15 TV Shows Built Around Babies and Animals That Are Absolute Garbage
![15 TV Shows Built Around Babies and Animals That Are Absolute Garbage](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/1/7/887217_320x180.jpg)
When you look at this list of complete failures, you’ll wonder why so many baby and animal centered shows keep getting made! Clearly, because movies like Look Who’s Talking and Air Bud made fortunes, TV execs thought they could capitalize on that tired trope. In doing so, they disrespected all of us. Sitting up there in their 80th floor corner offices like, “Those mindless slobs will eat this talking baby and/or talking dog bullshit right up!” Well, jokes on you, Network TV!
Our collective TV palette has gotten a lot more refined over the years, so let’s agree to put an end to these baby and animal shows. Okay, TV? You gave us some utter trash-piles in the ‘80s, 90’s, 2000’s, and 2010’s, so don’t let us catch you dipping into this tired old sack again! It’s been done. Move on. But hey, if you still need proof, here are 15 mind-numbingly godawful shows built around babies and animals.
Baby Talk should’ve been called Three Moms and a Baby.
![CRACKED BABY TALK 1991 - 1992 No one except ABC wanted this Look Who's Talking spin-off to work. The first mom quit after the pilot, then a 2nd mom and George Clooney quit soon after. Scott Baio, Tony Danza (voicing the baby), and a 3rd mom went down with the ship after 35 episodes.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/7/887027.jpg)
Disney got a whopping 69 episodes out of the ol’ talking dog shtick.
![CRACKED DOG WITH A BLOG 2012 - 2015 ENC Like Lassie saving the day? No, no, he just blogs about it. It's another Disney Channel case of Kids better like it, 'cus everyone else hates it. Variety called it strictly low-hanging biscuit fare, because how many butt-sniffing jokes can we handle?](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/1/887021.jpg)
Even Animal Planet got their filthy paws in the talking dog game.
![CRACKED BEWARE OF DOG 2002 Before Animal Planet settled into its light hearted but legitimate animal doc style, they played the field, and had a regrettable one-night stand with the talking dog genre. Jack the dog and the Poole family got 2 episodes back to back before getting put down.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/9/887019.jpg)
One animal? Why not make a bad show centered around every animal?!
![CRACKED MANIMAL 1983 This show had all the animals. Well, a guy who takes almost 2 minutes to slowly and clunkily morph into any animal that'll help solve the crime. NBC's cheesy MacGyver meets Ace Ventura only lasted 8 episodes.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/6/887026.jpg)
Didn’t we get enough of Three Men and a Baby in the ‘80s?
![CRACKED BABY DADDY 2012 to 2017 How did ABC give this unapologetic Three Men and a Baby rip-off 6 seasons?! Men caring for a baby may have been a wild thought in the '80s, but by the 2010s it was like... Grow up and step up, fellas.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/3/887023.jpg)
Bet your baby?! Ohhh… Bet ON your baby! Still!
![CRACKED BET ON YOUR BABY 2013 - 2014 JOSHUA MUST CORRECTLY GUESS THREE OF JAIDYN'S IMPRESSIONS Parents bring their babies (which were all toddlers aged 2 - 3.5) into the Babydome (an in-studio kid's room) to guess the kid's next move for a full scholarship ($50,000 - enough for one year and some books). ABC, you're a trash network of lies.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/2/887022.jpg)
Can it be called a “horror comedy” if it isn’t scary or funny?
![CRACKED THE BABY 2022 A rare case of HBO being out of touch and off the mark, The Hollywood Reporter said there's no common feminist reading of pregnancy and childcare that creators haven't recycled here, and that the worst thing is that it exists at all. Yeesh.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/4/887024.jpg)
It was 1960! What’s your excuse, every talking baby show since then?!
![CRACKED HAPPY 1960 HAPPY Starring Lloyd Corrigan Ronnie Burns Yvonne Lime 8 PM NBC had Christopher Hapgood Day Jr. (Happy) talk to the audience for 26 whole episodes. It killed the talking baby game for almost 30 years, until Look Who's Talking revived it in 1989. Bastards.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/6/887016.jpg)
Come to Disney for The MCU and revivals no one asked for!
![CRACKED TURNER AND HOOCH The 2021 series A revival of the 1989 Tom Hanks movie, the Disney series is a weird blend of Michael Bay-esque action, and guy doesn't want dog, but ends up loving dog sitcom humor. We did get a Reginald VelJohnson cameo as David Sutton. So... There's that.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/4/887014.jpg)
Wanna see young Adam Devine compete for a dog?
![CRACKED WHO GETS THE DOG? 2005 Who Gets The DOG Animal Planet thought, What if the dog chooses the owner? So people competed for a shelter dog's love, while behaviorists determined who the dog liked most. Thought to be unethical to treat a rescue like a prize, it got axed (the show, not the dog).](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/3/887013.jpg)
Yes, Baby Talk was a complete failure, but this is Baby Bob we’re talking about!
![CRACKED BABY BOB 2002 Baby Bob, another talking baby, got his own CBS primetime show after a successful string of FreeInternet.com commercials. That's early 2000s TV for ya. The show's 14 episodes of Wait, that baby can talk? are exactly what you think they'll be.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/5/887015.jpg)
Animal Planet crosses the line between showcasing and exploiting animals.
![CRACKED TAKING ON TYSON 2011 Remember when Mike Tyson starred in an Animal Planet reality show about competitive pigeon racing?! Mike loves pigeons, but audiences and PETA (clearly) felt that training them for competition was exploitative.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/5/887025.jpg)
We wanted to hate Downward Dog, but it’s an okay boy.
![CRACKED DOWNWARD DOG 2017 Critics thought it was okay (which it is. It's okay.) But fans legitimately loved this show, and were sad to see it go. ABC (who actually went for a talking dog show in 2017) canceled it after 8 episodes.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/8/887018.jpg)
Making a show that kids and parents both like seems almost impossible.
![CRACKED WAFFLE THE WONDER DOG 2018 to Present Found on BBC's kids' channel, CBeebies, Waffle episodes are luckily only 11 minutes long. As it usually goes, kids seem to love it, but parents find it unbearable. Now that Bluey is out there, step your shit up, kids' shows!](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/7/887017.jpg)
We’re all on pins and needles, waiting for Disney to green light Season 3!
![CRACKED PUP ACADEMY 2018-2020 You guessed it, it's an Air Bud Entertainment production! These pups are trained to keep the bond between humans and dogs alive, and we get every talking dog trope imaginable, all at once, all the time. It's overwhelming.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/0/887020.jpg)