TLC Shows That Were Just Plain Weird

TLC has carved out a niche in the television landscape by offering programming its viewers literally can't find anywhere else. That's evident in the strange premises and bizarre titles of the network's biggest hits, a roster that, over the years, has included such off-the-beaten-path series as "My 600-Lb. Life," "Breaking Amish," and "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo."

As a result, it's easy to forget that when TLC first joined the cable lineup many decades ago, it was known as The Learning Channel, with a mission of providing educational programming to edify and inform viewers. Clearly, that didn't last long, with the network instead shifting to a new (and far more lucrative) strategy of offering viewers programming that appeared to be the television equivalent of an old-timey carnival sideshow. The twist, however, is that viewers weren't just tuning in to gawk at the unusual displays of humanity the network provided, but also to get to know these people as three-dimensional humans while watching them experience their struggles and triumphs while striving to fulfill their hopes and dreams.

Yet there's no denying that many of the shows TLC unveiled have been downright bizarre — a gambit that more often than not led to ratings success. For proof, keep on reading for a rundown of several TLC shows that were just plain weird.

For sheer weirdness, it's tough to beat TLC's 2013 series "Buying Naked," the only show in television history to infuse nudity into the process of purchasing a home. The series focused on real estate agent Jackie Youngblood, seller of homes in Pasco County, Florida, a region with such a high concentration of nudists it was deemed to be the "Nudist Capital of America."

As one might expect, clothing-optional clients have some very specific requirements when house-hunting, preferring rounded corners to sharp edges on counters in order to lessen the potential of any accidents affecting those most tender of areas. To avoid having to blur nudity, producers instead employed props — a vase of flowers here, an ornamental sculpture there, the occasional wine rack — to hide certain parts of the anatomy, thus preventing a show about nudists from containing any actual nudity.

Interviewed by RealScreen, "Buying Naked" producer Mike Kane was adamant that the show was about more than just titillation and innuendo. "It's got nothing to do with sex," he explained. "It's about people living a very free lifestyle and when they realized we weren't trying to make a raunchy show, their trust level went up fairly quickly."

Making its debut in 2010 and running for five increasingly weird seasons, "My Strange Addiction" focused on people with very bizarre habits. Among them were a woman who ate household cleaner daily for decades, a woman who visited three tanning spas per day, a guy who munched glass, and a woman with a compulsion to smell gasoline. The show has also featured people who tied the knot with objects instead of people, including a guy who married a synthetic sex doll, and a woman who wed a carnival ride. The show also profiled Justin Jedlica, who's spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in surgical procedures in order to resemble a human Ken doll.

To make the whole thing seem vaguely legit, and perhaps distract viewers from realizing they're watching a show exploiting mental illness, therapists were trotted in at the end of each episode to offer advice on how to curb those bonkers addictions.

Pop Matters hit the nail on the head in its review. "While 'My Strange Addiction' provides details of the addictive behaviors, it does little to present their psychological make-ups, their contexts, or their possible treatments," the review read, noting that the show's expert psychologist, Dr. John Zajecka, made brief appearances to explain the psychological issues underlying the addiction, but offered little more than that. "More input from him might help us understand what we're watching," the review added, "and not just ogle bizarre spectacles."

While "Buying Naked" may not have been focused on sex, "Swinger Wives" most definitely was. Following the lives of several couples who participate in the swinging lifestyle, the 2011 series certainly did its fair share of envelope-pushing when it aired on TLC International (and then rebranded in 2013 as "Secret Sex Lives: Swingers" for the Discovery Health & Fitness channel). 

"Set in Atlanta, Georgia, a bustling, traditional Southern city that is also home to a lively swinger scene, this exciting, eye-opening series explores the complex nuances of the relationships and psychology behind this way of life," declared the TLC news release, which noted the series would take an unfiltered look at the emotional complexities of the lifestyle while also attempting to bust myths and preconceived notions that the average non-swinging viewer may believe.

"It's going to make for some really fun and interesting television, which will be water cooler talk the next morning," series producer John Sechrist promised Channel Guide ahead of the series premiere. 

While MTV was experiencing great success with "16 and Pregnant" and its "Teen Mom" spinoffs, TLC upped the ante with a show that added a generational twist by featuring a teenage girl who becomes pregnant at the same time that her mom does. Premiering in 2012, "My Teen Is Pregnant and So Am I" followed simultaneously pregnant mothers and daughters, from the early stages of pregnancy to all the drama in the delivery room. 

"And as their bellies grow, so does the tension," explained TLC's news release (via Time). "Through tears and turmoil, joy and heartbreak, these mothers and daughters have nine months to fight through their battles and learn to lean on each other while they come to terms with their extraordinary new lives."

While the spectacle of mommy-daughter duos experiencing the ups and downs of pregnancy together certainly offered the hey-look-at-this factor that had become TLC's hallmark, there was a somewhat darker subtext lurking beneath. In listing the ages of the mothers and their daughters, Channel Guide inadvertently pointed out that some of the mothers had also been teenagers when they gave birth to their future teen moms. Once this realization settles in, the repeating cycle of teen pregnancy passed from one generation to the next becomes the show's awkward elephant in the room for any viewers paying attention.

Funeral homes have traditionally not been used as the setting for scripted television shows (HBO's brilliant "Six Feet Under" being the obvious exception), and the same had been true for reality programming — until the 2013 debut of TLC's "Best Funeral Ever," that is. The series followed the day-to-day operations at the Golden Gate Funeral Home, which, despite the name, is located in Dallas, not San Francisco. 

As a review in The Hollywood Reporter made clear, the Golden Gate is not a run-of-the-mill mortuary, but specialized in hosting elaborate memorials that were more like over-the-top going away parties than solemn ritual mourning sessions. However, the show's weirdness seeped in as viewers witnessed funereal celebrations that featured a casket used in a big game of bowling, mourners dressed as zombies, and a candy lover's casket dipped in chocolate.

While the show only ran for one season, Golden Gate made headlines nearly a decade later when The Washington Post reported on accusations that the company put considerably more effort into its funeral themes than it did into the nuts-and-bolts aspects of the business, with disgruntled customers complaining about staffers losing the ashes of a loved one, and worse. "Some families ... were forced to view their loved ones in a grotesque state of decomposition," said Ryan Sellers, an attorney representing clients suing Golden Gate. 

While there was a certain connecting thread that linked the two shows, "Extreme Cheapskates" ventured into far weirder territory than "Extreme Couponing" ever explored. "These penny-pinchers don't just reuse tea bags and turn the lights off when they leave a room, they take it much further," explained TLC in its synopsis of the initial one-hour special (which subsequently spawned the series). 

Among the eccentric skinflints portrayed in the series premiere were a woman who dumpster-dived outside restaurants; a guy who used his dishwasher to clean his clothes; and a family who slept in one bunk bed during their vacation.

"Extreme Cheapskates" ultimately ran for three seasons. While the show was on, a casting notice was obtained by Time that indicated the kind of people producers were seeking out. The bar was set pretty high, considering the casting call singled out a past participant who ate nothing but goat's head to save on food costs, and another who washed and reused paper towels. "Now, we're excited to say that we'll be making the topic an eight-episode series, and we're looking for folks who have unique and smart ways to cut corners and pinch pennies," the casting notice read. 

Making its TLC debut in 2011, "The Unpoppables" was certainly a one-of-a-kind series, profiling a group of artists who work in a singularly unique medium: balloons. "Forget the dachshunds and silly hats you may remember from kids' birthday parties — these three artists take balloon designs to an entirely new level," recounted TLC in a blog post promoting the show, which followed the artists as they created pretty amazing stuff via their company, New Balloon Art.

Addi Somekh, the balloon builder at the forefront of New Balloon Art, explained that his inventiveness with balloons wound up earning more money than he'd ever dreamed, but also presented him with something of a conundrum. "The problem was I was totally embarrassed that the only thing in life I was good at was basically being a novelty act," he told The Hollywood Times. "But I was making so much money I never stopped."

"The Unpoppables" never made it beyond its six-episode freshman season, but did introduce viewers to some of the more unexpected things that could be created using balloons, including furniture, hats, and musical instruments.