# Mrs. Slocum's Pussy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2002, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511 "2002-06-23T00:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/81 "2002-06-28T13:13:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stimpy \* > \*\*this one probably didn’t make it across the pond, but i’d love to know if it did. it was called (because that helps!) “Dear John…” \*\* It did. Judd Hirsch played the lead in the US remake. I thought I wouldn’t have minded trying to warm up the “frigid” woman in the original (played by Belinda Lang, who later appeared in _Rosanne_-a-like _2.4 Children_. How’s Ren keeping by the way? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/82 "2002-06-28T13:14:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stimpy \* > \*\*this one probably didn’t make it across the pond, but i’d love to know if it did. it was called (because that helps!) “Dear John…” \*\* It did. Judd Hirsch played the lead in the US remake. I thought I wouldn’t have minded trying to warm up the “frigid” woman in the original (played by Belinda Lang, who later appeared in _Rosanne_-a-like _2.4 Children_). How’s Ren keeping by the way? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/83 "2002-06-28T13:17:26Z")
Another vote for the \*\*Goodies[/]b (Hey - I’ve got a photo of me with Tim Brooke-Taylor, you know!. LOL) And, **Chelmsford 123** anyone? ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/84 "2002-06-28T13:22:01Z")
I wonder if **Stimpy** ’s chanced across one of the characteristics that distinguishes many UK comedies from their US counterparts. FWIW, I think many UK comedies tend to have an underlying tragic aspect to them; sometimes poverty and desperation, other times social exclusion – usually by being oddballs, maybe just hopeless (usually male) cases…there’s usually a theme of people struggling with _something_. Or not ? BTW, Freedom for Tooting ! ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/85 "2002-06-28T13:25:44Z")
Is that Yeti still here? (another personal fave of mine BTW **L\_C** ) ---
**Author:** ![ShadowWarrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@ShadowWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowWarrior)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/86 "2002-06-28T13:25:55Z")
British comedy tends to be a bit more slapstick/farcical that american. American sitcoms largely consist of a group of people sitting around saying witty things to each other, wheras brit-coms put a character in a funny situation, and watch him get out. ---
**Author:** ![QueenAl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/d26b3c/32.png) [@QueenAl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QueenAl)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/87 "2002-06-28T13:33:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ShadowWarrior \* > \*\*British comedy tends to be a bit more slapstick/farcical that american. American sitcoms largely consist of a group of people sitting around saying witty things to each other, wheras brit-coms put a character in a funny situation, and watch him get out. \*\* … Or watch him dig himself ever deeper into that hole. There’s a comedy on BBC2 right now that’s very good at that, _Coupling,_, a take-off of Friends but good in its own right, IMHO. British comedies are darker than American, definitely. That’s why transfers rarely work well, unless only the basic idea is taken over and the rest if left to grow on its own. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/88 "2002-06-28T13:38:47Z")
And NBC is going to remake _Coupling_ as a new show to take over after _Friends_ goes off the air next year. The cycle continues… ---
**Author:** ![QueenAl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/d26b3c/32.png) [@QueenAl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QueenAl)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/89 "2002-06-28T13:43:15Z")
**Telemark** , really? That’s perfect in its irony! ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/90 "2002-06-28T13:45:31Z")
I do certainly think the centre-stage sofa thing is pretty limiting. Yep, there’s more slapstick but I was thinking more of some kind of depth beyond the surface humour… ---
**Author:** ![MarkF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MarkF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarkF)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/91 "2002-06-28T14:04:10Z")
> [@](#): > > BTW, Freedom for Tooting ! Yes! Citizen Smith! Excellent show. Robert Lindsay was really funny in that one. Peter Vaughan as the dad was pretty terrifying. I saw some episodes of the US version of “Dear John” and didn’t think it worked at all. Judd Hirsch never really captured the pathetic quality that Ralph Bates did in the English version. And Belinda Lang was damn cute in that as well… rowr! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/92 "2002-06-28T16:17:07Z")
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**Author:** ![Stimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@Stimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stimpy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/93 "2002-06-30T09:43:52Z")
Thank you MarkF. Ralph Bates! And (unrelated) wasn’t he in “Day of the Triffids” or the one where everyone on earth inexpicably disappears except for a handful of people? Both mid-eighties fodder i think. I see what you mean London\_Calling. We do like our black humour (we do, we do - a moderate alteration to one of my favourite Fawlty Towers lines (The Builders)). The Young One’s and, to a much lesser extent because i was more repelled than tickled, Bottom are degradation and degeneration at their teetering height. I also adored the trials and tribulations (?) of Reginald Perrin. A see-saw two series spectacle of man pitted against his world. How many U.S. sitcoms get re-made in the U.K. (or elsewhere for that matter)? I remember the disastrous Brighton Belles as a remake of Golden Girls (which i quite enjoyed). ---
**Author:** ![QueenAl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/d26b3c/32.png) [@QueenAl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QueenAl)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/94 "2002-06-30T09:53:37Z")
**Stimpy** , Reggie Perrin is one of my _ahem_ perrinennial favourites. The show hasn’t been repeated for several years, but each series is available in book form, and they’re almost as funny. ---
**Author:** ![Stimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@Stimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stimpy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/95 "2002-06-30T10:02:23Z")
would be interesting to see this remade for the US. oil tycoon Dwight Schultz (Howling Mad Murdoch) fantasizes about his young prodigy whilst imagining his mother-in-law to be a snout-blowing water buffalo… or something. takes off all his clothes and dives into Lake Michigan. 2nd series, the rise of a president. sorry, gotta go and watch brazil v germany now. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/96 "2002-06-30T14:37:35Z")
Let me just say that I despise Mr. Bean. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Stimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@Stimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stimpy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/97 "2002-06-30T18:10:42Z")
isnt mr b a victim of every other funny. over-cooked and served up to a suspecting public who peel back the bbq foil and get exactly what they were worried about getting - another saturday night in, in front of the box cheated into thinking theyd be entertained with something new. mr bean, it started off well, possibly even new (yes, its silent humour, but its new for now) and original (god help us) but we do like to push and to push and to squeeze and drain till every last drop is drunk. mr cleese, ms francis, i salute you. you came, you saw, you left good enough alone. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511/98 "2002-07-04T06:55:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kal \* > \*\*Outraged Mary Whitehouse \*\* Which is a good way of determining whether something is worth watching, actually. But then, I’m a _Dr. Who_ fan. So I’m biased. And no, I’m not going to explain, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mrs-slocums-pussy/115511.md?page=4)