Non US/UK sitcoms: lets talk about them

There was that terrible Australian one set in a hospital, was on Channel4 briefly

possibly for Tuomas to reveal that Finland's biggest sitcom is about an inflatable cock who runs a sports bar or something.

What's Finnish for "Cheers"?

There was that terrible Australian one set in a hospital, was on Channel4 briefly

Let The Blood Run Free. Never saw it meself, mind.

Flight of the Conchords isn't really that good

You're wrong, it's good

I dunno, I'm pretty sure it's not that good

I got MPx4A's back on this one

It's a distinct improvement on "Let The Blood Run Free"

What about "Kath and Kim"? Never watched it.

I watched it and couldn't get past the accents. Then I watched it again, got past the accents, and couldn't get past the fact the jokes weren't funny.

I just googled "Italian sitcom" and got this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2XcU9ILvns

Which appears to be set on the old set of every CITV sitcom filmed between 1998 and 2004.

I like Conchords. I guess it counts as non-US, despite the setting (and, I'm guessing, the production company). Trying to think of Britcoms set overseas (though not necessarily filmed there or populated by actual locals)...Duty Free and Don't Drink The Water? Anyway, that's another thread.

Benidorm (to answer Mike's question. I have never seen it)

I dunno I'd count FotC as US, because of production/setting/tone. I have to say don't bother with the concept of aus sitcom - there's no such beast that's ever been any good. We just can't do sitcom for some reason. Summer Heights High had its moments but was pretty painful to watch overall. Kath and Kim is terrible, I don't see what people see in it really. For the love of god never check out "Hey Dad!". Consider yrselves warned.

Summer Heights High isn't a sitcom. It's supposed to be a "faux doco comedy". In any case, it fails in all regards and is a christ awful piece of televisual shit.

(Almanac adam to thread to froth at the gob about Hey Dad's shiteness)

I cannot think of any non-UK/US sitcoms at all, except Let the Blood Run Free which was mildly entertaining for the couple of half-episodes I caught a couple of times, and Kath and Kim which I never watched at all.

Eternal question that this sort of discussion always brings up: does Father Ted count as a UK sitcom?

Actually now I think about it, "Kingswood Country" was ok for its time (70s-80s) but distant memory may be warping my opinion, I was very young when it was on.

(Almanac adam to thread to froth at the gob about Hey Dad's shiteness)

"HASTA LA VISTA, LITTLE FAT KID"

Oh and Neighbours, haw.

Has there ever been a Gaelic sitcom? In Scotland I mean. There have been a few sketch shows.

In my experience, Kath & Kim appeals to the same people who camp out at the opening of a new Krispy Kreme store next to an outer-suburban Westfield.

It spoiks to them, or something.

I must mention Are You Being Served Down Under, with John Inman as Mr. Humphries moving to Australia and getting a job at a department store with the same set design and characters. Please don't ask for a copy, they deleted the tapes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sitcoms_by_countries

HaPijamot is one of the most famous sitcoms in the Israeli television about a struggling band, determined to make it in the real world. The show is running in Arutz 2.

I must admit I liked the New Zealand "Seven Periods With Nr Gormsby" a fair bit, like if Summer Heights High was as crude and amusing as people thought it was.

The Turkish version of "The Nanny" was far far far superior to the original.

I absolutely must recommend Wilfred

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/05/23/cmWILFRED_LARGE_070523120656534_wideweb__300x350.jpg

Truly, I have seen no darker, more twisted psychologically damaged comedy in a looong time. It's fantastic (and Australian).

Er, what?

Truly, I have seen no darker, more twisted psychologically damaged comedy in a looong time

Yes, I really want to see a dark, twisted psychologically damaged comedy

then welcome

oo thub welcome

in

coooooooouuuuuuuuppppliiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggggg

Of course you do! Why is The Office funny? (if it is) Why is Nighty Night funny? (if it is) Why is Brass Eye funny? (if it is) Why is... Pulling funny? (if it is)

xpost

iWhy is Nighty Night funny? (if it is)

As funny as gangrene. I wanted to see dark, twisted psychologically damaged comedies 10 years ago, not now. Boring.

(Almanac adam to thread to froth at the gob about Hey Dad's shiteness)

-- Trayce, Monday, 16 June 2008 20:48 (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Hah. Awful show, but the longest-running sitcom ever for a while, apparently. Kingswood Country was great for the first couple of years, then got silly.

Summer Heights High was indeed awful, but its predecessor (We Can be Heroes) was brilliant.

Kath & Kim was brilliant, too, for the first three years, although some of the weird jokes and catchphrase work fell flat (and last year's series was embarrassingly bad). I think you have to be (a) Australian and (b) related to people like Kath & Kim in order to get anything out of it, so I've no idea how it makes any sense abroad.

Does Caroline Aherne's not-watched-but-anyone-but-me-and-my-mum Australian-based sitcom "Dossa and Joe" count as a non-UK sitcom?

Never heard of it!

Probably. We claim Kiwi content as ours so hey why not.

That's because no-one watched it except me and my mum (it was OK, starred Madge from Neighbours and some Aussie bloke that's in tons of things and Muriel's mum from Muriel's wedding and was about a couple going through counselling in the run-up to his retirement and the fact that they might actually have to spend some time together for the first time in forever)

Has there ever been a Gaelic sitcom? In Scotland I mean. There have been a few sketch shows.

"Still Game" and "Rab C. Nesbitt". If you were a stoned student, maybe "Take The High Road" would have qualified.

Not really Gaelic were they? Like, not at all?

Well they were both set in Scotland, but you mean in the Gaelic language? Can't think of any off hand.

Don't think there has been. There was a terrible soap (Machair?) a few years ago, but despite rumblings of a sitcom, don't think it ever materialised.

I remember the soap, used to watch it occasionally!

http://meteoplus.tv/images2/cast.jpg

http://meteoplus.tv

There's "Het Eiland" which is The Office for the Flemish crowd. There's also Hallo Gloria which is as hilarious as the Office (or could I say even more!). Actually more like The Fast Show. It was shown on Jay Leno for a few minutes. Not a sitcom I know, but still GREBTEST BELGIAN SHOW EVAH esp the skit about anal sex. "Friends come through the back door" still has roffling me all the way.

Stromberg is a bit like a German version of The Office, in that it's a mock documentary set in, er, an office...

Mother And Son was a good Australian sitcom. Can't think of another one ever that oughtn't be burned in an oil drum.

Premise: being a middle-aged bald man living with your cunty Alzheimered-up mum is a ballache.

They remade Perfect Strangers in Russia, does that count? And didn't you say, Tuomas, that they tried to remake Married With Children in Finland?

before it actually happens, can we just declare a moratorium on discussing the Trailer Park Boys unless it's to say how utterly rubbish it is?

I'd love to see Perfect Strangers done in Russian.

Any Candians remember TWITCH CITY? One of my all-time favorites.

http://www.amazon.com/Twitch-City-Complete-Bruce-McCulloch/dp/B000H5VACA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1213658269&sr=8-1

no, but it doesn't sound too bad, judging by its wikipedia entry...

i couldn't really stand wilfred

there have never been any good australian sitcoms

Oh my how ignorant of me.

Its epecially roffleworthy because they even make the Aus/NZ confusion a central joke of an entire episode, fergoshsakes.

WTF is wilfred? I really must not watch TV enough any more, Ive never even heard of it.

sbs thing, dude in a dog suit, bleak, fairly depressing, not especially funny, several punchable characters

tropfest hit spun off into sitcom

NOT A SITCOM

there have never been any good australian sitcoms

-- electricsound, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 09:39 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

^OTM. was coming here to say this

I mentioned ARE YOU BEING SERVED DOWN UNDER for heaven's sake! It was so good they deleted the tapes!

And apparently the ABC did an Alvin Purple sitcom! That couldn't have been anything but great.

lol, 'let the blood run free' - the big hook with this was that you could call up at the end of each episode and vote for which storyline they went with next week. it suited the OTT melodramatics of the show perfectly.

the two key australian comedies of the last 20 years (that aren't kath & kim) are 'frontline' and 'the games'.

I forgot about the Games!

Neither of those are sitcoms, they're satires!

The Games was only one of the greatest things ever on Australian television and a reminder that the only three minutes of Clark and Dawe we get on our screens every week is not enough.

But not a sitcom!

please can we not split hairs over genre like this is ILM??

Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a common environment such as a home or workplace.

"Frontline" I think is a sitcom. "The Games"' had frequent cuts out of usual straight dialogue.

Also "Let The Blood Run Free" was awesome! NURSE PAM SANDWICH ffs!

it was a treat.

anyway, yes we don't seem to do tv comedy that well (with certain exceptions), but then we've seemingly had 40 years of fucking 'keeping up appearances' repeats so if all you lot are getting in return is 'summer heights high' then you've got off lightly.

('you lot' = the UK posters)

haitch otm

haitch v otm re Frontline and Games, turns out we make awesome sitcoms after all

Hollowmen coming soon

I also liked the one Wilfred episode I saw. In fact, I thought it was so good that I simply assumed it wasn't Australian.

You be the judge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7jG9_pmDRQ&feature=related

but then we've seemingly had 40 years of fucking 'keeping up appearances' repeats so if all you lot are getting in return is 'summer heights high' then you've got off lightly.

What's wrong with "Keeping Up Appearances"? It has jokes!

Nothing wrong with Keeping Up Appearances, but if Gary Reilly had done it everyone'd be all 'oh noes woe is teh australian sitcom'

ok to be fair i did chuckle at stupid stupid man recently although it is also pretty ropey

does pizza count?

Oh christ noooooooooo.

For perspective, Frontline was done by Working Dog, who also did The Castle and The Dish and Thank God You're Here. Okay I'm not supporting my argument very well.

And their parts of The Late Show have aged the worst too!

would rather watch pizza than the last ten years of terrible fast show ripoffs turned out by britishes, trufax.

haitch set us up the truth bombs!

Seasons 1-2 of Pizza were great. Seasons 3-472 were not so great.

Basically, it turned to shit when they got rid of the Lebanese rapper who was easily the best character and brought the obese ethnic chick on board.

They remade Perfect Strangers in Russia, does that count? And didn't you say, Tuomas, that they tried to remake Married With Children in Finland?

No, there's never been such a remake. But I do remember talking about the German remake of MWC (which does indeed exist), maybe you were thinking of that?

Basically, it turned to shit when they got rid of the Lebanese rapper who was easily the best character

And then Pizza dude sued the rapper to stop him performing under the name of his character, despite the character being named after his rap name. Under which he'd been playing and releasing records for about ten years already.

korean sitcoms.

my name is kim sam soon. 내이름은 김삼순/chinese: 我叫金三顺 <--------- classic, one of best things ever on tv. chubby homely (really actually cute but korean tv ugly) girl that's a french-trained baker, gets drunk a lot and enters into a fake relationship with a rich playboy (orchestrated by his mother-- kim sam soon is ugly, so he won't fall in love with her BUT HE DOES). it sounds kinda ally mcbealish and corny and it is but it's genuinely sweet and funny. i love it. lots of baking, too.

ALSO:
i'm sorry i love you.
my sister in law is 19.
the one where this girl falls in love with the prince of korea (not actual title but i can't find it right now).

There was a Singaporean one called Under One Roof. Oh dear.

http://photocdn.sohu.com/20070521/Img250127828.jpg

家有儿女. translation: a house with a son and daughter??? or "married with children." superclean beijing full of mcdonalds and commuters and highrises. not bad. 宋丹丹 and the kids are funny shit.

The Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi is fantastic. The Japanese version not so much.

The worst dodgy Asian sitcom I have ever seen is The Yang Sisters. It was hypnotic. I think it was Singaporean, I saw it on Malaysian TV, a few episodes of it, and the best one was a comedy of errors about getting a family photo to send back to elderly grandmother back in China. Didn't go to plann, the photo was a disaster and the grandmohter, upon receiving it, went all up and died.

Now, is this on youtube.

I watched that Summer Heights High, and, man, that's not too good.

I quite like it, but it's a slow burner. I kind of enjoy it more as a drama than a sitcom, as in I don't laugh that much, but I want to know what happens to the characters.

It's meant to occupy that space. His previous show did it better.

Incidentally, on the weekend I saw dick-tation written in wet concrete (I got a photo (obv)). This in itself isn't interesting, apart from the fact that someone actually watched and remembered it.

summer heights high is good u fux
(although yeah not as good as we can be heroes)

sea change?

it was funny in parts, rite?

I saw Summer Heights High today. I don't really watch tv and don't like comedies but I thought this was good!