Nobody sets out to fail, but when a project becomes a failure, the best you can do is try to figure out what went wrong. That's the premise behind The Worst Sitcom Ever Made, a hilarious new podcast from Radio NZ. The eight-episode podcast plays like a whodunnit, as writer Geoff Houtman interviews the cast and crew of the universally panned sitcom, Melody Rules, 25 years after it first aired.
"Everyone remembers things differently, and some of the roads I would go down about what went wrong, well that was completely wrong, because… who can remember what happened 25 years ago?"
The cast of New Zealand sitcom Melody Rules, which is dissected on The Worst Sitcom Ever Made podcast.
And with four episodes left to record, Houtman admits that he "doesn't even know how it ends".
Back in New Zealand, reactions to the podcast have made Houtman feel slightly better about the show. "[People keep saying] it's not the worst show ever made – that's Married at First Sight, or that cooking show, or that home renovation show. And so now I'm just wondering, it's probably still the worst sitcom ever made, but it doesn't seem like it's anywhere near the worst TV show ever made, either in this country or Australia."
Reactions to The Worst Sitcom Ever Made podcast have made Geoff Houtman feel slightly better about Melody Rules.
I asked Houtman if Melody Rules helped launch any careers, but he just laughs: "It ended some."
Of the main cast, Jodie Rimmer immediately left New Zealand "and went into hiding in the West Australian desert for about three years. No one could find her".
Elliot O'Donnell played the wacky neighbour Crayfish, and, according to Houtman, for years people would come up to him in shopping malls and say "'Hey Crayfish, you dickhead', then punch him in the head".
Tracking down actor Belinda Todd was a personal highlight for Houtman, and provides one of the more entertaining interviews of the podcast.
"She literally disappeared. She was one of the most famous people in the whole country. And after Melody, she just disappeared. I hunted her down especially for the podcast, and I found her in a dodgy Mexican bar in Venice Beach in LA. We got a drunk and I interviewed her for a couple of hours. She used some awesome words that no one has ever used before."
I asked Houtman if he could look back on anything fondly from this time, but again, he just laughs and says no. After pressing him, and he comes up with this analogy.
"You know, when you you're a kid and you smash up your mum and dad's car, and it really sucks for a few years, but then later on, you're like, 'Huh, that's a cool story from when I was a kid'? That's as close as it gets."
"And I guess it's going back to an innocent time. When the worst thing that could ever happen in New Zealand was Melody Rules."
The Worst Sitcom Ever Made is available on all good podcast players now.
Source: Read Full Article