Some things just shouldn’t go on the air. Check out these hilarious, cringy, and downright lame television shows that producers actually thought were okay to give the green light…
The Jerry Springer Show
Dubbed the worst television show to ever air by one viewer, The Jerry Springer Show had an exceptionally long run. Since it’s debut in the fall of 1991, there have been 27 seasons of hilariously staged altercations.
My Mother The Car
If you’re unfamiliar with the 1965 American comedy, “My Mother The Car,” then I’m sorry that I have to be the one to unearth this for you, though there’s not much you’re missing that isn’t already in the title. A family man purchases a vintage car and finds out it’s the reincarnation of his deceased mother. Annnd that’s it.
AfterMASH
“AfterMASH” is just one iteration of many attempts at sequelizing a show that did not need a sequel. Set in a veteran’s hospital, the show managed to resurrect 3 of the original cast members. To date, this has been described as one of the worst ideas of the century.
Cop Rock
Ever wish there was a cop show with show tunes? Yeah, didn’t think so. The story line follows a crooning substance-addicted mother, lamenting about the baby she’s trying to sell for $200. We don’t need this.
The Secret Life of Desmond Pfeiffer
This show is completely problematic. You’d think maybe something like slavery shouldn’t be the butt of every joke, yet here we (were). Desmond plays the role of sophisticated Englishman deported to America and works as Abraham Lincoln’s butler. There are just too many foot-in-mouth instances for this to be tolerable, and it was canceled.
The Flying Nun
Sally Field was no fan of this project, but viewers (for whatever reason) ate it up. The show was literally just about a nun that could fly. She had a habit with wings on the side, and if a gust of wind was large enough, girl was gone.
Homeboys in Outer Space
This is exactly what it sounds like. It’s what critics would call “tasteless,” and even though these two space homies shot for the stars with their 18-wheeler, low riding space ship, they crashed and burned.
Hello, Larry
Due to the success of M*A*S*H, the cast thought that whatever else they were in would be a hit. They couldn’t be MORE wrong. “Hello, Larry” was a train wreck. It follows a radio talk show host who leaves LA to move to Portland with his two daughters. It seems sort of plotless, tbh.
Work It
Two men dressed as women in the workplace. Offensive? Not at all! No way! Fool proof plan. In order to save their skins in a failing job market, these two men dress as women in order to keep their cubicles. The show faced criticisms from both television critics and the LGBTQ community/ The show was cancelled after just TWO episodes.
Woops!
Imagine: You’re a little kid playing with a toy at a parade. When all of a sudden, WOOPS! You accidentally ignite a nuclear holocaust (somehow), and wipe out all of humanity save for six weirdos within an hour. That’s THE PLOT!
The Powers of Matthew Star
This one-off follows a high school student who moonlights as an alien prince on the planet Quadris. He and his alien guardian Walt become secret agents for the American government halfway through the season in a dramatic and confusing change of pace. This show was clearly cancelled.
Cavemen
Nick Kroll really did this. He really gave the Geico cavemen their own TV show. The reviews were – to put it lightly – savage. “Extinct on arrival.” Say no more.
The Chevy Chase Show
The most catastrophic flop of late night television. Coming off his highly-praised Saturday Night Live run, it seemed like this show had the makings of a hit. Chase himself wasn’t necessarily on board with the show, and thankfully it didn’t last long, because it was just tragically un-funny.
Dirty Dancing
How dare they do a remake of this iconic movie without any of the original cast? The LA Times did not have the time of their lives watching this. This pseudo-shampoo commercial was only extended for 11 episodes before it flopped.
Baywatch
Baywatch had such low viewership during its first season that NBC canceled it. Just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s good! However, it changed channels and revived itself with 10 more seasons.
Flying High
This show – no pun intended – crashed and burned. Stewardesses Marcy, Lisa, and Pam did not prepare us for a safe and comfortable flight. While shows about flight attendants isn’t necessarily a bad idea, hiring women with no acting experience is.
Does Someone Have To Go?
“‘Lord of the Flies’ meets a telephone book, and it’s just about as entertaining.”
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour
The Brady Bunch should have left well enough alone. In this show-within-a-show special, the Brady’s are chosen to star in a variety hour on ABC. Could they sing? Could they dance? Absolutely not. Only OG Jan was smart enough to back out of this train wreck.
Dads
The only thing worse than being a 30-something man and having your dad live with you is making a TV show about it. Upon its release, the criticisms turned out to be funnier than the actual show.
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders
“Moving on from the prevalent misogyny of the original Criminal Minds, CBS’ new spin off is pure distillation of xenophobia.”
Murphy’s Law
Common knowledge: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. So obviously, anything that could have possibly gone wrong on this show, did. Daedalus Patrick Murphy is an insurance fraud investigator with a handful of problems, most of them being that he is so unlikable to the audience.
In Case Of Emergency
“Somewhere trapped inside this shrill, irritating comedy is a better show that emerges only in fleeting glimpses.”
Rules of Engagement
“The series quickly begins to resemble one of those fake sitcoms you’d see in a snide movie that likes to take easy potshots at low culture.”
Killer Instinct
Law and Order SVU is the show that all crime shows hold themselves to. Unfortunately, Killer Instinct ranks nowhere CLOSE. This show is, at best, ” a mess,” and “pervasively disappointing.”
Desire
“In terms of intelligence, wit, and quality, Desire is a serious cut below most prime time drama series.”
Inhumans
Marvel film adaptations are almost always hits in the box office, but the world learned that the same can definitely not be said for when Marvel Comics are turned into TV shows. The rise and fall of “Inhumans” is just a tale as old as time.
Galactica 1980
The fans of the OG “Battlestar Galactica” wanted a reboot, but they didn’t want something like this. ABC’s second coming of the hit show only featured a few key cast members, while others were excluded to cut production costs. All the shortcuts ultimately got the show canceled after only 10 episodes.
Love Inc.
“A grating comedy,” focused on a dating-service for lovelorn singles. There’s no substance, no comedy, no grit. It’s. Bad.
Hee Haw Honeys
Another bad, bad spin-off. “Hee Haw Honeys,” deriving from the original “Hee Haw,” this one features performances by some big name country stars, but audiences just weren’t as into this version of the show as they were the original.
Truth Be Told
‘Not a single scene feels authentic, even if we excuse the over-explanations we often see in comedy pilots. This show is not provocative. It is not a conversation-starter, it is not thoughtful, it is not sharp, it is not enlightening.”
Life With Lucy
“Life With Lucy” was behind the times as far as material goes. A poor attempt at “modernizing” a classic that fell flat on its face, we refuse to condemn iconic Lucille Ball for the misstep.
$#*! My Dad Says
“Bleep My Dad Says” is maybe the only stain on William Shatner’s name. There was a lot of promise in the beginning, based off the hilarious Twitter feed by Justin Halpern, where he quoted his father, Sam. However, the show wasn’t received as positively after the first few episodes.
Get This Party Started
This series – in the running for worst reality show of all time, aired only two episodes. Goodbye!
Co-Ed Fever
This frat house comedy, meant to capitalize on the popularity of the recently released “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” “Co-Ed Fever” ended up like the kid who rushes a frat and gets hazed the worst: badly.
American Inventor
This was just one huge disappointment “Shark Tank” esque show that spent more time looking at the judges than it did taking the time to look at the inventors and their projects.
The War At Home
“If The War at Home spent more time on good jokes instead of recycling every gimmick ever seen on TV, it might merely be mediocre, but it’s worse.”
Black Scorpion
By day, Darcy is a cop. By night, she is the Black Scorpion, and her white Corvette cop car turns into the Scorpionmobile. Clever! The Boston Herald’s scathing review said: “This series looks like a sad refuge for actors down on their luck.”
Knight Rider
The original “Knight Rider” lasted from 1982-1986, but the 2008 remake is a stain on David Hasselhoff’s name. The reboot only lasted six months, and the main issue was that nobody liked the new lead actor. There’s not much you can do to get around that.
Ghost Whisperer
Jennifer Love Hewitt played an antique store owner who could also talk to dead people. Her mission – and theme of the series – was to help the earthbound spirits with their unfinished business that was keeping them from passing on. This show got through five seasons, even though it was garbage at best.
Hidden Hills
This show literally makes no sense. It got one season, and the plot reflects the way wealthy, neurotic, overly busy and sex-obsessed Tv executives and producers think America lives, in other words, the way they live. They’re wrong. The Detroit News really did NOT like this.
Hogan’s Heroes
Tagline: “If you liked WWII, you’ll love ‘Hogan’s Heroes’!” Yep. And this show won an Emmy. The plot follows comedic POW prisoners during WWII. It hasn’t uhhh aged well, that’s for sure.
Big Brother
Five days a week of people cramped in a house full of Ikea furniture is like a bad college flashback.
Painkiller Jane
“The show is long on concept and short on execution which would actually be okay if the writing and acting were not so simply terrible.”
October Road
Sitting in the time slot directly after ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” this show flopped for several reasons. The plot is dry – an author returns to the hometown he wrote a novel about, and it really just gets more pretentious from there.
Happy Hour
Doesn’t matter how tempting half-priced drinks are. There aren’t enough happy hours in the world to make us want to watch this show. Though it once had promise considering the screenwriters are the same couple who wrote “That 70’s Show,” this was a huge crash and burn.
The Return of Jezebel James
This show was so clearly miscast and is only intermittently funny. She’s a misfire on all cylinders, and we don’t want her to return again.
Manimal
This show focuses on a British professor who could shape shift into literally any animal to solve crimes. And THAT’S all. Manimal was, to put it delicately, slaughtered by the network after eight episodes.
Rob
Rob Schneider’s attempt at a sitcom was actually horribly racist. His character Rob marries a Mexican-American woman with a huge family, and critics roast Schneider for being extremely stereotypical.
Unan1mous
These 22-minute long episodes seemed like they actually went on forever. This reality series only lasted one season, thankfully. Strangers must come to a unanimous vote to win $1 million. All are locked in a bunker without technology or the ability to leave until all can decide who leaves the grand prize. If anyone leaves prematurely, the money gets cut in half. It sounds completely pointless to me.
Sex Box
“Watching this is kind of like bad sex – the clock watching, the profound embarrassment, and the desire to check your email.”
South Beach
This show only made it through eight episodes on air in 2006 before it got cut, and critics called it “a preposterous and pretentious drama series.”
X.F.L.
This heavily promoted yet low-rating show was kicked off the air after one season. The idea was to create a new sport, a combination of professional wrestling and football. There was literally just no interest in the idea from the audience’s perspective.
The Ugliest Girl In Town
The series follows a man, Tim, who is mistaken for a woman and lands a modeling gig, which he takes in order to stay in England with an actress he loves. Just 17 episodes of the 20 filmed were ever aired.
Twenty One
This attempted game show lost all its cred when it was revealed that everything was choreographed and all the contestants were actors.
The PTL Club
The “Praise The Lord” Club was the face of televangelism for quite some time, until the host was accused of rape and the whole production tarnished.
Casablanca
Though the show did not feature any of the cast from the original classic film, the show revolved around similar themes and time frames. It wasn’t terrible – just didn’t have the makings of a hit.
Baby Bob
This show is about a couple who realizes their baby can speak like an adult. There was no real substance to this, and baby Bob ended up making appearances in various commercials for Quiznos.
The Trouble With Normal
“ABC has been promoting the heck out of ‘The Trouble With Normal,’ but the shockingly unfunny ensemble and rotten scripts will undo all that publicity in minutes. On a positive note, this will almost certainly end the TV career of Jon Cryer.”
Hawaii
“The new cop series ‘Hawaii’ isn’t your father’s ‘Hawaii Five-O.’ It’s probably not yours, either, or your child’s, or anyones. It’s awful.”
Dr. Ken
“A family comedy has to have heart and humor, and ‘Dr. Ken’ has neither.”