Worst TV Show Titles Ever: GCB, Selfie, And Just Like That…, Manimal and More
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Sometimes you land on the perfect TV show title — think Friends! Cheers! Revenge!
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Other times, you land on Cougar Town. Or worse, Shasta McNasty.
We here at TVLine have championed many a show with titles that simply don’t do them justice — titles so bad that they befuddle, irritate or potentially alienate viewers altogether. There have been good shows hurt by names both odd (Terriers) and misrepresentative (Trophy Wife). Other shows are hurt by woefully generic monikers (Complications, Fam).
And then there are the shows that are determined to shoehorn “The Walking Dead” into their names.
Heck, some titles are almost bad enough to sink a TV show in and of themselves, as the producers behind many of the following series would be the first to tell you.
Without further adieu — and as And Just Like That… and its nagging ellipse continues to unspool Season 2 — we’ve updated our list of the worst TV show titles, narrowing it down to the 35 aggressively “missed-nomers” of all time.
View our picks below, then hit the comments to tell us whether you think we omitted any “gems.”
9JKL (CBS)
☑️ NONSENSE WORDS
The title of this short-lived sitcom about a family that lived next door to each other (in apartments 9J, 9K and 9L — get it???) read like gibberish.
And Just Like That… (Max)
☑️ IT’S THE SAME, BUT IT’S DIFFERENT
Clearly, Max didn’t want to call their sequel series Sex and the City, but we couldn’t help but wonder: Why choose an obscure phrase of Carrie’s that sounds utterly generic as a show title, and then saddle it with a clunky ellipsis at the end? It’s anything but chic.
Complications (USA Network)
☑️ AGGRESSIVELY GENERIC
This USA Network drama’s generic name, which referred to the ramifications of one violent action taken by an ER doc (played by Jason O’Mara), could have been the title of nearly any show on television. (See also: ABC’s Notorious.)
Cougar Town (ABC/TBS)
☑️ NEAR-INSTANTLY INACCURATE
☑️ MILDLY OFFENSIVE
The producers had a good time poking fun at the title, which referred to both Courteney Cox’s “cougar” status (a premise that lasted all of six episodes!) and the series’ local high school sports teams (which were never again referenced after the pilot’s opening scene).
Daisy of Love (VH1)
☑️ NONSENSE WORDS
This offshoot of Rock of Love With Bret Michaels, led by Season 2 runner-up Daisy de la Hoya, was given a title that was even more meaningless than its sire’s! (What is a “daisy of love”?)
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)
☑️ UNWIELDY
☑️ OVERPUNCTUATED
Originally announced in October 2020 as the comparatively succinct Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, this first entry in what would eventually launch an anthology series somehow gained a second, superfluous Dahmer plus a clunky emdash before hitting our screens.
Devious Maids (Lifetime)
☑️ MESSY, MESSY
This quirky title may have fit the tone of Marc Cherry’s soapy Lifetime drama, but it made the titular housekeepers sound like the villains when they were, in fact, the heroes.
Downward Dog (ABC)
☑️ CRIME & PUN-ISHMENT
☑️ ULTIMATELY MEANINGLESS
Yes, this short-lived comedy was about a dog owner. But was yoga ever involved…?
Emergence (ABC)
☑️ TOO VAGUE
Like, we “get” that it was about the emergence of some sort of [SPOILER] technology, but not a day went by that we (and presumably many others) didn’t see the title and think “medical drama” versus “sci-fi.”
P.S. Make no mistake, despite these past two entries, we love Allison Tolman!
Fam (CBS)
☑️ AGGRESSIVELY GENERIC
☑️ NONSENSE WORDS
Has a title ever been less inspired? Had every other family sitcom title already been used?
Fear the Walking Dead (AMC)
☑️ IT’S THE SAME, BUT IT’S DIFFERENT
As TVLine boss Michael Ausiello once said many years ago, the Walking Dead spinoff’s title sounds more like “the name of a theme-park ride. Or a board game.”
GCB (ABC)
☑️ WATERED-DOWN
Based on the book Good Christian Bitches by Kim Gatlin, this dramedy’s title was first diluted to Good Christian Belles before boldly going with a made-up acronym. (See also: Starz’s BMF fka Black Mafia Family.)
Ghosted (Fox)
☑️ NEAR-INSTANTLY INACCURATE
Ironically, the only thing appropriate about this title was how quickly viewers ghosted the Adam Scott/Craig Robinson comedy, which mostly did away with its supernatural premise by midseason.
H8R (The CW)
☑️ NOT GR8
The only thing more off-putting than the premise of this Mario Lopez-hosted reality show — D-list celebrities confront Internet trolls! — was its lame, abbreviated title.
Halt and Catch Fire (AMC)
☑️ HUH?
This clever title was based on a computer command that causes the system to lock up/require a restart — but if you’re not at all tech savvy, it was likely alienating enough to keep you from checking out this #PeakTV Treasure.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (Disney+)
☑️ UNWIELDY
☑️ OVERLY PUNCTUATED
Does it make clear what it is, in relation to both High School Musical and High School Musical: The Musical? Absolutely.
Does it make us wish we had bought stock in colons four years ago? Very much so.
Is it just a bit too much? Yes.
How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) (ABC)
☑️ UNWIELDY
It probably took you longer to recite the title of the Sarah Chalke comedy than it took for the network to pull the plug after one season.
Life UneXpected, SouthLAnd, HawthoRNe, UnREAL, neXt….
☑️ TRY-HARDS
The kid’s name was Lux! It was set in L.A.! She was a nurse!
ThE oNLy thIng unNeceSSary cApiTAliZation doEs iS tiCK oFf tV wRITers.
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (NBC)
☑️ UNWIELDY
“Let’s name this after the popular novel that became a Denzel Washington/Angelina Jolie movie.”
“Hmm, but every season won’t be about that case. Can’t we name it after the detective?”
“Oooh, yes. Better yet, let’s do both! And hopefully TVLine’s ratings column won’t lampoon our choice every Saturday morning.”
Manimal (NBC)
☑️ OLDIE BUT A GROANIE
Yes, the one-season ’80s drama was about a shapeshifter who could take animal form, but couldn’t they have come up with a cooler name for it?
Not Dead Yet (ABC)
☑️ DEADLY DOWNER
How very, very badly does this show — about an obit writer who gets visited by the deceased — wish it could have been titled Ghosts? Instead, it’s burdened with a title that surely some turned-off would-be viewers assume refers to Gina Rodriguez’s character.
Oh Sit! (The CW)
☑️ CRIME AND PUN-ISHMENT
The CW’s extreme take on musical chairs dared its announcers to earn an FCC fine.
On Becoming a God in Central Florida (Showtime)
☑️ OVERLY PITHY
“Surely,” you speculated back in August 2019, “they grabbed the title from whatever book the series is based on.” And you would have been wrong. This was no adaptation, meaning someone chose that title for this dark comedy about a water park employee who gets sucked into a pyramid scheme.
Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler (Max)
☑️ BATMANSPLAINING
We had to admire Epix for greenlighting a series simply titled Pennyworth, counting on those who know, to know — and in turn tune in. The streamer formerly known as HBO Max, alas, clearly had less faith upon acquiring the period drama and decided to shine a bright bat-signal in everyone’s eyes.
Second Chance (Fox)
☑️ THIRD TIME’S NOT THE CHARM
This one-and-done Frankenstein drama was initially picked up to series as The Frankenstein Code, then went by the misspelled title Lookinglass. It was ultimately changed to Second Chance, a title which told viewers absolutely nothing about its rather far-out premise.
Selfie (ABC)
☑️ NEEDLESSLY POLARIZING
This sweet, funny rom-com turned out to be leagues better than its vapid title, which was a big turn-off during the onset of the then-annoying selfie trend.
Shasta McNasty (UPN)
☑️ NEEDLESSLY POLARIZING
Need we say more about the moniker of this ill-fated sitcom?
$#*! My Dad Says (CBS)
☑️ WHAT THE BLEEP?
☑️ NEEDLESSLY POLARIZING
If you can’t say it on TV, it probably shouldn’t be in the title. (See also: Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, Kevin Can F**k Himself) and Rap Sh!t.)
SMILF (Showtime)
☑️ MILDLY OFFENSIVE
☑️ NEEDLESSLY POLARIZING
This single-mother dramedy is one of TVLine’s #PeakTV Treasures, but is probably discovered most frequently by perverts clicking the wrong link on Google.
So Help Me Todd (CBS)
☑️ CRIME & PUN-ISHMENT
Oh, how we as a staff collectively and audibly groaned when CBS finally surrendered a title to this mother-son legal dramedy.
Terriers (FX)
☑️ A DOGGONE SHAME
Unless the show was about puppies, there was no need to name it this. (P.S. It wasn’t about puppies. and series creator Shawn Ryan himself regrets not pushing for a better title.)
Trophy Wife (ABC)
☑️ MILDLY OFFENSIVE
☑️ NEAR-INSTANTLY INACCURATE
☑️ NEEDLESSLY POLARIZING
The tawdry title was no representation of the fun, funny, family ensemble comedy that ABC divorced itself from after one season. We still miss Burt.
The Unicorn (CBS)
☑️ NEAR-INSTANTLY INACCURATE
☑️ ALSO: HUH?
Our staff had at least one fan of this title — funny, it happened to be the single man of a certain age — when the CBS comedy first launched. But seeing as Wade was quick to realize his value on the dating scene as a not-awful male human being, the title (à la Cougar Town) soon become irrelevant.
The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC)
☑️ OVERKILL
Know what was a cool title? Isle of the Dead.
Know what’s less cool, and clumsily uses the word “dead” twice in a row? See above. (Like, why not just Dead City? It’s airing on AMC, what second hint do people need to know it’s part of the Walking Dead franchise?)
Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (ABC)
☑️ WAY TOO CONFUSING!
This midseason sitcom (about a struggling TV network) surely looked like a “doubled” misprint in your TV guidance magazine, seeing as it indeed aired Wednesdays at 9:30 (8:30 Central). Yanked after two low-rated episodes, it finally returned for a burn-off run, renamed My Adventures in Television.
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