Bette

Yet another of those lazy sitcoms that are content to use a weak concept but rely on the pulling power of their headliner to bring in an audience regardless, Bette features Bette Midler (who arguably lost her pulling power somewhere around 1990) playing herself, trying to deal with her teenage daughter. Wow, nobody in sitcoms ever has to deal with a teenage daughter. Novel! After blowing away the at-the-time unbeatable Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in the ratings on her debut, the show quickly slumped into a disastrous period where the cast disappeared almost as quickly as the audience. After trading in the actress that played her daughter (Lindsay Lohan) for another (Marina Malota) on episode three, Bette’s on-screen husband (Kevin Dunn) was out by episode five. And when they finally announced a replacement (Robert Hays), Midler herself started making noises on national talk shows about how it was all too much bother for her and she might not return for season two. CBS executives made her mind up for her when they axed her show immediately but Midler still felt like maybe she should keep the battles going, announcing that Simon and Schuster had agreed to pay her a million dollars for a book about her time on the series. The project was to be called ‘Canceled!” – and soon enough it was, when Simon and Schuster owner Viacom, who also happen to own CBS, told execs to show Midler the door. Which is all a lot more fun than the series ever was.