Worst TV Flops
Worst TV Flops. It wasn’t a good show, but it seems undeserving of the scorn that’s been heaped upon it. The New York Times went so far as to ask if it was the worst show of all time. Clearly, the Times needs to watch a lot more bad TV. At least Viva Laughlin dared to be original (all right, an original remake). Only a high-concept show can truly break the mold, and sometimes it will fail spectacularly. Viva Laughlin, however, should not feel too ashamed. I can easily think of five far more catastrophic shows from just the last 20 years or so.
5. The show: Father of the Pride
The concept: A high-quality CGI animated series “starring” Siegfried & Roy’s white lions and assorted animals.
Why it failed: The show looked like a Pixar film and sounded like an episode of Roseanne. The target audience was unclear from the get-go. The anthropomorphic animals were obviously meant to appeal to children, but the writing was aimed at adults — unless six-year-olds have an interest in pandas’ sex lives of which I was previously unaware. It didn’t help that the show came out months after Roy had been mauled by one of his tigers. Bad timing, bad marketing, bad idea. It was quickly cut from NBCs lineup.
4. The show: Coupling US
The concept: Take a successful British sitcom about friends and sex, cast attractive people, and wait for the Friends audience to pour in.
Why it failed: So, so many reasons. First of all, the show simply recast the main roles and shot the exact same scripts, only changing the more obscure British references. There was no allowance made for the difference in cultures and, trust me, there is a world of difference in the dating cultures of the US and the UK. If that wasn’t enough to render the show limp and humorless, they replaced likable, quirky leads with annoying, over-the-top sitcom actors. The following short clips summarize just how much poor casting doomed the show:
Don’t feel like cringing in horror for another 24 minutes? Neither did the audience. It was canceled after two episodes.
3. The show: Forever Eden
The concept: A never-ending reality show in which young, vacuous singles are asked to live on an isolated tropical island for an indeterminate amount of time. As one person is evicted, a new, more desperate fame whore moves in.
Why it failed: Let me repeat: a never-ending reality show. This is what they use to program Hell’s television schedule. People may watch and love competitive reality TV, but they need it to move toward a conclusion. We get to pick favorites to root for and find villains we wish to see humiliated. The conflict stems from the fact that there can only be one winner. This show had absolutely no purpose other than providing an opportunity to ogle young people in swimwear. Apparently, even Americans aren’t that shallow. Ten-minute clips are available on YouTube if you are desperate to know more, but I was unable to bear going through them all. My pain threshold is only so high, you know.
2. The show: Heil, Honey, I’m Home!
The concept: A satire of a 1950s US sitcom that stars Hitler and Eva Braun and seeks to mine the comic gold of Hitler coping with his Jewish neighbors.
Why it failed: Although The Producers has shown that the subject of Hitler can be funny if properly mocked, this show fails to ever be as over-the-top with its subject as it needs to be. It chooses to poke fun at the genre, rather than the subject, leading to an uncomfortable and painfully unfunny 30 minutes of television. Only one episode was shown on British television before someone very sensibly pulled the plug forever. Watch the clip below, if you dare, and please let me know if something funny happens after the first five minutes. By that point, I was curled up in the fetal position, whimpering in pain.
And the most spectacular flop in recent television history?
1. The show: Cop Rock
The concept: What happens if you cross a Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues) cop drama with a musical? It could work! No, really. Hey, where are you going?
Why it failed: Why wouldn’t it fail is the better question. Bochco is brilliant at gritty, realistic cop dramas. Gritty, realistic cop dramas remain gritty and realistic by never asking their main characters to break into song. Musicals sell fantastic, dream-like worlds in which anything can happen. Musicals do not give you real life. I cannot imagine two genres less suited to each other. The Muppets in a Clint Eastwood western would have made more sense than this did. The show crashed and burned, but not before earning a permanent spot on any list of television’s greatest disasters.
Care to defend any of these shows? Or are there other, more terrible television flops that would have made your list?
Source:popvultures
