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3%% Due to the nature of this trope, finding a proper image will be very tricky.
4%% DO NOT add an image to this page without discussion in Image Pickin'.
5%% Image Pickin' thread for reference: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1482208684003082500
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7%% Please do not delete any review links from these pages without either consensus or if the link is dead and there are no alternate links to use.
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9%% Do not add ''The Star Wars Holiday Special''. Most that saw it liked the cartoon with Boba Fett and another scene or two. Also, some people think that the whole thing is So Bad It's Good. It's also considered a collector's item, so people obviously want it.
10->''"In Beverly Hills... they don't throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows."''
11-->-- '''Creator/WoodyAllen'''
12
13Sometimes, you just wonder what television executives were thinking when they greenlight shows like these and [[ScrewedByTheNetwork show others the door before giving them a shot at stardom]]. These particular programs give new meaning to the term "idiot box".
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15For more information, Website/{{Wikipedia}} has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_shows_considered_the_worst its own list]] of stinkers, as well as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sitcoms_known_for_negative_reception a separate one]] for {{sitcom}}s.
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17'''''Important Notes:'''''
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19# Merely being offensive in its subject matter isn't enough to justify a work as Horrible. Hard as it is to imagine at times, there's a market for all types of deviancy (no matter how small a niche it is). It has to ''fail to appeal even to that niche'' to qualify as this. If it has a fandom of any sort, it doesn't belong on this list.
20# It is not a Horrible TV series just because ''WebVideo/TVTrash'', ''WebVideo/AlexMeyers'', anyone from or formerly associated with Website/ChannelAwesome, or any other CausticCritic reviewed it. There needs to be independent evidence, such as actual critics (emphasis on plural) for example, to list it. (Though once it is listed, they can provide their detailed reviews.)
21# This page is not for horrible '''episodes''' (or even seasons) of otherwise good shows. For those, see {{DethroningMoment.LiveActionTV}} and {{SeasonalRot.LiveActionTV}}.
22# To ensure that the work is judged with a clear mind and the hatred isn't just a knee-jerk reaction, as well as to allow opinions to properly form, '''[[Administrivia/NoRecentExamplesPlease examples should not be added until at least one month after release]]'''. This includes "sneaking" the entries onto the pages ahead of time by adding them and then just commenting them out.
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25----
26!!Examples (more-or-less in alphabetical order by network, then TV show name):
27
28[[index]]
29* [[Horrible/GameShow Game and Reality Shows]]
30[[/index]]
31
32[[foldercontrol]]
33
34!Scripted Series
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36[[folder:ABC (United States)]]
37* 2007's '''''Series/{{Cavemen}}''''' stands out as one of the worst concepts for a TV show of all time - a sitcom based on characters in a TV commercial, in this case the cavemen from a series of Advertising/{{GEICO}} ads. This concept already failed when Creator/{{CBS}} attempted to make a show based on the Freei Baby commercials (''Baby Bob''; the character was revived for a short while by Quizno's), and fans of ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'' already had a grudge against it for replacing its timeslot, but those who decided to watch it found it to somehow be even worse than it sounded on paper. The show had already run into trouble after the pilot was screened for critics: those who saw it claimed it was offensive and racist (the cavemen were an obvious stand-in for African-Americans, with the word "magger" seeing frequent use), leading to the show undergoing a significant ReTool into a slacker-comedy with the original pilot never seeing the light of day on TV. This helped precisely nothing, as the program was [[http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/04/news/wk-cavemen4 critically savaged]] right from the beginning due to its weak characters (who have [[OohMeAccentsSlipping awful, fake]] Southern accents [[MisplacedAccent despite the series being set in California]] [[note]]this is another holdover from the pilot, which was set in UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}[[/note]]), bottom-of-the-barrel "humor" (the "highlight" is when a caveman is told to "[[BestialityIsDepraved keep your penis in your genus]]"), unnecessary sex scenes with plenty of FanDisservice, and lame plots. To top it off, some of the offensive material from the original pilot made it into the reshot version! The bad reviews combined with dismal ratings led to only six of the 13 episodes being aired before [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]] put it out of its misery, and GEICO themselves poked fun at the series in a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl. The ''[[http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-071024worst_tv,0,3673604.story Chicago Tribune]]'' called it one of the 25 worst TV shows of all time, and ''Magazine/TVGuide'' listed it in their 25 "biggest TV blunders", noting that making a sitcom based on a commercial was a terrible idea to begin with. Here's ''WebVideo/TVTrash''[='s=] [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20n0fl_tv-trash-cavemen_fun take on it]], and here's also Hats Off Entertainment's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAYRloh5oBo review]] of the unaired pilot and the series.
38* The '''''[[Series/CharliesAngels2011 2011 remake of Charlie's Angels]]''''' cast aside the [[NarmCharm cheesy charm]] that made the original so iconic in favor of trying to copy the DarkerAndEdgier tone of modern action TV shows such as ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' and ''Series/BurnNotice'', even going so far as to throw some [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique unnecessary torture scenes]] in there for good measure. All it did was make the show an inconsistent and confusing mess. There was no character development, and each episode was merely an excuse to show hot chicks walking against StuffBlowingUp for an hour. Plots were [[ClicheStorm a parade of action movie cliches]], and the acting and dialogue were mediocre at best. Overall, it was an expensive flop for [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]], as the critics absolutely savaged it and audiences weren't much kinder; its first season was to last 13 episodes, but only 8 were ever aired, and in some countries the show didn't even last half that. If you're wondering why the property wasn't developed further until [[Film/CharliesAngels2019 2019]], in a nutshell, ''this'' is why. [[WebVideo/TVTrash Rowdy C]] [[https://rowdyc.com/tv-trash-charlies-angels-2011/ tears this apart as a tie-in to 2019's theatrical outing]].
39* '''''Clerks'''''. No, not [[Film/{{Clerks}} the movie]] or even [[WesternAnimation/ClerksTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]]. In 1995, while Creator/KevinSmith was working on ''Film/{{Mallrats}}'', Touchstone Television produced a pilot for a ''Clerks'' TV show. The problem was that they made it [[ExecutiveMeddling with no creative input from Smith]], even rejecting his offer to write a few episodes. As a result, we're given a ClicheStorm sitcom that barely resembles the source material. The first problem was that the dialogue, which was so profane in the original movie that it nearly got an NC-17 rating, was toned down to be TV-14 at worst. The only things it had in common with the movie are that it starred Dante and Randall working at a convenience store and video store (which, by the way, aren't even called Quick Stop and RST Video). The pilot disregards continuity, as Dante and Veronica are still dating, despite [[spoiler:having broken up by the end of the movie]]. Character derailment is also a problem, as Dante, originally the more level-headed of the two clerks, TookALevelInDumbass so he could learn AnAesop for the episode. Randall, played here by a pre-fame [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Jim Breuer]] (who [[CreatorBacklash has no kind words about it]]), was Flanderized into a cartoonish ''Series/FullHouse'' reject. Jay and Silent Bob don't appear in it. Instead, we get a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute called Ray (which may or may not have been given a TakeThat in ''Film/JayAndSilentBobStrikeBack'') who regularly tries stealing beer because he's underage, [[DawsonCasting even though the actor looks about the same age as Dante]]. Kevin Smith openly [[DisownedAdaptation disowned the show]], and Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, who both unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Dante, expressed relief that they didn't get the part. You can watch it in its entirety [[https://youtu.be/wR8COL2GGTw here.]]
40* '''''Series/{{Galactica 1980}}'''''. This sequel[=/=]{{spinoff}} of the original ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'' series eliminated half the cast (including Apollo, Cassiopeia, and Baltar) without explanation, and replaced them with new characters that are not even remotely memorable or likable in the slightest, then attempted to pander to audiences with insipid plots involving a group of space children named "The Super Scouts". Good actors made complete fools of themselves - especially Creator/LorneGreene, who was stuck talking to a child prodigy named Dr. Zee (who was recast with an even worse child actor after the first three-part episode) for most of the run. It featured what could be one of the worst episodes of a science-fiction series ever made, "Spaceball", in which the Super Scouts [[LighterAndSofter have to win a baseball game]]. The creators were forced to write stories that could be marketed to young children and shoehorn [[GreenAesop environmental messages]] into each one, mainly since the show was broadcast at 7:30 PM - a dead zone that killed any chance for success even if it had been worth watching. [[WriterRevolt The writers themselves hated it]], as every morning they would chant "come on 13" in reference to the highest rating the show could get and still be canned. Glen Larson had to deal with [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]]'s [[MediaWatchdog Standards and Practices]], including their demands for more children, which in turn caused an influx of {{stage mom}}s ([[http://en.battlestarwikiclone.org/wiki/Galactica_1980 the entire sordid story must be read to be believed]]). Other problems with the show include bad acting and terrible special effects (especially when two of the lead characters are riding on flying motorcycles, but they're very clearly just sitting on motorcycles in front of a green screen), but the show's biggest sin? [[FranchiseKiller It killed off the franchise for over 20 years]] until [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 a reboot]] made it popular again. Here's WebVideo/TVTrash's [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20n2fn_tv-trash-galactica-1980_fun review]] of the disaster.
41* '''''Series/{{Inhumans}}''''' was the pet project of controversial Marvel executive Ike Perlmutter. Unfortunately, it became the very first entry in the [[CashCowFranchise seemingly-untouchable]] Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse to be universally despised by those that saw it. Its problems included an abrupt return to a MovieSuperheroesWearBlack aesthetic (after the MCU had done so much to make comic-accurate visuals acceptable onscreen); recurring {{Special Effect Failure}}s in spite of a budget reportedly larger than any other Marvel series; and most of all, some of the most shameless ProtagonistCenteredMorality in recent memory: The {{Designated Hero}}es are the ruling family of an Inhuman colony on the moon, who enforce an oppressive caste system that condemns those born with less-than-flashy superpowers to backbreaking labor while the chosen few live in luxury. The DesignatedVillain Maximus is a victim of the caste system and wants it gone, but we're supposed to root against him because of this. Instead of giving more heroic traits to the Inhumans and/or having them acknowledge that the caste system is a bad thing, the show pins several villainous acts on Maximus; thus, RootingForTheEmpire is pointless when [[TooBleakStoppedCaring everyone is terrible.]] All those weaknesses together make up for the nadir of what was already a huge AudienceAlienatingEra for the comic book franchise, which only sank the property into irrelevance. Long story short, ''Inhumans'' was cancelled after one season, [[Main/{{Irony}} the Inhumans were devalued in the comics]], and series also marked the beginning of the end for Creator/MarvelTelevision and its contributions to the MCU. WebVideo/TheBlockbusterBuster tears it down [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF4iWp_iwWM in a 2]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwqbCsP5jE8 parter.]]
42* '''''Life with Lucy'''''. No, not ''Series/ILoveLucy'' -- ''Life with Lucy''. This 1986 Creator/LucilleBall comedy series was supposed to be a smash success, but instead became one of the biggest critical and commercial flops of the 1980s. Why? Well, [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]] gave complete creative control to Ball, who was 75 years old at the time of production -- a risky move because advertisers prefer viewers under 49, and the show led off the night against ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'' on Creator/{{NBC}} in a timeslot that ABC had [[FridayNightDeathSlot little success in]]. The plot, with Ball's character helping out at a UsefulNotes/{{California}} hardware store, was painfully slow and just not funny. The show finished almost dead-last in the season's rankings, and Ball was reportedly so devastated by its failure that she gave up production on any more television projects. Quite a pity, given that she died three years after the show was cancelled. As pointed out by the book ''Literature/WhatWereTheyThinkingThe100DumbestEventsInTelevisionHistory'', part of the reason for the series' failure is that it tried to recreate the physical stunts of ''I Love Lucy'' when Ball was in her seventies. Watching her try to do those stunts didn't so much inspire laughter as it did fear for her safety. Supposedly, the idea of incorporating slapstick was made by an executive who firmly believed that fans would want some of the classic gags ''I Love Lucy'' was known for. You can watch WebVideo/TVTrash reviewing the show [[http://www.manic-expression.com/tv-trash-life-with-lucy/ here.]]
43* '''''[=McGurk=]: A Dog's Life''''', a 1979 ABC half-hour "comedy" that only had the pilot aired before being cancelled. It starred Barney Martin (a.k.a. [[Series/{{Seinfeld}} Morty Seinfeld]]) as a fat old dog named [=McGurk=]. All the cast wore the finest kindergarten-play-quality dog suits while a laugh track brayed over painful quips about those classic '70s topics like health food, Glen Campbell, joggers, and steel-belted radials. In an attempt to maximize the viewing demographic, the dogs next door were made "sexy" in a deeply disturbing and anatomically-improbable way. Representative dialog: "Your lips told me no-no, but there was yes-yes in your tail." The human characters were not seen and spoke in ''Peanuts''-style gibberish. The climax featured dancing dogs and a twist that would make Creator/MNightShyamalan cry.
44* In TheSeventies, several British television programmes were successfully brought overseas to America, but '''''Snavely''''' was not one of them. The first of three unsuccessful American adaptations of ''Series/FawltyTowers'', this pilot, which starred Harvey Korman as Henry Snavely a.k.a. Basil Fawlty minus the rudeness and Creator/BettyWhite as his wife Gladys, aired a grand total of ''once'' during the summer of 1978 – even before series 2 of ''Fawlty Towers'' aired on [=BBC2=] – and it isn't hard to see why. Of its many, ''many'' flaws, it showcases one DullSurprise after another, particularly from both Korman and White, and UnfortunateImplications arise because the writers apparently made a BlindIdiotTranslation of Manuel into an Albanian refugee named Petro. Even when it wants to be a ShotForShotRemake of both "The Hotel Inspectors" and "The Germans," it fails miserably, with many of the reactions being caught too late compared to the rapid-fire responses of Basil to the other characters. It currently holds a 4.4/10 on [=IMDB=], and although it wasn't a GenreKiller, most American adaptations of British programmes (apart from ''Three's a Crowd'', an American version of ''Robin's Nest'' and the sequel to ''Series/ThreesCompany'') would struggle until ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' in 2005. Jack Wolf, who has also critiqued ''Amanda's'', based on the same subject, takes a strict beating at ''Snavely'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqqrYDNcAto here]].
45* '''''The Tammy Grimes Show''''', aired on ABC in 1966, starred Grimes as an heiress with plots focusing on how much she loved to spend money. 10 episodes were produced, but only four aired, to unanimously negative reviews and weak ratings, before it was canned and replaced by a nighttime version of ''Series/TheDatingGame''. This quick cancellation was rather unusual at the time, where series would usually get at least a 13-episode season before being pulled for low ratings [[note]]the year before, NBC had allowed another notorious flop, ''Series/MyMotherTheCar'', to run for a full season of 30 episodes before pulling the plug[[/note]] - reportedly, ABC never wanted to air the show but was forced to by [[ExecutiveMeddling sponsor Bristol-Meyers]]. More details can be found [[http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/tammy-grimes-show/ here]]. Fun fact: one of her co-stars was Richard Sargent, the original [[TheOtherDarrin other Darrin]].
46* '''''Series/TurnOn''''' was a TotallyRadical [[SketchComedy sketch "comedy"]] program on ABC in 1969. Inspired and produced by some of the same people who made the ''actual'' hit show ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'', it took everything in '''that''' show and turned it up to eleven. It was canned before the premiere had finished its half-hour run, though most of the ABC stations at least let it finish running. [[note]]At least four affiliates didn't even wait ''that'' long: UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}'s WEWS and UsefulNotes/{{Denver}}'s KBTV (now Creator/{{NBC}} station KUSA) cut away from the network for a documentary on gun safety, while KATU in UsefulNotes/{{Portland}}, Oregon and WHNC {now WTNH} in Hartford-New Haven, Connecticut didn't air the show at all.[[/note]] It tried to be psychedelic and just the sort of thing the young 'uns would dig (something television as a medium has never been good at) and surreal (which it perhaps succeeded at too well), along with being more openly sexual than shows normally got back then (which was the reason why TV executives and censors hated the show and wanted it to die). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDpum0Jp7Gw Here's the long-lost pilot,]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwRYpqTpCU4 and here's the unaired second episode.]][[note]] About the only positive thing you could say about the show is that it had Hamilton Camp & Chuck [=McCann=] in the cast, both of whom would go on to be staples of the Disney Afternoon. [[/note]]
47* '''''Series/WorkIt''''', ABC's 2012 cross-dressing comedy about two men who pretend to be women to get jobs at a pharmaceutical company that only employs women, was critically savaged from the word "go". The writing was filled to the brim with bottom-of-the-barrel humor that failed to impress. Its attempts at gender satire lack consistency and come across as out-of-date and resentful towards women. Thankfully, it was canned after two episodes (thirteen episodes were ordered overall). It was so bad, it [[BrokeTheRatingScale broke IGN's rating scale]], [[http://tv.ign.com/articles/121/1214220p1.html "earning" a zero out of ten.]] Most other publications, such as USA Today and [[https://www.avclub.com/work-it-1798170988 The A.V. Club]], were just as scathing. As put in ''Series/FullFrontalWithSamanthaBee''':
48-->'''Creator/SamanthaBee''': ABC asked, "Will ''Series/BosomBuddies'' work in 2012"? America answered..."No."
49[[/folder]]
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51[[folder:The ABC (Australia)]]
52* '''''Dog's Head Bay''''' was a 1999 Australian television series about a high-flying criminal lawyer who purchases a weekender in Dog's Head Bay thinking it will become the next yuppie retreat, but fails to attract any customers. When all of his assets are seized when he becomes the subject of a police investigation, he and his family are forced to move to the Bay because the holiday house is in his wife's name and so still available. Here they are forced to socialize with the local rabble, including his wife's family, in what should have been a typical SlobsVsSnobs plot. Instead what was produced was one of the most desperately unfunny 'sitcoms' ever seen on Australian TV. On paper, it is easy to see how this show got greenlit, as it was co-written by Australia's most prominent playwright David Williamson. However, those commissioning the show failed to consider that Williamson had never written for television before, and so had no idea how to write for the medium. Additionally, Williamson's plays are biting social commentaries overlaid with a heavy vein of BlackComedy: hardly the stuff of a light and frothy half-hour DomCom. Over the course of one and a half to two hours, the unsympathetic characters in Williamson's dramas will gradually draw out the audience's sympathy. Crammed into a half-hour, they remain resolutely unsympathetic. The central characters are an AmoralAttorney and his SocialClimber wife, while their primary foils are a shrill [[NotInMyBackYard NIMBY]] and her ExtremeDoormat husband. Issues would start to be explored in an episode, then be hurriedly cut short and wrapped up in time for a final 'joke', so nothing is ever resolved. A talented cast was left with nothing to do. One of the stars was Shane Withington, who later called the show [[CreatorBacklash "the worst piece of television in the history of Australia"]]. Tellingly, the program has never been repeated or issued on any kind of home media.
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55[[folder:BBC (United Kingdom)]]
56* '''''Big Top''''' was a hideous 2009 sitcom set in a circus. It was heavily cross-promoted by a bunch of people well aware how bad it was (in an article about sitcom writing on Radio 4, when the expert was asked to link it back to this show, she even admitted it wasn't funny) and drew criticism for being excruciatingly unfunny with lazy stock jokes (a clown… that makes children cry!) and starring a heavily Botoxed and facially immobile Amanda Holden as the main character. Its only redeeming feature was Creator/TonyRobinson somehow managing some genuine laughs with the lame material he got, and even then there are [[Series/{{Blackadder}} much better places]] to find Robinson in action. It was happily canned after one series and still frequently makes "worst sitcom" lists. ''Frantic Planet'' author and blogger Stuart Millard covers it [[https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2019/04/18/big-top/ here]] as part of his "Shitcoms" series.
57* '''''Chinese Burn''''', a [=BBC3=] sitcom written by and about Chinese women living in London. It was supposedly intended to break down stereotypes about Chinese people, but was full of exaggerated accents and jokes about small penises or eating dogs. Despite being aired in 2017, when the #[=MeToo=] movement was gaining traction, a character being pressured into sleeping with her boss was played for cheap laughs - not even clever BlackComedy. There was also criticism over the fact that rather than commission new work from British Chinese writers, the BBC had chosen to invest in this show whose creators were expats born and raised in Asia. Their response to the criticism was to delete all negative comments on social media. The poor reaction to the pilot resulted in its not being picked up for a full series.
58* On paper, adapting UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill's four-volume ''A History of the English-Speaking Peoples'' into the 1974-75 miniseries '''''Churchill's People''''' seemed like a winning formula for a big dramatic prestige project. In practice, the books focus far more on political and military minutiae than on narrative,[[note]]Churchill's political rival UsefulNotes/ClementAttlee quipped that the books should have been called ''Things in History That Interested Me''.[[/note]] forcing the writers to invent their own characters and stories to bring key moments in the history of Britain and its former colonies to life. As almost every episode had a different writer and a different director, the quality of the scripts varied hugely (with many characters speaking almost entirely in InfoDump monologues), as did the quality of the performances despite the veritable "who's who" of acting talent across the series.[[note]]Just to give a sample from each episode (in order): Creator/PaulDarrow; Creator/RichardJohnson, Creator/ArthurLowe, and Creator/DavidProwse; Creator/LeoMcKern and Creator/RobertHardy; Alan Howard, Creator/AnnaMassey, Creator/BrianBlessed, and Creator/PatrickStewart; [[Series/TheSweeney Dennis Waterman]]; [[Series/TheSixWivesOfHenryVIII Angela Pleasence]]; Creator/JulianGlover; Creator/PatrickTroughton; Creator/RichardOCallaghan; Creator/BrianCox, [[Series/{{Porridge}} Fulton Mackay]], and Creator/JamesCosmo; Creator/MichaelJayston; [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Gemma Jones]] and Creator/MichaelSheard; Robert Lang; Creator/GarethThomas; Patsy Kensit (then a child star); Creator/IanHendry, Polly James, and Creator/AnnetteCrosbie; [[Series/GetSomeIn Tony Selby]] and [[Series/{{Poldark}} Robin Ellis]]; Creator/MichaelKitchen; George Sewell; Tom Conti, Rita Webb, and Creator/RogerLloydPack; [[Film/ChariotsOfFire Ian Charleson]]; Geoffrey Palmer and Creator/JeremyIrons; [[Series/TheLikelyLads Rodney Bewes]]; Creator/EdwardFox and Creator/JacquelinePearce; Nickolas Grace; Creator/PeterBowles.[[/note]] But by far the worst problem was the tiny budget (slashed as a result of the energy crisis to just £1.25 million for 26 episodes), which forced the episodes to be shot entirely on cheap studio sets, even for outdoor scenes. The result was a series that was both suffocatingly dull and embarrassingly low grade. Critics had their knives out immediately; ''The Sunday Telegraph'' described it as "a co-production disaster"[[note]]The co-producer was Time-Life Productions, who planned to air the series on Creator/{{PBS}} - to similarly dismal returns.[[/note]] that "not only sounds like a school's radio programme, it looks like it too," while Nancy Banks-Smith in ''The Guardian'' described it as having "little to offer us but blood, horsehair, and history. Though a hell of a lot of each." Though it was originally scheduled for Mondays at 9:25pm, rapidly plummeting audience figures (down to a pathetic 1 million by Episode 9) forced the BBC to cut their losses by putting ''Series/{{Kojak}}'' in the time slot instead and burning off the rest of ''Churchill's People'' in a graveyard slot. It has never been repeated or released on DVD.
59* David Croft was a defining name of the 1970s comedy-- ''Series/DadsArmy'' and ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum'' with Jimmy Perry, ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'' with Jeremy Lloyd... and, mind-bogglingly, '''''Series/ComeBackMrsNoah''''', also with Lloyd, and also starring Creator/MollieSugden. The premise: [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 21st-century]] housewife Gertrude Noah tours a space station after winning a magazine competition, only for a succession of failures to launch the station into orbit with her, roving reporter Clive Cunliffe (''Series/DadsArmy''[='=]s Creator/IanLavender), mathematicians Carstairs and Fanshaw (''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum''[='=]s Creator/DonaldHewlett and Creator/MichaelKnowles), and light bulb changer Garstang (Creator/JoeBlack) aboard to keep it running until a rescue operation can be mounted. Spoof news reports from a pre-''Series/AlloAllo'' Creator/GordenKaye opened each episode. The jokes, such as they were, were mostly recycled from the above shows, especially the more sophomoric of ''[=AYBS?=]'''s sight gags. The outrageously strange and cheaply made props and sets did little to divert attention from the thin scripts. It lasted one series (six episodes), critics tearing it to shreds all the while. ''Come Back Mrs. Noah'' holds the dishonour of being the only non-ITV sitcom in the "20 worst British sitcoms" list (#13) in Mark Lewisohn's 2003 edition of ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'', and one of two Mollie Sugden vehicles present. It remains a fixture of assorted newspaper, magazine, and website "worst sitcom" lists, with ''The Daily Telegraph''[='=]s Ben Lawrence ranking it the second worst British sitcom of all time in 2015. ''Frantic Planet'' author and blogger Stuart Millard posted [[https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2019/07/06/come-back-mrs-noah/ a detailed review]] as part of his "Shitcoms" series.
60* In 2009, Creator/JamesCorden and Creator/MathewHorne were riding high as the stars (and in Corden's case co-writer) of the critically acclaimed sitcom ''Series/GavinAndStacey''. What could have gone wrong by giving them their own sketch comedy show, '''''Horne & Corden'''''? Everything. Sketch after sketch relied on the fact that Corden was fat and had a wobbly stomach (that was the joke), with other sketches featuring Mathew Horne as a gay war reporter who was scared of war (that was the joke) or the pair teaching school children how to draw a penis on a blackboard (that was the joke). There was absolutely no attempt to develop any situations beyond the basic premise, which left just a load of puerile references to body parts and Corden's flab. The critical hostility was overwhelming, and declining audience figures led to the second series being cancelled. Corden himself stated in retrospect that he didn't know how to write a sketch show and was not good enough to pull it off.
61* '''''Series/MadAboutAlice''''', a 2004 sitcom about a divorced couple forced to work together for the sake of their young son. The show was flat, tedious and predictable, with its thoroughly obvious plot (the characters beginning to wonder whether they still had feelings for each other) being treated as something shocking and original. What pushed it over the line was the publicity hype given to the show before it aired and the decision to cast Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston, better known for their controversial private lives than their chops as comedy actors, in the lead roles; both demonstrated no sense of comic timing or delivery. This led to widespread mockery from both viewers and the public, with all critical reviews negative, and many commentators stating that the show's only redeeming quality was the {{Fanservice}} scenes involving Holden and another actress. It was cancelled after its first season ([[BritishBrevity thankfully consisting of just six episodes]]) and continues to make "worst TV" or "worst sitcom" lists in the UK.
62* '''''The Melting Pot''''' was a sitcom that aired on [=BBC1=] in 1975... and ended the same night it premiered, joining the long list of shows canceled after one episode. The show was written by Creator/SpikeMilligan, and starred him as a Pakistani illegal immigrant who tries to adjust to life in the titular district in London. Upon its premiere, the show was met with universal outrage for its UnfortunateImplications[[invoked]] and at times, outright racism - however, just as many people complained that the show was just plain not funny. The show is so bad that even the executives at the BBC like to pretend it didn't exist, and it also effectively ended Milligan's career.
63* '''''The Royal Bodyguard''''' was a vehicle for Creator/DavidJason, beloved as a star of ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' and ''Series/OpenAllHours''. He played the incompetent head of security at a car park in Buckingham Palace, who saves the Queen from an assassination attempt and is promoted to royal bodyguard. The production team apparently thought that having a famous name in the lead guaranteed a hit, so they didn't bother to put any effort into the script, and ended up with an excruciatingly unfunny parade of slapstick cliches. Having Jason as the lead actually backfired, since fans of his earlier work felt that he deserved a far better show. Jason being 71 years old made it a difficult suspension of belief that he'd be hired as a bodyguard, and caused a similar problem as ''Life With Lucy'': the wacky stunts he'd done in past roles suddenly became a lot less funny when an older person tried to do them (there's a ''reason'' Granville left most of such stunts to the younger Leroy in ''Still Open All Hours'', the distant sequel to ''Series/OpenAllHours'' which was made after ''Bodyguard'' tanked; apparently, Jason learned from this show's mistakes). Jason himself described the show's comedy as "safe", but critics and the public were nowhere near so polite. (One critic suggested that the reason the BBC had chosen to broadcast the first episode on Boxing Day was because they knew that many viewers would be drunk.) Viewing figures dropped sharply and the show was axed after six episodes.
64
65* Douglas Mair's failed attempt to adapt ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' - officially named '''''The Three Railway Engines''''' after the series' first book but commonly called ''The Sad Story of Henry'' after [[OneEpisodeWonder the only episode ever broadcast]] - [[MissingEpisode was never recorded]], but correspondence between the BBC and series author the Reverend Creator/WilbertAwdry, a memo from the BBC Controller of Programmes calling it "pathetic", and contemporary news articles all paint a picture of a complete and utter [[{{Pun}} trainwreck]], never mind it making front-page news [[WorstNewsJudgmentEver over a murder trial]]. It was broadcast live, and since this was 1953, the technology Mair needed to make it work with a model rail either hadn't been invented yet, was excessively complicated for a children's programme, or was too expensive. Mair simply had too much to deal with - superimposed rain (which was a plot point), live narration from a [[PragmaticAdaptation freely adapted script]], and a Hornby OO-gauge model railway. Said railway was two thirds of the reason it went so wrong - the BBC [[AnimationAgeGhetto clearly did not take railway modelling seriously as a hobby]], as they appointed somebody who had no skill at it and later expressed regret that they didn't hire a child instead. Thus, the models moved jerkily, and some even derailed, one having to be put back on ''in front of the camera''. With Awdry, the ''Railway Series'' editor Eric Marriott, and the latter's family watching. Announcer Noelle Middleton was forced to repeatedly go off-script to cover for the operator's mistakes. [[https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/File:DailyHerald1953-06-23.png Even Awdry called them out for this in particular.]] The BBC [[https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/File:DailyNews1953-06-23.png postponed]] - and ultimately canceled - the rest of the series, as Awdry was now reluctant to have his work adapted at all. Further attempts by the BBC to televise Reverend Awdry's stories amounted to them being read on ''Series/{{Jackanory}}'', and it would be another 31 years until [[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends it went any further than that]]--this could've outright killed the legendary franchise before it could even start. Read about Mair's disaster, and other adaptation attempts, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190313210356/http://www.sodor-island.net/thetvserieshistory.html here]].
66* '''''Triangle''''' was a 1980s soap opera set on board a ferry that sailed a "triangular" route between Felixstowe, Gothenburg and Amsterdam. It was known for horrible sets, cliché storylines and stilted dialogue that made it a subject of regular public mockery, including on ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' and by Radio/TerryWogan on his radio show. The final nail in the show's coffin was the production problems associated with filming on location at sea, such as lighting, power supply, and rough seas playing havoc with the then-new Electronic Field Production technique. [[note]]Yes, you read that right. They actually forsook soundstages to film on board ''a working ferry at sea''; never mind the cramped conditions with all the cameras, lighting and mikes, the North Sea's famously harsh conditions, or the aforementioned logistical problems.[[/note]] All of these technical flaws were very apparent in the finished product; and the grim North Seas weather put paid to any hopes of glamor, instead making the ferry and surroundings look exactly as shabby as they were. The show dragged on for three years before being cancelled and was an expensive flop for the BBC, also taking down the careers of some of the cast. ''Triangle'' regularly appears in shows and articles about embarrassingly bad TV, and in 2010 was voted third worst in a poll of the worst British television shows ever; it's infamous for a scene in the first episode where Creator/KateOMara sunbathes topless on the deck of the ferry, even though she's clearly freezing cold and it's raining. When even ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' makes jokes about how cheap your sets' furnishings are, you know your show's in trouble.
67* In 1971, Creator/PeterCook was riding high with his comedy show ''Series/NotOnlyButAlso'' when he was offered his own vehicle with full creative control. Foolishly, he decided to do a combination chat show, sketch comedy, and music show, entitled '''''Where Do I Sit?'''''. The premiere had Peter interviewing Creator/SJPerelman, who just sat in his seat yawning while Peter couldn't think of anything to ask. An interview with Creator/KirkDouglas featured an inebriated Peter asking Kirk "Who are you?" followed by a long, awful silence. The show also featured the unedifying sight of Peter ripping into an audience member who had complained about a sketch he had performed and phoning up a viewer at home who had pondered whether Peter was on drugs (the call took over five minutes as the person was in the bath). Peter also insisted on performing a song in each show, and he was a notoriously bad singer. The show managed to last three episodes, after which it was canned and the tapes wiped.
68* '''''Series/TheWrightWay''''', a 2013 sitcom by Creator/BenElton that was lambasted on Twitter and widely panned by critics. The main character and much of the "comedy" were recycled from ''Series/TheThinBlueLine'', ignoring the fact that it was 20 years old and hadn't been well-received in itself. The premise (an uptight health and safety inspector who dictates the lives of his family and colleagues) somehow managed to both reinforce Elton's unpopular public image as a humorless, overly politically correct left-winger, and come across as a desperate attempt to pander to right-wingers who are opposed to anything more than the most basic health and safety laws. The show lurched between jokes that would have been hackneyed in Elton's 80s heyday, and [[TotallyRadical cringe-inducing attempts to be modern]] (a character whose CharacterCatchphrase was "OMG, that is SO a Platform/YouTube moment!"), the same "hilarious" monologue about chest/scrotum-waxing was repeated almost verbatim in every episode, and visual gags were [[DontExplainTheJoke handily pointed out]] for the viewer, just in case they didn't get it. In particular, the show was noted for its over-reliance on penis jokes and SesquipedalianLoquaciousness. No one was sorry when it was abruptly cancelled after one season.
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71[[folder:Canvas (Belgium)]]
72* In 1989, Canvas (then known as BRTN [=TV2=]) broadcast the "philosophical" talk show '''''Container''''', one of the worst of its kind. It was absolutely incomprehensible if you weren't an intellectual, and despised by intellectuals themselves for encompassing every single negative stereotype about them. Both the guests and the host barely knew what they were talking about and shared their ideas right on the spot, trying to hide their cluelessness by quoting art critics, reviewing paintings, and showing film clips, which only made the viewer feel dumber. Tellingly, critics compared the show to conversations in a café, while later ones called it an example of RealityTV. While there were plenty of shows panned for appealing to the LowestCommonDenominator on competitor VTM, which launched in February of the same year, this show was so bad that it caused many debates about whether or not a show like it should be allowed to air on television, with even those who would allow it to be shown agreeing that it was crap. It got to the point that ''thesis papers'' were written about it. It was ultimately cancelled after 10 episodes; only the very first episode survives today, because national art movement [=CoBrA=] insisted on preserving an episode as a purely historical curiosity. It can be viewed on their official website together with all the negative criticism the show received just below it.
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75[[folder:Cartoon Network (United States)]]
76* Out of all the shoddy live-action series made for Creator/CartoonNetwork's infamous Creator/CNReal block (created to try to [[FollowTheLeader compete]] with Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} and Creator/DisneyChannel), many agree that its absolute low point was '''''Series/DudeWhatWouldHappen'''''. The premise is that its three in-your-face TotallyRadical hosts are asked a question and attempt to answer it through an experiment à la ''Series/MythBusters''... but minus that whole "scientific process" thing. Instead of old wives' tales or questions kids might ''actually'' ask, they ponder things such as what sticks to peanut butter on an inclined surface longer (one of the tested substances was ''[[ShapedLikeItself more peanut butter]]''), if covering a piano in ''deflated'' basketballs would make it bounce, or what would happen if you popped the world's biggest zit. Instead of answering anything, they would just use the question as an excuse to do something stupid for the sake of doing something stupid[[note]](the aforementioned zit question was "answered" by filling a punching bag with cream and dropping it off a building)[[/note]] in the vein of Creator/{{MTV}}'s ''Series/{{Jackass}}'', only with [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously everything played without the slightest hint of irony or self-awareness]]. Despite terrible ratings and an ''overwhelming'' negative response from the viewers, Cartoon Network apparently [[AdoredByTheNetwork thought that the show had potential]] and [[WolverinePublicity promoted it to the extreme]] -- not only using the guys from the show for their Stop Bullying, Speak Out commercials and frequently having them host special network events long after the death of Creator/CNReal, but keeping ''Dude'' on the air with the same treatment for ''two years''.
77* '''''Series/OutOfJimmysHead''''' has gone down in history as one of Cartoon Network's most hated original programs, and is considered the start of the network's NetworkDecay. The series, based on a CN original movie entitled ''Re-Animated'', revolves around a teen named Jimmy Roberts, who is an ExtremeDoormat constantly exploited by [[WithFriendsLikeThese his friends]] and others at school. One day, after he somehow [[SpecialEffectsFailure gets sent flying by a slow-moving train]] in a public location in a Walt Disney World {{Expy}}, he has to have a BrainTransplant and it just so happens he receives the brain of the park's founder [[MrAltDisney Milt Appleday]] -- which inexplicably gives him the power to see the cartoons Appleday created, who help him through his everyday junior high life. It wasn't completely without potential... but sadly, they didn't even see the good that could come out of it. The acting is wooden, most of the characters are unlikable, the animated characters [[SpecialEffectsFailure are cheaply superimposed over the scenes]], and the LaughTrack is especially overused and out-of-place since the series is mostly an attempt to emulate {{Kid Com}}s like ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide''. The series was canned after only 20 episodes as the network used the 2007 Writers' Strike to end it without much fan anguish, and gained a hatedom the size of the Empire State Building, "earning" a 2.1 [=IMDb=] rating. Cartoon Network seem ashamed of it as well, as they never put it out on DVD outside of ''Re-Animated'' and never aired it again, with half of the series being lost media until user CRB uploaded recordings with English audio from when they were airing in Germany. [[https://workupload.com/archive/zMkvU4JWfP It can be found here.]] Sadly, they didn't learn from their mistakes and this show is probably what paved the way for other later live-action "CN Real" shows like the aforementioned ''Dude, What Would Happen?''. It doesn't help that it was directed by the same person who made ''Film/SonOfTheMask''. Watch what WebVideo/TheMysteriousMrEnter had to say about ''[[https://youtu.be/LqFsJJGfWh8 Re-]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4ykW8P3qxo Animated]]'' for what was his 150th ''Animated Atrocities'' video and then [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d74HY2EQ-mw the show itself three years later.]] And [[http://rowdyc.com/tv-trash-reanimatedout-of-jimmys-head/ here]]'s [[WebVideo/TVTrash The Rowdy Reviewer]]'s take, who was also convinced that it was a ploy by CN to sabotage their animation business as well as animation in general.
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80[[folder:CBC (Canada)]]
81* '''''Delilah''''' was CBC's first primetime sitcom, airing from 1973-74. By all accounts, it was also their worst. The plot revolved around a young woman named Delilah, played by Terry Tweed, who moves into a small town from a major Canadian city and becomes the owner of a barbershop, in the process becoming the town's first female barber. The series was slammed by many in the Canadian press for being poorly-written and unfunny, most notably by ''Toronto Star'' critic Jim Bawden, who reported a total absence of laughter from the studio audience during filming of one episode. In fact, the show was one of several flops produced by CBC during the early 1970s, when the network was experiencing something of an AudienceAlienatingEra due to a lack of quality control among its creative staff. In the end, ''Delilah'' was cancelled after only a single season, a rarity in those days due to Canadian content regulations requiring all Canadian networks to have a certain amount of locally-produced content.
82* '''''Not My Department''''' was a short-lived sitcom from 1987 that starred Harry Ditson and Shelley Peterson. The show was Canada's attempt at having their own ''Series/YesMinister'', and focused on the Department of Regional Incentive Targets, a fictional department of the Canadian government that inherits files that other departments can't be bothered to deal with. The show was criticized for being flat, excruciatingly slow-paced, unfunny, and being rife with several UnfortunateImplications[[invoked]] - one in particular being a character who claims he learned French from a Quebec TV programme and attempts to use it in political meetings, instead accidentally hitting on people from across the room. There was more than just that, though: it was also known for its misogynistic treatment of female politicians, cheap shots taken at people in the government, overuse of SesquipedalianLoquaciousness and also, despite its misogynistic and cheaply hateful content, simultaneously furthering Canada's already unpopular image at the time of being overly politically correct. The show was axed after six episodes - something that was rare for the time, as back then shows in Canada usually were to run their full seasons. The ratings started off abysmal and only got worse over time, and private affiliates were so embarrassed by it that they either threw it on in the dead of night or just couldn't even be bothered to air it.
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85[[folder:CBS (United States)]]
86* '''''Coming to America''''', based on the [[Film/ComingToAmerica 1988 film of the same name]], was a pilot for a proposed sitcom. It aired on the Fourth of July in 1989 on Creator/{{CBS}} as part of the network's ''Summer Playhouse'' pilot anthology series. The purposed series followed the adventures of Akeem's (Creator/EddieMurphy's character from the film) mischievous brother, Tariq (played by Tommy Davidson) in Queens, New York. The pilot mostly excises the [[VulgarHumor raunchy]], [[{{Satire}} satirical]] comedy of the film in favor of a [[ClicheStorm bland and generic]] [[LighterAndSofter family]] sitcom [[StrictlyFormula formula]]. The character interactions feel less like a proper follow-up to ''Coming to America'' so much as it is a [[FollowTheLeader second rate]] ''Series/PerfectStrangers'' or a proto-''Series/FamilyMatters'', with Tariq being Steve Urkel to his landlord, Carl Mackey's Carl Winslow. If there aren't countless [[TheEighties '80s]] [[ReferenceOverdosed pop culture references]] being shoehorned in (including Eddie Murphy's movies), or a prototypical FailureMontage of Tariq and his assistant Oha (played by Paul Bates, who [[RoleReprise reprised his role]] from the film) working at a diner, there are supremely uncomfortable jokes about [[HollywoodCuisine Africans eating insects]]. Tommy Davidson's comedic style is [[HumorDissonance lost in the shuffle]], as he attempts to imitate Eddie Murphy's [[ThePollyanna Pollyanish]] Akeem while interjecting his own high concept stage persona, complete with random impressions of Music/StevieWonder and Music/MichaelJackson. The pilot even has a SentimentalMusicCue, [[GoldenMoment when Tariq learns about the value of hard work]]. A 2020 oral history of the pilot by Bonsu Thompson would pin the blame of the pilot's failure squarely on the shoulders of its showrunner and writer Ken Hecht. Hecht reportedly did not take any suggestions from the production team and wanted to make the proposed ''Coming to America'' sitcom as much like other '80s shows (such as ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'' and ''Series/{{Webster}}'') as possible. Tommy Davidson would also write that Ken Hecht came from the golden age of comedy, where he knew about the setup, joke, [[{{Punchline}} joke]], and another joke but didn't have a feel for Eddie Murphy's style of comedy nor a feel for Black pride. Davidson added that Eddie Murphy, despite being listed as an executive producer, never visited the set.
87[[/folder]]
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89[[folder:Comedy Network (Canada)]]
90* '''''House Party''''' (not to be confused with [[Film/HouseParty1990 the 1990 film]] nor the [[VideoGame/HouseParty2017 video game]] of the same name), was a 2008 Canadian comedy series that was mercifully short-lived and ran for just six episodes. The premise consisted of an already run-into-the-ground premise (some kid's parents go away for the weekend, so he holds a house party and trouble ensues), which was run into the ground even further. The acting was painful and elementary-level at best, the lighting was extremely poor (at times the bottom half of the frame would be much higher lit than the top), the camera work was boring, and the jokes were so painfully unfunny that at times the show was emotionally draining to watch. To give you a taste, one excruciatingly unfunny joke that happened in all six episodes was [[OverlyLongGag a girl going around asking everyone at the party if they wanted to try her potato chip dip]]. Another joke had jocks convincing the protagonist that his cat could talk. The show has been re-aired very few times since, and those re-airings were limited to dead of night airings.
91* '''''[=PopCultured=]''''' was a 2005 attempt to play FollowTheLeader with the likes of ''Series/TheColbertReport'' and other satirical newscast shows that were getting popular at the time. The show was hosted by stand-up comedian Elvira Kurt and the idea was to make fun of celebrity gossip headlines done as a newscast. Interesting idea, right? In theory, yes, but the execution was absolutely '''dreadful'''. For one, Kurt had zero screen presence as a host and made every "joke" in the same tone of voice, which got old very fast. Most of the "jokes" were barely anything but- they mostly consisted of Kurt reading a headline about a certain celebrity, then trash talking them. In fact, here's one of the better remembered "jokes": "Martha Stewart was seen shopping yesterday for the first time since her release from jail. Hey Martha Stewart, GO TO HELL!!!". The show also had a lot of unbearable and poorly acted "skits" from unknown wannabe Toronto comedians, and let's just say it's probably for the better they were unknown. The show was widely panned by both audiences and critics, both for its overly mean spirited and vulgar atmosphere, and for just plain not being funny. The show was also notable for being canceled after its poor ratings after one season- 2005-2008 is often considered to be the nadir of the Can Con (Canadian Content) law where 40% of content broadcast in Canada needs to be Canadian. Meaning, a Canadian show needs to be ''especially'' bad for it to only last a single season. The show also perpetuated The Comedy Network's then unpopular image as being a dumping ground for shows made solely to fulfill said law's quota. But you don't need to take our word for it- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRgToa9Dxpg endure this full episode of the show]], [[SchmuckBait if you dare]].
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93
94[[folder:CTV (Canada)]]
95* '''''The Trouble with Tracy''''' is thought to have been made just to fulfill a then-financially-unsteady Creator/{{CTV}}'s quota for Canadian content. There's certainly no other justification for this 130-episode 1970s sitcom, which went on for six months due to a desperate attempt by CTV to recoup their investments. Due to a severe lack of time and money, they couldn't shoot on-location, build convincing sets, or even retake scenes. The scripts were, for the most part, recycled from the 1930-45 radio series ''Easy Aces'', with a few topical references (such as Tracy's deadbeat hippie brother) shoehorned in. The show currently has a 3.8 rating on [=IMDb=], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFLEvAhSTwQ this clip]] of the show rightfully labels it as the "Worst Sitcom Ever". People (mostly men) who ''do'' remember it at all fondly do so for the star Diane Nyland, not for any acting ability she may have had but for her revealing wardrobe (to the point that Wikipedia memorably described Tracy as being "played by Diane Nyland in a miniskirt" for many years). In that sense, the combination of hackneyed, stale sitcom plots and the female lead in skimpy clothing presage the JiggleShow trend from later in the decade very nicely.
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97
98[[folder:Cuatro (Spain)]]
99* In spite of somehow, someway, scoring cameos from the likes of Music/{{Shakira}} and Music/RickyMartin, critical consensus had it that '''''Dreamland''''' just wasn't any good. Premiered over two years after it was finished, it featured an unoriginal story set in a summer course at a performance arts school purely as the background for a number of song and dance sequences that went by with barely any continuity or connection between them. Most reviewers agreed that, while most of these routines were solid at the very least, they took up so much time to hide the poor acting and the nonsensical plot. Critic Jesús Travieso described it as "a long and very bad music video". [[BuryYourArt It's no longer available on Cuatro's website]] partly because of a dispute between the network and creator Frank Ariza that would end up in court years later.
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102[[folder:Fox (United States)]]
103* '''''Series/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventures'''''[[note]]Not to be confused with the [[WesternAnimation/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventures cartoon series of the same name]], which also had the same main actors in its second season[[/note]], a 1992 series adapted from [[Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure the 1989 movie]]. It spent a year in TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment; during that time, Creator/AlexWinter (who played Bill in the movies) went on ''Series/TheArsenioHallShow'' and declared, "[[CreatorBacklash It stinks, ladies and gentlemen]]". It featured wooden acting, very poor scripts, and completely unnecessary TeenDrama plots. Fox pulled it after seven episodes. Chris Moore of ''WebVideo/TVTrash'' [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20uupd stated]] it was "totally bogus!"
104* '''''Series/TheChevyChaseShow''''', which lasted for [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E10TheSimpsons138thEpisodeSpectacular five fabulous weeks]] in 1993, is one of the most notorious failures in late night talk show history. Fox not only signed Creator/ChevyChase to a three million dollar contract, but they went so far as to buy Hollywood's '' Aquarius Theater,'' which had previously hosted ''Star Search,'' and renamed it the ''Chevy Chase Theater.''[[note]]It went on to be called ''Nickelodeon on Sunset'' before closing in 2017.[[/note]] Chase got a lavish set that included a giant fish tank with live fish inside (which was reportedly very difficult to maintain). Unfortunately, the show was completely dead on arrival. It was clear from his DeerInTheHeadlights look during the first monologue that Chevy was way out of his depth doing a) stand-up comedy and b) hosting a show like this altogether, though he still had the nerve to spend a good chunk of it putting down Creator/DavidLetterman -- this after the show was advertised with print ads of Chevy with Letterman's signature gap-tooth, with the tagline "Ready to Fill the Late Night Gap." The show's material was criticized for being derivative of Chevy's old shtick, with even the ''Weekend Update''-style bits carried over from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' only providing a brief respite, and bizarre sketches inspired by Chevy's comedy hero Creator/ErnieKovacs failing to generate many laughs. The interviews were excruciatingly awkward, and a visible struggle for notoriously antisocial Chevy, unless they were someone he was already friends with, like Creator/DanAykroyd. Supposedly, after the first episode aired, Creator/JohnnyCarson personally called Chevy and said "not as easy as it looks, is it?"[[note]]In 1975 Chevy dismissed speculation that he could be the new Carson by saying "I'd never be tied down for five years interviewing TV personalities."[[/note]] The show killed Fox's attempts to get in on the late night talk show game, and alongside ''Film/VegasVacation'' also killed Chevy's career until ''Series/{{Community}}''. As a final insult, the theater went back to being the ''Aquarius Theater'' within days of the final episode. Hats Off Entertainment [[https://youtu.be/vhcN8lYkIy8 did a video on the subject.]]
105* '''''Series/{{dads}}'''''. Despite the popularity of Creator/SethGreen and Creator/BrendaSong, this 2013 series filmed before a StudioAudience was a huge flop. Everyone in the series [[WorldOfHam overacts horribly]] (leaving space between shouted lines for the canned laughter). Jokes were impressively weak, and multiple characters are nothing more than one-note stereotypes (Eli is a short guy, his father's a crotchety [[AllJewsAreCheapskates miserly Jew]], Edna's [[EthnicMenialLabor Hispanic]], etc.). [=IMDb=] users rated the series a middling 5.5, but the Metacritic audience response was much harsher (15 out of 100 from critics, and 3.7 out of 10 from users). The series was cancelled before the first season finished, and while later episodes were eventually aired online, fan response was so nonexistent that news of such things weren't posted on the episode listing on Website/TheOtherWiki or [=IMDb=] for weeks.
106* In an attempt to bring the ratings gold of MTV's ''Series/TheOsbournes'' to network TV, Creator/{{FOX}} created '''''Osbournes: Reloaded''''', a VarietyShow starring the first family of metal. The premiere consisted of a guy being tricked into kissing an elderly woman blindfolded, a "randomly-selected" audience member given the prize of marriage to his longtime girlfriend (they were married on-air), painfully long and unfunny sketches with little kids dressed as Ozzy and Sharon (the joke is that they swear) and Ozzy and Kelly working in fast food. The show was canned after one episode, although multiple affiliates either refused to air it or threw it on in the dead of night.
107* '''''Series/That80sShow''''', a spin-off to the hugely popular ''Series/That70sShow'' that was cancelled after only one season. The show's main problem was that it had no link whatsoever to ''That '70s Show''; none of the characters or actors were involved. [[note]] ([=WatchMojo=]'s entry on the show as part of "Top 10 Worst Sitcoms" says the protagonist is supposed to be Eric Forman's cousin, but if that's the case it's never directly mentioned.)[[/note]] The daring stuff that made ''That '70s Show'' so notable was absent, as were any likable and identifiable characters. It was a bland middle-of-the-road sitcom where the one-dimensional protagonists mostly made cheap and random references to 1980s pop culture. After a few episodes, Fox started changing the intended chronological order of the episodes, but it was already too late. None of the fans of ''That '70s Show'' liked it, and newcomers weren't particularly interested either. The only remotely interesting thing about this show is that three actors on it would later be seen on ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' - Creator/GlennHowerton [[note]](the actor who plays Dennis Reynolds)[[/note]], Creator/CharlieDay [[note]](the actor who plays [[TheDanza Charlie Kelly]])[[/note]], and Brittany Daniel [[note]](the actress who plays Carmen, the transgender woman as seen on the episodes "Charlie Has Cancer", "Mac is a Serial Killer", and "Mac Fights Gay Marriage")[[/note]]. Here's Creator/BradJones [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANgmloWFmm8 putting himself through it.]] Rowdy C of WebVideo/TVTrash points out everything wrong [[https://rowdyc.com/tv-trash-that-80s-show/ here]].
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110[[folder:Fox News (United States)]]
111* '''''The ½ Hour News Hour''''', a satirical news show created and produced by [[Series/TwentyFour Joel Surnow]] for Fox News in mid-2007. The show was intended as [[TheMoralSubstitute the conservative answer]] to ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'', which isn't a bad idea... except that while ''Daily'' was relatively even-handed in its mockery of politicians, network news, and the general public, ''½ Hour'' dedicated itself entirely to taking weak, half-hearted [[TakeThat potshots]] at popular targets for conservatives, including UsefulNotes/BarackObama, the ACLU, and the Democratic Party. When their jokes weren't eye-rollingly obvious, they were relentlessly mean-spirited and bitter. Not helping matters is that rather than casting comedians who were funny while also being conservative, the producers decided to hire absolute nobodies with no experience in political satire (the only exception being Creator/DennisMiller). The show was [[http://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-12-hour-news-hour/season-1/critic-reviews universally panned by critics]] and canned after 17 episodes. The show did poorly with conservatives as well, and they were meant to be the target audience! (Fox News at least learned from the debacle when creating its ''far'' superior replacement ''Series/RedEyeWithGregGutfeld''.) Creator/{{Seanbaby}} referred to ''½ Hour News Hour'' as "propaganda with a laugh track" and [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-awful-but-revealing-examples-conservative-comedy/ listed it as the second-worst example of conservative comedy he's ever seen.]] ''Magazine/RollingStone'' lists this show at 42 in its [[https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/worst-tv-network-decisions-1234796350/ 50 Worst TV Decisions in History]].
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114[[folder:Galaxy (United Kingdom)]] [[note]](Galaxy was part of the BSB satellite package, which only lasted six months before being taken over by Sky and therefore had little time to build an audience. It showed very few original programmes, none of which have been repeated.)[[/note]]
115* '''''Series/HeilHoneyImHome''''': A {{sitcom}} (yes, a sitcom) about UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and Eva Braun living next door to a Jewish family. They apparently tried to kill the Jewish family every week, but the Jewish family remained blissfully unaware of Hitler's treachery. Ironically, this was conceived as a ''parody'' of terrible sitcoms - the pilot tries to spoof the old [[DinnerWithTheBoss "my boss is coming to dinner"]] plot with UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain - but unfortunately [[PoesLaw it ended up becoming the very thing it tried to parody]]. Humor is almost nonexistent, the main concept's played straight, Hitler's no different than any other sitcom husband, and his attempt at a CharacterCatchphrase is the incredibly stupid "I'm a very, very bad Hitler!" One of the strangest things ever seen on TV, it appealed to nobody and hasn't been aired in its entirety on network television since, although the pilot episode is readily available [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf9jJx0NSjw online.]] Six episodes were filmed, but only one aired. Ben Lawrence of ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked it at #8 on his 2015 "10 worst British sitcoms ever made" list, saying "The brilliance of the title couldn't make up for the chronic bad taste of this series." Creator/BradJones' ''WebVideo/DVDRHell'' review of the pilot is [[http://thecinemasnob.com/dvd-r-hell/dvd-r-hell-heil-honey-im-home here]] and WebVideo/TVTrash ripped it right [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20pgwz here]].
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119* '''''Train 48''''' was a horrific soap opera that ran for 318 sorry episodes from 2003-05. A very loosely-based remake of the Australian TV series ''Going Home'' (which itself was short-lived, but at least well-received), the show depicted the lives of 12 commuters from Burlington, Ontario on their way home from work in Toronto via GO Train (the main method of transport for people from small boroughs going to the city in Ontario). The show's gimmick was that it was (sort of) written, filmed, edited, and aired in the same day, like the show it's based upon. However, whereas ''Going Home'' was aired late at night, the big problem was that ''Train 48'' was to be aired in the evening, and was also filmed on a replica GO Train. This meant that the writers could only write small portions of the episodes and had to leave the rest to the actors to improvise. This wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't so amateurishly done and, quite frankly, ''painfully dull''. The improvisation (if that's what it was supposed to be) was painfully obvious, and the actors completely lacked what it took to even remotely make the improv work. The show's filming on an actual train caused numerous problems, as {{Jittercam}} caused the show to be [[NauseaFuel impossible to watch]] at times, and the actors' dialogue often got drowned out by the excruciatingly loud engines. As the show went on, it would increasingly rely on cheap VulgarHumor and unusual plots such as a shooting and snakes getting released on the train. As if that wasn't enough, it even had blatant ProductPlacement for Canadian jeanswear brand Warehouse One. By far the biggest complaint among viewers was that it was never established where the train was going, which resulted in the final scene of the series showing the passengers stepping off the train in [[TheUnreveal Burlington]].\
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121The show limply dragged on for two years (likely only to fulfill [=CanCon=] laws) before abruptly being put out of its misery, and proved to be an immensely expensive flop for Global, as each episode cost $40,000 - certainly not a cheap feat for a show where each episode lasted a mere half-hour. It was mercilessly lambasted by both critics and audiences for being painfully dull, poorly written, and frequently featuring plots that went [[{{Pun}} off the rails]]. It also found itself on the receiving end of public mockery from far superior shows such as ''Series/ThisHourHas22Minutes'' and ''The Rick Mercer Report''. The show consistently makes it onto "Worst Canadian Shows" lists and also did [[GenreKiller irreversible damage to the Canadian soap opera]]. Watch an episode [[https://vimeo.com/88485319 here]], if you dare. You could say it was a [[{{Pun}} trainwreck]].
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125* '''''Hit Show Marka Tolje''''' (The Hit Show with Marko Tolja) was an unbelievable attempt to slap together a modern satire talk show. The host was a competent musician, but had no hosting experience whatsoever, nor a sufficiently sophisticated sense of humour for such a format, nor any spontaneity. As a result, the host kept asking his guests completely irrelevant and inane questions, interspersed with [[DullSurprise scripted jokes]] which made no sense at all in the context of the topics discussed at that moment, and which were themselves so bad that, in several cases, the audience and the guests remained silent, thinking that the punchline was yet to come. What made things even worse were occasional breaks the host took at the piano to sing supposedly funny mini-songs, but were entirely out of place. Ironically, two of the show's guests were themselves experienced show hosts, and one could feel them honestly trying to salvage something, ending up reversing the main roles, but to no avail. Another guest just gave up participating at midway point and drily commented on the host's incompetence. The show aired on a weekend prime time and was supposed to throw down the gauntlet against the other houses' prime time entertainment shows, but got cancelled after just a single episode.
126* '''''Olujne tišine''''' (Stormy silences) was a series depicting the 19th century intellectuals in {{UsefulNotes/Croatia}} envisioning the outline of their future independent country free from foreign control and political influences from Austria-Hungary. The overall idea, while overused in many countries and cultures already, was not necessarily bad as such, but the execution failed in each and every possible respect. The acting was [[BadBadActing incredibly pathetic and exaggerated]], including speech lines no sane person would ever say, especially not in such a Stentorian manner over a meal with friends. The characters were completely artificial and thoroughly unlikeable; the viewers were led to empathize with these intellectuals struggling for the new political order, whereas they got depicted as rich, spoiled, self-absorbed blabberers, especially in comparison to the common folk at the time which had to work extremely hard to afford the most elementary living needs. The series did air to its conclusion, but got bombed even by the people close to the project. It is almost on the edge of [[SoBadItsGood being so bad it's good]], were it not for the drivel being endless.
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130* '''''Albion Market''''' was a soap opera based around a marketplace in the north west of England. It was created as a "sister show" to ''Series/CoronationStreet'' and rival to ''Series/EastEnders'', but the channel [[InsistentTerminology insisted]] it be referred to a "continuing drama series" as they felt it was too good to be "just" another soap. However, viewers and critics found it to be pretentious and lazy, with horrible acting and infamously cheap-looking sets. The show was criticised for [[StuntCasting casting popular actors to pull in viewers]], its obvious focus on beating out ''[=EastEnders=]'' above being a good show in its own right, and having a production team who thought their past successes guaranteed a hit and thus didn't put any effort in. On top of everything else, it had the problem that one of its two weekly episodes was broadcast in a so-called "graveyard slot", while the other aired opposite the hugely successful ''Series/OpenAllHours''. It launched at the time of ''Coronation Street''[='s=] 25th anniversary, and the chairman of its production company Creator/{{Granada}} predicted that ''Albion Market'' would still be running a further 25 years later. In fact it haemorrhaged viewers, was savaged by critics, and ended just a year later.
131* London Weekend Television's '''''Bottle Boys''''' is one of the most universally reviled sitcoms in British TV history, landing squarely at the bottom of the list of the 20 worst ever British sitcoms in ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'' by Mark Lewisohn, who wrote, "ITV sitcoms had often plumbed the depths, but this was the limit," while ''The Daily Telegraph'' critic Ben Lawrence described it as "wretched" in 2015 as he named it the worst British sitcom ever made. It starred Creator/RobinAskwith as football-and-sex-mad milkman Dave Deacon (a role originally intended for Creator/JimDavidson at a time when he was already appearing in the equally dire ''Up the Elephant and Round the Castle''); though Askwith was no stranger to the AwfulBritishSexComedy after playing the lead role in the genre's signature series, the ''[[Film/ConfessionsOfASeries Confessions of a...]]'' films, he still looked thoroughly embarrassed to be saddled with dialogue that revolved around dated and unfunny racial, ethnic, and especially gender stereotypes and {{Double Entendre}}s so obvious they could be seen approaching from whole episodes away, while Richard Davies as his Welsh stereotype boss often looked downright furious at his lines. One episode involved Deacon meeting then-Prime Minister UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher (played by an impersonator), and even the most left-wing TV critics said it almost made them feel sorry for Thatcher. Critics, audiences, and ITV comedy executives despised it, while series creator Vince Powell - whose most famous works include 1970s controversy magnets ''Series/LoveThyNeighbour'' and ''Series/MindYourLanguage'' - pointedly omitted all mention of ''Bottle Boys'' in his autobiography. It plodded along for 13 episodes across two series in 1984-85, and has never been released on DVD. ''Frantic Planet'' blogger Stuart Millard reviewed it in detail in [[https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/bottle-boys/ the second entry]] of his "Shitcoms" series.
132* Britain is typically known for creating good shows that received inferior remakes in the U.S., but it's also been known to happen the other way around. Case in point: '''''Days Like These''''', an inexcusable remake of ''Series/That70sShow''. Every episode had the exact same plot and situations as the episode of its US counterpart before it, but rewritten so that it fits the British setting and characters, and they just couldn't nail it. The jokes very seldom made sense and at times were downright awkward, the pacing was hideous, the staging and blocking were depressing to watch, and the whole thing just ended up being one giant trainwreck. The show had a total of 13 episodes, but only 10 were ever aired in the initial run (all 13 were eventually shown), and a good lesson was learned with regards to the difference between American and British senses of humor, ending the idea of British remakes of American works as a whole. ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', ''Series/MadAboutYou'', ''Series/GoodTimes'' and ''Series/WhosTheBoss'', among others, were also translated as ''Brighton Belles'', ''Married For Life'', ''Loved By You'', ''The Fosters'' and ''The Upper Hand''. With the exception of the last-named, none of them worked.[[note]] ''The Fosters'' wasn't ''too'' bad, and had a young Creator/LennyHenry in it. What killed it was Henry's commitments to other shows making it almost impossible to film.[[/note]]
133* Though it was one of the more divisive sitcoms of the 1970s, there's no denying that London Weekend Television's ''Series/OnTheBuses'' has a considerable fanbase to this day. The same cannot be said of its ill-conceived and ill-received spinoff, '''''Don't Drink the Water''''', which ran for two series and 13 episodes in 1974-75. The premise for the series was that bus inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake (Creator/StephenLewis) had taken early retirement and moved to the Costa del Sol with his sister Dorothy (Creator/PatCoombs), only to find that their tower block is badly constructed and is losing its sea view to another block of flats currently under development. The flimsy set was matched only by the flimsy scripts, which served to highlight that the stiff-backed Blakey only worked as a character when he had "{{Lovable Rogue}}s" like ''On the Buses''[='=] Stan Butler and Jack Harper to play off. The "jokes" mostly revolved around Blakey's fractious and often xenophobic confrontations with the locals (most of whom were one-dimensional stereotypes) and the other tenants in his block, while Dorothy complained endlessly about how she wished she'd never left England. Derek Griffiths as building superintendent Carlos looked especially embarrassed throughout. Contemporary TV critics, many of whom already detested ''On the Buses'', were even more unkind to ''Don't Drink the Water'', and this time critical disdain was matched by audience apathy. Mark Lewisohn described it as "one of the most excruciatingly poor ITV sitcoms of them all" and "honoured" the series at #6 on the list of the 20 worst British sitcoms in ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy''. It only managed to get a DVD release by piggybacking on box sets of ''On the Buses''.
134* '''''Hardwicke House''''', a 1987 sitcom set in an anarchic comprehensive school with a headmaster played by Creator/RoyKinnear, received so many viewer complaints that it was pulled after just two episodes (the cancellation happened so quickly that the ''TV Times'' still had a listing and featured article for the third episode). It was designed to [[DuelingShows compete]] with ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' and received a lot of hype before it aired, with a second series commissioned before the first had even been broadcast. (An episode guest-starring Creator/AdrianEdmondson and Creator/RikMayall, who at that time were at the height of their fame with ''The Young Ones'', and might actually have brought in more viewers, never saw the light of day.) Some of the viewer backlash was due to ValuesDissonance; people were outraged at the portrayal of schoolkids swearing and attacking teachers, while today swearing is a common problem in schools and news reports of violence against teachers are not rare. However, just as many people complained that the show simply wasn't funny, and particular anger was directed at its jokes about pedophilia and TeacherStudentRomance. To avoid potential controversy over racism, the writers had already changed one planned character (an incompetent teacher on a foreign exchange, whose original school will not take him back) to make him Icelandic instead of from an African country. The channel promised to screen the remaining episodes in a later viewing slot, but never did, and then had to pay the cast for the second series even though it would never be made. Media watchdog the Independent Broadcasting Authority later ordered the tapes to be wiped so that the show couldn't resurface or be sold abroad, although it was later revealed that the channel did not comply and were still offering ''Hardwicke House'' for sale. Ben Lawrence of ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked it #9 on his "10 worst British sitcoms ever made" list in 2015.
135* Jimmy Perry proved several times over that he was never as successful writing sitcoms without David Croft as he was writing them with Croft, and perhaps the nadir of his "solo career" was the ill-fated 1989 London Weekend Television sitcom '''''High Street Blues''''', co-written with Robin Carr. The premise involves a hypermarket chain trying to force a buyout of four High Street shops (a cobbler, a florist, a wool seller, and a junk merchant) currently occupying the land on which they want to build a new branch. Critics and audiences found it completely devoid of humour or entertainment - what few jokes there were in the scripts fell flatter than a pancake - and Perry later admitted that he only pitched the series to LWT because he badly needed the money, and felt it was one of the worst attempts at a sitcom ever devised, saying "there was nothing the actors could do with it." It lasted for a single series of six episodes, after which Perry re-teamed with Croft for the far more popular ''Series/YouRangMLord''; ''High Street Blues'', meanwhile, ranks at #11 on the "20 worst British sitcoms" list in the 2003 edition of ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'' by Mark Lewisohn, who described the series as "pitiful" and the laughs as "woefully thin on the ground."
136* The 1972 London Weekend Television sitcom '''''Series/InForAPenny''''' was, improbably, written by ''Series/UpstairsDownstairs'' creators John Hawkesworth and John Whitney and starred ''Benny Hill Show'' straight man Bob Todd as long-serving gentleman's lavatory attendant Dan (as in "Dan, Dan, the lavatory man"), whose place of employ was in the basement of the local Town Hall. The scripts were crass and retrograde even by the standards of the day, with a seemingly endless supply of ToiletHumour and racist jokes at the expense of Dan's Pakistani co-worker Ali (played by Greco-Armenian actor Kevork Malikyan). It ran for a single series of six episodes and has never been re-run or released on home video due to the fact that [[MissingEpisode all episodes have been wiped]], a fact that won't cause much dismay. Mark Lewisohn flushed it down to the #4 spot on his "20 worst British sitcoms" list in ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'', in which he described it as "one of the worst sitcoms ever" and "real bog-standard stuff".
137* '''''The Nineteenth Hole''''' was a 1989 SitCom based at a golf club. On paper the combination of writer Johnny Speight (''Series/TillDeathUsDoPart'') and star Creator/EricSykes was a winner, but in practice it looked as if Speight had forgotten how to write jokes and Sykes had forgotten how to perform. The series was dismally unfunny and cancelled after only seven episodes, and some stations buried the last few in a graveyard slot.
138* '''''Odd Man Out''''' showed that it wasn't just Creator/MollieSugden who foundered in projects taken up to pass the time between series of ''Series/AreYouBeingServed''; this 1977 sitcom from Thames Television starred Creator/JohnInman as Neville Sutcliffe, a Blackpool chip shop owner who inherits half a share in a Littlehampton rock factory from his long-lost father (the other half going to his half-sister Dorothy, played by Creator/JosephineTewson). The series relied even more heavily than ''[=AYBS?=]'' on exchanges that implied (without ever actually saying) that Inman's character was gay, exemplified by the unmemorable CharacterCatchphrase, "How's your rock, cock?". Critics were outraged by the lowbrow "seaside postcard" humour (starting with the titles, which opened with a stylised seaside postcard drawing of Inman astride a large multicoloured stick of rock), leading ''Odd Man Out'' to be axed after a single seven-episode series; today, the innuendo seems rather tame, if badly dated, and the series' main crime is being painfully laugh-free. ''Odd Man Out'' was ranked the third worst British sitcom ever made in 2015 by ''The Daily Telegraph''[='=]s Ben Lawrence (who described it as "terrible") and is one of two John Inman vehicles to land with a thud on the "20 worst British sitcoms" list in the 2003 edition of Mark Lewisohn's ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'', at #5 (the other, 1981's ''Take a Letter, Mr Jones'',[[note]]Which did amazingly get 21st century airtime on the British vintage-leaning channel Talking Pictures TV - likely due the channel's owners owning the Southern Television library. This was amazingly released on DVD in 2009.[[/note]] fared slightly better at #17); the accompanying review said, "In the form of seaside rock ... this series had 'appalling' running all the way through it."[[note]]Inman and Sugden took their ill-fated roles in ''Odd Man Out'' and ''Come Back Mrs. Noah'' at around the same time for the same reason; the death in 1977 of their ''Are You Being Served?'' castmate Creator/ArthurBrough had put a question mark over the series' future, so they decided to take on other projects until they knew for certain whether ''[=AYBS?=]'' would return.[[/note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL7YLQMu-c8 Here's an episode so you can see how bad it was]].
139* Audiences have always been divided regarding the merits of British comedy duo Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball, but even their fans have trouble defending their lone sitcom, the 1991 Yorkshire Television series '''''Plaza Patrol''''', which caused their already declining popularity to nosedive. The dynamic of their sketch and live performances mostly revolved around Ball being well-meaning but dim-witted and incompetent, all to the ever-dwindling patience of the marginally more competent Cannon, but writers Richard Lewis and Louis Robinson seemed to have no idea how to translate that into a sitcom, casting them as inept nighttime security guards in the UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher shopping precinct in Leeds, in which they spent most episodes in a single room with a bank of CCTV monitors having excruciatingly unfunny conversations about biscuits, the generation gap, class conflicts, and mother-in-law jokes. It lasted a single series of six episodes and has never been re-run or released on home video. In the 2003 edition of ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'', Mark Lewisohn ranked it #3 on his "20 worst British sitcoms" list, describing it as "woefully predictable stuff", and wondering "Even allowing for variations in public taste, how did ITV bosses think the public would wear it?" ''Frantic Planet'' author and blogger Stuart Millard wrote [[https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/plaza-patrol/ a more detailed review]] of ''Plaza Patrol'' as part of his "Shitcoms" series.
140* Most of the more successful sitcoms co-written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft were based on their personal experiences - serving in the Home Guard (''Series/DadsArmy''), performing in a wartime Concert Party (''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum''), working at Butlins Holiday Camp (''Series/HiDeHi'')... but Perry admitted that he knew nothing about the subject of one of his solo writing efforts, the horrendous 1979 Thames Television sitcom '''''Room Service''''', which follows the misadventures of Charles Spooner (Creator/BryanPringle), the tyrannical head of room service at a five-star hotel, and his thoroughly incompetent staff. Unfavourable comparisons to ''Series/FawltyTowers'' inevitably followed (not helped by Series 2 of ''Fawlty Towers'' airing in the same year), with Spooner described as Basil Fawlty but without the likeability (and Basil was hardly cuddly to begin with), while one of his underlings, Fedros (Michael Petrovitch), was an attempt at a Manuel-like FunnyForeigner also divested of likeability.[[note]] The supporting cast also included Matthew Kelly, two years before he became a household name as one of the original presenters of ''Game for a Laugh''.[[/note]] "I deserved everything I got," Perry later lamented. It was savaged by critics, while audiences tuned out in droves, leading it to be cancelled after a single series of seven episodes. Mark Lewisohn ranked it #10 on the list of the 20 worst British sitcoms in ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'', while BFI Screenonline columnist John Oliver (no, [[Creator/JohnOliver not that one]]) said ''Room Service'' and fellow Perry solo effort ''High Street Blues'' "remain contenders for the title of worst British sitcom".
141* '''''Series/SamsGame''''', a vehicle for TV presenter Davina [=McCall=]. Reviews included "It's like a British ''Series/{{Friends}}'', only without Creator/JenniferAniston or any laughs" and "It says a lot about the state of TV comedy today when a joke about someone being sick in the cutlery drawer is considered so hilarious it is [[{{Pun}} thrown up]] a number of times". The show was a parade of trite cliches about young single people -- playing on [=McCall=]'s success as the presenter of a popular dating show called ''Streetmate''. Unlike ''Streetmate'', ''Sam's Game'' flopped with both critics and the public and was swiftly canned after one series. [=McCall=] did receive some praise for her acting.
142* The 1973 Yorkshire Television sitcom '''''Sir Yellow''''' finished at #20 on the list of the 20 worst British sitcoms of all time in Mark Lewisohn's ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'', in which, "[[TakeThat emulating the level of wit to which this series climbed,]]" it was described as "[[{{Pun}} joust]] awful". It starred Jimmy Edwards as the title character, a lazy, cowardly mediaeval knight more interested in wine, women,[[note]] Ironically, Edwards had just come out as homosexual when the series aired.[[/note]] and song than in the traditional heroics of a knight, in which pursuits he was "assisted" by a pre-''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum'' Creator/MelvynHayes as his squire, Gregory. Contemporary critics were merciless; the plots were deemed hackneyed, the jokes unfunny (particularly its ham-fisted attempts at blending modern references into the historical setting), and the actors - Edwards most of all - utterly miscast. Originally scheduled for Friday at 7pm, by the third episode (of six) it was buried in a graveyard slot at 12:05am on Sunday. The series, which Ben Lawrence of ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked #5 on his 2015 "10 worst British sitcoms ever made" list, has never been re-run or released on DVD.[[note]] Notably, the series featured a guest appearance by a pre-fame Creator/BobHoskins in one episode.[[/note]]
143* Thames Television's 1984 sitcom ''Tripper's Day'' starred Leonard Rossiter as Norman Tripper, a supermarket manager from OopNorth who is transferred to a London branch and has to deal with a stock bunch of lazy and/or incompetent employees. The series was deemed unworthy of Rossiter's comic talents by critics and ignored by audiences, though it has gained a modest following in the years since. Rossiter's untimely death between the air dates of the second and third episodes (of six) did not stop Thames from trying again with a new lead actor; thus was born '''''Slinger's Day''''', starring Creator/BruceForsyth as Tripper's successor, Cecil Slinger. Not only was everything critics hated about ''Tripper's Day'' - the tired overreliance on sustained misunderstandings, the cardboard characters, the low budget set - still present, but Forsyth, whose strengths as an entertainer included quickfire improvisation and audience asides, simply didn't have the acting chops to carry a scripted series as he stumbled over his own lines and was often seen mouthing along with the other actors' lines. Critics were even more savage this time around, and ''Slinger's Day'' trudged along for twelve episodes across two series from 1986-87 before the plug was pulled. Forsyth, clearly recognising his limits, never appeared in another scripted series. Mark Lewisohn ranked ''Slinger's Day'' (jointly with ''Tripper's Day'') at #12 on his list of the 20 worst British sitcoms in the 2003 version of ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'', saying "the laughs were obtained more cheaply than [Forsyth's] store's bargain bin items." Frantic Planet blogger Stuart Millard [[https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2019/05/17/slingers-day/ has more to say]] in his "Shitcoms" profile of the series.
144* London Weekend Television's 1991 sitcom '''''Trouble in Mind''''' starred Richard O'Sullivan as Adam Charlesworth, a psychiatrist whose wife Julia (Susan Penhaligon), after their two children have grown up and moved out, has started a landscape gardening business and has been forced to stop taking birth control pills, leaving Adam facing the prospect of a vasectomy. If that doesn't sound like an interesting premise for a sitcom, its execution was even worse, with the scripts so flat and laugh-free that audiences largely ignored it, leading it to be shunted from its initial time slot of 7:15pm on Sunday to later in the evening and then, in what was then a rare move for British television, having the plug pulled after six of its nine episodes and burning off the other three in a graveyard slot several months later. O'Sullivan retired from acting not long after, giving the series the unfortunate distinction of being his last starring role. Mark Lewisohn described ''Trouble in Mind'' as "profoundly weak and lifeless" and "relentlessly middle-class and middle of the road", putting it at #18 on the "20 worst British sitcoms" list in ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy''.
145* '''''Up the Elephant and Round the Castle''''', a 1983-85 Thames Television sitcom starring Creator/JimDavidson as Cockney chappie [[TheDanza Jim London]] who has to deal with a host of problems after he inherits a house, is another dishonourable mention on Mark Lewisohn's "20 worst British sitcoms" list from ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'' (ranked #19) and ''The Daily Telegraph'' critic Ben Lawrence's "10 worst British sitcoms ever made" list (ranked #7). It was criticised as dated, insensitive (one recurring element involved squatters moving in, a contentious political issue at the time due to the then-current housing crisis), and unfunny - much of the "humour" was based around its excruciatingly poor attempts to emulate the AwfulBritishSexComedy. Although it got a later sequel in ''Home James!'', that show took a completely new premise (the character getting a job as a business executive's chauffeur) and had little connection to its predecessor. Although thankfully largely forgotten, ''Up the Elephant ...'' is still remembered with little enough fondness that several efforts at DVD release have floundered due to a lack of demand. Its only virtue was its catchy credits theme, a honky-tonk piano instrumental composed by [[Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer Keith Emerson]]. Creator/DavidThewlis made an early appearance as a mugger in one episode, while another episode featured an early appearance by Creator/MarinaSirtis as an Eastern European immigrant. ''Frantic Planet'' author and blogger Stuart Millard [[https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2018/08/22/jim-davidson-goes-up-the-elephant/ goes into more detail]] in his first "Shitcoms" review.
146* The 1972-75 London Weekend Television sitcom ''Romany Jones'', which starred ''Series/DadsArmy''[='s=] Creator/JamesBeck as a professional layabout named Bert Jones who indulges his inner gypsy by moving with his wife to a caravan site in a field,[[note]] In the first two series, at least; Beck's untimely death in 1973 required the replacement of the Joneses with the UpperClassTwit Crichton-Joneses.[[/note]] was never a critical darling, but the LWT brass somehow got the notion the Joneses' neighbours, Wally and Lil Briggs (Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts), could hold their own in a spinoff. The result was '''''Yus, My Dear''''', which ran for 19 episodes across two series in 1976 and was even more critically reviled than its parent series; Mark Lewisohn branded it "one of the most excruciating sitcoms of all time, a real black spot on [writers Ronald] Wolfe and [Ronald] Chesney's CV" and ranked it #2 on the "20 worst British sitcoms" list in ''The ''Radio Times'' Guide to TV Comedy'' (while ''Romany Jones'', described by Lewisohn as "appalling", landed at #9), and Ben Lawrence of ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked it at #6 on his "10 worst British sitcoms ever made" list in 2015. The new series found Wally and Lil living in a council house, and the hackneyed, laugh-free plots revolved around Wally's ne'er-do-well brother Benny (a pre-''Series/EastEnders'' Mike Reid) - never mentioned in the previous series - moving in and repeatedly conning the dim-witted Wally out of the wages from his bricklaying job, inevitably leading to Lil finding out and unleashing hell on both of them, while the crass behaviour that had nauseated critics in ''Romany Jones'' returned in abundance in ''Yus, My Dear'', typified by a scene in which Wally eats a sandwich while taking a bath. Most Britons born after 1975 (and some born before then) already struggle to understand how Arthur Mullard became a TV fixture, but even his fans find little to defend in ''Yus, My Dear''.
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149[[folder:Mediaset (Italy)]]
150* '''''Dalla Vostra Parte''''' ("On Your Side") was a political talk show that, like the title suggests, promised to side on the part of the citizens, with live reports and interviews. However, after a few episodes the show's host, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurizio_Belpietro Maurizio Delpietro]], decided that pandering to alt-right ideologies and silencing whatever competent guests they interview was a better idea than mediating between the two opposing parties, sort of like [[Series/HotSeatWithWallyGeorge Wally George]] or [[Series/TheMortonDowneyJrShow Morton Downey, Jr.]] without any of the {{Kayfabe}}. In fact, ''every single episode'' was a string of loud-voiced and slanderous insults geared towards left-wing politicians, Communists, immigrants, homosexuals, Muslims, racial minorities, and everyone who dared to disagree with the hosts. The ones that weren't silenced were those who blame everything from violence to rapes, theft, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking just existing]] on the above categories, or think that social progress is "destroying" Italy. The editors of the show didn't even bother checking their news sources, instead cherry-picking statistics that confirmed their racist beliefs and spreading fake news taken from unreliable websites. Over time, the program was increasingly lambasted for its brazenly racist, possibly even fascist contents, and for encouraging violence against their designated strawmen. With the network renovation in 2018, the show was canceled with no one mourning it. Sadly, it was replaced by an almost identical show called ''Fuori Dal Coro'' ("A Different Voice", literally "Out of the Choir"), where the only change is the host, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Giordano Mario Giordano]], who has the amazing ability to be irritating in ''everything'', including his whiny, high-pitched, almost feminine voice.
151* '''''Radio Belva''''' ("Radio Beast") was the first TV product made by Italian radio shock jocks [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Cruciani Giuseppe Cruciani]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Parenzo David Parenzo]]. It stands out as a glorious example of LaserGuidedKarma. To elaborate: the hosts had invited [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Sgarbi Vittorio Sgarbi]], an art critic infamous for his volatile personality and obscene language, to the premiere, clearly hoping for a fight to ensue in order to boost ratings. It backfired immediately when Sgarbi started ranting, since he went much beyond his already-high standards of profanity. The quarrel went out of control and eventually involved Paolo Villaggio (creator of the ''Film/{{Fantozzi}}'' saga) who, at the time, was already very old and frail, not to mention that [[HarsherInHindsight this would be one of his last appearances on TV before his death in 2017.]] At some point, the camera was pointed on only a telephone to avoid showing the ongoing fight, which almost certainly turned away anyone who was watching this just to see how bad the trainwreck would get. Sgarbi wanted to make the program close and he succeeded: the network immediately cancelled the show. Oh, and the ratings didn't even reach 3%.
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154[[folder:MTV (United States)]]
155* Fans of the classic British comedy series '''''Series/TheInbetweeners''''' absolutely refuse to acknowledge its truly ''godawful'' 2012 US remake, and with good reason. Even if one ignores the fact it's a remake and views it as its own show, it is still a horrendously unfunny show in its own right. The four main characters have been completely butchered (Jay, for example, is now an overweight Creator/JonahHill wannabe) and lack what made them so charming in the original show, coupled with [[QuestionableCasting poor casting choices]] and bad acting, but the show's biggest sin is the humor, which not only feels more watered down, low-brow and PG compared to that of the show it's remaking, but most of the jokes have been recycled from the original show, only more Americanized and dumbed-down, and even then, they still don't translate very well in an American show. Not even American audiences liked the remake, as it was cancelled after only 13 episodes. LUMBARDI made a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW_ldUbMxGY good video about the remake and why it was so awful]].
156[[/folder]]
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158[[folder:[=Much=] (Canada)]]
159* '''''The Totally Untrue History of...''''' was a 2007 "comedy" show that mocked celebrities by, as the title suggested, telling fake stories about them. The show even managed to fail in that regard: the jokes were horribly unfunny and often mean-spirited (even more than ''Video on Trial'' ever did), the editing of archive footage of celebrities was painfully obvious, and the sketches in the middle of the episodes were only worse. The show was mercifully buried after six episodes, and nobody was sorry when it was put out of its misery.
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162[[folder:NBC (United States)]]
163* '''''Chip and Pepper's Cartoon Madness'''''. Not to be confused with ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'', ''Cartoon Madness'' was an affront to animation with its badly-animated surfer bulldogs pasted against the kind of computer-rendered animation you'd expect from the early 1990s. Starring a pair of ''jeans designers'', it was like a bloody collision between a bad Flash cartoon and a computer science student's D- project, which was then intercut with some lesser-known (and far older) Creator/HannaBarbera cartoons in the middle (despite it being produced by Creator/DiCEntertainment). Then the two dogs enter reality, and somehow this transforms them into two aggressively TotallyRadical {{Surfer Dude}}s [[MascotWithAttitude With Attitude]]. The live-action segments take place in "The Chillin' Shack", a set ripped off from ''Pee-Wee's Playhouse'' except with a crowd full of cheering kids in sunglasses who clearly don't want to be there, a butler(?) with a crappy [[FakeRussian Russian(?)]] accent, and hands sticking out of the walls which they high-five with whenever they pass them, but pay no attention to for the rest of the show. And then there's the ''editing'', which makes it look almost like something from ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob''... except for real. At times, it resembled a YouTubePoop. View an episode [[https://www.bitchute.com/video/XvNGhSs5JkFb/ here]] if you dare.
164* The American remake of '''''Series/{{Coupling}}''''', which lasted only four episodes in 2003. Every episode was a rewritten version of the original UK source material, the actors were bland and forgettable, and the fact that ''Coupling'' itself was just a British tweaking of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' didn't help. ''Entertainment Weekly'' [[http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20305579_20671308,00.html named it]] one of the 25 biggest bombs, ''People'' [[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20148239,00.html gave it]] 1 star out of 4, and its TV.com and Website/IMDb ratings are in the 4 or below range. According to Website/TheOtherWiki, then-NBC head Jeff Zucker would later say that the show "just sucked", and that BBC America pulled a TakeThat by promoting reruns of the corresponding UK episodes so viewers could see just how bad it was. Watch ''TV Trash'' tear it apart [[http://rowdyc.com/tv-trash-coupling/ here]].
165* '''''Emeril'''''. No, not ''Emeril Live'' - the sitcom. The show revolved around Emeril Lagasse doing his cooking show, only far less entertaining than the real-life ones he was known for. Emeril went home to his generic sitcom family, had generic sitcom problems with said family, and uttered very unfunny jokes for 30 minutes every episode. All of this wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for two things: First off, the writers had a habit of shoving completely unrelated political topics into episodes. For instance, the pilot episode goes on a tangent involving women's body image and the way they're portrayed in the media. Second, and most annoyingly, ''everybody'' adores Emeril in the show - people constantly compliment his "genius", fans are always lining up for autographs, and he's always shown standing up to those evil television execs. The series only made it through eight episodes before being cancelled due to low viewership and terrible critical reception. This was the first of several missteps in Emeril's now-troubled career. Sadly, it was also the last starring role for costar Creator/RobertUrich, who would die of cancer in 2002.
166** The show was originally slated to premiere on September 11, 2001. However, it was pushed back in favor of the more important news coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that same day. Hence, if one has knowledge of this atrocity of a TV program, two common [[BlackComedy 9/11 jokes]] are that A) the news coverage was much better to watch, and B) UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden was just trying to save us from having to see it. ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' subtly referenced it, with [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Wanda]] hearing about Emeril for the first time (in 2015, after a 30-year coma) and considering giving him a sitcom - fitting the RunningGag that her ideas tend to be cliché or already proven failures.
167* '''''Series/PinkLadyAndJeff''''', perhaps the worst TV VarietyShow ever produced, was the brainchild of NBC exec Fred Silverman, and was helmed by legendary TV producers Creator/{{Sid and Marty Krofft|Productions}} (who had also given us ''Series/TheBradyBunchHour'', in addition to all those trippy kids' shows such as ''Series/HrPufnstuf''). The show was intended to be a star vehicle for the Japanese singing duo Pink Lady, consisting of singers Mitsuyo "Mie" Nemoto and Keiko "Kei" Masuda, who were paired with comedian Jeff Altman. The only problem? Neither member of Pink Lady could speak a single word of English, and they had to learn all their lines phonetically. This led to one of the biggest trainwrecks in the history of television, and is often named as [[GenreKiller the exact moment]] when the variety show [[CondemnedByHistory stopped being relevant in American television]].\
168\
169Despite the singing talent of the ladies, who sang a few tunes in their native tongue (without subtitles), the show only lasted six episodes - the last of which didn't even air. Pink Lady was continuing its tour during filming, so between that and the language barrier we saw much more of Jeff... whose material wasn't good enough to hold things together. This show was so bad that ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' mocked it with a cold opening sketch titled "Pink Lady and Creator/{{Carl|Sagan}}" on May 10, 1980, over a month after its cancellation. Website/TheAgonyBooth did [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120308114522/http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Pink_Lady_and_Jeff/ a detailed run-down of the entire series]] with tons of screencaps from the official DVD - including the unaired sixth episode, which manages to make the first five look tame and actually serves as [[GrandFinale a fitting closer]].
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172[[folder:Netflix (Internet Streaming)]]
173* '''''Series/ReBootTheGuardianCode''''' [[note]]also aired in Canada on {{Creator/YTV}}[[/note]] was chewed out almost immediately by fans of [[WesternAnimation/ReBoot the original series]] for abandoning the series' original InsideAComputerSystem premise, storyline (which ended on a massive {{cliffhanger}}) and ''medium'' (the original was one of the earliest {{all CGI cartoon}}s on TV) in favour of a hackneyed {{Toku}}-esque live action/CGI hybrid reminiscent of ''Series/VRTroopers'', ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', and Rainmaker's own ''Series/{{Zixx}}'', where four [[RecruitTeenagersWithAttitude high school students]] are enlisted by an AI to defend {{Cyberspace}} from a hacker known as the Sourcerer and Megabyte, a BigBad who was DemotedToDragon, though to the show's credit he is portrayed fairly well and his actor does do a great impression of the late Creator/TonyJay. A good chunk of the series' dialogue is stock phrases, the visuals are lacking and blatantly derivative of other properties such as ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Film/IronMan'', and ''Film/TronLegacy'', and there are blatant continuity errors between the original and this series. Creator/RainmakerEntertainment had been teasing a ''[=ReBoot=]'' revival for a decade and test footage resembled more the original; when investors weren't impressed the show went into DevelopmentHell and was eventually reworked into what was aired, rumors that Rainmaker's president Michael Hefferon effectively [[ExecutiveMeddling took over production]] and [[TroubledProduction ran the crew roughshod]] didn't help its case- it was even discovered that Hefferon, in a pure display of egotism, named the main protagonist after his son. Adding insult to injury, the Netflix "Season 1"[[note]]Actually the first half of the 20 episode season that aired on YTV[[/note]] finale has more characters from the original series, but not only reverts them back to their initial appearance, completely ignoring four seasons worth of storytelling in favor of an attempted appeal to nostalgia, but depicts the User, a [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen never-seen]] real-world human being who was a mysterious force to the Programs, as a middle-aged BasementDweller fanboy, an inexplicable [[TakeThatAudience insult]] to the original series' fanbase in the wake of all the criticism ''The Guardian Code'' received.
174[[/folder]]
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176[[folder:Network 10 (Australia)]]
177* The sketch show '''''Skit Happens''''' was advertised as "a classic return to Aussie sketch comedy", which as the pilot demonstrated hadn't fallen out of fashion by accident. The series received near-universal disapproval, with complaints ranging from the jokes being toothless (yes, we know that "peanuts" and "penis" sound similar), to incomprehensible (a repairman dry-humping a fridge) to outright insensitive (a parody of ''Series/TheGoodDoctor'' that doubled down ''big-time'' on the HollywoodAutism). The latter in particular was considered the biggest deal-breaker, with many on the spectrum finding the jokes about autistic people to be mean-spirited and ignorant. Naturally ''Skit Happens'' didn't get a full series, ironically being axed in favor of another Aussie sketch comedy ''Series/{{Kinne}}''.
178[[/folder]]
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180[[folder:Nickelodeon (United States)]]
181* '''''Awesomeness TV''''' was Nickelodeon's attempt at creating their own version of ''Series/IncredibleCrew'' (already critically contentious in its own right and [[ShortRunners lasting only a single season]]), except ''Awesomeness TV'' had its own major issues, especially as the "unskippable Platform/YouTube-playlist in 22 minutes" format it had meant a lot more skits that clunked than hit. The hosts weren't remotely engaging (Daniella Monet from ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' seemed to only be there to fulfill her contract to the network and couldn't do much with the material), and had a cheery "putting on a show" mentality which seemed cloying to the audience. ''WebVideo/{{Smosh}}'' hosted an episode, but didn't feel like [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids their regular selves]], for instance. The amateurish quality of the skits didn't help much at all, with those that weren't recycled from the [=YouTube=] channel the series was based on feeling more mean-spirited than funny [[note]](for instance, one sketch seemingly inspired by a creatively bankrupt Platform/GoAnimate video has a rowdy family beat up a poor, innocent teacher for giving their daughter a detention)[[/note]] and the characters having few redeeming characteristics. The jokes are poorly written [[note]](such as this joke: "Most people think an Apocalypse is the ultimate bummer, but turn that down and what do you have? A hap-ocalypse!")[[/note]] and the LaughTrack never shuts up, not even at the worst jokes. It was horrible enough to score a 1.0 out of 10 for a '''whole year''' on TV.com before getting brought up to a slightly less painful 3.1, and Website/IMDb had no less hate for the show. Unfortunately for Nick (and Daniella) they signed a two-season contract where they had to fulfill the airing deal before the network could finally abandon their disastrous run of [=DreamWorks=] shows, but not before somehow getting Creator/LiaMarieJohnson’s skit character Terry the Tomboy a 90-minute TV-film that was dumped on one of Nick's weekday holidays.
182* While it might have seemed like a good idea at the time to give the then-most subscribed [=YouTube=] personality[[note]]Albeit with waning popularity by 2012, in no small part thanks to [[FleetingDemographic its original audience outgrowing it over time]].[[/note]] his own sitcom, '''''Fred: The Show''''' ended up being a huge disaster. While WebVideo/{{Fred}} might have been palatable to a number of people in three-minute increments, his [[HeliumSpeech artificially high-pitched voice]], obnoxious [[GrossUpCloseUp close-ups]] and BrattyHalfPint attitude quickly become ''insufferable'' over the course of a thirteen-minute episode, or worse yet, ''three'' TV movies. The writing didn't help, putting Fred in cliché high school stories rife with stereotypical characters played by bad actors (who look [[DawsonCasting far too old]] to play middle schoolers)... and that's just the rare occasions the show even had a discernible plot beyond Fred running around screaming. Even considering those who enjoyed the webseries, the television pacing ruins the RapidFireComedy that made Fred so popular online. The pilot movie received a resounding '''''0%''''' on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie also received a 1.9 on [=IMDb=], with its two sequels getting a 2.4 and a 2, respectively, and the show itself receiving a 1.6 and sits comfortably at #3 of the website's list of the worst-rated TV shows. Watch WebVideo/IHateEverything and WebVideo/{{ralphthemoviemaker}} rip the TV movies apart [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr7ySzPHN-4 here.]] [=WatchMojo=] ranked it as the #2 worst TV show ever [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_LtkY3u4qM here]], [[WebVideo/RebelTaxi Pan Pizza]] included it on his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3FTrSd4dys Top 10 Worst Nickelodeon Moments and Controversies]], and WebVideo/PhantomStrider labelled it as both [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2_rct9cHUo the worst Nickelodeon show ever]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJQpFfH-8Dc the worst sitcom ever.]] Lucas Cruikshank even made a (now-deleted) video reacting to the show [[CreatorBacklash with much regret]]. The show [[FranchiseKiller killed the [=YouTube=] channel as well,]] with much of the channel's popularity imploding after the show aired.
183* Nickelodeon's action programming block, '''''Series/NickStudio10''''', was almost universally and passionately loathed. Presented as live, it had multiple instant replays and cameras of stunts which suggested otherwise. The sketches by themselves are already dreadfully unfunny and the block hosts were only able to do so much with the material given, but by far the most infamous reason that so few people like it is because they ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6gEUkeSbDA randomly interrupted other shows]]'' with "Important Public Service Announcements" [[note]](though these took place mainly during Nick's neverending ''WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob|SquarePants}}'' marathons)[[/note]] that boil down to little more than the same random sort of antics you would expect to see on a 10-year-old boy's ''Platform/{{Roblox}}'' account. Viewers were annoyed by this practice, and the block had several different petitions calling for its cancellation: a search for it on Google will bring up its Wikipedia page and, from there, nothing but loathing for it. The network quickly gave up on having a Twitter account for the show (one alleged to be "real" was clearly a racist parody), while they gave up on their Facebook outside of one brave social media manager a few months later; it finally ended after Labor Day 2013 with a [[QuietlyCancelled quiet cancellation]] after the summer break. It [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MqjUpOOoTw spawned]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMhfWO2HE1Q an]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BGR-fFMs18 entire]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOofWP2g268 series]] of rants done by The Archfiend. [[WebVideo/RebelTaxi Pan Pizza]] also references this in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3FTrSd4dys his Top 10 Worst Nickelodeon Moments and Controversies]].
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187[[folder:Nine Network (Australia)]]
188* '''''Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos''''' was a 1992 one-off comedy special and spin-off of ''Australia's Funniest Home Video Show''[[note]]The [[ForeignRemake Australian version]] of ''Series/AmericasFunniestHomeVideos''[[/note]] that featured Doug Mulray as its host. Although its content was beyond what would be shown on, say, American television, it probably wouldn't have sparked controversy had the late Kerry Packer, then-owner of the Nine Network, not viewed bits of it at a dinner, called the network, and angrily yelled at them to "Get that shit off the air!" Within minutes, it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDLliCShVDA cut]] to an AdBumper stating the rest of the program couldn't be shown for "[[BlatantLies technical reasons]]" and it was cancelled ''midway through its first episode'' to make way for reruns of ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. [[note]](In some timezones, it was cancelled even earlier than that. In Perth, the program wasn't even broadcast at all!)[[/note]] On August 28, 2008, the special was rebroadcast for the first time in 16 years alongside monologues from Bert Newton, and when Australian viewers tuned in they could easily see why Mr. Packer flipped his lid: Mulray made unfunny quips over clips of kangaroos getting their testicles twisted by children, animals mating in public, people performing sexual activities in front of the camera, Mulray talking about "bosoms", and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a naked man falling out of a shower]]. A truly one-joke premise, it's astounding how it ever wound up being aired at all, let alone being preempted in the middle of its broadcast, and much of the crew who were associated with the special were fired after the controversy.
189-->'''Bert Newton:''' Anybody still watching back then in 1992 who wasn't scandalized by the smut was expecting more of the same. Instead, they got that announcement about "technical difficulties" which you heard, which was true! It's technically very difficult to keep a show on air... with Mr. Packer on the phone ''yelling'' at you.
190* '''''Ben Elton Live from Planet Earth''''', a live Australian stand-up[=/=]sketch-comedy[=/=]variety show starring comedian Creator/BenElton. It was intended as something of a comeback for Elton, who'd been absent from the comedy scene for a while. It was also intended as a flagship for the Nine Network. Unfortunately, the material was dated, ineptly presented, and largely unfunny; it impressed almost no one. During the premiere, viewing figures dropped from 805,000 at the start (it was scheduled to start after ''Series/TopGear'' in primetime) to 233,000 by the end, with about 200,000 people dropping out every 15 minutes... and if the reaction on Website/{{Twitter}} and other social networking sites was anything to go by, most of those who hung around watched solely to rip it to shreds. Critics were by and large no more generous: typical reviews took the lines "an early contender for worst show of the year" or "a screaming, embarrassing failure". It lasted three weeks, shedding even more viewers, before being cancelled. One of the worst sections of the whole thing was ''Girl Flat'', a sitcom in which Music/LadyGaga, Music/{{Beyonce}}, Music/LilyAllen, and Music/AmyWinehouse share a flat. It comes off like every line was ripped from crappy Platform/YouTube comments - apparently, the writers thought that a famous woman saying "vagina" was the funniest thing to grace our planet.
191* '''''The Mick Molloy Show''''' (1998): Sensing that they needed to take an edgier, younger approach to entertainment into the 21st century, the Nine Network axed its long running ''Series/HeyHeyItsSaturday'' and as a potential Saturday night replacement gave former “D-Generation” member and comedy writer Mick Molloy his own program. However Nine may have had some regrets when Molloy’s opening monologue on the first episode had him seen to be urinating on the set (an act that led many viewers to assume he actually was drunk on set, rather than just feigning drunkenness), and the same episode featured footage of a contestant vomiting at a beer-drinking competition. The show also featured 'Mini-Mick', a parody of Mini-Me from the ''Film/AustinPowers'' movies, whose CharacterCatchphrase was "Blow it out your arse!" and was generally a more vulgar version of Mick, often yelling obscenities at people. Viewers were unimpressed, and even though Nine took the unusual step of committing to twenty episodes without seeing a pilot, only eight went to air.
192* '''''Monster House''''' (2008), which combined scripted situation comedy with (supposedly) unscripted reality TV elements, was met with angry phone calls from the general public and was almost cancelled during its airing. It survived one more episode before being cancelled. The remaining eight episodes were shown later that year during the Olympic Games when it was a foregone conclusion that Nine would lose to Seven in the ratings. In the extremely unlikely event that it's ever shown again, the most notable thing about it will probably be that it featured a [[RetroactiveRecognition then-relatively-little-known]] Creator/RebelWilson.
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195[[folder:NRK (Norway)]]
196* Despite its high budget and talented cast, the military comedy '''''Herfra til Haglemoen''''' ("From Here to Haglemoen") fell flat thanks to its boring humour. Critics gave scathing reviews, and general audiences weren't any kinder. Four episodes were filmed, but the series was CutShort after three due to its horrible reception.
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199[[folder:Paramount Network (United States)]]
200* '''''Series/Heathers2018''''' is a modernized adaptation of the CultClassic [[Film/{{Heathers}} film of the same name]] (as well as the equally Cult [[Theatre/{{Heathers}} musical]]). The series has the same premise, but includes a SettingUpdate that turns the titular GirlPosse into a group of marginalized people. A set-up with potential, but instead of making the Heathers popular for similar reasons as the original ([[RichBitch wealth]], [[AlphaBitch status]], [[BeautyIsBad attractiveness]]), the [[FanNickname "Peathers"]] (Paramount Heathers) are popular because [[FlawlessToken they are marginalized]], which sends all sorts of UnfortunateImplications[[invoked]]. Not only does the series appeal to ''[[AudienceAlienatingPremise nobody]]'', since every side of the political spectrum believes it was created to appeal to the other, it also has [[DullSurprise mostly bad acting]][[note]]with the Heathers being considered more enduring while Veronica and JD sound like they're reading their lines from a teleprompter[[/note]], a really poor understanding of the original movie and modern culture in general[[note]]Like Heather Duke being changed into a trans woman, only to reveal that they only pretended to be trans "in order to fit in"[[/note]] and barely any likable characters, along with being consistently postponed [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents due to the scenes of gun violence during a period of frequent mass shootings in the United States]]. WebVideo/SarahZ points out every flaw of the show [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgE87HYvkN8 here]].
201[[/folder]]
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203%%[[folder:Paramount+ (Internet Streaming)]]
204%% This folder is commented out because no examples have yet been found.
205%%[[/folder]]
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207[[folder:RAI (Italy)]]
208* In most cases with the venerable Series/EurovisionSongContest, it's difficult to call any edition outright "bad," or blame all the problems on one party. What you ''can'' do is call out an edition for being below-par in terms of organization. Maybe the hosts stink. Maybe the graphics and set design are bad. Maybe (in the case of pre-1999 editions) the orchestra is unprepared. The only edition that checks off all three of these is the '''1991 contest''', organized by Italy's public broadcaster RAI. In spite of being a longtime participant at the time, [[note]] They would be gone after the 1993 edition, only briefly returning in 1997 when they accidentally forgot to say they didn't want to participate, and wouldn't come back full-time until 2011.[[/note]] Eurovision had never been a major priority in Italy compared to the local Sanremo Song Festival, the [[LongRunner long-running]], prestigious competition that attracted Italy's top music talent and actually preceded (and directly inspired) Eurovision by six years. As such, RAI was at a loss when they unexpectedly took victory in 1990, and the entire show wound up being a TroubledProduction to the highest degree.
209** [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scenografia_1991_04.jpg The set]] was a shambles and hastily put together at Cinecitta Studios, right on the outskirts of Rome. The most charitable thing to be said about it was that it at least looked like a decent Hollywood Studios attraction lobby at Disney World, but you could hardly call it a suitable set for an international contest with millions of viewers.
210** While the songs were generally on a strong level, several were butchered by the ill-prepared orchestra. Most infamously, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s27fw44U7Qk Greece's dramatic ballad "I anoixi" by Sophia Vossou]] was completely derailed by [[DreadfulMusician a horrifically out-of-tune saxophone solo]]. According to Greek conductor Haris Andreadis, the original saxophone player (who handled the song fine in rehearsals) was let go ''right before the show'' due to asking for too much money, and the replacement never even rehearsed the song prior to the live broadcast.
211** The pacing was the most sluggish of any contest before or since, not helped by the most infamous hosts to ever grace the stage, Toto Cutugno and Gigliola Cinquetti. The duo were picked for their prominence as Italian musicians and for being Italy's two Eurovision champions, but their chemistry was limited and their skills in Eurovision's two main languages (English and French) were virtually non-existent. Gigliola came off mildly better than Toto though, who compensated for his limited language skills by acting like a goofball through the whole show. The combination of an extended opening dance sequence and performances of both hosts' winning entries meant it took nearly fifteen minutes before the first act took the stage (sixteen if you count the postcard), the postcards - each almost a minute long of contestants singing popular songs - were a combined forty-five minutes long, and the excruciating voting sequence was an hour by itself due to Toto and Gigliola constantly screwing up while announcing the scores, which for some reason were announced in Italian as well as the standard English and French (a practice not usually made in other contests).
212* In 2015, '''''Sorci Verdi''''' ("Green Mice") graced the Italian screens for five episodes between October and November. Its premise was a late night show starring rapper J-Ax, but it did what every late night show ''shouldn't'' do: the satirical skits were very cheap and predictable shots at politics and television, intermixed with bad musical numbers and awkward interviews with [=VIPs=] and various showmen. It ultimately felt like a 90-minute advertisement for other rappers and friends of J-Ax. Today, it's remembered as a television failure that drew very little attention.
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215[[folder:RCTV (Venezuela)]]
216* '''''De oro puro''''' ("Of Pure Gold"), a Venezuelan SoapOpera which, despite its [[ShootTheMoney high production values]], was unspeakably awful. The plot seemed to be a LoveTriangle between a girl with PsychicPowers and EasyAmnesia, a man with a MysteriousPast, and [[FlyingDutchman the Wandering Jew]], who's female and apparently mother of the heroine (Jesus damned her from the cross and all). There was also a MadScientist with a lab with [[PeopleJars jar people]] growing up, and numerous supernatural elements. At least, [[RandomEventsPlot that's about as much sense as could be made]]. RCTV placed it in the timeslot previously occupied by the long-lasting, successful, social-themed soap ''Por Estas Calles'', causing a cultural shock that obviously didn't help it at all. When the ratings sank, they tried to attract people by airing segments in which the whole cast and a respected character actress ''who wasn't even in the production'' recapped and explained the convoluted plot and backstory; this backfired when people realized that, [[ShowDontTell if the creators had to explain the story, the viewers won't get much from watching it]]. When it was obvious that the show couldn't be saved, they edited the final chapters to compress them so they could wrap the show up sooner, hacking off the resolution of its plot points and alienating the few souls who ''did'' invest their time watching it. The parody by ''Radio Rochela'' [[note]](RCTV's main SketchComedy show, a rough Venezuelan equivalent of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'')[[/note]] was arguably better. This show's failure [[CreatorKiller ruined the reputation]] of its writer, the late Julio César Mármol (a usually-competent play and scriptwriter, who had written huge successes like ''Estefanía'', ''La Dueña'', and ''El Desprecio''), contributed to the ratings downfall of RCTV during a good chunk of TheNineties, and killed the then-budding practice of fully filming a soap before broadcasting (usually, Latin soaps first film a 20-episode buffer and then film day-to-day so they can adjust the plot according to ratings and character reception). This soap had been completed before the premiere, meaning that nobody could step in and set the show right once it was clear how bad it was. All of the above measures were meant to try to recoup any losses, and because RCTV produced it they were obligated to broadcast the full run. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190612213715/http://www.rctvintl.com/eng/results.php?c=telenovelas An archived version of the RCTV International website]] shows that the description of this soap was deliberately more obtuse and poetic than the rest of their shows.
217[[/folder]]
218
219[[folder:RTE (Ireland)]]
220* '''''The Big Bow Wow''''', based around a group of 20-something friends who hang out at the titular club, was an attempt to create a drama somewhere between ''Series/{{Friends}}'', ''Series/{{Skins}}'', and ''Series/ThisLife''. It came across more like a tourism ad for Dublin, trying to portray a lifestyle of partying around the clock in "designer pubs" as representative of the lives of ordinary young people. The show went down very poorly with viewers and critics alike, who mocked its weak storylines, horrible writing, and pretentiousness. It relied on drug use to create "edgy" storylines, but used a ''fictional'' drug (because the writers didn't want to be seen to condone drug abuse) - then turned the whole thing into a heavy-handed and amateurish DrugsAreBad message. One memorable scene, portrayed in all seriousness, involved a drug dealer going into a record store where a shop assistant directs someone to the blues section for Miles Davis. A ''real'' record store employee would know Miles Davis belongs in jazz, so the dealer knows [[BatDeduction this one must be a cop!]] The creative team were so certain that the show would be renewed that they went out to the Caribbean to begin writing the second series, yet the reception was so poor that it was canned after just six (out of a planned [[BritishBrevity 13]]) episodes. The channel even condensed some episodes together (so poorly that you could still hear the opening/ending music where the credits should've played) just to get it off the air as soon as possible.
221* '''''The English Class''''' was a sitcom that used the same premise as ''Series/MindYourLanguage'' (a group of recently-arrived immigrants take a night school class to improve their English). The difference was that ''Mind Your Language'' was made in the 1970s while ''The English Class'' aired in 2007, and yet the latter managed to be even ''more'' dated and politically insensitive than the former. It received an instantly negative response from critics and the public. Viewers resented their TV license money being spent on the show (which received a high budget from the channel - most of the cash apparently pocketed by the production company, since the show itself looked so cheap), and it provoked such a backlash that Creator/{{RTE}} quickly removed all clips of it from their official [=YouTube=] channel. Criticisms included its poor attempts to imitate ''Series/TheOfficeUK'', its portrayal of Eastern Europeans, and much of its "comedy" being based around sexual harassment. The final nail in the show's coffin was when an episode where a student's murder was PlayedForLaughs aired shortly after the real life case of a murdered foreign student in Galway, leading to calls to pull ''The English Class'' from the air. RTE wisely didn't renew it for another series.
222* '''''Extra! Extra! Read All About It''''' was supposed to be a comedy set in a newspaper office. The TV announcer introduced the first episode as "a new drama", leaving viewers confused at the show's abundance of canned laughter, some of which made it very difficult to hear the dialogue. What ''could'' be heard was painfully unfunny, and the show was plagued with bizarre, pointless moments such as the whole cast breaking out into a musical number for no apparent reason. More than one critic called it the worst Irish comedy ever, and it didn't survive past its first series.
223* '''''The Roaring Twenties''''', a 2008 sitcom pilot based around four young people in Dublin sharing an apartment. The show was created by two young graduates fresh out of film school, who received a large budget from the channel to make the show - and their inexperience was very apparent in the finished product. Despite their ambitious plans for such hijinks as "a wacky German in underpants", "a sexy goth lady called Vixen" (portrayed by Creator/KatieMcGrath in the pilot), and a character with superpowers, the show was hated by both audiences and critics. The reaction was so unanimously negative that it wasn't commissioned for a full series. It may have harmed the career of leading lady Amy Kirwan, who was slated at that time as a future star but (aside from a recurring soap opera role) hasn't done anything major since.
224* Gerry Ryan enjoyed a long career as a beloved radio and TV presenter, but his mid-90s variety show '''''Ryantown''''' certainly wasn't loved half so much. The show took place in a set designed to look like Gerry Ryan's living room, where guest stars would drop in and TV clips would be played to the audience. A running gag was Ryan having a disobedient dog, infamous for an episode where it buried its nose in the crotch of a woman singing on the show, and wouldn't let go. This was about as entertaining as the show got. It was described by critics in terms such as "dog's dinner" - and that was one of the more favourable reviews. Ryan himself called it "the worst television experience I've ever had in my entire life" and claimed in his autobiography that he'd personally asked the channel to cancel it halfway through its run. ''Ryantown'' continues to be widely derided in Ireland and is likely to be part of the reason why Ryan never found the level of success on TV that he had as a radio host.
225* '''''The Spike''''', a 1978 serial set in a tough high school in Dublin, received negative press and reviews from the first episode. One critic wrote that RTE had finally "found the magic formula for successful comedy" - but the show was intended to be a serious, hard-hitting drama. It became infamous for briefly showing a naked model in an art class, which caused a flood of complaints. The chairman of the [[MoralGuardians League of Decency]] actually had a heart attack while calling the newspapers to complain about the scene. After this, the show was abruptly CutShort halfway through its run (hours before the next episode was due to air - amid further controversy, since the episode was to have portrayed a schoolboy being involved in terrorism), and the remaining episodes never saw the light of day. It still remains a subject of public mockery in discussions of Irish TV.
226* '''''Stew''''', a sketch show attempting to be an Irish version of ''Series/TheFastShow''. Unfortunately, it was utterly awful to watch. The jokes were just childish and awkward. Notably, it had a recurring sketch of a BollywoodNerd who was trying to push his daughter into a high-powered career (not even a specific one) from a very young age which was very awkward to watch. Bizarrely, in spite of multiple complaints from viewers, RTE gave it ''two seasons''. Yet, they canned ''Series/TheBlizzardOfOdd'' at roughly the same time.
227* '''''Upwardly Mobile''''' was a sitcom about a LowerClassLout couple who win the lottery, move to an exclusive area of Dublin, and clash with their neighbours - a very similar premise to ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies''. It got off to a poor start when its theme song (inadvertently containing a phrase which refers to [[GRatedSex something rather rude]] in Cockney rhyming slang) caused a minor press scandal, and from there it was all downhill. Despite heavy promotion, ''Upwardly Mobile'' was unfunny, lazy, and poorly written, and became unpopular with both viewers and critics. It dragged on for three years before finally being cancelled, and was a frequent target of public mockery and criticism of RTE. Especial criticism was aimed at the fact that RTE invested so much in this show, yet had rejected ''Series/FatherTed'' and forced it to go to Channel 4 in the UK.
228[[/folder]]
229
230[[folder:RTL (Germany)]]
231* '''''Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt''''' ("Help, My Family is Crazy"), a German remake of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' that aired for only a single season in 1993. The show's failure lay in its botched attempt to [[ShotForShotRemake recreate the source material frame by frame]], to the point that even the looks and gestures of the cast had to match the originals. The result of such slavish adherence to the source material was that no attempt was ever made to [[CulturalTranslation adjust the humour or plots to their new cultural surroundings]]. Adding to the show's problems was the fact that ''Married... with Children'' had already been exported the year prior to great success, airing daily in the afternoon while ''Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt'' aired once a week in the evening on the exact same network. Add some translation issues into the mix, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Christian Richter of Quotenmeter.de [[http://www.quotenmeter.de/n/32542/der-fernsehfriedhof-hilfe-meine-familie-spinnt called it]] "probably the most colourless comedy series on German television," while Moviepilot.de [[https://www.moviepilot.de/news/top-7-der-deutschen-comedy-serienverbrechen-118443/galerie-27397/bilder/526168 ranked it at #1 in their list of seven worst German comedy series]].
232[[/folder]]
233
234[[folder:Sat.1 (Germany)]]
235* Germany hasn't been known for inventing new concepts, but what they did with '''''Das i-Team''''' is unacceptable. It took ''Series/TheITCrowd'' and reshot it ''[[ShotForShotRemake frame for frame]]'' - and still managed to get it wrong. The timing was awful, the delivery was bland [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and from all the things they could've changed, they took the intro]]. Thankfully, it got cancelled after two episodes.
236[[/folder]]
237
238[[folder:Sky One (United Kingdom)]]
239* In 2008, prolific British media personality Noel Edmonds decided to return to his bread and butter of live, light entertainment with '''''Noel's HQ''''' on [=Sky1=]. Billed by Sky and Edmonds as "inspiring", and set up to be a [[TomHanksSyndrome more serious show]] than his past ventures in the genre, most of the show consisted of interviews and segments showcasing and surprising good Samaritans and people in need with sponsored trips, renovations, etc. The rest of the show contained more of a political skew, with Edmonds frequently speaking of bureaucracy, "overregulation", "red tape", "health and safety" policies[[note]](It is worth noting one of Edmonds' earlier shows, ''The Late, Late Breakfast Show'', was cancelled after someone died in a bungee jumping accident while rehearsing for one of the show's stunt segments)[[/note]] and a "broken Britain".[[note]](a CatchPhrase, later popularized by the tabloid ''The Sun'', used by the Conservatives of the era to criticise the then-present Labour government)[[/note]] Despite much of the show being played off as serious, there are awkward moments of MoodWhiplash when the show veers towards the more comedic antics associated with Edmonds' prior shows (such as ''Series/NoelsHouseParty''): the recurring segment "Noel's News" involved Edmonds and Carole Malone going over headlines involving LoonyLaws as apparent examples of such "overregulation" (i.e. "person fined for using the wrong-coloured bags for garbage disposal"). But then the final story will inevitably cause Edmonds to declare a "Bonkers Britain" -- which results in a [[SpontaneousChoreography song and dance number]] with [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg a cast of costumed extras and Keith Chegwin]] flooding onto the stage, followed by a comedy bit between [[ProductionPosse Chegwin]] and Edmonds. In the pilot, this resulted in Noel's News being sandwiched between an interview with a father whose child was killed in a stabbing, and a bit involving [[GarbageHideout Cheggers dressed as a dumpster]]. The bit was [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment not mentioned again]] ... until the segment was done [[RuleOfThree twice more throughout the episode]] with different costumes (albeit with the last one using it as a setup for a final, on-location Noel's News report). Despite this, in a later episode, Edmonds went on a notable tirade against a town council who wouldn't allow a soldier (who had lost both of their legs after stepping on a landmine in Afghanistan) planning permission for a wheelchair-friendly bungalow, taking particular offense to their press officer not wanting to speak with an "entertainment" show (a categorization to which he [[InsistentTerminology disagreed]]), demanding they be fired, and revealing that he had been donating his pay for the show to a charitable trust. Critics were not too kind to ''HQ''; Creator/CharlieBrooker agreed that most of the show was well-intentioned, but that the remainder evoked ''Film/{{Network}}'' and ''Series/ImAlanPartridge'' more than anything. With a change in management at the channel, ''Noel's HQ'' was cancelled after five episodes.
240[[/folder]]
241
242[[folder:Syndication (United States)]]
243* '''''Club Mario''''' was a repackaged version of ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' with the live-action segments (which involved [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario and Luigi]], played by Wrestling/CaptainLouAlbano and Creator/DannyWells, respectively) replaced by two aggressively TotallyRadical {{Surfer Dude}}s [[MascotWithAttitude with Attitude]]. Worse, the live-action segments [[InNameOnly have nothing to do with Mario or the cartoons except for some stock footage in the intro and a brief summary of the episode in question]]. A quick edit and dub and the so-called "''Club Mario''" could be used for ''anything''. For a while, [[PopCultureUrbanLegends there was even a rumor going around]] that the ''Club Mario'' segments were so horrible that Creator/DiCEntertainment [[BuryYourArt ordered every single copy of them to be destroyed]]; this was eventually debunked when some streaming services (like Netflix) put up the ''Club Mario'' version of "The Unzappables". They were, however, abandoned after one season and the original Albano/Wells segments were restored. Here's [=RetroNausea=] [=TV=]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n4GVVUhYh0 take on it]], and [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/darkvault/clubmario.html here's]] Website/PlatypusComix's article about the segments.
244* '''''The Magic Hour''''', a 1998 talk show hosted by basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson, didn't take long to become a byword for "terrible TV". Magic's incompetence at hosting made him the butt of ridicule for many, most notably Creator/HowardStern (who was invited to be a guest on the show and proceeded to ask Magic inappropriate questions about his sexual history). Magic's sidekick, comedian Craig Shoemaker, was fired after publicly calling the show "an absolute nightmare." The show was canceled after three months, costing the syndicator millions of dollars. It ranked #26 in ''Literature/WhatWereTheyThinkingThe100DumbestEventsInTelevisionHistory''.
245* '''''Series/PeppermintPark''''' is a cautionary tale in what happens when you try to [[FollowTheLeader do your own]] ''Series/SesameStreet'' without understanding what made ''Sesame Street'' work in the first place. Primarily a DTV series of half-hour long videos (that aired on a few local TV stations and then never again, for a multitude of reasons), the show tries to take a number of pages out of ''Sesame Street''[='s=] book to the point of being a borderline (if not outright) [[TheMockbuster mockbuster]]. It's got the puppets, it's got the educational content, it's got the songs, it's even got a similar name... but everything about ''Peppermint Park'' is executed in a way that's not only botched horribly, but also often [[NightmareFuel downright terrifying]] in some cases. The majority of the songs are lazily written and unmemorable at best, what special effects there are are cheap and poor even for the time, and the educational content is either severely lacking or not entertaining to learn about at all. What the series is most infamous for, though, are ''the puppets''. The majority of the puppets are all very poorly constructed and look like they stepped out of someone's nightmares with their [[UnintentionalUncannyValley human-looking-but-not-quite-human-enough]] rubber-y appearances, bizarre designs and voices, and manic-looking eyes. The show in general feels almost like a Creepypasta between the bottom-of-the-barrel budget appearance and sound of dang near everything it throws at you, something not helped by the fact that the series was lost for many years and was only ever released on VHS. It haunts the nightmares of everyone who was subjected to it as a kid and is seen as a [[{{Narm}} blatantly incompetent]] attempt to out-sesame ''Sesame Street'' by everyone else.
246* As a response to the popularity of ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' and in advance of a film version, Creator/FoxKids imported Creator/GerryAnderson's British {{UsefulNotes/Supermarionation}} classic ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'', but not without [[EditedForSyndication some changes]]: 13 of the original ''Thunderbirds'' episodes were hacked into a half-hour format (with space opened for commercials), re-titled, and dubbed over with new voices [[note]](which included Creator/TimCurry, no less)[[/note]]. It didn't last long, but then the distributor had the bright idea to create '''''Turbocharged Thunderbirds''''' for Creator/{{UPN}}, which took the aforementioned Fox episodes and butchered them further: the Tracy family fought supervillains, the action took place in "Thunderworld", and the family took orders from a pair of LargeHam live-action teenagers called the "Hack Masters" who lived inside of [[CoolStarship Thunderbird 5]] (renamed "Hacker Command"... but really, who cares) and called Jeff Tracy [[Series/TheATeam "Mr. T"]] ([[Creator/MrT WHAT THE HELL, FOOL!?]]). Worst of all, the original dialogue was edited out completely and replaced with "ironic post-modern" jokes. Anderson was ''outraged'' when he found out what had been done to his creation (going on to call it "the most diabolical thing [he] had ever seen in [his] life"), and threatened to sue unless his name was removed from the credits (which they were, rather awkwardly - his name was blurred out in the closing credits, and then-wife Sylvia was the only one credited). The series only lasted one season, and when the rights to ''Thunderbirds'' reverted to Anderson he reportedly ordered all copies of ''Turbocharged Thunderbirds'' destroyed.
247[[/folder]]
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249[[folder:TV 2 (Norway)]]
250* '''''Sett på maken''''' ("Look At That!") was a botched attempt to make a Norwegian version of the British satirical puppet show ''Series/SpittingImage''. Unlike its inspiration, ''Sett på maken'' was very poorly received by audiences and critics alike, to the point where the second episode (of the 12 that had been filmed) was scrapped hours before it was supposed to be aired. The series was intended to return after a few weeks, but nothing ever materialized, dooming it to OneEpisodeWonder status.
251* The low-budget, hopelessly amateurish '''''Sommerfugl''''' ("Butterfly") was a soap about two siblings growing up in Oslo in 1995. With the exception of the two leads, practically every actor was an amateur who wanted to get on TV. These casting choices led to some... strange performances. Both of the leads understood that the show was bad -- one of them correctly predicted that it would be panned, and the other pointed out that trying to make 12 episodes in 35 days wasn't a great idea. Today, the series is only remembered for being terrible and [[OvershadowedByControversy having terrible working conditions on set]]. The failure of ''Sommerfugl'' and the aforementioned ''Sett på maken'' [[CreatorKiller led to the bankruptcy of Litteris Production]].
252[[/folder]]
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254[[folder:TVE (Spain)]]
255* Clearly not having learned a thing from the failure of his earlier ''Dreamland'', TVE greenlit another Frank Ariza project, '''''El Continental'''''. General consensus among critics was that this show wasted an almost-AllStarCast in a shoddy ''Series/PeakyBlinders'' knockoff, that at times even seems to have an identity crisis, also attempting to pass off as a feminist fable, a Western or a mafia story. Among other reasons why the series was panned, we could cite its inability to properly present its characters, its complete disregard for historical accuracy, or the poor writing and directing.
256[[/folder]]
257
258[[folder:TV Norge (Norway)]]
259* '''''Bare Brita Show''''' ("Just Brita Show") was a talkshow hosted by the normally-competent Brita Møystad Engseth, who was trying to make a comeback. The humour was dated and predictable, and there was a really boring segment featuring a dancing dog. Critics panned the show, and ratings were disappointing -- especially after the 32% drop in viewership between the first episode and the second. The show was put out of its misery before it could get a third.
260[[/folder]]
261
262[[folder:UPN (United States)]]
263* '''''Series/TheSecretDiaryOfDesmondPfeiffer''''' (the "P" isn't silent), a short-lived (and extremely low-rated) UPN sitcom, one of the network's worst such series aimed towards African-Americans, that aired four episodes out of the nine produced overall in October 1998. It starred Creator/ChiMcBride as the titular character, a black English nobleman in the mid-19th century who is kidnapped and sent to America on a slave ship, then becomes a [[ServileSnarker valet]] to UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, who is portrayed as a sex-obsessed buffoon. All the other inhabitants of the White House are portrayed as hopelessly dumb. This show became notorious for being the subject of protests by African-American groups against its whimsical, flippant portrayal of slavery. Because of this controversy, the original pilot episode, where Desmond becomes Lincoln's butler and attempts to return to England, was never broadcast. It was so poorly received, it was even advertised with the tagline "Critics hate it." The show would have been forgotten if not for various references on ''WesternAnimation/ClerksTheAnimatedSeries'' - and many people nearly had a DoubleTake after finding out that, yes, [[AluminumChristmasTrees it actually was real]]. Creator/BradJones did a review of this series for his ''WebVideo/DVDRHell'' series, and ''WebVideo/TVTrash'' reviewed it [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27tjvh_tv-trash-the-secret-diary-of-desmond-pfeiffer_tv here]].
264[[/folder]]
265
266[[folder:USA Network (United States)]]
267* '''''Series/TattooedTeenageAlienFightersFromBeverlyHills''''' (no, ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' fans, [[AluminumChristmasTrees they did not make this up]]), notable for being one of two ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' [[FollowTheLeader imitators]] that weren't adaptations of existing {{toku}}satsu shows (the far-superior ''Series/TheMysticKnightsOfTirNaNog'' was the other; helped by the fact that it, like the American side of ''Power Rangers'', was actually produced by Saban Entertainment). This is the show's one positive, and it is squandered almost immediately. The show was a [[NoBudget zero-budget]] affair that managed to look even cheaper than its Japanese inspirations (a vibe not helped by being shot on videotape). The acting was subpar even by the genre's standards [[note]](for example, unlike on ''Power Rangers'', where they shout their transformation phrase, the teens say it in a rather regular, blasé tone)[[/note]], the characters unlikable, one-note stereotypes (in another show, oily rich kid Gordon would probably be a recurring antagonist), and the plots horribly repetitive (especially when it came to the BigBad's MonsterOfTheWeek schemes and over the course of 40 episodes, there were only nine or ten different monsters used, leading to some monsters showing up multiple times). Moreover, much of the show focused heavily on harshly criticizing and outright insulting the tokusatsu genre and showing how the creators thought such a show should be done. The biggest sin may be the fight scenes - the bread and butter of any ''Sentai''-wannabe series. Between the beyond-obvious use of {{Stunt Double}}s when our heroes "transformed", the use of melee weapons solely as FamilyFriendlyFirearms and the horrible, repetitive fight choreography, the fight scenes turned ''TTAFFBH'' from "forgettably bad" to "how the hell did this last a full season?!" bad. The [[LargeHam over-the-top]] performance by the late Ed Gilbert as Emperor Gorganus is usually entertaining, but not enough to redeem the other things mentioned above. WebVideo/TVTrash tears into it [[http://rowdyc.com/tv-trash-tattooed-teenage-alien-fighters/ here]], WebVideo/MarzGurl has more to say about it [[http://marzgurlproductions.com/shows/request-review-tattooed-teenage-alien-fighters-from-beverly-hills/ here]], and WebVideo/TJOmega blasts the show and all of its shameless ripoffery [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x35xuqf here]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjoe3Qo_DymYyBR6X9VxFjQ ToyGalaxy's]] [[https://youtu.be/HMLNJpYn02k video]] (in fitting with the channel's theme) is more about the production history of the show than about the quality (or lack thereof) of same. (Though that and DBZ Abridged do get mentioned).
268[[/folder]]
269
270
271!TV Movies/Specials
272[[folder:ABC (United States)]]
273* '''''Film/HomeAlone4TakingBackTheHouse''''' was a made-for-TV sequel to the theatrical series, intended to be a PilotMovie for a TV series, with ''none'' of the predecessors' cast. The "kid sees bad guys that adults can't see" had been overused by then (including ''3'', though that one was decent), and [[ContinuitySnarl your head will explode if you try to connect this film with the first two]]. Kevin's [[NotAllowedToGrowUp a year younger than in the second movie]]; Buzz is five years younger; the [=McCallisters=] divorced and the dad is dating a rich woman; and Marv's played by Creator/FrenchStewart, who looks absolutely nothing like Creator/DanielStern. Oh, and for those watching the ''Home Alone'' series for the traps - ''4'' failed there as well. There's three traps, and two of them are ''built into the house''. Yeah. A dumbwaiter and a revolving wall? Not ingenious. Thankfully, it bombed in the ratings, killing off any chance that audiences would be subjected to Kevin's antics on a weekly basis. Despite the failure of this movie, however, it didn't stop them from making two more installments, ''Film/HomeAloneTheHolidayHeist'' and ''Film/HomeSweetHomeAlone''. The former, while mediocre at best, was still noticeably better than this one. The latter, on the other hand, ended up going over even more poorly; more on that in [[Horrible/LiveActionFilmsGToM the live-action film section]]. WebVideo/TheHardcoreKid [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAHUiMmwwKg gave it a scathing review]]. ''WebVideo/BestOfTheWorst'' (with guest star Creator/MacaulayCulkin) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_FURNuBeQg absolutely hated it]]. Rob Boor of ''Cinematic Venom'' reviewed the film twice (once in [[https://youtu.be/hRylAz3Ri4I 2009]], and again [[https://youtu.be/B5mG2KQSa6U eight years later]]). WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic reluctantly reviewed it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phvzYMFP6qM here.]]
274[[/folder]]
275
276[[folder:Asia TV (Various)]]
277* During the holy month of Ramadan in 2021, a "prank" show named '''Tannab Raslan''' aired on Asia TV in Iraq. For many people outside of Iraq wondering what kind of pranks were even aired in the first place... well, let's just say their entire show revolved around famous Iraqi celebrities, namely actresses and soccer players, being invited to a "charity event" before ''it becomes [[RefugeInAudacity hostage to a (staged) ambush of actors playing an Islamic terrorist group]].'' It doesn't take a genius to know that Iraq has been involved with many wars and terrorist attacks revolving around groups like al-Qaeda and the Daesh (known internationally as ISIS) since the late 20th century, meaning something like this really isn't something that should be taken lightly there. It doesn't help matters when considering that everything from the fake weapons and stunt explosions to the fake suicide vests worn by the acting "terrorists" to the "rescue" of the celebrities and other people involved with this by the Iraqi armed forces (also played by actors themselves in the show) made people think an actual attack was happening there. Combine that with multiple cameras showing the genuine fear the guests had when being involved with this situation they were in, and it's no wonder why viewers in Iraq were completely outraged by this show. Needless to say, the outrage did lead to [[https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/tv/iraqs-prank-tv-show-depicting-is-attacks-taken-off-air/ar-BB1gqVq0 its eventual shutdown on May 5, 2021,]] one week before the holy month ended. Despite the forced shutdown, the show's host, Raslan Haddad, claimed the decision was unjust since he felt they were celebrating the heroism of Iraq's security forces and that the participants involved had no objections to being on the show. However, the timing of it airing months before Afghanistan was taken over by the Taliban later that year makes this show [[HarsherInHindsight feel a whole lot worse now than it did even back then.]]
278[[/folder]]
279
280[[folder:BBC (United Kingdom)]]
281* From the 1950s to 1985, a television fixture in Britain had been [[NewYearHasCome New Year's specials]] from Scotland, themed around the country's traditional Hogmanay festivities. They tended to be kitschy, overloaded with tartanry galore (because everyone knows Scotland is the land of [[ManInAKilt kilts]], accordions, and bagpipes), and comedy acts that the average viewer wouldn't understand unless they were a Scot themselves. They were influential enough that even Creator/{{ITV}} were doing its own as a competitor. In 1984, after the specials had become increasingly trashy and rowdy, the BBC decided to see if they could put together something classy that could showcase the distinct Scottish traditions, yet still be accessible to a wider audience. The result, '''''Live Into 85''''', was a disaster. On paper, the special appeared to have a good foundation: presenter Tom O'Connor was a familiar face on light entertainment programmes and game shows of the era, the Gleneagles Hotel was well-equipped for a broadcast of this magnitude, and they had managed to book names such as Series/EurovisionSongContest winners Bucks Fizz and ''Series/NameThatTune'' vocalist Maggie Moone to perform alongside the lineup of largely Scottish mainstays. But then things fell apart: Bucks Fizz were replaced by Modern Romance after a tour bus crash in mid-December. The BBC couldn't exclusively book the venue, so many of the scenes were littered with revelers -- probably unaware they were on live television -- getting in the way, messing with the cameras (among other technical issues), and one even trying to put their hand up Moone's legs. John Grieve performed his New Year's poem, but [[{{Corpsing}} drunkenly stumbled on his first attempt]]. The "first-footer" -- the Scottish tradition of the first person to enter a home during a new year bringing good fortune -- was a confused Chic Murray, who had no idea what he was supposed to be doing because one of the bagpipe players (who stayed in the ballroom after their performance because it was cold outside) was in the way of the teleprompter. He wasn't in good health either, and died the following month. The special was scalded by critics -- especially in Scotland -- who considered it an embarrassment to the country, and was an auld acquaintance that ''really'' needed to be forgotten (except [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCd9_4xJj2Q on YouTube]]). It also turned out to be a GenreKiller for Hogmanay-themed specials outside of Scotland, leading the BBC, as well as the other networks, to either reformat or abandon their specials altogether.
282* That is, until 1998, when the BBC -- having not learned their lesson from last time -- decided to try again with '''''New Year Live'''''. With two well-known Scots -- comedian Fred [=MacAulay=] and Carol Smillie (of ''Changing Rooms'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' fame) -- as hosts, what could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, actually, resulting in what was easily the closest British equivalent to the Jamie Kennedy debacle of 2013 (see under KDOC-TV). The producer was an Englishwoman who was more experienced in daytime magazines than a live, prime time entertainment special, and it was clear from the start that the special was going to water down Hogmanay to "we're gonna have a rowdy party in a Scottish castle with celebrities". That tone was established within its opening, where the duo arrived at Edinburgh Castle in a [[SarcasmMode traditional Scottish]] helicopter, before being escorted onto the grounds on motorcycles, and introducing [[Music/DuranDuran a band from Birmingham]] singing [[Music/RioAlbum a song about Rio]]. The hosting was amateur (with Smillie -- who tended to be the [[StraightManAndWiseGuy Straight Woman to her co-host's Wise Guy]] -- repeatedly having to drag [=MacAulay=] back into the frame when he couldn't find the camera), and there were technical snafus (such as mistimed cues on the pre-recorded segments), unfunny comedy bits (such as Smillie being the butt of several jokes about her "Rear of the Year" award), and so on. Once again, critics from the North and abroad agreed that it was awful, and subsequent Hogmanay specials remained exclusive to BBC One in Scotland, with the rest of the network taking coverage from London instead (and the BBC putting on the much more comprehensive ''2000 Today'' the following year to welcome the new millennium).
283* ''Series/DoctorWho'' is a truly massive franchise where virtually everything is in BrokenBase territory, but even with all the bickering amongst the fanbase, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone unwilling to head into the TARDIS and EX-TER-MIN-ATE! ''these'' "special" episodes [[MissingEpisode/DoctorWho out of existence]].
284** The 30th-Anniversary Special '''[[Recap/DoctorWho30thASDimensionsInTime "Dimensions in Time"]]''', which is considered definitively the lowest the show could possibly sink. This one needs to be understood in context: As the show was canned a few years before, fans were excited to get ''any'' new TV canon and instead got something so embarrassingly bad that everyone immediately felt stupid about liking the show. The story is a completely nonsensical crossover with ''Series/EastEnders'' -- for no particular reason, other than it was dirt-cheap to film - with various past Doctors and companions morphing into each other for no reason. There are terrifying floating CGI heads of the posthumous Doctors. The only good thing is Creator/KateOMara [[HamAndCheese camping her way through her awful dialogue as much as possible]].
285** The 50th anniversary special, "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]", was a resounding success, acclaimed for its high-stakes action, emotional depth, wonderful character moments and terrific performances all round. How should a public broadcaster celebrate after an hour and a half of some of the finest television they have to offer? However you answer that question, '''''Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty''''' objectively shows how ''not'' to do it. Broadcast right after "The Day of the Doctor" aired, it was remembered by all who saw it as a tooth-grindingly cringeworthy debacle. The programme's failure was down to several factors. A host of former companions from both the classic and revived series were present, but precious few were given anything to do, and they were later wasted in a patronising "elimination game" (quote: "Sit down if you didn't say, 'What is it, Doctor?'") that understandably caused Creator/MarkGatiss to lose his temper. The presenters appeared uninterested and slightly drunk at times, with their questioning coming across as disrespectful to the people who contributed to the show's enduring legacy. One particularly uncomfortable moment saw one of the presenters mishearing a fan's opinion that the episode was "very moving" as "dirty movie" and condescendingly trying to make a joke out of it, giving the fan no opportunity to correct him. However, the absolute nadir of the whole thing came with the baffling decision to have a live link-up with Music/OneDirection, which had no justification beyond the fact that the band had also declared 23 November to be "[[PopCultureHoliday 1D Day]]". Having not seen "The Day of the Doctor" themselves, the band couldn't provide any meaningful input, and myriad technical problems prevented the segment from lasting for more than a few minutes. Creator/StevenMoffat's reaction to this (hunched forward with his head in his hands) came to symbolise the embarrassing car crash that unfolded over an excruciating hour.
286[[/folder]]
287
288[[folder:Discovery Channel (United States)]]
289* '''''Eaten Alive''''', which was broadcast in 2014, was ostensibly supposed to be about wildlife author Paul Rosolie's expedition into the Peruvian Amazon to locate a giant green anaconda named "Chumana". It instead became widely promoted by the network for a planned stunt, in which Paul was going to be swallowed whole by the anaconda using a suit designed for the task. The network heavily promoted this part of the special, which caused immense controversy with animal rights activists who feared for the snake's safety and those who called it blatant sensationalism. When it premiered, the 4.1 million people who tuned in to watch it found that three-quarters of the documentary was about the expedition to find the snake (spoiler: he didn't). When the special finally got to the part where Paul was supposed to be eaten by ''an'' anaconda (not Chumana, but a different one), [[AntiClimax Paul called the stunt off as he was constricted by the snake due to safety concerns, at which point the program ended.]] [[note]](The crew apparently forgot that anacondas have to ''kill'' their prey by constriction before swallowing them.)[[/note]] Critics savaged both the special and the network itself for engaging in false advertising, as much of the promotional material indicated that Paul would get swallowed by the snake, with at least one review comparing it to the similarly infamously anticlimactic ''The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault''. On social media, the entire special was compared to clickbait and similarly bitten into. The special became the subject of widespread mockery of the Discovery Channel and only further reinforced the perception that it was knee-deep in NetworkDecay. One reviewer actually noted that everything ''before'' the aforementioned stunt was "much more dramatic and much better than it needed to be".
290[[/folder]]
291
292[[folder:Fox (United States)]]
293* '''''[[Film/TheBradyBunch The Brady Bunch in the White House]]''''', a 2002 MadeForTV second sequel to ''The Brady Bunch Movie''. The film, in which Mike Brady ends up as President of the US via a contrivance pileup and selects wife Carol as his VP, lacked nearly all of the charm and fun of the first two movies and tried to fill that void with jarringly out-of-place sexual and scatological humor - including one gag involving Secret Service agents [[MaleGaze openly ogling]] Marcia's (still-underage) butt. Even when the film tried to emulate the previous ones' FishOutOfTemporalWater humor, it tried to play things as straight sight gags rather than playing up the anachronistic nature of the characters' actions (and onlookers' confusion at same), and the Bradys came across as actively stupid here rather than merely oblivious. The film has an Website/IMDb score of 3.3 and Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 17%.
294* '''''ComicBook/GenerationX''''', a low-budget, poorly-conceived TV movie based on the comic book of the same name. It starred Creator/MattFrewer as a villainous ad exec that uses his mind control device [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AnTSX8UXbg&t=143 to cause mass flatulence]] at a [[BoardToDeath board meeting]]. TheNineties, ladies and gentlemen. You can read more about it at #1 on [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18797_the-7-most-offensive-adaptations-classic-comic-books_p2.html this list]].
295[[/folder]]
296
297[[folder:Hallmark Channel (United States)]]
298* '''''Shark Swarm''''', a movie which clocks in at '''164 minutes''' despite not having enough content for half that. While [[AudienceAlienatingPremise it's already difficult]] to have a gore-filled horror film on the ''[[LighterAndSofter Hallmark Channel]]'', the movie itself does nothing to prove that such a crazy concept can work. The story is full of {{Plot Hole}}s (the big one being that nobody in this small town notices when so many people suddenly go missing) and [[{{Padding}} bloats the runtime]] with irrelevant subplots about uninteresting characters. The movie takes itself far too seriously, throwing in an {{Anvilicious}} GreenAesop, and worst of all, the actual shark attacks, the things people expect to see in a movie with this title, are '''lame'''. They just alternate between shots of unnamed extras thrashing about and shots of the same CG sharks (with [[SpecialEffectFailure the camera zooming in and out]] instead of actual attacking), with almost no variety. The only time a shark actually bites someone on-camera lasts only half a second! The movie does try toward the end to use the terror caused by shark attacks to set up a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}, but by that point it's too little too late. The excessive length and total failure as a monster movie have put it past redemption. Matt Murray of ''Corn Pone Flicks'' wrote an [[http://www.cornponeflicks.org/sharkswarm.html entertaining review]] of the film.
299[[/folder]]
300
301[[folder:KDOC-TV (United States)]]
302* On December 31, 2012, local UsefulNotes/LosAngeles (well, technically Orange County) independent station KDOC decided to air a '''New Year's Eve special''' hosted by Creator/JamieKennedy. That was only the tip of the iceberg for what ''The A.V. Club'' dubbed the "''Jamie Kennedy Falling Apart At The Seams New Year's Eve 2013 Spectacular''", as the world found out after Creator/PattonOswalt [[https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/286705909474922496 tweeted]] about it: there were awkward glitches and dead air, the beginning of an interview with Creator/ShannonElizabeth accidentally started with a shot of Kennedy moping about onstage, hot mics picked up strange discussions peppered with F-bombs from the host and crew, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLc_hA_XT7khL554M8KT1mX9yEwIajfrnt&v=JzTCkqTwBcU racist sketches where Jamie Kennedy played a Mayan]] (while dressed like a [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins stereotypical Native American]], no less) who went to the Commerce Casino to try to regain his people's lost gold, while a potentially drunk Macy Gray and an uncensored(!) Music/BoneThugsNHarmony serenaded the audience celebrating the arrival of the year 1999. Even worse, they managed to ''botch up the most important part of a New Year's special'' by having Kennedy not able to find the clock for the countdown, and counted down ten seconds late. At the end of the show, Kennedy proclaimed that he would "see you in 2024!" and that the show was ending in a fight. On cue, a fight broke out onstage during the (silent) credits. [[https://tubitv.com/movies/671886/jamie-kennedy-new-year-s-eve It has to be seen to be believed.]] Watch the lowlights [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lzWmDIY9Zk here]] or read [[https://www.avclub.com/epic-boondoggle-case-file-32-jamie-kennedy-s-first-n-1798235712 Nathan Rabin's account for the AV Club here.]] Kennedy has since [[http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/host-of-kdocs-chaotic-new-years-special-it-was-totally-supposed-to-be-like-that_b75731 claimed]] that [[ParodyRetcon the entire thing was meant to be that bad]].
303[[/folder]]
304
305[[folder:Lifetime (United States)]]
306* '''''Music/{{Aaliyah}}: The Princess of R&B''''' is a 2014 biopic that was troubled from the start. Although talented actress Creator/{{Zendaya}} was initially to star as the late singer, the casting choice was criticized due to how little she resembled her. After failing to get in contact with Aaliyah's family for their guidance/approval (as well as her own concerns about the production), she dropped out and was replaced by Alexandra Shipp, who also garnered complaints over her own casting. The premiere was among one of the highest-rated for the network, but it was of [[BileFascination the hate-watching variety.]] Critics and fans alike blasted the acting, the weak script, the many inaccuracies about her life, the absence of Aaliyah's music save for a few covers due to her family denying the rights to it and most disturbingly, how much the controversial 1994 relationship/marriage between her and Music/RKelly was romanticized. In addition to receiving scathing reviews from publications such as ''The New York Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal'', [=MsMojo=] placed the film at #1 for their list of [[https://youtu.be/o4EmEvIbWsY "Worst Made-for-TV Celebrity Biopics".]]
307* '''''Britney Ever After''''' is a 2017 biopic of pop singer Music/BritneySpears. It was critically panned for its weak script filled with numerous inaccuracies and events that were either speculation or exaggerations, terrible casting and acting (particularly that of Natasha Bassett, who barely resembles the singer and, according to [=MsMojo=], portrayed Spears "like she's in a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skit"), poor production values, and none of her hit songs due to gaining neither Spears' involvement nor her blessing. ''Billboard'' criticized it for having "too many missing pieces'', it currently holds a 2.6 rating on [=IMDb=] and the aforementioned [=MsMojo=] ranked it as #2 on their list of [[https://youtu.be/o4EmEvIbWsY "Worst Made-for-TV Celebrity Biopics".]]
308* '''''Film/TheBrittanyMurphyStory''''' is a biopic about the life of the late Creator/BrittanyMurphy. The film was a massive failure with both audiences and critics due to glossing over most of the actress' career, if not straight-up getting events wrong,[[note]](for instance, they show Brittany being fired from ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeetTwo'' because of her partying lifestyle and an addiction to prescription drugs. She wasn't in ''Happy Feet Two'' because ''she died'' before production started)[[/note]] its melodrama that wouldn't pass in a soap opera, atrocious acting, poor makeup and, worst of all, the actress who plays Murphy (Creator/AmandaFuller of ''Series/{{Last Man Standing|2011}}'' fame) looks nothing like her.
309* '''''Destination: Infestation''''' is an unbearably awful 2007 FollowTheLeader-type TV movie that was made to cash in on the ''Film/SnakesOnAPlane'' B-movie craze: this time there's [[TheSwarm ants]] instead of snakes. There's a total of 10 minutes of these bugs in the film, most of it consisting of short shots of the swarms and one very lame attack scene that comes off as if the writers forgot about the movie's concept. Though it's a Canadian production, there are a lot of geographical errors (for one, [=WestJet=] doesn't travel to Colombia) and there's also an insane amount of {{Plot Hole}}s. Bad acting abounds and [[SpecialEffectsFailure awful CGI]] too. The funniest thing about this whole fiasco? It premiered on Lifetime, the same channel that airs [[LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek such gems]] as ''Cyber Seduction'' and ''Someone Else's Child''.
310* '''''Film/SocialNightmare''''', a 2013 effort from Creator/TheAsylum about an A-student who's getting ready to go to college when someone starts posting inappropriate pictures of her that she sent to her boyfriend, putting offensive updates on other people's pages, and generally trying hard to ruin her life. It's filled with ridiculous plot points (the guy our heroine goes to for help decides to try and rape her just because), terrible dialogue, the worst {{Foreshadowing}} in history, and a villain so blindingly obvious that the Blu-ray actually [[SpoilerTitle has the movie's name changed]] to [[spoiler:''Mother'']]. The wrap-up is wholly unbelievable and filled with MoodWhiplash - whatever Creator/KirstenProut (the daughter), Creator/ChloeBridges (her best friend, also targeted), and Creator/DarylHannah (the daughter's mother) got paid for this, it wasn't enough.
311[[/folder]]
312
313[[folder:NBC (United States)]]
314* '''''A Little Piece of Heaven''''', a 1991 MadeForTVMovie advertised as a family-friendly Christmas film. It is ''any'' of those things InNameOnly. Directed by Creator/MimiLeder, it stars Creator/KirkCameron[[labelnote:Sound familiar?]]Yes, the same Leder that directed ''Film/OnTheBasisOfSex'', and '''that''' [[Film/SavingChristmas Kirk Cameron]]; thankfully he's only the main star, but one has to wonder if this influenced ''Saving Christmas''.[[/labelnote]] as Will Loomis, trying to take care of his adoptive family's pig farm in addition to his InspirationallyDisadvantaged sister (played by Jenny Robertson) after the death of the grandparents that adopted him, but it proves to be too much for one person. So, in order to keep up with the workload and give his sister friends to play with, Will takes in orphaned children and ''gaslights them into thinking they're dead and in Heaven''. Its heavy-handed themes of abuse and psychological torture are the least of its problems--the {{Designated Villain}}s (''law enforcement'') are [[IdiotBall dumb as a bag of hammers]], plot points are [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment forgotten as soon as they're introduced]], and Will himself [[KarmaHoudini gets off easy for everything]], [[DesignatedHero with the plot bending over backwards to make him in the right]]. It didn't garner much critical reception, if any, and only has a measly 3.5 rating on ''Website/IMDb'' and a 29% audience score on ''Website/RottenTomatoes'', and would have likely stayed almost completely unknown had ''WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob'' not reviewed it. [[https://youtu.be/P4PHQYYvz_g You can watch his review here]], where he displays utter shock and horror to see that this was actually aired on TV, even hypothesizing it started out as a thriller before becoming '''this'''.
315* '''''Film/NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation 2: [[{{Spinoff}} Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure]]'''''. This "sequel" is often considered by even hardcore fans of the ''Film/NationalLampoonsVacation'' series to be one of the worst sources of {{sequelitis}} ever. The idea is that Cousin Eddie is the main character, and his boss fires him but sends him and his family on a vacation to the South Pacific, where things predictably go wrong. It abuses every single "stranded on an island" cliche in the book and often resorts to recycled slapstick gags from the first movie which somehow manage to be completely boring this time around. Despite taking place sometime after ''Film/VegasVacation'', the children inexplicably haven't aged, and trying to connect this to the film canon will practically cause your head to explode.\
316\
317The film will ruin everything you love about the first movie, and is one of the most poorly-received TV movies from NBC, which also ended the tradition of TV film from NBC for a time until ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic Live!'' became a ratings hit and spawned more TV specials in the same ilk. Even more baffling, it's not even a sequel to ''Christmas Vacation'' but rather the first film in the whole series, ''Vacation'' (for example, the original Audrey, Dana Barron, reprises her role). And even the cameo from Creator/EricIdle as the accident-prone Englishman from ''European Vacation'' failed to please fans. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VF_IhqsDqc MikeJ]], [[http://rowdyc.com/tv-trash-christmas-vacation-2/ ''TV Trash'']], and ''WebVideo/BestOfTheWorst'' had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3plH6M1LadY nothing but contempt]] for the movie.
318[[/folder]]
319
320[[folder:[=ProSieben=] (Germany)]]
321* In 2008, German television channel [=ProSieben=] produced a horror movie "parody" called '''''Halloween Horror Hostel'''''. Imagine Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg doing even less researching than usual, then go a bit further, and there we are. Just to give you a hint about how bad this movie is, it begins with a few people sitting in a car while the radio talks about a hockey player called Michael Myers gone missing. [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer You sure you don't mean Jason?]] What follows are thousands of references and toilet humor. Just like a ______ Movie, except ''even cheaper''. The best/worst part is the OverlyLongGag of one dude who thought he was invisible or something like that, walking veeeerrryyy slowly around with a pillow in front of his head.
322[[/folder]]
323
324[[folder:Showtime (United States)]]
325* '''''Joe Piscopo: A Night at Club Piscopo''''', an hour-long stand-up special from 2012, featuring Creator/JoePiscopo reeking head-to-toe of [[AudienceAlienatingEra washed-up-ness]]. Alongside horrid Creator/DavidLetterman and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger impressions, ''[[{{Padding}} two-thirds]]'' of the show features Piscopo playing music with his backing band. He goes in between the worst PissTakeRap, playing [[MasterOfNone several musical instruments with very little competence]], and incorporating [[FromBadToWorse worse impressions]] of Music/JamesBrown (a bit [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} stolen from]] Creator/EddieMurphy) and Music/JohnnyCash (singing public domain songs). The special is scattershot with awkward banter and interviews so self-congratulatory and ridden with namedrops it borders on autofellatio. The real kicker, as pointed out when [[Radio/OpieAndAnthony Opie, Anthony, and Jim Norton]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmTBwEgU1Ao eviscerated the show]], is that the special was scraped together from two nights of Piscopo's casino/cruise act in Atlantic City. [[FridgeHorror There were thousands exposed to this toxic shit, not just in New Jersey nightclubs.]] There is very little audience reaction and constant dead air after punch lines, to the point that even Piscopo himself looks visibly uncomfortable at times (and leading one to wonder why they didn't even try to add a LaughTrack). The special stands with a ''1.8/10'' on {{Website/IMDb}}; 75% of the ratings are 1/10s with Opie & Anthony and the sole review (also a 1/10) comparing Piscopo to [[Film/TheKingOfComedy Rupert Pupkin]].
326[[/folder]]
327
328[[folder:Syfy (United States)]]
329* '''''Film/HighlanderTheSource''''', a [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci-Fi Channel]] original film/miniseries that has almost nothing to do with the rest of the ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' franchise and [[SeriesContinuityError completely alters the fundamental premise of the series]] with "The Source", which is apparently the source of immortality (you'd think they'd have mentioned that before) and (if allowed into what passes for continuity) retcons the way Immortals have functioned for the entire series. It also seems to be out to distance itself from the ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' TV franchise as much as possible, killing [[spoiler:Joe Dawson, and possibly Methos]], and breaking Duncan's iconic katana. The driving force of the plot is a RomanticPlotTumor which results in a GainaxEnding. The villain's not intimidating, the fight choreography's terrible, and a lot of plot elements don't make sense. You know it belongs here when ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'', [[Horrible/LiveActionFilmsGToM fellow Horrible entry]] and the previous all-time go-to example of a [[{{Sequelitis}} bad sequel]], is compared '''favorably''' to this. [[https://youtu.be/FDGon3ppy2U Spoony expounds further]].
330* The miniseries '''''Series/{{Earthsea}}''''' takes AdaptationDecay to ridiculous new heights by poorly compressing two lengthy books into less than three hours (give ''Anime/TalesFromEarthsea'' this, at least it mostly only adapted ''The Farthest Shore'' while bringing in some elements from the first two books and ''Tehanu''); changing the original contemplative tone of the books into a more generic HighFantasy action story; [[RaceLift whitewashes]] every single dark-skinned character (which was pretty much every named character in the books except for Tenar, including the central hero Ged) aside from Oglion, who thus becomes a [[TokenBlack Token]] MagicalNegro (ironically, the single major white character in the books, Tenar, was race lifted with a half Asian actress), and has the usual Syfy shoddy production values and writing. Unfortunately, the series is just too dull and boring to be SoBadItsGood like many of Syfy's original productions. The series was so awful that the original author Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin had nothing good to say about it, and she actually liked the divisive animated movie ''Anime/TalesFromEarthsea'' [[SoOkayItsAverage decently]] (albeit still disappointed) after separating it mentally from her own works. All in all, ''Earthsea'' is a butchered adaptation that would most likely make people let down by ''Anime/TalesFromEarthsea'' look back more fondly on Goro Miyazaki's shot at adapting the books.
331[[/folder]]
332
333[[folder:VH1 (United States)]]
334* '''''Film/ManInTheMirrorTheMichaelJacksonStory''''': a cheap, made-for-TV biopic from 2004 that paints a very messy portrait of [[Music/MichaelJackson the King of Pop]] (the man himself even released [[https://www.today.com/popculture/jackson-stop-calling-me-wacko-jacko-wbna5772969 a statement]] denouncing it). Barely any of the characters looked like who they were portraying - including Flex Alexander's awful performance (read: impersonation) of Jackson, cringeworthy, overdramatic, and repetitive dialog, shaky camerawork, awkward cuts to actual news footage, inaccurate and exaggerated portrayals (especially Creator/ElizabethTaylor), and a sappy monologue about love. Even worse? As it was an unauthorized biography, it couldn't use any of Jackson's actual music, meaning that one of the greatest performers who ever lived is stuck dancing to royalty-free stock music. WebVideo/DoubleToasted roasted it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bC0QzP5aFY here]].
335[[/folder]]
336
337[[folder:Unknown/Multiple]]
338* 2014's '''''Film/{{Arachnicide}}''''' attempts to make a Syfy-esque BMovie, but just falls flat. Despite being Italian, it's dubbed in English with ''horrendous'' ADR. The film barely features the spiders, mostly focusing on cliched military stuff, and when they do appear the CG looks worse than a [=PS1=] game. The villains' plan makes no sense, as they want to eliminate the heroes for busting their drug ring, so they set giant spiders on them instead of planting a bomb or something. Worst of all, the spiders are killed in a DeusExMachina, and the drug lords [[KarmaHoudini vanish from the movie]]. All in all, ''Arachnicide'' stands out as one of the worst GiantSpider movies ever made.
339* '''''Paparazzi Princess: The Paris Hilton Story'''''. This docudrama/biopic/whatever you want to call it of the 2006 Creator/ParisHilton court case is often considered to be distasteful, disgraceful, and [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory largely inaccurate]]. Paris, Nicole, and Nicky are played by people who look nothing like them, but that's the least of the film's worries - they are horribly wooden and seem to have the personalities of department store mannequins. The film is often [[NoBudget very obviously low-budget]], with awful cinematography and a soundtrack of original music because they couldn't get the rights to existing music. The resulting music is just ''sad''. Furthermore, the film can't even decide if it wants to be a depiction of Paris' party girl lifestyle or her legal issues, and towards the end it tries to depict her jail time as the most depressing event in human history, portraying her as someone who needs medical attention ([[MultipleChoicePast there's even a scene of her going for electroshock therapy]]). The film was blasted by the Hilton family themselves, aired on the station it premiered only once, and it [[StarDerailingRole destroyed a lot of the careers of the actors involved]] (including Amber Hay, who played Paris; Creator/SaraCanning (Nicky) and Creator/ChelanSimmons (Lindsay Lohan) were a lot more fortunate).
340[[/folder]]
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