what was the most god awfal tv show , movie or book.

[AllaN01Bear]

mine was a series called starlost . (in the la market it was called earth ark). about a runaway space ship on a collision course with a distant planet in the far far future . loved some aspects of it thougn.

[yourout]

1. The Happening is the worst movie I've ever seen.

Only Riff Trax makes it bearable.

https://m.

[Shellback Squid]

2. Battlefield Earth

sorry Scientologists, this movie and story line really sucked

[JT45242]

5. It was an interesting book...

Of course, a book that long makes more sense for a 23 hour tv season than a movie.

But agreed that movie totally sucked.

[LogDog75]

7. Most of the book was good

Except for the last third of the book.

[JT45242]

3. Waiting to exhale

No one associated with that movie should have been allowed to inhale again... That was what we all said when we walked out wondering why we wasted money on seeing that movie

[Chipper Chat]

4. The Gong Show

Although I admit I watched it

[murielm99]

13. I watched it, too.

I had a job where I could come home for lunch, take my dog out, and watch TV while I ate. For some reason, I chose to watch The Gong Show. One day, there was a man with a mustache who was dressed like a nun. He was singing the Whiffenpoof Song.

I went back to work as usual. I was bewildered and bemused for the entire afternoon.

[Cartoonist]

6. Napoleon Dynamite

If there's a worse one, then I haven't seen it.

[JT45242]

9. That sucked too

Students talked calculus teacher and meinto watching it after the AP exam...

I want those hours back

[Shermann]

26. It took a second viewing for the humor to click with me. nt

[msongs]

8. original The Happening was not a hit either, except the theme song which hit number one.... nt

[ms liberty]

36. I thought I was the only person left alive who remembered there was an original!

I barely remember the movie - mostly just the title and the theme song

[NBachers]

10. Funny you mentioned Earth Arc; I was thinking of a short-lived series called Earth Two. Through some contrived situation

A group of humans ends up on some planet, and they get the idea that they want to strive to get it right this time. It was an interesting premise, but it was so stupid and lame that I couldn’t watch it. It did have sort of an agenda it was pushing, but I won’t go into that. One reason I watched it is because Tim Curry was in it, but he did not do himself or the show any favors.

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Too many unbelievables piled on top of each other.

For a supposed science fiction series, way too many pseudoscientific/magical elements with no prospect of any eventual resolution/explanation ever making sense.

[flvegan]

11. Any show with a title starting with "The Real Housewives of..."

gets my vote.

That opinion is only based on seeing ads for them, that's how bad they are.

[Conjuay]

22. My wife watches regularly

I think of it as the screeching harpies show.

[Rigpa108]

12. Atlas Shrugged Movies - Parts 1, 2, and 3

Had to watch them all so no one would have to tell me how bad they were.

[LudwigPastorius]

14. Well...

[LeftInTX]

15. The Human Centipede

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Starlost: created by Harlan Ellison, who separated from the project after too many changes.

I'm no fan of Ellison. I made the mistake of reading some of his work at one point or another, and found his description of this particular project to be dully mechanical, as if assembling a complete set of cliches constituted a sufficient basis for a TV series. Then he whined about how no one seemed to appreciate his genius (of course) in pulling off such a triumph.

The idea of a 'generation ship' goes back to Tsiolkovsky in the 1920's, and the idea of a societal breakdown on board such a ship has been treated multiple times. So Ellison's treatment struck me as just "here's an old idea, let's make a TV show about it" and not much more.

Having said that, reading the Wiki on the history of the show is discouraging. Failures in funding, special effects, even failure to rent sufficient space all proved injurious to the project. Perhaps the big mistake was attempting to go forward after the BBC expressed a lack of interest. It might have been better to sit on the project for a while, and try again later.

Reviews of the show are pretty mixed, with lots of good points and bad points standing out. Some interesting names show up, that's for certain.

[Aristus]

19. In Ellison's defense, he knew it was a cliched idea when he pitched it.

He was at a series pitch meeting his agent set up for him, and he was coming up with ideas for a science-fiction television show. And the dumb fuck studio executive taking the meeting shot down idea after idea after idea.

Finally, out of patience, Ellison hit him with the most overdone, hackneyed plot he could think of: a space ark/generational ship story, which, as you pointed out, has been around forever.

The dumb fuck executive thought it was thrillingly original (of course) and ordered a story treatment. The whole tangled mess is related in one of Ellison’s essays on working in Hollyweird. But the heart of it is, Ellison knew it was a played-out idea from the start.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Interesting ! Strange that I didn't recall any of that from the version I read. Not sure where it was, unfortunately ...

so I can't go back and check. A shame real bookmarks in real books aren't searchable digitally ...

[Aristus]

21. The entire experience is recounted in Ellison's essay

“Somehow, I Don’t Think We’re In Kansas, Toto”, collected in the phone book-sized The Essential Ellison.

It’s a terrific read. Ellison’s non-fiction is as good, if not better than, his fiction.

Not incidentally, I had the opportunity back in 2005 to not only meet Harlan, but have dinner with him, as well. It was one of the Top Five experiences of my life. Ellison was famously combative, abrasive, and obnoxious. But that was with people who annoyed him, or just anyone, like so many in this country, who are content with, and even proud of, relentless mediocrity.

With his fans, he couldn’t have been more warm, charming, and generous. He had me and his other table-mates spellbound all throughout dinner. He was a brilliant conversationalist, and an irreplaceable storyteller.

I encourage you to read his essay, and when you’re done, read the rest of the book.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

37. Harlan Ellison was pretty much persona non grata

in the science fiction world the last years of his life. Things like grabbing Connie Willis's breast at a Hugo Awards. Getting major writers to submit stories to an anthology he never published, and refused to return those stories to the authors.

[Aristus]

40. The anthology in question, The Last Dangerous Visions,

was finally published just last year.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

41. I did not know that. Thank you.

And only five years after he died! A mere fifty after all those stories were submitted.

[C0RI0LANUS]

18. "Postern of Fate" by Agatha Christie.

I've read most of Agatha Christie's books, but this one I had to throw away. Postern of Fate was her last Tommy and Tuppence novel (1973).




But Agatha Christie was suffering from dementia when she wrote it and strangely her daughter and editor didn't proofread it. The book rambles on with continuity and logic errors. And the premise was good, with the heroic couple discovering a coded message in an old rocking horse. Did the child uncover a murderer, sex maniac, or Nazi spy 30 years earlier?

[justaprogressive]

23. My Mother The Car

Should never have seen the light of day!

[Different Drummer]

25. And to think...

Jerry Van Dyke could have been Gilligan!

[Archae]

24. My sister gives me videos she buys in thrift stores, and one of them is a real doozy.

"The Love Guru" with Michael Miers.

I got 10 minutes into it, and it was really awful.
And I'm being charitable.

[Different Drummer]

27. Definitely a bad movie.

I find the presence of Jessica Alba in it makes it somewhat bearable.

[Shermann]

28. "Nightflyers"

This TV series based on a novella by George R. R. Martin was a shameless (and nonsensical) cash grab.

"Under the Dome" is similar (this time it's Stephen King). I'm kept hanging in there waiting for all the threads to come together and pay off and it never did.

"The I-Land" on Netflix is so bad it's good.

[gay texan]

29. Television

"Thirtysomething"
"The days and nights of Molly Dodd"

[cloudbase]

30. Howard the Duck.

Got to be among the worst films ever made.

[Trellastic]

31. Captain Caveman ( cartoon, Hanna-Barbera)

[Mike Nelson]

32. The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

[Emile]

33. Chariots of Fire

[Bmoboy]

34. A.I.

Steven Spielberg movie (2001).

Android boy abandoned in the woods by his owner/mother. Goes on forever getting more and more depressing.

Awful.

[DBoon]

35. Movie: "The Blair Witch Project"

Book:"We the Living" by Ayn Rand, only because I never made it to Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

38. Love Story, both the book and movie.

Really, really awful and unbelievable.

[Different Drummer]

39. Frankly, I found this one a bit hard to get through.

So much so that I didn't (this was on MST3K). You may be of a different opinion.