Top 10 Chaotic TV Shows You Didn't Know Existed

A lot of explanations for this utterly confusing sci-fi series boil down to, “Hey, it was the 60s.” We can’t attest to whether or not some illicit chemical substances went into the making of this series. What is clear is that “The Prisoner” is a one of a kind experience. It stars Irish actor Patrick McGoohan as a secret agent who finds himself held captive in a strange, isolated village. The plot reads like a mix between “Lost” and “Gilligan’s Island.” Its charmingly primitive special effects, surrealist imagery, and counterculture themes make it a pretty disorienting experience for modern audiences.

Long before they became Hollywood heavy hitters, Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow, Bob Odenkirk, and Janeane Garofalo made one of the 90s’ most chaotic sketch series. “The Ben Stiller Show” was a different brand of TV comedy from the start. Mixing showbusiness satire with high-energy nonsense, the show and its zany cast packed a lot of comedy into just one half hour. Despite its cancellation, the show’s first season won an Emmy for writing. Considering where many of its stars ended up, it clearly made an imprint on pop culture – even if it’s been largely forgotten.

“Takeshi’s Castle” was a Japanese game show that threw its contestants into a punishing, and often ludicrous, obstacle course. Though it inspired a lot of shows, including “Wipeout,” some American viewers might have first become aware of the format through “Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.” Retitled “MXC” later in its run, the show took episodes of “Takeshi’s Castle” and added inaccurate and often crude English dubbing over the original footage. Contestants were tasked with jumping across a field of giant bouncy balls and running through a field of thick mud to catch a soccer ball launched through the air. The added English commentary makes an already surreal game show all the more bizarre.

Lisa Kudrow created this mockumentary series with “Sex and the City” writer John Patrick King. In it, she plays Valerie Cherish, an actress constantly fighting off the piranhas of the entertainment industry as she tries to capitalize on her former sitcom fame. Luckily for her and for us, Valerie is not exactly the most self-aware person. She’s put through the degrading paces of being a middle-aged woman in a business where youth is currency and fame is fleeting. The world of “The Comeback” is like a lookingglass version of Hollywood, full of narcissism, desperation, and sometimes, even outright cruelty. It’s also hysterically funny.

This British series is a road trip buddy comedy with a dark twist. Based on a comic series by Charles Forsman, it follows James and Alyssa as they drive across the country. Their reasons for this are vastly different. Alyssa is a troubled girl who wants to escape her rotten homelife. James is a troubled boy who thinks the road trip is the perfect cover to murder her. Despite its disturbing premise, the show somehow manages to reel you in. If anything, James’ motives just make what could have been a standard teen romance way more suspenseful and poignant than it would have been otherwise.

The sketches on this show find comedian and writer Tim Robinson and the ensemble having to negotiate increasingly stupid situations with surprisingly high stakes. It asks the questions we’ve all asked ourselves from time to time. What would happen if a baby pageant turned deadly? What happens if you swear too much on a haunted house tour? What does the table lady do for a living? Although the Netflix series has good reviews, its particular sense of humor is probably an acquired taste. But if you acquire the taste, it’ll have you laughing until you cry.

After their success with “Airplane!,” actor Leslie Nielsen and creators David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker teamed up for this short-lived sitcom. “Police Squad!” introduced the world to Lieutenant Frank Drebin, a cop who is almost blissfully unaware of the world around him. Poking fun at the bravado of similar TV characters, Drebin has a knack for never ending a sentence the way you’d expect. Despite its wealth of visual gags and ridiculous antics, the show failed to find its audience and was canceled after six episodes. However, a few years later, the premise found huge success when it became a movie, “The Naked Gun.”

The brainchild of Liam Lynch and Matt Crocco, “The Sifl and Olly Show” was a meandering and low-budget show about two sock puppets who specialized in crude humor. Airing on MTV between 1998 and 1999, the show had a grungy, public access feel. Viewers would be treated to vulgar sketches, awkward interviews, and unpolished musical numbers. Its underplayed humor may have been a little too ahead of its time. Due to low viewership, MTV canceled the show before its completed third season could air. Though the show didn’t find much of an audience, it does have a small and dedicated group of fans, the self-proclaimed “sockheads.”

This satirical skewering of afterschool specials consistently crosses lines other shows wouldn’t even go near. It stars Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank, a former sex worker and drug addict who returns to high school at the age of 46. Each episode finds Jerri learning hard lessons about very important social issues. The show also features two equally deranged and highly unprofessional teachers played by co-creators Paul Dinello and future “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert. “Strangers with Candy” may not be for everyone, but the show’s brand of politically incorrect comedy has scored some passionate fans over the years.

From cheesy sci-fi and horror epics to melodramatic soap operas, there were few genres this Channel 4 series didn’t parody during its short run. Each week, “Darkplace” presents an episode of a fictional 80s show bookended by commentary from its makers, particularly its egotistical writer and star, Garth Marenghi. Full of terrible writing, stilted acting, and cheap special effects, “Darkplace” is a love letter to a certain kind of genre TV. It takes some really gifted writers to make good bad TV. Writer-creators Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness clearly see the beauty in bad dialogue and messy storytelling.


Which of these chaotic shows had you seen before? Sound off in the comments.