TV Shows You Won't Believe Actually Exist

Imagine, for a moment, that you're a network executive looking for the next hit reality TV show. If your first idea involves putting faded rapper Vanilla Ice in plain dress and having him live with the Amish, you should probably send your résumé to the DIY Network.

On the appropriately titled home-improvement spinoff Vanilla Ice Goes Amish, our star — real name Robert Matthew Van Winkle — assists his Pennsylvania Dutch hosts with a variety of tasks, including but not limited to remodeling the kitchen with a natural-gas-powered stove and refrigerator, and helping with the laundry. The rest of the time, he basically just sits on the porch, tells jokes, and does everything but embrace the Amish lifestyle. If that isn't good television, what is?

Remember when Ashton Kutcher pranked his fellow stars during episodes of his hit MTV hidden camera show Punk'd? Egypt's Ramez in Control is kind of like that, except instead of pretending to have federal agents seize Justin Timberlake's property, the host likes to dress up as a terrorist and kidnap unsuspecting celebrities.

Egyptian actor and singer Ramez Galal is a well-known television prankster in his native country, and isn't afraid to take things to the extreme. He also once gave socialite Paris Hilton the ride of her life by staging an emergency airplane landing — though speculation has arisen that she was in on the prank all along. Still, that's nothing compared to some of Galal's other stunts. According to CNN, Galal once ran a prank called Ramez the Desert Fox in which he and a group of armed men hijacked a bus before kidnapping and blindfolding the passengers.

Something tells us that wouldn't fly in New York.

Long before videos of singing dogs and keyboard playing cats were only a few clicks away, there existed a short-lived television pilot called The Puppy Channel. Can you guess what it was about?

As the name implies, the show was about dogs. And only dogs. A product of marketing executive Daniel FitzSimons' daydreams during the O.J. Simpson trial, the one-hour pilot featured border collies bothering a cat, newborn puppies eager to suckle, and various other visual Scooby snacks for dog lovers everywhere. It actually tested very well, too, with 38 percent of one focus group claiming they'd probably watch it at least once per day — proving once again that high-speed internet hasn't altered our attraction to animal footage. More than 40 percent even preferred it to CNBC!

Unfortunately, The Puppy Channel never did become its own full-fledged channel, and the pilot stopped airing around the time Y2K was a thing — but at least we still have Puppy Bowl.

We've got American Idol. We've got The Voice. We've got X-Factor, So You Think You Can Dance, and America's Got Talent. What could possibly be missing?

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi, like most countries in the world, has its own version of American Idol. Additionally, they also have Prince of Poets, a competition in which wannabe wordsmiths recite their best lines to an enthusiastic crowd and panel of judges. Unlike the United States, where poets are largely confined to open-mic nights in coffee shops, the Arab world really digs its poetry — poets in some parts of the Middle East are bona fide pop stars, filling stadiums with eager ears excited to hear some verbal bliss.

While the show was a hit in Abu Dhabi, it's nearly impossible to imagine a poetry competition lasting longer than five minutes on American screens. As the great English Romantic William Wordsworth once wrote, "Have I not reason to lament / What man has made of primetime TV?" (Or something like that.)

Have you ever found yourself watching a cop show like The Shield or Blue Bloods and wishing it was actually a musical? Probably not. But if you do count yourself among that select few, you definitely need to check out 1990's musical police drama Cop Rock.

ABC's bizarre cross-genre show only lasted 11 episodes, and has since found its way onto more than its fair share of "Worst TV Shows of All Time" lists — but it still holds a special place in the hearts of the cast. "You know, it's funny," Ronny Cox once told The A.V. Club, "For a show that's as widely vilified as Cop Rock is, I'll bet you've never talked to a whole bunch of people who worked on a show that loved it as much as everybody seems to have loved Cop Rock ... I had more fun with that show than any other show."

As bizarre and bad as Cop Rock is, no one can deny the fact that the show is a lot of fun to laugh both with and at— and the show deserves credit for trying something new in an industry full of recycled ideas. After all, when's the last time you've seen a singing baby merchant on TV?

It's hard to imagine a major network greenlighting a show about a flying nun. What's even harder to believe, though, is that such a show would make it through more than 80 episodes.

The Flying Nun aired on ABC from 1967 to 1970, and featured Sally Field as a novice nun whose small frame and stiff cornette made her susceptible to gusts of wind. As one might expect, the comedy is fairly mediocre — in fact, Fields herself didn't even want to do it. However, under pressure from her father and fearing that she'd never be cast again if she turned the role down, she sucked it up and became the soaring woman of the cloth.

"I was so blind," Fields explained during an appearance on Oprah. "It was one of the times in my life when fear made the decision for me, and when fear makes the decision, it's a mistake ... and The Flying Nun became a huge joke. Bob Hope and all the other comics poked fun at it. I couldn't tell the difference between jokes about Sister Bertrille, my character, and jokes about me. It was deeply humiliating. I felt denigrated as a person."

Fortunately, Field transcended the ridiculous role, and went on to enjoy a long and award-filled acting career.