The Trouble with Tracy

You think you've seen bad TV? You haven't seen the worst until you've seen this gem. A few seasons were made and then rerun for years on Canadian stations to fulfill Canadian content rules.

The acting was atrocious, the direction non-existent, the production values were laughable, and the writing ... oh, the horror! Add in a tinny laugh-track and cheesy muzak and you've got Trouble. Flubbed lines were left in (and it was on video!), "jokes" were recycled ad nauseam, you could see the walls move when a door was opened or closed. Dyan Nylan as Tracy was cute in her micro-miniskirts but she had little acting ability or comedic timing, and the lines she was given to speak were cringe-inducingly lame. Every embarrassing stereotype was included, every Lucy and Honeymooners setup was ripped off, every stale Henny Youngman joke was massacred.

Simply excruciating, unredeemably puerile, so bad it's not funny! So why is it I wish I could see it again?

This was considered by most to be the worst Canadian TV series of all time from the 1970s until other networks made worse (i.e. CBC's "XPM"). The Comedy Network in particular produced a solid number of equally awful flops the first 10 years or so of their existence. Notably the universally despised "PopCultured with Elvira Kurt" but also "Girls Will Be Girls", "Keys to the VIP", "Punched Up", "Upload Yours"..... the list goes on and on.

It was poorly produced with awful sets, acting, writing, direction... but at least it was likable, charming and hilarious in ways other than the creators intended. It was bad but in a "so bad it's funny" kind of way. That's why this show is considered one of the worst but also has kind of a beloved status among TV audiences in Canada, unlike a lot of those other shows I mentioned, which are just "bad but not even in a funny way bad".

I'm finding it very hard to rate this show... on the one hand I remember watching it and cringing at how bad the production was. The sets were so cheap and the acting was so over the top and the writing was so amateur level... but on the other hand the people on the show were doing some badly written characters so it must have been hard to act as them, and they (especially Tracy) were so likable and fun to watch... and I remember that when I watched the show I also laughed a lot. It's like cringe comedy before The Office but where the cringing wasn't actually intentional. So it was a very bad show but unintentionally good in a way.

Anyway I look back at it and remember it was awful but I also look back at it and really love it in a way. So it's hard to rate!

I was a child in the early 1970's and like most kids I was in love with TV. We had cable, it allowed me to watch SEVEN! different channels on our 20 inch color TV, when my parents weren't watching, of course. When I was little I discovered I could get up before school to watch TV and my groggy parents didn't care. What's on at 630 AM on a Tuesday in 1975 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada? Not much. The Trouble With Tracy was the only show at that time. I watched it faithfully for a month or two but I didn't think it was very funny. Is this how big people act? Why is everyone so dumb. I remember some of the other kids at school watched it also and I have vague memories of playing Trouble with Tracy in the playground. Anyway, as soon as another channel started showing Rocket Robin Hood I was outta there. I remember thinking that "The Trouble With Tracy" was the dumbest thing that I had seen until sometime in the the mid eighties, when I saw the cable series about the robot girl "Small Wonder"

This show was shot at the Agincourt CFTO studio of CTV. I was then a teenager (Bill Gregory Terlecki), and waiting around to sit in for extra work on a neighboring set of FAMOUS JURY TRIALS. With time to kill, I wandered over to the TRACY set to admire this fascinating process.Things halted when the scene called for ice cubes in a glass of scotch, but of course, none were to be found. I said to one of the production people to crumple up some cellophane wrap and jam that in and pour the liquid over it...not only would the lights pick up the refraction, but the "cubes" would not melt and the effect would be lasting. They did this, and it seemed to work as the show went on. I mention this as that memory stayed with me that the crew of both shows were very kind and appreciative to me at that wide-eyed age, and as my very first venture into TV, it was an honor that my suggestion was used. This show played late afternoons, and yes, it was always the same set, no outdoor scenes, but it was Canadian and well...gave work to many for a short time. It gave me the impetus to act.