I thought that plotline made more sense than when Chester thought he was Marlene Dietrich. At least it gave us the moment when Burt was explaining to Mary how he’d been abducted, then snapped his fingers and got re-abducted, vanishing before her eyes. Her reaction? “OMG, Burt, you CAN turn invisible! I’m sorry I never believed you!!”
I enjoyed all the seasons, but I admit it was wearing a bit thinner toward the end.
I like that one. The dynamic between the father and Janet is straight-up wonderful.
Note that it’s based on a BBC series of the same name. And I don’t know if the UK original or the US adaptation qualifies as “smart” but they are fun.
I do watch that on Amazon. Sergeant Davis Quinton is stupid to an extent. But my folks live up there and did some stuff for the show, so I still watch it once in a while. Yes, the star, Brent, is not stupid.
My Wife tapes MASH and we both watch it. But Burns is stupid. The show picks up when Winchester gets there, but then it starts being run by Alda, and the plots gets too preachy.
Wonderful show, am watching it as the episodes come out.
BTW- is there any way for us Yanks to view the British Original? I subscribe to HBO on cable, but altho the show is supposedly on HBO Max, I think that is just streaming.
I believe if you’re a subscriber to the HBO cable channel, you are able to access the HBO Max streaming service.
This is correct, at least in my case. I subscribe to HBO via my Cox cable, and I can login to HBOMAX using my Cox credentials.
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin [the original one with Leonard Rossiter].
[The hero is being interviewed on a TV talk show.]
“In fact, I provide a valuable social service.”
“Mr. Perrin, are you trying to tell us that you provide a valuable social service?”
“No.”
“But you just said—”
“I’m not trying to tell you that I provide a valuable social service; I’m succeeding. If I had said, ‘I like squashy bananas,’ I would have failed to tell you that I provide a valuable social service, but I didn’t say, ‘I like squashy bananas,’ I said, ‘I provide a valuable social service,’ and thus succeeded brilliantly at telling you that I provide a valuable social service.”
I do … it was derailed by American movie classics becoming just another TBS station
although that was due to TCM and fox making their own “classics” stations then not getting the movies they were used to getting and new owners adding commercials …
Future Man is a very bizarre but surprisingly deep 3-season show. The depth of cultural reference twisted for humorous gain is just astounding. The third and last season was clearly made on a much smaller budget than the previous two, but it still provides a satisfying story and series ending.
It’s been many years since I watched it, but I remember Slings and Arrows as being smart and clever (and especially fun if you’re a theater buff).
Perhaps Mapp and Lucia, Although that might be called highbrow rather than smart.
There are two productions, the 1980s ITV one and the more recent BBC version, the older one is generally reckoned to be the better of the two.
Since the show Barney Miller was mentioned in the OP, I thought you might want to know that Hal Linden, who played Barney Miller, is still alive and still working at 91:
Wouldn’t it be great if he could play the same character in a new show? It couldn’t be about him still being a policeman, since his character would be well into retirement years. Only Max Gail (who played Wojo) and Barbara Barrie (who played Elizabeth, Barney’s wife) are still alive from the main cast. It would be about Barney still working at something.
This scene about the readership of the British papers is probably my favorite from the show, and it holds up remarkably well almost 40 years later;
It was a favorite of the late critic Terry Teachout, whose taste in sitcoms was very much in keeping with the OP’s. (FWIW, Teachout also loved The Good Place and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.)
Seconded.
Would the Norman Lear shows fit? The Archie Bunker version of “stupid” is different from most stupid characters, and most of the shows don’t have that type of character.
Good call. I’ve heard it said more than once that, as surreal and silly as the show could occasionally be, it got the reality of working in a hospital better than any other Dr. show, including ‘serious’ ones.
My memory is hazy, but I do recall that one of the more unusual and original TV comedies of the 1960s was My World and Welcome To It, starring William Windom, and based on the stories and cartoons of James Thurber. (1969-1970) Definitely off the beaten track, and with the Thurber lineage, pretty clearly “smart”.
I’m another who fondly remembers Remember WENN. It was always kind of fun to occasionally spot actors from it when they showed up on one of the Law & Order shows.
Apparently it’s available for streaming if I were to add AMC+ to my Amazon Prime subscription. I’m on the fence as to whether I want to add yet another streaming service just for a single show, even a good one.
Does anyone else remember Happy Endings?