Stereotypes and bad comedy on Quark

After Buck Henry's success in co-creating Get Smart, audiences must have been deeply disappointed by his sci-fi space spoof comedy Quark a few years later. As seen in this opening to the series pilot, the show hinged on several problematic and not very funny premises, including a character named Gene/Jean who has a complete set of male and female genes. Even though characters in the show plodded through this explanation every time Gene/Jean shifted genders, the effect played not as a gender change but as the affectation or suppression of a homophobic stereotype. In later episodes, the character's voice was dubbed in to try to help with this problem, but the improvement was only marginal. The show also featured a set of clones/twins who compete improbably for the affections of the ship's Captain and an out of control robot that dry humps mechanical objects on the ship.