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[Mr Skrunts]

I Preferred TV way back when.

Just chatting with a friend the other day about TV shows.

Mind Your Lanuage (think I watched this because Francoise Pascal was in it )
Fen Street Gang
Love Thy Neighber
Bless This House
and loads more.

Some I cant remember, Nelly Pickergill & the picked onion factory keep popping into my mind. (just Googled it.  (Hilda Baker - Not on your Nellie))

Humour was so diffent in the 70's Jim Davidson was allowed to tell Chalkiy jokes & Chubby Brown was actually funny way back then.  Bob Monkhouse, Max Bygrave and Bruchie all told Blue Jokes in comedy/working mens clubs on thier way to being TV celebs.

I also has cassette tapes of Mike Harding - One Man Band & Blaster Bates

The Good Old Days.

[BazaJT]

Saw Mike Harding[The Rochdale Cowboy] live at Bradford Alhambra back in the '80s strongest word he used all night was "bugger" and he was absolutely hilarious Another show from way back then which you'd absolutely get lynched for writing/showing now 'Til Death Us Do Part."

[Rangie]

Yes I for one miss all these proper comedy programmes & comedians ,the rubbish that is supposed to be comedy nowadays ensures that I switch off immediately.

[Nick W]

Those shows were comedies?


The things you learn after 40 years....


Some of those comedians are still in vogue; Jimmy Carr's act is a straight rip off of Bob Monkhouse for example.


Comedy is a very difficult thing to get right and usually dates very quickly; the much celebrated Monty Python is about 2/3 self indulgent rubbish, the other third mostly makes up for it. That's a pretty typical ratio for any good sketch show.


One thing Fawlty Towers got right was they realised that they only had a limited amount of material, so packed it into the 12 episodes they did make. American TV is particularly bad for not doing this; they tend to build each episode around what would be a throwaway joke/plot point here.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Till death us do part was actually an ironic, anti bigotry programme, but it seemed the irony was lost on most of its viewers. 

[LC0112G]

For me the early-mid 70's were the peak of UK sit-coms. The 5 I'd single out are...

Porridge,
Yes Minister/Prime Minister
The Good Life
Faulty Towers
Reggie Perrin.

All the above have dated well, and are still funny (to me at least) today, even though some have some language which is seen as 'dubious' by todays standards. All the above were BBC shows. ITV stuff always seemed to be more akin to slapstick that didn't require the brain to be engaged which I'm not really a fan of.

[Mr Skrunts]

Porridge,
Yes Minister/Prime Minister  Never saw that one
The Good Life - That was good and was followed with To The Manor Born I believe (Penelope Keith)
Faulty Towers
Reggie Perrin

Also Never the Twain
Liver Birds
Man about the house
George and Mildred
Rising Damp leonard Rossiter certainly played his part well.

[Nick W]

For me the early-mid 70's were the peak of UK sit-coms. The 5 I'd single out are...

Porridge,
Yes Minister/Prime Minister
The Good Life
Faulty Towers
Reggie Perrin.

All the above have dated well, and are still funny (to me at least) today, even though some have some language which is seen as 'dubious' by todays standards. All the above were BBC shows. ITV stuff always seemed to be more akin to slapstick that didn't require the brain to be engaged which I'm not really a fan of.

Aren't most of those more late 70s onwards?


They all work well because they have easily recognisable characters, who behave consistently. None of them are meant to be likeable; some of them are truly dreadful people.


They were all tightly written and edited, by no more than a couple of people. I suspect those two things are intimately connected.


Each series is short in traditional British TV style.

[LC0112G]

For me the early-mid 70's were the peak of UK sit-coms. The 5 I'd single out are...

Porridge,
Yes Minister/Prime Minister
The Good Life
Faulty Towers
Reggie Perrin.

All the above have dated well, and are still funny (to me at least) today, even though some have some language which is seen as 'dubious' by todays standards. All the above were BBC shows. ITV stuff always seemed to be more akin to slapstick that didn't require the brain to be engaged which I'm not really a fan of.

Aren't most of those more late 70s onwards?


They all work well because they have easily recognisable characters, who behave consistently. None of them are meant to be likeable; some of them are truly dreadful people.


They were all tightly written and edited, by no more than a couple of people. I suspect those two things are intimately connected.


Each series is short in traditional British TV style.

Porridge is 74-77
Faulty Towers 75-79
Good Life 75-78
Reggie Perrin 76-79
Yes Minister 80-82.

So I'll concede on Yes Minister, but the 'golden era' appears to start between 74-76. All but Yes minister were done and dusted by the time Thatcher got into power (1979).

Personally I think comedy works when you can see yourself in the situation - either as one of the characters or you know someone who is such a character. You have to be learning something too, not just letting it wash over you. I could never really get into Hyathcinth Bucket, or The Office, or The Young ones because I don't really care to know people like that. I'm not saying that these aren't funny to some who do know those characters, just not me.

That's also where I think stuff like Alf Garnett can fall down. Some parts are undeniably hilarious, but it's too easy for certain parts of the audience to empathise with Alf rather than understand the real message that I think the writers and Warren Mitchel were trying to convey. And the more inflamitory the subject, the more of a problem that is.

As for Mr Skrunts second list - not for me. Mostly run of the mill stuff that goes in one ear and out the other. Rising Damp perhaps the exception there, but for me Beckinsale was better in Porridge, and Rossiter was magnificent as Perrin.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Till death us do part was actually an ironic, anti bigotry programme, but it seemed the irony was lost on most of its viewers. 

Excellent script writing by Johnny Speight....

The views of Alf were balanced by his daughter (Una Stubbs) and her husband (the lazy scouse git)

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

https://youtu.be/1TypuNvR04Q

As a kid I would watch anything that had a car I liked in it.

[biggriffin]

Till death us do part was actually an ironic, anti bigotry programme, but it seemed the irony was lost on most of its viewers. 

Excellent script writing by Johnny Speight....

The views of Alf were balanced by his daughter (Una Stubbs) and her husband (the lazy scouse git)

.

 Trouble is that Scouse git fathered Chirre Human rights Blair. Who made millions when her Husband signed the HRA, and took us into a fake war, O and whose mate sold all our Gold...