Sometimes, those rose-colored glasses can make older shows look better than they actually were. Whether certain actors have turned out to be terrible people, the storylines have aged poorly, or people were just mistaken in their opinions back in the day, these 15 shows have aged like milk left in the sun.
The Cosby Show
In light of the serious allegations against Bill Cosby and his conviction on numerous counts, it bears repeating that his sitcom isn’t even good. His goofy delivery was already not funny when it first aired, but now, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s particularly galling that such a monstrous person tried to put forth a family-friendly image.
Ren and Stimpy
Ren and Stimpy felt subversive and weird when it first appeared back in the 90s, but it’s now outright cringey. The humor feels like it’s all trying too hard to be garish and outrageous. The 90s were a weird decade and included a lot of attempts to be purposefully ugly. In that regard, Ren and Stimpy succeeded… but why did it need to be so ugly in the first place?
The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory was never really all that funny, and it became obvious after its thin premise was stretched over more than a decade of sitcom mediocrity. By the end of its run, the grating laugh track and absurd catchphrases had fully run their course and it was obvious this show had always been a hollow exercise at laughing at smart people because “they’re weird.”
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers
Many thirty-somethings fondly remember Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers as their introduction to the stellar Super Sentai franchise. However, that nascent English-language outing in the early 90s is a bit rough on a rewatch. It’s painfully obvious where the American producers shoehorned in the English-language scenes, making for a disjointed and chaotic viewing experience.
Cheers
Cheers just doesn’t hit the same chords it used to. What was once hailed as a fantastic sitcom now feels somewhat lifeless and empty. It doesn’t help that the show’s presentation of social issues and female characters has aged extremely poorly.
Transformers
The original Transformers cartoon was formative for a lot of 80s kids. Don’t bother rewatching it, though. There’s nothing to find in the old show aside from nostalgia and extremely stilted animation. You’re honestly better off watching the 2008 Michael Bay “live action” Transformers movie than the old cartoons.
Baywatch
David Hasselhoff is handsome, Pamela Anderson is pretty, and… that’s about the end of the reasons to watch Baywatch. Let’s be honest, even back in the 90s this show was a thinly veiled excuse to see pretty women in bathing suits running down the beach. There’s not a whiff of story or character development in this show.
Boy Meets World
A modern-day rewatch of Boy Meets World reveals a few things. The first is that the later season scripts for this show are extremely sloppy. The second is that pretty much everyone in the main cast is a terrible person, Corey and Topanga included.
Walker, Texas Ranger
Chuck Norris jokes were all the rage on the internet about twenty years ago. The actor clearly presents a formidable screen presence on Walker, Texas Ranger, but that’s about all this show has going for it. Once you look past the Norris star power, it’s a thinly-plotted and poorly-written show that is little more than an exercise in letting Chuck punch stuff.
MacGyver
Watching MacGyver in the modern day is a bit of a bummer. For one thing, you realize that many of the supposedly clever impromptu solutions the protagonist cobbles together are completely implausible. For another, it’s painfully obvious that the real multitool MacGyver needs is a firearm.
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is remembered as a wholesome, family-friendly sitcom full of great life lessons. In reality, it’s a vapid, airy show about nothing with no important messages and no underlying purpose for existing. It’s a space-filling exercise in making money for the network.
Smallville
Back in the mid-00s, it felt like Smallville was a good compromise. It was a small budget, unassuming show that was not-so-secretly about Superman. However, it’s clear to modern viewers that the show was ashamed of its comic book origins and used its small budget as a way to excuse its insistence on shying away from its excellent source material.
Cops
The true crime documentary show Cops turned out to be pretty tasteless in the era of heightened awareness of police brutality. Moreover, it was never even that entertaining. Seriously, who wants to watch boring police officers arrest distressed members of the public? It’s time-filling programming at its worst.
Read More: The 10 Best Cop Shows Ever on TV
Dukes of Hazzard
What are the main hallmarks of Dukes of Hazzard? Well, there’s a car called the “General Lee” with a Confederate flag painted on the top, and a character wearing short shorts. Hmm. None of that has aged well, huh? Watching it today, it’s hard to see anything redeemable in this schlocky, derivative “action” program.
Read More: 10 Things in 90s Cartoons That Would NEVER Fly Today
The A-Team
The A-Team didn’t turn out to be problematic or anything, it just doesn’t hold up. The scripts are too thin, the stakes are too low, and the tone is too scattershot. Back in the 80s, kids were mostly taken in by the charismatic performances of the main actors. These days, it’s clear that these performances are basically keys jingling in front of an infant to distract them from low production values and underwritten plotlines.
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