Another one here who isn’t a fan of Bean.
Another vote for smart B.A. Not that big a fan of 1 but like 2-4 and the kwernuz special very much.
I could see Flash-heart as a Ted Turner-style corporate adventurer who’s always off on some kind of bold activity, like a sahari, or flying a balloon over a volcano.
2, 4, 3, specials. 1 could cease to exist for all I care. I never bother to re-watch it.
If you really want to see the two gentlemen change places I can recommend the Blackadder Christmas Special.
Aw.
But Series 1 is dignified by the presence of BRIAN BLESSED.
I like Series 1, but for me yes it’s also my least favorite. I would hardly call it “bad.”
Season 2 contains BRIAN BLESSED as well, though admittedly only in a couple of cameos.
Where in season 2 does BRIAN BLESSED appear?
It does sound appealing, but wouldn’t people accuse them of rippping off The Office?
I suppose the people who would don’t really matter, though.
I also prefer Blackadder as the cunning schemer. I like season 1, but much prefer 2,3 and 4.
I disagree. First of all, the rest of the regular cast consisted of only Baldrick, Prince George, and, to a lesser extent, Mrs. Miggins. The emphasis during this season was on guest appearances, and on that score, it wildly succeeds. Stephen Fry as Wellington, Robbie Coltrane as Samuel Johnson, Miranda Richardson as Amy/The Shadow…terrific all around, IMO. Second, the most striking thing about season 3 is that, at the end, the series comes full circle. Blackadder is the son of the King in season 1, and at the end of season 3, he is once again cast in that role.
I can’t even rate the last 3 seasons because, as far as I’m concerned, they are all equally brilliant.
I think Miranda Richardson could play anything she damn well pleased better than pretty much anyone else could. The makeup might be a bitch, though.
Less about the goings on in the office, more about his situation and his cunning plans to succeed. That keeps the cast smaller.
Actually, if they did that, I’d think he’d be more of a Richard Branson-type.
I agree. I think if they ever do a Blackadder in a contemporary setting (which, given the age of the cast and the fact Fry and Laurie have gone on to bigger things, seems unlikely), you’d almost have to have Baldrick as Blackadder’s superior. The only thing different about is that I’d have him considerably higher up the corporate ladder. He’d still be a grubby-looking simpleton but he’d be more of an idiot-savant–someone who comes up with ideas and inventions that would seem preposterous to anybody with more than two brain cells but somehow end up being wildly successful. The rest of the world would regard him as an innovator and a business genius but Blackadder would know Baldrick’s really the luckiest moron in the history of capitalism.
No it doesn’t.
I think for Blackadder in a modern context, that The Thin Blue Line is as close as we will ever get. (love the notion of a police show with PC Goody, DI Grim and DC Kray)
As with Cleese’s Fawlty Towers and his own Mr Bean, Atkinson knows when to draw the curtain.
I think that a single episode where Flash drops in, ruins all of Blackadder’s plans, gets the girl, the credit, and all the money, would be just perfect. Maybe he seduces the capable stock broker Roberta Parkhurst on the way …
His name on the company? He lucked into it, of course. Or founded the company on pure awesome, and had Melchett, Darling, and the rest turn it into something financially viable enough for a TV show.
Oh, FSM, yes! And still make the “Iron Maiden” a giggly school girl at opportune moments (like when she meets Lord Flasheart).
The question is very difficult to answer for a very simple reason. Ben Elton wasn’t a writer on the first series but was on all the others. Whether he could have written a simpleton Blackadder to match the cunning Blackadder is unknown. It is his writing genius which, in my opinion, makes the rest of the series.
Pre Ben Elton, Blackadder was a simpleton. With Ben Elton as a writer, Blackadder was cunning. I believe this makes comparisons impossible.
I heard that they were toying with the idea of a Blackadder in the 1960’s as the manager a a “fab four” type of band, with Baldrick as the drummer. But Rowan decided to move on from the charactor.
[Prince Albert]Daaaamn.[/Prince Albert]
I see that Little Nemo beat me to it.
I’ve read that in the original pilot Blackadder was portrayed as more cunning (and another actor played Baldrick). Then when the first series was made, Blackadder’s character was dumbed down and Bladrick was recast.
The Baldrick character was going to be called Bald Rick, the drummer.
If you had Rik Mayall’s ‘Flash’ in the Thatcher era, he wouldn’t be a million miles away from his Alan B’Stard character in The New Statesman ( New Statesman - Wikipedia ) albeit a hell of a lot crueller.