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November 24, 2020 6:32 pm  #1


Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

This has apparently been circulating around the Internet for a long time, but I just caught up to it. And no, I'm not making this up. Honestly, I couldn't. Not even in my wildest imagination. 

I once thought the program pitch for Hogan's Heroes ('Hilarity in a concentration camp during WWII!') must have been horrendous. But this! This is simply beyond anything I've ever seen. Even the theme song is odiously insulting. I watched it with my mouth open. 

It's a British show called "Heil Honey! I'm Home." It's a sitcom - yes, a sitcom - starring the characters of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, who live in Austria next door to a Jewish couple named the Goldensteins, and all the hilarity that ensues when they visit each other in their respective apartments. 

Has anyone ever heard of this before?


It may not surprise you to learn that they only aired a single episode of it in 1990 before it was quickly cancelled amidst extremely predictable outrage. This is one of those "What the hell were they thinking?" ideas. How it was ever greenlighted is simply beyond comprehension. 

But the fact that it even exists is mind boggling. If you think you can stomach it, you can watch this abomination here. (I refuse to post the video directly on this site.)  Just don't say you weren't warned!

 

November 24, 2020 10:14 pm  #2


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

To be fair, Hogan's Heroes was set in a POW camp, not a concentration camp. 

 

November 24, 2020 10:30 pm  #3


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

True, but still, who thought this was a good setting for a comedy? As the network exec. that approved Hogan's Heroes once said, "I know nothing. Nothing!" I think his name was Schultz... 

     Thread Starter
 

November 24, 2020 10:58 pm  #4


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

The thing is, the acting (I said acting, no achtung!) is so over the top it can't possibly be mistaken for anything but a farce.  I think it's quite deliberate and probably only meant for a single episode.  Maybe it was supposed to be so bad that it would bomb.  Hmmmmm...  Sounds like a movie plot.

Unlike the current rage that is the cancel culture, this is an example, taste notwithstanding, of openly confronting the enemy and mocking them -- lest we forget.

I am a HUGE fan of Hogan's Heroes.  The next time CHCH runs Hogan's Heroes, check out the episodes with no laugh track.  In some episodes the humour becomes more dry while in others, it changes the mood of the show completely.
 

Last edited by Peter the K (November 24, 2020 11:02 pm)

 

November 25, 2020 1:02 am  #5


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

Peter the K wrote:

I think it's quite deliberate and probably only meant for a single episode. 

Actually, it's my understanding that they made 8 episodes but only one aired before it was taken off the air for good.

I guess it all depends on the approach. Mel Brooks was a master at satirizing Hitler and it mostly makes me laugh when he does it. (The Producers remains an all time favourite.) Somehow, this one just offended me. I get your point about it being farce, but having the stereotyped Jewish neighbours pushed it over the edge for me.

When it comes to what is perhaps the world's most deservedly maligned personification of evil, I would think the best advice is just don't go there. I can't believe someone did.

     Thread Starter
 

November 25, 2020 2:19 pm  #6


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

Just watched the episode that was posted. Aside from the fact that the subject matter was in extremely poor taste, the episode simply wasn't funny. It makes The Trouble With Tracy worthy of an Emmy award.

 

November 25, 2020 3:57 pm  #7


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

I'm amazed this even made to air. It's simply not funny, and in very, very bad taste.


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

November 25, 2020 3:59 pm  #8


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

mace wrote:

Just watched the episode that was posted. Aside from the fact that the subject matter was in extremely poor taste, the episode simply wasn't funny. It makes The Trouble With Tracy worthy of an Emmy award.

Trouble with Tracy appears to be a better show. 
However, I do have to give credit to the extra effort to animate the opening credits to perhaps draw better attention to the show...?
Here's the =12px"Heil Honey! I'm Home." intro:




 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

November 25, 2020 4:28 pm  #9


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

Just when you think it can't get any worse, you find something like that intro! The animated adventures of Adolf. Wow. What were they thinking? 

     Thread Starter
 

November 25, 2020 6:07 pm  #10


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

Apparently, Joseph Stalin appeared in one of the unaired episodes and Hermann Goring was in the 1990 Christmas Special.

 

November 26, 2020 1:47 pm  #11


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

in my opinion, when it comes to satire...  mel brooks = a person with a clue.... meanwhile, the writers/producers of this show = people without a clue. 
on a side note, i remember when martin short (playing his jiminy glick character) interviewed mel. one of the great moments was when jiminy asked: "what's your big beef with the nazis?" it was then mel came across as experiencing what his audience often feels... shock, awe, and the desire to laugh.

 

November 28, 2020 12:52 am  #12


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

Found some commentary via YouTube that summed it up nicely - along the lines that if you're going to delve into absurdist humour, you have to work incredibly hard, and precisely, to make it work.

I'm not really bothered about the use of Hitler as a target of satire, and even the notion of Hitler as your everyday Jackie Gleason - perhaps the right mind could take it somewhere worthwhile. Humour is risky business, and satirists can't feel restrained - at least initially - by the risk of bad taste (airing the material, or it succeeding, is an entirely other matter). Satirists need to be able to dig deep into the well of weirdness during the creative stage. But the rest of the world doesn't really need to hear about it unless true genius emerges.

With the right kind of magic creative juice, could this have worked? The problem is it was just a notion, certainly nothing even remotely close to an idea well thought out. The artist's putty here is the worst of the worst of what humankind has  managed to dredge up, and to make anything of it you absolutely have to dive deep - and deep in this case is extermination camps and genocide and ratting out neighbours and family to death squads. (Conversely, it's also incredible bravery and powerful morality; and a lot of weirdness in between the two extremes). But this pilot is a dud. There's no brilliance, nothing that says 'touché, nothing that does what dark comedy needs to do - somehow hit the nail on the head and shine a light like it's never been shone before.

Certainly, I can't say where you take this. Quite possibly nowhere. Looking around at the contemporary hate in the world around us, I'm not sure what I would do with contemporary material. I'm no Mel Brooks, and far as I know he didn't touch this stuff.

All that said, there's a couple moments that caught my attention: the sense of Hitler wanting to seem like a normal everyday guy. That was played up a few times in the episode, and rings true for populists of our day. That was perhaps one of the rare moments of the episode that worked, IMO.

 

November 28, 2020 2:12 am  #13


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

Oof.This show gives you an idea of how talented Mel Brooks and Monty "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Python were to write their classics.

By the way, Mel's on Twitter and he's a hoot.

 

November 28, 2020 3:40 am  #14


Re: Is This The Worst TV Show In History? Yep. Nothing Could Ever Beat It

Mr. Sutherland argues that Heil Hitler is only the second worst television show ever.
He gives the title of worst ever TV show to a show called POOCHINSKI, 
a show about a cop who died and came back to life as a talking dog:

"Well first I'm gonna try licking myself, and then I'm gonna catch my killer"




Mr. Sutherland's view on all this:



 

Last edited by Radiowiz (November 28, 2020 3:54 am)


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.