The 30 Best Bad Shows of the Last 30 Years: #12-7
By the usual standards of excellence, you wouldn’t find the goofy TGIF legend Perfect Strangers, which premiered 30 years ago this week, on anyone’s list of great TV shows. Indeed, some might call it bad. But here’s the thing about “bad”: it has degrees, gradations, nuances within its definition. A series may suffer from uneven writing, absurd plotting, overacting (or all three) — but one function of TV is to provide comfort and escapism, and by those measures, our list of the 30 Best Bad Shows of the Last 30 Years is a hall of fame of some of the warmest, most blissfully enjoyable shows millions of people have ever enjoyed. And so as you read our nominees and our little hymns to their longevity in our hearts during this week-long countdown, bear in mind a couple of things. These are not shows that we “hate-watch”— we love the way they make us feel. And these are not “guilty pleasures” — there can be no guilt, if a show gives you pleasure. Which is what each and every show on this list does for an awful lot of people. See which ones make you smile at the memory of them.
Related: The 30 Best Bad Shows of the Last 30 Years: #30-25
The 30 Best Bad Shows of the Last 30 Years: #24-19
The 30 Best Bad Shows of the Last 30 Years: #18-13
12. Dinosaurs (1991-‘94, ABC)
Why It’s So Excellently Bad: On the page, Dinosaurs is just like any other goofy family sitcom from ABC’s “TGIF” era, populated with broad punchlines and teachable moments. But here’s the wrinkle that makes this particular series so — as the Church Lady would say — special: those punchlines and teachable moments are performed by actors in life-sized dinosaur suits! Each member of the Sinclair clan is a different species of giant lizard: Papa Earl is a Megalosaurus, while Mama Fran is an Allosaurus, and their three children range from a Hypsilophodon to a Ceratosaurus. Designed by Jim Henson’s famous Creature Shop, which constructed similar costumes for the blockbuster live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature released the year before, the dinosaur outfits are still a marvel of puppeteering craft, even if the jokes are sometimes from the Jurassic Age.
Signature Moment: Being a sitcom kid in the ‘80s and ‘90s meant you automatically got your own catchphrase to say over and over again. For Baby Sinclair — who was voiced by none other than Kevin “Elmo” Clash — that catchphrase was “Not the Momma!” generally dropped while he was heaping abuse on his dad. Kid dinosaurs: they say the darndest things.
Where You Can Watch It: All four seasons can be purchased on Amazon Prime, and are also available on DVD. —Ethan Alter
11. Cop Rock (Sept.-Dec. 1990, ABC)
Why It’s So Excellently Bad: TV Guide once called it the most bizarre TV musical of all time, but that was before Hugh Jackman and pals unleashed Viva Laughlin. And before shows like Glee and Galavant and, for the love of everything that you should be watching on television right now, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, hit the airwaves. Which is not to say Cop Rock was as good, even in a guilty-pleasure way, as any of those latter series. But it was an interesting idea — trying to make a stage musical for primetime TV — created by some proven hitmakers, including Emmy-winning Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law (and later, NYPD Blue) creator Steven Bochco, and Oscar and Grammy-winning musician Randy Newman. The concept was pretty simple: why declare someone guilty when you can have the jury sing-and-dance someone guilty? And though the transition into those musical numbers wasn’t always as smooth as one would hope — why did the jurors suddenly appear in choir robes? — Cop Rock was still way, way ahead of its time.
Signature Moment: From the “Bang the Potts Slowly” episode, future superstar Sheryl Crow is an undercover cop singing her way through preparations with her fellow policewomen. Why do the guys in the gym just keep pumping iron while this ‘90s female hair band traipses through? If you’re asking yourself that question, then, friend, you’re overthinking this delicious little slice of pop-culture cheese.
Where You Can Watch It: Cop Rock: The Complete Series (all 11 episodes) will be released on Shout! Factory DVD on May 17. —Kimberly Potts
10. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-present, NBC)
Why It’s So Excellently Bad: Look, in the real world, there is no Mariska Hargitay and no Ice-T out there to protect you. Pretty much every episode features the criminal getting caught and justice being done, so it’s pretty fantastical. On the other hand, Washington State University conducted a study and found that watching SVU taught viewers to not accept common rape myths and made them more aware of rape culture. In other words, binge-watching SVU actually makes you and your loved ones safer. How many other shows can claim that?
Signature Moment: “In the criminal justice system…” You’re puttering around the house, trying to get some cleaning done, you’ve got a paper due, where did you file those tax papers? Then that intro begins, and you find yourself on the couch, transfixed. How long will you be there? Until the network puts something else on. That may be one episode or it may be a marathon, who knows? Once that “chung chung” hits, you’re stuck.
Where You Can Watch It: Netflix has seasons 13-16, but Hulu has all 17 seasons through what’s currently airing on NBC. —Robert Chan
9. 7th Heaven (1996-2007, The WB and The CW)
Why It’s So Excellently Bad: A stiffly-written, heavily-didactic family show that nevertheless managed to capture the closeness and warmth of large-family life, 7th Heaven found the sweet spot between cornball and heartfelt. Anchored by parents played by Catherine Hicks and Stephen Collins, it showcased the pop-culture breakthroughs of Jessica Biel and those titans of twin-acting George and Geoff Stults.
Signature Moment: Biels’ Mary Camden, star center for her high school basketball team, leads a group of players in vandalizing the gym. She’s arrested; lessons are learned; Mary is forgiven by her minister-father and, presumably, God.
Where You Can Watch It: Options include Up TV network, which airs reruns, as well as Hulu and Amazon Prime. —Ken Tucker
8. Charmed (1998-2006, The WB)
Why It’s So Excellently Bad: Long regarded as the B-side to The WB’s hit supernatural series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed actually outlasted its predecessor by one year, and enjoys a healthy afterlife in syndication. (You can binge three episodes every morning on TNT.) During that extended run, it built a mythology around witchy sisters Prue (RIP), Piper, Phoebe, and Paige that practically demands its own college course to completely understand. But Charmed also knows how to have fun, using magic to complicate the characters’ lives in deliberately silly ways. And the actresses really don’t get enough credit for embracing the show’s comic streak rather than running from it.
Signature Moment: Above is a prime example of Charmed’s crazy sense of humor: Piper, Phoebe, and Paige struggle to communicate after being rendered blind, deaf, and mute respectively by an encounter with a magically-inclined monkey. How can you read that sentence and not love this show?
Where You Can Watch It: All eight seasons are streaming on Netflix, or you can cast a spell to pick up the complete series box set. —EA
7. ALF (1986-’90, NBC)
Why It’s So Excellently Bad: An Alien Life Form’s ship crashes at the home of a suburban Los Angeles fam (the Tanners), and he hides out with them while immersing himself in American pop culture, commenting sarcastically on everyone and everything around him, and trying to eat everything in sight, especially the Tanners’ cat, Lucky. “High concept” is an understatement for the ALF logline, but it also doesn’t relay how clever the furry little creature with the rippled nose and his interactions with human life forms are. Essentially a fish out of water comedy, ALF was even further out of water: There were standard sitcom plots like ALF dreaming he was on Gilligan’s Island (with several Gilligan cast members guest-starring), ALF hosting The Tonight Show (of course Ed McMahon appeared), and the show adding a baby to the Tanner clan in Season 3. But episodes also found ALF (real name: Gordon Shumway) and Tanner dad Willie (Max Wright) doing battle against a giant cockroach (Season 1’s “La Cucaracha”), ALF suspecting the new neighbor is Elvis Presley (Season 3’s “Suspicious Minds”), and Season 1’s “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” in which ALF develops a crush on Tanner teen Lynn (Andrea Elson) and channels Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and ZZ Top to create a music video for her. Further explaining the unique vibe, and quality, of ALF storylines: The Carol Burnett Show and The Bob Newhart Show scribe Tom Patchett and current Simpsons showrunner Al Jean were among the writers of the series, which is now being developed for a big-screen adaptation with series creator (and ALF puppetmaster) Paul Fusco.
Signature Moment: ALF going full Risky Business — complete with “Old Time Rock and Roll” as his soundtrack — when the Tanner fam is away, and he decides to snack on everything in the house including, or so the Tanners suspect, Lucky. It’s ALF at his pop culture-lovin’, gluttonous, wisecrackin’, cat-stalkin’, physical comedy-gifted, Tanner-tormentin’ best.
Where You Can Watch It: On DVD, and streaming on Hulu and Amazon Video. —KP
Come back to Yahoo TV on Friday, when the countdown concludes.
