There are few television genres more long-lasting and enduringly popular than the sitcom. Indeed, sitcoms have become, for many, the definitive television genre, and many iconic series fall into this category.
However, though the sitcom often succeeds based on its ability to capture the lives of everyday viewers, there have been several series throughout the years that have had very strange - and at times downright ridiculous - premises. Some were so outlandish that they ended up dooming the series, while others were just quirky enough that they contributed to the series eventual success.
Mork And Mindy
Robin Williams is rightly regarded as one of the best actors of all time, and he showed that he had skills as both a comedic and a dramatic actor. Near the beginning of his career, he starred as the alien, Mork, in the series Mork and Mindy. While Williams was definitely a key part of the show’s appeal, its central premise - based on an alien who comes to Earth and falls in love with a human - still seems rather out there, even in 2022.
My Mother The Car
The '60s was an interesting decade for the sitcom, and it featured many strange premises (including genies and witches). However, there was one series from that era that was more ridiculous than all the others, and that was My Mother the Car, in which a man is haunted by his mother’s spirit, which has possessed a car and speaks to him via the radio. It was, to be sure, an outlandish conceit for a sitcom, and though it has its funny moments, it is still too far out there to be one of the greats.
Harry And The Hendersons
The 1980s and early 1990s was a rather strange time for the sitcom, and there are few more ridiculous shows from the early '90s than Harry and the Hendersons, based on the movie of the same name. As with the movie, the television show focuses on a family who takes a bigfoot into their home, and hijinks ensue. Given the strange nature of its central premise, it’s not terribly surprising that it only lasted two seasons before being pulled off the air.
ALF
Given that sitcoms are supposed to capture something of everyday life, it seems strange that so many of them would have aliens as one of their central characters. In the 1980s, this unusual situation gave rise to the hit comedy ALF (short for Alien Life Form), which focused on the title character, the human family that takes him in after his ship crashlands on this planet, and their attempts to keep his existence a secret.
As ridiculous as it was, the series still managed to push a lot of boundaries, and its humor was often surprisingly risque.
The Flying Nun
Some sitcoms have a premise so ridiculous that it ultimately makes the series more than a little charming. That is certainly the case with the series The Flying Nun which, as the title suggests, focused on a nun whose slight frame and elaborate headdress enabled her to catch the wind and fly. Strange as it was, the series still had a sweet tone to its humor, though it became somewhat more slapstick in its second season. Somehow, the writers managed to make the most out of what was a very unusual and thin sitcom premise.
Cavemen
There were some sitcoms that defined the 2000s, and the era was also marked by some rather strange forays into the genre as networks reached for ever more obscure sources for stories. In this case, they decided to try to make a full show from a series of Cavemen commercials run by the insurance company Geico. The very short-lived series (it lasted for less than a season), featured a world in which the titular cavemen survived in the contemporary world but were often discriminated against by modern humans. Unfortunately, its rather tone-deaf approach doomed it from the beginning.
3rd Rock from the Sun
3rd Rock from the Sun is widely considered an iconic sitcom from the '90s, and it features some extraordinary performances from the likes of John Lithgow and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (still remaining one of the latter’s best roles). Despite its ridiculous premise - once again a group of aliens comes to Earth - it nevertheless had a unique charm all of its own, due in part to the chemistry among the cast and the series’ undeniably funny look at American life at the turn of the millennium.
Living Biblically
At first glance, Living Biblically looks like it might be able to make a lot out of what might seem to some like a ridiculous premise: a man deciding to live his life according to biblical principles after the death of his friend.
Unfortunately, this series is a case of a show failing to ever move beyond the ridiculousness of its own setup. It relies too much both on the overacting of its main cast, plotlines that are often overused in sitcoms, and tired old cliches rather than trying to do anything new and inventive with the premise.
$h*! My Dad Says
In keeping with the trend among networks of reaching into new areas to find story ideas, $h*! My Dad Says was based on the popular book of the same name (which was itself based on a series of tweets by comedian Justin Halpern). Unfortunately, despite a strong cast, which included William Shatner, the series failed to move beyond its ridiculous premise and, more importantly, it failed to capture the irreverent and iconoclastic nature of the tweets and the book.
Small Wonder
Small Wonder is a sitcom with a ridiculous premise and, at times, disturbing execution, and whose execution. The series' central premise is that an inventor has created a robot girl who can almost pass as human, except for her superhuman abilities. Despite that, the family tries to pretend to everyone that she is their adopted child. Though it has its own charm, it very often it enters into the realm of the uncanny valley.