It is well written, Fred, that the lotus blossom is the fairest flower. I had to laugh at the closing credits of Pink Lady and Jeff. Written by Mark Evanier, whose blog I read every day.
Also, while The New Leave It to Beaver wasn't great, it was far from one of the worst shows ever made.
I've seen at least a bit of all these except FAMOUS FACE.
Hm. Counterproposed 7+:
1-3. THE CHAIR/THE CHAMBER and THE SWAN Two game shows literally about torture (FEAR FACTOR not quite in their league), and one where the plastic surgery had to be competed for, and the contestants were apparently endlessly chivvied. QUEEN FOR A DAY with scalpels as the prize.
4. THE RICHARD BEY SHOW Managed to outdo even Morton Downey Jr.'s in the clownish hatred stakes, and general sense of stupidity. But AFAIK, only JENNY JONES ever got anyone killed.
5. THE REAL WORLD OF TAMMY FAYE Proto-THE VIEW/THE TALK populated by Bakker and her similarly made-up cronies.
6. WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT, WORLD? Harlan Ellison really hated this one, in THE GLASS TEAT columns. Nostalgia Channel dusted it off ca. 1995. Ellison was kind. The most inane, inept tragedy-variety hour (swipe from early SNL) I've seen, and I've seen Sonny Bono's work, and PINK LADY AND JEFF.
7. LAND OF THE LOST Well, this one was barely tolerable to me as a kid. Then I saw it again as an adult. Suddenly, the endless repetition and witlessness of, say, THE WACKY RACERS or KIMBA seemed relatively deft in comparison. But in its utter amateurishness, it might be easier to take than the likes of SCAREDY CAT, which is simply anti-talent on display.
8-11, with apologies to James Reasoner and others: THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, THE RAT PATROL, THREE'S COMPANY. We must agree to vehemently disagree on at least the latter two. (With James, I do agree that DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN was among the dullest westerns so far...)
12-14. AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME TESTICULAR TRAUMA, REAL PEOPLE (sic), THAT'S INCREDIBLE! And people claim that today's reality shows are awful, which they are. But not w/o precedent.
7 comments:
Pretty bad, all right, but they could have gone further back, maybe include shows like "My Mother the Car"
I never watched PINK LADY AND JEFF, but I probably would have, had I'd known that the two cute Asian ladies wore bikinis, pardon my sexism.
It is well written, Fred, that the lotus blossom is the fairest flower. I had to laugh at the closing credits of Pink Lady and Jeff. Written by Mark Evanier, whose blog I read every day.
Also, while The New Leave It to Beaver wasn't great, it was far from one of the worst shows ever made.
I've seen at least a bit of all these except FAMOUS FACE.
Hm. Counterproposed 7+:
1-3. THE CHAIR/THE CHAMBER and THE SWAN
Two game shows literally about torture (FEAR FACTOR not quite in their league), and one where the plastic surgery had to be competed for, and the contestants were apparently endlessly chivvied. QUEEN FOR A DAY with scalpels as the prize.
4. THE RICHARD BEY SHOW
Managed to outdo even Morton Downey Jr.'s in the clownish hatred stakes, and general sense of stupidity. But AFAIK, only JENNY JONES ever got anyone killed.
5. THE REAL WORLD OF TAMMY FAYE
Proto-THE VIEW/THE TALK populated by Bakker and her similarly made-up cronies.
6. WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT, WORLD?
Harlan Ellison really hated this one, in THE GLASS TEAT columns. Nostalgia Channel dusted it off ca. 1995. Ellison was kind. The most inane, inept tragedy-variety hour (swipe from early SNL) I've seen, and I've seen Sonny Bono's work, and PINK LADY AND JEFF.
7. LAND OF THE LOST
Well, this one was barely tolerable to me as a kid. Then I saw it again as an adult. Suddenly, the endless repetition and witlessness of, say, THE WACKY RACERS or KIMBA seemed relatively deft in comparison. But in its utter amateurishness, it might be easier to take than the likes of SCAREDY CAT, which is simply anti-talent on display.
8-11, with apologies to James Reasoner and others: THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, THE RAT PATROL, THREE'S COMPANY. We must agree to vehemently disagree on at least the latter two. (With James, I do agree that DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN was among the dullest westerns so far...)
12-14. AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME TESTICULAR TRAUMA, REAL PEOPLE (sic), THAT'S INCREDIBLE! And people claim that today's reality shows are awful, which they are. But not w/o precedent.
This could go on a while...
There have been a lot of bad shows! I was considering a leap to the defense of MY MOTHER THE CAR, but I thought better of it.
Sorry...I meant FRAIDY CAT above. You Never want to see this, except to marvel at the utter waste of everyone's time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraidy_Cat_%28TV_series%29
And these, by me, aren't merely Bad...but actively horrible. There are hundreds of simply bad series, if not thousands, by now...
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