Worst TV Shows of All Time

Here are some lists of the all-time worsts:

The Chicago Tribune had a list from last year, which included a few titles listed in the Andrews-Dunning book.

Speaking of which, here were their choices (which went up to 1980, so no doubt some would be gone from the list now and new ones put up), some of them being truly legendary flops:

The Baileys of Balboa
Beacon Hill
The Big Party
The Dakotas
Get Christie Love!
Gilligan's Island
Hee Haw
Hogan's Heroes
Jackpot Bowling Starring Milton Berle
The Jerry Lewis Show
Land of the Giants
The Liberace Show
Me and the Chimp
Mickey
Miss America Pageants
My Living Doll
My Mother, the Car
The Newlywed Game
O.K. Crackerby
The Pruitts of Southampton
Queen for a Day
The Sammy Davis Jr. Show
Satins and Spurs
Supermarket Sweep
The Survivors
S.W.A.T.
The Tammy Grimes Show
Three's Company
Turn On
You're in the Picture

A couple of those were specials, and at least one was an early miniseries (The Survivors), but most were regular television series.

The TV Guide list of a few years ago was reposted here, with many of the above listed shows included.

Another list is here.

Me and the Chimp (1972) was hailed by many as a worthy successor to My Mother, the Car as the worst. I haven't seen the former, which I want to, but remember the latter, a show I don't believe qualifies as THE worst. Queen for a Day probably set the standard of tastelessness that all other bad shows have followed. As I mentioned at one time, few surviving episodes exist today. It was a live series, and networks tended to erase the kinescopes and videotapes of these programs.

A clip of one of the few surviving episodes:



link

A mere eight complete episodes and portions of a few others still exist. They are all on a DVD set released a few years ago.