Underrated TV

[D'Snowth]

FRANKTV - In a way though, I guess I can see why this one only last like a season or two, Frank Caliendo is not only sort of a gimmicky talent, but he was really a "flavor of the month" kind of talent (unlike fellow MADtv alumni Key & Peele, who really resonate with audiences). Still, I thought the sketches he did and his impersonations were really funny.

MAXIMUM EXPOSURE - This was really sort of the precursor to the string of truTV clip shows like WORLD'S DUMBEST..., CLIPAHOLICS, UPLOAD WITH SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, and others. This one was basically clips that were "narrated" by the self-proclaimed "Sarcastic Announcer Dude." Well, basically, that's what CLIPAHOLICS was as well, except Jason Alexander was the announcer for that show (which lasted all of eight episodes).

THE PLANET'S FUNNIEST ANIMALS - Think AFV, but exclusively with animal/pet videos, and Matt Galant as the host. That is until they revamped the show later and replaced him with Keegan Michael Key.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Clone High did air on MTV in America, but it was created for Canada. It's pretty funny; haven't really watched it in a long while.

I hadn't even heard of it until a couple of months ago. I guess it was before my time. But it's one of my favorite shows now.

Anyway, there are a lot of current shows that are pretty underrated. I guess because there are so many shows these days, that it's easy to forget that a lot of these are a thing. I think Bob's Burgers and Black-ish don't get enough recognition. Those are shows that my family and I enjoy watching together.

 

[Old Thunder]

I hadn't even heard of it until a couple of months ago. I guess it was before my time. But it's one of my favorite shows now.

Anyway, there are a lot of current shows that are pretty underrated. I guess because there are so many shows these days, that it's easy to forget that a lot of these are a thing. I think Bob's Burgers and Black-ish don't get enough recognition. Those are shows that my family and I enjoy watching together.

I honestly don't think that Bob's Burgers is underrated. Honestly, I think it's more overrated than anything else. I haven't seen much but what I have seen didn't really appeal to me.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I honestly don't think that Bob's Burgers is underrated. Honestly, I think it's more overrated than anything else. I haven't seen much but what I have seen didn't really appeal to me.

Well, like any show, it's all up to your personal taste. Also, you have to watch the right episode. As for it being underrated, I only say that because it's not as popular as it used to be, but I don't think it's dipped in quality at all. In fact, if anything, I think the show got better around the sixth season.

 

[Old Thunder]

Well, like any show, it's all up to your personal taste. Also, you have to watch the right episode. As for it being underrated, I only say that because it's not as popular as it used to be, but I don't think it's dipped in quality at all. In fact, if anything, I think the show got better around the sixth season.

Makes sense. I'll have to check it out again and see what I think about it now rather than back when I first saw it.

 

[Flaky Pudding]

Happy Tree Friends - This show only aired on TV for a season and is mostly on the Internet and DVD, but dang, people seem to hate this show with a passion. Parents have complained that their kids saw the show. I'm sorry, but is a cartoon rabbit with a lollipop stuck in his eyeball really going to corrupt your kids? Plus it gets way more hate than it deserves and people often call it "an Itchy & Scratchy ripoff" and other stuff like that.

Robot Chicken - Because of my newfound love for this show (finally finding a cartoon that comes in second place after Happy Tree Friends on my favorites list), I'm sure you expected to see this on here. People seem to think that this show is nothing but a bunch of 80s references and see it as "Family Guy without a plot,". But when you think about it, Robot Chicken has barely done any 80s stuff in the past few years. They realized that 80s nostalgia is dead and moved on to 90s and early 2000s references. Family Guy on the other hand is still stuck in the 80s to this day and rarely references anything from the 90s or the new millennium. Remember Seth MacFarlane, 80s nostalgia isn't popular anymore, 90s nostalgia is the next big thing.

The Cleveland Show - I've noticed that people often make fun of this show by calling "Family Guy with black people," or "The Cleveland Steamer Show" because of the sex jokes. But the thing is, what else you would you expect from a show by Seth MacFarlane? I've been a MacFarlane fan for at least 4 years now and I would expect sex jokes, offensive jokes, pop culture jokes, and toilet humor from anything he makes. If Seth changes his image some people (who are true fans like me) might complain. I personally like The Cleveland Show a lot but it's still not better than Family Guy & American Dad. I'm sorry but the pure amount of quotability on those two shows puts them higher on my favorite shows list. Quote Family Guy & American Dad to anybody who's at least 15 and I guarantee that he or she will know what you mean, The Cleveland Show they might not.

MAD - A lot of people compare this show to Robot Chicken which gets on my nerves a lot. Sure they are both animated sketch comedies that do parodies, but Mad is based off of Mad Magazine and has no relation to Robot Chicken (aside from the fact that the creator Kevin Shinick is a former writer for RC), but I mean that the show doesn't have any inspiration from Robot Chicken that we know of. Mad is a long running franchise that has been around since before Seth Green (the creator of Robot Chicken) was born. It has gone on since the 50s and still going strong to this day. I really don't like when people say that MAD is just a bunch of toilet humor either. There are plenty of juvenile jokes on MAD, but there are plenty of witty ones for adults too. If you sit down and watch the show, you will realize that there is much more sophisticated comedy than half of the modern kiddie shows and it feels almost like a 90s cartoon because of how they love to make use of the Parental Bonus and Getting the Crap Past the Radar tropes.


The Muppets (2015) - I was very disgusted to find out how many Muppet fans complained about this show. People on IMBD were saying that "Jim Henson would've hated it," &"it ruins Jim's vision," and stuff like that. People need to realize something:The Muppets aren't Sesame Street! Jim Henson didn't even want to have anything to do w/Sesame Street at first and almost turned them down because he was afraid it would ruin his image as an adult entertainer, Jim has always wanted to appeal to adults.The new Muppets show may have been edgy at times, but The Muppets have always been slightly edgy because that was what Jim wanted. So what if Kermit
is shown drinking beer,smoking, or saying the H-Word? It's not the end of the world. Mickey Mouse has done things like that too & he's for kids.
I absolutely loved this show and so did my family and friends. Mom, Dad, and I would watch The Muppets every week and laughed a lot. All my favorite characters were back and better than ever, the writing was absolutely fantastic, they had plenty of good celebrities and good songs, everything about this show was wonderful in my opinion, .

 

[D'Snowth]

What exactly constitutes an "underrated" show in this thread? Because a number of the shows mentioned in this thread, from what I've seen anyway, are really successful and have dedicated fanbases FUTURAMA, AMERICAN DAD, BOB'S BURGERS, THE CLEVELAND SHOW, ROBOT CHICKEN, ANGRY BEAVERS, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT - all of those appear to be really successful and popular shows, so I don't really see how they can be considered "underrated." At least in ANGRY BEAVERS' case, it's certainly a big show for nostalgia (being a 90s show and all), and wasn't ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT recently uncanceled and dumped on Netflix? Not to mention the other shows are always playing on the comedy channels like TBS and [adult swim] and what have you.

 

[Flaky Pudding]

I have a few more I'd like to discuss:

Between the Lions - I've always considered this show to be for graduates of Sesame Street. Sesame Street teaches you letters, Between the Lions teaches you how to put them into words. I absolutely love the fact that just like Sesame Street they do parodies of adult/older things that kids wouldn't get like Wayne's World and Fun With Dick & Jane. I thought it was an absolutely amazing concept because while I do like The Electric Company for a similar idea, it doesn't have puppets and people should remember that kids prefer cartoons and puppets over live action any day.

Brandy and Mr. Whiskers - This show was absolutely hilarious! It felt like a more sophisticated, less mean-spirited version of SpongeBob to me. They both had a dumb protagonist who acted like a child (Mr. Whiskers) and a lot of gross-out gags, slapstick, and pop culture based humor, but it wasn't overused like it sometimes can be on SpongeBob.

Digimon - Everyone and their grandmother knows what Pokémon is, but how many people remember Digimon? Digimon was cooler than Pokémon because the creatures looked a lot cooler, had cooler fighting movies, and they talked. No Pokémon except for Meowth had the ability to talk and would only say their name over and over again which got a bit annoying and limits the show's plot opportunities. I rarely watched Pokemon (I preferred the cards and games over the anime) but I do remember an episode where some Pokémon fell in love with Emolga the flying squirrel Pokémon and wanted to go on date with her. Ummm, he can't talk because he's a Pokémon so how is asking her out even possible? I find it kind of boring how the titular Pokémon can't even have a conversation with each other because they all say their name over and over again.

AAAHH! Real Monsters - I know that this show was already mentioned on this thread by another member but I absolutely had to mention it again. It is a show for kids who like scary things but aren't allowed to watch actual horror movies. The show is just scary enough to give younger viewers who like scary stuff goosebumps. I have a horror loving 10-year-old second cousin who watches The Walking Dead and I'd rather let her watch this any day. How cool of an idea is that?

Bump in the Night - This show (created by the king of flash animation, none other than Happy Tree Friends creator, Ken Pontac) is a show about a green monster that lives under a kid's bed. It brought back the old school Claymation style and had not much technology involved at all. It was a breath of fresh air because besides Robot Chicken and that new superhero comedy show (also made by Stoopid Buddy Studios) stop-motion animation is extremely neglected nowadays.

 

[D'Snowth]

Again, weren't some of these shows successful and popular?

 

[JJandJanice]

What exactly constitutes an "underrated" show in this thread? Because a number of the shows mentioned in this thread, from what I've seen anyway, are really successful and have dedicated fanbases FUTURAMA, AMERICAN DAD, BOB'S BURGERS, THE CLEVELAND SHOW, ROBOT CHICKEN, ANGRY BEAVERS, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT - all of those appear to be really successful and popular shows, so I don't really see how they can be considered "underrated." At least in ANGRY BEAVERS' case, it's certainly a big show for nostalgia (being a 90s show and all), and wasn't ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT recently uncanceled and dumped on Netflix? Not to mention the other shows are always playing on the comedy channels like TBS and [adult swim] and what have you.

Well when I mention Ahhh! Real Monsters and Angry Beavers the first time, it didn't have nearly as much "nostalgia love" as both shows are enjoying today. At that time, I'm pretty sure neither show even had a DVD release (other than that Amazon "create on Demand" thing). Now both shows have a ton more merchandise including T-shirts, toys and of course, retail complete DVD releases.

In the case of American Dad and Futurama. Yes both shows are widely popular and successful. But I mentioned those, because despite how successful they are, both shows will ALWAYS live in the shadows of the more successful Family Guy and Simpsons respectively. Which is a huge shame because a lot of times both shows have shown to be just as good or BETTER than their predecessors.