34 Years Later, This Cancelled 1-Episode Sitcom Is Still TV’s “Most Tasteless” Mistake

There have been many controversial television shows that have aired over the years. Beavis and Butt-head, South Park, 13 Reasons Why, and Euphoria have all received criticism for things like glorifying drug use, having profane humor, and including insensitive themes. Series such as Ryan Murphy‘s American Horror Story and both iterations of Monster have brought about controversy, often in the name of inspiring shock value with audiences. However, even though these shows might have incited some outrage, none of them are a match for a British series in 1990 that only lasted one single episode.

‘Heil Honey I’m Home!’ Had an Extremely Offensive Premise

In 1989, comedy writer Geoff Atkinson had the ill-advised idea to write a sitcom called Heil Honey I’m Home!, which centered around the most-hated man on Earth: Adolf Hitler. Atkinson’s original concept was to craft a comedy about Hitler that would actually have audiences laughing at the man, instead of fearing him. In a 2019 panel entitled “No Joke: Absurd Comedy as Political Reality,” Atkinson noted, “My thinking was, how do you deal with a bully? There’s an argument that it’s equally good to destroy him once and for all by turning him into a joke…that was the simple driving force.” The premise of the show was that Hitler (Neil McCaul) and his wife, Eva Braun (Denica Fairman), find themselves in 1938 (before World War II has fully broken out) as a happy domestic couple, who just happen to live next door to a Jewish husband and wife named the Goldensteins (they weren’t digging too deep with this one).

The first episode starts out with a credit that says that what follows comes from the “lost tapes” of an American sitcom that never aired. What ensues is supposedly a spoof of an American sitcom, complete with Hitler as a brash buffoon (typical of classic US comedies up until then, a la I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners). During the pilot episode of Heil Honey, I’m Home!, Hitler is set to host the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Patrick Cargill) at his house, but is worried that the Goldensteins will interrupt his plan of signing the Munich agreement.

The neighbors end up getting drunk, crashing the dinner, and doing a conga line with Chamberlain — thus foiling Hitler’s plans. The episode never depicts Hitler as a mass murderer at all, but rather has him joking around in a playful manner (who is merely frustrated by his hapless neighbors). In one scene, Hitler is late for Eva’s dinner, and slaps himself on the wrists, while calling himself a “very, very bad Hitler.” Although the episode is available to watch now on YouTube, the highly offensive pilot is the only episode to ever air of the series. Later episodes did depict Hitler trying to kill his Jewish neighbors, which would undoubtedly have been a bridge too far for some people’s comedic sensibilities.

‘Heil Honey I’m Home!’ Suffered a Not-So-Surprising Fate

Although it’s difficult to see why this show would ever have been greenlit in the first place, the Heil Honey, I’m Home! series had actually been ordered for a 13-episode run. In fact, eight episodes had already been recorded when the pilot episode aired on Galaxy, a British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) station. However, the series was immediately denounced by England’s biggest Jewish organization, the Board of Deputies of British Jews. A spokesperson stated at the time, “We are against any trivialization of the Second World War, Hitler, or the Holocaust, and this certainly trivializes those things. It’s very distasteful.” In one 1992 book exploring a brief history of television, the show was called “perhaps the world’s most tasteless situation comedy.”

The team behind Heil Honey I’m Home! insisted that the show was still aiming to villainize Hitler by making him more relatable, and claimed that the series was also meant to be a spoof of American sitcoms. It certainly seemed to fail on both of these fronts. It was cancelled after the pilot episode aired. Besides its insensitive subject matter, there was another reason why the series failed so early on.

The network had been losing money at that point in time, and ended up merging with another satellite network, Rupert Murdoch‘s Sky Television. Just a few months after the pilot aired, most of the programming from the original network had been scrapped. It’s unlikely that the series would have been remembered as anything other than in poor taste, but on the business side of things, it seems the show would always have been doomed no matter what.

Other Projects, Such as ‘Jojo Rabbit,’ Have Successfully Taken on This Sensitive Topic

It’s not to say that the topic of Hitler and the Holocaust have never been told with humor. In 1967, The Producers, tells the story of a creative Broadway team who need a flop to avoid being caught for embezzlement. They write a musical about Hitler because they know that nobody would want to see something called Springtime for Hitler. Unfortunately, audiences believe the show to be a satire, and the musical is a hit. The film was adapted as a Broadway musical in 2001, which was then made into another movie in 2005, and each iteration is a great example of using humor to make light of an incredibly dark time in history.

Taika Waititi‘s 2019 Oscar-winning film, Jojo Rabbit, also uses a humorous portrayal of Hitler, as the imaginary friend of a little boy growing up in Nazi Germany. Even the 1940 film, The Great Dictator, starring Charlie Chaplin, was able to effectively utilize satire to create a dark comedy depicting the fascist leader. All of these projects seemed to nail what Heil Honey, I’m Home! was lacking: a clear and pointed perspective that seemed to acknowledge the atrocities of the Holocaust in a satirical way.

Not everyone on the Heil Honey, I’m Home! team looks back on the project with regret. Caroline Gruber, who played Rosa Goldenstein, first starred in Perdition, a 1987 play that was cancelled a mere 36 hours before the first performance for being anti-Semitic. The actor, who was Jewish herself, said in an interview, “Because of this experience, I was sensitive about doing anything that was offensive or upsetting. I didn’t think Heil Honey was either — I thought it was so funny. When I was reading through the scripts for the other episodes… I had tears pouring down my cheeks. I was of the opinion — and still am now — that within reason, people should take risks.” Seems like not everyone would agree with her, as the remaining episodes of Heil Honey, I’m Home! have never been seen by the public.