For the rest of the US members, the people behind this show were also behind the puppets for the music video for Genesis'
Land of Confusion.
There was. It was called
D.C. Follies and it only lasted two seasons.
Torqumada
Hmmm... it says Sid and Marty Kroft were behind it. Very, very interesting... As good as some of their stuff was, I wonder if a show like this might have been more popular if Jim Henson or Frank Oz had been behind it instead.
In general, though, I think SevenLegged had it right. Shows which limit themselves to just political humor tend to not do as well -- they're seen as too "cerebral" (i.e. TV producers think that Americans don't want to have to think, especially in the '80s). They also have a tendency to get boycotted by hardliners if they're seen as favoring one of the parties over the other.
Although, considering the success of the Daily Show and Colbert Report, irreverent political humor shows
can be done... maybe it's a time period thing.
EDIT: Or maybe, related to what Thande just said, it's due to a difference between what Network Executives of the '80's
think the public wants to see and what the public actually would watch.
Maybe if Fox, or someone like them, comes along earlier in the '80s, and decides to produce something like this simply because they're searching for content to fill up their timeslots,
and they get some decent writers to go along with it (perhaps some writers who would have later gotten jobs with the Simpson's, or Tracy Ullman Show, or In Living Color), it might do better. It actually sounds like something Fox
might have tried.