In the history of TV, there have been many shows about things that talk that shouldn’t: horses, cars, dogs, Snooki, but it turns out America draws the line at monkeys. In 1983, Mr. Smith debuted in September and was cancelled by December, with 13 episodes somehow being made before God intervened and sealed all evidence of its existence into the Ark of the Covenant.
It will melt your face. What made Mr. Smith such a piece of excrement? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly. The show featured an orang-utan named ChaCha who first becomes separated from his trainer after a car accident, and then ends up in a research lab. Which he escapes from. Then, probably just for the hell of it, the monkey finds an experimental serum that increases human intelligence. He drinks it and his IQ increases to exactly 256. Oh and he can talk too after this. What do you do with a monkey smarter than you that can talk? You make him a political advisor in Washington, of cour- Oh wait, hold on, no you don’t. You cancel the shit out of this show because wtf?
And this ape needs his reading glasses. Those +s were supposed to be +s.
Meanwhile, it's notable that 2 of these series were from a project created by NBC to fill the 7:30pm ET/PT (6:30p CT/MT) slots on NBC-owned stations in the 1980s, SMALL WONDER and SHE'S THE SHERIFF...the programs were syndicated to other markets, but not for long Painfully bad, indeed, but not much if any worse than the series that made Somers a star, which managed to slither into the 1980s. (THREE'S COMPANY was the only sitcom of any popularity to out-bad WHAT'S HAPPENING! in the 1970s, which was saying something.)
Meanwhile, yes, AfterM*A*S*H was certainly mediocre, but at least had Rosalind Chao. And, as a mediocre series, was still better than many late episodes of M*A*S*H.
7 more among the worst of the 1980s: THE REAL WORLD OF TAMMY FAYE THE RICHARD BEY SHOW REAL PEOPLE WOMEN IN PRISON AMAZING STORIES NEW MONKEES (w/opposable thumbs, barely) THE MORTON DOWNEY, JR. SHOW
And I seem to be mistaken...SMALL WONDER wasn't quite part of the 7:30 pile NBC coughed up, but OUT OF THIS WORLD was, and it was almost as sad.
9 comments:
Hey, AfterMASH wasn't great but compared with most of the others it wasn't that bad.
Jeff
If they're looking at bad tv shows from the eighties, it seems to me that they'd be spoiled for choice.
What Deb said. For instance:
1. Mr. Smith
In the history of TV, there have been many shows about things that talk that shouldn’t: horses, cars, dogs, Snooki, but it turns out America draws the line at monkeys. In 1983, Mr. Smith debuted in September and was cancelled by December, with 13 episodes somehow being made before God intervened and sealed all evidence of its existence into the Ark of the Covenant.
It will melt your face.
What made Mr. Smith such a piece of excrement? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly. The show featured an orang-utan named ChaCha who first becomes separated from his trainer after a car accident, and then ends up in a research lab. Which he escapes from. Then, probably just for the hell of it, the monkey finds an experimental serum that increases human intelligence. He drinks it and his IQ increases to exactly 256. Oh and he can talk too after this. What do you do with a monkey smarter than you that can talk? You make him a political advisor in Washington, of cour- Oh wait, hold on, no you don’t. You cancel the shit out of this show because wtf?
Jeff
Yet another one I missed out on.
Yeah, I'm surprised they could limit this to seven.
And this ape needs his reading glasses. Those +s were supposed to be +s.
Meanwhile, it's notable that 2 of these series were from a project created by NBC to fill the 7:30pm ET/PT (6:30p CT/MT) slots on NBC-owned stations in the 1980s, SMALL WONDER and SHE'S THE SHERIFF...the programs were syndicated to other markets, but not for long Painfully bad, indeed, but not much if any worse than the series that made Somers a star, which managed to slither into the 1980s. (THREE'S COMPANY was the only sitcom of any popularity to out-bad WHAT'S HAPPENING! in the 1970s, which was saying something.)
Meanwhile, yes, AfterM*A*S*H was certainly mediocre, but at least had Rosalind Chao. And, as a mediocre series, was still better than many late episodes of M*A*S*H.
Those +s were supposed to be =s.
7 more among the worst of the 1980s:
THE REAL WORLD OF TAMMY FAYE
THE RICHARD BEY SHOW
REAL PEOPLE
WOMEN IN PRISON
AMAZING STORIES
NEW MONKEES (w/opposable thumbs, barely)
THE MORTON DOWNEY, JR. SHOW
And I seem to be mistaken...SMALL WONDER wasn't quite part of the 7:30 pile NBC coughed up, but OUT OF THIS WORLD was, and it was almost as sad.
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