The Ropers, 1979-80

The listlessness of the first 40 seconds of The Ropers' credit sequence rarely dissipated over the show's ensuing 29 minutes. Turning the concept of Three's Company (the sitcom iceberg from which The Ropers calved) on its head, the show had Jeffrey Tambor's Jeffrey P. Brookes III serve as the straight-man foil to Norman Fell's Mr. Roper. See how they did that, flipping the script? It lasted little more than a year. Then it was canceled.