It can't be easy to make a network TV show, especially when you're putting together your first season.
You've got to set up a new world, bring in an audience, appease the money-men and appeal to advertisers. It's no wonder that so many shows on this list took a while to find their feet.
But thank goodness they did, because some truly legendary shows follow, and if all we had to remember them was their terrible first seasons, we almost certainly wouldn't still be talking about them.
1. The US Office
Changing the UK Office must have been an intimidating prospect for the US version's showrunners – so much so that in the first season, they didn't really bother.
Season one played out like a shot-by-shot remake of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's BBC show, with the US Office only really finding its own voice in season 2 – transforming their David Brent (Michael Scott) from a sleazy weirdo into a big kid with serious social interaction issues. But, you know, funnier than that sounds.
2. Parks & Recreation
The curse of the terrible first season also afflicted Office-inspired Parks & Rec, which is so bad you basically have to warn people about it before they embark on their first binge of the show. "It gets good during season two, promise!"
That's because season one of Parks & Rec doesn't just not know what to do with its characters. It doesn't even seem to have made up its mind about who those characters are.
Compare the fastidious and annoying Leslie Knope of season one to the well-intentioned super-excitable hero of every other season: they're completely different people.
Or Chris Pratt's Andy Dwyer, so awful in season one he comes off like an abusive partner, before becoming everyone's favourite character from season two onwards.
Only Ron Swanson survives intact throughout – mainly because he's Ron Swanson.
3. Red Dwarf
Essentially an odd couple sitcom in space, season one of Red Dwarf is missing so many of the iconic elements that made the show special, it frequently feels like some sort of odd pilot season, with the apparently infinitesimal budgets giving it a homemade feel.
No Kryten and barely any Cat – thank smeg it survived long enough to introduce them. It's still going strong 30 years later.
4. Blackadder
Essential to the evolution of the character, sure, but that doesn't stop Blackadder season one from being the least re-watched instalment of the Blackadder back catalogue. Most people start with season two, cutting this one out of the history books.
It does have value, but Edmund Blackadder's weak, pathetic and annoying season one incarnation makes it a chore to get through.
5. Star Trek: Enterprise
Poor old Enterprise. It took longer than most to find its feet, with the slow start lasting long into season two – to the extent that it was almost cancelled during that second season. But an excellent season three (which introduced the first season-long arc), and an even better season four (packed with references and callbacks to previous incarnations of Trek) makes the slog worth it.
Sadly, it wasn't enough to save the show, which had lost a million viewers off the back of that boring first season, becoming the first Trek show since the original to last less than seven series.
At the time of cancellation, it also marked the first time in 18 years that no new Trek episodes were scheduled for broadcast. So, it might have survived for a bit, but never underestimate the importance of a solid season one for the long-term chances of a show.
Freelancer writer
Sam is an entertainment writer with NCTJ accreditation and a twenty-year career as a film journalist.
Starting out as a staff writer at Total Film, moving up to Deputy Online Editor, Sam was responsible for Total Film’s YouTube channel, where he revolutionised the magazine’s approach to video junkets, creating influential formats that spread to other outlets.
He’s interviewed a wide range of film icons, including directors such as David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay and Sam Raimi, as well as actors such as Meryl Streep, Nic Cage, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Margot Robbie, Natalie Portman, Kermit the Frog, all of the Avengers and many more.
Sam has also interviewed several comic creators, including Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and he has a zombie cameo in The Walking Dead comic.
In 2014, Sam went freelance, working directly for film studios including Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as covering red carpet events for film marketing company PMA Productions.
Sam is the co-host, producer and editor of the Arrow Video podcast, which has seen year-on-year growth since its creation in 2017, gaining over half a million listens in that time.
His byline has appeared in outlets such as Yahoo, MTV, Dazed, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Good Housekeeping among others.
In 2012, Sam made it to the final of the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year competition, and went on to become a filmmaker himself, directing three features that have all played major festivals, and secured distribution – starring in two of them.
Jim Carrey once mistook Sam for Johnny Cash, and John Carpenter told him to ‘Keep up the good work.’ He promises to try his best.
