It certainly was groundbreaking stuff, and I liked it (the first series, at least), but I have never quite had the courage to recommend it as viewing material to anyone.
Other things I tend NOT to recommend:
-The Young Ones - great for its time, but has not aged well at all.
-The Fast Show and Little Britain - I love these, but they are very repetitive and this is what tends to come across most when they are recommended - I think most people that love these sorts of shows discovered them independently.
No one has mentioned Ripping Yarns yet, so I will. It is some of the most hilarious stuff I’ve ever seen, and it’s recently been released on DVD in the US. (My copy is from the UK, so I’ve had to set up one of my home computer DVD drives as Region 2 just to play this one series).
An Fawlty Towers is one of my favourites, too. The painful part is that Basil and Sybil Fawlty are really totally socially inept, each in their own way, and their marriage is consequently a total failure. (I think they only go on living together in order to make life difficult for the other.) But once you accept that as part of the black comedy, the rest is brilliant.
Fawlty Towers DEFINITELY gets better. Stick with it. Or better yet, skip to “The Germans”, “Gourmet Night”, or “Communication Problems” first. If you don’t find those entertaining, then you can certainly give up. More than likely you will then want to watch the rest of them (some of the first season aren’t up to par with the rest of the installments).
I’ve only just started “Father Ted”, and I’m told it takes a few episode to warm up to.
But I LOVE the (BBC) “The Office” (and, consequently, can’t stand the american version). Absolutely brilliant, and I’d highly recommend it.
Men Behaving Badly and Coupling are hilarious as the original British versions. (Sad generic sit-coms in their inexplicably re-shot U.S. versions.). Like others here, I think you’d enjoy Jeeves and Wooster.
I do like some Fawlty Towers more than others; perhaps see the shows cormac262 lists. Also I find the earlier episodes of Red Dwarf to be the best - if you saw only the most recent ones perhaps check back again.
For stuff no-one has listed yet, IMHO Bottom is the best comedy show ever. (Starring two of the characters from The Young Ones). I also came across a few episodes of The I.T. Crowd on the 'net last month (probably the only way it’ll ever be seen over here) and found it to be quite watchable.
The best episode is “The Germans”. In fact, that episode is one of the funniest shows in the history of comedy. And check out these links after you’ve seen it (because they contain spoilers):
Check out Yes, Minister, and Yes, Prime Minister. They’re mostly about the difficulties an elected official has when dealing with bureaucrats who in theory work for him. I think these series are brilliant.
I’ll also recommend trying BBC radio series. My favorite is I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again, which had John Cleese as a performer for most of its run (at about the same time as Python), and Graham Chapman and Eric Idle did some writing for the series.
BBC7 also has a great variety of other audio comedy. One well-liked series was The Goon Show. It’s been called groundbreaking, and many comedians (including Python) have stated it was an inspiration. BBC 7 has also broadcast Saturday Night Fry. If it sounds interesting, email me.
I’m glad somebody mentioned The I.T. Crowd because I think it’s a real grower. I watched the first episode and was not impressed at all, but by the end of the first series I really liked it. Once it hit its stride there were some pants-wettingly funny episodes. It’s written by Graham Lineham, who co-wrote Father Ted, and it definitely has that feel to it. I’m looking forward to series two.
I’m hardly an expert in British comedy, but I do loves me some Young Ones! Great stuff that I can watch over and over again. I finally got around to watching Bottom not too long ago, and I like it a lot too, though it’s more slapsticky.
Perhaps “consequently” wasn’t the proper term, but for me, I’ve tried, but I cannot get into the american version.
(Apologies for slight hijack) The american version could have possibly stood on its own had there not been the BBC version. But the big problems I have with it are that, to me, they miss what made the BBC version work so well - it was believable.
First, whereas you can imagine a boss like David Brent, the american version (in typical american form) is too over the top - there is no way he could have achieved a position such as he has in any company. I actually do like Steve Carrel, but he (and the writers) takes things just too far to be believable. Funny, perhaps, but not realistic.
Second, though they try, they do not “sell” the supposed documentary aspect of the premise. There are far too many “lucky” camera placements to catch the action (happened to be on the other side of a door before one of the characters comes through to make a joke, etc.). And there are scenes where there would have had to have been 3 or 4 cameramen crammed into the (supposed) small conference room to have caught all the different characters and angles. But aside from just the camerawork, the actors don’t sell that this is supposed to be “real life” either - there are too many deliberate pauses after jokes (so the audience can get the joke and laugh).
Add this all up and the american version ends up being little more than a sitcom (over the top, non-realistic characters) done with a shakey cam and no laugh track. The BBC version was subtle and believable. In fact, the joy is that you can get so much more out of it on repeated viewings - it just gets better.
Based on you liking Python and Black Adder and not so much Fawlty Towers and Red Dwarf, I’m betting your tastes would run towards what Clockwork And Candy suggested. Also as e-logic said, the Yes, Minister/Prime Minister series. Good wordplay without the goofiness of Fawlty Towers and Red Dwarf (though I personally liked Red Dwarf).
My favorites are Are You Being Served, Vicar of Dibley, Father Ted, Keeping Up Appearances, Fawlty Towers, and Monty Python. There are many more that are excellent, these are just the ones off the top of my head.
I knew about MBB, but had no idea they had done the same with Coupling. Why?!? Things like this just make the world a bit less shiny - I’m just going to pretend that one never happened.
A bit hard to find on video (I managed to find some VHS tapes of questionable legality on eBay [wound up with extras, if anyone’s interested]), but I highly recommend the work of Dave Allen.