One is Bosom Buddies. The show came and went in the early ’80 and had a reputation as being too cool for the room. I saw it once and the episode had a great line that encouraged me to think the show was ok. Decades later I rent the dvds and … oh boy. The title sequence is especially bad: music, winsome comedy shots, the lettering of the credits. So this is why people hate tv.
The show gave Tom Hanks his start, and I love Tom Hanks before he got too big for comedy. He;s good in the series; you can see why his career took off. Peter Scolari is ok. So is the lady playing their boss, and she gets a lot of airtime. The episodes I’ve seen all have at least one or two good lines. Yet these key elements are outbalanced by the sheer tonnage of crap presented by everything else in the program.
I say this as someone who likes tv and sitcoms.
The tv Mission: Impossible also looks pretty dire. I’ve seen just one episode so far, but boy. Peter Graves is the quintessence of dumb tv leading man. He has to start off each show by listening to that tape with the exposition (the “Your mission, if you choose to accept it” tape). He gets a look on his face like a dog trying to follow a conversation.