Okay, while researching this I found that all was explained here, but why should having the answer kill a good topic? Anyway, I started out with primetime US shows like What’s My Line? and daytime hits like To Tell the Truth and Match Game. Later there was the US version of Whose Line is it Anyway? (Thanks to YouTube I have learned from the British version the hard truth that Stephen Fry simply cannot do improv.) Nowadays all I get is Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, but a local classical radio station used to play episodes of My Word and My Music so I went searching for them online. What I found instead was an embarrassment of riches because panel shows are MASSIVE in Blighty! Fry can’t do improv, but he is an excellent panelmaster on QI, and watching that introduced me to [del]hundreds[/del] [del]dozens[/del] the same few comedians who linked me up to other shows. Most recently I discovered Comedy World Cup, which features David Tennant(!) as the snarky Scottish quizmaster.
And some of these comedians stretch out from the quiz show/sitcom roundabout, sometimes in a manner that only proves that anybody can get a series on British TV. Bill Bailey, from QI and Spaced, hosted a reality program that featured celebrities (in the reality show meaning of celebrities, IE: I never heard of them) BIRDWATCHING FOR FREAKING POINTS! And his next is a miniseries documentary about explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace! Can you imagine a US networking greenlighting this, much less doing it at the request of a disheveled comedian?
So, what have I missed? Never Mind the Buzzcocks is too much about musicians I either don’t know or don’t like and Noel Fielding creeps me out. I know that’s his schtick and I want to shove Jimmy Carr through a plaster and lath wall because that’s his schtick, but at least he’s funny. Are there older shows that made it to YouTube? And radio; BBC Radio4 used to have some I could listen to but they only have the current I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue to listen to.
When I lived in Ireland for a few months in 1990, there was a radio game show hosted by someone whose name was like Gabriel Byrne, but obviously it wasn’t him – it was someone older than he. I think it was called “Catch Phrase.” Apparently quite well loved at tge time among a certain set.
ETA: After a bit of web research, I see that I was conflating two radio shows from my Ireland experience 22 years ago: Gay Byrne (no relation to the “In Treatment” actor, though they’re both Gabriels) is a beloved longtime Irish Republic radio and television host, now 78 years old. “Catch Phrase,” however, was a UK television game show (simulcast on Irish radio, apparently) that happened to be hosted for a long tome by some Northern Irish comedian.
BBC Radio 4 offers a “Friday Night Comedy” podcast that alternates seasons of “The Now Show” (comedy and music sketches) with “The News Quiz” (like Wait Wait but without caller participation or guest stars).
Thanks. The sketches kept me from trying “The Now Show.” I prefer my quiz shows, especially if they have points that don’t matter, but I will give it a try.
Presumably you’ve heard I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. If not, you have 40 years of episodes ahead of you.
You mention your potential intolerance of Jimmy Carr (and his weird laugh), but I think you’d like The Big Fat Quiz of the Year. It’s an end-of-year quiz show that is just an excuse for a bunch of comedians to run riot.
The News Quiz definitely has points that don’t matter. They’re running the Now Show currently, but since that isn’t your cup of tea, you could subscribe and just watch for the episode description to change over.
There’s another radio show you might like, Says You! It’s a bit like an American version of My Word. There’s a list on that site of the stations that carry it, and at what time. I’ve been listening for years, been to a couple tapings, and have a bit of a crush on one of the panelists.
Currently they come on at noon Chicago time on the previous day.
Not a panel show, but Saturday Night Fry was a six-episode comedy series with Stephen Fry (not to be confused with his later short-lived talk show of the same name). The first episode: Saturday Night Fry No. 1 - YouTube
Similar to, but totally different from I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue is Just a Minute, which the BBC has been airing since the late 1880s. Unfortunately, the original telegraph based broadcasts have been lost.
The Unbelievable Truth is another Radio 4 offering, hosted by David Mitchell. The panellists have to lie on a given subject, whilst trying to smuggle a small number of true facts past their competitors. The other contestants have to spot the truths in amongst the lies. (I’ve just noticed that that may well be close to the explanation David Mitchell starts each show with, it feels like something I’ve memorised from somewhere!). I like it, but as with all these things, the humour level depends on the guests.
I think the article dropzone links to sums up their popularity very nicely. Typically a panel will be a mix of familiar faces and the odd newbie, so it’s a good introduction to new comedians. The host has to work, of course - heresy, I know, but I cannot listen to Just a Minute because the host, Nicholas Parsons, make me stabby. Humourless, pompous arsehole, hate him at an unreasonale level.
I think they are probably popular with UK broadcasters because they are relatively cheap to produce. They only need one simple set (if on TV), and they don’t need much scripting. For the comedians and other performers who participate regularly, they are probably also a very easy gig. They do not need to do much if any preparation: just turn up and engage in “witty” banter, something they generally have an innate talent for. I suspect that, for this reason, you probably do not have to pay someone, even quite a star, as much to appear on a panel game as you would for them doing a proper “act”. As for the less well known, less experienced performers who are sometimes on, they would probably pay the production company to get their face on TV, if that were an option. (I don’t suppose it actually is.)
The article linked in the OP does answer the original question to some extent, but it raises another. It says, probably rightly, that Britain’s panel games fill much of the same sort of entertainment needs that in America are filled by late night chat shows. Why, then, are late-night (and often nightly) chat shows such a prominent part of American TV, and so much less significant in Britain?
there may be something with the difference in population size. the USA late night talk shows, and a good amount of daytime too, are used to promote performers nationwide.
Would I Lie to You? is pretty funny, at least for the last two or three series. ISTR trying it out at the beginning and not being so impressed*. Hosted by Rob Brydon, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack.
*Wikipedia tells me that Angus Deayton was the original host, that’s probably what it was.
I’ve always assumed there were two, interlinked reasons for this. Until very recently US television comedy tended to be very sentimental, simplistic, with tiny pools of satire adrift in a tide of glurge. Something like Have I Got News for You wouldn’t work in the US, where there isn’t a tradition of intellectual, informed satire; a US version would either be utterly toothless or basically two lots of people shouting Drudge Report headlines at each other. In general, Americans have a curious, puppy dog faith in their government and state, which defies satire.
They also worship famous people in a way that we don’t in Britain. US chat shows are cosy affairs in which coddled celebrities are allowed to publicise their newest thing, whilst the sycophantic host massages their ego. This goes on to a certain extent in the UK, but the audience would quickly tire of it (the few attempts to emulate David Letterman et al - and indeed the brief attempt to show his programme over here - crashed and burned). We prefer gruffer, less respectful hosts. Which occasionally goes wrong, e.g. this famous Parkinson interview with Meg Ryan, or Clive James with the Bee Gees.
I’ll quote from the comment at the bottom of that article, which is absolutely true: “Perhaps the reason Meg found the interview such a tough exercise is because celebrities such as her are to used to the empty, bland and shallow questions that American chat show hosts ask of their guests. Michael Parkinson asked intelligent questions and wasn’t only interested in the sell sell sell angle.”
So, in summary, Britain and America have different television landscapes because the farmers and landscapers who shaped the land were bred from different stock, and grew up in different environments; the Americans were too busy taming the land to waste time making their media sophisticated, whereas Britain’s environment was tamed a very long time ago. We are in the “where shall we eat” phase, they are still in the “what shall we eat” phase. Perhaps in fifty years they will have caught up.