8 Awful TV Shows That Were Clearly Doomed To Fail

Some shows aren't given the full chance to succeed (Firefly). Others are allowed to continue way past their expiration date (Family Guy). But then there are the really special ones where we ask why it was ever green-lit in the first place. Depending on how bad these special cases are, some don't even make it to the second episode. We know TV is all about ratings, but the premise alone should tell TV executives they have a massive failure on their hands.

Not every show is going to be a hit even if it seems to be pretty good. However, some subjects do not equal good TV (I€™m looking at you, Sister Wives). I guess we can consider TV to be one of those trial and error situations, even though there seems to be quite a bit of error. For every good one like Boardwalk Empire, we're then subjected to a hell like Viva Laughlin.

So with that in mind, here's a list of great (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) misfires €“ those ill-judged shows that seemed to refute all notions of quality, decency and sanity, and just didn't stand a chance.

8. Battletoads

Since the beginning of entertainment, if someone makes something that turns out to be great, there will a copycat that will fall flat on his face. Battletoads is the poster child for that fact. It started out as a video game, then one of the writers for the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon decided he could create something to rival the turtles. So he took the premise from a video game about humanoid toads with names of things that plague teenagers (Rash, Zitz, and Pimple) that have to defeat their enemy The Dark Queen. I'm stunned it wasn't a success.

The only episode that aired was the pilot, and it was so bad that only the pilot ended up on VHS. My thing is, if you're going to blatantly rip off a widely known and popular cartoon, you have to bring your A game. Whatever you create has to be just as good if not better than the original. The only thing Battletoads had going for it was the sexy Dark Queen. I guess if you think your show won't live to see a full season, might has well have a character with big boobs that lives in a penis shaped castle.