These Old Broads
Some like it shrill. Playing former movie costars reunited for a TV special, Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Reynolds and Joan Collins traded insults in this ABC movie while Elizabeth Taylor (as their agent) rested on her laurels. Some slapstick involving a corpse made the whole thing even classier.
Some of My Best Friends
Stereotypes and stupidity cohabited in this sorry CBS sitcom about male roomies, one gay (Jason Bateman) and the other straight (Danny Nucci).
Temptation Island
FOX's sleazy midseason "reality" series placed four unmarried but "committed" couples in a tropical paradise, surrounded them with single hot-ties and waited for unfaithfulness to bloom. One couple got booted for concealing the existence of their small child. Was the network embarrassed? Not enough to refrain from airing Temptation Island 2 in the fall.
Krisiin
In this phony NBC sitcom, Broadway musical star Kristin Chenoweth had center stage, cast as a virtuous Oklahoman serving as personal assistant to a playboy tycoon (Jon Tenney) in big bad Manhattan. Much was made of her character's chastity, yet the show couldn't seem to get its mind off sex.
XFL Football
NBC went partners with the World Wrestling Federation on a new pro football league featuring cheerleaders guaranteed to make male viewers drool. The games stank, the ratings sank, and the venture tanked.
Bob Patterson
Like Michael Richards's NBC dud of 2000, this ill-conceived ABC sitcom was a blot on the résumé of a distinguished Seinfeld alumnus. You loved Jason Alexander as neurotic George, but you ignored him as insecure Bob, a motivational speaker concealing his own can't-do attitude. The show exited quickly making it easier to forgive the star.
Leap Years
This turgid, time-traveling Showtime drama series followed five New York City friends in 1993, 2001 and 2008. It was hard to care anytime.
The Lone Gunmen
Three conspiracy geeks from The X-Files spun off into a FOX series that tried to be funny. The plot failed.
Inside Schwartz
Only those too lazy to finger the channel button after Friends would sit still for this gimmick-happy NBC comedy series about an aspiring sportscaster (Breckin Meyer) whose life is presented like a half-hour package of scores and highlights.
Child Star
The Wonderful World of Disney came up with a cardboard biopic in which cute little Shirley Temple (played by Ashley Rose Orr) seemed pretty much the same on and off the silver screen.
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