The article ranks five ’80s and ’90s sitcoms whose unusually surreal premises were too unconventional for sustained mainstream success. It argues that these shows were not simply failed attempts to copy popular sitcom formulas, but ambitious experiments involving fantasy, imagination and unsettling tonal shifts.

– The People Next Door: Wes Craven’s short-lived sitcom followed a widowed cartoonist whose imagination became real, but its uneasy mood and inconsistent writing undermined the premise; only five of ten episodes aired.
– The Charmings: A suburban fish-out-of-water comedy about Snow White, Prince Charming and their magical household, which lasted 21 episodes but struggled once its initial concept wore thin.
– What a Dummy: Introduced as another unusually high-concept sitcom, beginning with a suburban family inheriting an apparently cursed object.