Book Review: It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote

(Read on the Libby App on my phone): Bruce Vilanch's Riotously funny account of the craziest projects he's ever worked does not just cover disastrous TV specials but also movies and Broadway shows. I needed something light and hilarious after plowing through almost 600 pages of Victorian romanticism with A.S. Byatt's Possession. Vilanch was involved with some of the most disastrous turkeys to hit the airwaves--the Star Wars Holiday special, Paul Lynde's Halloween bash, the Brady Bunch Variety series, the Snow White-Rob Lowe Oscars. I cringe because I remember watching all of them like train wrecks you could not turn from. He also includes such floperoos as The Ice Pirates movie, The Village People's legendary bomb Can't Stop the Music, and the Broadway shows Platinum and Comedy Tonight. I laughed out loud many times. (I was annoyed by the numerous footnotes explaining famous show-biz figures I was familiar with such as Jack Benny, Carmen Miranda, Martha Raye, but I guess Vilanch felt they were necessary for the younguns who never heard of them.)