Through Comcast on Demand, under TV & BBC I have been able to watch the first 5 episodes of season 4 and last night via Netflix “watch it now” feature, I watched the first two episodes of season 3.
This show is quirky, funny and very enjoyable. The comedy is intelligent and the creative use of split screens and timing is magnificently refreshing. I will probably have to Netflix the first two seasons.
Mainly I was wondering if there were other fans out there, what they could tell me about the show and how popular it was in England.
I noticed that Steven Moffat is the writer. I know he did a few of the best episodes of Dr Who.
I saw Steve is Jack Davenport who has done a good job as Norrington in PotC.
Why were there only 28 episodes? How does BBC TV work anyway? Are 6-9 episode seasons common?
It’s very stereotypical gender role comedy, but I love it. Absolutely hilarious. Until you get to the 4th season, where it tanks (Jeff leaves and is replaced by the rather boring Oliver character, and the entire chemistry of the show is destroyed, IMHO).
I’m not British, but short seasons and runs I think are very typical out there, from my experience. One of the longer-running sitcoms, Are You Being Served had 69 episodes over 10 seasons. Fawlty Towers had only twelve, period.
The show was pretty popular with both viewers and critics over here. Up until the fourth series anyway, when the loss of Jeff was really felt.
Don’t have the figures for each series to hand, but first run episodes of the first series averaged 2.5 million viewers each with an audience share of about 12.5%.
Short runs of a show are the norm over here. The commonly cited reason being that our comedies are written by one or two people rather than a team of writers as is usual in the US.
Thanks, I knew about Faulty Towers, but I thought maybe that was strictly what John Cleese set out to do. I never noticed the short seasons with Young Ones or Dr Who, so I never really noticed it before. It is disconcerting when I am used to our 22+ episode seasons and I think in the 60s they actually had 30 episode seasons. *I just checked, The Dick Van Dyke show had 153 shows for a 5 year run. Gilligan’s had 98 for 3 seasons. *
I find the Oliver character funny, but I saw episodes from season 4 first, so maybe I am not suffering any let down.
We discovered it like 5 years ago when it first came to us on BBC America. What a great show! I remember seeing the original POTC movie and thinking, Steve? Steve is a commander. No way could he be in charge of anything. But of course Jack Davenport is a good actor, so it worked. My favorite was Jeff (Richard Coyle) I really missed him in season 4.
My favorite was the third series episode entitled, “The Freckle, the Key and the Couple Who Weren’t,”
In which Jeff was having a kinky evening with his girlfriend. She was handcuffed to the headboard, but he accidentally swallowed the key. I still smile when remember the scene when Jeff rushed into the bar to ask for advice, still wearing the leather mask.
I agree with the others. If you liked the fourth series, you’ll love the previous ones.
Another thing. I was amazed that the British version was so funny and well-written, but the American remake (using the same scripts) was so flat and unfunny. And I seem to remember there was a controversy over whether the following exchange was too filthy or sophisticated for an American audience, so it was dropped from the American script:
Susan on Patrick: “One swallow doesn’t make a summer.”
Steve on Jane: “One swallow does not make her my girlfriend.”
Another one to add to your list is “Worst Week of My Life”, also starring Sarah Alexander from Coupling. Week one (season) was the wedding (think of “Meet the Fockers”), and second season was the birth of the baby. BBC America showed season two recently, and season one at least is available on DVD.
ABC tried to replicate it with “Big Day” which was a mess compared to “Worst Week of My Life”. There’s another series coming out soon that has a wedding theme - “Wedding Blues” I think it’s called.
