2013: Dads
As we’ve just seen, dad-centric comedies may well be a hitherto unrealized curse within the new era of television. Adding some support to this conspiracy theory is the Fox show, Dads. Released in 2013, Dads seemed on the surface to have all the makings of a hit. The cast included Seth Green, of Scream, Robot Chicken and Family Guy fame, and a solid bunch of lesser known but talented actors. It was, perhaps the premise that tripped them up. The sitcom was to center on a pair of video game developers who fall into the strange predicament of having both their fathers need to move in with them at the same time.
While this is an unlikely setup, it’s not the weirdest we’ve seen in the world of sitcoms. However, when paired with “lazy writing,” critics and audiences just weren’t buying it. TV Guide Magazine didn’t hold back in its denigration of the failed show – “Dads would love to be as offensive as its promos promise, but what’s most off-putting about the show is how lazy and stale it all is.” It seems, perhaps, that the 2000s heralded in a new era of sitcoms, one that has no time for stale old dad jokes.
2011: Charlie’s Angels
Whenever a remake is announced, fans of the original get tense. It seems nearly impossible to create something that is new yet still resonates with audiences. Sometimes you’re really just better off not messing with a good thing. Try telling that to the networks though! They seem to operate on the premise that if it worked once, it’ll work again. Sadly, ABC’s reboot of Charlie’s Angels ended disastrously, adding itself to the growing list of reasons why producers should perhaps be looking for fresh ideas instead.
Released in 2011, the Charlie’s Angels writers made a valiant effort at sidestepping the temptation to make a kitschy replica of the bangin’ original. However, it seems they stripped too much of the camp 70s fun from the old classic. As USA Today explained, the original Charlie’s Angels “had energy and glamour and a self-aware sense of frothy fun, all of which are missing from this lugubrious update.” With TV audiences in steadfast agreement, the show was dubbed a failure after just four episodes and pulled from the air. With eight episodes filmed in total, this means four are still lurking somewhere, never having shone their light on the eyes of an expectant audience.
2012: Guys with Kids
Sitcoms are so hit and miss. When they’re great, they can carry on for years and even decades. When they’re a flop, however, they’re so unbearable they’re lucky to make it through even one season. Airing in 2012, Guys with Kids is another one to add to the fail heap. On the surface of it, there’s nothing wrong with the premise: three guys go through the day-to-day struggles of raising their kids, all set in the kind of modern environment we can all relate to. It could be hilarious, right? Well, maybe in a parallel timeline. Unfortunately, in our timeline, the show was so dismal it was canned after just one season. Critics accused the writers of being painfully bland, creating stereotypical characters, and padding the show with reams of unfunny dialogue. Despite a few shining moments, even the usually hilarious, Anthony Anderson, couldn’t salvage this train-wreck of a sitcom.
A writer for The San Francisco Chronicle expressed confusion at “the unfathomable reaction of the studio audience,” suggesting they were being cajoled into fake and excessive reactions to the unfunny content. The writer continued, “the show certainly couldn’t survive on the basis of its humor because there is none.” If you thought that was harsh, wait til you see what Newsday had to say about it: “nothing to see here. Move on.”
2015: Dr. Ken
Having enjoyed great success, and an ardent following of fans, from shows like Community and The Hangover, Ken Jeong seemed an obvious choice to take on a starring role in his own show. Seeing the hype that was building around the comedian, ABC decided to capitalize on it with the creation of a show in which Jeong would play the lead. Dr. Ken seemed perfect for Jeong, especially since (and trust us, we were as shocked to learn this as you’re about to be) the cocaine-guzzling crazy man who demanded “but did you die?” in The Hangover is actually a fully qualified doctor in real life.
What caused Jeong’s sitcom to fail was, strangely, the very thing that caused him to be so successful in all his other ventures. The Louis Post-Dispatch explained what the problem was: “ too much Ken Jeong. His manic energy takes over every frame of the pilot, at the expense of anything and anyone else in the show,”
2015: The Unauthorized Full House Story
Lifetime: a network famous for its overly dramatic, straight-to-TV movies, and for ruining the much-loved teen sitcom, Saved by the Bell, by creating a behind-the-scenes version of it that sucked all the comedy out and turned it into drama. While we have to admit, Lifetime movies can be a guilty pleasure, it seems the network can’t be trusted around our favorite shows. In 2015, they aired The Unauthorized Full House Story, a show drawn from the memoirs of the late Bob Saget. Unfortunately, no one from the original series was down to participate and the stand-in actors just had nothing on the original cast.
Then, of course, there was the writing. As New York Daily News explained, “Unauthorized captures the feel-good part. Unfortunately, it misses the “written well” part. Like, completely.” Lifetime failed to do Full House any justice and Unauthorized was more like a Full House-themed fever dream.