- Showtime Networks
- Fat Actress
The year 2005 gave us TV hits like The Office (U.S.), American Dad!, Hell's Kitchen, So You Think You Can Dance, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Weeds, Prison Break, Bones, Supernatural, How I Met Your Mother, Criminal Minds, and Ghost Whisperer. But, for every multi-season success, there's a series that flopped and fell by the wayside. Here are just a few of the fallen from two decades ago.
Fat Actress (Paramount+, Roku Channel): The late, great Kirstie Alley (Cheers, Veronica's Closet) starred as herself in Fat Actress, a one-season-and-done Showtime series that was mostly improvised and based on her own Hollywood experiences. Like a Curb Your Enthusiasm with a different set of problems and gripes, Fat Actress called out pop culture's obsession with thinness while also skewering show biz. But, in the end, "Kirstie" sleeps with a network exec to get a TV show, so the message here is a bit muddy.
Breaking Bonaduce (YouTube): If you think current reality shows like Teen Mom and its 38 spinoffs exploit the misery of hapless subjects, they're nothing compared to Breaking Bonaduce. The VH1 series followed former child star Danny Bonaduce's trainwreck of a life, including his splintering marriage, drug and alcohol abuse, and a suicide attempt—and VH1 happily kept the cameras rolling for 19 episodes. Bonaduce eventually got sober, thanks to avoiding VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.
Stacked (YouTube): A sitcom centered entirely on a dumb joke about boobs and books? Welcome to mid-2000s Fox! Stacked starred a long-past-Baywatch Pamela Anderson as a party girl who wants to trade her chaotic lifestyle with a scumbag rock star boyfriend (subtle Tommy Lee jab) for a normie job working at Bay Area shop Stacked Books. Considering that writer/producer Steven Levitan's next TV show after it would be Modern Family, it's easy to see why Stacked has been disappeared.
Tommy Lee Goes to College (YouTube): Speaking of Tommy Lee, the high-school dropout Mötley Crüe drummer somehow convinced NBC to air a six-part reality show about him attending the University of Nebraska. It eventually came out that Lee never actually enrolled at the university, and Goes to College was a largely scripted comedy to promote his latest solo album (spoiler: both bombed). The only real comedy happens when Lee tries to keep up with the Huskers' marching drumline (spoiler: he can't).
My Name Is Earl (Hulu): This one probably doesn't belong here, since My Name Is Earl was a hit in 2005 and ran for four seasons. But it only recently became available to stream, so why not? The series follows criminal Earl Hickey (Jason Lee) as he works at resetting his karmic balance by using his $100,000 lottery winnings to square up with everyone he's wronged. Besides Lee, My Name Is Earl's perfect cast (including Ethan Suplee, Eddie Steeples and Jamie Pressly) should be hailed as comic royalty.
Threshold (YouTube): In addition to NBC's Surface (see my February column), CBS also took a big sci-fi swing in 2005 with Threshold. The series starred Carla Gugino as a government crisis manager called in to investigate an alien contact that threatens to rewrite the DNA of the human race in its own image. If you're thinking this sounds way too heavy for vanilla CBS, you're right: CBS pulled the plug on Threshold after nine episodes. If Threshold launched today as an Apple TV+ original, it would last at least 10 eps.
12 Oz. Mouse (Adult Swim): They're all weird, but most Adult Swim animated shows don't lean into deep storytelling. The Venture Bros. pulled it off, and, to a certain extent, so did the wildly absurd 12 Oz. Mouse. The series follows alcoholic mouse Fitz and his chinchilla pal Skillet as they scrape together money for beer in Cardboard City. Seems simple enough, but then 12 Oz. Mouse falls down a rabbit hole of suppressed memories and a conspiracy to keep Fitz imprisoned in a perpetual simulation. Whoa.
Moral Orel (Adult Swim): One of the most pointed and vicious assaults on Christianity ever committed to clay, Moral Orel took the wholesome Davey & Goliath image of piousness and twisted it beyond recognition. The show's black-as-coal comedy centers on young boy Orel's struggles to navigate between the forces of "righteousness" and "wrongteouness" while everyone else reveals themselves to be "Christian" cosplayers of the worst degree. Also, the "Best Christmas Ever" episode is a holiday must.
