2004: Listen Up!
This short-lived CBS sitcom followed Tony Kleinman, a sports show host and his sidekick, Bernie Wilder- a former NFL player. It starred Jason Alexander and Tony Kornheiser. While both these guys are actually pretty funny, the show brought in some lukewarm laughs. The Seinfeld curse is no joke. Perhaps if they got someone else, the show might have taken off.
11 Points criticized the cheesy family story-lines and called it a “recycled ’90s sitcom.”
2010: Identity
Another "nitty gritty" British drama about police and crime. The show starred Aidan Gillen and Keeley Hawes and aired on ITV. The unexpected failure of the show left people pretty stumped, as the series was headed by Ed Whitmore, the guy behind the long-running series Waking The Dead, as well as the acclaimed ITV mini-series He Kills Coppers. The show only ran for one season, but somehow, prompted the creation of an American adaption. It's only a matter of time until the American version gets added to this list.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this pretty biting comment: "Now, you may be saying, 'There he goes again, that elitist toad.' But believe me, even Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Bill O'Reilly would think this show was stupid."
2019: The Masked Singer
Since the year 2002, there have been countless American Idols as well as a string of rip offs. Sometimes they work, such as cases like The Voice and the Glee Project, and sometimes they don't, like Pitch Slapped and The Naked Choir. Then you get hit shows which somehow take off, but still leave you wondering 'why does this exist?'. Case in point - The Masked Singer. Based on a South Korean series, the talent contest features talented singers who perform in elaborate identity concealing costumes so that the judges cannot recognize them. This puts the Voice chair to shame.
The panel consists of a bunch of fading stars such as Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls. Robin Thicke and comedian Ken Jeong thrown in there for some reason, oh, and Jenny McCarthy.
2004: Quintuplets
A show with heaps of potential. This could have been a hilarious family sitcom about the very conflicting personalities of a family of quintuplets. Instead, it ended up as a stale sitcom where the jokes became super predictable and every family member was a total stereotype ie "the little pervert, cool jock, weird random skinny guy, brainy girl, hot blonde airhead girl".
This show did nothing to renew the family sitcom and just stuck to the old cliches. Of course, this was just another Andy Richter sitcom. The show ultimately only lasted a year. Fun fact, the longest-running Andy Richter is 22 episodes. He must be doing something wrong.
2002: The Rerun Show
A comedy sketch show that parodied sitcoms. Not a bad idea, but parodying comedy feels kind of redundant. The show took a shot at spoofing popular sitcom classics such as The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, Married with Children, What's Happening!!, Saved by the Bell, Different Strokes, Bewitched, The Partridge Family and One Day at a Time. Unfortunately, the execution was off.
Even with some cameo appearances of original cast members from the parodied shows, this sketch program still failed to get the laughs. In the end, the show only ran for a single season. Sigh, sometimes an idea is just not enough.