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Shows you thought you would hate, but didn't?

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    Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 2:31am
Usually, TV (particularly network TV) is one disappointment after another, but every now and then a show comes along that grows on me even if the initial impression wasn't so great.  Here are a few:
 
Everybody Hates Chris--Didn't discover this one until it had already ended and entered syndication.  Absolutely hilarious and great nostalgia, too!  Wish it lasted longer than four seasons.
 
Malcolm in the Middle--Initially thought it was the most annoying show on earth, largely due to the promos.  Later I discovered that--gross-out and over-the-top moments aside--it was genuinely quirky and funny, mainly thanks to the characters of Francis, Hal, and Dewey.
 
The Middle--I couldn't stand Everybody Loves Raymond and didn't think Patricia Heaton had a comedic bone in her body.  This show proved me wrong--way wrong.
 
NCIS Los Angeles--Thought this one would just be a re-hash of the original, but it's different enough to be entertaining in its own right.  Linda Hunt is phenomenal.  It's also to the show's benefit that none of the characters is a hugh jass hole a la Dinozzo.  My pet peeve, though, is the ridiculously ornate beachfront "office" where they work.  Does CBS film the show at Oprah's summer house?
 
The Closer--I couldn't get past Kyra Sedgwick's ridiculously phony accent at first, but gradually the interesting plot lines and strong ensemble cast won me over.  It's also refreshing to see the main character portrayed as being in a stable and committed relationship rather than surfing a different mattress in every episode.
 
Anyone have a similar experience?  These examples are the prime reason why TV networks need to give their shows MORE TIME to find an audience before pulling the plug.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Yutolia Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 4:11am
I remember my dad thought he would really hate both the X-Files and the Simpsons, and then once my mom and I talked him into watching, they ended up being two of his favorite shows for a few years.

I really thought I would hate Deadwood (even though I like westerns), purely because I am originally from that area and have grown up with those stories (my grandfather was born there in 1902 and actually met Poker Alice). I thought they might add a bunch of useless crap to try to "modernize" the stories, but they actually did a really good job. I was very pleasantly surprised.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tech Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 4:28am
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It's now currently my favorite show.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Yutolia Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 4:46am
But at this point, I'm pretty sure I will hate "Hot in Cleveland" and "Happily Divorced". Dead
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sharonite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 5:41am
Originally posted by Yutolia Yutolia wrote:

But at this point, I'm pretty sure I will hate "Hot in Cleveland" and "Happily Divorced". Dead
Ugh.  Not even Betty White can save that mess.  Pretty much all of TVLand's original programming is an EPIC FAIL.  What part of "just show old reruns" do they NOT understand?!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote musicman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 11:30am
Operation Repo or Operacion Repo.  I hated it at first, thought it was campy, but now I like it.
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote musicman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 11:33am
Originally posted by sharonite sharonite wrote:

Originally posted by Yutolia Yutolia wrote:

But at this point, I'm pretty sure I will hate "Hot in Cleveland" and "Happily Divorced". Dead
Ugh.  Not even Betty White can save that mess.  Pretty much all of TVLand's original programming is an EPIC FAIL.  What part of "just show old reruns" do they NOT understand?!
 
Maybe they could create a new show where Mary Tyler Moore works in a newsroom at a TV station and Betty White is a mean lady that does a cooking show.  Wink  LOL 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 2:30pm
Originally posted by musicman musicman wrote:

Operation Repo or Operacion Repo.  I hated it at first, thought it was campy, but now I like it.
 
 
 
Ha!  It was just the opposite for me.  I liked it at first, but when it dawned on me that the whole thing was staged, I hated it.
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Grant Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 3:07pm
COPS.
Not really!! Haven't (deliberately) watched a minute of it since it premiered.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Yutolia Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 4:46pm
Originally posted by sharonite sharonite wrote:

Originally posted by Yutolia Yutolia wrote:

But at this point, I'm pretty sure I will hate "Hot in Cleveland" and "Happily Divorced". Dead
Ugh.  Not even Betty White can save that mess.  Pretty much all of TVLand's original programming is an EPIC FAIL.  What part of "just show old reruns" do they NOT understand?!


What I really can't stand is the fact that it seems like the only gimmick they can come up with is Betty White saying all of these slangy catch phrases. Look, she's old but she says "booty"! OMFG LOL!1!1!111!!!!1

I know it's been mentioned on this board before - just the fact that she's old doesn't automatically make it funny when she says the kind of thing that sounds stupid even when young people say it.

I really think that they are wasting her talent here, and she is for some reason letting them.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 11:01pm
I agree with that, Yutolia.  The whole "saucy old lady" schtick might be funny once or twice...but beyond that, forget it. 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tiz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 11:16pm
Only In America
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ProudHeart86 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 11:34pm
George Lopez...  I found it actually quite recently on Nick @ Nite, and actually I have to say I find it quite enjoyable, even though for years I've laughed at jokes about how terrible it was, and was always afraid I'd hate it.  After being ill and not having anything else on, I watched it..and by goodness I laughed!  Sure some of his childhood "woah is me" jokes get very old, but for the most part, I enjoy the humour and the banter between him and his mother.  Don't care too much for Angie though.  She gives me the Beetis with her over-sweetness.
 
Switched at Birth...  I went into this show thinking "Well, I'm familiar with the lady who plays the deaf girl's mom, so I may check it out..but I'm not gonna like it!"  But, I actually like it!  Constance Marie, who is pretty darned insufferable as Angie from George Lopez, plays a really good badarse former alcoholic, the birth mother of Leah Thompson's "daughter".  I enjoy watching her roll her eyes at the other mom, played by Leah Thompson.  I really can't stand Leah's character.  She plays the real mother of the deaf girl and the adoptive mother of the rebellious artist.  It's only been 2 episodes thus far, but ABC Family has me hooked already!  It's much better than their "Secret Life of the American Teenager".  I used to like that show, but now it's just OLD!
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hootman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jun 2011 at 11:43pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jimbo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jun 2011 at 1:48am
"HUSTLE".
 
It's a PBS/BBC show about a group of flashy, talented young grifters who live in modern day London & go around conning people for fun & profit.
 
American actor Robert Vaughn (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) plays their mentor & leader.
 
From Wikipedia:
 
Quote Hustle is a British television drama series made by Kudos Film and Television for BBC One in the United Kingdom. Created by Tony Jordan and first broadcast in 2004, the series follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long cons" – extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but which return a higher reward than simple confidence tricks. The seventh series began on BBC1 on Friday 7 January 2011.
 
I didn't watch it when it first came on my local PBS station because I assumed it would be too much like all these youth-oriented American shows, in that the "team" is comprised mostly of stylish, good-looking young model types who I figured would all be self-serious a-holes like most of the characters on said American shows.
 
I relented & have watched it twice now & like most BBC/PBS shows, it's great fun.
 
 
I understand it's on cable, too.
 
If you haven't seen it, check it out.
 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ad Endless Nauseum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jun 2011 at 10:09am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Asnotseenontv Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jul 2011 at 9:10am
Franklin and Bash- At first it seemed like a rehash/ripoff of Raising The Bar, but when I actually watched it I found it hilarious and fun to watch.

Law and Order LA: WHY IS NBC CANCELING THIS? >:( At first I was expecting a hipper Law & Order, but it proved me wrong. Alfred Molina is one of my favorites!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Obie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Jul 2011 at 11:18pm
Originally posted by Yutolia Yutolia wrote:

Originally posted by sharonite sharonite wrote:

Originally posted by Yutolia Yutolia wrote:

But at this point, I'm pretty sure I will hate "Hot in Cleveland" and "Happily Divorced". Dead
Ugh.  Not even Betty White can save that mess.  Pretty much all of TVLand's original programming is an EPIC FAIL.  What part of "just show old reruns" do they NOT understand?!


What I really can't stand is the fact that it seems like the only gimmick they can come up with is Betty White saying all of these slangy catch phrases. Look, she's old but she says "booty"! OMFG LOL!1!1!111!!!!1

I know it's been mentioned on this board before - just the fact that she's old doesn't automatically make it funny when she says the kind of thing that sounds stupid even when young people say it.

I really think that they are wasting her talent here, and she is for some reason letting them.
 
Most of 'Hot in Cleveland's appeal is that Betty White, like George Burns around the same age, lasted that long, and remained sharp enough to be on TV(unlike, say, Bob Hope when he was trying to do TV in his 90s). The 'HIC' demographic grew up on shows like 'The Golden Girls', 'Frasier', 'Seinfeld', and, slightly skewing a bit, 'One Day at a Time', so it's shrewd casting. And, if you've stuck with the show, the writing has improved, although it is not consistently at the level of those shows in their primes.
As for TVLand's other stuff, that George Segal thing was a steaming-hot crap sandwich, and anything with Fran Drescher makes me itch in strange places. 'Cleveland' is a nice one-time success story, but the other shows that tried to follow TVLand's 'template' for low-budget sitcoms just aren't working.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Zach6848 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jul 2011 at 2:21am
Honestly, I think Betty White's popularity is mostly owed to the fact that she's old and still has a sense of humor.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote WDAN20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Mar 2012 at 2:26am
The Cleveland Show - At the time this was promoted on TV I was upset with Family Guy's declining quality and thought the programme would be even worse! After episodes like The Juice Is Loose, I felt jaded by anything Seth Macfarlane put out. However I thought the show after the first season is genuinely funny, and the characters are likable, and the idea of having limited cutaways is a pleasantly refreshing after Family Guy was beating a dead horse with that concept.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ThreadKiller Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Mar 2012 at 4:01am
Originally posted by Asnotseenontv Asnotseenontv wrote:

Law and Order LA: WHY IS NBC CANCELING THIS?
 
I still can't figure out why they cancelled the original Law and Order, just when they had a really good cast of both cops and ADAs, for the first time in many years.
 
As for the OP's question, my best example of that is 24. I'm usually all over spy shows and movies, but for some reason the ads and promos never caught my interest. Even after the first couple seasons, when people were talking it up, I didn't pay attention. I only started watching because my son had gotten started watching it with his dorm buddies at college, and he got me watching it while he was home on breaks. After three or four episodes I was hooked, and didn't miss anotehr one. We started DVDing every episode from then on.
 
Hundreds of threads killed.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Christine Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2012 at 12:05am

Back in the day, The Simpsons. Took me years to catch on.

My husband loves the "engineering porn" stuff like How It's Made*, Modern Marvels, and some others whose names I forget. Shows about building big things, extreme jobs, historical mechanical achievements etc.
 
OH yeah, Dirty Jobs! At first, I thought it was just a gross-out show for boys, where the host got underground and saw roaches up close, or had to shovel muck. Ho-hum. But the humor of Mike Rowe and his willingness to DO the jobs** no matter how uncomfortable or scared he gets- that appealed to us pretty quickly. 
 
*he's not even home yet and I'm watching it right now.
** there's another show with a nebbishy, whiny guy that's too annoying to watch- he's the opposite of Rowe, and I'm convinced the producers HATE him- he doesn't bother to hide his discomfort and is always complaining!! So that show is not on our list despite the engineer-porn-factor.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2012 at 1:27am
The Walking Dead on AMC.  I didn't think I would hate it when I turned to it one rainy Saturday a few weeks ago, but I didn't think I'd become hooked on it---within minutes---and end up watching it for 8 hours straight on Saturday, and another 8 hours straight the next day. 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote flychinook Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Mar 2012 at 4:32pm
Someone else mentioned "The Middle", and I'll second it. Good writing, and probably the only realistic tv family since "Rosanne".

Also the "_______ Wars" shows. Storage wars is ok, and Shipping Wars is actually pretty entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised by both.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Papa Lazarou Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Mar 2012 at 4:52pm
Actually, I've shockingly been moderately impressed with ABC's whole line-up.
 
I never watched any of that stuff, but we've recently set our television to automatically turn on Wheel Of Fortune during the week, and I ended up watching Suburgatory, The Middle, and even Modern Family afterwards, first only as background noise, then actually enjoying them.
 
I don't enjoy Modern Family immensely, though. It's an Okay show, and I've been switching off more and more. The other two shows I really enjoy, though.
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