I cannot stand the "generic" US sitcoms, all the same in essence, the worse offenders are: The Big Bang Theory
Friends
How I Met Your Mother
Will & Grace
Everybody Loves Raymond
Joey
Sh~t My Dad Says
That 70's Show
etc etc etc
They have produced a few gems though..
Frasier
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Cheers
Seinfeld
The Big Bang Theory is actually pretty good. I agree with the rest of your list though.
Orrible
Two Pints...
Ad Fab
Gavin & Stacey
The Office
I like The Office but it isn't everyone's cup of tea and it isn't really a traditional sitcom anyway. But Gavin & Stacey and Ab Fab were high quality and well written comedies. Ab Fab did go downhill a bit later. I don't see how either can be classed as bad sitcoms.
Sitcoms are made or broken by the quality of the writing. The plots and the characters have to be believable. Poor ones like My Family just throw "funny situations" at a regular cast of dysfunctional stereotypes.
My worst sitcom list would include:
Mind Your Language
Love Thy Neighbour
On The Buses
George and Mildred
The Upper Hand
Trippers Day
My Family
Life of Riley
Vicious
The Royal Bodyguard
Heil Honey I'm Home was pulled after the first episode and filming of the remaining seven commissioned was cancelled by the old BSkyB. It portrayed Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun in 1938 living next door to a Jewish couple and conspiring to murder them.The episode was screened in September 1990 (actually straight after a repeat of Dad's Army).The writer, Geoff Atkinson, protested it was more in the spirit of Allo, Allo ridiculing the Nazis but Sky executives failed to see the joke.Apparently the biggest mystery was how it came to be commissioned in the first place.
Talk about bad taste, the only person that could have pulled this off is Mel Brooks, the fact is it just is not funny. It was commissioned by BSB before it was taken over/ merged with Sky, and aired on their general entertainment channel Galaxy.
Not going out - Surprised I didn't like this because I generally think Lee Mack is funny. But Tim Vine is about as funny as a root canal.
Only Fools - love David Jason but generally never once found this funny.
League of Gentlemen - it just wasn't funny, not even remotely.
Gavin & Stacey. James Cordon has as much acting ability as my blind 15 year old Cat.
The Office - I find Ricky Gervais genuinely cringe worthy. In interviews. Sketches anything I've ever seen him do I have cringed at how appallingly talentless and shit he is.
The worst sitcoms ever are probably those long forgotten by most but like the previous poster I never 'got' the League of Gentlemen and used to half expect the writers to reveal it was an 'emperor's new clothes' style scam but I assume it wasn't.
As for older ones, when I catch a bit of an old repeat of sitcoms popular in the 70s I usually find myself scratching my head wondering what people used to laugh at. I guess that just shows how humour has changed though and I think become more sophisticated, whether for better or worse.
Slightly more recently I never cracked even a smile watching what little I did of Bread and have never found a single moment of what I saw of Last of the Summer Wine funny. Always wondered if both had a northern based following since sense of humour can be regional.
The one episode I watched of Vicious was truly appalling and embarassing to see two such fine actors in what I thought was tripe.
I keep watching 'on the buses'. Even though I find it seems to be written by people who hate the working class.
Stan and jack are meant to be our 'hero's', sticking it too the man. Blakey. So, what's blakey's big crime? Wanting to run an effective public service, one people rely on to get to work or go to the shops.
If blakey was a bastard, I'd see the point. But jacks a militant union duche, wanting something for nothing, stans a feckless incompetent. And, poor olive, Is just a door-mat. Perpetuating the ideal that women are useless if their not beautiful.
It's hateful shit. And I don't know who the bigger fool is. The working class audience of the 70's for watching this garbage then, of me for watching it 40 years later....
The Sky produced so called comedies are all terrible. I've never laughed once during a Sky so called comedy.
There have been good and bad comedies on ITV and BBC throughout the years ( but fewer hilariuous episodes throughout the entire episodes on more of the BBC than the ITV ones)
Brush Strokes was nowhere near as funny as Man about the House. And Only When I laugh was funnier for entire episode (and every episode of every series) than Only Fools and Horses that was funny only some of the time (occasionally funny the entire episode).
The Office - I find Ricky Gervais genuinely cringe worthy. In interviews. Sketches anything I've ever seen him do I have cringed at how appallingly talentless and shit he is.
I totally agree.
And yet Gervais has this appalling arrogance and smugness as if he was the greatest performer who ever lived. Although I'm sure in Gervais' own opinion, he is.
How dare you!:D It was hilarious. No it wasn't subtle, but it was well cast, well performed, and very entertaining. The mother nearly stole that series, she's an example of a long gone type, reminds me a bit of the old women my nan used to know.:D Barbara Lott was a sensation in it. And it's certainly a lot funnier than any sitcom now...if indeed they still exist.:;-)
SORRY is being repeated on Gold in the afternoons at the moment. I rather like it too.
Agreed, truly awful, Ben Elton sunk to a new low when he wrote this, I also nominate Citizen Khan, which does nothing to promote multi-cultural Britain.
This is very much a matter of individual taste, which is why none of us are going to agree on shows we like and those we hate.
I think it also depends on whether we are seeing these as nostalgia or history...
But for mine:
Sitcoms I thought were dreadful:
Are You Being Served
On The Buses
Terry and June
Sitcoms I liked:
2.4 Children - it was good! I watched this as a kid and their home was a lot like ours.
Which is why we also tuned into Roseane every week.
Most of the ITV sitcoms from the 70's were terrible with Mind Your Language being particularly horrible. More recently there was The Royal Bodyguard and, also starring David Jason funnily enough, the Open All Hours special last Christmas, both terrible.
Also:
'Orrible starring Johnny Vaughn, aptly named.
Bread, never liked Carla Lane's stuff.
Mad About Alice, starred Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston, enough said.
The Brittas Empire.
You Rang M'Lord.
I also vaguely remember a sitcom from SKY in it's very early days about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun in the style of an American sitcom. ( a quick Google search tells me it was called Heil Honey I'm Home, seriously, and was aired in 1990. It only lasted one episode!)
This thread would have made a good sit-com. I'm laughing at some of the suggestions people put for the "worst sit-com".
Bread? Game On? OFAH? On The Buses? Deary me today!
Anyway, no-one is probably going to agree with my suggestions (my type of comedy and taste seems different to others) but here goes; these are the sit-com's I find utterly awful, ridiculous, shocking, crap and any other similar wordings.
The Office - Gervais is unfunny anyway, and so this "comedy" was just going to go the same way
Friends - Typical American tripe that everyone lauded over, the "stars" got paid a fortune, yet it just isn't funny in the slightest
The Big Bang Theory - See above
Gavin & Stacey - Just didn't find it funny at all, plus it spawned the media **** that is James Corden so I despise it even more
Little Britain - Again, utterly humourless.
This wave of new comedy just doesn't appeal to me at all. Give me the likes of Chalk, One Foot in the Grave, On The Buses, Men Behaving Badly, Game On, Coupling, OFAH, Never The Twain (only a select few) and others in the UK, and the likes of Perfect Strangers, WKRP in Cincinnati, Crazy Like A Fox, Frasier, 3rd Rock From The Sun and others from the US.
Duty Free
Plus One was pretty weak
How Not To Live Your Life
In With The Flynns
The Big Bang Theory- not the worst worst but incredibly irritating
My Hero
The Job Lot- completely laugh-free. Not even broad humour just...no humour.
Before we praise the seventies and eighties for having great comedy, some of it is dire.
Comments
Every time roly-poly unfunny man James Corden appears I could put my foot through the screen! He's awful!
On The Buses was renewed a few times, as was Mind Your Langauge. It's no proof of quality.
Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi are superb actors. I wanted to like Vicious but the script is cliched. I found it completely unwatchable.
I like The Office but it isn't everyone's cup of tea and it isn't really a traditional sitcom anyway. But Gavin & Stacey and Ab Fab were high quality and well written comedies. Ab Fab did go downhill a bit later. I don't see how either can be classed as bad sitcoms.
Sitcoms are made or broken by the quality of the writing. The plots and the characters have to be believable. Poor ones like My Family just throw "funny situations" at a regular cast of dysfunctional stereotypes.
My worst sitcom list would include:
Mind Your Language
Love Thy Neighbour
On The Buses
George and Mildred
The Upper Hand
Trippers Day
My Family
Life of Riley
Vicious
The Royal Bodyguard
The first episode is on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf9jJx0NSjw
Talk about bad taste, the only person that could have pulled this off is Mel Brooks, the fact is it just is not funny. It was commissioned by BSB before it was taken over/ merged with Sky, and aired on their general entertainment channel Galaxy.
Bread
One Foot In The Grave
Last Of The Summer Wine
Birds Of A Feather
Only Fools And Horses
My Hero
Keeping Up Appearances
Some well-respected ones in there but that's more to do with me only liking sitcoms with a certain tone.
Only Fools - love David Jason but generally never once found this funny.
League of Gentlemen - it just wasn't funny, not even remotely.
Gavin & Stacey. James Cordon has as much acting ability as my blind 15 year old Cat.
The Office - I find Ricky Gervais genuinely cringe worthy. In interviews. Sketches anything I've ever seen him do I have cringed at how appallingly talentless and shit he is.
As for older ones, when I catch a bit of an old repeat of sitcoms popular in the 70s I usually find myself scratching my head wondering what people used to laugh at. I guess that just shows how humour has changed though and I think become more sophisticated, whether for better or worse.
Slightly more recently I never cracked even a smile watching what little I did of Bread and have never found a single moment of what I saw of Last of the Summer Wine funny. Always wondered if both had a northern based following since sense of humour can be regional.
The one episode I watched of Vicious was truly appalling and embarassing to see two such fine actors in what I thought was tripe.
Stan and jack are meant to be our 'hero's', sticking it too the man. Blakey. So, what's blakey's big crime? Wanting to run an effective public service, one people rely on to get to work or go to the shops.
If blakey was a bastard, I'd see the point. But jacks a militant union duche, wanting something for nothing, stans a feckless incompetent. And, poor olive, Is just a door-mat. Perpetuating the ideal that women are useless if their not beautiful.
It's hateful shit. And I don't know who the bigger fool is. The working class audience of the 70's for watching this garbage then, of me for watching it 40 years later....
There have been good and bad comedies on ITV and BBC throughout the years ( but fewer hilariuous episodes throughout the entire episodes on more of the BBC than the ITV ones)
Brush Strokes was nowhere near as funny as Man about the House. And Only When I laugh was funnier for entire episode (and every episode of every series) than Only Fools and Horses that was funny only some of the time (occasionally funny the entire episode).
Outnumbered
I totally agree.
And yet Gervais has this appalling arrogance and smugness as if he was the greatest performer who ever lived. Although I'm sure in Gervais' own opinion, he is.
SORRY is being repeated on Gold in the afternoons at the moment. I rather like it too.
Agreed, truly awful, Ben Elton sunk to a new low when he wrote this, I also nominate Citizen Khan, which does nothing to promote multi-cultural Britain.
Sorry - Antics of a picked on son and his Mum
Fresh Fields - Antics of a husband and wife
Terry and June - Antics of a husband and wife
After You've Gone - Antics of a man and his mother-in-law
Life of Riley - Antics of a dysfunctional family.
Supernova - Antics of an inept astronomer
So What Now? - Antics of Lee Evans and his slobbish friend
I think it also depends on whether we are seeing these as nostalgia or history...
But for mine:
Sitcoms I thought were dreadful:
Are You Being Served
On The Buses
Terry and June
Sitcoms I liked:
2.4 Children - it was good! I watched this as a kid and their home was a lot like ours.
Which is why we also tuned into Roseane every week.
Oh that was dire; dreary characters that had nothing likeable at all about them. Awful awful theme song too.
Home to Roost - with the late John Thaw. Great actor but even he admitted that show was his biggest mistake. Apparently he hated making it.
Next of Kin - Penelope Keith.
Brush Strokes - about as funny as a church on fire.
Are You Being Served? (the Australian version with John Inman) - just unspeakably bad.
Married with Children
Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
Bless This House
Father Dear Father
Also:
'Orrible starring Johnny Vaughn, aptly named.
Bread, never liked Carla Lane's stuff.
Mad About Alice, starred Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston, enough said.
The Brittas Empire.
You Rang M'Lord.
I also vaguely remember a sitcom from SKY in it's very early days about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun in the style of an American sitcom. ( a quick Google search tells me it was called Heil Honey I'm Home, seriously, and was aired in 1990. It only lasted one episode!)
Bread? Game On? OFAH? On The Buses? Deary me today!
Anyway, no-one is probably going to agree with my suggestions (my type of comedy and taste seems different to others) but here goes; these are the sit-com's I find utterly awful, ridiculous, shocking, crap and any other similar wordings.
The Office - Gervais is unfunny anyway, and so this "comedy" was just going to go the same way
Friends - Typical American tripe that everyone lauded over, the "stars" got paid a fortune, yet it just isn't funny in the slightest
The Big Bang Theory - See above
Gavin & Stacey - Just didn't find it funny at all, plus it spawned the media **** that is James Corden so I despise it even more
Little Britain - Again, utterly humourless.
This wave of new comedy just doesn't appeal to me at all. Give me the likes of Chalk, One Foot in the Grave, On The Buses, Men Behaving Badly, Game On, Coupling, OFAH, Never The Twain (only a select few) and others in the UK, and the likes of Perfect Strangers, WKRP in Cincinnati, Crazy Like A Fox, Frasier, 3rd Rock From The Sun and others from the US.
You'll hate the Antics Roadshow.
Plus One was pretty weak
How Not To Live Your Life
In With The Flynns
The Big Bang Theory- not the worst worst but incredibly irritating
My Hero
The Job Lot- completely laugh-free. Not even broad humour just...no humour.
Before we praise the seventies and eighties for having great comedy, some of it is dire.