Site New Answers Search Boards ILM ILE Answers New Question New Questions New Poll Blog View Register Login

Best British comedy series to have debuted in the last ten years.

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed

I'm very interested to see how this turns out. Hope I haven't missed anything really obvious - I haven't bothered with My Hero and its ilk.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
The Office 13
I'm Alan Partridge 12
Spaced 12
Brass Eye 10
The League of Gentlemen 6
Peep Show 5
The Mighty Boosh 4
Black Books 3
The Thick of It 3
The Royle Family 2
Little Britain 2
Phoenix Nights 1
Monkey Dust 1
15 Storeys High 1
the Armando Iannucci Shows 1
Big Train 1
Help 1
Green Wing 1
Jam 0
Saxondale 0
Catterick 0
Rock Profile 0
Extras 0
Happiness 0
Nathan Barley 0
The IT Crowd 0
Marion and Geoff 0
That Mitchell and Webb Look0


― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:34 (eighteen years ago)

Father Ted.

― Mark G, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

It started in '95.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

No My Hero, no credibility.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

TMWRNJ should be on the list if you're going to include the likes of Rock Profiles.

in it's absence (or more likely regardless of this) has to be IAP. the 2nd series has seemed better on second and third viewing. the first remains pretty much perfect. i think Coogan's been better at actual comic nuance in both writing and performing within this period than anyone else (Morris best as satirist i suppose yes - everyone since has been informed by both more than anyone else), despite probably having as many misses as hits (the hits are THAT good i guess).

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

I hate that you guys have so many quality shows. I don't even want to vote for one because the other 6 or so that I love will go un-voted-for.

Why can't Canada make quality programming anymore? Has there even been anything since Kids in the Hall? Fuck a C0rner Gas :( I'ma give it to Brass Eye but Spaced is a CLOSE second and IAP a CLOSE third and Barley a CLOSE 4th and The Office a CLOSE 5th and LoG a CLOSE 6th and and and... etc

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

Have to go for LoG, really.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:57 (eighteen years ago)

I want to say The Thick Of It but I can't.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, a friend of mine saw the pilot for the US Thick Of It. Said it was terrible.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

No "The Book Group".

― Mark C, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

(LOL at my celeb crush on actress who looks exactly like gf)

― Mark C, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:04 (eighteen years ago)

I voted Brass Eye, by the way.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

Bang Bang It's Reeves & Mortimer
Cath Tate (no votes I guess?)
Still Game
Attention Scum
SMACK THE PONY

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

me too

xp

I have Attention Scum on DVD but never seen - worth a watch?

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

I've probably laughed the most at Peep Show or Speaced out of all of these, but Brass Eye just never gets old. I also have a real fondness for Black Books, it's so cosy. It makes me want to quit everything and become irrelevant and run a terrible business.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

SPEACED

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

brass eye is now more than ten years ago, by a few months.

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

I have Attention Scum on DVD but never seen - worth a watch?

of course. probably not aged particularly well tho. the title sequence quite good tho in present company of lolcats and such.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

How well has it aged compared to say...Select Magazine circa 1994?

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:12 (eighteen years ago)

um...an undeterminable quantity better

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

Absolute Power should be in the list just because I liked it (some didn't, but I'm not very interested in hearing from them on this thread I can reveal).

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:14 (eighteen years ago)

Shit! Ah well, make it 'the best British comedy of the last eleven years'.
xxxpost

Adam - I was wrestling with myself as to whether to go for Black Books - it really is delightful, and probably the best recent example of a fairly trad, studio based and laughter-tracked sitcom managing to remain fresh.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

It is.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

I also started watching Help recently - not bad, bit strange?

What was that My Life In Film like? Terrible?

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

some funny bits

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

Every time I thought about the BBC paying to make it I laughed.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

'absolute power' was shit

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

bellend says what?

MLIF helped because I thought the couple (his friends) and his interplay with them was quite endearing.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

oh oh oh and also, I heard some of that Down The Line Radio 4 thing with Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson and Simon Day. It wasn't bad. I love Simon Day.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

'absolute power' was shit

i loved it! but that might just have been the Emily Blunt factor. Plus i like anything john Bird does.

anyhoo, where is How Do You Want Me?

― CharlieNo4, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:00 (eighteen years ago)

In the absence of radio choices, it's Brass Eye for me as well, although I'm voting for Monkey Dust because I feel it'll be under-represented. If The Office and Little Britain get more than two votes between them I will be a sad, sad panda.

― Just got offed, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)

The Thick of It, with no reservations, with Black Books a very close second. Peep Show has great one-off gags and one-liners, but I find it a bit wearying -- I watched the whole first season on DVD in one go, and it was a really depressing experience. I loved Brass Eye, but it kind of pales next to The Day Today.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:29 (eighteen years ago)

For some reason, I've never seen Spaced, even though the DVD's been sitting on my TV for the past year.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:31 (eighteen years ago)

BAN THIS FOOL

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

;)

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

Also - if you've only watched the first series of Peep Show, the second is markedly much funnier and more enjoyable.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:34 (eighteen years ago)

I have been searching everywhere for Mark's quote about the 60s but I can't find it.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:35 (eighteen years ago)

"Who needs love when you're doing it up the bum?"

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:38 (eighteen years ago)

where s HUMAN REMAINS ??

― pisces, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:47 (eighteen years ago)

LoG

― the next grozart, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:51 (eighteen years ago)

Tatum, you should really watched Spaced. you know how some shows you just "love"? Like, you're sad you're not watching it when you're not watching it, even a little bit? It's one of those. That good. GOD I want to watch it again.

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:05 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't mean to call you by yr last name, I just failed at typing as usual. sry

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:07 (eighteen years ago)

I have made quite a few oversights, sorry about that - a couple I really like as well! (Bang Bang..., Human Remains)

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:20 (eighteen years ago)

I like Nighty Night, even if nobody else does.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:23 (eighteen years ago)

I don't particularly like it, but I really should've included it.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:26 (eighteen years ago)

(I know quite a few people who think it's great, by the way)

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:26 (eighteen years ago)

Spaced is a very 'of the time' thing so if you come to it for first time you probably won't dig it half as much.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:43 (eighteen years ago)

I only saw it like 3 years ago! I still LOVVVED it.

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:45 (eighteen years ago)

I have to go with Black Books.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

Hmmmm.... I don't really think of I'm Alan Partridge as being the debut as there had already been the Knowing Me, Knowing You chat show thing before it, so I'm tempted to go for The Office (which was brilliant, even if Ricky Gervais is getting a bit rubbish now) or Peep Show (which used to be brilliant, and is now merely quite funny) instead, but, fuck it, even if I quibble with the debutness I think that series of Alan Partridge is comedy perfection. Anyone who says Little Britain is a cunt.

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:33 (eighteen years ago)

the faux tarantino-isms of spaced have worn reeeeally badly

i voted for the royle family!

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:46 (eighteen years ago)

I have to say, I don't understand "faux-tarantino-isms". I don't think Spaced has aged that badly, either.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:50 (eighteen years ago)

If Spaced owes a debt to anything, it's The Simpsons.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:50 (eighteen years ago)

And video games! Not only game references, but a lot of game-isms. If I remember correctly. That was one of my favourite bits.

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 19:55 (eighteen years ago)

If Spaced owes a debt to anything, it's The Simpsons.

in being the first(?) British comedy to plough the field of 'of it's time' popcult references in such a Simpsons-like way yes (Young Ones did this too but in a different way kinda).

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:02 (eighteen years ago)

Yes, but also in terms of pace and style.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:03 (eighteen years ago)

Just finished watching the first episode, may have to change my mind. Funn-eee.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:16 (eighteen years ago)

I know "funn-eee" is the universally accepted shorthand for "not funny", but what I really meant was "actually funny".

Irrelevantly, Timothy Dalton in Hot Fuzz is one of my favourite British comic performances in recent memory.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:18 (eighteen years ago)

(Although the film itself -- patchy.)

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:18 (eighteen years ago)

I'm Alan Partridge is one of the funniest things I've ever seen, period, so that wins.

― John Justen, Friday, 4 May 2007 21:04 (eighteen years ago)

I miss my little boy. I know this is incommunicable. Calling all pearants. Or somefimk.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:36 (eighteen years ago)

Adam, I think we have similar comedy tastes.

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:56 (eighteen years ago)

Nighty Night was GREAT.

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:56 (eighteen years ago)

Remember when we saw Peter Baynham at Amoeba?? WTF??!

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:57 (eighteen years ago)

C'mon Spencer. Anglophilia or Misanthropy or Anythink; Shit was Wretched. Retch. Ed.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:58 (eighteen years ago)

Does everyone hate Alan Partridge now?

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:02 (eighteen years ago)

Please remember my being American disability!

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:03 (eighteen years ago)

Just from reading this thread Alan Partridge has grown wings he was denied four months ago.

But [i]Nighty Night[/i[.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

Ah, I missed the IAP acronym.

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:12 (eighteen years ago)

Spencer, let's meet Lohan and Peter Baynham at Skybar and do all the Fast Show routines.

― admrl, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:44 (eighteen years ago)

Alan Partridge is great. Nighty Night was funny.

― admrl, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:47 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.mgnet.karoo.net/lapdance.jpg

― admrl, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:49 (eighteen years ago)

I voted for Alan Partridge, but I'm lame like that.

― Nicole, Saturday, 5 May 2007 03:36 (eighteen years ago)

"Unh unh, I want a second series"

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:23 (eighteen years ago)

garth merenghi's darkplace was better than a lot of these.

having said that, i vote big train.

― r|t|c, Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:39 (eighteen years ago)

I have no idea what's going to win here! I'd guess it'd be a straight fight between The Office and Brass Eye but in an ideal world the League of Gentlemen would sweep all before before it. That third series is still the apex of TV comedy for me (bad Joke Shop Guy episode notwithstanding).

― Matt DC, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:00 (eighteen years ago)

If you disagree with me about the third series, I should point out that I think the second series was the apex of TV comedy before the third series was.

― Matt DC, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:02 (eighteen years ago)

(Actually Alan Partridge might easily win)

― Matt DC, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:04 (eighteen years ago)

I voted for IAP, but if I though it'd have any chance of winning I'd have gone with The Armando Ianucci Shows. The Powerpoint stand-up comedian, the Italian barber, "You see it wasn't called drum n bass in those days, that came after"... man, I need to go and buy the DVD this afternoon.

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:08 (eighteen years ago)

i made a post but nu-ilx eated it.

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:09 (eighteen years ago)

where is Harry Hill's first tv series from 1997 or TV Burp? When did The Adam and Joe Show start? 15 Storeys High is very deserving, that the nation di not love it very sad. Poor Shaun Locke now relegated to panel game hell.

― acrobat, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:14 (eighteen years ago)

i've never seen 15SH but locke is so unfunny everywhere else i've seen him it's hard to believe it's much cop.

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:15 (eighteen years ago)

I posted a boring post yesterday that got ate. Agreeing with LoG being the greatest TV show evah made.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:15 (eighteen years ago)

Combining attention to detail with straight lulz and proper filmicness being such a rare thing and all.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:18 (eighteen years ago)

there were funny bits in LoG? must have missed them. too heartless for my liking.

― acrobat, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:23 (eighteen years ago)

dude you were bigging up Adam & Joe

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:26 (eighteen years ago)

and what?

― acrobat, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:27 (eighteen years ago)

League of Gentlemen never did Quizzlestick or The Bob Hoskins Song ergo less funny.

― acrobat, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:29 (eighteen years ago)

http://swankola.com/hiart/clown1.jpg

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

Adam & Joe 3rd series was great - holds up reasonably well today (watched the torrents recently) but it's more the cuteness of things ala Spaced - BaaadDad in Ibeefa, Mark E Smith on Vinyl Justice etc.

― blueski, Saturday, 5 May 2007 12:28 (eighteen years ago)

I don't dislike A&J - I just don't think they sit well alongside the line "too heartless for my liking".

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 12:29 (eighteen years ago)

i've always found them really warm. maybe their shows had more dros, i watched the, 3rd and 4th series' at the time but only have seen the best off dvd recently.

― acrobat, Saturday, 5 May 2007 12:33 (eighteen years ago)

i never got LoG, just didn't persevere with it.

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 5 May 2007 12:46 (eighteen years ago)

I never really watched LoG - rather like the Duchovny-less X-Filesseason, I taped 'em but never got round to watching 'em.

I voted for IAP, as S1 is almost perfect. It remains a pinnacle for me despite the twin buzz-harshers of (1) SOTCAA's "ah, no, actually - you see - this is why it's rubbish" site-defining polemic and (2) re-watching the farmers episode with a friend (a fan of Partridge's radio incarnation) who sat stony-faced and dismissed it as "goofy high farce". Oh, and the weak second series.

The Armando Iannucci Shows is right up there too. Black Books, Spaced, Brass Eye, The Thick Of It and Phoenix Nights are chasing the UEFA Cup spots. Jam, Marion & Geoff, 15 Storeys High, The Office, Nathan Barley capable of being anyone on their day but inconsistent and a bit weak at the back. Little Britain = Leeds Utd.

― Michael Jones, Saturday, 5 May 2007 13:19 (eighteen years ago)

srsly if you've only seen IAP series 2 once, watch it again - obv. it won't beat the first but i laughed at it much more with much lower expectations!

― blueski, Saturday, 5 May 2007 13:23 (eighteen years ago)

I thought ILX had a very vocal Boosh-loving constituent, or maybe it was just Dog Latin.

― chap, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:23 (eighteen years ago)

Since Fielding's been outed as a kiddy fiddler it may've taken a dive.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:25 (eighteen years ago)

waht

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:29 (eighteen years ago)

Did you just make that up?

― chap, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:29 (eighteen years ago)

(Semi) joke. Pixie Geldof claimed they was an item or something and then it turned out not to be true but maybe it was a bit true and the Daily Mail got all Daily Mail over it.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:33 (eighteen years ago)

just been watching the brittas empire. now that's comrdy.

― acrobat, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:53 (eighteen years ago)

The one sketch I've seen of 15 Storeys High (drill sergeant training four kids to become a million-selling boyband) was classic. I've always liked the idea of it but to be fair never bothered to watch any further.

The Mighty Boosh is rubbish and I find Phoenix Nights kind of overrated as well to be fair. I might be alone in find Knowing Me Knowing You far, far funnier than I'm Alan Partridge as well.

The Man City of this this poll (AKA no one knows how the fuck they're going to do at the start of this season) is The Royle Family.

― Matt DC, Saturday, 5 May 2007 23:19 (eighteen years ago)

I fear The Royle Family outstayed its welcome and kinda blew what good-will it had garnered.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 23:22 (eighteen years ago)

I might be alone in find Knowing Me Knowing You far, far funnier than I'm Alan Partridge as well.

http://chilled.cream.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=4

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 5 May 2007 23:29 (eighteen years ago)

LoG - bit i would have voted for Still Game had it been on the list.

― jed_, Saturday, 5 May 2007 23:54 (eighteen years ago)

One day left.

― chap, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

I like Mighty Boosh! I think Momus has identified an expat tendency to look at all British comedy through rose-tinted spectacles, so I find it hard to hate much of it. It's all like finding a message in a bottle, although maybe I would hate Little Britain if I still lived in the UK.

― admrl, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 16:29 (eighteen years ago)

Of the ones I've seen, I'm going to have to go with Mighty Boosh overall and am surprised that not that many people seem to like it here! Black Books, Brass Eye, and Spaced are all close. Regarding what someone upthread said about Spaced being very of the time, I saw it for the first time last week (watched both seasons in about 4 days) and LOVED it.

― ENBB, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago)

Wot, no "Roman's Empire".... just joking!

― Tom D., Tuesday, 8 May 2007 16:40 (eighteen years ago)

No Footballer's Wives?

― admrl, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 16:49 (eighteen years ago)

No...whatever that Jasper Carrot/Nina Wadia thing was called.

― blueski, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

What about that thing with Johnny Vegas, "Ideal"? It's not funny mind you

― Tom D., Tuesday, 8 May 2007 16:58 (eighteen years ago)

15 Storeys High is really really underrated.

― the next grozart, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago)

How many people have ever seen it?

― Tom D., Wednesday, 9 May 2007 12:53 (eighteen years ago)

I prefer Ideal to 15 Storeys High, but I do appreciate that makes me wrong.

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 13:08 (eighteen years ago)

I only saw a few episodes of 15 S H but it was v good, laid back suburban surrealism. Also Spaced, Black Books, Big Train (best sketch show of last 10 years?) yes yes yes, LoG and Little Britain no no no no no.

― ledge, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

15 Storeys was often very funny, but was more like a sketch show than a sitcom. I like my sitcoms to be fairly tight narratively, it tends to make the payoffs funnier (and you can have a strong story and still be surreal and whimsical, just look at Black Books or Father Ted).

― chap, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

Blimey, The Office won.

― chap, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:04 (eighteen years ago)

lol americans

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:05 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, i was going to say...and I like the office, too.

― admrl, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:05 (eighteen years ago)

I like the office as well, but I was thinking the Gervais backlash would've put it out of the running. I suppose 'lol americans' as Dom says.

― chap, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:08 (eighteen years ago)

Do people really hate Ricky Gervais now or is just Dom and NRQ?

― admrl, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:10 (eighteen years ago)

The fairly shoddy second series of Extras didn't help his cred, certainly. But evidently people don't hate him.

― chap, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:13 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, I thought that second series was a VAST improvement on the first, you see.

― admrl, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:14 (eighteen years ago)

who is my royle family brohirrim

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:16 (eighteen years ago)

Who voted for Help? I'm curious.

― admrl, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:17 (eighteen years ago)

Fuck the office, there was so much better on that list than the office.

― Ed, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:28 (eighteen years ago)

What did/would you vote for, Ed?

― admrl, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:30 (eighteen years ago)

I assumed Chris Morris bores would carry the day, I must say.

― Alba, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:35 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not boring! Or, I try!

― admrl, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:36 (eighteen years ago)

Sorry, I didn't mean that liking Chris Morris makes you boring. I just have a type in mind.

― Alba, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:39 (eighteen years ago)

I dislike Gervais' comedic style, although I appreciate that he has a good ear for a line. I'm trying to work out which is the bigger travesty, The Office with 13 or Little Britain with 2. I do believe it might be LB.

"Chris Morris bores", what are you on about, we're practically the enemies of boredom! Heh, but seriously, what sort of 'type' did you mean?

― Just got offed, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:41 (eighteen years ago)

Alan Partridge. Putting the chat amongst the pigeons.

― Drooone, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:42 (eighteen years ago)

Do people really hate Ricky Gervais now or is just Dom and NRQ?

I think that lots of people having always hated Ricky Gervais, even when they know he's producing good work. He's kind of a dislikable character. And before The Office, nothing he did was any good, as far as I know, so it was even more straightforward not to like him.

― Alba, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:42 (eighteen years ago)

Heh, but seriously, what sort of 'type' did you mean?

Oh, I guess the kind of stereotype of the frustrated, keyboard-bashing comedy geek who thinks most people are stupid and use the word "genius" in relation to Chris Morris more often than not. I thought this was a well-recognised type!

― Alba, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:44 (eighteen years ago)

A difficult toss up between spaced, brass eye, boosh, phoenix nights and monkey dust (possibly black books as well)

― Ed, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:46 (eighteen years ago)

Does anyone not like Black Books? It may not be innovative to top this poll but I have yet to see anyone say anything bad about it!

― admrl, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:47 (eighteen years ago)

I find Spaced and Boosh have high peaks of hilarity every now and then (the paintball scene in Spaced being massively hilarious for example), but over all they're a bit eh.


xp black books is great, i agree.

― Drooone, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:51 (eighteen years ago)

SRSLY tho, WHO VOTED LITTLE BRITAIN, this is important information.

Why wasn't there more love for Monkey Dust? I can answer this, actually: it's a bit heavy-handed, a bit self-important, and it's animated (therefore very stylised). It isn't meek and unassuming, it isn't particularly subtle. This is going to turn a lot of people off. The reason I love it, however, is precisely because of this flashiness. I can't help but fall for its desperation, its eagerness to astonish me.

A more interesting thing would be to see how people RANK the ones they've seen.

p.s. Black Books is candyfloss, but, I agree, very funny candyfloss. Not quite on the same level as the king of candyfloss, Father Ted, however. Same writer, same spirit, not quite the same magic.

― Just got offed, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:53 (eighteen years ago)

I probably do not like black books

― RJG, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:57 (eighteen years ago)

Spaced would have been joint first if I'd read this thread before the poll closed.

― JimD, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 23:58 (eighteen years ago)

definitive ranking:

adore:
Brass Eye
Monkey Dust
Peep Show

like a lot:
Nathan Barley
Phoenix Nights
The Thick of It
Black Books
Green Wing

like with reservations:
Spaced
Jam

like with very strong reservations:
The Mighty Boosh
The League of Gentlemen
The Office

no thanks:
That Mitchell and Webb Look
Extras

i thought i told you to fuck off:
Little Britain

i really, really need to see 'i'm alan partridge'.

― Just got offed, Thursday, 10 May 2007 00:05 (eighteen years ago)

I'll admit to having quite enjoyed the first series of Little Britain, mainly due to Lucas' performances, but my esteem for it just fucking nosedived with each subsequent outing, and it by no strecth of the imagination is the best britcom of the last ten years. So yes, Offed's question needs to be answered.

― chap, Thursday, 10 May 2007 00:16 (eighteen years ago)

I like Brass Eye.

Oh yeah, and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

Shockingly.

― kingfish, Thursday, 10 May 2007 06:16 (eighteen years ago)

Does anyone not like Black Books?

I've never seen it because I can't stand Dylan Moran.

"I'm Alan Partridge" (1st series) should have won.

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 08:55 (eighteen years ago)

The first series of Black Books, as written by (either Linehan or Matthews I forget) is really good. The latter ones written by Dylan Moran, where the plots are "lol asylum seekers have different customs to me", are fucking awful.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 08:57 (eighteen years ago)

That's 'cos he's rubbish

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 08:59 (eighteen years ago)

I probably do not like black books

-- RJG, Thursday, May 10, 2007 2:57 AM (9 hours ago)

otm

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:07 (eighteen years ago)

even though i don't like it, am surprised at jam's poor showing. i voted 'thick of it' -- the xmas spesh of which the bbc should totally broadcast today -- but it could easily have been morris/partridge.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:09 (eighteen years ago)

The Office 13: Seemed great at the time, seems more "good" now. The Office worked as an ensemble piece, Freeman and Crook and Jasper Carrot's daughter and the fat guy and the weird woman and that guy from the yoghurt advert all worked well "together". Gervais has made his career before and since as string of "I am star" vehicles, which is why they've all sucked beyond reason.

I'm Alan Partridge 12: First series of IAP may be the most perfect three hours of TV ever. Underrated character: Kevin Eldon's racist kitchen salesman.

Spaced 12: Simon Pegg ennui has long since set in, mainly due to his love of talking in a funny voice about Star Wars. Spaced is more "heartwarming" than it is "funny", I suppose. It's quite a traditional sitcom in that way in that it has a string of sympathetic characters and their relationships are more important than making with the lolz. The only pre-Friends sitcom on this list?

Brass Eye 10: I think this needs to be reshown in its original schedule, ie: directly after Fortean TV. Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe ftw.

The League of Gentlemen 6: Shit, faux-dark, faux-edgy, string of catchphrases with no comic timing.

Peep Show 5: Olivia Coleman: she'd get it.

The Mighty Boosh 4: Bent-faced pederast and non-entity comedy partner do "random" "comedy" for 13-year-old girls. Look, it's a monkey made out of cheese that likes Spandau Ballet.

Black Books 3: See above

The Thick of It 3: Well, R Kelly's career did OK...

The Royle Family 2: Yeah, I fall in and out of love with this show every time I watch it. It's good, it's "accurate", it's just a little too... self-conscious? I don't like it when people set out to create great TV, I prefer it when it happens organically.

Little Britain 2: Light-hearted racism for a Friday night.

Phoenix Nights 1: Actually better than The Office, in retrospect. Kay more loathsome than Gervais, though.

Monkey Dust 1: Shit, faux-dark, faux-edgy, string of catchphrases with no comic timing.

15 Storeys High 1: Not as good as Ideal, be honest.

the Armando Iannucci Shows 1: Second best thing on this list behind IAP. "We went to see... Newman and Baddiel"

Big Train 1: Weird how so much comedy these days is sprung directly from this show. Most influential programme on the list?

Help 1: Third best thing on the list. Wife-beating Italian a personal favourite.

Green Wing 1: Fuck Stephen Mangan.

Jam 0: "Welcome to Goiter"

Saxondale 0: How the mighty have fallen, part 1.

Catterick 0: How the mighty have fallen, part 2.

Rock Profile 0: The Blur profile was the highpoint. "Justine Frischmann...my ex girlfriend... who was in Elastica..."

Extras 0: lol americans

Happiness 0: Never saw the second series. Is this on DVD?

Nathan Barley 0: Appears to be developing a cult following. Saints preserve us.

The IT Crowd 0: Look, it's Richard Ayoade in a wig doing a funny voice. Fantastic.

Marion and Geoff 0: Fourth best thing on the list. Brydon has to be the best comic "actor" in the country, surely?


That Mitchell and Webb Look 0: Man those snooker commentators got old fast.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:11 (eighteen years ago)

ii]even though i don't like it, am surprised at jam's poor showing. i voted 'thick of it' -- the xmas spesh of which the bbc should totally broadcast today[/i]

Paedo factor kicking in

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:14 (eighteen years ago)

'thick of it' is awesome, and 'tittytwat' is probably the funniest compound profanity ever created, but i only ever saw the initial 3-episode run. is that all there is?

the evidence for me needing to see 'i'm alan partridge' series one is reaching total conclusivity.

― Just got offed, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:15 (eighteen years ago)

Underrated character: Kevin Eldon's racist kitchen salesman

Underrated by who! Partridge in the lift with him = genius

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:15 (eighteen years ago)

would have voted I'm alan partridge

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:16 (eighteen years ago)

if I were sad enough to participate in these things

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:16 (eighteen years ago)

The DVD has a really good Ianucci/Baynam/someone else (Coogan? Henry Normal?) commentary.

xxxp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:16 (eighteen years ago)

Curiously, I agree with most of Dom's comments

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:17 (eighteen years ago)

pre-Friends sitcom?

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:17 (eighteen years ago)

Friends shifted the impetus in a sitcom from caring about the characters to using them as a cipher for gags, to simplify as far down as possible.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:19 (eighteen years ago)

Ie, compare Only Fools and Horses to Phoenix Nights.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:19 (eighteen years ago)

Big Train 1: Weird how so much comedy these days is sprung directly from this show. Most influential programme on the list?


Big Train is about the best "sketch" show "going around". But still, half the "sketches" are "shit".

― Drooone, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:52 (eighteen years ago)

But as long as the other half are great that doesn't matter, see "Monty Python"

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:53 (eighteen years ago)

Where was "'Orrible" in this poll anyway?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:56 (eighteen years ago)

Where was "Duck Patrol" in this poll anyway?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:58 (eighteen years ago)

Friends shifted the impetus in a sitcom from caring about the characters to using them as a cipher for gags, to simplify as far down as possible.

-- Dom Passantino, Thursday, May 10, 2007 12:19 PM (35 minutes ago)

oh bollocks. i'm not saying i was invested overmuch in 'friends' but i don't think that's true. comparing it with 'only fools and horses' and indeed 'spaced' makes no sense anyway because they come out of very different traditions blah blah blah. but even then the characters in 'spaced' are just as 'cipher-y', if you like, as the characters in 'friends' -- clusters of pop-cult references, almost.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:00 (eighteen years ago)

But in Spaced you're meant to be emotionally invested in the will-they wont-they relationship between Daisy and... whatever Simon Pegg's character was called. All I'm saying is that Spaced is the most *traditional* sitcom on British TV in a long time, it's a lot closer to a Marks and Gran production that anything else.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:02 (eighteen years ago)

"I don't like it when people set out to create great TV, I prefer it when it happens organically"

what does this mean?

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:12 (eighteen years ago)

Actually setting out to create Important TV detracts from any enjoyment of it.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:13 (eighteen years ago)

not funny

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:16 (eighteen years ago)

ive seen 8 of these shows, ive never heard of 12. it doesnt seem a good list for 10 years of tv?

the results arent surprising at the top. but a little more surprising lower down, why do you think royle family and phoenix nights gained so few votes?

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:18 (eighteen years ago)

i think dom maybe just answered my question. i thought he might like phoenix nights, but i think now i see why he might not

i kind of think all of these shows, and perhaps any show, sets out to be important thuogh?

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:18 (eighteen years ago)

Spaced is the most *traditional* sitcom on British TV in a long time

Since "Phoenix Nights" at least

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:20 (eighteen years ago)

Spaced is more traditional than Phoenix Nights in terms of format. Think about it: Spaced has characters in a tight location who each week go out on a wacky adventure (paintballing, raving, whatever). It's almost like Dad's Army in many respects.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:23 (eighteen years ago)

that was one of the ones i havent seen

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:24 (eighteen years ago)

i wonder if the phoenix nights vote was from Alba

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:26 (eighteen years ago)

i think The IT Crowd was sold specifically on the fact it wasn't striving for importance. thing about this list though is that by neccesity it is loaded. i doubt "my family" and "two pints of lager" would have got any votes but it's sort of missing the point to make huge generalist arguements, of the sort we are now seeing, about british comedy without mentioning them.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:30 (eighteen years ago)

But "Two Pints of Lager" = unfunny AND unpopular

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:30 (eighteen years ago)

TPOL not so much, but My Family (and My Hero for that matter), yes.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:31 (eighteen years ago)

Plus surely 96% of the people on this forum have merged Coupling and TPOL into one show in their head?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:31 (eighteen years ago)

Which has the squeaky voiced Indian girl? Which has the comedy Welsh guy? Which has her from Hollyoaks? Etc.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:31 (eighteen years ago)

The DVD has a really good Ianucci/Baynam/someone else (Coogan? Henry Normal?) commentary.

Coogan I think, on series 1. Very good. Also, Alan and Lynn commentary is mildly amusing. Series 2 commentaries not quite as good - mainly lots of snark at Coogan being too busy sexxing Courtney Love being in Hollywood to do commentaries anymore.

Is Help still 'easily available'? I lost my previous 'copy'.

― Bocken Social Scene, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:32 (eighteen years ago)

UKNova.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:33 (eighteen years ago)

The first series of Black Books, as written by (either Linehan or Matthews I forget) is really good. The latter ones written by Dylan Moran, where the plots are "lol asylum seekers have different customs to me", are fucking awful.

"Fucking awful" is well off the mark. It dropped a couple of notches but it was far from fucking awful. I think you & I have similar tastes, Dom, but I have a soft-knee slope down to comic mediocrity and your tolerance just drops like a stone. (Oh, and we disagree about Boosh/Barley).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:33 (eighteen years ago)

TPOL seems to single handidly keep bbc3 afloat. my family and my hero are bigger than anything on that list with exception of little britain. coupling and TPOL are very different beasts. class warrior passantino should have clocked this.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:35 (eighteen years ago)

I just have a low tolerance for Moran's "modern life is rubbish, look i've not combed my hair how roguish" schtick.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:35 (eighteen years ago)

Coupling and TPOL are meant to be differently classed, I know (main characters in TPOL work at a garage and what's obviously meant to be Gregg's, correct?), but the humour is _exactly_ _the_ _same_.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:36 (eighteen years ago)

why do you think royle family and phoenix nights gained so few votes?

in the Royle Family's case i think people are now turned off by how popular it became because of the (over)reliance on catchphrases and maybe even the 'depressing' effect of 'watching people watching TV' overtook anything else. in TRF's defence i don't think it played up some idea of class stereotypes too badly - at least, i think TRF could've worked just as well had it been set in East London or somewhere else so it didn't come off as 'lol Notherners'. Kay likes to do this more (i think?) but it's all wrapped up in the playfulness of the language, accents etc. - in a way that doesn't grate and he's often more subtle than you might expect (i much prefer to say Kay acting than performing on stage as a result). Phoenix Nights was fun(ny) but maybe in the end the characters just weren't strong enough (and That Peter Kay Thing may still be funnier today, or at least more enjoyable).

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:38 (eighteen years ago)

hmmm TPOL is far coarser, ok the format is the same but the tone is different. would you class these two as pre or post friends?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:39 (eighteen years ago)

But in Spaced you're meant to be emotionally invested in the will-they wont-they relationship between Daisy and... whatever Simon Pegg's character was called.

But in Friends you're meant to be emotionally invested in the will-they wont-they relationship between Rachel and... whatever David Schwimmer's character was called.

All I'm saying is that Spaced is the most *traditional* sitcom on British TV in a long time, it's a lot closer to a Marks and Gran production that anything else.

seriously, no way. stylistically it's the least sitcommy sitcom like ever. plus unlike most sitcoms it doesn't go for a broad audience. its jokes are reference-based more than character-based.

was it the first sitcom (ie pre-scrubs, pre-arrested development) to have shitloads of random insert shots?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:40 (eighteen years ago)

Post, I'd say. Especially Coupling.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:40 (eighteen years ago)

Are you seriously saying you don't see Spaced as an update of Dad's Army?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:40 (eighteen years ago)

"Phoenix Nights" - NOT PHUNNY enough

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:43 (eighteen years ago)

I think we can agree that the absence of A+J and L+H from this poll is a bit like a Slam without Federer and Nadal. Well, OK, Davydenko and Nalbandian. Hey, I'd miss 'em.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:44 (eighteen years ago)

There's always this thread: http://ilx.wh3rd.net/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=25046

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:45 (eighteen years ago)

i think Dom's pre / post Friends thing is more important when you think about it in terms of how a show is written. few british sitcoms i know of have really run with the american "team" system. i know "my family" has, any others? rather than Dom's distinction it could be more of a case of more writers, less character coherence perhaps?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (eighteen years ago)

it doesnt seem a good list for 10 years of tv?

in comparison to the US you mean? i haven't seen the lists of French, Chinese, Australian comedies...

wrong to base on nationality perhaps but it seems there's an idea that the UK should be producing better comedy generally - better than the US better than anywhere else in the world. why tho?

or is it just that in a ten year period there should be more comedy that caters for one's own tastes. again tho, why? a few people on ILE are 'above' most of these shows/kinds of humour it seems, just as they are with certain types of music or other entertainment. hating on Little Britain is a lot like hating on Mika or Gorillaz.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (eighteen years ago)

Phoenix Nights: good "set piece" humour (racist folk group, Stars In Their Eyes, Ann Summers party), not great character interplay humour. Fair to say?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (eighteen years ago)

Are you seriously saying you don't see Spaced as an update of Dad's Army?

-- Dom Passantino, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:40 PM (5 minutes ago)

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:48 (eighteen years ago)

Dad's Army is a sitcom that is centred around two main character who don't have much in common but are thrown together by a "greater" need. The rest of the cast is an ensemble who revolves around them, and are all "weird" in their own specific way. The humour arises from how the two main characters cope with both each other and these other characters who rotate around their lives. The set-up of the average episode will find the characters escparing the enclosed space that they've been forced into and exploring a "new" space, usually with a large number of characters from this supporting cast.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:50 (eighteen years ago)

hating on Little Britain is a lot like hating on Mika or Gorillaz.

sorry steve but neither mika or albarn has done anything quite as straight up offensive as Ting Tong Macadacca Ding Dong.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:51 (eighteen years ago)

rather than Dom's distinction it could be more of a case of more writers, less character coherence perhaps?

-- acrobat, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:47 PM (1 minute ago)

do characters cohere in real life? i'd say not. the bigger diff us/uk is that their seasons run almost FOUR TIMES longer than ours. which in case of 'friends' means real stuff actually happens in their lives, careers, etc, over the course of years. the transition from 'post-student' to 'adult' is played out in real time. there were 13 episodes of 'spaced', so of course the characters were coherent. (plus the writers were the actors...) over the ten years of the 'friends' arc, the characters changed, but why wouldn't they? all the lauded and dull brit sitcoms (dad's army, porridge) were way more cipher-based. 'friends' maybe had a few catchphrases, but it wasn't as bad as 'dad's army' in that respect.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:52 (eighteen years ago)

also the two main characters fall in love with each other as was expected from the start. (xpost x2)

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:52 (eighteen years ago)

dom, that's weak.

it's like that "there are only seven stories" thing, you can modify it to taste. daisy and tim have a fair amount in common. there's no class humour. etc.

but the main thing is 'spaced' is shot nothing like other sitcoms.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:54 (eighteen years ago)

Porridge was *revolutionary* though, as well as being well-written, well-characterised, and hilarious, in terms of social construct. Lukewarm, Jock: these were characters that broke down boundaries.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:54 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not talking *stylistically* Henry, I'm talking of form.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (eighteen years ago)

or rather the way Spaced was shot was far more integral to the show than any other british comedy show ever.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (eighteen years ago)

I mean, if I reshot To The Manor Born in the camera trick style of Green Wing, it'd still have more in common with the former than the latter.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (eighteen years ago)

blueski: Jam, Green Wing. There's two off the bat.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (eighteen years ago)

replace 'ever' with 'beforehand'

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:56 (eighteen years ago)

forgot Jam cos didn't watch it

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:57 (eighteen years ago)

or rather the way Spaced was shot was far more integral to the show than any other british comedy show ever.

-- blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:55 (28 seconds ago)

the young ones? python?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:57 (eighteen years ago)

Spaced is important because it was the first time that *that generation* and *that lifestyle* had been shown on British TV: low-level media aspirationals scraping a living in the arse-end of London. Maybe the TV show that Spaced has most in common with then is Thirtysomething?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:58 (eighteen years ago)

The Goodies as well, xp.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:58 (eighteen years ago)

low-level media aspirationals scraping a living in the arse-end of London

The Goodies!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:59 (eighteen years ago)

Oh man, ha ha, spooky xpost!!!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:00 (eighteen years ago)

<i>was it the first sitcom (ie pre-scrubs, pre-arrested development) to have shitloads of random insert shots?</i>

ally mcbeal?

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:04 (eighteen years ago)

none of these other shows listed seemed quite so reliant on effects, filming techniques etc. as Spaced - i'm standing by it still...

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:05 (eighteen years ago)

or rather the way Spaced was shot was far more integral to the show than any other british comedy show ever.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:55 PM (7 minutes ago)

certainly for a very long time.

integral is the right word -- the 'to the manor born'/'green wing' thing doesn't work because whereas 'green wing' (which isn't that bad, but it's no 'scrubs') is quite traditional, the characters in 'spaced' are always making film refs, so is the show... it comes together.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:06 (eighteen years ago)

does green wing have anything in common w/ scrubs other than them both being v bad and unfunny in hospitals?

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:07 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't even know they were making film refs most of the time (xp)

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:08 (eighteen years ago)

integral is the right word -- the 'to the manor born'/'green wing' thing doesn't work because whereas 'green wing' (which isn't that bad, but it's no 'scrubs') is quite traditional, the characters in 'spaced' are always making film refs, so is the show... it comes together.

By your logic then Spaced has a lot in common with Family Guy. Which it obviously doesn't.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:09 (eighteen years ago)

does green wing have anything in common w/ scrubs other than them both being v bad and unfunny in hospitals?

-- RJG, Thursday, May 10, 2007 2:07 PM (1 minute ago)

oh you.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:09 (eighteen years ago)

RJG and quitguy like the same amount of stuff.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:12 (eighteen years ago)

Green Wing is no Surgical Spirit

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago)

i like more stuff.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago)

Maybe one more thing

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago)

Only When I Laugh > Surgical Spirit > Scrubs > Green Wing

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:14 (eighteen years ago)

in only when i laugh, did the whole show take place in that one room, i cant remember

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:16 (eighteen years ago)

which of these shows had the smallest budget?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:18 (eighteen years ago)

I imagine if "Only When I Laugh" had ran for 10,000 episodes it still wouldn't have reached the budget for one episode of "Green Wing"

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:21 (eighteen years ago)

Only When I Laugh *wasn't* a one set sitcom, I think. I'm sure they went out into the corridor and the garden at some points as well.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:23 (eighteen years ago)

sounds awesome

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:24 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/images/800/onlywhenilaugh.jpg

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:25 (eighteen years ago)

One set comedies = awesome

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:26 (eighteen years ago)

There's always that argument that retro video games are intrinsically better because they didn't have the luxury of impressed or realistic graphics to play with so all effort was put into the actual "gameplay" itself. Same distinction between OWIL and Green Wing, maybe?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:28 (eighteen years ago)

That one guy that quit, you can't say you like more stuff than I do just because you like green wing, scrubs and 30 rock

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:28 (eighteen years ago)

good comedy = anything that when one sees a still of the cast making a "wooowhmp woooowhmp" noise makes it funnier.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:29 (eighteen years ago)

its a good point about one-set shows, its a massive change and exciting, when they go somewhere else briefly

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:29 (eighteen years ago)

do you like 'friends', rjg?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:30 (eighteen years ago)

dom what do you consider the finest british comedy series. would it be a sitcom? do you think the sitcom is the best format?

where do you place whatever happened to the likely lads?

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:31 (eighteen years ago)

i don't agree with all this 'limitations r good' stuff. it wasn't really an aesthetic choice. it's like with films: they've improved since outdoor shooting became doable.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:32 (eighteen years ago)

How do you know it wasn't really an aesthetic choice?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:34 (eighteen years ago)

You don't half talk some drivel at times

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:34 (eighteen years ago)

cos there's no way they could have shot on location for more than x-minutes. bbc budgets across the board were firm on that, not just in comedy.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:36 (eighteen years ago)

Best British comedy series ever is Porridge ahead of Yes, Minister. IAP, Father Ted, Steptoe, and WHTTLL would all place highly. WHTTLL had a great first series, series and a half, but it did run out of steam towards the end of its run. Like The Simpsons, we tend to watch the episodes out of order these days, so we don't notice it as much. The show also has a lot to say about that first generation of educated working class lads from the late 50s/early 60s, I think I've learned a lot more about prole life from that era from both TLL and WHTTLL than I have from any kitchen sink drama.

Sitcoms are the one artform that take up most of our cultural lives: they're bite-sized, they're constant, and they're meant to "reflect" our lives in some way. More of your brain is taken up with sitcom plots than you realise.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:36 (eighteen years ago)

And all comedy was on the BBC was it?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:37 (eighteen years ago)

I like middle-late period friends

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

do you really think it was down to limitations? lots of its contemporaries seemed to be multi-set

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

yeh but remember green wing ended cos it cost too much so erm some things are still beyoned the financial reach of most british producers.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

On The Buses was shot on location.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

But not for the BBC of course!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:39 (eighteen years ago)

True. ITV budgets must have been a *lot* bigger than BBC ones at the time, then.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:40 (eighteen years ago)

Brideshead Revisited cost something like £12million to make, and this was back in the early 80s.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:40 (eighteen years ago)

Some sitcoms ARE just about people sitting around and talking - "'Til Death Us Do Part" springs to mind - and that's an aesthetic choice

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:41 (eighteen years ago)

i reckon the money is there but it has to go on something they "know" will get viewers these days. so silly money for j ross less so for another series of green wing. maybe if more people watched it'd be different. nathan barley must have cost a lot for little payback as well?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:42 (eighteen years ago)

i've never seen a full episode of WHTTLL. why didn't it get repeated as much as other shows of the same time?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:43 (eighteen years ago)

I like middle-late period friends

-- RJG, Thursday, May 10, 2007 2:38 PM (19 seconds ago)

yeah, snap: it did improve.

the bbc produced a lot of the single-set sitcoms dom is talking about and they did put restraints on outside shooting that had nothing to do with aesthetics. itv budgets often were bigger, yes. an export-driven thing like 'brideshead' is not the same as a domestic-only sitcom.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:43 (eighteen years ago)

yeh but remember green wing ended cos it cost too much so erm some things are still beyoned the financial reach of most british producers.

is this really true? what was so expensive about it? making the footage go backwards and forwards is cheap and quick to do. i guess it had a bigger cast than many comedies?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

i've never seen a full episode of WHTTLL. why didn't it get repeated as much as other shows of the same time?

It didn't? More so than something like "I Didn't Know You Cared" tho

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:45 (eighteen years ago)

Dad's Army shot a lot of stuff on location though. When did the BBC start scaling down on that sort of stuff?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:46 (eighteen years ago)

aye, never even heard of that (xpost)

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:46 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, you've missed out there!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:46 (eighteen years ago)

nathan barley must have cost a lot for little payback as well?

Maybe not on the show itself, but on the advertising campaign, surely.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:48 (eighteen years ago)

I had the privilege of working on the DVD release of both series of WHTTLL - cracking dialogue. It needs to go in a time capsule. The later series of Steptoe encountered at work are better than I remember from broadcast repeats too; surprising amount of incidental music on that show.

Porridge is my #1 too. Ever Decreasing Circles somewhere in a fairly nebulous top "10" (which might contain anything from five to twenty-five shows).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:54 (eighteen years ago)

Are any of the classic British sitcoms accompanied by a full-blown "commentaries, documentaries, original trailers" DVD boxset Michael?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:55 (eighteen years ago)

yeh but remember green wing ended cos it cost too much so erm some things are still beyoned the financial reach of most british producers.

is this really true? what was so expensive about it? making the footage go backwards and forwards is cheap and quick to do. i guess it had a bigger cast than many comedies?

-- blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:44 (11 minutes ago)

i think i remember reading it was shot in an actual hospital for some reason and it was this that jacked up the price.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:59 (eighteen years ago)

It's also an hour long, so twice the expense right away

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:00 (eighteen years ago)

one of the key actresses in green wing played gordon brittas' wife in the brittas empire. it's like hauntology or something.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:03 (eighteen years ago)

she quasi-hott

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:04 (eighteen years ago)

By and large, no - just the episodes, no extras. We did do some Dad's Army partworks discs which had little 10min "We Are The Boys" biogs or "Old Boys Network" excerpts. Even A Bit of Fry & Laurie, which both myself and the client thought would be ripe for the full-blown treatment, considering the current status of at least one half of the duo, was only assigned the usual vanilla budget.

If it ain't Dr Who, you don't get any goodies.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:07 (eighteen years ago)

(That was in response to Dom, obv)

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:12 (eighteen years ago)

british tv is pretty neglectful, dvd-wise, compared with the americans.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:14 (eighteen years ago)

why is "no extras" the selling point of the python dvds? is it a joke? i don't get it.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:15 (eighteen years ago)

i think most python merch riffs on either its shoddiness or its 'flogging-a-dead-HORSE (HA DYS i said HORSE)' qualities.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:17 (eighteen years ago)

do they tip the TV over there as well?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:17 (eighteen years ago)

I've not watched many DVDs but, generally, I don't watch the extras and find them a bit irritating when I do

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:22 (eighteen years ago)

It's also an hour long, so twice the expense right away

that's not quite how it works - it is more expensive but not double

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:25 (eighteen years ago)

Well, yes, you know what I mean tho

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:26 (eighteen years ago)

it should cost double. like a return ticket should always be double a single.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:29 (eighteen years ago)

my favourite episodes of Gimme Gimme Gimme were all single set. man how i loved GGG.

― Alan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:30 (eighteen years ago)

oof

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:31 (eighteen years ago)

GGG being in the Steptoe lineage - if anyone is doing SitCom Family Trees

― Alan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:33 (eighteen years ago)

Wash your mouth out with (carbolic) soap

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:35 (eighteen years ago)

By the way, I voted for Help. It's funnier than anything else on the list (LOLs per minute) (except maybe Spaced, although I've seen it too much to find it funny at all these days) it also loaded with pathos and human-interest. In that respect it's the only thing that can share a podium with Porridge, IMO. Favourites are yes, the italian wifebeater ("chop my hands off at the wrist if I lay a finger on my wife") and Monty managed to make me cry. If nothing else, you can sit back and watch Langham and Whitehouse give simply awesome performances.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:35 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't find "Help" funny - largely due to the "pathos and human-interest" and the "simply awesome performances"

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:37 (eighteen years ago)

Really? Made me LMAO. Do you like Porridge?

― The Wayward Johnny B, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:43 (eighteen years ago)

Of course, that's funny

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:47 (eighteen years ago)

And not in the least self-regarding and pleased with itself

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:47 (eighteen years ago)

Porridge, above maybe any other comedy, has a heart but never came across as saccharine or cloying. Lessons were never learned, other than maybe Godber manning up.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

That's fair nuf. Where you see self-regarding and pleased with itself, I see it aiming high, succeeding, know it's succeeding, and going "YESSSSS!" Which for me gives it that heart.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:51 (eighteen years ago)

Not much of a hope of a second series tho is there?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:53 (eighteen years ago)

all the "Classic British Sitcoms" i mainly remember as stuff that clogged the schedules when i was a kind and there were only four channels. i wouldn't choose to watch any of them ever again.

perhaps i'm remembering them wrong, but on the other hand clip-shows have fussed over them something rotten, and despite having all the visual interest of a not-very-visually-interesting-thing, they have this great big aura. it's like rockism or something innit.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago)

wow, no has mentioned fawlty towers in terms of all time classics. too obvious? i still love it.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago)

What sitcoms are you talking about Quitty?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:55 (eighteen years ago)

I mean, a Some Mothers Do 'ave Em or Only Fools, which lives as a repeat, I can understand, but it's not as if The Likely Lads was stlaking you through the schedules was it?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:56 (eighteen years ago)

wow, no has mentioned fawlty towers in terms of all time classics. too obvious? i still love it.

Not visually interesting enough to make TOTQ laugh

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:57 (eighteen years ago)

i cant imagine That One Guy That Laughed

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:58 (eighteen years ago)

Anyway, what does being visually interesting have to with being funny?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:58 (eighteen years ago)

i dunno when i was growing up the best pre-watershed comedies were repeats of stuff from the seventies. it still holds true, look at that list, nothing broadcast before 9 o'clock.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:00 (eighteen years ago)

What sitcoms are you talking about Quitty?

-- Dom Passantino, Thursday, May 10, 2007 3:55 PM (2 minutes ago)

dad's army, porridge, only fools and horses, uhh, the good life...

'fawlty towers' is good, though!

Anyway, what does being visually interesting have to with being funny?

-- Tom D., Thursday, May 10, 2007 3:58 PM (1 minute ago)

i think in an audiovisual medium you might want, sometimes, to use the medium, and not make yr television shows the equivalent of filmed theatre. buster keaton knew it, ernst lubitsch knew it, and goddamnit zach braff knows it.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:01 (eighteen years ago)

i bet ilx hates 'blackadder'. i think it was good.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:02 (eighteen years ago)

[i]What does being visually interesting have to with being funny?[/i}

Yes, but you don't have to, to be funny, and being funny is the most important thing about a comedy

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:03 (eighteen years ago)

they put Citizen Smith on either just before or just after Eastenders in the early-mid 90s so i saw a few of those (never again anywhere/anytime else). also remember an Eastenders where Pat and Frank are watching Citizen Smith. at the end Frank says "well there it is babe" i.e. quick turn the telly off before Eastenders starts!

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:03 (eighteen years ago)

Blackadders II & III = classic.

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:04 (eighteen years ago)

and being funny is the most important thing about a comedy

where to draw line on/measure evidence of funniness tho? a lol? could a smile be enough? could an inner smile be enough?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:04 (eighteen years ago)


Yes, but you don't have to, to be funny, and being funny is the most important thing about a comedy

-- Tom D., Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:03 PM (1 minute ago)

this is like "rocking is the most important thing about a rock song", kind of. what i find weird about 'friends' is that it's stupendously expensive to make but at the same time really cheaply made, like an early talkie or something, static, stagebound, etc, no matter how good the performers and the script. whereas with 'arrested development' or 'spaced' or 'the thick of it' (or ok 'the office') they get the best out of performances by trying to think it through visually.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:08 (eighteen years ago)

this is like "rocking is the most important thing about a rock song", kind of

No it isn't. Ha ha, I might have known you'd like "Arrested Development"!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:09 (eighteen years ago)

Citizen Smith is pretty bad. In fact, with Just Good Friends looking similarly shonky at this distance and with no one able to get beyond the theme tune* to Dear John (and let's not mention the Boycey/Marlene spin-off), King Of The Sitcoms John Sullivan kinda looks like a one-hit wonder. And a hit that went on about 10 years too long.

(* - though I do sing it incessantly at home when Ava asks for her Dear Zoo book; she's started singing it now too).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:11 (eighteen years ago)

i sort of agree with with quitney is saying. comedy isn't necessarily about 'funniness'. look at Nighty Night - if that makes you laugh out loud...how? why?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:11 (eighteen years ago)

i enjoyed Citizen Smith, in the early 90s, as a teenager. i suppose in the same way i enjoyed Bread, in the 80s, as child. what makes us think we know any better as we get older tho eh.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:12 (eighteen years ago)

Dear Zoo...by the time you'll read this letter I'll be...goo?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

Is Quitney getting into that territory occupied by the Late Lou Jag, with his "important" and "challenging" comedy?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

we need lou jag up in this bitch to rep for 'AD'.

oh FUCK, i had forgotten 'BREAD' which i too watched. this country should be BOMBED.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

true xpost

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

half the reason why Friends is such televisual crack is the combination of tight comedy and well-played soap opera. that's why it's going to run twice a day on E4 until armageddon - that and the fact that its really quite well done, like the best fast food - the same thing every time. i think its like Spaced, in that if you hate the characters you hate the show. there's plenty of sitcoms though where you hate the characters (or are potently ambivalent) but still watch.

citizen smith sucks when you watch it now, but i still want a Freedom For Tooting tee shirt. i wish they'd repeat Dear John.

isn't louis jagger lurking on this thread under another name already? i have suspicions...

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

we need lou jag up in this bitch to rep for 'AD'.

no because that would be v boring. lots of people like AD, end of.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

just got offed = louis

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:15 (eighteen years ago)

comedy isn't necessarily about 'funniness'

Now that's funny!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:15 (eighteen years ago)

is Tom D. L Jag? seriously

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:18 (eighteen years ago)

answer my question tho - what's the minimum re funniness? laughing, smirking, smiling etc.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:18 (eighteen years ago)

sorry to bring this up but there's a gender thing lurking here. in my experience friends and green wing's biggest fans are female. note percentage of females on this thread. cookd and bombd forums have repeatedly hit the rocks trying to work this one out.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:19 (eighteen years ago)

also scrubs is the new friends

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:20 (eighteen years ago)

^^^ OTM

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:20 (eighteen years ago)

Are we assuming jgo is loujag just because of the monkeydust thing? I refuse to believe the boy jagger has never watched IAP.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

yeah acrobat is otm x2

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:22 (eighteen years ago)

they're just suspicions... i refuse to be drawn further...

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:22 (eighteen years ago)

Dear Zoo...by the time you'll read this letter I'll be...goo?

Got it! She loves "goo" - particular that bit in Bing Bunny: Something For Daddy where the main protag squirts liquid adhesive everywhere.

(Jeez, that sounds kinda rude).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:23 (eighteen years ago)

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends? i remember the guide running a special piece on the show when the second series began. otherwise, yes! definitely!

was green wing consciously fashioned after scrubs? the faint surrealism?

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago)

Citizen Smith wasn't great but Peter Vaughn was, as he is in pretty much everything.

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago)

answer my question tho - what's the minimum re funniness? laughing, smirking, smiling etc.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:18 PM (3 minutes ago)

It maybe needs something else going on beyond funniness, if the laughter is only minimal? I was the one vote for the Armando Iannucci show, and that's as often poignant and slightly unsettling as it is funny (admittedly less with the crap replaced music on the DVD).

A lot of the CaB objection to NB seemed to be "it is advertised/acting like it is a comedy, but it does not make me LOL = it fails"

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:25 (eighteen years ago)

point of order: Just Good Friends is very good! but yes very dated. awful theme tune. but the soap opera quotient is still quite compelling. penny seems an awful snit in the 21st C but resembles my other half so this is forgiven.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:25 (eighteen years ago)

Peter Vaughn fucking killed it in Our Friends In The North. Awesome performance from the man there.

xxp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends?

it never had as prominent a timeslot as 9pm friday c4 "at the time" but owing to constant repeats it's sort of sneaking in.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

you can say Nathan Barley isn't funny but you can't say it's not a comedy show.

believe me, i tried once.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

is it rockist to prefer 'reginald perrin' and 'fawlty towers' over other more ingratiating Classic Sitcoms?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

Not really, I don't think.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends?

Nowhere near it

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

a more interesting poll/discussion perhaps:

who is the most likeable LEAD character in a British comedy show/sitcom?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:28 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't even know "Scrubs" was supposed to be a comedy, I thought it was a "comedy-drama"!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:28 (eighteen years ago)

I've only saw it a couple of times tho

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

Rene Artois?

xxp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

Fawlty Towers is just as ingratiated as Porridge if not more so.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

no way

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

Iannucci in bewildered/world weary mode, surely

Scrubs is an awkward cut n'shut of comedy with two minutes of bullshit schmaltz welded to the end of each half

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

scrubs is repellant. audioly and visually

I thought arrested development was funny but not quite hitting the notes it thought it was or something, the first time I watched it. I did think it got better, as it went on, though--the funniness came from the repetition of situations/allusions to previous incidents and recurring jokes. so, once it had some good things to repeat/previous good things to allude to and good jokes that could recur, it improved. watched it all, again, recently, and I think it v funny and well done, now

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

Nana Moon as Wolfie's mother in law is fab. "hello foxy".

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

Fawlty Towers is just as ingratiated as Porridge if not more so.

More so, I'd say

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:31 (eighteen years ago)

AD gets funnier every time you watch it.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:31 (eighteen years ago)

I obviously haven't watched enough of it

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

Nana Moon as Wolfie's mother in law is fab. "hello foxy".

Yes, that was good

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

Citizen Smith wasn't great but Peter Vaughn was, as he is in pretty much everything.

Agreed, which is why it was doubly poor once Tony Steedman replaced him.

I may be too harsh on JGF. This is another theme song I sing around the house to amuse 2-y-o and distress wife.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

no way

-- That one guy that quit

Quitney, Fawlty is the 'Sgt. Pepper' here. tops sitcom lists as much as Porridge if not more so, has mythical status because it was only two series. it's just as rockist a choice as the older shows.

i like it as much as Porridge.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

reggie perrin is just so fabulously tragic. chunks of it aren't all that great - some of the other actors are dreadful, the pacing seems off to me, the climax rushed - but the story itself is so good, and the central performance so staggeringly perfect, you forgive it all.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:33 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know if I can forgive the whole of the last series though

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

i wasn't talking scrubs = friends as "cultural phenomenon" i was talking about how it used and who it used by. "comedy" isn't always "used" primarily for the jokes. lack of Smack the Pony on list is interesting.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

Scrubs IS like Friends in that it's all about the jokes. I forgive them a lot of shit because they've got a bunch of dudes throwing in gags that would be funny in any show (as Friends also showed).

To like Friends but not Scrubs seems absurd to me.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

the xposts here are drivin me mad

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

AD gets funnier every time you watch it.

I can happily watch all of Arrested Development in order then go back to the beginning again.

Rossiter as Perrin is fucking awesome yeah

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know if I can forgive the whole of the last series though

is that the 90s one? i never saw that. i've not actually seen all the third series either, it seemed pretty poor.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

I prefer Rising Damp to Reggie Perrin. How do you like THEM apples.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago)

Quitney, Fawlty is the 'Sgt. Pepper' here. tops sitcom lists as much as Porridge if not more so, has mythical status because it was only two series. it's just as rockist a choice as the older shows.

i like it as much as Porridge.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:32 PM (41 seconds ago)

yeah i know it's a rockist choice, but like 'perrin' it doesn't fit in with the others, for me anyway. it's the fawlty character himself really -- i don't think you get that level of blackness in 'porridge'.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago)

darkness is not a pre-requisite of great comedy (altho for many people these days it seems that it is). it's often a v useful asset but it can do as much damage as good.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

friends doesn't have zach braff in

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

is that the 90s one? i never saw that. i've not actually seen all the third series either, it seemed pretty poor.

There was 90s one? Wasn't Leonard Rossiter dead by then? No, I meant
the third series - where he set up some sort of holiday camp or something.... no, more a kind of community.... that was dire

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:39 (eighteen years ago)

Friends has Matthew Perry who was OK in Friends but HORRIBLE in that worst Scrubs episode i've ever seen.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago)

I prefer Rising Damp to Reggie Perrin. How do you like THEM apples.

So do I, I think

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago)

Reggie Perrin is def. more rockist than Rising Damp, the Here My Dear to the latter's Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits if you will (please don't, though).

not sure if the soap opera in scrubs is as compelling as the ross/rachel saga, or that its as well handled. scrubs often gets messily mawkish and sentimental in a way Friends always zings itself out of.

xpost there was a post-Rossiter series! the legacy of reggie perrin. definitely best forgotten, i think.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:41 (eighteen years ago)

the scrubs where dr cox imagines his brother in law is still alive until the very end is very well done tho.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:42 (eighteen years ago)

In Biographical Dictionary Of Film, DT refers to Basil Fawlty as the epitome of "the tragedy of fascism."

Rossiter sort of carried the whole of Perrin, though; Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates give truthful performances but the other actors don't rise above the level of caricature. Also, as I'm sure I've said elsewhere on ILE, the books are better (at least the first two - the third is pretty crappy though).

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

at a guess the soap opera / drama element is the win for the most important demographic though.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

A short-lived US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:44 (eighteen years ago)

Rossiter sort of carried the whole of Perrin, though; Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates give truthful performances but the other actors don't rise above the level of caricature.

That's because they're supposed to be caricatures surely? What about Doc Morrissey tho, he was good!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

A short-lived US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.

I remember that!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

reggie's wife = teh hottness. his daughter was dreadful tho.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago)

i think When The Whistle Blows should've been included in this poll.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago)

in my mind i always link spaced up with my older cousin going on about how great human traffic and music has the right to children were... is this linkage in any way correct?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:06 (eighteen years ago)

hahahahaha. go to my 'generation' thread.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

i wish they'd repeat Dear John.

YES!

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:33 (eighteen years ago)

Is anyone other than Dom going to give a detailed analysis of Monkey Dust's cultural value, or have we been through all this already?

― Just got offed, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:58 (eighteen years ago)

You're letting the mask slip, dude.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:59 (eighteen years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.
Site New Answers Search Boards ILM ILE Answers New Question New Questions New Poll Blog View Register Login