Unsuccessful old TV shows that have been forgotten

[AndyC]

That would be "Mr. Merlin" with Barnard Hughes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uANZDfTGdU4
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[Flu-Bird]

UNCLE CROCS BLOCK with CHARLES NELSON REILY as the host of a kids show and they had JONATHAN HARRIS and there was BILLY BRATSON/CAPTIAN MARBLES,MR RABBITEARS, and CUCOO KENIVAL a bird who rode a motorcycle out of his clock

[Flick James]

That would be "Mr. Merlin" with Barnard Hughes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uANZDfTGdU4

That's it! Thanks, I'm no longer going crazy. They actually made 22 episodes of that? Amazing.

[Raffine]

Ever wonder what a Mel Brooks-created sitcom that was sort of a embryonic version of his film ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS would have been like?

Say "Allo!" to When Things Were Rotten:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMDunJc5KUQ
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Starring Dick Gautier, Dick Van Patten, Bernie Kopell, and everybody's favorite Hee Haw Honey, Misty Rowe.

I still remember that theme song.

"Hurray for Robin Hood!"

A thought: TV theme songs were always better when they ended with harp glissandos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QOCND9dgTE
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[Raffine]

I have vague but good memories of a CBS sitcom based on the Frankenstein legend called Struck By Lightning. Google-eyed Jack Elam played The Monster (named 'Frank') and Jeffery Kramer  (Deputy Hendricks from the first two JAWS movies) was Dr. Stein.

I'll bet RC remembers this, too.

IMDB says it only lasted for THREE episodes. Funny - it seemed like four...


Elam as Frank

[The Burgomaster]

I have vague but good memories of a CBS sitcom based on the Frankenstein legend called Struck By Lightning. Google-eyed Jack Elam played The Monster (named 'Frank') and Jeffery Kramer  (Deputy Hendricks from the first two JAWS movies) was Dr. Stein.

I'll bet RC remembers this, too.

IMDB says it only lasted for THREE episodes. Funny - it seemed like four...


Elam as Frank


I remember when this show was on . . . did anyone really think this concept would work?

[JaseSF]

I recall what I think was a pilot for a series, a sitcom with a family of ghosts (no one can see them but the viewing audience) living in an house and then some new unwanted people come to live there. I recall I thought it was quite funny at the time but I guess not very many did like it as it never became a series. I have no idea what it was called now.

[AndyC]

I thought Struck by Lightning was a great show. Mind you, I was 7 or 8 when it aired. Looking back with the benefit of experience, it was pretty much a one-joke show that wouldn't have given the writers a whole lot to work with after the first couple of episodes. That seems to be the story with a lot of things I enjoyed watching as a kid. Either the show quietly disappears, like Struck by Lightning or Mr Merlin, or it sticks around long enough for the writers to actually run out of ideas and all but abandon the concept, as happened with Salvage 1 or Whiz Kids.

Which is better, a show that goes away after a couple of episodes, leaving you with the memory of a couple of good episodes, or a show that stayed on for a season or two, with more good episodes, but a sharp decline in quality even a kid can appreciate?

I only have a vague recollection of Struck by Lightning, maybe a couple of lines (which is kind of surprising, actually), but I remember liking it, and being disappointed when it was cancelled. On the other hand, my vague memory of Salvage 1, which started off with a pretty good pilot and a couple of decent episodes, is mostly of how quickly the spaceship was shoved into the background and being disappointed by the last few episodes. Disappointment when the show doesn't get a chance, and disappointment when it does.

Actually, it's little wonder TV shows today are so lacking in the sort of diversity of settings and characters we used to enjoy. Making something different that lasts is not an easy thing, and fairly risky. Not surprising that the bulk of these shows are from the 70s and early 80s. You still had remnants of the 60s, such as the traditional model of the situation comedy, and the experimentation with programming. By the end of the 80s, hardly anybody in mainstream TV was running things up the flagpole to see who salutes. The major networks had pretty much established that the most profitable shows, the cheapest to produce and the easiest to write, the ones most likely to have a long run, were shows that didn't stray too far from the ordinary. A bunch of quirky people in a bar, an apartment, a coffee shop, etc. The TV equivalent of a beige room - you can pretty much dress it up any way you want.

Pity the shows with the most restrictive premises were also the most interesting.

[voltron]

not that old (8 years ?), but i loved this show when it was on. it's a shame it never became a series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=8sX3E4Xp68w

[AndyC]

Just watched the MST3K episode with the "movie" that was cobbled together out of this series, Riding with Death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWLDa5DnpQ
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[Flu-Bird]

THE BEARCATS about these two men in 1920s america traveling cross coutry in a old time car fitten with a gattling gun

[Raffine]

Just watched the MST3K episode with the "movie" that was cobbled together out of this series, Riding with Death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWLDa5DnpQ

I actually remember watching an episode or two of this! And the MST3K version, natch.

Here's one where I vividly remember the theme song but have no memory of the show itself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRNpa_vTjRM&feature=related
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It was one of those shows my older sister - a preteen at the time - forced the family to watch.

Bobby Sherman and a pre-Starsky & Hutch David Soul?
A 12 year old girls' idea of a perfect world in 1969, I suppose...

Hey, but Joan Blondell and Mr. Spock, Sr. was in it. You'd think I'd remember THAT!

[Raffine]

Another show our house was not allowed to miss was The New People. Vastly cooler than a lumberjack Bobby Sherman, it was a very weird pre-Lost epic about a group of teenage hippies marooned on a Mysterious Island by a Mysterious Plane Crash.

This bit does make it look really interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3nfHUrxlY
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"REALITY IS A BUMMER TRIP OUT" indeed!

Like most shows of that era it had a really groovy theme song.

[Flick James]

Oh, man, does anybody remember the sitcom Herman's Head from the early 90s? The central character went through life and you always inside his head, where 4 actors portrayed different aspects of his personality, a typical shallow fratboy type, a neurotic, a nerdy genius type, and even a woman who represented his "sensitive side." I remember seeing the pilot, knowing it was going to be bad, and it did not disappoint. I thought, "this show won't make it to the back 9," but I'll be damned if it didn't actually make to a 3rd season. I remember talking to people who said it was actually a funny show, but the only funny I ever saw in it was how bad it was.

Here's another one. Cop Rock. Yes, a crime drama series that was also a musical. Not kidding. This was also in the early 90's. That one didn't make it through a season.

[Flick James]

I even remember a courtroom scene in Cop Rock where the verdict was being announced on a trial and the jury actually broke into a gospel style number, rising up and in robes and singing about the guy being guilty. What a bizarre show.