These TV Shows Shouldn't Have Existed | Wiki Weekends

[@wikiweekends]

Thanks for watching, you can support the channel on Patreon here - patreon.com/WikiWeekends Or perhaps continue the conversation featured in this video over on our Discord - discord.gg/33DNc2ET2h - Karl and Lucas

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

24:56 - I think the tongue in cheek joke about sports in Britain is, for the non-English, if Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland are playing, you cheer and root for them, even if you’re from one of the other three, but when England plays, you root for whoever it is England is playing against.

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

Got to be honest, I really couldn't care less if NI or Wales are playing. And for me, the entire "anyone but England" thing is about the pundits and commentators who will, during matches with anyone but England playing, spend the entire time doing the "six degrees of seperation" thing so they can talk about the EPL instead of the match they're showing.

[@edwardphilibin3151]

In 1961 Jackie Gleason hosted a panel show called "You're in the Picture," with four celebrities sticking their faces through holes in a picture, who had to guess what the picture was. After one episode Gleason himself cancelled it. 😳 The next week, the night the second episode would have aired, Gleason sat alone on an empty stage, and literally apologized to the viewers for "the biggest bomb ever laid on television." The show itself was awful, but the apology was amazing. Because sponsors had paid money, Gleason finished out the rest of the contracted run with monologues that morphed into a normal talk show.

[@GorillaLancaster]

Mel Brooks made a Blazing Saddles tv pilot. Unaired, nigh unwatchable... Deliberately. Brooks didn't want it, studio did. After a preview, they agreed with Brooks.

[@sofaninja0552]

It's too bad the studios aren't still smart enough still to recognize the original creators aren't interested in soulless corporate forced sequels and will make troll content just to placate corporate shills who pay them way too much. It's how we ended up with stuff like matrix reloaded and joker 2.

[@warshrine8635]

Mel's a comedy god

[@ombranox]

They actually made that show. They filmed multiple seasons of it, they just never *aired* it. Ashcan copy, like the Roger Corman Fantastic 4 movie. Joe Ramoni from Hats Off Entertainment made a video about it.

[@jsmith3946]

​@@warshrine8635 guess you never saw his crappy robin hood sitcom he made for the UK

[@warshrine8635]

@@jsmith3946 not every fart is a shit lol

[@justindenney-hall5875]

Brad Jones said in effect that at best "Heil, Honey I'm home!" could only work as a five-minute sketch.

[@Reaverbot7]

That's a very generous estimate.

[@GothamClive]

@@Reaverbot7 I just watched it (it's on KZbin). It's actually quite funny.

[@jamieandtherandomstuff]

One show that should've cancelled is Mrs Brown's Boys. How the heck it's still being made is mind boggling.

[@ecurps1]

46:19 "-right now I feel like a kung-fu toddler." That's a legitimately good joke. It's self-depricating enough to not come off as dickish but still acknowledging the potential growth of dedicating ones self to practicing a skill. Even if unintentional, that was still funny.

[@chenstormstout9456]

It wasn’t on tv. Carlin was arrested after doing a live act in Milwaukee, my hometown, at one of our festivals. The cop was literally standing in the wing waiting for him to finish so he could arrest him.

[@jsmith3946]

at least they where nice and let him finish

[@chenstormstout9456]

@ that’s Midwest nice for ya.

[@edwardphilibin3151]

@@chenstormstout9456 Just like John Candy's fictional cop in the first (should be only) Blues Brothers film, when he told the uniforms with him to relax and enjoy the show, they could arrest the 'brothers' afterward. Admittedly this was to set up the third act's massive high speed chase back to Chicago's tax office, but it was still nice of him to not ruin the show for a theater full of audience.

[@chenstormstout9456]

@ lol exactly.

[@Arkios64]

29:24 As much as the idea of comedians making animal puns sounds horribly repetitive, having comedic documentary voiceovers absolutely slaps every time. "Comedy, but animals" is just a random idea, "documentary, but funny" works incredibly well. Like ZeFrank, who's educating the masses, and he just assembles his own documentaries with a dirty script and jokes. It's engaging, and memorable.

[@rustyrelicsfarm2406]

My Name Is Earl is one of those shows that were canceled too soon.

[@GorillaLancaster]

@@rustyrelicsfarm2406 love that show. It got screwed by nbc

[@Creationweek]

Nah, I think it was canceled at the right time. It probably had one more good season, but it was going to start going down hill

[@kkryder9176]

​@@Creationweek Needed one more season or movie just to wrap up

[@JoeThornhill]

Just one more episode. Even though the last season was already longer.

[@warshrine8635]

Same for raising hope

[@subtlegong2817]

The Battlestar Galactica reboot should have ended 15 minutes earlier than it did. Leave Adama sitting next to a grave and keep the ambiguity of whether anything supernatural was at play in the series. It’s better to leave questions unanswered than answering them poorly

[@literalsarcasm1830]

Seriously. It pulled a literal deus ex machina right there at the end and ruined it for me.

[@edwardphilibin3151]

@@literalsarcasm1830 This is exactly the same logic as "Game of Thrones ran for seven seasons," and I'm here for it. 😉

[@randomperson5579]

my first thought from the title was Kid Nation, genuinely how the hell did reality tv version of lord of the flies get greenlit and, still continue for multiple episodes. The second is Full English, they somehow made family guy but made it even less funny

[@YamiHoOu]

13:48 holy cow that was an awful make under. Like at least make the mainstream outfits good! They look like they just threw on the first thing they found

[@PerovNigma]

32:30 To be fair, that's clearly just a personal camera. The actual lockdown episodes of _Last Week Tonight,_ which were recently uploaded in full to the show's KZbin channel, look much better.

[@justindenney-hall5875]

Right as I was thinking "Are they going to talk about Heil honey, I'm home?" Karl said it!🤣

[@graphicsgod]

I would have loved to watch this!!

[@justindenney-hall5875]

@@graphicsgod It's on KZbin.

[@blackfire3744]

I remember a series that only lasted two episodes (including pilot), I think it was called "the adventures of captain zoom". The premise was "what if flash Gordon was an isekai?". These people in a far off galaxy were being kept underfoot by a tyrannical dystopian ruler. One of the freedom fighters' tech head, a boy genius who, while searching for help, found a broadcast of a flash gordan-esqe show that was filmed and broadcasted as it was made. The boy genius teleports the lead actor of the show thinking he was a great hero when he was only just a good looking actor doing a part. With no way home he plays up his part and somehow succeeds.

[@The4Headed_Dragon]

That kind of sound like the plot of Galaxy Quest where aliens enlist the cast of a Star Trek type show to help them defend against hostile aliens because they don't realize that it was only fiction.

[@BadWebDiver]

I think it was a telemovie more than a tv series: "The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space."

[@robertsonmcnaughton4850]

Prison break, just how?! Pedo robo arm, and I'm supposed to give a shit about this character?

[@Maxwinchesterphotography]

Joel who starred in that travel show with Nish is also a standup comic. He seems genuinely nice and handled leaking of private footage of himself better than most of us could.

[@DadalorianCreates]

he at the very least seemed interested, open, willing to learn and respectful. That above anything else makes me interested in looking up more of his work

[@Jobe00]

Backdoor pilots are something you could do a Wiki Weekends on. It seems to be rare for backdoor pilots to actually be successful and get a series.

[@BadgerOff32]

Probably the most famous one would be Mork and Mindy, which came about thanks to a backdoor pilot episode on Happy Days

[@Jobe00]

@@BadgerOff32 The most successful backdoor pilot would be NCIS which was a backdoor pilot on JAG. NCIS is far more famous than JAG and has multiple spin-off series itself.

[@jaysoncox8]

I had to look it up but the girl in the MySpace show (34:40) is Elizabeth Tulloch who plays Lois in Superman and Lois

[@RedK5]

Oh! That’s why she looked familiar

[@DanielRaez93]

5:05 Game of Thrones was peak fantasy form season 1 to season 6. Imagine in an alternate timeline, HBO cancelled GoT after 6 seasons, people still talk about how amazing that show was.

[@themightylyon3324]

Just starting but I'm curious if the red dwarf us reboot is counted on cancelled after 1 episode cause it was filmed but I can't remember if it aired

[@MrPoptit]

No it doesn't not As the was a abomination and should not even be made

[@BadgerOff32]

Nah I think it would be classed as a pilot as it never made it to air. They actually made a _second_ US Red Dwarf pilot that's much less well known about, but 10 times worse! They basically recreated the 'Marooned' episode in full, where Lister and Rimmer are trapped on an ice planet. They literally had no budget to make it though, so the whole episode is filmed with a white bed sheet as the 'backdrop' (coz, you know.....they're on an ice planet, so.....white = snow....?) That episode is NOT a great way to introduce people to the characters though, because an episode like that kinda requires that you understand who these characters are, and what their relationship is prior to those events. It utterly fails as an introduction to the characters and the world they inhabit.

[@bethmarriott9292]

25:23 "is the joke in the room with us?"

[@jamieandtherandomstuff]

The whole concept behind Little Britain is that it's a sketch show. Each character has its catchphrase. The Fast Show, Armstrong and Millar, Big Train, Harry Enfield and Chums, The Catherine Tate Show, Smack the Pony, Kenny Everett Show, Naked Video, That Mitchell and Webb Look and Goodness Gracious Me all had multiple characters that said the same punchline week in, week out.

[@graphicsgod]

One show that should have been canceled, but ended up lasting 3 seasons and a low budget straight to DVD movie was 'Drawn Together!' It was made to outdo Southpark and purposely try to offend everyone lol. I loved the show, but was expecting it to get canceled every week on Comedy Central. The premise was a take on The Real World, but animated. And all the characters are fictitious from comic books, video games, and old cartoons. The olny oddball character was Spanky Ham. That character made no sense with the rest of the characters. It came after The Dave Chapelle Show. Which was another show that got canceled too soon!

[@ZBott]

The 7 words you can't say arrest for George Carlin is way more important than this blurt had said. That is an episode in itself.

[@Just_Becky_Dammit]

36:24 - what a missed opportunity for "Fact Fiend: The Movie"

[@bethanyblanton7953]

By far the 100. First three seasons were awesome. Didn't need the last three (or four? I can't bear to revisit).

[@guitarhero8110]

I remember a show based on David from the Bible, i think it got canceled either right before Goliath or right after. Tried to be Game of Thrones, wasn't successful at it.

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

I always felt that in Fawlty Towers, the other characters aren't really designed as people; they're just targets for Basil to be exposed as the wanker he is.

[@beagleissleeping5359]

There was a tv show that was on when I was a teenager that canceled the series by killing off the main star in the last episode. I think it was called Super Force.

[@TellyMan200]

wow even in 2024 nbc really drop the ball when they describing olympics sports other then the tradional ones. really Snoop and hart why 38:53

[@mr9512]

4:34 What is the show (or film) with Robert Knepper they show here?

[@Iris_and_or_George]

Too soon: Happy! Too late: Dexter❤❤

[@shadepizza4217]

1 minute in, my doctor who brain is activated. I'm calling it now, this video will mention K9 And Company.

[@SgtCookie111]

I will say in _general_ I do agree with you on the "Comedian goes on holiday" is a bit shit. That said, there are a few that are genuinely good, Billy Connolly's "Word Tour of [Wherever]" (Which, in addition, predate An Idiot Abroad by QUITE a ways), are excellent. Like they don't really count as being the same genre. I think the difference between a good "Comedian goes on holiday" show from a bad one is not necessarily the comedian itself, but as you say actually enjoying what they're doing.

[@AverageNormalJoe]

Travel Man: 48 hours in (insert city here) too, always cracks me up

[@danw6407]

"An Idiot Abroad" was funny, and every now and then he actually would say something insightful, which was a welcome surprise.

[@dnf-dead]

Red Dwarf USA failed not once but twice 😂

[@anzaca1]

Lost/Under the Dome should've had the same treatment.

[@Iris_and_or_George]

38:47 Snoops animals funniest videos is also amazing!

[@jackward491]

Easy answer: velma

[@FireStormDel]

Karl: Is there a show you think wasn't cancelled soon enough? Me, upon hearing that question: The Big Bang Theory. I really don't get how this show persisted as long as it did given its not a funny show, it's one that goes "look at the stock nerd characters and how they sometimes reference Star Trek, Doctor Who, and other things considered nerdy while doing science stuff because that's what nerds do, right?".

[@DadalorianCreates]

IMHO the best idiot abroad was always Bourdain , his interactions with people and culture were fantastic and very funny to me, the dry sarcasm, references to 80s punk and things like Spinal Tap were always fantastic.. but alas not labeled as comedy...

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

13:14 - maybe someone with no self worth, so even getting one ‘they’re meh’ would be a win for them. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@CasLok88]

Some of these were about shows that were made too early... Maybe this could be a bigger focus in an upcoming poll...

[@dragoninthewest1]

10:20 so that's the origin of the saying "a real who's who"

[@bsabruzzo]

Before you get into the list past the first one there, I'd like to point out with comedy Central and adult swim, you might have gotten a whole six episodes of that first one if it were made today.

[@theotakux5959]

It's a shame "Heil Honey, I'm Home" didn't get a full season run. It seems like a sitcom version of "Springtime for Hitler". Granted, MORE than one season would have been overkill. Really, the 8 episodes filmed seems like the right number, shame we haven't seen the rest.

[@NickScaramuzzo]

I know Stephen McPherson and worked on Scrubs when Heather Graham was guest starring and that tracks.

[@Raptor213]

Topping the list of shows that went on too long: supernatural. The show had a complete story to tell and ended with a climactic series finale at the end of season 5. And then it went on for 10 more seasons.

[@Some_Average_Joe]

Ok, I've got a show that never should have existed: The Swan

[@liamcollinson5695]

Dr Gunther von Hagens autopsy show aired in the UK and probably should not have been aired to begin with it was supposed to be for medical reasons but people just used it to for morbid curiosity the guy also owns the body worlds exhibit in case that wasn't controversial enough

[@theodorequakins2636]

Ok gotta be honest, heil honey was the first one in my mind aswell

[@haltjagged7783]

I really like the theme song/sound bite you guys put in, for Heil Honey, but yeah, that show idea reminds me about those guys that fantasize they can go back in time, and silence Hitler before he grows. Wild people. But back to the more important part, that theme song, it sounds so good, it reminds me of the Nanny’s theme-song(from the 90’s). So awesome!!!

[@literalsarcasm1830]

Walking Dead became a bloated, shambling corpse of itself, which is kinda fitting tbh.

[@inkedthoughts7020]

BBC1. Pets Win Prizes. A tv show that was pulled for being terminally boring. One ten minute section was waiting for a chicken to peck a target, then it didn’t. Hosted by Dale Winton, who struggled with everything. You could see the pain in his eyes that said get me out of here. There was an ITV production of the show Mr&Mrs, it appears every few decades with a new host. The last version was wrong for so many reasons, the time slot was 5:30pm or there about. The prizes were deliberately cheap for comedy effects. Then the host was super camp Jullian Clarey, the producers put him on autocue and didn’t let him ad lib. Jullians comedy style would be better after the watershed say after 9pm. But no. Now if he was hosting a late night R rated version on his own script, it would have been a hit.

[@TheForrest05]

Now I got an itch to see what a show was called and if it had a few episodes. 😅

[@travit666]

0:29 so a few years ago my dad well not a few years ago actually more like I was in high school so almost a decade ago at this point but my dad had downloaded a show and it was a BBC show think it was three or four episodes before it was canceled or something and it was about like time travel alternate realities but the two main characters were kind of dumbasses It was like a mix of Bill and Ted meets Doctor who mixed with a little bit of sliders and I can't for the life of me remember what the hell the show was called cuz I want to rewatch it so if anyone here lives in the UK and knows what the hell I'm talking about please tell me what the name of the show was It was literally just a couple of episodes before it was canceled

[@hurricanebtvs]

Agreed on Heroes. Season 1 is in my opinion one of the best seasons of any show of all time. But seasons 2 onwards are awful. I refuse to believe it exists after season 1.

[@maxwellrider]

i think one show that shouldn't have gone on after 1 season is stranger things, really good excusion in the first season but after everything, i think it would have been best if it was just a mini series.

[@anzaca1]

9:46 That may have contributed. If the show had been tried a decade or so later, it might have worked.

[@petercolson2990]

Prisonbreak had no business running as long as it did. The first season was fun, tense right the way through, and then they escaped prison. Season 2 you could allow, as the crew on the run is at least a decent continuation. But the multiple contrived ways to keep sending them to various prisons to justify the premise of the show in later seasons was so VERY OBVIOUSLY STUPID

[@lordfartquad5083]

I have to say cw flash, it was good but man those last seasons are fucking horrid

[@anzaca1]

39:00 I want SD doing reaction videos now.

[@kleyperr]

Karl: “If The Simpsons have made fun of it, and you do it unironically years later, it’s probably pretty bad” Me, an American: thinks about how our next president is a convicted felon who’s about to put us into more debt, and was also joked about on The Simpsons

[@jsmith3946]

He not convicted they decided not to give him anything because he is the president

[@kongaking9862]

I loved heroes all the way through

[@jccw227]

I didn’t even like Little Britain when it was on the air.

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

5:58 - how about a show that was both Cancelled Too Soon _and_ Not Cancelled Soon Enough? I give you, Star Trek Enterprise. It was a wreck when it began to the point you know it only lasted as long as it did because it had the cache of the Star Trek brand to trade on (to be fair having a bad first season was the norm for the 80s/90s Trek shows, but Enterprise managed to have an even worse first season than any of them had). Most other shows would’ve gotten cancelled after season one, but it lasted four seasons, and ironically it got canned at the end of the fourth season, which is generally considered its best season, and when it had started getting good and getting back up towards the quality of the previous Trek shows, killing off any potential it had to redeem itself. And that was compounded by the fact that the studio brought back the original two writer-producers to write the finale and they crafted one of the most disliked and controversial series finales out of all Trek.

[@qqqzzzeee]

For the most part, Enterprise was bad Star Trek, but if you view it as a show inspired by Star Trek, it's okay to good as the show goes on. But it does fit that weird niche of both too soon yet not soon enough.

[@battlesheep2552]

The call-forwards were really annoying. It was really ahead of its time in that it was squeezing those damn member berries over a decade before the practice became mainstream.

[@richardrdotson]

Because of your delivery I feel compelled to ask, is Ricky Gervais your dad?

[@TheArmase]

Comedy has been dead for years. 90% plus of standup is just roasting people (either other celebrities or people in the audience). No one knows how to tell a real joke that doesn't punch down on someone. It truly is sad.

[@drewlovely2668]

New scooby doo.

[@rossallan3585]

Not necessarily should’ve been cancelled after one episode, but after one, maybe two seasons? Big Brother. It was interesting at first, but so quickly just became a platform for vacuous, fame hungry morons.

[@404maxnotfound]

Tbf for every shit travel show with a bad comedian we get conan o'brien's travel series and and Richard Ayoade's travel man.

[@brucelee-hi6fu]

sry for the comment its about KZbin not fact fiend KZbin wants to be advertising friendly and safe for kids..... the ad i just got was for rouge chewing tobacco wtf KZbin this is way worse than the weird create an ai companion ads

[@ziggygunz2447]

It's such a shame that John Cleese is becoming such a grumpy humorless twat when he comes from such a ground breaking comedy group that half their comedy was about breaking social norms and pushing back against the uptight older generation's stuffy nature. Smh.

[@MistaKirol]

oh lala

[@ccggenius]

I'm sorry, but a sitcom with what is very clearly a campy queer Jew playing Hitler sounds delightful. I probably would've made them the neighbors instead of the leads, but I feel like what is basically a 13-26 episode version of Springtime for Hitler would do numbers. Like, if we're at the point where we just look over the fence once per episode to see what that kooky Hitler fellow is up to, (and push the fence back to the property line), I think it works. Just be Wilson from Home Improvement with a toothbrush mustache. Maybe even never directly address it.

[@jaysoncox8]

Shows that i feel should have been cancelled sooner - ghosts reboot, Greys anatomy, Rick and Morty, big mouth fuller house, lost, friends, Seinfeld, Bunkd, Haters back off.

[@Buffalo31]

Seems to spend a lot of time either talking about things that ain't about the subject or just reading from Wikipedia.

[@Iris_and_or_George]

22:00 But it's funny because it IS racist!

[@christophweber3299]

not first 👋

[@Mathew-hg9cw]

Idk how one piece has made it so long. After 230 episodes I thought it was just way to slow. Some long animes like bleach I absolutely love, so it's not just the length of the show.

[@MrPoptit]

Lost

[@AgentGreen13]

We all know when Death Note should have been cut

[@Phoenix2312]

@WikiWeekends My lord will you have an interesting series with these... Some I can think of that I wish were Cancelled after one episode ... If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World - Not only can I not stand Katie Hopkins after I first saw her on The Apprentice, The one time I did see a tiny part of that show... She said something I AGREED WITH! AND I DONT WANT TO AGREE WITH HER! SHE IS AWFUL!!! No, Lets be fair... Even someone as terrible as her can actually have some good points... I just dont like her! Big Brother - God such a good idea but lets be honest, Its always been WASTED as it is literally just a Reality Game Show... If they just let shit happen, It would be interesting, but they literally AUDITION CONTESTANTS! To make Big Brother Work you need to just take 12 names and sling them in the house and let them get on with it... See how they get along or dont... Imagine a random selection that ends up with a Fully paid Member of the Ku-Klux-Klan being stuck in the BB house with 11 Black Men!!! The you have shows that died too soon... Based on ONE BAD EPISODE... And the great example there is ELDORADO... The BBC's (DefundtheBBC) attempt to make EastEnders in Spain... It was GOD AWFUL form what everyone said and it was already confirmed by the second episode to be being cancelled ... BUT BY SERIES ONES END ACTUALLY HAD AN AUDIENCE AND PEOPLE WANTED A SECOND SERIES!!! If I remember right it also cost over £1 Million to produce... More with inflation now... And then teh BBC wonders why its in debt?