19 Worst Shows of the ’90s
We’re prone to 1990s nostalgia as much as anyone else who remembers Y2K, but don’t forget that this “Edgy Decade” also gave us nu-metal music, the Macarena dance, non-butter butter spray, and the terrible TV shows below.
TV Guide Magazine is preparing to launch its list of the 90 Best Shows of the ’90s, but before we reveal those picks, we’re sharing our selections for the decade’s worst television featuring singing cops, sasquatches in suburbia, and sex-driven presidents not named Clinton. Here is the hall of 1990s small-screen shame.
George
George Foreman can box. He can sell grills. But can he carry his own sitcom? ABC execs thought so, giving the heavyweight champion a TV comedy about a retired boxer running a youth center for troubled children and teens. The show wasn’t a knockout with audiences, though: It was yanked from the airwaves in 1994 after just two and a half months.
Uncle Buck
Like Ferris Bueller, Uncle Buck was an adaptation of a John Hughes movie without the movie’s lead star. In this case, John Candy was M.I.A. from the 1991 TV version, which, like its source material, told the story of a slovenly man entrusted with the care of his nieces and nephews. The CBS show was a poor imitation of the film, though, and it got Buck-ed off the air after one season.
Clueless
No disrespect to Rachel Blanchard, the star of this 1996 ABC-turned-UPN sitcom, but making a Clueless TV adaptation without Alicia Silverstone as Cher really does live up to its title. Even more bafflingly, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, and Breckin Meyer all guest-starred on the show but not as their characters from the hit 1995 film.
Teen Angel
A teenager dies after eating a six-month-old hamburger and then becomes his best friend’s guardian angel, mentored by God’s cousin, Rod. If that premise doesn’t scream “Emmy,” then… well, you’re onto something. At least this 1997 sitcom — a short-lived entry in ABC’s TGIF comedy block — lost its wings after 17 episodes.
Ferris Bueller
At least this 1990 NBC show didn’t try to reinvent the wheel: It actually acknowledged the 1986 teen comedy film on which it was based, with Charlie Schlatter’s version of Ferris Bueller claiming he was the basis for the Matthew Broderick character. But Ferris Bueller’s Day Off looms large in our cultural memory; while Ferris Bueller’s biggest claim to fame after its 13-episode run is that it starred a pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston.
Get Real
This 1999 Fox dramedy boasted the talent of Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg but assumed an air of superiority over other teen shows, making onscreen mockery of Dawson’s Creek and My So-Called Life. Talk about hubris! Dawson’s Creek aired for years, while My So-Called Life still ranks as an all-time great. Get Real, on the other hand, didn’t even get through its first season and was quickly forgotten.
What a Dummy
A family finds a talking ventriloquist dummy in a trunk, and all of a sudden, that dummy is a beloved family member? Even though it looks like Chucky and sounds like nails on a chalkboard? More like What a Dud, are we right? This 1990 syndicated sitcom lasted one season, likely to the relief of those involved.
Maury
Maury Povich’s namesake talk show — which will end after 31 years in syndication this September — is hardly any more dignified than Jerry Springer. Even CBS Evening News ex-anchor Connie Chung, Povich’s wife, sounds embarrassed about her husband’s line of work. “I’ve asked him, ‘Why don’t you do an intelligent interview show instead of a talk show where you’re determining the paternity of every child in America?’” she told the Los Angeles Times recently.
Unhappily Ever After
Like a bizarro take on the already questionable Married… With Children, this 1995 WB comedy starred Geoff Pierson as an alcoholic father whose mental illness has him conversing with a talking bunny toy and Stephanie Hodge as his estranged wife who gets killed off midway through the series, only to get brought back as a ghost and then ordered back to life by an onscreen WB executive. Another twist? Teen daughter Tiffany (Nikki Cox) became a breakout in Season 3, with stories beginning to focus more on her high school experiences.
Harry and the Hendersons
Of all the Amblin Entertainment films the company could have adapted for syndicated TV — E.T., The Goonies, Who Framed Roger Rabbit — it chose Harry and the Hendersons? That movie — following a family adopting a Bigfoot — got underwhelming box office receipts and worse reviews. The 1991 syndicated version, which critics didn’t like any better, likely lasted three seasons only because stations agreed upfront to air 72 episodes.
Baby Talk
This 1991 comedy and other shows on this list continued the embarrassing tradition of taking a popular film — Look Who’s Talking, in this case — and turning it into an inferior TV show. Even with Tony Danza as a talking baby and a mulleted George Clooney as single mother Maggie’s love interest (he was later replaced by Scott Baio), critics and audiences weren’t goo-goo-ga-ga over ABC’s Baby Talk.
Homeboys in Outer Space
With the right comedic bent, this 1996 UPN comedy about two astronauts flying a galaxy-hopping low-rider could have been high camp. Instead, we got a failure to launch, with the second episode following the duo — played by Flex and Darryl M. Bell — as they land on an all-female “pleasure planet.”
Teletubbies
It’s a good thing British television has given us Yanks quality TV like Downton Abbey and Doctor Who, because this U.K. children’s series — with its antennaed, gibberish-talking stars — was grounds for another American Revolution. The original series aired from 1997 to 2001, delighting countless young Gen Z’ers and undoubtedly exasperating their parents.
Walker, Texas Ranger
Yes, Chuck Norris has become an Internet favorite, but that doesn’t mean this 1993 CBS action series was any good. Norris’ Texas Ranger character entered every situation with fists flying, while the bad guys just waited around for their faces to be punched.
The Chevy Chase Show
Fox paid Chevy Chase a reported $3 million to host a late-night talk show — and then spent another $1 million renovating what it had optimistically named The Chevy Chase Theatre in Los Angeles — for a talk show that ended after just 29 days in 1993.
Baywatch Nights
Midway through Baywatch’s run, the beach-and-bodies drama was joined in syndication by this 1995 spinoff, which initially focused on Mitch Buchannon (David Hasselhoff) as he went from lifeguard to private eye, along with detectives played by Angie Harmon and Gregory Alan Williams. But it’s the second season, when Nights ventured into B-movie sci-fi horror, that earns the show its place in infamy.
The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer
Law & Order alum Dann Florek’s TV career took quite the detour in 1998, when he played a horndog Abraham Lincoln in this UPN comedy, with Chi McBride playing the titular White House butler. Amid protests over the pilot episode’s alleged mockery of slavery, UPN chose to just skip over that half-hour and begin with Episode 2.
The Jerry Springer Show
One of the trashiest of the tabloid talk shows, this long-running syndicated series — with episode titles including “I Had a Threesome with My Sister!” and “Hot-Tempered Hoedown” — was even below its namesake star. “I would never watch my show,” host Jerry Springer told Reuters in 2000, nine years after the show’s debut. “I’m not interested in it. It’s not aimed towards me. This is just a silly show.”
Cop Rock
As the co-creator of Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, Steven Bochco had many fine ideas for TV shows. And then there was his idea to do a musical police procedural, which lasted for all of 11 episodes on ABC in 1990. The show even featured a child trafficker singing the song “Baby Merchant” in an episode that should have been outlawed before it was even aired.
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OrangeBottle
I agree with all of them but Walker, Texas Ranger. I loved it and still watch the reruns! Bb
PurpleSubmarine
This is, of course, a product of “woke” culture. Anything involving Texas and/or someone who opposes gay marriage is among the worst by default.
CyanController
Chuck Norris won't like you trash-talking his show. Be careful... 😉
PurpleButterfly
Incredibly my mind has blocked out a majority of these shows.
PurpleFlame
I disagree about Harry and the Hendersons, and Walker,Texas Ranger...I liked both of those. As for the rest, I agree!
CyanTag
By definition (sorta) the worst shows generally didn’t get a lot of viewers -including me- and many are forgotten. Exceptions are the long running daytime tv trash talk shows mentioned and probably Walker as Chuck Norris became a pop culture icon. I didn’t watch any of these either back in the day but a friend is a Chuck fan and searches out Walker reruns sometimes when I’m visiting. It’s ok to have on in the background. You don’t have to pay much attention to follow whatever plot and as noted in the article, there’s never a shortage of action. Boom-pow.
CyanBasketball
How could you not mention the Magic Johnson talk show? It was equally as bad as Chevy Chase's.
BlueFlower
I'm pleased to say that although I watch TV every night, I never watched any of these!
CyanCherries
Never heard of half of these, the other half I never watched.
OliveChefHat
I didn't hate 'Cop Rock'.
I still recall that sweet song by Kathleen Wilhoite as Patricia Spence, as she nurtured and cuddled her new baby.
BlueBandAid
Neither did I . . .
PurpleButterfly
That photo of Maury makes him look like Smokey Robinson.
Valerie
Homeboys In Outer Space Fans join here please!
RedLobster
Please somebody put all of the episodes of the tv series What a Dummy on DVD. It looks very funny however I want to watch all of the episodes not just one.
OrangeCoathanger
Walker Texas ranger was a great show. Definitely shouldn't be on this list.
jmoore104
Just found these lists. I find it interesting that the Walker show (which I never saw) made it to number 6 on the "worst shows on the 90's" and number 12 on the "highest rated shows of the 90's." Must be one of those "critics panned it but people watched it anyway" type shows. What I can't understand is how "Married..with Children" isn't number 1 on this list. Wait, it's not even on it! Did it already win "Worst Show of All Time" and that disqualified it from consideration? Just curious how it could be overlooked. It was absolutely and repetitively awful.
BlueBandAid
And yet, you’re still alone. Circle jerk.
BlueBandAid
Because just that many simply didn’t care.
BlueBandAid
Exactly.
PurpleChilli
Walker does not belong on this list. Great show in my opinion.
BlueClover
Walker was a crappy show. You enjoying it or having fond memories doesn't make it good or great.
PurpleBlowdryer
How could you have had a problem with Walker? It was one of the few action shows on television.
GoldMustache
Some of these seem a bit of a stretch. Granted none are necessarily benchmarks of pop culture and quality but can think of several worse
PurpleFlame
No Parker Lewis Can't Lose? This list is incomplete.
BlueClover
In what world is it one of the worst? It's prototype for the Scrubs of the world we got. It also succeeded where Ferris failed.
OrangeGuitar
You left out "Supermarket Sweep" which has to be the dumbest program to ever air.
BlueCone
It was so bad you had to watch it though. Come on go for the steaks and putting chef boyrdee in the cart.