The 1970s were a golden age for sitcoms, with shows like All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and The Jeffersons breaking new ground in comedy and social commentary. But not every attempt to push the genre's boundaries found an audience. Some shows were so outlandish, so off-the-wall, that they barely lasted a season before being canceled. Here are five of the strangest sitcoms of the decade—ranked by their sheer weirdness.
5. Come Back Mrs. Noah (1977-1978)
Before Are You Being Served? made her a household name in the UK, Mollie Sugden was already a beloved comedic actress. In 1977, she teamed up with Are You Being Served? creators Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft for a sci-fi sitcom that was as bizarre as it was short-lived. Come Back Mrs. Noah followed Gertrude Noah, a housewife who wins a trip to tour a spaceship—only to accidentally launch it into orbit with a ragtag crew of scientists and a news reporter.
The show was a strange mix of slapstick and sci-fi, with Sugden's character constantly finding herself in awkward situations, from getting stuck in escape tubes to floating in zero gravity. Despite the star power and the creative pedigree, the show only lasted six episodes before being canceled. It remains a curious footnote in the history of British television—a bizarre experiment that never quite found its footing.
4. The Ghost Busters (1975)
Long before Bill Murray and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, there was a live-action sitcom called The Ghost Busters. Created by Filmation, the show starred Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch as two bumbling paranormal investigators, along with their gorilla sidekick Tracy. Each week, they'd receive a recorded message from their boss, Zero, and head off to battle ghosts, werewolves, and other supernatural foes.
The show was repetitive even by sitcom standards, recycling the same sets and gags every episode. It only lasted 15 episodes, but its legacy lived on—when Columbia Pictures wanted to make a movie called Ghostbusters, they licensed the name from Filmation. The resulting blockbuster comedy spawned a cartoon spin-off, but the original sitcom remains a forgotten oddity.
3. Me and the Chimp (1972)
Before he created Happy Days, Garry Marshall co-created Me and the Chimp, a sitcom about a family that adopts a chimpanzee named Buttons. The show starred Ted Bessell as a dentist whose kids bring home the chimp, and hilarity—or at least attempted hilarity—ensues as Buttons wreaks havoc on their suburban life.
The show was canceled after just 13 episodes, and it's not hard to see why. The jokes were thin, the premise was absurd, and the chimp's antics quickly grew tiresome. It's a prime example of the '70s trend of putting animals in sitcoms, but unlike Mr. Ed or Lassie, this one didn't have the charm to make it work.
2. Holmes & Yoyo (1977)
What if your new partner at work was a robot? That's the premise of Holmes & Yoyo, a short-lived ABC sitcom about a detective named Alex Holmes who gets paired with a robotic partner named Gregory 'Yoyo' Yoyonovich. The show starred Richard B. Shull as the grumpy detective and John Schuck as the robot, who was supposed to be a secret.
The show's humor relied heavily on Yoyo's robotic quirks—like printing photos from his memory or malfunctioning at the worst possible moments. But the jokes wore thin quickly, and the show was canceled after just 13 episodes. It's a fascinating time capsule of '70s sci-fi comedy, but it's easy to see why it didn't last.
1. Quark (1977)
At the top of our list is Quark, a sci-fi sitcom that was so strange it almost defies description. Created by Buck Henry, the show followed Adam Quark, a space garbage collector who leads a ragtag crew on intergalactic missions. The crew included a pair of clones, a cowardly alien, and a talking plant—yes, a talking plant.
The show was a parody of Star Trek and other sci-fi series, but it was too weird for its own good. It only lasted eight episodes before being canceled, but it's since gained a cult following for its sheer absurdity. If you're looking for a truly bizarre slice of '70s TV, Quark is the strangest of them all.
These shows may have been too strange for their time, but they're a reminder that television has always been willing to take risks—even if those risks sometimes end in cancellation. For more on the weird and wonderful world of TV, check out our list of HBO's best mystery series or our ranking of Netflix's top thrillers.
