More TV Memories – The Pitts.

The Pitts (Fox, 2003)

This is yet another American sitcom that I vaguely remember watching at the time, and this one has a story which is possibly more strange than anything that happened in the actual episodes. The Pitts is essentially a sitcom about the world’s unluckiest family. This means that the title has a double meaning, because they are the Pitts family, and their life is also the pits, er, yes.

The Pitts consisted of the parents Bob and Liz, and their teenage children Faith and Petey. The episodes were almost on a cartoon scale, because if the worst could happen to them, then it did. There were some rather odd but creative ideas, including buying possessed cars, turning into werewolves, hiring crazed babysitters, finding ventriloquist’s dummies that seem to have a mind of their own, and much more.

Bob and Liz also work into a shop together and try to stay positive about life, but they never know what strange thing will happen to them or the children next. However, because of the way that this was scheduled in America and this country, it could be considered that maybe this show was jinxed for real. This originally formed part of yet another overhyped can’t fail crazy comedy night special for the Fox channel.

But this was pulled from the schedule after only five episodes, and the final two weren’t shown. Even having Seth MacFarlane (of Family Guy/American Dad! fame) as the consulting producer and a guest appearance from Dan Castellaneta (of The Simpsons fame) couldn’t excite viewers. If anything, this was treated even worse in this country. This must’ve been one of the final imported sitcoms that was shown on ITV1.

But in the mid-2000s, ITV1 treated a lot of their shows very sloppily, including this one. The first episode was shown on a Saturday evening, and the second was moved to a Sunday evening, before vanishing completely. About three months later, all of the episodes (including the two that were never shown in America) turned up on ITV2, which is probably the channel that this should’ve been on in the first place.

And Kellie Waymire, who played Liz (and appeared in lots of other shows over the years), died suddenly about six months after this ended, at the age of 36. Then, in 2007, Fox briefly considered reviving The Pitts, but this time as an actual cartoon. Some of the original cast were back on board to provide the voices (with Liz’s part being recast). But in 2008, it was decided not to go any further with this, and that really was the end.