A comedy sketch show that parodied sitcoms. Not a bad idea, but parodying comedy feels kind of redundant. The show took a shot at spoofing popular sitcom classics such as The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, Married with Children, What’s Happening!!, Saved by the Bell, Different Strokes, Bewitched, The Partridge Family and One Day at a Time. Unfortunately, the execution was off.
Even with some cameo appearances of original cast members from the parodied shows, this sketch program still failed to get the laughs. In the end, the show only ran for a single season. Sigh, sometimes an idea is just not enough.
2004: Listen Up!
This short-lived CBS sitcom followed Tony Kleinman, a sports show host and his sidekick, Bernie Wilder- a former NFL player. It starred Jason Alexander and Tony Kornheiser. While both these guys are actually pretty funny, the show brought in some lukewarm laughs. The Seinfeld curse is no joke. Perhaps if they got someone else, the show might have taken off.
11 Points criticized the cheesy family story-lines and called it a "recycled ’90s sitcom."
2004: Quintuplets
A show with heaps of potential. This could have been a hilarious family sitcom about the very conflicting personalities of a family of quintuplets. Instead, it ended up as a stale sitcom where the jokes became super predictable and every family member was a total stereotype ie "the little pervert, cool jock, weird random skinny guy, brainy girl, hot blonde airhead girl".
This show did nothing to renew the family sitcom and just stuck to the old cliches. Of course, this was just another Andy Richter sitcom. The show ultimately only lasted a year. Fun fact, the longest-running Andy Richter is 22 episodes. He must be doing something wrong.
2010: Blue Mountain State
Spike TV network- basically TV for dudes has long been airing crazy reality shows that all 'bros' love. Inc Master, Cops, 1000 Ways to die, and many more shows feature on this network. For some reason, the network felt it was missing some "quality" scripted drama. Then came Blue Mountain State and nothing ever changed. The show portrays the lives of American college students and all of the football, the drinking, and the frat parties that go with it.
Spike TV's attempt to break into scripted drama didn't really go according to plan. Many found the show offensive, misogynistic and smug. 2010 seemed to be the year of bad American college TV shows, but between this and Glory Daze, Blue Mountain State seems to take the cake. With that said, despite the fact that the show was canceled after a year, it did somehow manage to get a cult following. Thanks, Netflix.
Fate: The Winx Saga
You would think that a fantasy drama that streams on Netflix would generally be a win-win for all partiers involved - for the streaming service, for the writers and actors of the show, and of the viewers too. But "Fate: The Winx Saga" seemed to fail on all fronts, if we are going to be brutally honest.
With a plethora of British accidents on display being used by young men and women, combined with cool mythology and powers, it had all the makings of a cool show. Fans of "Winx Club," the animated hit series from Nickelodeon were excited for a really exciting live-action version. However, the writing and special effects were both boor in equal measure.