The VIZ Cartoons from the 90s

[The Giggling Bean]

Back in the early 90s Viz branched out into animating some of their strips for television (as you all know). They started off with "Billy the Fish" and "Roger Mellie" which where deemed successful enough for "Sid The Sexist" and "The Fat Slags". I enjoyed the cel animations of BtF, RM & StS but never liked the puppet style of tFS. I've recently re-watched a couple of them back on YouTube as I've been feeling nostalgic. I'm not sure they've aged particularly well for me, it feels like the style of animation was very basic. I loved them all back in the day (when I was 12 or 13) but now, with "adult" animations feeling commonplace, they all seem a bit quaint. It would have required a massive budget and extra time but I had hoped they where going to make a Viz video featuring other regular characters such as Biffa Bacon, Spoilt Bastard, Buster Gonad etc to follow up the existing animations.

I remember being a bit disappointed when I watched the VHS of Billy The Fish. I was used to the episodic format and it was presented as a feature length production. I liked the opening title sequence of "The Further Adventures Of Billy The Fish" in which he leapt in and out of water ultimately heading a ball off screen. I've always wanted to see that intro again, unfortunately it was removed from YouTube about 5 years ago........if anyone knows where I could see it again I'd be immensely greatfull.

At the time I knew Harry Enfield from his comedy show and was surprised to see he had done all the voices for Billy. I loved Peter Cook as Roger Mellie and Harry Enfield as Tom. To this day when I read the strips in the annual I'm hearing their voices. I watched the "Comedy Blaps" they made but the replacement Mellie voice didn't seem right to me (of course it's not like they could have got Cook back). It was only recently that I realised it was Bob Mortimer who voiced Baz in the Sid video. For some reason that made it funnier to me now than before I knew it was him.

So what did you all think of the attempts to bring Viz to the small screen? Did it work for you? Did you enjoy them or not? What did you think about the decision to ban Sid The Sexist and Fat Slags from Channel 4? Should they have carried on or was 4 enough? Did you like the puppetry look of The Fat Slags or should they have continued with 2D Cel animation? What other characters would you have liked to have seen animated?

Share your thoughts, comments, likes, dislikes etc about the Viz cartoons here.

[Glebe]

The late '80s-'90s were Viz's golden age, really.

[Chriddof]

Chris Donald wrote at some length about the Viz animations in "Rude Kids", and he was pretty scathing about them if I'm remembering it right. He did appreciate the chance of getting to meet and work with Peter Cook, however.

[Mark X]

Slight tangent: The Fat Slags also appeared via traditional cel animation for a Lucozade advert, of course. It was rubbish, obvs. But not as bad as the live action Fat Slags movie, because nothing is as bad as the live action Fat Slags movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgfKr1mEbIY

(And of course, that intro card had to be changed to 'Ooh lordy, it's Sandra and Tracey' for TV.)

[The Giggling Bean]

Slight tangent: The Fat Slags also appeared via traditional cel animation for a Lucozade advert, of course. It was rubbish, obvs. But not as bad as the live action Fat Slags movie, because nothing is as bad as the live action Fat Slags movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgfKr1mEbIY

(And of course, that intro card had to be changed to 'Ooh lordy, it's Sandra and Tracey' for TV.)

I remembered they did the Lucozade advert but had totally forgotten the live action film. Oh god, some things are best left forgotten.

As mentioned above Chris Donald wrote about that in the Rude Kids book. They hoped it would be shelved and never seen. I'm sure all of us who watched it thought the same.

[weirdbeard]

Here's a question I want answered. A while ago I was knocking up a TX guide for the Viz cartoons, but I couldn't find any trace of the Fat Slags and Sid the Sexist cartoon ever being transmitted on Channel 4 like the rest of them (Roger Mellie in 91/92 and Billy the Fish in 1990).

So, does anyone know if they were transmitted?

[Sydward Lartle]

The Fat Slags and Sid the Sexist did indeed get broadcast on British television, albeit only on the long-defunct Granada Men and Motors channel, alongside repeats of the Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club and the Benny Hill Show, as well as some of Roy Chubby Brown's old concerts.

Working from memory here, it was Viz's publisher John Brown who suggested the Viz videos, but he didn't want to spend the money necessary to make anything really good, and this meant finding the cheapest possible animation studio without having to outsource the whole thing to an Oriental sweatshop. The company behind the Shoe People ended up doing it. Chris Donald actually suggested a Captain Pugwash / Mary, Mungo and Midge visual style, but in the end limited cel animation was used instead. He rated the Billy the Fish animations as 'just about OK', but was gravely disappointed in the Roger Mellie cartoons, despite the quality of Peter Cook's vocal performance. He also had a difference of opinion with the animator (whose name I forget), because he'd thrown in a couple of unscripted sequences with Fulchester United's large-breasted redskin winger Brown Fox bouncing around, which Donald removed. For that reason, he left it to his brother Simon to oversee the making of the Sid the Sexist videos, which is probably how this part got through uncensored.

Chris Donald insisted on using a different animation company for the Fat Slags videos, hence the model / claymation, but he still thought the end results looked slow and cumbersome. For the record, his favourite part of the Blue Honeymoon video was John Thompson's performance as Chubby Arse.

[jobotic]

How the fuck do you have such encyclopedic knowledge of all things comedy? It's amazing.

[Sydward Lartle]

There are plenty of comedy shows I know fuck all about, but thank you for the flattery anyway.

[weirdbeard]

The Fat Slags and Sid the Sexist did indeed get broadcast on British television, albeit only on the long-defunct Granada Men and Motors channel, alongside repeats of the Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club and the Benny Hill Show, as well as some of Roy Chubby Brown's old concerts.

It doesn't surprise me that these were broadcast on some cheap digital lad channel years later, direct from the VHS masters, but it does surprise me that these were (seemingly) VHS direct on their initial release.

[jobotic]

Who was in this live action Fat Slags then?

[Catalogue Trousers]

Who wasn't...In a desperate attempt to appeal to viewers, they crammed in as many celebrity names - in Britain, anyway - as they could in supporting roles and cameos. Off the top of my head - Burt Kwouk, Geri Halliwell, Anthony Stewart Head, Don Warrington, Angus Deayton, Dolph Lundgren, Naomi Campbell, Hugh Dennis...doubtless there were many more, to make up for the fact that Sophie Thompson and Fiona Allen, playing Tray and San respectively, weren't well-known faces at the time.

[jobotic]

Thanks. I can't remember its existence at all.

[Catalogue Trousers]

The most that I've seen of it is clips in reviews online. Completely point-missing. San and Tray are made far too likeable, and indeed the whole farrago finally tries to be a heartwarming affirmation of friendship between two boorish, slatternly, slack-knickered, alcoholic gluttons. Which might possibly have worked in the hands of someone like John Waters - instead, it was directed by Luc Roeg, Nic's son, who sadly didn't inherit any auteur talent from his old man. Instead, it's a crappy underdogs-make-good-get-rich-lose-everything-but-still-have-each-other piece of dreck. Something ultimately further removed from the cheery cynicism and nihilism of the best Viz scripting is hard to imagine.

[Sydward Lartle]

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the Fat Slags film was directed by Ed Bye, who directed the first two series of Bottom! To be fair to Chris Donald, he sold the rights thinking that the film would never get made and he'd have earned himself a nice sack of cash for effectively doing bugger all. He hadn't taken into consideration the fact that the film could get made, could easily turn out to be a piece of shit, and end up being an embarrassment to all concerned - and, as we know, that's exactly what happened. For a while, it looked as if the Viz crew were going to abandon the characters completely after the film bombed, but they changed their minds.

I watched the film on YouTube a few years ago and... yeah, it's terrible. As far as I can recall, a media mogul takes a shot to the head which renders him temporarily insane, and he's convinced Tracy and Sandra are multi-talented goddesses. Cue the predictable rags-to-riches bullshit, before another shot to the head causes him to regain his senses and he has Tracy and Sandra thrown into prison. You might reasonably expect the film to end there... fuck no. They have to pad out the remaining running time with references to everything from the Shining to Mission Impossible, as well as shit CGI effects, burps, farts and pointless cameos. It's certainly down there with Sex Lives of the Potato Men, Keith Lemon - the Film, whatever Harry Hill's fucking film was called and Run For Your Wife in the 'shit that never should have been made' file.

[Dr Magus]

I remember a comic relief special from the early 90s that featured a live link up with Roger Mellie. All I remember him saying is summat like "bollocks, this thing ain't working, Tom"

Harry Enfield did the voice, though I don't think Cook had quite snuffed it yet.

Anyone else remember this?

[weirdbeard]

I remember a comic relief special from the early 90s that featured a live link up with Roger Mellie. All I remember him saying is summat like "bollocks, this thing ain't working, Tom"

Harry Enfield did the voice, though I don't think Cook had quite snuffed it yet.

Anyone else remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQY5aMMk_Do

[Dr Magus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQY5aMMk_Do

Thanks, Weirdbeard, I'd forgotten pretty much all of that.

[Sydward Lartle]

In an attempt at getting on board the Viz videos bandwagon - and to a lesser extent, the comedy video boom of the early nineties - Zit comic produced Zit - the Video.

As you can see, it was absolute shite.

[JoeyBananaduck]

Might have to check out the Zit video one day if I'm feeling masochistic.

Cook's Mellie was spot on and elevated those Viz cartoons far beyond their humble budget and shoddy animation. The man was made to spit lines like "No it's NOT. It's a FUCKING VASE!".

Oh, and I can't let the suckerpunch and "You cheeky twat!" reaction to the light ribbing from (a character somewhat similar though legally distinct from) Paul Daniels go unmentioned.

You could almost believe it had been written for him.

[The Giggling Bean]

I know I asked in passing upthread, and it's a long shot, but I don't suppose anyone has any off air recordings of Billy or Roger from back in the day do you? I'm quite keen on getting hold of the episodic versions as well as the VHS movie version.

thanks

[Jittlebags]

I quite liked the Fat Slags ones.

stated to have been "Filmed in Glorious Panhandlevision"

Like Chucklevision, only not as funny, and it pokes your eye out if you look down.

Actually they are funny... "I thought there were a mess up me snatch" said Kathy Burke in character.