

John Dirk

Premium
Ambassador
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 7, 2000
Messages
6,720
Location
ATL
Real Name
JOHN
I don't disagree with anything you've said, except I doubt anyone compares Jim to John. I would be utterly pointless, as you more or less admitted. Now, in this era of rap stars, athletes, and washed-up movie stars suddenly being given shows, Jim is just as welcome to the club as the rest. The thing is, all of the above club members were given shows because they had achieved a level of notoriety in their primary lines of work. Jim's notoriety comes mostly from his last name. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy and none of this is intended personally, but the criticism will always accompany the fame. He can't have it both ways.

John
 

Greg_S_H

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 9, 2001
Messages
15,846
Location
North Texas
Real Name
Greg
I think of him from his '80s work in film, which might not have set the world on fire, but most of it was good in a cult kind of way--think The Principal. I know he's Jim's brother, of course, but I certainly see him as his own person. I never once considered, "They gave this show to him because of his brother."
 

Marty M

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 6, 1998
Messages
2,919
I have never heard of the show that is #1, but I didn't really watch TBS for their original sitcoms in the 80s. One thing I find interesting is there is nothing on the list that goes further back than the 80s. There were some bad sitcoms in the decades before, as well. One that comes to mind is My Mother the Car.
 

Jon Martin

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2002
Messages
2,218

Compared to most of the shows on that list, JOEY wasn't THAT bad.

SMALL WONDER is rightly the worst.

And what was the one from the 80's about the talking chimp? MR. SMITH?
 

Greg_S_H

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 9, 2001
Messages
15,846
Location
North Texas
Real Name
Greg
The following is not entirely germane to the discussion, but I'll post it anyway.

I hate modern sitcoms--people in outlandish situations doing and saying ridiculous things. Now, that definition could fit with I Love Lucy on the surface, but even I Love Lucy tried to be somewhat grounded in reality. When it comes to modern sitcoms, the example I always come back to is an incredibly dumb episode of Newsradio I watched. Some of the characters go to lunch at a Chuck E. Cheese-style restaurant, and one asks, "Where did our waiter go?" He pops up from under the balls in the ball pool and says, "Sorry, I was on break." :rolleyes:The same episode (I think) had the boss explaining his "power remote," or whatever he called it. When he had a great idea in a meeting, he would push a button and a light would shine down on him while an angelic choir suddenly sang. :rolleyes:Idiotic.

I'm not really a fan of All in the Family, but that's an example of what I would look for in a sitcom. It's basically written as a drama, but with funny lines that people might really say and some amplified situations and behavior to make it into a comedy. But, nothing out-and-out stupid like the examples above.

With my dislike of modern sitcoms, I was annoyed when TV Land started playing Just Shoot Me, but something caused me to watch it and I really liked it. It was definitely more to the outrageous modern sitcom side, but the characters were decent and the writing was pretty funny. Somewhere along the line, it really took a nosedive. About the time Kevin was introduced (and he's a ridiculous character, but tolerable if he were the only problem), it started sliding toward over-the-top idiocy. Jack became a clueless moron, Nina started with the Chrissy Snow snort (which was the start of that character becoming a liability to Three's Company), and the writing in general was at a much lower level.

I wonder why that has to happen. I guess you run out of ideas of what to do with these characters and this situation, and everyone's getting restless and wanting to move on.

Anyway, I wouldn't put JSM on the worst because it was pretty darn good for a long while. I wouldn't put Newsradio, either, since I only saw a couple of episodes and it wouldn't be fair. If the quality matched those episodes, it deserves to top the list.
 

DaveF

Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Messages
28,687
Location
Catfisch Cinema
Real Name
Dave
That's basic comedy. Exaggeration. Hyperbole. Tall Tales. Do you specifically dislike unrealistic sitcoms? Or anything that doesn't hew realistic for comedic sake?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,813
Messages
5,123,610
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top