I was a regular watcher of that too. Although in my case it was after college, and I had to get up at 5am the next morning and go to work.
I loved “The Two Ronnies”. Another Brit-com I liked was “No, Honestly”, which I wish was out on DVD.
Us Aussies can claim Dave Allen as one of ours, even if he wasn’t. He was on tour in Australia in 1963 when he was first offered a TV show, Tonight with Dave Allen. He didn’t get his own show on British TV until several years later. He seemed to spend half his time in Australia and was enormously popular here.
I miss watching Dave Allen, The Goodies, The Two Ronnies, Not the Nine O’Clock News, Alexei Sayle…
(I can’t see videos at work…don’t know if this is in there…)
Dave Allen:
A cockney chap goes to the Unemployment Office to register.
Clerk: What is your name?
Arthur: Smiff
Clerk: How do you spell it?
Arthur: S-M-I-T-H
Clerk: (Eyes roll at the cockney pronunciation) First name?
Arthur: Arfur
Clerk: How do you spell it?
Arthur: A-R-T-H-U-R.
Clerk: (Over enunciating) SmiTH, your name is ArTHur SmiTH.
Clerk: How old are you?
Arthur: Firty-Free
Clerk: (exasperated) How do you spell it?
Arthur: You don’t spell it, it’s a bleedin’ numba!
I was reminded of that joke when we were in London this summer. We were in a pub just outside Windsor and had asked the barkeep about driving into London. A very helpful cockney chap gave us directions which included, “Just take the A-firty…”
In Chicago, as Lips Obsession said, Dave Allen at Large was on PBS with Monty Python. On WFLD 32 they’d show Kenny Everett and Benny Hill. It had been my impression that BBC stuff went on PBS and Thames stuff went on commercial television.
I remember that my uncle considered Dave Allen sort of “hacky” compared to Monty Python. But it was still quite funny.
I don’t know that I’d call Allen ‘hacky’. His show contained skits, much as Monty Python’s Flying Circus did, and most of them were shorter bits that were more ‘pictorial jokes’ instead of ‘sketches’ – if you follow what I’m trying to say. His characters seemed less varied than Python’s, and less ‘silly’. Since sketches were Monthy Python’s whole bag, I can see how some people would like that show more than Allen’s – even if the best of Allen’s sketches were as good as Python’s. Where Dave Allen’s show really shined was in his monologues, which took up half the show. They were brilliant for their time.
Dave Allen a ‘hack’? Humbug!
Yes, that confirms my feeling that he was more famous for being Bernard Cribbins than for any particular character he played.
Johnny L.A., perhaps more ‘old school’ than hack. I’ve just been reading a biography of Ronnie Barker (The Two Ronnies, Porridge, Open All Hours) and in it he discussed comedy’s roots being in the old music hall. What he described was a format that was common to most of the comedians before Spike Milligan and Monty Python - A mix of skits, songs, monologues and character pieces.
People often say the the Python team broke that mold, but Spike did it first and the Pythons had to re-jig their proposed format to something closer to the mainstream to avoid being seen as following his new anarchic style. They’ve said so in at least one interview (Life of Brian DVD extras IIRC).
I only remember one Dave Allen joke:
Heaven and Hell are separated by a fence. The fence has fallen into disrepair, and there is a dispute between God and the Devil as to who is responsible for fixing it. After some argument God threatens to get a lawyer. The devil says, “where are you going to find a lawyer?”
(I actually think that might be an old joke)