TV Shows That Should Not Have Existed, Yet Did

Stumbled on this video and I must say there are some serious obscurities on this list and a few I just went NOOO!!!(I have always remembered and sang the theme from My Mother The Car including the A OO GAHs). A few of these may have been pilots that aired once to fill a hole. Some I have on DVD sets(Galactica 1980).

Hey Vidiot, did you work on any of these?

 

The Brady Bunch Hour

 

To be fair they DID include The Brady Brides.

 

The Secret Diary Of Desmond Pfeiffer (UPN, 1998):

 

Im in for Holmes & Yo Yo!

 

Me & The Chimp?

 

Captain Nice

 

Queen for a Day

 

What, they didn't cover Heil Honey I'm Home!, that wacky domestic sitcom starring Hitler?

 

In my admittedly curmudgeonly opinion, the vast majority of sitcoms were (and are) an utter waste of creative resources to make and a complete waste of time to watch.

An advertising delivery system for corporate America and little more.

 

It did.

 

Where? I didn't see it in there.

 

Keeping up with the Kardashians
2 Broke Girls
Whitney
Jersey Shore

 

Your right. Must have been in a vid I saw just before it.

 

The final season of Empty Nest.

 

Even before wasting 18 minutes watching that, I knew Joanie Loves Chachi would be one of them. Always a bad idea to have a spinoff of a once popular show (Happy Days) during the decline of the show it is spinning off of. On top of that, the spinoff involved characters who weren't traditionally the most popular characters on the show it spun off from. It was only to try to get a new younger demographic. If writers of the original show aren't going to be involved with the spinoff, it will be a disaster (Only some Happy Days writers were involved for the first 4 episodes of Joanie Loves Chachi and then they went back to Happy Days. Writers unfamiliar with the characters had to finish out the run of the show.) Also, trying to make Joanie and Chachi characters be rock stars was a stupid premise. It's like they decided to change their characters from what they were on Happy to Days to something completely different. They had no inclination to be rock stars on Happy Days, except maybe for an episode or two before the spinoff.

Networks should have some rules to go by before green-lighting a spinoff:

If proposed spinoff is from a declining show still on the air, no green-light.
If proposed spinoff doesn't involve at least one writer from original show for the long haul, no green-light.
If proposed spinoff doesn't involve at least one of the most popular characters of original show at their peak, no green-light. (Face it, Joanie and Chachi characters were only "recent" popular characters but none of the heavy hitters from Happy Days were involved in the spinoff.)
If proposed spinoff's purpose is to draw a new demographic, make sure said demographic was interested in or was even curious about the original show.
If proposed spinoff's purpose is to maintain the same demographic as original, make sure the spinoff doesn't alienate them by pandering to a different demographic anyway. Also, make sure the current demographic is even interested in the spinoff.
If proposed spinoff is going have a much lower budget than original, no green-light, especially if Special Effects are going to be a main feature (Galactica was a very, very bad decision to green-light.)

Probably a few more rules that I can't think of should be applied before green-lighting spinoffs.


After Mash failed for similar reasons.
Joey (spinoff from Friends) did also. The only thing I liked about that show was looking at Drea de Matteo every week.
Many other examples of spinoffs that failed also broke at least one of those"rule".


Spin-offs such as Frasier, Maude, and The Jeffersons are a few of the successes.


Now regarding green-lighting new shows based on silly ideas or premises. I don't even know where to begin. They can be hit or miss, but usually a miss.

The Flying Nun? Who was responsible for that? Based off a book, but still too silly for TV.

My Mother The Car?

Any TV show involving an animal (or someone able to change into one) as the main character? And what is it with shows involving chimps? Surprised B.J. And The Bear wasn't on this list. I guess that show played off the current popularity of Truckers and On The Road films, not to mention the music and "Buddy" pictures with sidekicks. Surprised Mister Ed was as popular as it was. In today's TV markets, I don't think it would be.

That Cop show involving a robot and his partner, who didn't even know he was a robot at first? That had me laughing out loud how stupid that was. That was one stupid idea. If you are going to pitch a show based on current or future technology, make sure it is plausible and believable. At least Knight Rider was plausible, but maybe way ahead of its time (though, as each year passes, cars are becoming more and more computerized with their own AI systems.)

Gong Show was silly as hell, but I still watched. It was for the laughs. Chuck Barris was indeed a goofball on that show.

Examples of successes that fall under the category of silly ideas/premises: Mork And Mindy and ALF come to mind and I am sure there are a handful of others I am forgetting.



Also, it seems more times than not, a new show starring actors who were from an ensemble from a once popular show fail. I am not talking about spinoffs in which they play the same character. For example. the Seinfeld cast. Jason Alexander had a few attempts that failed miserably, as did Michael Richards. The only one from Seinfeld who has had moderate success was Julia Louis Dreyfus. But even her first show after Seinfeld failed quickly. Then each show of hers after that first failure became progressively better.

Kelsey Grammar hasn't had a hit since playing Frasier Crane on Cheers and Frasier.

Matthew Perry (Friends) hasn't had much success in a new role. All his shows after Friends eventually failed after a season or two.

Even though Matt LeBlanc failed in the Joey Spinoff, he has two current moderate successes now (Top Gear and Man With a Plan)


Other recent successes (sitcoms, I am talking about) in this category would be Patricia Heaton (Everybody Love Raymond followed by The Middle. Though, she had a failure or two in between those) and Johnny Galecki (Roseanne, The Big Bang Theory)



Truth be told, I wouldn't want to be a decision maker that involved green-lighting shows, especially if your job depended on the success of said show. But, I find myself head scratching when I see a show on TV that has no business being on TV in the first place. And don't get me started with the majority of Reality shows (not the "talent" ones, but the others such as Survivor, Amazing Race, Bachelor, etc.)

 

I think whoever made the original list is predjudiced against chimpanzees, robots and Japanese singers. I was pretty tickled to see Pink Lady on Japanese television talking about their show a few years ago when I was on a business trip.

 

The one you missed is Trapper John MD which carried the medical interest.

 

I would name well over half of these 'reality' shows clogging up every channel, even worse when there are marathons of one. 'Toddlers and Tiaras' for the bottom of that barrel? Hard to say as if I dislike something I just don't watch it. Never sen 'Big Brother' or 'The Apprentice' even once.

 

Pink Lady And Jeff.

Pink Lady (TV series) - Wikipedia

jerol

 

I'm glad that show existed.

 

I'm talking about the variety show here, not about the block that ran back in the day.

 

Crazy enough concept to be hilarious, but if that's as good as the writing was then no wonder it vanished with barely a trace.

 

When Rhino put out that Pink Lady and Jeff dvd set, I compiled all of the music opening numbers onto dvd. Those are comic gold. The skits, on the other hand, are as bad as similar skits on all of the other variety shows of that era.

 

I remember watching the pilot episode for that one. The name came from his beltbuckle, which had CN on it because his name was Carter Nash ...

There was another superhero spoof called Mr. Terrific as well.