Really Awful Sitcoms We’d Like To Forget

God save us from really awful sitcoms – experiments in primetime television gone bad – some so bad they were canceled before the annual springtime wrap-up. There were more really bad sitcoms than we have room for here – but always worthy of mention. When I think of really awful sitcoms, I think of one-season wonders like “It’s About Time” and “My Mother The Car.”

Both were about as absurd as it gets.

“It’s About Time” was a wacky American sitcom that aired on CBS for a single season, consisting of 26 episodes in 1966–67. It got off to a good start in the ratings but quickly plummeted as the storylines became more ridiculous. Viewers quickly tired of two men in the strangest place.

Sherwood Schwartz, who had a vivid imagination, created “It’s About Time…” who also birthed “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch.” As silly as the latter two sitcoms were, they were very successful and have a huge following even today. Boomers spend their retirements watching these shows, repeating every line word for word. We eat this stuff up regardless of how ridiculous it seems.

Sherwood Schwartz was a brain trust of wacky sitcoms, such as “Gilligan’s Island,” that boomers still follow today in retirement between pharm’ and life insurance commercials.

Early on, there was “Mister Ed” about a talking horse and buddy, Wilbur Post. Like many sitcoms, Mister Ed was a secret known only to one person. Ironically, Mister Ed aired for five seasons, an unheard of success story on CBS’ Filmways division, the same division that aired “The Beverly Hillbillies” sitcom, that ran from 1962-70. There’s no explaining what has made boomers obsess with these sitcoms aside from the memories they yield today.

Mister Ed show was derived from long before short stories from the 1930s written by author Walter R. Brooks, which conceived The Talking Horse in Liberty Magazine. Producer Arthur Lubin‘s secretary, Sonia Chernus, introduced Lubin to the Brooks stories, which wound up being the “Mister Ed” television series.

Lubin had a challenging time selling Mister Ed to the networks, which led him to syndication. It was the magic and humor of Alan Young that led Lubin to success with CBS. Mister Ed ran from 1961-66 – an incredible track record for something as silly as a talking horse. Someone would walk into the barn and ask who Wilbur was talking to – which was always an awkward moment for Post.

I suppose we’ve all had these moments where we’ve been talking to ourselves and been caught doing so, which makes it easy to relate to Wilbur’s conversations with Mister Ed, and someone would walk in, and Wilbur, red-faced, had to quickly pretend he was singing or reciting a speech.