It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time

The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote

By: Bruce Vilanch

“Bruce Vilanch, a storyteller without peer, has written a tell-all … on himself! And it’s hilarious! He’s finally coming clean and owning up to his part in creating some of the worst television of the twentieth century, and that’s saying a lot. There’s no one like him. As they’ve been saying since I discovered him as a cub reporter at the Chicago Tribune, when you’re in a pinch … Get Bruce!” —Bette Midler

Bruce Vilanch is known as a go-to comedy writer for award shows, sitcoms, and top-heavy variety specials, but he has also been responsible for quite a few of the worst shows ever put on television—legendarily bad productions.

Some of his work lives in infamy—The Star Wars Holiday Special, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White at the Oscars, and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. How did these ever seem like a good idea?

Well, everyone has screwed up a few times, or had their work screwed up by others. It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time is a lifetime reflection of what Vilanch has experienced, learned, forgotten, dismissed, and embraced in decades of working in show business, specifically the south forty acres known as comedy. It involves very famous people and people who were not very famous but should have been.

And it explains to the person in the audience who says to himself, once he has gotten his jaw off the floor, “’How did this ever get made?”

Don’t we all want to know?

©2025 Bruce Vilanch (P)2025 Blackstone Publishing