World's Funniest Fails

Debuting August 22, 1993 on the Fox network, the weekly half-hour sitcom Living Single (working title: My Girls) starred recording artist Queen Latifah as Khadijah James, the editor of "Flavor", a New York-based magazine targeted at young urban black women. Living in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn (actually the redressed set from another Warner Bros.-produced sitcom, Family Matters), Khadijah shared space with her cousin and secretary Synclaire James (Kim Coles), an aspiring actress; and her lifelong friend Regine Hunter (Kim Fields Freeman), who at one time or another worked at an upscale boutique, on the staff of a TV soap opera, and as a party planner, and was forever on the lookout for a wealthy husband. Also in the cast were Erika Alexander as Maxine "Max" Shaw, Khadijah's former college roommate, an insatiable gossip who was employed first as a divorce attorney and later as an assistant public defender; T.C. Carson as stockbroker Kyle Barker, perennial verbal sparring partner and eventually sweetheart of the acid-tongued Max; John Henton as Overton Jones, maintenance man of Khadijah's apartment building and ultimately the husband of Synclaire; Shaun Baker as Russell Montego, a Jamaica-born employee at "Flavor" who'd set his sights on the haughty Regine; and Mel Jackson as Ira Lee "Tripp" Williams, a commercial-jingle composer who moved into the apartment after Synclaire moved out. Making recurring appearances were Khadijah's off-and-on beau Scooter (Cress Williams), a PR man for a record company, and Bumper Robinson as Ivan, a college student who worked as general factotum in the "Flavor" offices. Despite heady competition from NBC's Seinfeld throughout most of its run, Living Single lasted 118 episodes, closing out its Fox run on January 1, 1998.

A troubled but brilliant detective returns from exile to run a special-crimes unit in Portland.

A 39-year-old woman decides to spend her life savings on a cat café in Louisville.

Created by Beavis and Butt-Head's Mike Judge and The Simpsons' Greg Daniels, the weekly, half-hour animated series King of the Hill was a genial "redneck" comedy set in the fictional burg of Arlen, TX. The central character was Hank Rutherford Hill, a 40-year-old salesman for the Strickland Propane Company. Staunchly conservative and fiercely macho, Hank might have been described as the head of the Hill household were it not for his iron-willed wife Peggy, a substitute teacher. Also living under Hank Hill's roof was his 12-year-old son Bobby, an overweight underachiever who was never quite able to live up to Hank's lofty standards of manhood; and Hank and Peggy's niece Luane Platter, who'd been living with the Hills since her trailer-park mom killed her dad during a brouhaha over "that last beer." Hank spent most of his spare time hanging out with his good ol' boy buddies, among them rabid conspiracy theorist Dale Gribble (whose wife Nancy was cheating on her husband with a Native American masseuse named John Redcorn, who in turn was the real father of the Gribbles' son Joseph); Bill Dauterive, a divorced barber who worked on a nearby military post; and self-styled Lothario, Boomhauer, who never spoke when muttering incomprehensibly would do. Also in the neighborhood was a Laotian couple, Kahn and Minh Souphanosuinphone, whose daughter Connie was Bobby's best friend. It would have been distressingly easy to poke derisive fun at the Southern-fried characters and their knee-jerk attitudes, but the producers displayed a touching fondness for the follies and foibles of the Hills and their friends, and in so doing imbued King of the Hill with a warmth and depth often lacking in prime-time cartoon shows. Debuting January 12, 1997, the Emmy-winning King of the Hill was second only to The Simpsons as the Fox network's most successful and longest-running animated series.

Musical comedy-drama about the misfits who make up a high-school glee club and teacher Will Schuester, the one-time glee-club star who leads them and must constantly protect "glee" from the malevolent schemes of diabolical cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester.

Sharply satiric animation about a man from 1999 who thaws out on the eve of the 31st century. An Emmy-winning work cocreated by Matt Groening ('The Simpsons'),it had a 'thaw' of its own, of sorts, after it ended its five-year Fox run, during which time it was too often pre-empted by pro-football overruns. After it left the network, however,the irreverent 'Futurama' demonstrated that it still had a future,scoring big.