Vote for the best British comedy

[Gargoyle]

I have to agree w/ mkelley -"The fall and rise of Reginald Perrin" was one the best comedies, British or otherwise, that I have ever seen. ("I didn't get where I am today by saying...."). "Fawlty Towers" tops it, but not by by much.

[gcutler]

I have to agree w/ mkelley -"The fall and rise of Reginald Perrin" was one the best comedies, British or otherwise, that I have ever seen. ("I didn't get where I am today by saying...."). "Fawlty Towers" tops it, but not by by much.

Yes Tom, I'd love some Radish Wine.

[mkelley]

One of the things that marks a truly top-notch show is how well it holds up under multiple viewings. There are a lot of shows (comedy or not, British or not) that are very good the first time through and then not something you'd ever want to watch again.

For me "Reginald" is watchable again and again -- it only gets better the more you know how the plot (such as it is) turns out. "Fawlty" is also like that -- emminently repeatable.

I really miss Leonard Rossiter -- here in the U.S. most people know him (if they know him at all) from his very brief appearance in "2001". His work in "Perrin" proves he was up there among the greatest comic actors of all times. He definitely was done too soon.

[EddyH]

I do beleive the proper terminology is "The Paxman Gambit"??

[Craig Tucker]

And I agree with you about the Simpsons, I think it is the best program to come out of the states. Their are others that I really enjoy, Friends and Seinfield stand out as my other favourites.

I forgot Malcolm in the middle, great show, very funny and nice to have an American sitcom without the canned laughter.

[Will Hay]

I heard that Taggert was subtitled in the US. They should have bloody subtitled it here as well.

"There's bin a mur-da"


Will

[Will Hay]

And I agree with you about the Simpsons, I think it is the best program to come out of the states. Their are others that I really enjoy, Friends and Seinfield stand out as my other favourites.

I forgot Malcolm in the middle, great show, very funny and nice to have an American sitcom without the canned laughter.

Yup, agree with you on that one too.
I have the Region One first set but boy the rest are slow in coming out
How many series are there?
Will

[Craig Tucker]

And I agree with you about the Simpsons, I think it is the best program to come out of the states. Their are others that I really enjoy, Friends and Seinfield stand out as my other favourites.

I forgot Malcolm in the middle, great show, very funny and nice to have an American sitcom without the canned laughter.

Yup, agree with you on that one too.
I have the Region One first set but boy the rest are slow in coming out
How many series are there?
Will

I think there are about 4 series, I was looking at purchasing the region1 disc on play.com last night £19.99, not bad value considering the amount of episodes. What are there, about 16.

[flaninacupboard]

Think it's 18? six on each disc?
Bought the R1 set when it first came out, been itching for the rest of them ever since! Pain the ass though, my Sony DVD player is R2 locked, so i either have to watch them on my cheap-and-not-very-good-looking Bush, or (as i did in the end) Rip them and put them on DVD-R.

They're partway through series 5 right now, i've been keeping up to date with things on kazaa, but really want the DVD's!

[Craig Tucker]

No its 16, 6 each on the first 2 discs and 4 on the third.

Anyone who likes coupling (another very funny show) play.com are selling the first and second series for only £8.99 (bargain) Series 3 is £14.99.

[bmiller]

The office.I find British comedy much better than most hollywood stuff,with the odd exception ie. sienfeld.

[mkelley]

No its 16, 6 each on the first 2 discs and 4 on the third.

Anyone who likes coupling (another very funny show) play.com are selling the first and second series for only £8.99 (bargain) Series 3 is £14.99.

Are they doing a fourth series of "Coupling"?

I love this show -- BBC America recently starting showing it here and I think it's better than "Friends" even though obviously inspired by it (and now, ironically, making its way here as an American series, which we'll butcher as usual). But, as usual, England's idea of a long running series is something where they make 20 episodes of (wow -- nearly as many as one whole season here in the states :>).

Yes, quality versus quantity and all that rot, but I want to know what happens *now* with the gang. I tried web searches but they don't reveal anything other than details about all the existing episodes. What's the word from overseas?

[Craig Tucker]

Good news regarding a fourth series. From a posting from series writer Steven Moffat, it seems that Series 4 has been given the go-ahead, and has been scheduled for reporing in Jan 2004. There's a rumour circulating that Richard Coyle (Jeff) may not be available for Series 4. More news when we have it.

I hope Richard Coyle can make the 4th series, it just would not be the same without Jeff.

Source

And I just don't understand the logic of remaking a series for the US audience if the storylines are going to be identicle which seems to be the case. This must cost a fortune and to what end. What is accomplished by remaking it with American actors.

[mkelley]

Yipes -- no Jeff?!

He's my favorite -- why bother with it if he's not available? But thanks for the info, I appreciate it. (And why, exactly, would a British actor not be available for six shows? I mean, it's not exactly like he has to commit a lifetime to it, maybe a couple months of work or something. Geeze, I need to have those kind of problems).

[Gees]

I hope Richard Coyle can make the 4th series, it just would not be the same without Jeff.

Agree. But I do want more STRANGE as well.

[Craig Tucker]

Never watched Strange

[Gees]

Oh. It's not a comedy, but I thought he was very good in Strange as well.

In a perfect world, I'd have both. :c)

[flaninacupboard]

This must cost a fortune and to what end. What is accomplished by remaking it with American actors.

To make more money, obviously! if they can make their series just a little more american friendly they can make a fortune selling it to ever network in existance. although i am a little confused, how are they going to make a whole series? just copy each episode that's happened so far, i.e. bundle series 1,2+3 into series 1? or try and stretch the six eps from series one into 22 episodes?

I'm fed up of people saying it's a rip off of friends! it's not! no one is related to each other, none of them live together (or opposite each other) until jack and susan get together, in fact, the only thing the two series have in common is that they both feature a group of friends. so, like men behaving badly. and spaced. and black books. and seinfeld. so, like every sit com in the universe.......

[Roderz]

Would I be showing my age if I said....

Citizen Smith
Love thy neighbour

[markjj]

Roderz.

"Love Thy Neighbour" - You beat me to it! Always remember being allowed to watch that on a Sunday night. Political correctness wasn't around in those days. Was listening to 5 Live recently where Rudolph Walker (Bill, aka Patrick Trueman-Eastenders) was being interviewed. He felt it was the best sitcom he ever did and didn't believe it fuelled rascism. Every episode without exception ended with the joke on Eddie. Always remember how HOT Bill's wife was (Nina Baden-Semper).

Other favourites from memory: The Liver Birds, Man About the House, George & Mildred, The Likely Lads.

Happy days.

[markjj]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sitcom/index.shtml has some excellent archives of those older comedy programs

[Craig Tucker]

Happy days.

Happy days is American

[terrya64]

My favorite was " The Goodies"

[mkelley]

For all our U.K. friends here may I report the American version of "Coupling" is absolutely abysmal. It's so bad... well, let's just say that it makes any Pauly Shore film look akin to Hamlet.

What's especially odd about it is they use *exactly* the same dialog (more or less -- some things were actually "spiced up" -- Ha!) so all that apparently is missing is English accents. But the actors are just awful, really, really so bad my wife and I couldn't make it to the first commercial.

Americans really can do comedy -- maybe not droll (although Frasier at times is pretty droll) and certainly not with the panache of many British shows, but this effort is very wasted. I think they would have been much better off offering the British cast buckets of money to do a "real" series (you know, 20 or more shows a year :>)

I love "Coupling" and I'm going to get the first two seasons on DVD (and hope the third comes out sometime) but I have no doubt this version will not last the end of this year.

[flaninacupboard]

series 3 in stock now, here:
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=125448


I'm currently faced with a dilemma. i want to see what coupling USA is like, but seem to have no legitimate way of viewing it. and if it's -really- bad, i'll never see it on TV over here.

ah well.....

[Gees]

But the actors are just awful, really, really so bad my wife and I couldn't make it to the first commercial.

Who have they cast in the roles? Any names we'd recognise?

[mkelley]

To cupboard: Thanks for the link, but that's PAL and I'm NTSC. I'll have to wait (and hope) for the third season to be released here sometime (I've seen it already on BBCA, but I want to have it on DVD eventually).

And, yes, the American version won't make it past 13 episodes (I heard they already ordered that many before the series premiered, in an excellent example of the bad judgement that pervades so many American television executives -- 13 episodes of this crap and they only show 8 episodes of FireFly) and I doubt whether it will *ever* surface again to see the light of day. I'd be glad to send you a tape of it for you to see (this isn't illegal -- even the MPAA lawyers admit it's okay to trade tapes among friends, and I consider any regular on this forum my friend).

As for anyone in it you'd know (or recognize) I guess that depends on who you know <g>. The only face I recognize is the one playing Susan -- Rena Sofer, who played Ed's girlfriend (on the American series Ed) for a brief time (she was the dark-haired beauty). She also was the last new regular on "Just Shoot Me" (for the brief last season).

She's absolutely drop dead gorgeous, but her Susan stinks to high heaven, with none of the knowing and understanding of the original. Actually, that's true of all of them -- Susan and Jeff are perhaps the most painfully miscast, with Jeff not even being funny (and those of you who know the original know he's one of the funniest).

Truly -- it's so awful that I can paraphrase old Yogi Berra: "Don't see it if you can't!"

[markjj]

Happy days.

Happy days is American

Very true Craig and yet another I remember. Even had a similar leather jacket to the Fonz when I was at school