History of TV part two

[Kevin M.]

Curating video clips for my elective class, I realize that in terms of pop culture, some genuinely awful television still managed to find its way to the mainstream. So, this week’s challenge is NOT to name the worst TV shows. Instead, this week’s challenge is to name the worst TV shows (or worst moments from TV shows) that regardless had an impact on American culture (whether America liked it or not) .

Examples: 

Fonzie jumping the shark

Jessica Simpson asking if Chicken of the Sea had chicken in it 

“Star Wars Holiday Special”

“Cop Rock”

“I Dream Of Jeannie”

Raider game interrupted by Heidi

Valerie Harper getting fired from the series with her name on it 

Jimmy Kimmel (on Leno’s own show) begging Leno not to return to the Tonight Show

The American remake of “Fawlty Towers” without Basil Fawlty 

Geraldo visiting Al Capone’s vaults 

Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Mark Jeffries]

In case you've forgotten, there were three remakes of "Fawlty Towers"--"Snavely," with Harvey Korman and Betty White (1978 ABC pilot, probably never aired), "Amanda's" with Bea Arthur (ABC, 1983) and "Payne" with John Larroquette (CBS, 1999).

Mark Jeffries
spotl...@gmail.com

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[Tom Wolper]

Before I give it more thought, my first choice would be The Dukes of Hazzard. If clips are available, the Chevy Chase Show. I wouldn’t have I Dream of Jeannie because people have good intentions in the show. If Barbara Eden disavowed the show or said it was humiliating I might feel differently.

If I could find clips from the news of the time, I would choose NBC News stating that Richard Jewel was responsible for the Atlanta Olympic bombing in 1996.

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[Stan S]

Fonzie  jumping the shark wasn’t the disaster for that show. The disaster was burning down Arnold’s so that they could make it more of a “college hangout” than a 50’s diner. 

-Stan

[Tom Wolper]

This is tougher than the last list because bad TV isn’t seen by a lot of people and goes down the memory hole. The only other series I can think of is F Troop.

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[JW]

Supertrain, which was supposed to spearhead Fred Silverman's drive to put NBC at the top of the ratings.

[Doug Eastick]

supertrain.... yeah that's a good one.

I'm unsure why I have such a strong memory of the San Pedro Beach Bums, but maybe it was because I was 10 years old and spent a lot of time watching TV.   It only aired 10 episodes.

The San Pedro Beach Bums - Wikipedia

On Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 2:01 AM JW <redb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Supertrain, which was supposed to spearhead Fred Silverman's drive to put NBC at the top of the ratings.

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[Stan S]

You know that a show is good when it has an Ernie Anderson promo:

https://youtu.be/ZZkHRkyBL2s?si=SfMqtOjwNCARG-DS

Speaking of Ernie Anderson as one often does, there’’s another topic for a future class. 

-Stan

[Mark Jeffries]

Although I understand that when Ernie was recording them, he was always complaining about all of his copy being pieces of you-know-what.h

Remember, this is the man that hosted horror movies in Cleveland as "Ghoulardi" before Tim Conway talked him into moving west.

Mark Jeffries
spotl...@gmail.com

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