The Worst Sitcom Ever Made
Geoff Houtman was part of the team that created the worst sitcom ever made. It's haunted him for 25 years. Now he's on a quest to find out what went wrong and to see what lessons we can learn about failure in general.
Navigation for The Worst Sitcom Ever Made
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The Worst Sitcom Ever Made Ep 1: 'I think of it like a cult'
13 Mar 2019Kiwi TV show 'Melody Rules' came out in the 90s and is widely regarded as one of worst sitcoms ever made. But just how bad was it? Geoff Houtman – one of the show's original writers – embarks on a… Read more Audio
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The Worst Sitcom Ever Made - Ep 2: 'What? You want us to write a kids' show?'
20 Mar 2019Geoff and some of the original writing group talk about the 'odd' way Melody Rules came to be chosen, and how micro-management from the outset set the course for sitcom-disaster. Read more Audio
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The Worst Sitcom Ever Made - Ep 3: 'Even I thought I was a terrible choice!'
27 Mar 2019Even a badly chosen idea and a micro-managed script needs someone to play it. And casting is crucial ... especially with inexperienced actors. Read more Audio
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The Worst Sitcom Ever Made - Ep 4: 'Just f#&%ing stand there and say your line!'
3 Apr 2019Geoff tracks down the man who directed all 40 episodes of Melody Rules and hears about the challenges he faced: inexperience,arguments with the actors, news cameras on loan, making a sitcom in a broom… Read more Audio
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The Worst Sitcom Ever Made - Ep 5: 'The one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind'
10 Apr 2019Geoff tracks down John Vorhaus, the sitcom guru. How did John get the job of training the young writers and what did he make of it all? Audio
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The Worst Sitcom Ever Made - Ep 6: 'There was just ... vitriol in the air'
17 Apr 2019Melody Rules is finally unleashed on a hyped-up New Zealand public and is greeted with virtual (and actual) hostility. Audio
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The Worst Sitcom Ever Made- Ep 7: 'The Network would just say... blah blah blah'
24 Apr 2019What were the Network people thinking when they made Melody Rules? Geoff gets their - surprisingly positive - take on the experience. Audio
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The Worst Sitcom Ever Made - Ep 8: 'I just want to go now'
1 May 2019So how did the failure that was Melody Rules affect the people involved? In this final episode, Geoff's on the road to find out and to discover what he's learned about himself and his perceived… Read more Audio
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The mess, the 25 year old monkey and me - Geoff Houtman explains
It's been a monkey on his back for 25 years. It's time to try to understand what happened to bring about such a monstrous failure Audio
The Worst Sitcom Ever Made
Presented by Geoff Houtman
Produced for RNZ by the Down Low Concept and Glynis Stewart
The producer for the Down Low Concept is Nigel McCulloch
The RNZ Studio Engineer is Jeremy Veal
The supervising producer for RNZ is Adam Macaulay
Executive Producer for RNZ Podcasts is Tim Watkin
The Worst Sitcom Ever Made
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