This made me think of an Icelandic sitcom the BBC took some years ago:
Just started The Orville yesterday. Seems an amusing take on Star Trek - of which we were both long fans, tho we grew tired of many of the more recent manifestations.
Yeah, plenty of “mayhem”, but in a Star Trek way.
You said Star Trek mayhem and immediately though of this music. Just the music, though. Didn’t think of the street gang crab.
I would suggest The Muppet Show but the band is Dr.Teeth and The Electric Mayhem…
I’ll toss out a few shows I enjoyed that I believe fit the category and haven’t been mentioned:
800 Words
Finding Joy
Anne with an E (sure, it’s probably targeted towards kids, but this 50+ year old loved it, even though I never thought I would since I grew up with the Megan Follows version, but I think I enjoyed this one even more!)
Virgin River
The Chair
Turn up Charlie
Benidorm
I second Mum.
Caveat to this one: I started watching with Mrs. solost, even though it’s not the typical kind of show I would normally watch. It does mostly have this comforting vibe, a sort of old-timey small-town atmosphere (with beautiful backdrop scenery) where everybody knows and is supportive of each other.
However, it is basically a soap opera, which means (very slight spoilers): there is a fair amount of mayhem of various degrees, and a teeny bit of murder (or at least attempted murder). No rape as far as I remember.
If you like Trek comedy with that also is serious at times, then you’d likely be into Lower Decks as well. It simultaneously pokes a little fun while showing great reverence to the Star Trek material.
There’s plenty of mayhem though.
True, but the same is true of The Orville. I wouldn’t have suggested it had he not mentioned liking that show.
We watched the 1st ep of LD at the strong rec of our kids. As I recall, people were exploding or turning into zombies or something. We didn’t care for it/find its funny. Haven’t seen anything similar thru a few eps of Orville.
The first couple of episodes are considered atypical for the series. They were apparently pushed to mimic Rick and Morty. The show changes drastically enough that people sometimes forget about those first few episodes.
There are at least a few episodes of The Lawrence Welk Show that do not feature murder, mayhem or rape. Available on different channels including Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+.
Those nice, clean-cut young men and women, always smiling.*
*the tap-dancing did get a bit racy at times.
I have to agree with your assessment of Virgin River. It’s definitely a soap opera with that type of storylines. I’m not going to spoiler this: If a miscarriage storyline will be harmful to you, don’t watch this.
One of the first to come to mind is Hotel (sometimes styled Arthur Hailey’s Hotel). It’s from the 1980s, and as I recall, some critics at the time described it as “Love Boat on dry land.” I disagree; Love Boat was often light fluff, with a few dramatic moments; Hotel has a lot of drama with a few light and fluffy moments.
It does skate close to the edge of your parameters in a few episodes, though it never quite crosses over into nothing but mayhem. What does happen, mayhem-wise, is not the focus of the episode, at any rate–like Love Boat, there are often three storylines to be attended to (and like Love Boat, they are often, but not always, a comedy, a romance, and a drama), and the mayhem, when there is any, might be only a brief fistfight that contributes to one of the storylines.
This sounds very much like a cheeky tongue-in-cheek recommendation, but it reminds me I was going to recommend ‘The Waltons’ early on in this thread but I held back, thinking it might be taken as a joke recommendation.
The Waltons has a rep as the ultimate tame family show, one you could watch with your Grandma or your church group. And it is that, but it’s also a fairly realistic, sympathetic depiction of a Virginia family during the Great Depression that can be moving and even slyly humorous at times. It’s based on the writings of Earl Hamner Jr., based on his family (he’s the real John-Boy), and he’s the narrator on the show.
I vaguely remembered watching the show as a kid, and started rewatching the entire series on an on-air retro channel (METV, I think, or Decades) during the early days of the pandemic, and it became a comfort watch. You could probably still catch it on the retro channel, or it looks like it’s streaming on Freevee.
Actually, LW’s band was made up of world class musicians. Similar to Doc Severinsen’s band on the old Tonight Show.
I wasn’t knocking the Lawrence Welk Band, just saying that the way Jackmannii worded his recommendation made it sound more than a little tongue-in-cheek. But hey, if that style of music is up your alley, it is a very solid rec for a show with absolutely no murder, mayhem or rape.
If non-fiction is OK for this thread, then I believe the BBC’s Repair Shop has been on the US Discovery+ channel. Absolutely no violence, and no mention of money even, just seemingly miraculous craftsmanship repairing family treasures - and all the associated stories.
