Friday, February 5, 2010

Failed Genealogy Television Shows


Inspired by Donna Pointowski's post If Genealogists Ruled The Television Networks over at What's Past Is Prologue, I've done some sleuthing over at the archives of the Museum of Television & Radio* and what did I find? I stumbled upon some amazing pilots for television series dealing with genealogy and family history that never aired:
  • Survivor: Ellis Island
  • Real World: County Clerk's Office
  • Ancestral Jackass
  • Video Diary: The Littlest Family Historian
  • Genealogists at the Apollo
  • America's Funniest Genealogists
  • Genealogists Gone Wild!
  • The Microfiche Reader Endurance Hour
  • Last Researcher Standing
  • When Cemetery Fanatics Attack!
  • MTV's Rock The Census
  • Who Wants to Cite Sources?
  • Is Your Wife Away At A Genealogy Conference?
  • America's Homliest Ancestors
  • Who Wants To Marry A Genealogist?
  • Tony Danza Is . . . THE GENEALOGIST
  • Suddenly Census
  • I Was A Genealogy Slut
  • Escape From The Archives
  • The Genealogist Who Became A Princess
  • Danielle Steele's To Research Again
  • Not Without My Ahnentafels!
  • Crimes of Passion: Stay Away From My Probate Records!
  • The Ugly Genealogist With a Heart of Gold Who Was Teased Unmercifully by Those Popular Girls Until She Snapped and Slaughtered Them All and Now Languishes on Death Row
  • Valley of the Deeds
  • Tony Danza Is . . . ELIZABETH SHOWN MILLS
  • In My Ancestor's Shadow
  • Soundex Is Your Friend
  • Touched By An Ancestor
  • I Unwittingly Married A Genealogist
  • Moment of Truth: Hand's Off My Copy of Evidence Explained!
  • The ProGen Group That Couldn't
  • Addicted To Genealogy Conferences
  • The Insatiable Family Historian
  • Forbidden Love: Genealogy and Monster Truck Shows
  • Ancestry Peep Show: Grannies Give It Up
  • Frontline: Passenger Lists . . . EXPOSED!
  • Salt Lake City Limits
  • The Secret, Mysterious Life of Genealogists
  • Census Taker III: I Know You're Ignoring The Doorbell
  • Dude, Where's My Pedigree?
  • So I Married A Genealogist
  • Ancestor From Another Enumeration District
  • I Spit On Your Ahnentafels
* This "museum" exists only in the mind of the author and was used to find these fictitious television series.  No egos of television producers were hurt in the making of this blog post.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

15 comments:

Randy Seaver said...

Excellent list!

I've used some of my own in my Genealogy Is Fun! Seriously! talk -- including:

Desperate Genealogists

Touched by a Genealogist

Survivor: Library

Lost: My Family History

So You Think You Can Research?

Are you Smarter than a Genealogist?

Genealogy Idol.

Idle hands make...twisted minds?

Terri said...

LOL - LOL - LOL

Renee Zamora said...

These are great! Definitely not reading material to settle down for a night's sleep.

Sheri Fenley said...

You could make a fortune selling these as bumper stickers, coffee mugs and much, much more! Just remember I gave you the idea!

Greta Koehl said...

Failed? But, Thomas, I would so watch these shows ... oh, yeah, I forgot - they always cancel the shows I love! Hilarious.

Donna said...

Great list - much more creative than mine! See my comment on my page about one of your shows...

Donna said...

Thomas, actually there REALLY IS a Museum of TV & Radio - I've been there. It's in NYC and there's one in LA. But, they didn't have these shows there!

Diana Ritchie said...

"Genealogists Gone Wild!" ~ that sounds like a subtitle for Jamboree...at least from what you and others were posting ;-)

Love the list!

Cyndi Beane Henry said...

Thomas, really.... I should've known not to take a drink of coffee as I read one of your funniest posts! I am not a pretty site with coffee spraying out my nose and eyes from snorting and laughing! Ugh!!!
Now I've got to clean my keyboard and monitor!
But hey, it was so worth it!!! Loved it! :)

Dorene from Ohio said...

Fantastic post! Loved it!

Thomas MacEntee said...

Thanks everyone for your comments - this was a great post to work on and I appreciate all your comments.

I think for the Oscars I need to post some failed genealogy-theme movies. Whaddya think?

Schelly Talalay Dardashti said...

How about:

"I'm a genealogist - Don't get me out of here"

set in an archive, of course!

Sharon said...

I might actually watch reality shows if these were on TV...thanks for the laughs :-D

JMK said...

Here are our top tv genealogy shows:

http://www.zazzle.com/jmkgifts/gifts?cg=196782704944635671

and our genealogy movie weekend
http://www.cafepress.co.uk/jmkbooks/5875001

Irish Mason said...

I passed along the Ancestor Approved Award to you. Stop by and pick it up.

http://irishmason1953.blogspot.com/