Nash Bridges (Syndicated)

Nash Bridges ran for six seasons (1996-2001) before being cancelled; it's frankly remarkable that the show could be stretched out that long. It chiefly traffics in tired TV cliches: several characters begin and end romantic relationships; a long-lost brother returns from 24 years of self-imposed exile; beloved characters are killed just before being married; the main characters leave the force and start their own detective agency, etc. The dialogue is either tired or forced, and sometimes both simultaneously.

One way the show maintained fair ratings throughout its run was through inspired stunt casting; in one episode, both Philip Michael Thomas (Johnson's co-star in Miami Vice) and Tommy Chong (Cheech's partner through the drug-addled 70s) guest starred. Other notable guest appearances included author Hunter S. Thompson, baseball legend Barry Bonds, and Glenn Frey of The Eagles. But none of them could disguise the fact that the stock characters display no real motivation for their actions, the bad guys are usually laughable, and the recurring jokes are groan-inducingly lame. The charcters' fashions, attitudes, and even hairstyles seemed silly even back in the late '90s; at this point, the show's only really useful function is as a time capsule of what network TV once considered "edgy."