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Sometimes, you just wonder what television executives were thinking when they greenlight shows like these and cancel others before giving them a shot at stardom. These particular programs give new meaning to the words "idiot box".
- The Star Wars Holiday Special, in itself (not including the commercials). George Lucas has stated that, given the opportunity, he would personally take a sledgehammer to all existing copies.
- Several short-lived Reality Shows, including Whos Your Daddy (which offered a cash reward to an adopted child who could correctly identify their birth father from a group of guys) and Forever Eden (the first so-called "never-ending" romance show, where contestants can win coinage and booty simply by living the high life on a paradise ocean-front property and not get eliminated). Yes, TV executives really are without shame or pity.
- This editor remembers one series of British Matchmaker Game Reality TV series that were usually named "Singles in/at X", culminating in "Singles In Shackles".
- "Chains Of Love" in the US probably had a similar bent. "Probably," because watching it for more than half a minute causes the unfortunate viewer's brains to leak out his or her ears. Apparently less of a problem than execs had thought it would be. Worst of all, however, is the fact that it was not what was advertised.
- There's Something About Miriam featured a group of men trying to impress a sexy model, Miriam... only the said model turned out to be a transwoman. The audience was fully aware of that from the start, but it was not revealed to the contestants until they'd announced a winner. Some people called it "the cruelest reality show idea yet". All the men sued, and won enormous damages payouts.
- Let us not forget The Swan, in which a group of "ugly" women competed in a beauty pageant for the grand prize of... plastic surgery. And then get sent home anyways. Yes, even with good looks, you're still worthless. See this review
 for a full run-down on this hateful, disgusting piece of garbage.
- Speaking of appearances, Mr. Personality ranks on the list. Upon seeing one of the commercials, this troper's brother said "Couldn't they have at least given them better masks?", to which I responded "Couldn't they have not made the show, period?", but what made it really bad was their choice of host: Monica Lewinsky.
- How about a show where there are seven gay men and one straight guy all trying to get the Bachelorette stand-in to fall in love with them. If she falls for a gay guy, she gets dumped, and he gets a million bucks. Yes, it's a series long test of one woman's gaydar. Oh, and she eliminates male contestants every week—someone with bad gaydar could lose after week one and never know... Ladies and Gentlemen, that's Playin' It Straight: This summer on FOX!
- The One was a talent show that was canceled before anyone could be voted the winner. Negative bonus points because Syesha Mercado was called a "ringer" in some circles for appearing on this show before making American Idol.
- There was also The Will, which was about family members competing to be named sole inheritor in a wealthy relative's will. It got canceled after one episode after the execs likely said, "My God... what have I done?"
- Also, let us never forget Are You Hot?, the series that brought the worst models from around the country to impress three has-been judges with the lame attempts to be witty and good-looking. It's not just the fact that the show is essentially "The Gong Show" with looks instead of acts. The three judges on the show included Rachel Hunter (who herself had plastic surgery sometime after the show ended) and Lorenzo Lamas (whose ex-wives look like plastic surgery nightmares). The show was canceled after one season, and for that, we can all be thankful. Bonus points for ripping off something Howard Stern did first and better.
- Do you think Who Wants To Marry A Multimillionaire? is a spoof of reality TV? If so, you will be very sadly disappointed.
- The Sci Fi Channel's "adaptation" (if it could even be called that) of A Wizard of Earthsea. Blasted by Ursula LeGuin herself—though, admittedly, she was assuming Tehanu was a good work in the same breath. Still, the Sci Fi Channel production killed much of the subtle cultural stuff LeGuin had tried to put in her original work.
- The deservedly forgotten Australian (alleged) sitcom Dogs Head Bay.
- Homeboys In Outer Space. The title says it all. Yes, it really aired, and yes...it really sucked. Mercifully cancelled in short order after low ratings and protests from the NAACP.
- The Anna Nicole Show. Whoever programmed it seriously overestimated how interesting her life would be; she managed to disintegrate in a relatively boring way. It was like watching a train wreck, Or So I Heard. But it's not so much that her show is the worst, as that it was one of the first and most famous in its genre, so its not being good was that much more noticed.
- The Simple Life. Somehow made Paris Hilton popular despite her inability to do anything useful (on-screen or off). This show shocked reviewers after its first season because they, seeing how Paris and her friend Nicole Richie behaved early on, expected a Redemption Arc to kick in. Instead, they turn out to be Karma Houdinis; they neither stop being worse than useless nor become reviled by the town they are wreaking havoc in. The second season follows a similar pattern over many locales, but is even worse; the third season is too mind-boggling to think about.
- The Chevy Chase Show is frequently cited as the low point in his career. Considering the career Chevy Chase has had, that's pretty damn low.
- Heil Honey Im Home: The show centred on fictionalised versions of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, who live together in suburban bliss until the day their lives are turned upside-down by their new neighbours, Arny and Rosa Goldenstein, who are Jewish. The show's plots inevitably centered around Hitler's inability to get along with his neighbours. A caption at the beginning of the episode presented the series as a 'lost' sitcom from the 1950s, recently re-discovered. I Am Not Making This Up. It was intended as a parody of 1950s sitcoms; unfortunately, the writers seem to have confused ridiculousness with humour. Fortunately, it was taken off the air after one episode.
- Battlestar Galactica 1980. The premise of BSG is that the remnants of humanity are fleeing from the Cylons and trying to find Earth. It's sad when the main selling points of the show were flying motorcycles and a special cameo appearance by Dirk Benedict.
- Each Star Trek series has produced a few episodes like this.
- Star Trek The Original Series has the first and fifth movies. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was full of long sequences with nothing meaningful happening and
Chekovs Gun ChekhovsGuns that were never fired. Star Trek V had Special Effect Failure during critical scenes, a peace initiative that was never mentioned in Canon before and that exists only to facilitate a kidnapping, and a severe case of Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale—and Captain Kirk is the only competent protagonist in the film.
- Star Trek The Next Generation: "Cost of Living" and "Sub Rosa" are often cited.
- This Troper would substitute "Haven" as the worst Lwaxanna Troi episode. He'd also like to add "Genesis", mostly because that episode fails biology forever.
- What's wrong with "Sub Rosa"?
- A planet terraformed into Scotland, and a ghost who turns out to be an 'anaphasic alien' who isn't haunting the house at all, it's just that a candle is his only energy source. Oh, and then there's Zombie Grandma. And Beverly having sex with a candle. And Beverly and Deanna squee-ing over Zombie Grandma's erotic diary.
- Also "Shades of Gray". It was bad even for Clip Show standards, largely because none of the clips are shown in any kind of context, they're just kind of thrown at you at random. At least they had a decent excuse for this one, though: With the writer's strike of that year, they basically had to throw this one together as quickly as possible.
- Ah. This troper is of the opinion that Pulaski's behavior in this episode is the in-universe reason her character left the show and was never mentioned again.
- Star Trek Deep Space Nine: "Let He Who Is Without Sin...", "Profit and Lace" (which was stupid even for a Quark episode)
- Star Trek Voyager: The events of "Threshold" (a.k.a. "the one with the Salamander Sex") have been quietly ignored by all concerned in what's surely the only undisputed case of Trek Dis Continuity on record. "Spirit Folk" puts up a good fight, though.
- Star Trek Enterprise: Most of the notably unpopular episodes are hated for complicated reasons, but "Precious Cargo", "Bounty", and "Bound" are just hated for being so dumb. And then there's "A Night in Sickbay", the many reasons for its awfulness can be found here.
- Viva Laughlin. Good God, why. (Mercifully) cancelled after 2 episodes.
- De Oro Puro, a Venezuelan Soap Opera which, despite its high production values was unspeakably awful. The plot seemed to be a Love Triangle between a girl with psychic powers and Easy Amnesia, a man with a Mysterious Past, and The Vagrant Jew, who is female and apparently mother of the heroine (Jesus damned her from the cross and all). There was also a Mad Scientist with a lab with Jar People growing up. The network who made it tried to attract people to watch the soap by airing micro segments where a respected character actress who even wasn't in the production resumed and explained the convoluted plot and backstory; the plan backfired when people realized that, if they had to explain the story, they won't get anything by watching it. The Parody was arguably better. Arguably contributed to the downfall of the network who produced it during a good chunk of the nineties.
- Remember Point Pleasent? Supposedly, it's the story of a girl who is the anti-Christ found on a beech in NJ and adopted by loving parents. Despite seemingly being a Good Omens rip, it's played for Drama. Has characters who all look and act exactly the same and a plot that goes nowhere. Was met with great hype and anticipation in this Troper's home state: Advertising made a big deal it was in New Jersey - only for viewers to turn away in disgust when it became clear no one did the research. It's filmed in California. NOTHING in New Jersey looks like California.
- Out Of Jimmys Head. A kid has a brain transplant that lets cartoon characters come out of his head... No Just No.
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