Worst sitcom you’ve ever seen

Hello Larry!

This one:

The new Night Court.

R2 I think there were some decent episodes even though I don’t like Charlie Sheen. Like 2 Broke Girls, it was so bad it was good.

The US remake of Kath & Kim starring Molly Shannon. AWFUL!

Harry & the Hendersons

[quote]I think there were some decent episodes even though I don’t like Charlie Sheen.

You thought wrong R4.

That '80s Show

Anything with a laugh track. If they have to show you what is funny, it clearly is not! Most recent examples is Shifting Gears and Poppa's House. Both, unwatatchable!

I tried to like 2 Broke Girls - but ugh.

R7, well, R4 thought so. - and those are his thoughts. That is his opinion.

Unless, you are bi-bolar and also R4.

Life with Lucy

Oh, Madeline

The Golden girls just flowed

Small Wonder

The Australian version of Kath and Kim.

[quote]Small Wonder

I'll see your Small Wonder and raise you Doghouse (a fetid thankfully brief "sitcom" the CBC thrust upon us circa 1990).

That 70s Show felt like watching paint dry.

Down To Earth

The (thankfully) one-shot redo of "Are You Being Served?" in 2016.

If we have to be talking American sitcoms, then the American version of AYBS, "Beane's of Boston", which thankfully remained an unsold pilot.

Despite having a decent comedic cast, it was painfully bad. British comedy just doesn't translate very well to American. I think "Steptoe and Son" becoming "Sanford and Son" was about as successful an important as I've seen.

I hate slob comedies about boring people. Breeders need to see themselves reflected in them: Cheers; Taxi; Roseanne; King Of Queens...

R20 Important=import

The post show spin off. After Mash. Golden Palace etc

Amanda’s by the Sea

George and Mandy's First Marriage

Happy's Place

Dear John was good. Great cast with chemistry. I find this episode *very* funny and Harry Groener gets to dance.

Too Close for Comfort

Step by Step

Family Matters

My Mother the Car

Out of the Blue (1979), starring Jimmy Brogan, as Heaven’s ugliest, most wardrobe-challenged, Nancy Kulp-haired angel; Dixie Carter; and a bunch of child actors who play siblings, but look completed unrelated (except those mushroom headed twins). Only 8 episodes of this sloppy flop aired, before it was put out of its misery.

R27 Step by Step and Family Matters had some great episodes in the early years before they fully jumped the shark with the Lily storyline and Steve Urkel being a menace 24/7, respectively.

R30 I probably saw them in their later years.

Big bang theory. No contest.

From the late 70s:

The Harvey Korman Show

The Betty White Show

It's About Time

That 90s Show

One of the Boys (1982 ) starring Mickey Rooney, Dana Carvey, & Nathan Lane as a sex-obsessed, straight frat boy...

Come Back, Mrs. Noah (1978) starring Mollie Sugden, of "Are You Being Served?" fame, plays a housewife who's accidently launched into outer space, hilarity does not ensue, mostly toilet humor, it was cancelled after one month.

[quote] I think "Steptoe and Son" becoming "Sanford and Son" was about as successful an important as I've seen.

What was more successful than All in the Family? (Based on Till Death Do Us Part)

Cavemen. With the Geico Cavemen.

I wish there was a live streaming channel devoted to 70s, 80s and 90s shitcoms. Also, Hanna-Barbera stuff.

Mid Century Modern

[quote]The Australian version of Kath and Kim.

Interesting. It's one of my favorites.

How I Met Your Mother. Anyone who saw the entire series will understand. "Burn it to the ground" seemed to be the motto of the show in the last season.

R2 that show was huge but it aged horribly. I didn't even like it at the time. I am not what some would call "PC" but that show was incredibly misogynistic. Every woman is either a psychotic whore, shrew or angel.

It’s All Relative. The son of Boston Irish bigots falls in love with the daughter of cartoonishly gay stereotypes.

Fag jokes fell flat.

THE BEAR

Well-written and acted, great show, but it’s NOT a comedy!

According To Jim or Happily Ever After

Full House and Saved By The Bell sucked too - sorry millenials

The Bear is not a sitcom.

r45 Are you unwell? The title of this post is WORST and SITCOM.

You posted a show that is not a sitcom, and you call it a great show. What confused you? Where did you lose your way?

CHARLES IN CHARGE.

The Bear was recently and effortlessly mocked by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Charlie got a white t-shirt and a blue apron, and became obsessive in his kitchen. Making everyone say "Yes, chef" and fixating on the most important meals of all time. And Dee just dismisses his bullshit with "It's just cooking food. Not that big a deal." And she has this baffled look in her eye, as if to ask "Who would ever get THIS stressed over cooking food for money?"

Short-lived sitcom, classic opening credits.

No way, OP. Dear John had a banger of a theme song.

Lotsa Luck

R18 found the stupidest take so far

Of the vintage ones, I'd say "Mork and Mindy". Though I'm sure it's Shakespeare compared to a lot of current sitcoms, the likes of what ends up on CBS in 2020's.

And Just Like That. Is it a sitcom?

Cody was cute tho

This one featuring Nathan Lane as an oversexed heterosexual. I wanted a wayback machine to Joan Plowright's picking up a pen to sign a co-star contract: : "No, honey! DON'T!"

R54 Why?

Too Many Cooks.

Disappointing series overall, though the opening credits are worth note.

R26 Directed by John Rich… A very well-regraded tv director; he goes back to The DvD Show, AITF and many more classics.

I know the family…lovely people.

regarded*

R58 Nathan later starred in a CBS sitcom about a gay congressman, and it only lasted two episodes. Charlie Lawrence.

Allen Gregory, with the voice of Jonah Hill. It featured sexually explicit fantasy scenes between a small child and his elderly school principal. It was...cartoon porn.

Three's Company

So many candidates.....

My Mother, the Car

Me and the Chimp

The Tammy Grimes Show

That awful show with Bonnie Franklin

The Paul Lynde Show

...and I'm just warming up

Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place. The title alone…I mean, really?

Out of this World, late 80s. About as awful as Small Wonder.

The Paul Lynde Show at least had some laughs.

Blansky’s Beauties with Nancy Walker and Caren Kaye. It was supposed to take place in the sixties but was soooo anachronistic. I still don’t understand why they thought this was a good idea. Everything about it was tacky and unfunny.

Any of those filler sitcoms in between Friends and Seinfeld in the 90s. They were all terrible and not memorable.

There were so many…they all flopped

Veronica's Closet was pretty bad

It was an era of ugly cars, big hair, and the acceleration of American decline, and The Wonder Years was the critical darling ffs.

Speaking of short-lived sitcoms with great theme songs..

and Small Wonder owns this category

[quote]Blansky’s Beauties with Nancy Walker and Caren Kaye. It was supposed to take place in the sixties but was soooo anachronistic. I still don’t understand why they thought this was a good idea. Everything about it was tacky and unfunny.

Caren Kaye was one of those people that they kept trying to make happen.

She had quite nice tits.

Speaking of nice tits, We Got It Made, presented for your consideration.

R77 Caren Kaye was in one of the most hilarious MTM episodes (she was the sportscaster who was against violent sports and reported on children's diving) and she stole The Betty White Show by being a younger version of Sue Ann.

R77, she really was! She needed to take a hint!

She's the Sheriff

2 Broke Girls

Bob <3 Abishola

Herman's Head

Many Happy Returns.

"Bette" (2000-1). So bad, the last two of 18 episodes not even broadcast, even though they were filmed.

Even Midler disowned it fifteen years after.

Primetime: Full House. Ugly child actors (especially those simian twins), annoying adults (especially Dave Coulier), and stupid twee storylines.

Syndicated: Small Wonder. Cheap-looking, like a cable access show shot in someone’s storage shed out back.

I vote for "My Three Sons."

The backstories of how hideous Fred MacMurray was and what the rest had to do to accommodate his almost never being on set are only part of it.

But I mention it only because it gives me a chance to mention smoking pot with Don Grady once, who was the best in the show.

[quote]I hate slob comedies about boring people. Breeders need to see themselves reflected in them: Cheers; Taxi; Roseanne; King Of Queens...

Yes, hon, Cheers and Taxi are two of the worst sitcoms ever.

R87 way too popular to put on this thread. The prompt is shitty shows, presumably short-lived.

R87 - details, please!

He knew just how to use that bong…

Wink, wink

Behold the horror that was Work It:

R87: The first few seasons of "My Three Sons" were pretty good. Then they brought in hackish writers and MacMurray spent more time literally phoning in scenes because of the shooting schedule. William Demerest was bad enough but that Dodie girl was the worst.

What about almost any early Fox sitcom like "Babes" which had Wendy Jo Sperber (RIP) as the thinnest of three fat sisters.

Ally McBeal

Joanie Loves Cackie

aka Pablo, with a young Paul Rodriguez. Only lasted one season.

R97 Fun fact: Arnaldo Santana, who played Rodriguez' fat brother, started out in gay porn under the name of "Malo," then played one of the victims of the killer in "Cruising." Then when he got fat, he played one of Pacino's stooges in "Scarface." He died at age 37 of AIDS.

[quote] Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place. The title alone…I mean, really?

And what's even worse of it, it's that somehow it became a star vehicle for the loathsome Ryan Reynolds.

2018 thread on Malo

Yum

Hard to believe it's the same guy.

R67 - Two Guys and a Girl was pretty good, especially after they retooled it.

According to Jim.

R98 IMDB has his death as "undisclosed" and his obituary doesn't mention a cause of death. In the 1980s, it was unusual for an obit not to mention a cause of death, unless, of course, it was the dreaded AIDS.

But based on his weight gain, it could have very well been a heart attack.

The Australian version of Kath and Kim is one of the funniest shows I ever watched.

For me it has to be 'Saved By The Bell'. Possibly the most worthless schlock ever put on TV. For years they were playing it on Sunday mornings on METV for hours. They finally took it off and replaced with something worth watching (Wild Kingdom). I always laughed when SBTB was about to come on and they said it was "educational and informative". It was if teaching kids how to lie, cheat, and steal their ways through school was educational and informative.

“Mama’s Family”.

“The Golden Palace”.

Love, Sidney.

First prime time show with a gay character, though they never say so.

Try Odd Man Out with John Inman…. Talk about dreck

Cop Rock

Laverne and Shirley

R75 I had no idea she had a show!

I had forgotten…

The Young Ones

Good Morning, Miss Bliss

Coupling, the US version of the UK Friends ripoff. One of the stars, Lindsay Price, was the Caren Kaye of the era. They tried making her happen in countless flop shows

It's A Living (the 80s sitcom about waitresses).

That’s an insult to Caren. She didn’t fuck her own brother.

Bite your tongue, r118! Best theme song and pivot turn in TV history!

Whitney.

That's So Raven

R119 That was her parents

[quote]And what's even worse of it, it's that somehow it became a star vehicle for the loathsome Ryan Reynolds.

And the other male co-star (Richard Ruccolo) became an OnlyFans porn star.

Interesting to note that aka Pablo was a Norman Lear co-creation. The other co-creator, Rick Mitz, wrote The Great TV Sitcom Book which I had as a kid. It was full of bitchy ramblings about how shitty most sitcoms were save for a few classics that still could have been better (presumably if Mitz had been involved.) His sparse imdb page is full of a number of forgotten flop sitcoms. Isn't it ironic...

R125 No, that's actually interesting--now I want to read that book. I love entertainment books from that era. Checking out his IMDB page right ow.

Young Sheldon is torturous

R126 The credits are indeed sparse.

You young whippersnappers won't remember "My Mother The Car" starring Jerry Fan Dyke. He had this old car that was possessed by his dear late mother. And the damned car spoke to him.

R89, he was appearing in a road show and I knew a lot of the locals in it. Nice guy, hot, straight, secure. It was before he married his second wife. He just loved the Mary Jane. He had nothing bad to say about anything or anyone, except that it was hard to get good work after the show. He had great legs. We went swimming stoned at his hotel pool and laughed our heads off. He stayed with the boys. I figured he already was engaged and kept it safe, but the men there were all gay.

Gimme a Break

What's Happenin'.

Saved by Dee's wisecracks.

Spencer, with Chad Lowe. I guess it wasn't THE worst. Since he was pretty good. But it wasn't good.

Spencer...

Was Chad For Hire?

The pic at OP’s link looks like a group of random Jews pulled off the street.

There’s Mulva, in the Dear John cast!

Just the Ten of Us

Now that I really think of it, Shasta McNasty might be the worst sitcom of all time for real.

Mad About You.

From the obvious stunt casting of relatives (which TV legends could they get to play the in laws or aunts and uncles this week) to naming the poor kid Mabel.

And let's face it, Helen Hunt is not a barrel of laughs.

The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer

Homeboys In Outer Space

Joanie Loves Chachi

R107 Chalk me up as another Saved By the Bell hater. There was another show that was so bad…a New Kids on the Block fake called The Guys Next Door. One of my friends had their posters.

Martin Short had the very short lived The Martin Short Show in 1994. While it had some very funny people on it, the show itself was a pile of crap. I love Andrea Martin but she was too good for it. Jan Hooks was Short’s wife and seemed to be miscast and manic.

After three episodes aired, NBC pulled the plug. Short and Hooks came back to do a comedy special in 1995 that didn’t have the domestic storyline and it was very good.

Count me as another one who hates the Dear John theme song. Could never reach for the remote control fast enough when it began

Almost all of them. Sitcoms are situational comedies. But all American sitcoms are maudlin dramas, with some exceptions like Seinfeld. So they are not sitcoms, but serial dramas.

Heil Honey I'm Home

The Honeymooners. Jackie Gleason scared the shit out of me.

Homeboys in Outer Space

The Little Rascals. Alfalfa's hair really bothered me. I think the kids were good but I found the show unsettling. It seemed old when I was very young.

The Ropers

Carter Country

Women of the House, the Designing Women spinoff. It had one of DL villain Patty Heaton's earlier sitcom appearances.

Turnabout with John Schuck and Sharon Gless. They’re married but one morning they wake up and they’re inhabiting each others’ bodies. 1979.

I remember watching Veronica’s Closet and Suddenly Susan as a kid and thought they were okay. Were they really that bad?

How very dare you, R109?

Caroline in the City.

R154 Love those two in separate roles, but that premise just sounds fucking bizarre.

R155 They were not as bad as other NBC sitcoms in the 90s, but most of them only survived because they basked under the tentpole of Seinfeld or Frasier. Those two mega-hits (and Friends, to a lesser extent) dragged a dozen mediocre sitcoms into the top ten just by virtue of being broadcast on the same night.

Saved by the Bell was dreck, but it did give us hot young Zack and Slater--jerk off fodder for many of us gaylings in the 90s.

Saved by the Bell and Full House were terrible sitcoms for adults but absolutely amazing for kids at the time.

“Suddenly Susan”

R122 You sonvabitch!

Home Improvement

Bette Midler's sitcom was atrocious. I watched the first two episodes and then I had to give up.

[quote]Women of the House, the Designing Women spinoff. It had one of DL villain Patty Heaton's earlier sitcom appearances.

There were two or three attempts at making Delta Burke a star of her own sitcom after Designing Women and they all flopped.

That sad thing with Our Faye and Robert Urich.

Yes, that wacky Faye Dunaway in a sitcom, what could go wrong?!

Fucking hell, there was a "Coupling" U.S. version?

One Day at a Time

Two and a Half Men

Three's Company

Mad About You

The Facts of Life

Welcome Back Kotter

Laverne & Shirley

Fresh Prince...

Will & Grace

The Nanny

R140, it was so acclaimed back then and it has not held up at all.

R167, you have terrible taste.

I hated Mad About You during its original run. Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt are two of the most annoying people who ever stepped in front of a camera. I still can't believe she won an Oscar.

Home Improvement was pretty bad. I wouldn't say it's the worst overall, but it's probably the worst sitcom to be a big hit

I loathed Tim Allen.

R172 I still do.

After MASH.

There’s Company wasn’t the worst thing ever but the theme song from the pilot episode makes me want to kick myself in the balls.

Enjoy.

The US Coupling was horrible. The original, Brit version was well acted which made the predictable plot lines work.

The Munsters re-boot (with John Shuck) was pretty terrible, too.

Joanie Loves Chachi

[quote]the theme song from the pilot episode makes me want to kick myself in the balls

Pics please.

Herman’s Head.

The Famous Teddy Z, which had all this incredible hype, but turned out to be a disaster. Starring Jon Cryer and Alex Rocco.

The Brady Brides

"Go To Helen Waite" starring Helen Lawson

Full House for sure. Unwatchable.

My Mother, the Car - such a dumb preimise

She's the Sheriff, with Suzanne Somers

Til Death - Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher as a married couple

Baby Bob - "comedy" where a couple find that their 6 month all baby can talk. Okay!

Almost every 70's - 80's Brit sitcom shown on streaming channels. They are absymal

Carter Country

Emily's Reasons Why Not

Yes, Dear.

Yes, Dear was the first or second attempt to make the putrid Anthony Clark a sitcom star, the other one was Boston Common. He has a reputation as a total asshole.

I remember The Cavanaughs being terrible. Lucille Ball ‘s last sitcom was putrid.

The Montefuscos

ALF.

While I wouldn't say I was a fan of Just Shoot Me, I'd occasionally tune in to watch Wendy Malick.

Wendy Malick was the best thing about Just Shoot Me.

“Kirstie” was lame.

If the topic was good sitcoms, Just Shoot Me is the first thing that would come to mind. Love Wendy Malick in anything r192 r193.

I think it's actually harder to choose the worst sitcom because there's so much absolute crap in that genre. Most of it is designed to be as lowbrow and inoffensive as possible.

Switcheroo!

[quote]Lucille Ball ‘s last sitcom was putrid.

We had a big Life With Lucy thread here a while back and we all pretty much agreed about how sad and embarrassing it was. Watching clips of the show on Youtube, you just cringe for Lucy. It was so completely horrendous.

Caroline in the City was ridiculous when the tried to convince that the Malcolm Gets character and Caroline were having an affair with each other. The guy was such a queen the flames could be seen from outer space. He had a hot body though, and I remember him getting shirtless a lot. I guess they were trying to save a flailing show.

I watched one episode of Two Broke Girls. There wasn't one funny line but the laugh track ran continuously. That was the worst in recent memory. The rest has been erased.

Not to mention Eric Lutes's huge bulge

Caroline and the City was high art compared with The Single Guy.

Caroline and my TITTY

Eric Lutes's huge bulge doesn't get mentioned enough

R199, and you just know Kat Dennings hated every moment of being on that show (minus the paycheck). I don't know a single person who watched it during its OG run it lasted somehow. Its success boggles my mind.

[quote]Caroline and the City was high art compared with The Single Guy.

Every one of these entries is a Shakespearean masterpiece compared to "Small Wonder."

Many years ago someone posted some very sexy photos of Lutes wearing nothing but a white towel. They supposedly knew him very well.

I'm with you R156. I adored Love, Sidney.

[quote]If the topic was good sitcoms, Just Shoot Me is the first thing that would come to mind. Love Wendy Malick in anything

I would LOVE to see the episode with Nina VanHorn's A and E Biography!

She was better on DREAM ON, the first great HBO comedy.

No one mentioned Faye Dunaway’s attempt at a sitcom?

R210, wow, that happened? I don't even remember that and I love Faye. Her role on that one acting reality tv show was classic.

[quote]Eric Lutes's huge bulge doesn't get mentioned enough

Not to mention his big round ass. There was a thread here years ago with him in a Speedo, but the pic link no longer works.

I nominate Out Of This World starring Donna Pescow, Maureen Flanagan and Doug McClure. Donna had a fling with an alien and her daughter (Maureen) was born from the union, making the girl half-human half-alien with the ability to freeze time. She communicated with her father (voiced by Burt Reynolds, who was one of the producers) via some weird crystal thingie. The show also starred a twinkish pre-GH Steve Burton.

Maureen Flanagan looked like the girl I took to prom. I liked the 80s version of Swinging On A Star they used for the theme song

Did that new Tim Allen show catch on? the one with the ‘’2 broke girls’’ girl. I only hate Tim Allen.

I love "Just Shoot Me" and "Rules of Engagement"--after Timmy joined the cast. Two Broke Girls is not bad. Not great but it worked once you accepted how bad it is. Jennifer Coolidge always knocked it out of the park.

I'd like to "Moesha" and "The Neighborhood" to the worst list. I love all the actors on"The Neighborhood" but it's SO bad.

The War at Home, with Michael Rappaport and a young Rami Malek as Rappaport's gay son.

It was supposed to be an edgy hybrid of All in the Family and Married with Children, but it was just plain awful.

You know a show's bad when the laugh track crackles when a character simply opens a door.

Probably already mentioned but That 80s Show. I never even liked That 70s Show very much but they really botched the 80s version

Sort of related: The Goldbergs was terrible for 10 seasons

…an edgy hybrid of All in the Family and Married with Children!

R217 It may have been bad. But I developed a huge crush on Rami Malik from it.

The January, 2025 season of "The Apprentice."

That 80s Show was basically a second-rate version of That 70s Show, which was unique and original and had chemistry and charm. The 1980s version had none of that.

Cosby’s sitcom. I thought it and he were bullshit. I have always gotten a bullshit arrogant vibe from him going back decades. His rape antics were no surprise.

I confess I got sucked into the Cosby Show-Felicia Rashad is such a talent and a class act.

[quote] Two Broke Girls is not bad. Not great but it worked once you accepted how bad it is.

These sentences are contradictory. Also, it was THAT bad!

I see Debbie Allen has joined the discussion.

The worst part of The Goldbergs was those real life home video snippets of the series creator's real life but it would qualify without them. Spoiled nerdy brat lives out his childhood fantasy.

The Dad was okay though and so was George Segal as the grandfather until he pulled out his banjo. For some reason my husband loves this show.

Two Broke Girls was low brow but hard the worst sitcom.

Yeah, ALF was terrible. It’s frequently on after Frasier here, and I’m horrified every time I catch a minute of it.

I just looked this up because I remembered it from when I was a kid.

The Queen & I is an American television sitcom which aired on CBS from January 16 until April 3, 1969. It starred Larry Storch as a junior officer serving a once popular but now aging and run-down cruise ship, the Amsterdam Queen. When he finds out the new owners intend to sell the ship for scrap, he and the rest of the crew involve themselves a number of "get rich quick" schemes in an attempt to save their ship.

Duffy's efforts to raise money often coincided with his gambling and other personal scams. He and the crew were opposed by first officer Oliver Nelson (Billy De Wolfe), the main antagonist, who was highly suspicious of Duffy's activities and often sought to put an end to them.

Although Storch and De Wolfe were the main stars, the series had a strong supporting cast that included familiar character actors Liam Dunn, Dave Morick, Pat Morita (later of Happy Days), Chet Stratton, Carl Ballantine, and Dave Willock. Other supporting roles were played by British actor Reginald Owen and American television actresses Barbara Stuart, Janet Clark and Natalie Masters.

First airing on January 16, 1969, The Queen & I was originally intended to replace the sitcom Blondie midway through the 1968–69 season. Although it received some positive reviews, including being featured on the covers of TV Times and TV Magazine, it failed to catch on with viewers and was canceled after 11 episodes (two episodes never aired). The series, however, served as a prelude to The Love Boat which debuted eight years later.

I think I remember commercials for it r230.

My parents never put any restrictions on TV watching and sometimes it seems like I saw every show produced from the mid-'60s to the early '70s. My parents often didn't watch the same shows, so we usually had at least two or three TVs (b&w until @ 1970).

Friends

Any show I remember 25+ years later is clearly not the worst ever.

Anyone remember the sitcom with Matt Le Blanc and Joseph Bologna? Top of the Heap? It was spun off from Married With Children. It then spawned another failed sitcom with Matt Le Blanc's character called Vinnie and Bobby. Neither of these had a full season.

Unpopular opinion but I thought Married w/Children was terrible.

Beth Behr’s voice is like nails on a chalkboard.

That’s tough. The Big Bang Theory is in the top three. Even piece of shit Eveeybody Loves Raymond is better

Friends and Seinfeld own this thread.

Friends is really awful. I did like Seinfeld at the time it was on but was a kid and my tastes weren’t great. I can’t watch it now

Friends and Seinfeld are both better than The Golden Girls.

^Absolutely not. And Friends was nothing more than a Living Single rip-off with white actors.

Every sitcom is a rip off of something else. There was no proprietary ownership of the idea to feature a group of young singles in the big city.

[quote]Felicia Rashad

Oh, dear.

R244 Oh, please. "Friends" resembled "Living Single" only in the sense that it was about friends living together in the big city. Other than that, "Living Single" was about a group of women trying to find men to marry.

"Living Single" was not revolutionary in concept. "That Girl" pioneered the single gal in the city concept decades earlier.

Dear John was great. WTF are you talking about? There are millions or sitcoms worse than that show. Almost any sitcom is worse than Dear John

Two Broke Girls was hilarious. Took a while but I got it and it’s near and dear. Raunchy humor yes but those girls were great together and ‘’Sophie’’ ( Jennifer Coolidge )the cherry on their cupcakes-watch a few episodes before deciding.

R248 Awful, awful, awful. About as funny as a cold sore breakout. Kat Dennings should never again be employed.

There are hundreds of sitcoms worse than Friends or Seinfeld.

The only good thing on Two Broke Girls was Ryan’s body.

"Two Broke Girls" was tiresome--the same recycled plots, wordplay, etc. It's where I realized that Jennifer Coolidge is only good in small doses. It really defines bad sitcoms that lasted more than a season.

Only a few of the truly "Worst" shows lasted more than a season: ALf, Small Wonder. The really awful stuff like The Tammy Grimes Show, the various Tim Conway vehicles often didn't last a season and who knows why equally bad shows like My Mother, The Car lasted a full season.

The Bing Crosby Show. Not the worst but since we're talking about failed sitcoms...

…and living single is golden girls/designing women/facts of life formula. We all know this.

[quote] Felicia Rashad

Oh, DEAR…

[quote]"That Girl" pioneered the single gal in the city concept decades earlier.

Excuse me?

r255, see r245, and try to keep up, dear.

Seinfeld is the greatest sitcom ever. Period.

I thought MOTHERS IN LAW was absolutely wretched and unfunny.

Anything that starred Don Rickles.

Did the Frasier reboot ever get any better? I watched the first few episodes and thought it was terrible but saw they brought back Roz and Lilith and Bebe in later episodes. I know it’s cancelled now but worth going back for those?

I watched the Night Court sequel at a friends house. It was really bad.

The Murphy Brown reboot was also BEYOND BAD. Drown it in a grease fire bad.

The first two seasons of the Will and Grace reboot were good. Not sure why the Grace character needed to get pregnant. That plot really ruined the show.

Doesn’t count r257. You didn’t offer the correct spelling.

DataLounge, I'd like to submit....

r266, the DataLounge would prefer you didn't.

R266 I do not remember this one. It looks horrifying. What was Kaye Ballard thinking?

I remember The Mothers-in-Law was so popular with the kids in my school (5th and 6th grades) that kids went around the cafeteria asking us to sign a petition to send to the network to keep it on the air.

^ Some girls did this one time for Here Come the Brides, as well.

Any theories about why everyone used to love Friends (high ratings, etc.) and now everyone seems to hate it--or at least it's become fashionable to hate it? 62 Emmy nominations (though only 6 wins).

a friend of a friend who worked on that set said Judd Hirsch was such an egomaniac that when he had his driveway torn up and redone he brought pieces of it in thinking the cast and crew would want a piece of it. no one took any.

[quote]What was Kaye Ballard thinking?

She was thinking of a paycheck.

Watch the documentary about Kaye Ballard, I'm pretty sure she said she was thrilled to do a sitcom with Eve Arden written by the writers of I Love Lucy, directed by Desi Arnaz. The show was pretty popular was lost steam when Roger C. Carmel was replaced by Richard Deacon in the 2nd season (due to Carmel holding out for more money, iirc).

Carmel "held out for more money" because the show was borderline for renewal and the costs/episode had to come down, meaning no raises and, by some reports, some reduction.

R275 I knew it was more complicated than I wrote but I couldn't remember. What did the other actors do?

R271 I don't understand the Friends hate, either. It was funny, the cast was great, and it still holds up.

R263 the only thing I liked about the MB reboot was the actor who played Avery Brown.

I haven't seen it. Avery was her kid?

R278, that’s Jake McDorman. I loved him in the short-lived tv series version of the Bradley Cooper film Limitless

Maybe people on DL hate Friends because it killed off Murder, She Wrote--when CBS scheduled Angela's show up against it and the ratings plunged.

The writing on the Murphy Brown reboot was abyssmal, but it was comforting to see Candice Bergen interacting with Joe Regalbuto, Faith Ford, etc. And I will be happy to watch Jake McDorman for as long as a studio is willing to put him on camera.

R282 The Murphy Brown reboot had some of the laziest writing ever.

Her son worked for the conservative "Wolf" network. Eye roll.

I think it was supposed to be a comedy. The shortlived HBO show with Johnny Depp's daughter. It stunk up the place.

Mona McCluskey with Juliet Prowse & Denny Miller.

Never heard of some of these sjhows

(shows)

I only came around to liking Friends near the end of its run. It was by then broadcast around the world and was in syndication and it had become huge globally. I was teaching in a Swiss prep school and all these kids had affection for Friends. I didn't hate it but I did dismiss it as being extremely norm core. I finally watched it with less snobbery and while I didn't love it I could see how expert is in execution and form. It's produces non stop dopamine hits. Its amusing. Its likeable. I think people hate it because it's normcore and so ruthlessly manipulative, like a McDonalds meal is. I also think people may resent how many billions in wealth this commodity has made.

Not sure what friends has to do with normcore.

Because Friends is vanilla and bland. Hardly NYC and Manhattan eccentric. One of the definitions of normcore was culture and things that are simple, ordinary, or mainstream.

Friends wasn't mainstream in the beginning. It was unusual to have a show with that many characters and none was the lead. It was also about a lot of things going on in the 90s...including the "friends as family" concept replacing the traditional family. The humor was really sharp, and it was considered a somewhat hip show, rather than a boring, normie one. But ten years later it probably didn't seem very innovative.

It was "hip" for deeply conventional people. That's my take, anyway. I feel it as always manufactured for mass mainstream appeal but yeah the characters were young so could be relatable to contemporary tastes. It was a cheesefest, it felt with it, and polished.

no coffee. It was NOT a cheesefest. It was "with it" and contemporary. I grant all that.

Yeah it was a network sitcom. If you look at the Wikipedia page it says there were a lot of ways the network tried to impose things on it, many of which the creators and writers resisted. People still watched network TV then and relied on the networks for comedies and Friends was more about the zeitgeist than almost all sitcoms of the time if you were around that age. No it wasn't on the edge, or anything. But this was 30 years ago.

Family Affair

Probably THE MOST DEPRESSING sitcom of the 70's. No wonder Buffy died of an over dose by the age of 18.

agreed to all that. anyway, that all these prep school kids from around the world had affection for it I rewatched it and realised it was quite good, if not really my taste. I admire it. it's kind of perfect and deserves its commercial success.

Family Affair was definitely one of the strangest of all sitcoms.

"Mama's Family".

Someone here once described Family Affair as the most melancholy sitcom.

There was another Don Fedderson sitcom, To Rome With Love, starring John Forsythe.

The Goldbergs (1949-1956 on TV) was really the first family-oriented sitcom. Also one of the first working-class sitcoms. Nobody talks about shows like this, and Mama (1949-1957), because they aren't in reruns and only exist on kinescopes. (Mama's final season was filmed.) (Also, it was more of a drama, like The Waltons.)

^^My parents talked about these shows years later. Mama was very popular, on Friday nights. But today we tend to have a skewed view of early TV based on what's available in reruns.

Family Affair was always weirdly sad. Very little joy and lightness.

I loved seeing Don Fedderson's name in 3-D letters in those closing credits. It taught me how to do it.

I always hated how Jody would call him "Uncle Bee-wool".

Brian Keith looked like he had just woken up with a massive hangover whenever one of the kids asked him a simple question.

To be fair, though I've only seen him in a few things, mainly The Parent Trap, acting as if he was dealing with a massive hangover when dealing with kids, or ex-wives, or current fiancees, or maids, seemed to be Keith's acting technique.

Anyone remember the pilot where Donald O'Connor and Gloria De Haven played the owners of a music store? The Music Mart, I think.

I MARRIED JOAN was a piece of 💩 sitcom. Who found it funny?

R98 It was never confirmed what Santana died of. I heard a heart attack (he got pretty hefty). Aids is possible, but no, it was never confirmed.

Also, he played Paul's brother in law. Not his brother. Terrible sitcom though. Some episodes have become available on yt and the talented cast, particularly Arnaldo, deserved better.

Family Man

It would be easier to for me to mention the ones that weren’t awful.

Haven’t seen an actual episode yet but the clips from the new Leanne Morgan sitcom do not inspire.