Shitcoms - The Worst Sitcoms In History

[Marner and Me]

I can't for the life of me remember what it was called but there was a British sitcom, early 2000s I think, about a wealthy, obnoxious bloke who lived in a big house, and it was just about his general shenanigans, what a prat he was etc. I only saw a few episodes but I remember it as being really quite nasty and off tone. In one episode he starts sleeping with a homeless woman who then decides to go back to living on the streets, and there was an incident (possibly in the same episode) where he got hammered and shit his bed. Might have been called something like "My (something?) Life". The bloke looked a bit like Paul Kaye, and I think the actor might have been a standup as well.

Edit: It's How Not To Live Your Life and I misremembered the premise a bit, he isn't particularly wealthy he just inherits a big house, and he gets a girl he fancied at school as a lodger, which I'd half remembered but thought I'd got that from Game On, like he probably did.

I've wtched all three series of it, Don Danbury the character was called, I found it enjoyable enough to finish it all

[Cuntbeaks]

I only have terrifying memories of Boon, the depressing Michael Elphick vehicle.

Everything seemed brown and imbued with hopelessness and would make me angry as well as sad.

Wretched.

[Antiseptic Poetry]

Work It, an American sitcom about two unemployed guys who find work as sales reps for a pharmaceutical firm that only hires women for these jobs. Because they pose as women to get and keep the job.

Good pick - it's hilariously bad

https://youtu.be/M9Joid6wx3Q

[kalowski]

A final vote for Rory McGrath's hideous Chelmsford 123, which is only ever remembered because in the first episode the TARDIS materialises and the Seventh Doctor gets out for a brief look around before leaving again. It's the only notable moment in the whole show.

I remember really loving this when it was on. Didn't they have a moment when one of the characters died and they cleverly turned it into a memorial for the actor. I recall it being very different to the usual stuff and I loved Who Dares Wins, which it was basically an extension of.

[St_Eddie]

I think only Crapston Villas (because it ran for a while) and Monkey Dust (because it was bloody great, not shit like you thought) would be seen to be "successful" British adult animated comedies.

Bob and Margaret would like a word.

[sevendaughters]

I just watched an episode of Metrosexuality. I am unsure if it was terrible (it certainly wasn't funny) or ahead of its time. Not seen a lot that looks like it. On the right side of history (ie. very progressive) but also completely witless. One of those that feels like it should have been a drama and then got stuck up slack alley.

[Phil_A]

I just watched an episode of Metrosexuality. I am unsure if it was terrible (it certainly wasn't funny) or ahead of its time. Not seen a lot that looks like it. On the right side of history (ie. very progressive) but also completely witless. One of those that feels like it should have been a drama and then got stuck up slack alley.

Judging by all the hype beforehand I think Channel 4 were really banking on that being a massive hit (the new Queer As Folk, possibly?) but it was obvious from the first episode it was going to be a huge bomb.

Just looking at some of it now, and God this is a weird watch twenty (!) years later. It embodies a particular kind-of early 2000's aesthetic where it's all over-saturated lighting and constant fast cuts and wacky captions. It's one of those kinds of shows where everyone is bizarrely horny all the time and are either constantly fucking, or constantly talking about fucking. It's exhausting after just one episode, let alone six.

[thenoise]

Those advert breaks have been uploaded separately to the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/classic_tv_commercials_emperor?and%5B%5D=varney&sin=

I'm genuinely surprised that they didn't edit them out on the DVD, I would have thought they'd have to for copyright reasons.

Maybe they couldn't find anyone willing to sit through it?

I'd love classic TV dvds to come with the option of watching with appropriate ads etc. Sometimes the pacing can be thrown a bit when the ad break is just edited out. And old ads are great, at least as interesting as the programmes.

[thr0b]

Bob and Margaret would like a word.

I forgot Bob and Margaret, yes.

Though that was a Canadian co-production. I don't think Channel 4 even bothered showing the episodes following their emigration to Canada. Later flung out nightly on FTN, not bad at all, but recasting Bob ruined it somewhat.

[robprosser]

No votes for the abysmal Frank Skinner vehicle Shane?

[BeardFaceMan]

No votes for the abysmal Frank Skinner vehicle Shane?

It's been said before but I really want to see the 2nd series of that, because how fucking bad must a sitcom be for ITV to not want to show it?

[thr0b]

It's been said before but I really want to see the 2nd series of that, because how fucking bad must a sitcom be for ITV to not want to show it?

It's astonishing that it never aired. Even during last year, when they were flinging out any old shit to fill the schedules, Shane Series 2 sits there tightly spooled onto its reels, where it shall ever be.

[Andy147]

I can't for the life of me remember what it was called but there was a British sitcom, early 2000s I think, about a wealthy, obnoxious bloke who lived in a big house, and it was just about his general shenanigans, what a prat he was etc. I only saw a few episodes but I remember it as being really quite nasty and off tone. In one episode he starts sleeping with a homeless woman who then decides to go back to living on the streets, and there was an incident (possibly in the same episode) where he got hammered and shit his bed. Might have been called something like "My (something?) Life". The bloke looked a bit like Paul Kaye, and I think the actor might have been a standup as well.

Edit: It's How Not To Live Your Life and I misremembered the premise a bit, he isn't particularly wealthy he just inherits a big house, and he gets a girl he fancied at school as a lodger, which I'd half remembered but thought I'd got that from Game On, like he probably did.

Skimming through the first paragraph of that, I thought you were talking about Perfect World, in which the wealthy obnoxious bloke actually was played by Paul Kaye. Can't remember if that was particularly good or bad.

[Alternative Carpark]

Skimming through the first paragraph of that, I thought you were talking about Perfect World, in which the wealthy obnoxious bloke actually was played by Paul Kaye. Can't remember if that was particularly good or bad.

Wouldn't say it was brilliant. It was a bit like Warren and some of the others mentioned, in that the lead character was just annoying rather than funny.

I only have terrifying memories of Boon, the depressing Michael Elphick vehicle.

Everything seemed brown and imbued with hopelessness and would make me angry as well as sad.

Wretched.

Wasn't that more of a drama?

What was the one set in a bingo hall? I remember that one giving me a real feeling of impending doom every time it started.

Eyes Down is most likely the one you're thinking of, with Paul O'Grady and Sheridan Smith. Had the same title as the Bingo episode of That Peter Kay Thing.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

I only have terrifying memories of Boon, the depressing Michael Elphick vehicle.

Everything seemed brown and imbued with hopelessness and would make me angry as well as sad.

Wretched.

Was definitely a drama with a lighthearted air to it rather than a comedy.

[Utter Shit]

I don't remember much about it, but I'm sure I remember quite liking 'Orrible.

Has Birds of a Feather been mentioned? I used to watch it religiously as a kid, but looking back it was very, very shit. The only thing I can remember now that I find funny is the theme music and title sequence, which is presumably not meant to be so funny but is so weirdly sad and bleak that I can't help but laugh at how inappropriate it is for such a bland, traditional sitcom.

EDIT: Actually there is one other bit that I can remember that I still find funny now - Sharon being referred to as Mrs. Theodollyplops in court. Stupid but funny.

[idunnosomename]

The UK really should stop trying to do "The British [animated sitcom from the US]".

Stressed Eric was probably the first of many big failures - though not entirely without merit, it misfired more than it succeeded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP-cnSYoSBs - being a success. Lovely animation (and Rugrats-style art) from Klasky Ksupo, top notch voice-acting, and middling scripts from (I think) the Absolutely team.

exactly the bit i expected. You need decent animation to sell a gag like that, marvellous really. And the deadpan sudden endings were pretty fun.

Script was kinda just ok kids cartoon level, arseburgers and all that, certainly wasnt shit.

[Fr.Bigley]

Game On
Miranda
Me and Mrs Jones (Ran for 1 series in 2012-Neil Morrisey garbage)

[dissolute ocelot]

Skimming through the first paragraph of that, I thought you were talking about Perfect World, in which the wealthy obnoxious bloke actually was played by Paul Kaye. Can't remember if that was particularly good or bad.

Perfect World was terrible, wasn't it, just Kaye being an asshole without any redeeming qualities (like jokes)? I remember being a young Dennis Pennis fan and being very disappointed.

[petril]

I don't remember much about it, but I'm sure I remember quite liking 'Orrible.

Has Birds of a Feather been mentioned? I used to watch it religiously as a kid, but looking back it was very, very shit. The only thing I can remember now that I find funny is the theme music and title sequence, which is presumably not meant to be so funny but is so weirdly sad and bleak that I can't help but laugh at how inappropriate it is for such a bland, traditional sitcom.

EDIT: Actually there is one other bit that I can remember that I still find funny now - Sharon being referred to as Mrs. Theodollyplops in court. Stupid but funny.

I was much the same. it was a cosy part of childhood Saturdays, either just before or just after That's Life. I remember nothing except the basic premise and the outdoor bits round Sharon's way. oh and the fact it never bothered properly ending. was written into the premise how it would end as well - either the lads come home or it's divorces all round

[purlieu]

Pretty sure both of those plots have been used now, too.

[j_u_d_a_s]

Witless - Tempting fate with that title. A shit awful comedy crime caper where two flatmates witness a gangland murder, the perpetrators of which weren't even revealed til the second series. Somehow dragged on for several series. Came from two writers who straight up stole the plot of the Spaced paintball episode for their previous show Big Bad World which had a nasty streak of casual homophobia.

[dex]

Game On
Miranda
Me and Mrs Jones (Ran for 1 series in 2012-Neil Morrisey garbage)

Good call on Miranda.

[idunnosomename]

fuck off Game On was good

[Marner and Me]

Game On is class you ginger tosser

[purlieu]

The characters are occasionally too nasty for my taste, but on the whole I enjoy Game On.

[Yussef Dent]

A few years ago I wrote an article about a largely forgotten 2002 Channel 4 documentary called The Great Reality TV Swindle, filmed by a group of people who had decamped to London, leaving their old lives behind, to take part in a reality show devised by a flamboyant young TV producer. They had chosen to document their experiences of the show, because it simply didn't exist. They had been hoodwinked by a deluded bloke who worked in a branch of Waterstones, who thought he had the next hit smash when the genre was absolutely booming, only for them to find the show wasn't commissioned by an TV network and that basically everyone, including this fantasist "producer", was totally f***ed over as a result.

As part of it I researched the plethora of reality shows that sprung up round that time, and it was like TV execs just threw half-baked ideas written on the back of fag packets in a tombola and decided to make whatever came out. One of these was Bedsitcom on Channel 4, an absolutely horrendous show which bafflingly had Bain, Armstrong and the Gibbons brothers on its roster of writers.

Wannabe participants auditioned for a show they thought would be a reality programme about house-sharing in London. The successful applicants though did not realise that three of the housemates were actors who were directed by the writers holed out in a downstairs garage, so it was part-reality TV show, part sitcom. The actors would then put the real housemates through uncompromising situations, with the occasional assistance from other actors as visitors. However, these situations were just completely crass, over the top and simply not funny. This was around the time cringe comedy was prevalent (although it was a year after Bedsitcom you had programmes like the Wootton vehicle "My New Best Friend" and the like), but this was neither comedy, nor cringe, just a case of "what the f*** is this tasteless bollocks?"

I seem to recall that one of the housemates had sussed what was going on early into the series, so they had to admit it was all a ruse and then draft a load of new housemates in. I think that was when I stopped watching, although I have no idea why I stuck with it after the first show. It was a total and utter mess of a programme.

[Jockice]

Good call on Miranda.

The first series of Miranda actually wasn't bad. Very traditional sitcom but not bad. I went off it after then though.

[amateur]

Has anyone mentioned the very, very poor Lee Evans vehicle So What Now? yet? Absolutely appalling business.

[chrispmartha]

Game On
Miranda
Me and Mrs Jones (Ran for 1 series in 2012-Neil Morrisey garbage)

Nah, the episode of Game On where Matthew joins a band is a dead set classic