@@not-so-smartaleck8987 It's funny, when My Space was a thing, she actually put in a request to be a friend or whatever you called it on that site. And yes, she was calling herself Jan Brady. Nice lady, though.
@@davidharrison7014 The Paul Lynde show didn't fail because of him; it failed because network TV's scope was woefully inadequate for his sense of humor. In today's age of a million outlets, he would have been a much bigger star. He was genuinely about a generation ahead of his time.
i would gladly watch these shows all over again...no matter how bad, I'm sure they're still better that most of the reality junk and other "stuff" that's on TV today!!😭😄😄😄
I was thinking that while watching the video !! I miss those days !! Funny story about " Me & The Chimp , " It was originally called : " The Chimp And I , " but Ted Bessel did not want second billing after a lower primate ( The Chimp !! ) .
I always wondered what happened to him on Happy Days. I thought when Arnold married Was her name Momo? That's why he left and when he returned she didn't return with him.
@@sheriheffner2098 I think he ended up back on HAPPY DAYS after Al was spun off into JOANIE LOVES CHACHI. Joanie & Chachi got to go back to HAPPY DAYS for its last season, but Al didn't go back to Milwaukee from Chicago until they were married in the finale.
They gave David Cassidy that show based on a episode of "Police Story" he did that was really good. He played an undercover police officer in a high school.
I remember that one! And yeah, that was a good episode of "Police Story." I believe Alison Arngrim's (Nellie from "Little House On The Prairie") was also in that episode.
David Cassidy also received an EMMY nomination in the Category of Best Single Performance By A Lead Actor In A Drama Series for his excellent guest work on Police Story.
I think we got the answer... but if you dig up old Hollywood Squares episodes, you will see that he was an extremely funny and very clever man. I can't think of anyone like him today; if Rupaul wore suits and did horror shows, maybe they could pull it off.
They called it David Cassidy - Man Undercover, then actually had the chrome-plated cojones to admit you might not be paying much attention, so they said "starring David Cassidy"...as if it might have had that title and starred Bobby Sherman...you knew it was gonna suck out loud when they did that. On top of that they tried to stack the deck and had Danny Bonaduce guest star in the very first episode...it didn't help.
Hello Larry was a spinoff of Different Strokes. Supertrain was NBC's answer to The Love Boat which didn't take off. originally broadcast in 1979 and by the way Kami Cotler eventually ended up on The Waltons she was in me and the chimp thank you for sharing these Fred some of these I remember when I was a kid and remember watching them
The Police Story episode that it was based on was good enough for NBC to give it a chance at a 5 episode limited-run series. However, the critics disagreed.
I'm proud to say that I have the DVD box set of Pink Lady & Jeff. Did you know that when Fred Silverman discovered that the Japanese pop duo he'd hired to head up a variety show couldn't speak English, a frantic call went out for a young comic who could pretend to be their American friend helping them get by in America, talk to the guest stars, participate in sketches, etc? And the list of names he went off was in alphabetical order, so the job went to Jeff Altman. If Jeff and a bunch of others had turned the gig down, it could have been Pink Lady & David Letterman! BTW, one of the bright spots on this otherwise mess of a variety show was a cast regular who helped out in sketches playing a much wider assortment of different characters than he was later known for. Jim Varney, who most of us know as Ernest, the "Hey Vern!" guy.
They made a box set for 6 episodes? I was 16 when that brief show was on and i actually liked it. Jeff was silly and the ladies were charming. I've never put this together until now but i suppose they were the start of why i love Japanese bands to this day.
Few things of note here. There were 2 actors mentioned here that left hit TV shows to pursue their own interests only for those shows to shop. One was McLean Stevenson who left MASH to do Hello Larry(he was essentially Frasier Crane before there was a Frasier Crane). Hello Larry, which was a spinoff of Diff'rent Strokes believe it or not, lasted 2 seasons and was pretty much career suicide for Stevenson who never really rebounded. The 2nd was Pat Morita who left Happy Days to make Mr. T. & Tina which flopped miserably getting cancelled after only 5 episodes. Fortunately for him his career was saved by The Karate Kid. Also, Holmes & Yoyo I remember and it's because of this show that my 35 year fantasy football team is named the Bunko Squad(a different spelling of the word bunco which is a division of a detective squad that specializes in fraud). Yoyo used to skip like a record while saying "the bunco squad". And the Brady Bunch Hour flopped because they couldn't get Eve Plumb and it kind of killed the cast.
Fun fact: "Supertrain" was bought by the BBC for the UK, following its disastrous US reception they decided not to show it while the series has never been shown here, the pilot movie did show up on "The other side" (ITV). By the way, TV also ran "Me and The Chimp".
I was going to mention why was The Brady Bunch Hour came in 8th instead of 1st & then there was "Me & The Chimp" on top of the dung heap. Thanks again, FredFlix. 🤣
The Number One Commandment of Television: Cast McLean Stevenson in anything except *M*A*S*H* and the result will be horrible: Hello, Larry, In the Beginning, The McLean Stevenson Show, The Doris Day Show, etc.
Your timeline is a bit off. To be precise McLean left The Doris Day Show to star on MASH. Doris Day was successful even though they changed the format every season.
We were just in Lake Tahoe 9/15/19 looking for a vacation home. We used to ski at heavenly valley. He did something not right. We don't ski anymore, I had a bad injury, but when my kids started skiing I forced them to wear helmets... their answer was" God mom we are gonna look like nerds" my reply was better a nerd than dead. Soon afterwards it became a requirement I'm gonna say in or around 1985ish. And snowboarding, I needed a Valium just to watch ! lol im kidding.
I'm glad Me and the Chimp didn't stay on because The Walton's wouldn't have been the same without Kami Cotler as Elizabeth, who is my favorite sister and Jim Ben was my favorite brother.
I love Miller but his problem is that he makes comedic references that even Dennis himself doesn't get. Remember his stint on "Monday Night Football"? "The Raiders offensive line is so dry Maurice Chevalier couldn't find a glass of Vichy water".
@@testodude - You can see it on Ted Bessell's face in the credits for "Me & the Chimp". "I went from a highly successful show That Girl to this slop?!?"
@@davester1970 "Planet of the Apes" was what started this "monkey business". Along with the Saturday morning kids' program, "Lancelot Link and the Secret Chimp"!
BJ and the Bear, as bad as it was, was still wayyyy better than the list of croppers here. However, its spinoff, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, probably does deserve to be on here - that show was epically, crater-blastingly awful.
These ARE bad. What a bunch of dreck, haha. You must have had a myriad of shows to weed through to get these "winners". The mind reels. Sonny Bono ... did he even belong on television at all, I wonder. A few of these series would be like torture to endure, particularly "Pink Lady and Jeff" (imagine trying all that macho/degrading nonsense with today's sudience)!
Thomas Ritter What a sad tune. But you can't expect to do your Sonny & Cher Show without your talented partner Cher and be successful without her. The original should've been called The Cher and Sonny Show. Sonny's not awful (well, it's debatable), but Cher was the comedian and the singer and the style.
Pink Lady & Jeff falls in the "so awful you have to look' category. It has a weird cult following. I remember going to a girlfriend's house in the 90's and she was like, "you gotta see this!" and played Pink Lady & Jeff. Groannnn. But we drank and cringed at it....very entertaining for cringe.
I missed most of this mess because I was overseas serving with the US Navy from March 1972 to OCT 1977..except for about 13 months...Yesh..what a mess. I do remember Supertrain.. might have watched one show...maybe....
If you asked a fairly knowledgeable TV viewer what show McLean Stevenson left “MASH” for, the knee-jerk answer would likely be “Hello Larry.” But his first show after “MASH” was actually “The McLean Stevenson Show,” which probably could be on this list.
Apparently, the 'Brady Bunch Hour" was 59 minutes too long. Considering David Cassidy's supposed fan base, wasn't he a heartthrob, you'd think his series would've succeeded somewhat.
Brinson Harris Kami Cotler who played the daughter on Me and the Chimp portrayed the youngest sibling (Elizabeth) on The Waltons for it's entire run including the half dozen tele- films which followed.
The only time I've watched Fred & got a headache.These were so bad,they were g...nah,they were bad.But I really liked Ted Bessell...,the actor not the show.A good bad job Fred!
Too bad David Cassidy didn't _stay_ undercover. Man, this is some low-hanging fruit. Now I remember why I gave up on network television in the seventies.
David Cassidy Man Undercover: Starring David Cassidy ( Who else would it star?) How did Simon Oakland get involved w/ that? Supertrain was suppose to be NBC's answer to The Love Boat. One of Fred Silverman's high profile disasters after leaving ABC for NBC. How many times did they try to make The Brady Bunch into a 1 hr variety show? Mr T and Tina and Holmes & Yoyo ( from Get Smart , McMillan & Wife EP Leonard Stern) ran back to back on ABC on Saturday nights. Ted Bessell never could get his own successful series. Can't believe Garry Marshall co- created that mess.
kyokogodai I can understand that. But I think there would've been better choices. David must've had a deal w/ Columbia Pictures Television (fka Screen Gems) which produced Partridge Family.
Supertrain might have been more interesting if they'd given the sets to Irwin Allen to play with, though it certainly would not have been _anyone's_ answer to _Love Boat_. :) How many smiling, quirky villain characters did Edward Andrews play over the years? Seems like a strange casting choice as the conductor of a Love Train, though, and that probably didn't help the show gain traction.
Brett Middleton Mr Andrews did seem like an odd choice to play that part. The whole concept was a disaster. One of network television's most expensive failures ever. Even though Fred Silverman' s start was really rough he was also responsible for getting shows such as Hill Street Blues on the air.
The one show that deserves dishonorable mention was the Donnie & Marie episode when they did a Star Wars show. The can-can line of Stormtroopers was classic. There was also an episode of the Dinah Shore show that had R2-D2 for a guest. Painfully bad but everybody was trying to jump on the Star Wars bandwagon.
Somebody needs to write and produce A HIT BROADWAY MUSICAL featuring our most beloved TV characters from horrible shows who are all trapped on a runaway SUPERTRAIN. The passenger list includes : 1. Alf the alien. 2. Vicky in Small Wonder. 3. Sister Bertrille The Flying Nun. 4. Police Detective Sledge Hammer. 5. The Pink Lady girls. 6. The Home Boys from Outer Space. 7. Mrs. Crabtree aka My Mother The Car.
There is a show in one of these bad show comps called Holmes and Yoyo that aired on ABC that Universal produced. Now that I think of it, Baretta was produced by Uni and that was a hit for ABC. There are other ABC shows produced by Uni that aired in the '70's, and they sold series to the Alphabet Network over the following decades as well.,
UTV and its predecessor Revue Studios produced a number of shows for ABC in the 1960s as well, including Leave It To Beaver, McHale's Navy, It Takes A Thief and Marcus Welby M.D.
The Brady Bunch Hour was merely a clone of The Donny & Marie Show (also by the Kroffts). The difference was the Brady were even more saccharine than the Osmonds (if that's even possible).
In her memoirs, Maureen McCormick admitted that she'd been poisoning herself with cocaine during the "Brady Bunch Hour". She kicked her drug habit later on.
There was a period in the seventies that I stopped watching tv. Felt like there were better things to do with my life! Looks like I didn't miss anything!
5:50 Comic Jeff Altman--if I remember correctly, he was on an HBO Rodney Dangerfield comedy special in the 1980s, that also featured Roseanne Barr and Jerry Seinfeld, among others.
I think she had enough sense to save her self respect. Good for Eve. The BB was ok at best but the spinoffs were beyond painful. Amazing people actually thought any of this garbage was any good. I think some of that must have been summer filler
@@FredFlix Eve was way more pretty than Maureen McCormick. I was stuck on Mike Lookinland as a teenager, maybe that's why I used to watch The Brady Bunch Hour.
I was 19 by the end of that decade , yet (thankfully) I dont remember any of those shows but The Brady Hour, they all look awful save maybe Holmes and Yoyo which may have been kinda fun?
Twice they tried to make shows involving android cops, one was the unsold ABC pilot Future Cop, the other, at least 2 decades later was NBC's short-lived Mann and Machine.
Good job Fred! Talk about bad, i never even heard of any of them except for Hello Larry and Mr. T & Tina. And the bad part about one was that McLean Stevenson left MASH because he wanted his own show and ended up on that piece of garbage proving he was better off as a co-star than a show's star. Also, i don't remember why Pat Morita left Happy Days, but he to left a great show only to probably never live it down! Plus he was better than Al Molinaro, who replaced him as the proprietor of Arnold's.
I don't think many of those made it over the Atlantic to the UK; the only ones I remember seeing are 'Lanigan's Rabbi' (which I didn't think was too bad at the time) and 'Holmes & Yoyo' (which was definitely complete tosh).
holmes & yoyo predictive programming for this new AI scene we're in now. me & the chimp was cancelled after the first 2 episodes cuz the chimp went on a rampage and bit the lady's face off...just kidding(morbid humor, i kno). good list! thanks for the un-memories, haha
Maybe you should have called this list, "The BOTTOM 10." I don't recall seeing any of these shows in the '70's except for a couple of episodes of "Supertrain." (I watched that only because I am a train nut.) However, it was terrible, train and all. The show was trying to be like "Murder on the Orient Express" combined with "Airport." It concept just didn't work. On the other hand, the movie "Silver Streak" with Gene Wilder from 1976 was far better, although not Academy Award material.
I vaugely remember some of these bombs well prefer to forget most of them except for David Cassidy undercover. Wanted that one to work but the Sonny Bono comedy hour yeah Sonny without Cher just did not work. Funny how Cher was more sucessul in showbusiness.
I disagree with Holmes and Yoyo as well, as I watched that show too and found it funny. I also totally disagree with Lannigan's Rabbi, that was part of the NBC Mystery Movie along with Columbo, McCloud and McMillan and Wife. Art Carney played Lannigan and it was based on the book series by Harry Kemelman "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late" which won a mystery award for the author. Sadly, it was never given a chance to succeed by the network.
FredFlix It is a bad list, but just saying I didn't think those two shows should have made the list. So many others could have gone on there. For example, the San Pedro Beach Bums.
I thought The Brady Bunch Hour was So Stupid.I don't remember any of the other programs but I really would have liked the one with Ted Bessel, Anita Gilette, Scott Kolden and Kami Cotler.
If ME & THE CHIMP had succeeded, Kami Cotler would've been unavailable for THE WALTONS, and Scott Kolden would've been unavailable for...SIGMUND & THE SEA MONSTERS. :)
Allan Blye was one of the people behind _The Sonny Comedy Revue,_ but he more than redeemed himself with things like The Smothers Brothers and Super Dave Osborne.
I began college in 1973, so I have a vague recollection of "Hello, Larry" and "Mr. T and Tina." I guess it's not "All in the Family" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
I recently started watching popular 70’s shows and I don’t understand how a terrible show like Welcome Back Cotter was so well loved. It tried watching a few episodes and I couldn’t get past the first 10 minutes. 😝
Kotter was the first program to treat the not-so-nice kids as three-dimensional beings, the kids with rough home lives and other problems. The program was one of the first sitcoms to deal with difficult life issues occasionally. It was also a way for "good kids" to vicariously hang out with the kind of students we avoided in real life. Lots of programs are products of their time, and don't necessarily travel well. I liked Kotter back when, but I think it's very much a program for adolescents. I was not a fan of Gabe Kaplan's humor on that program or as a stand-up, though.
Anita Gillette was also a regular panelist on the syndicated version of What's My Line as well. Did you ever hear her sing? Her singing voice makes Barbra Streisand sound just like an amateur. (No offense to Barbra Streisand.) It's so powerful and beautiful! I saw her on a PBS tribute to Glenn Miller back in the 1980's and she sung Skylark. Her singing voice is so beautiful and powerful. She should have been a Top Ten recording artist.
My girl, Eve Plumb, was the only one smart enough to stay away from THAT mess, 1:25.
I wonder whatever became of Geri Reischl, her replacement on the "Brady Bunch Hour"?
@@not-so-smartaleck8987 Too bad they couldn't do a two Beckies kind of thing with the two Jans.
@@not-so-smartaleck8987 It's funny, when My Space was a thing, she actually put in a request to be a friend or whatever you called it on that site. And yes, she was calling herself Jan Brady. Nice lady, though.
@@nancymclaughlin6790 It could've been worse. They could've cast Charles Nelson Reilly or Paul Lynde.
@@davidharrison7014 The Paul Lynde show didn't fail because of him; it failed because network TV's scope was woefully inadequate for his sense of humor. In today's age of a million outlets, he would have been a much bigger star. He was genuinely about a generation ahead of his time.
I'm surprised my eyes aren't bleeding after watching that.
i would gladly watch these shows all over again...no matter how bad, I'm sure they're still better that most of the reality junk and other "stuff" that's on TV today!!😭😄😄😄
I agree.
FredFlix Thanks for responding to my comment FredFlix! i so enjoy your channel...have a swell week ahead!!😄🎥📹📼😄
You, too. I appreciate it, Muzikgirl67.
Muzikgirl67 If I could go back in time The first thing I would do is find the nearest TV!!
I was thinking that while watching the video !! I miss those days !! Funny story about " Me & The Chimp , " It was originally called : " The Chimp And I , " but Ted Bessel did not want second billing after a lower primate ( The Chimp !! ) .
Pat Morita left "Happy Days" to do that short-lived series. Thank goodness he still had a lot left to wax on and off the next decade. :)
I always wondered what happened to him on Happy Days. I thought when Arnold married Was her name Momo? That's why he left and when he returned she didn't return with him.
I think he left Welcome Back Kotter.
@@sheriheffner2098 I think he ended up back on HAPPY DAYS after Al was spun off into JOANIE LOVES CHACHI. Joanie & Chachi got to go back to HAPPY DAYS for its last season, but Al didn't go back to Milwaukee from Chicago until they were married in the finale.
@@jehobden I remember that. Yes he did come for the wedding. I also remember either Marion or Howard saying, " Is that you Chuck?"
That was Ralph Macchio's job and don't forget to sand the floor by Ralph also.
Rip Taylor with HR puffandstuff. The 70s were high on coke
He sure was "Puffin' that Stuff"!
"David Cassidy - man undercover...... starring David Cassidy" no really? i forgot already
That show with Favid Cassidy, was actually a very good show. We enjoyed it very much!! So keep your opinions to yourself!!
Danny Bonaduce should have been cast as David's partner. Or informant.
They gave David Cassidy that show based on a episode of "Police Story" he did that was really good. He played an undercover police officer in a high school.
I remember that one! And yeah, that was a good episode of "Police Story." I believe Alison Arngrim's (Nellie from "Little House On The Prairie") was also in that episode.
I wonder if he smashed Angie Dickenson???
Probably!!!
David Cassidy also received an
EMMY nomination in the Category of Best Single Performance By A Lead Actor In A Drama Series for his excellent guest work on Police Story.
"It's so obscure I could not find a clip of it."
There's now an episode on UA-cam.
Not too obscure to have a DVD for the series.
Jez was there no show Vincent Price wouldn't do?
Those art collections don't buy themselves.
I think we got the answer... but if you dig up old Hollywood Squares episodes, you will see that he was an extremely funny and very clever man. I can't think of anyone like him today; if Rupaul wore suits and did horror shows, maybe they could pull it off.
They called it David Cassidy - Man Undercover, then actually had the chrome-plated cojones to admit you might not be paying much attention, so they said "starring David Cassidy"...as if it might have had that title and starred Bobby Sherman...you knew it was gonna suck out loud when they did that. On top of that they tried to stack the deck and had Danny Bonaduce guest star in the very first episode...it didn't help.
Hello Larry was a spinoff of Different Strokes. Supertrain was NBC's answer to The Love Boat which didn't take off. originally broadcast in 1979 and by the way Kami Cotler eventually ended up on The Waltons she was in me and the chimp thank you for sharing these Fred some of these I remember when I was a kid and remember watching them
"Hello Larry" lasted two seasons , no where near as bad!
"Honorable" mention to GET CHRISTY LOVE! (It starred Teresa Graves because they couldn't get Pam Grier!)
"You're under arrest, sugar!"
Theresa Graves was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! RIP, Sugar!!!
January 10, 1948---October 10, 2002.
I'm biased. I was a huge David Cassidy fan, so I enjoyed "Man Undercover". 😂
As did I!!
The Police Story episode that it was based on was good enough for NBC to give it a chance at a 5 episode limited-run series. However, the critics disagreed.
The 70's now appear as strange as the 30's did in the 70's.
That's something I think about quite a bit. Of course, the 30s was what we were watching on The Waltons in the 70s.
I'm proud to say that I have the DVD box set of Pink Lady & Jeff. Did you know that when Fred Silverman discovered that the Japanese pop duo he'd hired to head up a variety show couldn't speak English, a frantic call went out for a young comic who could pretend to be their American friend helping them get by in America, talk to the guest stars, participate in sketches, etc? And the list of names he went off was in alphabetical order, so the job went to Jeff Altman. If Jeff and a bunch of others had turned the gig down, it could have been Pink Lady & David Letterman!
BTW, one of the bright spots on this otherwise mess of a variety show was a cast regular who helped out in sketches playing a much wider assortment of different characters than he was later known for. Jim Varney, who most of us know as Ernest, the "Hey Vern!" guy.
I do remember Jim Varney.
They made a box set for 6 episodes? I was 16 when that brief show was on and i actually liked it. Jeff was silly and the ladies were charming. I've never put this together until now but i suppose they were the start of why i love Japanese bands to this day.
Actually the pilot for Man Undercover that was presented on an episode of Police Story was really good, but the series itself was pretty bad.
Yikes! The cringe factor was off the scale!
This should be a watchmojo list
Aw, c'mon! They recasted HELLO, LARRY, smoothed some edges, reupped it as FRASIER, and it was a smash.
I suppose they replaced the fat comic relief with a dog.
remember Holmes and Yo Yo, grade nine, and saying " the bunko squad, the bunko squad, the bunko squad" over and over. you had to be there I guess .
Few things of note here. There were 2 actors mentioned here that left hit TV shows to pursue their own interests only for those shows to shop. One was McLean Stevenson who left MASH to do Hello Larry(he was essentially Frasier Crane before there was a Frasier Crane). Hello Larry, which was a spinoff of Diff'rent Strokes believe it or not, lasted 2 seasons and was pretty much career suicide for Stevenson who never really rebounded. The 2nd was Pat Morita who left Happy Days to make Mr. T. & Tina which flopped miserably getting cancelled after only 5 episodes. Fortunately for him his career was saved by The Karate Kid. Also, Holmes & Yoyo I remember and it's because of this show that my 35 year fantasy football team is named the Bunko Squad(a different spelling of the word bunco which is a division of a detective squad that specializes in fraud). Yoyo used to skip like a record while saying "the bunco squad". And the Brady Bunch Hour flopped because they couldn't get Eve Plumb and it kind of killed the cast.
Would go back to the 70s and enjoy each show. I would STAY there.
I would go back to 197O = sans the shows! - lol
If you look at the shows that were coming out back in 1971, even the unsuccessful ones seem more interesting than most of the stuff today!
Me too, and 1980 as well. 😁
Fun fact: "Supertrain" was bought by the BBC for the UK, following its disastrous US reception they decided not to show it while the series has never been shown here, the pilot movie did show up on "The other side" (ITV). By the way, TV also ran "Me and The Chimp".
I just realized that Me & The Chip, which was replaced by The Waltons, both “starred” Kami Cotler.
I was going to mention why was The Brady Bunch Hour came in 8th instead of 1st & then there was "Me & The Chimp" on top of the dung heap.
Thanks again, FredFlix. 🤣
So...............David Cassidy: Man Undercover actually starred David Cassidy? Thanks for clearing that up, guys.
The Number One Commandment of Television: Cast McLean Stevenson in anything except *M*A*S*H* and the result will be horrible: Hello, Larry, In the Beginning, The McLean Stevenson Show, The Doris Day Show, etc.
Yep. Bad career move to leave MASH.
Your timeline is a bit off. To be precise McLean left The Doris Day Show to star on MASH. Doris Day was successful even though they changed the format every season.
Poor Sonny, got WACKED on a ski slope.... RIP, BROTHER!!!!!!
We were just in Lake Tahoe 9/15/19 looking for a vacation home. We used to ski at heavenly valley. He did something not right. We don't ski anymore, I had a bad injury, but when my kids started skiing I forced them to wear helmets... their answer was" God mom we are gonna look like nerds" my reply was better a nerd than dead. Soon afterwards it became a requirement I'm gonna say in or around 1985ish. And snowboarding, I needed a Valium just to watch ! lol im kidding.
Sonny had a "skiing accident" while investigating the criminal actions of the Clinton administration....
Sonny was the best...funny as hell....
@@greg5011 he sure was, I couldn't STAND cheer though
I'm glad Me and the Chimp didn't stay on because The Walton's wouldn't have been the same without Kami Cotler as Elizabeth, who is my favorite sister and Jim Ben was my favorite brother.
Painful. lol Thanks Fred. Did you happen to watch the Chevy Chase late night talk show in the 90s I think. It was so terrible. Lasted about a week.
I remember watching the first episode and then never again.
Chevy Chase’s show was fascinatingly bad. Anybody remember Magic Johnson’s show in the 90s? Almost as bad.
It lasted for about a month; the same thing happened to Dennis Miller's show.
I love Miller but his problem is that he makes comedic references that even Dennis himself doesn't get. Remember his stint on "Monday Night Football"? "The Raiders offensive line is so dry Maurice Chevalier couldn't find a glass of Vichy water".
"What color is your underwear?" "I just had ice cream, so its color is Rocky Road!"--THE CHEVY CHASE SHOW
The only one I'd disagree with is Holmes and Yoyo. I think I was the only person in the country who actually watched it.
Grey Lensman Way more intelligent than "Police Woman"!
I confess I watched a few episodes. :O
I think it was some of John Schuck's best work.
I never saw it, but it does look like it had some potential, more in the Hymie the robot sort of way (Get Smart).
So did I....but I liked Howard the Duck (The Movie) and I thought Starcastle were a better band than Yes....
Honorable mention (along the lines of "Me & The Chimp"): "BJ and the Bear".
It seems like in the 70's and 80's they were trying to force the TV viewing public to watch TV shows with apes and monkeys in them.
BJ and the Bear was Shakespeare compared to Me & The Chimp.
@@testodude - You can see it on Ted Bessell's face in the credits for "Me & the Chimp".
"I went from a highly successful show That Girl to this slop?!?"
@@davester1970 "Planet of the Apes" was what started this "monkey business".
Along with the Saturday morning kids' program, "Lancelot Link and the Secret Chimp"!
BJ and the Bear, as bad as it was, was still wayyyy better than the list of croppers here. However, its spinoff, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, probably does deserve to be on here - that show was epically, crater-blastingly awful.
These ARE bad. What a bunch of dreck, haha. You must have had a myriad of shows to weed through to get these "winners". The mind reels. Sonny Bono ... did he even belong on television at all, I wonder. A few of these series would be like torture to endure, particularly "Pink Lady and Jeff" (imagine trying all that macho/degrading nonsense with today's sudience)!
Thomas Ritter What a sad tune. But you can't expect to do your Sonny & Cher Show without your talented partner Cher and be successful without her. The original should've been called The Cher and Sonny Show. Sonny's not awful (well, it's debatable), but Cher was the comedian and the singer and the style.
Pink Lady & Jeff falls in the "so awful you have to look' category. It has a weird cult following. I remember going to a girlfriend's house in the 90's and she was like, "you gotta see this!" and played Pink Lady & Jeff. Groannnn. But we drank and cringed at it....very entertaining for cringe.
Thomas Ritter Pink Lady videos played on HBO's Video Jukebox, too.
Thomas Ritter: You are very right. Sonny was very savvy in the music industry, he also wrote some decent pop songs.
Then there's the fact that neither of the Pink Ladies really spoke English. They had to learn most of their lines phonetically.
I missed most of this mess because I was overseas serving with the US Navy from March 1972 to OCT 1977..except for about 13 months...Yesh..what a mess. I do remember Supertrain.. might have watched one show...maybe....
Thank you for your non service to TV
If you asked a fairly knowledgeable TV viewer what show McLean Stevenson left “MASH” for, the knee-jerk answer would likely be “Hello Larry.” But his first show after “MASH” was actually “The McLean Stevenson Show,” which probably could be on this list.
Man, that Brady Bunch hour is the most 70s thing pre-disco...
I must have been out drinking, because I don't remember any of these shows!
Supertrain is the damn show that almost bankrupt NBC because of budget costs. Hello Larry was NOT bad. Kim Richards was on it. Whooohooo
As always you’re right on the money
Thanks, Candy.
Great list! I remember almost all of them. Thanks for all you do FredFlix!
You're welcome, brentz3.
Apparently, the 'Brady Bunch Hour" was 59 minutes too long. Considering David Cassidy's supposed fan base, wasn't he a heartthrob, you'd think his series would've succeeded somewhat.
Limited-run series. Only 5 episodes.
Buttons the Chimp! Poor Ted Bessel took guff from Marlo Thomas, then this. Sometimes fame isn’t everything an actor hopes it will be.
Brinson Harris Kami Cotler who played the daughter on Me and the Chimp portrayed the youngest sibling (Elizabeth) on The Waltons for it's entire run including the half dozen tele- films which followed.
Ted Bessell certainly deserved a LOT better...a good actor who was either in bad shows or a second-banana!
Between Marlo and Buttons......... I'll take Marlo!
SUPERTRAIN!!! This week on SUPERTRAIN... The Buffet Cart of Doom!
Brady bunch hour was certainly shown in Australia I think lasted a month
Never heard of any! Guess that's good...
I would say so.
The only time I've watched Fred & got a headache.These were so bad,they were g...nah,they were bad.But I really liked Ted Bessell...,the actor not the show.A good bad job Fred!
Sorry about the headline, Mike. I've got 9 more Bad Top 10 lists to go, so get your aspirin ready.
I think Ted Bessel was Marlo Thomas boyfriend on That Girl🤔
Too bad David Cassidy didn't _stay_ undercover.
Man, this is some low-hanging fruit.
Now I remember why I gave up on network television in the seventies.
Michael Tuz He is now. :(((((
I never knew Cassidy did any TV show(s) other than Partridge Family.
All these years later that Hello Larry theme has been in my head.
McLean Stevenson's career never was the same after he left MASH.
David Cassidy Man Undercover: Starring David Cassidy ( Who else would it star?) How did Simon Oakland get involved w/ that? Supertrain was suppose to be NBC's answer to The Love Boat. One of Fred Silverman's high profile disasters after leaving ABC for NBC. How many times did they try to make The Brady Bunch into a 1 hr variety show? Mr T and Tina and Holmes & Yoyo ( from Get Smart , McMillan & Wife EP Leonard Stern) ran back to back on ABC on Saturday nights. Ted Bessell never could get his own successful series. Can't believe Garry Marshall co- created that mess.
Simon Oakland needed work, after Baa Baa Black Sheep was cancelled!
kyokogodai I can understand that. But I think there would've been better choices. David must've had a deal w/ Columbia Pictures Television (fka Screen Gems) which produced Partridge Family.
Supertrain might have been more interesting if they'd given the sets to Irwin Allen to play with, though it certainly would not have been _anyone's_ answer to _Love Boat_. :) How many smiling, quirky villain characters did Edward Andrews play over the years? Seems like a strange casting choice as the conductor of a Love Train, though, and that probably didn't help the show gain traction.
Brett Middleton Mr Andrews did seem like an odd choice to play that part. The whole concept was a disaster. One of network television's most expensive failures ever. Even though Fred Silverman' s start was really rough he was also responsible for getting shows such as Hill Street Blues on the air.
Simon Oakland was one of those guys who seemingly NEVER turned down work...you name a show, chances are he either guest-starred or co-starred on it.
The one show that deserves dishonorable mention was the Donnie & Marie episode when they did a Star Wars show. The can-can line of Stormtroopers was classic. There was also an episode of the Dinah Shore show that had R2-D2 for a guest. Painfully bad but everybody was trying to jump on the Star Wars bandwagon.
Brinson Harris Oh, the pain...🤕
Somebody needs to write and produce
A HIT BROADWAY MUSICAL featuring our most beloved TV characters from horrible shows who are all trapped on a runaway SUPERTRAIN. The passenger list includes :
1. Alf the alien.
2. Vicky in Small Wonder.
3. Sister Bertrille The Flying Nun.
4. Police Detective Sledge Hammer.
5. The Pink Lady girls.
6. The Home Boys from Outer Space.
7. Mrs. Crabtree aka My Mother The Car.
Looks like they did a fake Shemp on the Brady Bunch Hour. Eve Plumb bailed on playing Jan, figuring the show was going to bomb.
The David Cassidy spin-off was Columbia's bad attempt to cash in on his half-brother Shaun's success for Paramount with "The Hardy Boys".
Paramount didn't produce Hardy Boys, Universal did.
Mark Speck Really? Something on 1970s ABC lineup *NOT* produced by Paramount or WB?
There is a show in one of these bad show comps called Holmes and Yoyo that aired on ABC that Universal produced. Now that I think of it, Baretta was produced by Uni and that was a hit for ABC. There are other ABC shows produced by Uni that aired in the '70's, and they sold series to the Alphabet Network over the following decades as well.,
This was a spin off a TV movie nothing to do with hardy boys
UTV and its predecessor Revue Studios produced a number of shows for ABC in the 1960s as well, including Leave It To Beaver, McHale's Navy, It Takes A Thief and Marcus Welby M.D.
The Waverly Wonders with Joe Namath as a basketball coach should be on the list.
True that.
The Brady Bunch Hour was merely a clone of The Donny & Marie Show (also by the Kroffts). The difference was the Brady were even more saccharine than the Osmonds (if that's even possible).
In her memoirs, Maureen McCormick admitted that she'd been poisoning herself with cocaine during the "Brady Bunch Hour". She kicked her drug habit later on.
#8 would have been successful if Eve Plumb joined.... NOT. Great list, brings back forgotten memories. Thanks.
I don’t mean that as a criticism of Ms Plumb. She was smart enough to stay away.
You're welcome, Bob. Eve turned out to be a very attractive woman.
Bob Dammit Only because she was pregnant at the time.
There was a period in the seventies that I stopped watching tv. Felt like there were better things to do with my life! Looks like I didn't miss anything!
'The Love Boat' every episode was the same...just different actors
5:50 Comic Jeff Altman--if I remember correctly, he was on an HBO Rodney Dangerfield comedy special in the 1980s, that also featured Roseanne Barr and Jerry Seinfeld, among others.
Man I watched too much TY. I actually remember these shows.
I actually liked Pink Lady (the show).
Me too!
Me too!
Loved Supertrain! But anything Scifi would rope me in back then.
Yes the Brady Bunch Hour was pretty bad. I still think 'Fake Jan' was a lot prettier than Eve Plumb, tho! Sorry Eve!
Eve Plumb turned out to be a fairly attractive woman, in a kind of girl-next-door way.
I think she had enough sense to save her self respect. Good for Eve. The BB was ok at best but the spinoffs were beyond painful. Amazing people actually thought any of this garbage was any good. I think some of that must have been summer filler
Still I did like The Brady Brides. I don't know why!
The Brady Bunch hour was beyond awful. I still don't understand why I used to watch it.
@@FredFlix Eve was way more pretty than Maureen McCormick. I was stuck on Mike Lookinland as a teenager, maybe that's why I used to watch The Brady Bunch Hour.
I was 19 by the end of that decade , yet (thankfully) I dont remember any of those shows but The Brady Hour, they all look awful save maybe Holmes and Yoyo which may have been kinda fun?
Twice they tried to make shows involving android cops, one was the unsold ABC pilot Future Cop, the other, at least 2 decades later was NBC's short-lived Mann and Machine.
I dont recall half these shows, and now I see why!!
THIS........is a part of the 70's that I "DON'T" MISS. 😕😦😖 A sincere thanks for the reminder!
Me too! Along with the scratchy polyester, smoke everywhere and in everything, and the smell of cars using "Regular" (aka Leaded) gasoline.
How could you not include shield's and yarnell? That mime show was stupid.
I shamelessly admit I loved the Brady Bunch Hour and Hello Larry.
It’s really a shame Supertrain failed, because good lord does that set look expensive!
It was expensive. That show as well as the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow almost bankrupted NBC.
Man Undercover Was a Precursor for 21 Jump Street
Its a shame cause these people believed in these shows and never got a chance to shine.
Good job Fred! Talk about bad, i never even heard of any of them except for Hello Larry and Mr. T & Tina. And the bad part about one was that McLean Stevenson left MASH because he wanted his own show and ended up on that piece of garbage proving he was better off as a co-star than a show's star. Also, i don't remember why Pat Morita left Happy Days, but he to left a great show only to probably never live it down! Plus he was better than Al Molinaro, who replaced him as the proprietor of Arnold's.
Fortunately I have only heard of one of these, even though I was around at the time.
Pink Lady was fun. Jeff Altman was not.
Christopher U.S. Smith That was Japan's version of "bubblegum pop", long before The Vocaloids. (Google it) 🎎
Luis Reyes I saw Pink Lady videos on HBO's Video Jukebox at the time, so I knew who they were. They were funny. Jeff Altman fell flat.
The Brady Bunch Hour gets the WTF award.
I think I would have accepted a marathon of Hello Larry and Super Train over 10 minutes of Brady Bunch
What a trip I remember all of them except for the rabbi one.
You Forgot that the one with the Ugliest Turtleneck was not Bionic, But David Mc Callum Invisible Man🤘😁
McLean Stevenson left MASH to do Hello Larry 😬
I don't think many of those made it over the Atlantic to the UK; the only ones I remember seeing are 'Lanigan's Rabbi' (which I didn't think was too bad at the time) and 'Holmes & Yoyo' (which was definitely complete tosh).
holmes & yoyo predictive programming for this new AI scene we're in now.
me & the chimp was cancelled after the first 2 episodes cuz the chimp went on a rampage and bit the lady's face off...just kidding(morbid humor, i kno). good list! thanks for the un-memories, haha
Maybe you should have called this list, "The BOTTOM 10." I don't recall seeing any of these shows in the '70's except for a couple of episodes of "Supertrain." (I watched that only because I am a train nut.) However, it was terrible, train and all. The show was trying to be like "Murder on the Orient Express" combined with "Airport." It concept just didn't work. On the other hand, the movie "Silver Streak" with Gene Wilder from 1976 was far better, although not Academy Award material.
I would have called it the bottom 10 except it's a BAD list, intentionally.
Thomas Levy Supertrain's big problem was a lead actor few people knew: Edward Andrews. Love Boat had Gavin (Murray from Mary Tyler Moore).
Wow, can't believe there are clips of some of these shows still in existence Fred! Glad you don't work for the IRS
Network fill in.....
Eli Foust More like TV landfill.
any variety show....60s shows hold up great....70s - 85 in general pretty bad......even my fav 3s company is sometimes hard to watch
I vaugely remember some of these bombs well prefer to forget most of them except for David Cassidy undercover. Wanted that one to work but the Sonny Bono comedy hour yeah Sonny without Cher just did not work. Funny how Cher was more sucessul in showbusiness.
Still better than today’s bunk
I disagree with Holmes and Yoyo as well, as I watched that show too and found it funny. I also totally disagree with Lannigan's Rabbi, that was part of the NBC Mystery Movie along with Columbo, McCloud and McMillan and Wife. Art Carney played Lannigan and it was based on the book series by Harry Kemelman "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late" which won a mystery award for the author. Sadly, it was never given a chance to succeed by the network.
Well, like I said, it's a bad list.
FredFlix It is a bad list, but just saying I didn't think those two shows should have made the list. So many others could have gone on there. For example, the San Pedro Beach Bums.
Yikes, I forgot about that horror!
FredFlix Hopefully that will make your next list. Perhaps even Chopper One can join that one.
I thought The Brady Bunch Hour was So Stupid.I don't remember any of the other programs but I really would have liked the one with Ted Bessel, Anita Gilette, Scott Kolden and Kami Cotler.
If ME & THE CHIMP had succeeded, Kami Cotler would've been unavailable for THE WALTONS, and Scott Kolden would've been unavailable for...SIGMUND & THE SEA MONSTERS. :)
Allan Blye was one of the people behind _The Sonny Comedy Revue,_ but he more than redeemed himself with things like The Smothers Brothers and Super Dave Osborne.
I began college in 1973, so I have a vague recollection of "Hello, Larry" and "Mr. T and Tina." I guess it's not "All in the Family" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
God bless "fake Jan". She never had a chance...
I recently started watching popular 70’s shows and I don’t understand how a terrible show like Welcome Back Cotter was so well loved. It tried watching a few episodes and I couldn’t get past the first 10 minutes. 😝
Kotter was the first program to treat the not-so-nice kids as three-dimensional beings, the kids with rough home lives and other problems. The program was one of the first sitcoms to deal with difficult life issues occasionally. It was also a way for "good kids" to vicariously hang out with the kind of students we avoided in real life.
Lots of programs are products of their time, and don't necessarily travel well. I liked Kotter back when, but I think it's very much a program for adolescents. I was not a fan of Gabe Kaplan's humor on that program or as a stand-up, though.
HOLY CRAP FRED. Really really crappy shows !!!! LMAO
How insulted did the maid have to feel that they announced the entire cast of the show then she doesn't give an alt till after HR puppinstuff lol
"H.R. Pufnstuff's".......Great name for a weed shop!!!
Heard of half of them oddly enuf lol
"Hello, Larry!" wasn't that bad, considering the other "Diff'rent Strokes" spin-off was "The Facts of Life".
Anita Gillette was also a regular panelist on the syndicated version of What's My Line as well.
Did you ever hear her sing? Her singing voice makes Barbra Streisand sound just like an amateur. (No offense to Barbra Streisand.) It's so powerful and beautiful! I saw her on a PBS tribute to Glenn Miller back in the 1980's and she sung Skylark. Her singing voice is so beautiful and powerful. She should have been a Top Ten recording artist.
Never knew that about her, Nan.
Damn!!! She was THAT good???
I don't remember any of those shows. I was good with that until this! LOL! Oh Fred!