25 Trivia Nuggets From Pop Culture History For Wednesday, December 17

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35 Unfortunate TV Shows That Were Doomed to Fail

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35

The Cops

The Cops LISA JO AMER POLICE ACADEMY END SAVE THE DATE DOMESTI COMPANY PICNIO VIOLEN OCTOR DAIS 4 300 A 2017 animated cop show 200 that was cancelled as soon as GUT its creator Louis С.К. was. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

Jason Bateman

The Jake Effect 4 300- This was a 2008 sitcom starring Jason Bateman and 350 Tenacious D's Kyle Gass. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

The Grubbs An unauthorized knock-off of a popular British show, starring Randy Quaid, Carol Kane, and Michael Cera. It was canned just 2 days before airing, and is said to be the worst sitcom ever produced. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

Commando Nanny

Commando Nanny A Survivor producer 4 tried to make 300 a sitcom, and it was doomed from the start. An actor broke his foot, another needed lung surgery. After they were replaced and the pilot was reshot, the showrunner jumped ship. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

Captain America SMASHING TYPECAPTAIN AMERICA CAM FACE TO FACE WITH HIT ER 4 300- This 1998 animated series was cancelled because, being based on the comic books, the subject matter wasn't very cartoon-y. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

Members Only MEMBERS ONLY Think Downton 4 Abbey in Connecticut, starring John Stamos. 13 episodes were ordered, but one of the developers lost interest and ABC got cold feet. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Don Hornsby

The Don Hornsby Show Polio Downs Bri Hornsby on Last-Mi Eve of Debut Monroe, Leftwi Two CBS-TV NEW YORK, May 20. . - Tragedy week resigned fr struck Creesh Hornsby, young comic satisfaction as to recently brought in from the Coast America's 300 first late-night variety show, the host of which died of surprise polio the day he was meant to shoot the first episode. NBC replaced him within a week. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

27

Immigrants 4 A 2004 adult 300- animation from Klasky Csupo that looks like Rocket Power all grown up. Spike TV never aired it, but a recut feature-length version is available on DVD. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

The Singles Table 18 A 2007 attempt to fill the hole that Friends left behind, about a crew of singles who meet at a wedding. This was at least can the second starring role that John Cho had cancelled on him. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

Next Caller 4 300- While a Dane Cook and Jeffrey Tambor teamup sounds like a nightmare in 2020, it was comedy gold in 2013. It was sadly shelved after 4 episodes were filmed. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Garbage Pail Kids 300-II 4 A 1987 animated series based on the raunchy trading cards. CBS caved to pressure from parental groups and just threw an extra half-hour of The Muppet Babies at us. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Heathers 4 300 A 2018 violent teen comedy, it was postponed because of the Stoneman Douglas High shooting, then paused and heavily edited due to the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Jingles 4 300- Like 5.75 The Voice, but for commercial jingles, and starring Gene Simmons. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Do You Trust Me? DO YOU TRUST ME? Y A 2007 CBS game 4 show about two contestants building up trust as host Tucker Carlson continually narcs on them. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Angels ‘88

Angels '88 CHARLIE'S ANGELS 4 A revival of 300- Charlie's Angels that, due to a Writers Guild strike, would have just reused old scripts. It was postponed, renamed Angels '89, and eventually canned. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Manchester Prep 4 300- Written as a prequel series to Cruel Intentions, it was later turned into the feature-length Cruel Intentions 2. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Flip It Forward 4 300 A 2014 HGTV house-flipping series that was cancelled when HGTV found out their handsome muscle brothers were bigots, describing homosexuality as demonic. CRACKED.COM — Source

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17

Snip

Snip A 1976 highly-hyped A sitcom from the creator of Welcome Back Kotter, apparently cancelled because one of the actors was openly gay. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Hieroglyph An ancient Egyptian Game of Thrones that was ultimately scrapped by 350 Fox... for being too similar to Game of Thrones. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

John Mulaney

John Mulaney- Mulaney CRACKED.COM John Mulaney's sitcom Mulaney looks like it would have been a huge success on paper. The cast was stacked with Nasim Pedran and Martin Short as series regulars, but audiences just couldn't get into the Seinfeld-esc multi-cam sitcom. The series felt too dissimilar to Mulaney's normal style and Mulaney was unhappy with the sitcom medium, which he spoke about in an interview with The Washington Post. Mulaney said I don't like to say I'm glad it didn't work because a lot of people lost a job, but I'm glad it didn't work. It was like, the — Source

14

Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn CRACKED.COM Colin Quinn's nightly news commentary on Comedy Central, Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn was a mixed bag for audiences. Be- fore the time of podcasts in 2002, Colin Quinn had a roundtable of comedians dis- cussing current political topics and philoso- phy. Patrice O'Neal, Jim Norton, Keith Rob- inson, Greg Giraldo, and Nick Di Paolo were writers and panelists on the show, but while some loved the brash arguments, many peo- ple felt the show was just a screaming match. It was canceled after its first season but is remembered fondly by O'Neal fans. — Source

13

Michael Cera

Michael Cera- The Grubbs III CRACKED COM The Grubbs was yet another run-of-the-mill family sitcom set to air on Fox in 2002 featuring Mi- chael Cera as Mitch Grubb. The show was scheduled to air in No- vember of that year but was pulled before it was even given the chance due to overwhelmingly negative reviews of the show. — Source

12

Mike White and Molly Shannon - Cracking Up GRACKED GOM Cracking Up starring Molly Shannon, Jason Schwartzman, David Wain, and created by School of Rock's screenwriter Mike White, nearly drove the writer crazy after the network changed his vision for the series so much. The show was supposed to be an off-beat show starring a group of mentally unstable characters working in a sitcom format, but Fox want- ed the show to retain all the viewers from American Idol, which would air right before Cracking Up's TV slot. White tried to get fired from the show by writ- ing a F*ck you — Source

11

Jeff Foxworthy

The Jeff Foxworthy Show CRACKED COM What if you took the phrase you might be a redneck and stretched it into a full series? Sadly, for Jeff Foxworthy, this idea did not take off in his sitcom The Jeff Foxworthy Show. The show was produced then can- celed by ABC for one season, then picked up by NBC, and can- celed again after a single season. — Source

10

The IT Crowd

Joel McHale - The IT Crowd RTFM CRACKED.COM Remember when they tried to bring The IT Crowd to American audiences? The original show which was steeped in absurdist British humor was ped- dled to America, retaining Richard Ayoade in his role, but replacing Chris O'Dowd with Joel McHale. The show just couldn't capture the original mag- ic and was canceled after the pilot was filmed, leading McHale into his role on Community. — Source

9

Wanda Sykes

Wanda Sykes - Wanda At Large GRACKED COM Wanda Sykes is a skilled co- median, actress, and writer but due to FOX's watering down of her brash-yet-love- able personality, her show, Wanda At Large, was can- celed halfway through its sec- ond season, leaving five epi- sodes unaired. — Source

8

Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho - All American Girl CRACKED.COM Before Fresh Off The Boat there was 1994's All American Girl starring a full Asian cast including Margaret Cho as the rebellious daughter. The sitcom only ran from September 1994 to March 1995. BD Wong, who portrayed Cho's brother on the show, says the issue with the series was they took the raw uncut diamond that was the 24-year-old Margaret and just sanded her down. Ellen and Roseanne got to be themselves, and those shows were wildly successful. The show's failure had nothing to do with Margaret's Asian-American-ness but in the refusal to pres- — Source

7

Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart - The Big House CRACKED.COM The Big House was Kevin Hart's take on a reverse Fresh Prince Of Belair, with Hart's character mov- ing from his rich family to a work- ing-class family in Philadelphia. The show starred Hart when he was only 24 years old, and pre- miered and ended within the same month of April 2004. — Source

6

Chelsea Handler

Chelsea Handler - Are You There Chelsea? CRACKED.COM Chelsea Handler's book entitled Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea was the inspiration behind her one-season sitcom Are You There Chelsea? The show's cast was impressive with fel- low comedians Natasha Leggero, Ali Wong, and Lauren Lapkus appearing as series regulars, but the 2012 show about Handler as a 20-something bar- tender didn't pique fan's interests. — Source

5

The Tracy Morgan Show CRACKED.COM The Tracy Morgan Show was on the air from December 2003 to March 2004 for 16 episodes. Critics panned the show for not showcasing Morgan's unique comedy skills and instead hav- ing him mimic the funny dad who's trying his best arche- type. — Source

4

Jason Alexander-Bob Patterson BOB PATTERSON CRACKED.COM Jason Alexander's follow-up to Seinfeld, Bob Patterson, also fell prey to the Seinfeld curse. The show featured Al- exander as a motivational speaker, who closely resembles George Costanza. Al- exander even said, We purposefully created Bob out of the ashes of George. Only five of the ten episodes made it to air making it the short- est-lived show of the Seinfeld curse. — Source

3

Craig Robinson

Craig Robinson- Mr. Robinson CRACKED.COM Craig Robinson's sitcom Mr.Robinson seemed to have decent bones to it. Robinson was still coming off of the high from The Office and Greg Daniels even signed on as an executive pro- ducer. The show was even based on Craig's real life as a former music teacher. The show wasn't great or ter- rible, it was just sort of...there, result- ing in its cancellation after its first season. — Source

2

The Chevy Chase Show

The Chevy Chase Show CRACKED.COM Chevy Chase's late-night talk show only lasted a month before it was canceled. Many problems led up to it, including that Chase didn't even want it to be a traditional late-night show, until Fox advertised it as filling the late-night gap. After a couple of weeks, it had become apparent that Chase was giv- ing up on the show, and made barely any effort on camera to be professional or interesting. — Source

1

The Michael Richards Show CRACKED.COM After Seinfeld went off the air, studios pursued the entire cast in hopes to throw them own into their own shows that would ride off the popularity of Seinfeld. For Michael Richards, this came in the form of The Michael Richards Show. The show centered around a comedic take of Columbo, with Michael Richards playing a private investigator. The character named Vic Nardozza never found a true footing, as it was essentially just a Kram- er ripoff. The show only lasted a single season. — Source

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