The Kallikaks

I remember my brother and I being awestruck by this awful sitcom. It wasn't like the Beverly Hillbillies at all in that the "stars" were a family of no-account white trash who attempted to eke out a miserable existence by lying and cheating. No surprise. The family name was derived from "The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness," a 1912 book by American psychologist Henry H. Goddard. Each episode pretty much made you feel sorry for the people they were attempting to fleece. On top of that, the program was devastatingly unfunny. I believe it was only intended as a summer series with the option to continue if it had struck pay dirt. We suffered with glee through each of the four episodes that summer, mouths agape at the TV Titanic sinking in front of us. I can still hum that cheerful "Beat the System" theme song.