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Posted: 13-10-2013 15:59 Post subject:

Sykes was everyone's dad's favourite sitcom.

Ever Decreasing Circles is possibly one of the most underrated sitcoms that was actually a fair-sized hit. Doesn't get mentioned much now, but the writing was superb and so well played. Whenever I see Stanley Lebor in some bit part in a movie I always think of his Howard Hughes and his matching jumpers.

Posted: 13-10-2013 19:12 Post subject:

I really hated Ever Decreasing Circles. That bumbling English gentleman persona that Briers acted for it put my back up.

Nothing personal about him, just the character. Laughing

Posted: 13-10-2013 20:04 Post subject:

It may have been hinted at in the Original Post but the comedy that shifted most merchandise was Friends. I never made it to the ad. break but a generation of people lapped it up by the Season. You can't move in some charity shops for all those boxes now the DVDs are following the Videos down the recycling hatch. Seinfeld may have got the kudos and the money-related headlines but the F. word was ten times more likely to be on British punters' lips as they obediently parted with their cash. I even recall a time when the HMV store in Manchester had a wall-to-wall bank of tellies spewing out this epic, hand-talking dorkathon hour after hour.

But I was raised on American shows.

Browsing some old TV Times issues online a few months back, I was transported back to the days when Granada's buyers had come back from the US with a wall-to-wall line-up of comedies, which went out at teatimes, Monday through to Friday. Now the premises of some of those were weird enough - the talking horse, the Addams Family, My Favourite Martian etc. etc. but the tendency was to normalise the situation: after all, these characters just wanted to fit in with the neighbours!

As a kid, I loved the Beverley Hillbillies but watching a few some years back, it seemed stuffed to the gills with product placements - all the suppliers were credited at the end - as the primitive Grannie came to terms with modern kitchen appliances and jet travel.

From the same vintage, we had the Dick Van Dyke Show, which is largely forgotten today (?) though it managed to yoke a warm and waspish domestic situation to a workplace scenario dominated by wise-cracking Jewish characters. Mary Tyler Moore - a sort of comedic Jackie Kennedy - went on to become a pioneering female lead in her eponymous show.

Mention of the Addams Family brings up the Munsters, a series created as a spoiler in the same year. As a weird child, I liked them both and looked forward to the day when I could drive around in a hearse. The appeal of that diminishes with the years. I suppose it is well known that Jackie Coogan who played Uncle Fester in the Addams Family was The Kid in Chaplin's 1921 comedy? How time flies!

Confused

edit: Talking horse not takling. Too late to prevent the next post . . .

Posted: 13-10-2013 21:40 Post subject:

Posted: 14-10-2013 16:42 Post subject:

Posted: 14-10-2013 16:48 Post subject:

Posted: 14-10-2013 20:31 Post subject:

Apart from Friends, the US comedy I most enjoyed in recent years was Malcolm in the Middle. Brilliant.

Posted: 14-10-2013 20:54 Post subject:

ALF.

Oh, and the Young Ones, and the Good Life.

Posted: 14-10-2013 21:08 Post subject:

I'm quite enjoying the re-runs of Mad About You with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt. It's on at some ungodly hour on a channel that is usually full of Cake Boss and Honey BooBoo, urgh! They also show the Golden Girls too, which I remember finding very funny when I used to stay up to watch it with my Dad on a Friday night but now, meh, not so much!
Blackadder is one of my all time favourites, especially series two.

Posted: 15-10-2013 14:44 Post subject:

Many of my faves already mentioned here - Black Books, Father Ted, The IT Crowd and of course Blackadder. I'd put in a good word for The High Life as well - they only did one series and it's a bit camp and over the top but I think it's great. Good to see Alan Cumming before he went all Hollywood!

There'll always be a space for Red Dwarf on my DVD shelves - some of the later series were pants but up until about series 6 it was classic.

In terms of American sit-coms, Frasier was always a well-constructed farce. I've probably seen it too many times now though, as they repeat it endlessly on Channel 4.

Also, does Flight of the Conchords count as a sit-com? That was a good'un too. Very Happy