The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » The Oddest Shows Ever Seen On Network TV

RadioActive · June 22, 2025 9:43 am

The mention here in previous threads about "Community," and "Police Squad" made me think of the rare cult shows that somehow make it to network TV. These gems are exceedingly rare and usually don't last long. ("Police Squad" was 6 episodes and it was over. But those half dozen shows are considered classics.)

Another one that I'm pretty sure few have seen or even heard of was "The Good Place," a bizarre comedy about the afterlife and what supposedly happens when you get there. It was incredibly odd, and I won't give away the twist at the end of the first season, but it was a very good one.

It was created by Michael Schur, the guy behind "The Office" and "Parks & Rec," and starred Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, among others. It was populated with very strange secondary characters and somehow ran for four years on NBC from 2016-2020.

It was not for everyone, but what an amazing show that quickly became a cult classic. Not sure if it's available for streaming on the web in Canada. Can't say for sure if this works without a VPN, but here's a short clip about why you can't swear in "The Good Place."

So Many Forking Swears!

Did you have a cult favourite that aired on network TV and was cancelled too soon? This one would have been one of my picks.

RadioActive · June 22, 2025 9:54 am

Just thought of a few more:

Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner. Amazingly weird British show that was seen in North America, sometimes on PBS stations.

He & She, a 1967 sitcom that was way ahead of its time. Elements of it later showed up a few years later in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, considered a comedy classic.

The Texas Wheelers, a one season wonder with an amazing cast of future stars, including a pre-Star Wars Mark Hamill and an impossibly youthful Gary Busey. It was very well written, and for a show that ran in 1974, it used John Prine's classic "Illegal Smile," about the benefits of marijuana use, as its theme song. I wished it had lasted longer.

Paul Jeffries · June 22, 2025 9:55 am

The Good Place is currently streaming in Canada on Netflix.

PJ

RadioActive · June 22, 2025 9:56 am

Great to know. Hope more people see this gem. Long live Donkey Doug!

BowmanvilleBob · June 22, 2025 10:26 am

Possibly the weirdest idea for a show (at least that I've ever seen) was a 1986 series called "Outlaws", which lasted one year on CBS in 1986. The premise was that a Western sheriff was pursuing four bad guys through a mysterious canyon when all five of them were caught in a time warp and transported from 1899 to 1986. In the 20th century, the five agree to a truce and then open a (you guessed it) detective agency "to put beans on the table."

If you want to watch more, although God knows why you would, check this out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIYyQRYQguY&list=PL59C6FF7EDB039319

Easily Amused · June 22, 2025 10:56 am

BowmanvilleBob wrote:
If you want to watch more, although God knows why you would, check this out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIYyQRYQguY&list=PL59C6FF7EDB039319

And 'My Mother the Car' was any better?!
🤔😁

Come to think of it, you had two networks competing with 'Mr. Terrific' and 'Captain Nice'. Both klunkers.

Last edited by Easily Amused (June 22, 2025 10:59 am)

RadioActive · June 22, 2025 11:18 am

Easily Amused wrote:
BowmanvilleBob wrote:
If you want to watch more, although God knows why you would, check this out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIYyQRYQguY&list=PL59C6FF7EDB039319

And 'My Mother the Car' was any better?!
🤔😁

Jerry van Dyke turned down the role of Gilligan in Gilligan's Island to star in "My Mother." It was a horrible idea for a show and was used for years to ridicule the quality of 60s TV. But at least it had a great theme song!

Easily Amused wrote:
Come to think of it, you had two networks competing with 'Mr. Terrific' and 'Captain Nice'. Both klunkers.

Speaking of Captain Nice, it had a promising pedigree - it was created by the great Buck Henry. And it also boasted a, well, let's say unusual theme song.

And on the subject of theme songs, might as well finish with this.

In fact, the theme songs were probably the best part of all three shows.

Buzzy Krumhunger · June 22, 2025 11:35 am

Chuck The Security Guard on CFMT’s All Nite Show ran The Prisoner on a seemingly constant loop. Don’t recall if Danger Man/Secret Agent was ever part of the schedule…I never managed to stay awake past 3am.

RadioActive · June 22, 2025 11:58 am

Buzzy Krumhunger wrote:
Chuck The Security Guard on CFMT’s All Nite Show ran The Prisoner on a seemingly constant loop. Don’t recall if Danger Man/Secret Agent was ever part of the schedule…I never managed to stay awake past 3am.

That's what VCRs were made for! I used to tape the show and watch it the next day. It was wonderful. Wish someone else had picked it up.

Sept. 19, 1980, the first one.

Capricasix · June 22, 2025 12:00 pm

The Good Place was quite well-known when it was first run, and some of its themes and catchphrases are now part of Internet lore.

Jeremy Bearimy, baby!

paterson1 · June 22, 2025 12:05 pm

Can't Forget about CHCH TV's Randy Dandy Show, with sidekick Silly Willy. The program ran from 1962-1966. Although one story says it began in 1960.

BowmanvilleBob · June 22, 2025 1:00 pm

Easily Amused wrote:
BowmanvilleBob wrote:
If you want to watch more, although God knows why you would, check this out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIYyQRYQguY&list=PL59C6FF7EDB039319

And 'My Mother the Car' was any better?!
🤔😁

Come to think of it, you had two networks competing with 'Mr. Terrific' and 'Captain Nice'. Both klunkers.

My memories of "My Mother the Car" are a little hazy, since I was only four years old when it aired for a single season. But the whole concept of ordinary people caught in offbeat situations was a staple of late 50s and 60s TV, which saw a talking horse (Mister Ed), an alien (My Favorite Martian), a witch married to a mortal (Bewitched) and an Alaskan gold miner who is unthawed after being buried alive in an avalanche 67 years later (The Second Hundred Years). It was indeed a bizarre time in the world of TV comedy.

RadioActive · June 22, 2025 1:47 pm

And don't forget the gothic - The Munsters and The Addams Family. Or the genie on I Dream Of Jeannie.

And that's why a show like the aforementioned He & She didn't work. It was great but the public - or more likely the networks - weren't ready for sophisticated comedy then. That would have to wait until the arrival of All In The Family in the early 70s.

newsguy1 · June 22, 2025 5:16 pm

Great show 26 episodes in 1970.
Too smart for American audiences.
My World ... and Welcome to It is an American half-hour television sitcom based on the humor and cartoons of James Thurber. It starred William Windom as John Monroe, a Thurber-like writer and cartoonist who works for a magazine closely resembling The New Yorker called The Manhattanite.

Last edited by newsguy1 (June 22, 2025 5:50 pm)

Easily Amused · June 22, 2025 5:21 pm

RadioActive wrote:
And don't forget the gothic - The Munsters and The Addams Family.

The Munsters seemed pitched to a family audience. The Addams Family seemed to play on both levels for kids, and a more subtle humour for adults. Similar to me to The Simpsons.

RadioActive · June 22, 2025 5:36 pm

Easily Amused wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
And don't forget the gothic - The Munsters and The Addams Family.
The Munsters seemed pitched to a family audience. The Addams Family seemed to play on both levels for kids, and a more subtle humour for adults. Similar to me to The Simpsons.

100%. The Munsters was just a sitcom with a twisted angle.

The Addams Family had a twisted angle in the guise of a sitcom.

Both were great in their own way and both lasted the same number of seasons - two.

Dale Patterson · June 22, 2025 6:29 pm

Anyone remember "Nowhere Man"? It only lasted a season but I quite liked it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowhere_Man_(American_TV_series)

mace · June 22, 2025 6:31 pm

RadioActive wrote:
And don't forget the gothic - The Munsters and The Addams Family. Or the genie on I Dream Of Jeannie.

And that's why a show like the aforementioned He & She didn't work. It was great but the public - or more likely the networks - weren't ready for sophisticated comedy then. That would have to wait until the arrival of All In The Family in the early 70s.

You could be right about that. He & She had the Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres as its lead in. As for The Texas Wheelers, it was up against Rockford Files.

Buzzy Krumhunger · June 22, 2025 6:53 pm

Holmes & YoYo, the bizarre retelling of the time traveling Sherlock Holmes meeting up with present day cellist YoYo Ma.
Naaah, it was a thirteen episode mistake on ABC in 1976 about a cop who’s actually a robot. Starred John Schuck as the robocop. Schuck is best known from McMillan and Wife, a show about a robot who’s…awww, never miind. Actually you fans of profanity will appreciate the fact Schuck uttered the first “F-Bomb” in a major motion picture, M*A*S*H in 1970. During the football sequence Shuck squares up at the line of scrimmage and threatens the defender, “Awright Bub, your f***** heads comin’ right off”.

Last edited by Buzzy Krumhunger (June 22, 2025 7:07 pm)

Leslieville Bill · June 22, 2025 7:42 pm

It's interesting that My Mother The Car only ran for one season yet we still talk about it today. That can't be said for many one season wonders.

Shorty Wave · June 23, 2025 7:58 am

Leslieville Bill wrote:
It's interesting that My Mother The Car only ran for one season yet we still talk about it today. That can't be said for many one season wonders.

Good point Leslieville Bill! I barely remember the show but I remember the title and especially the theme song, parts of the lyrics are still embedded in my cranium! Plus now it’s an ear worm for me since RadioActive posted it here!

Shorty Wave · June 23, 2025 8:08 am

RadioActive wrote:
The mention here in previous threads about "Community," and "Police Squad" made me think of the rare cult shows that somehow make it to network TV. These gems are exceedingly rare and usually don't last long. ("Police Squad" was 6 episodes and it was over. But those half dozen shows are considered classics.

I believe that “Police Squad” was only 6 episodes as it was a summer relief series for ABC in 1982. Networks used to do this, as they needed some new programming in the summer besides reruns, plus they would test out shows this way.