15 Comedians Whose TV Shows Just Didn’t Work

Some comedians aren’t meant to have sitcoms, and some sitcoms just aren’t meant to be made in the first place.
15 Comedians Whose TV Shows Just Didn’t Work

You could say I enjoy this list of interesting facts as a form of therapy for me, but there is another reason I put it together. If you are reading this on an electronic device then you are already engaged in some kind of interaction with a screen. This interaction with screens, especially a smartphone, has become such an integral part of our daily lives. And yet we are still so far from fully understanding how our brains work and why they are so good at processing visual information. This list of strange facts is a way for me to help you to understand how your brain works too. And perhaps this will help you understand why you like or dislike things. We don't often realise that we are influenced by things that we aren't even consciously aware of. This is a list of strange facts that I've put together over the past few years. I started to compile it when I realised how much I was spending time looking things up online. And I noticed that these strange facts often came up when I was Googling something or watching TV or reading a news website.

Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn

Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn CRACKED.COM Colin Quinn's nightly news commentary on Comedy Central, Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn was a mixed bag for audiences. Be- fore the time of podcasts in 2002, Colin Quinn had a roundtable of comedians dis- cussing current political topics and philoso- phy. Patrice O'Neal, Jim Norton, Keith Rob- inson, Greg Giraldo, and Nick Di Paolo were writers and panelists on the show, but while some loved the brash arguments, many peo- ple felt the show was just a screaming match. It was canceled after its first season but is remembered fondly by O'Neal fans.

Vulture

Mike White and Molly Shannon - Cracking Up

Mike White and Molly Shannon - Cracking Up GRACKED COM Cracking Up starring Molly Shannon, Jason Schwartzman, David Wain, and created by School of Rock's screenwriter Mike White, nearly drove the writer crazy after the network changed his vision for the series so much. The show was supposed to be an off-beat show starring a group of mentally unstable characters working in a sitcom format, but Fox want- ed the show to retain all the viewers from American Idol, which would air right before Cracking Up's TV slot. White tried to get fired from the show by writ- ing a F*ck you

Vulture

Joel McHale - The IT Crowd

Joel McHale - The IT Crowd RTFM CRACKED.COM Remember when they tried to bring The IT Crowd to American audiences? The original show which was steeped in absurdist British humor was ped- dled to America, retaining Richard Ayoade in his role, but replacing Chris O'Dowd with Joel McHale. The show just couldn't capture the original mag- ic and was canceled after the pilot was filmed, leading McHale into his role on Community.

TVLine

Wanda Sykes - Wanda At Large

Wanda Sykes - Wanda At Large GRACKED COM Wanda Sykes is a skilled co- median, actress, and writer but due to FOX's watering down of her brash-yet-love- able personality, her show, Wanda At Large, was can- celed halfway through its sec- ond season, leaving five epi- sodes unaired.

Paste

The Jeff Foxworthy Show

The Jeff Foxworthy Show CRACKED.COM What if you took the phrase you might be a redneck and stretched it into a full series? Sadly, for Jeff Foxworthy, this idea did not take off in his sitcom The Jeff Foxworthy Show. The show was produced then can- celed by ABC for one season, then picked up by NBC, and can- celed again after a single season.

Vocal

Kevin Hart - The Big House

Kevin Hart - The Big House CRACKED.COM The Big House was Kevin Hart's take on a reverse Fresh Prince Of Belair, with Hart's character mov- ing from his rich family to a work- ing-class family in Philadelphia. The show starred Hart when he was only 24 years old, and pre- miered and ended within the same month of April 2004.

Vocal

Chelsea Handler - Are You There Chelsea?

Chelsea Handler - Are You There Chelsea? CRACKED.COM Chelsea Handler's book entitled Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea was the inspiration behind her one-season sitcom Are You There Chelsea? The show's cast was impressive with fel- low comedians Natasha Leggero, Ali Wong, and Lauren Lapkus appearing as series regulars, but the 2012 show about Handler as a 20-something bar- tender didn't pique fan's interests.

IMDB

Jason Alexander - Bob Patterson

Jason Alexander-Bob Patterson BOB PATTERSON CRACKED.COM Jason Alexander's follow-up to Seinfeld, Bob Patterson, also fell prey to the Seinfeld curse. The show featured Al- exander as a motivational speaker, who closely resembles George Costanza. Al- exander even said, We purposefully created Bob out of the ashes of George. Only five of the ten episodes made it to air making it the short- est-lived show of the Seinfeld curse.

YouTube

Craig Robinson - Mr. Robinson

Craig Robinson- Mr. Robinson CRACKED.COM Craig Robinson's sitcom Mr.Robinson seemed to have decent bones to it. Robinson was still coming off of the high from The Office and Greg Daniels even signed on as an executive pro- ducer. The show was even based on Craig's real life as a former music teacher. The show wasn't great or ter- rible, it was just sort of...there, result- ing in its cancellation after its first season.

Vulture

The Michael Richards Show

The Michael Richards Show CRACKED.COM After Seinfeld went off the air, studios pursued the entire cast in hopes to throw them own into their own shows that would ride off the popularity of Seinfeld. For Michael Richards, this came in the form of The Michael Richards Show. The show centered around a comedic take of Columbo, with Michael Richards playing a private investigator. The character named Vic Nardozza never found a true footing, as it was essentially just a Kram- er ripoff. The show only lasted a single season.

YouTube

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