So, we all know what happens when a TV spinoff goes bad. Sometimes it’s just impossible to recreate the magic of a hit. Others, somebody with a really bad idea just got really lucky. Speaking of bad ideas, some shows just never worked from the start. Post-Ellen, Queer as Folk, and Will & Grace, networks finally decided to tiptoe into the LGBTQ market, producing a number of memorable shows… and a few that landed here on Queerty‘s list of the five worst attempts at queer(ish) TV shows ever…
Partners
Will & Grace creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan tried to recreate their success on that show with this short-lived dud starring Michael Urie and a post-Superman Brandon Routh. The premise surrounded longtime friends Joe (David Krumholtz) and Louis (Urie), one gay, one straight, who open an architecture firm together. Their partnership gets tested when Joe partners (ho, ho) off with girlfriend Ali (Sophia Bush) and Louis meets the handsome Wyatt (Routh).
Upon the show’s debut, critics noted that much of the creative team had also worked on a series with the same title that aired on Fox almost a decade earlier. The show also had the same premise. If that incarnation of Partners only lasted a single season, this new “hey, straight people and gay people can be friends” version fared even worse. CBS pulled the show after seven low-rated episodes.
Work It
Long before Drag Race went mainstream, former Friends writer Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen created this aberration, basically a remake of Bosom Buddies. Work It followed two former auto employees (Ben Koldyke and Amaury Nolasco) who decide to dress as women to land a job with a pharmaceutical company. Once they improbably land the job, the pair learns to be more sensitive while cavorting with their female co-workers.
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Jokes about effeminacy and masculine-looking women abounded, which immediately attracted criticism from queer rights groups. Said jokes did not, by contrast, attract an audience. The show is noteworthy for getting some of the absolute worst reviews in the history of TV, and given that the medium has also hosted Woops! and Heil Honey I’m Home! (seriously, Google them), that certainly says something.
Apparently, Reich and Cohen didn’t realize that people laugh at drag queens because they say and do funny things, not because they are men in drag.
Emily’s Reasons Why Not
In 2006, actress Heather Graham still commanded a fair amount of star power thanks to a string of roles in hit films including Boogie Nights, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and From Hell. With movie roles on the wane, Graham opted to shift into television with this much-hyped ABC sitcom, a sort of attempt by network TV to look as sexy and cool as HBO.
Emily’s Reasons Why Not debuted to much fanfare. The show cast Graham as Emily, a book editor unlucky in love. Sick of dating horror stories, she decides to start making lists of why she shouldn’t date a man after a date. She enlisted the help of her friends including Josh (Khary Payton), a flamboyant gay stereotype.
Worse, the premiere episode followed Emily as she suspected her latest beau, a Mormon, was secretly gay. In fact, damn near everything in the show revolved around some kind of passé gay joke. ABC pulled it after only one episode, despite spending millions on promotion; billboards and magazine cover stories actually went up after the show got canned.
Normal, Ohio
John Goodman followed up his long stint on Roseanne by landing this ill-fated Fox sitcom back in 2000. As originally conceived by creators Bonnie and Terry Turner (of That ’70s Show fame), the series would have revolved around Goodman’s character, a gay man, living in West Hollywood with a straight roommate, Odd Couple-style. A last-minute retool transplanted Goodman’s character, Butch, to a small midwestern town where he struggled to be accepted as a gay man… because he was so masculine. Of course, Butch did have a few flame-out moments where he’d sing the occasional showtune or play beautician to his sister.
Thanks to a winning performance from Goodman, Normal, Ohio might have survived if the series had stuck to its original premise and focused on a gay man helping a straight man navigate a very gay neighborhood. It also might have worked if the writers would have had more time to find a voice for the series, and the right tone of its humor. Unfortunately, Fox ran the show against then-flavor-du-jour Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and it never found an audience. Far from the worst offender on this list, it would still have needed a more–a lot more–to make it worthwhile.
Some of My Best Friends
Before Arrested Development got the world to take Jason Bateman seriously as an actor, the former kiddie star tried to find relevance with Some of My Best Friends, an Odd Couple-type sitcom about a gay man living with a straight man.
Some of My Best Friends was a loose spin-off of the indie film Kiss Me, Guido, which itself had started as a TV pilot, and was co-created by Marc Cherry before Desperate Housewives re-ignited his career. The show focused on Warren (Bateman), a sweet gay guy living in New York with his straight, crass, homophobic roommate Frankie (Danny Nucci). Each week the two would bicker over some triviality, such as lost boxers or adopting a dog, with hilarity supposed to ensue.
Warning bells should have gone off as the show went into production, and saw several key cast members replaced. The writers struggled to come up with a suitable title, as Kiss Me Guido was considered too offensive for network TV. Meanwhile, network CBS had gone into a panic over the disastrous Bette Midler-sitcom Bette (which deserves a feature of its own), and opted for a schedule shuffle to try and save that show.
Some of My Best Friends debuted to middling reviews and flaccid ratings and, as CBS continued to shift its flailing schedule around (the 2001 spring lineup is known as something of a fiasco), it never fully landed with an audience or a time slot that worked. The show was cancelled after only five of the seven episodes had aired.
ShiningSex
Yeah these are pretty bad.
Will & Grace was only decent because of Jack and Karen. Will and Grace were the worst on the show.
“Brothers” 1984 was great and overlooked.
BTW as for worst LGBT film ever: IN & OUT. Such an insulting, boring film.
gregg2010
And, of course, the reboot of “Will & Grace” bordered on the unwatchable. I turned it off after one episode and never went back.
THAT Steve
Will & Grace started with the stars supposed to be likable and their sidekicks nasty fun. By the time it ended, Grace and Will were written as horrible people and Jack and Karen were the show’s heart. I think I checked out near the beginning of the last season.
ggore
Brothers on Showtime was enormously ground-breaking at the time. It was hilarious, with Donald always getting the best of everyone else with his quick wit and bitchy asides. Unfortunately it only aired once, never to be available on DVD and never seen again. Luckily I recorded every episode on VHS and still watch it now and then for some good laughs.
Bromancer7
@gregg2010 I found the reboot to be far better than the original ever was. Both Will and Grace were far more likeable, and Jack and Karen and their horrible negative stereotypes didn’t dominate every single episode. And the constant cracks at El Cheeto and his traitorous and corrupt administration was just the cherry on top.
Inspector 57
ShiningSex, I agree with you about “In And Out” being the worst commercial LGBTQ-themed film. Also nominated: “Making Love,” “Cruising,” “Querelle,” “The Birdcage,” and — because it was NOT LGBTQ-themed, “Midnight Express.”
But the badness of all those pales in contrast to many of the gay-produced indie movies I rented from the Gay/Lesbian section of my local Blockbuster store.
RyanMBecker
I couldn’t disagree more. Jack and Karen were the reasons I stopped watching after season one. They were nothing more than cartoon characters, completely unrealistic and overblown. I remember one scene where Karen seemed to have a magic purse which somehow held things that it couldn’t fit, e.g. several bottles of booze and more. It was like watching an SNL skit, or yes, a children’s cartoon. In fact, it reminded me of Felix the Cat’s magic bag (look it up).
The Will and Grace characters were much more relatable, resembling people I meet everyday here in NYC. In fact, i have gay friends and acquaintances that resemble Will. In other words, normal people.
I have no idea what the reboot was like, but I stopped caring after the original first season. And frankly, I was shocked that the show lasted so long. As a gay media archivist, I would’ve predicted its demise after two seasons. My money was actually on CBS’ competing gay sitcom, Some of My Best Friends, which the author slammed. Much more realistic and relatable (minus Mapa’s character, who I didn’t like). And funnier, in my opinion. But then, that’s why I’m an archivist and not a critic.
gregg2010
No one of course remembers “Snip” about a gay hairdresser in Hollywood which only made it to a pilot episode. It was filmed on the early 70’s so you can imagine how horrible it was by today’s awareness.
Chrisk
I’ll bet ever sentence was punctuated by a lisp and totally non sexual.
Brian
Had to look up this detail… “Work It” aired in 2012. That’s way too recent for a premise like that. How could so many people participate (writers, casting, costumes, makeup, cameras, sound, directors, producers, editors, executives…. etc.) and no one stopped it?! There must’ve been hundreds of people working on that project, and they all thought it was okay and even good?!
Bromancer7
Hard to fathom how it ever made it to pilot, let alone to air. ABC has been really catering to their redneck MAGA base long before MAGA was ever a thing.
IMO this show would have been far funnier if the main characters were actual drag queens. Like, gay men who do drag lose their day jobs and dress up as women to find new ones. But of course that would never get ABC’s all-important midwestern Last Man Standing and The Middle demographics to tune in.
Inspector 57
“How could so many people participate (writers, casting, costumes, makeup, cameras, sound, directors, producers, editors, executives…. etc.) and no one stopped it?!”
I know, right? Especially since the entertainment industry is so well-known as a paragon of integrity!
Creamsicle
How did nobody stop it? People working in creative industries are often just happy to have a job, even if it’s only for a few episodes. Hell, plenty of B-list celebrities do pilots fully knowing that it’s crap and are surprised by what gets picked up by networks or streaming platforms.
Would you stop your paycheck because you had a bad week and phoned it in? Of course not!
As for how it got picked up? Hollywood and New York are full of people who underestimate audiences. Writers and directors frequently want to push the envelope and tell more nuanced stories, but executives often hold them to formulaic setup-punchline scripts that can deliver a laughtrack every 15 – 30 seconds.
Jaquelope
Only seeing one episode, I realize that it doesn’t say much, but I didn’t think it (Work It) was quite so bad. It was better than that John Goodman one. Even for the time it was produced/aired, it showed some of the attitudes that survived into the 21st Century. They could have done more with it though. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. Maybe if the scheduling or whatever hadn’t been a fiasco, it might have found its audience.
lacrosse72
The New Normal was great. Since it was on NBC and LDS Church-owned KSL is the affiliate in Utah they would not play it but I was able to find it elsewhere.
CatholicXXX
TNN was too preachy.
Cam
@CatholicXXX
Says the account that regularly supports anti-LGBTQ bigots and attacks out of the closet Queer people.
Heywood Jablowme
I watched the whole pilot episode (above) of “Some of My Best Friends” and I’m amazed I don’t recall hearing anything about this show back in 2001. Jason Bateman playing a gay guy, hmm, sounds WAY better than it is! The show is like they put chunks of Friends and W&G in a blender and hit Liquefy.
I see Wikipedia has this to say about deciding on the show’s name: “Bateman also joked that cast and crew had their hearts set on the title Everybody Loves Rimming.”
cuteguy
I just watched the Jason Bateman episode and it wasn’t that bad. I think it should be replaced on this list with AJLT. AJLT was a complete trainwreck and flop. Had the Jadon Bateman show been shown on a new streaming service started only a year and half ago, it would have probably lasted. Let’s hope that garbage AJLT doesn’t get a second season but HBO Max is a new streaming service. AJLT would’ve never survived as a real show on a real network like SATC was.
Preppy1000
I LOVED “Some of My Best Friends”! The premiere episode you showed here is hilarious!
Brad J
I thought the first episode was funny; if not stereotypical, but couldn’t imagine how they would continue the premise on from there without simply being a retread of Kiss Me, Guido…..it was an interesting take on things…the straight guy pretending to be gay rather than the opposite…but Three’s Company had already done that as well…..
jhmotjr
Ditto. I watched all the episodes online and found it to be very entertaining. Contrary to the author’s comments, I really don’t believe Some of My Best Friends should’ve been a flop; I kept telling myself that the show must’ve been aired on the wrong day or time slot and that was why it was cancelled. It’s a shame the video quality isn’t better online.
Essie
The only one of these shows I’ve ever heard of was “Emily.” I remember watching it and almost crying because if was so bad. Up to that point, I had really liked Heather Graham. Until reading this article, I had forgotten her entirely. I honestly don’t recall any of the other shows mentioned.
Cam
There was a series around 2012 starting Michael Urie and David Krumholtz called “Partners” that was just plain bad.
It was created by the people who did Will and Grace, but didn’t work, and to make up for the fact that it didn’t have jokes I remember the laugh track being cranked up to insane levels. Ugh.
Cam
Either it was added to the article later or I missed it in my first reading. So yeah, you listed it and it was a cringe-fest!
GayEGO
Where is Queer as Folk? I watched it all of the time, geesh!
IanHunter
I don’t think QAF was cancelled. I think they had 5 successful seasons and the stories ended without needing another season. QAF will always be on my favorite TV shows of all-time list.
Preppy1000
QAF was not cancelled. They had done everything they needed to do so they voluntarily ended the show. Personally I hated it but it did show that the public had no issue with a show about gay guys.
CityguyUSA
Why must they always be full of snarky remarks. Aren’t gay people allowed to have normal lives?
radiooutmike
Uhhmmmm.
Normal is boring. For normal to work, it has to be impeccable. Like, say, thirtysomething. No one’s looking for a gay version of thirtysomething. I mean, I’d watch it, put 1987 Ken Olin in it and it’d be a lock for me.
DarthKitsune
I actually like Partners, it was a good show.