Weirdest sitcom premises?

Forums: Weird Television, Situation Comedies, Weird, Television, Sitcoms
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What are the weirdest sitcom premises on television?

Not the worst sitcom premises (though I still am interested in what you think of them as well).

I'll knock one of the most obvious ones off right now:
My Mother the Car (1965-1966)

Quote:

The story of the relationship between a man and his mother, the latter having been reincarnated as a 1928 Porter automobile.

Sketch shows don't count. They're not sitcoms and have a greater amount of leeway where absurdist humor can just run wild without any restraints on logic, character or story structure.

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@tsarstepan,

Most sitcoms are based on preposterous themes/starts. That's probably why they are supposed to be humorous. They often work at the beginning; yet, many soon make a viewer want some answers.

Gilligan's Island...given the number of different outfits that 5 characters had one wonders why they packed so much for a "3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour". Had they been told by a qualified meteorologist that the weather would be "getting rough" and that they'd be stranded on an uncharted island?

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis wrote:

Most sitcoms are based on preposterous themes/starts. That's probably why they are supposed to be humorous. They often work at the beginning; yet, many soon make a viewer want some answers.

Gilligan's Island...given the number of different outfits that 5 characters had one wonders why they packed so much for a "3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour". Had they been told by a qualified meteorologist that the weather would be "getting rough" and that they'd be stranded on an uncharted island?

Preposterous and convoluted premises aside, there are still sitcoms that make Gilligan's Island's premise seem straight forward as Downton Abbey.

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I'll go with "The Flying Nun". Combine a lightweight nun, a huge headpiece
and high winds to get an airborne sister. Sure.

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Quote:

A horse is a horse of course of course
And no one can talk to a horse of course.
That is of course unless the horse
Is the famous Mister Ed!

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I'll go with My Favorite Martian, with Ray Walston as the title character, and Bill Bixby as his human foil. I thought it was fun. Here's the first episode:

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

Sketch shows don't count. They're not sitcoms and have a greater amount of leeway where absurdist humor can just run wild without any restraints on logic, character or story structure.

Not over here, This is Jinsy is a sitcom about a weird island. It's incredibly surreal and weird.

And House of Fools is just about some people who share a house.

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I Dream of Jeannie

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Friends

All those people in one small apartment, and no one is murdered. Weird to the max.

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Bewitched

The Adams Family

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The Munsters

Herman Munster tries out for the Dodgers.

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I have a couple

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@Real Music,

You stole the Munsters off my addam family

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Oops. Too late to delete. I overlooked that it had to be sitcoms. Scuze me. Embarrassed

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It never got a full series, but there was the Fox pilot Heat Vision and Jack, which had Jack Black as a super smart astronaut and Owen Wilson as a talking motorcycle.

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Just remembered...
The Second Hundred Years.

Man goes off and gets caught and buried in ice. 100 years later he thaws out, returns to his former home. His now elderly son lives there along with his grandson.

Need more laughs? The returning man and his grandson are identical in appearance. Nobody, but nobody can tell them apart.
the 1960s had tons of idiocy on the small screen.

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The only ones I remember are the "Adams Family" and the "Munsters"....my kid brother would be glued to the screen, but between the age of 16 and 22 I was more fascinated with the social scene. I remember the names of the other shows, I just don't remember ever sitting thru the episodes

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The guy who did Gillligan's Island did a really lame sitcom which ran for a single season called It's About Time. It was seriously lame. Two astronauts travel faster tan light speed and end up in a prehistoric, Flintstones-like world, in danger from dinosaurs, and English-speaking cavemen. The only thing I remember is the theme song.

Weirdest sitcom premises?

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