I adore AYBS. It’s so silly. Just nice, silly stuff. They all have such good facial expressions. The best episodes, IMO, are the ones where they go to the toy section, the greek wedding, club rendezvous, and the dance of the toys. But I have other favorites too.
That being said, I hate all of the rest I’ve seen, except ‘Chef’. That keeping up appearances, allo, benny hill, augh, I can’t take them.
How do the Carry On films sit with y’all? I personally love ‘quaint’ English fair (I say English because you’re hard-pushed to find anything worthwhile from the other 3 corners of the UK - good or bad). It’s cheeky without being crude; it’s kiss-me-quick hats and wrinklies enjoying secret clinches behind the local cafe and bad innuendo-riddled jokes.
Unfortunately Mr. Cleese is the only person I can think of who had the [balls] gumption to quit making Fawlty Towers after 13 episodes. The Allo Allo’s of this world are allowed to rattle on like empty kettles, no steam left and quite dangerous…
American exports that high heaven can smell :- the aforementioned and, imho, Third Rock From The Sun. I do believe that the yanks have got it over the brits when it comes to sitcoms on the whole, however. again, they are allowed to run and run, but in their spritely years i loved Roxanne, Cheers, even Friends.
By the way, can anyone remember the name of the English sitcom where a teacher is trying to teach English to a group of non-English students? I remember the line “Oh deary me!”, uttered by the Indian gentleman I think, and I used to think this was hilarious as a kid. It was probably about as pc as “It Ain’t 'Alf Hot Mum!”
How do the Carry On films sit with y’all? I personally love ‘quaint’ English fair (I say English because you’re hard-pushed to find anything worthwhile from the other 3 corners of the UK - good or bad). It’s cheeky without being crude; it’s kiss-me-quick hats and wrinklies enjoying secret clinches behind the local cafe and bad innuendo-riddled jokes.
Unfortunately Mr. Cleese is the only person I can think of who had the [balls] gumption to quit making Fawlty Towers after 13 episodes. The Allo Allo’s of this world are allowed to rattle on like empty kettles, no steam left and quite dangerous…
American exports that high heaven can smell :- the aforementioned and, imho, Third Rock From The Sun. I do believe that the yanks have got it over the brits when it comes to sitcoms on the whole, however. again, they are allowed to run and run, but in their spritely years i loved Roxanne, Cheers, even Friends.
By the way, can anyone remember the name of the English sitcom where a teacher is trying to teach English to a group of non-English students? I remember the line “Well goodness gracious me!”, uttered by the Indian gentleman I think, and I used to think this was hilarious as a kid. It was probably about as pc as “It Ain’t 'Alf Hot Mum!”… come to think of it, it might have been called “Goodness Gracious Me!”
Oh, God!
I forgot all about the Carry On movies! They were hysterical!
Kenneth Williams was hilarious!
Thanks JohnBckWLD and ** Jeff Olsen** for the errrr…heads up. I knew there was something fishy about a Captain becoming a Floor Manager…just didn’t sit right with me.
As for ‘Carry On’, Charles Hawtrey …God how I love that man !
St Trinians, anyone ?
Man, since the “pussy” of the OP, this thread has gone all over the map.
However, as long as it has turned into British series of yore:
I remember years ago seeing a very funny series with three women - one was the heavy set actress from Vicar of Dibly, the other was Tracy Ulman as an American (exchange student) and the other was from AbFab (I think).
Anyone know what this series was? It was very funny.
No, that’s not what it was called…but I can’t for the life of me remember the title either! But I remember the Indian chap.
My dad loved The Two Ronnies, so anything starring them was a winner. I remember there was that show Porridge, and there was one more starring the big Ronnie where he has his own grocers shop and his girlfriend is a mature woman who comes in for a chat most days. Can anyone remember the name of THAT show?
I loved “Are you being served?” It was on every night at 10:30 when I was in law school. I watched every episode about 4 times.
It was funnier at the beginning. After a while, there are only so many jokes about “in my trousers” or “in my knickers” that are funny. Eventually, it becomes rather tired.
My 3 nominees[ol][]German Week[]Mr. Harmon / Mrs. Slocombe / Mr Humphries (Italian Tony) as Ma’s GangA Night at the Opera[/ol]
Heh. I remember that one! God this thread is taking me waaaaaay back!
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
1977-79 Three seasons
The put upon problems of Jeremy Brown, an English Language night school teacher for mature foreign students. Along with Love Thy Neighbour, candidate for most controversial and unPC Sitcom ever. The show features every racial stereotype imaginable.
Mind Your Language did have a fourth season in 1986, but:
That information is from TV Comedy Resources - a must read site for fans of British sitcoms.
Another great site:
God help me, I think I might…‘Open All Hours’ ?
Dmark, that show was called ‘Girls on Top.’
Tsubaki, London Calling’s right, that was Open All Hours, but the woman (Nurse Gladys?) wasn’t quite his girlfriend - most of the series was about him trying to get her to be so. Ronnie Barker in that played Mr Grimsdale, which was pronounced with about fifteen g’s by David Jason as his assistant, who later went on to star in Only Fools and Horses, The Darling Buds of May, and really too many other shows to name.
Carry On deserves a thread of its own, and probably has several already somewhere, matron.
Yep, QueenAl, we’ve done ‘Carry On’ occasionally, usually as a hijack to another thread.
However, we’ve never done, to the best of my knowledge, St Trinians !
Three that I’ve not seen in awhile (and loved) are:
Rising Damp
Bless Me Father
The comedian with the missing index finger - damned funny guy IMHO but I can’t remember the name of the show.
AYBS? ABYSMAL.
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by JohnBckWLD *
**My 3 nominees[ol][li]German Week[]Mr. Harmon / Mrs. Slocombe / Mr Humphries (Italian Tony) as Ma’s GangA Night at the Opera[/ol] **[/li][/QUOTE]
Ah! German week was on tonight. I love that one. Mollie Sugden plays a perfect drunk.
In my previous post, I was a bit unclear, I said that I hated all the rest, I meant all the rest of the British comedies I have seen… not all of the rest of the AYBS episodes. I have favorites, and some not so favorites, but I love them all and have a fit every time the PBS station takes it off the air.
Two other good exports, I think, that I’ll NEVER see on PBS are AbFab and The Young Ones.
I think that was the Irish comedian Dave Allen.
Well, this sounds like Girls on Top to me. The Vicar of DIbley is Dawn French, and the ‘abfab’ woman is Jennifer Saunders, thus making them ‘French & Saunders’, probably the most famous comedienne duo in England
Did anyone watch “The Young Ones”? MTV aired it back in the day-- I thought is was completely hysterical – I still have some
episodes on tape. I remember a monkees-type show called “The Goodies” from when I was younger too…