After the Lord Mayors Show comes the dustcart so they say so now we have had the best ever sitcoms lets have the worst ever (if you can remember them).

I will nominate anything by Carla Lane but there are so many more bad sitcoms than this - most are now gone and forgotten.

After the Lord Mayors Show comes the dustcart so they say so now we have had the best ever sitcoms lets have the worst ever (if you can remember them).

I will nominate anything by Carla Lane but there are so many more bad sitcoms than this - most are now gone and forgotten.


Any British comedy... Mrs Bucket for one :gag:

Any that are made up of middle class parents, 2.4 kids, grey but spritely grandparents and/or neighbours who come and go as though they live in the furniture. Too cosy, too predictable, too puke-making!!:gag:

Last of the summer wine

At the risk of igniting a flame war, Only Fools and Horses.

Most overrated comedy ever IMO... David Jason just isn't funny in my opinion.

You've got to be playing devils ad Rich,Only fools and horses not funny.Give us an idea of
your sort of comedy?.

Any that are made up of middle class parents, 2.4 kids, grey but spritely grandparents and/or neighbours who come and go as though they live in the furniture. Too cosy, too predictable, too puke-making!!:gag:

ahh, that covers many......classic 70's stuff like Bless this House, ET AL
But IM0, still funny today!!!

The worst ever sitcom will be from the current decade , anything pre 2000 in general is sound.....modern stuff tries to be more 'classless' and so the very basis of good comedy is missing.....how many great classiccomedy sitcoms relied very much on class stereotypes for laughs??? Think Margo Leadbetter in Good Life......ET AL

I like stuff like Fawlty Towers, Hi De Hi, Bread (yes! A Carla Lane comedy! And last time I checked, I'm male) to more recent stuff like Two Pints of Lager (there's a special comic relief episode of that on BBC3 at 9)

do you judge sit coms on one viewing or on the whole series i find some episodes are terrible but you can have another look and it is not to bad.when you think how much t.v. we have now must be hard to please all of us.i do a fair bit of reading and sometimes a book i think will be good lets me down.i suppose we should be happy some one is trying to entertain us.

Two Point Four Children or My Family. Both stomach-churningly bad.

I'd have said Friends but without that there wouldn't have been the excellent Coupling.

I like stuff like Fawlty Towers, Hi De Hi, Bread (yes! A Carla Lane comedy! And last time I checked, I'm male) to more recent stuff like Two Pints of Lager (there's a special comic relief episode of that on BBC3 at 9)

Nowt wrong with Bread....well, for the earlier years of it. I found it got a bit tired towards the end. Also, nothing wrong with liking Carla Lane in general - I can still watch episodes of Butterflies now.

I'm almost with you on Fools and Horses being over-rated. I do find a lot of the episodes funny, but it is another show that got more and more tired as it dragged on, and had some weak episodes that everyone seems to forget existed.


Not sure what the worst ever sitcom is, as I've seen some tripe and then just refused to acknowledge the existence of it again. Ones I tried giving a shot and still hating it include Friends and Not Going Out. Then there are those which got better over time and I am glad I stuck with (like the US version of The Office which has become its own entity and is much funnier than the UK version ever was).

FRIENDS

its just not funny

I like stuff like Fawlty Towers, Hi De Hi, Bread (yes! A Carla Lane comedy! And last time I checked, I'm male) to more recent stuff like Two Pints of Lager (there's a special comic relief episode of that on BBC3 at 9)

Two Pints is poo.

Two pints of lager is fascinatingly bad.

At the risk of igniting a flame war, Only Fools and Horses.



Agreed.What utter tosh. Went on for about 30 years too long!

Terry and June.

Some Mothers do 'Ave 'Em

"Oooh, Bettyyy!!!!!!!"

My Family
After You're Gone
My Hero
Green Green Grass

Whilst the majority of bad sitcoms obviously are American, few would doubt that the standard of UK sitcoms has fallen from the halcyon days of the 1980s and 1990s.
However, we shouldn't allow the rose tinted spectacles to hide the fact there were some truly dire sitcoms even in the 1980s - with that in mind I must nominate the truly execrable "Birds Of A Feather" for the worst sitcom title.
However, if "Gavin & Stacey" carries on in its current vein it may well surpass even that.......

I think this is officailly the worst ever sitcom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys9OY2kkFu8

No idea who thought this would be a good idea for a sitcom but it lasted about one week on Sky in the early days of satalite TV.


Some of my own nominations would include:

Taking the Floor (Ballroom dancing sitcom from early 90s)
Friends
My Family (over rated)
Boys in Blue (Cannon and Ball sitcom from 1980s)
Valentine Park (late 80s rubbish)
The Peter Principle
Two Point Four Children
Ab Fab (absolutedly not fab)
and anything by Carla Lane

As Time Goes By... God that was tedious to watch.

The Office, utter tripe

There was one in the seventies my mother said with Denise Welch's husband in, can't remember his name but he seemed to spend most of his time on the lavatory - does anyone know I believe it was taken off the air due to complaints

There was one in the seventies my mother said with Denise Welch's husband in, can't remember his name but he seemed to spend most of his time on the lavatory - does anyone know I believe it was taken off the air due to complaints

hahahaha - Don't tell one of our TV heroes Tim Healy you can't remember him but you know him from being married to some tart off Loose Women!!!


I've never forgiven her for seducing Kevin behind Sallys back.

There was one in the seventies my mother said with Denise Welch's husband in, can't remember his name but he seemed to spend most of his time on the lavatory - does anyone know I believe it was taken off the air due to complaints

Ah yes - "Royal Flush", in which Healy played the toilet attendant for the Queen at Buckingham Palace. The episode with Prince Philip and the dancing bear is rightly considered a classic of its genre.

Ah yes - "Royal Flush", in which Healy played the toilet attendant for the Queen at Buckingham Palace. The episode with Prince Philip and the dancing bear is rightly considered a classic of its genre.

It took quite a panning at the time.

It took quite a panning at the time.

Don't be faecesous.

worst sit-coms?

Definitely "Brighton Belles":- Jean Boht's accent was dire, it wandered all over the UK.

"Green Green Grass". No, please! Won't somebody please think of the children?

That tripe with Zoe Wannamaker and Robert Lindsay (is it called "My Family"?)

That new one with Nicholas Lyndhurst in it? ( I think it's called "When You're Gone?)

I have to admit to never finding "Mind Your Language" at all funny.

I've also never got "Friends".

hahahaha - Don't tell one of our TV heroes Tim Healy you can't remember him but you know him from being married to some tart off Loose Women!!!


I've never forgiven her for seducing Kevin behind Sallys back.

Not sure if her husband has forgiven for having the affair with a builder

It took quite a panning at the time.

Really, can't imagine why

The American sitcoms - the ones I have seen anyway - rely on wit for their humour

The English ones - newish ones - seem to rely on toilet humour

I don't find Matt Lucas and David Walliams funny, or Ricky Gervais, Johnny Vegas, RAB C. Nesbitt, Wayne and Waynetta

Really, can't imagine why

The American sitcoms - the ones I have seen anyway - rely on wit for their humour

The English ones - newish ones - seem to rely on toilet humour

I don't find Matt Lucas and David Walliams funny, or Ricky Gervais, Johnny Vegas, RAB C. Nesbitt, Wayne and Waynetta

Wayne and Waynetta were well ahead of their time. Back then it could be seen as toilet humour, but now it's seen as a scarily accurate portrayal of the working classes! Kids with stupid, made up names, Wayne being branded a pervert because he likes to play with his kids, Waynetta wanting a "braaahn baby" because all the other mums have one......

Little Britain is more of a sketch show than a sitcom, no? It is dire, though.

My top 5 would probably look like this:

Two Pints of Lager - I feel quite strongly about this one because I signed up to a cable TV company while I was living abroad specifically so that I could get the BBC channels, and then all that ever seemed to be on was "Two Pints marathon"... :rant:
My Family - the American sitcom format, set in Britain. Doesn't work.
My Hero - did Ardal O'Hanlon not read the script before accepting the role?
Gimme Gimme Gimme - I did try to give it a chance one time, but I was scrambling for the remote after all of about 3 minutes.
Dinnerladies - I just don't like Victoria Wood, really.


The Vicar of Dibley would probably be in there somewhere, too. I won't include ones like Last Of The Summer Wine, as they're aimed at an older demographic so I don't expect to find them funny.

At the risk of igniting a flame war, Only Fools and Horses.

Most overrated comedy ever IMO... David Jason just isn't funny in my opinion.

I agree - it had two jokes - Del boys cocktails and Trigger calling Rodney "Dave" - not enough to sustain two shows never mind all the rest.

Most recently the one I can't stand is After You've Gone.

Others are:

My Hero
Grownups
Gavin and Stacey
Little Britain
Time Gentlemen Please
Waiting For God

The Office, utter tripe

I loved The Office, as I could identify a lot of the sorts of characters who I'd worked with and the petty office politics that goes on in a lot of workplaces. It ran its course though, wouldn't want to watch another series.

What was the one with Raquel from Corrie and Clive Mantle from Casualty? It was truly awful.

Terry and June.

Aahh!! That's one of my favourites! Terry Scotts facial expressions had me in stitches.:D

I never really liked Yes Minister. Saying that, I don't think I ever watched a single episode cause it looked too boring.

Ab Fab
No Place Like Home
Bread
Green Green Grass
Duty Free
May to December
Three Up Two Down
The Brittas Empire
Red Dwarf