Let's Talk About The Young Ones

[Pepotamo1985]

Hi gang!

So, I sat down and gorged on TYO for the first time in ages, taking in each series in one solid bloc each.

Suffice to say, I loved almost every minute of it. It's a wonderful, wonderful series.

So, I was all like "why not start a thread about this brilliant show on CaB?"[nb]This was a week ago. I'm lazy.[/nb]

And here we are. This is a place for us to chat about The Young Ones (in both positive and negative tones, natch) - our favourite episodes, our favourite bits, it's sociopolitical significance at the time and its resonance today, its legacy, etc. etc.

Well, what are ya waiting for? Let's get cracking then, eh!

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Chris Ryan does a better job of being Mike than either Peter Richardson or Ben Elton would have done if they'd got the role.

[alcoholic messiah]

It was terrible. I sat in the big hall and put my packet of polos on the desk, and my spare pencil and my support gonk and my chewing gum and my extra pen, and my extra polos and my lucky gonk, and my pencil sharpener shaped like a cream cracker and three more gonks with a packet of polos in each, and lead for my retractable pencil and my retractable pencil, and my spare lead for my retractable pencil, and chewing gum and pencils and pens and more gonks and the guy said "There's already a live Young Ones thread, spotty!"

[Nmkl Pkjl Ftmsch]

Has anyone actually heard Neil's Heavy Concept Album? Died a death back in '84.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22heavy+concept+album%22

It's a shame people tend to narrow the Young Ones down to "oh, it's just four men falling downstairs shouting BARSTARD" or moaning that "it's really dated nowadays", because there's so much more to it than that. It's timeless manic surrealism, a natural progression from the human-beings-as-indestructible-cartoon-characters ethos of the Goodies and the shabby, half-finished, ad-hoc, rambling lunacy of Milligan's Q series at its best. There's also a strong streak of Kenny Everett in there, particuarly in the more surreal cutaways. Oddly enough, considering the timeframe, I don't see much of a Python influence, and neither do I see much of a Not the Nine O'Clock News influence either, yet those are the shows The Young Ones frequently gets lumped in with.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

It's a shame people tend to narrow the Young Ones down to "oh, it's just four men falling downstairs shouting BARSTARD"

You keep saying this, but I've genuinely never heard anyone say it of TYO.

I don't see much of a Python influence

Well that's that sketch knackered then!

[Famous Mortimer]

It's a shame people tend to narrow the Young Ones down to "oh, it's just four men falling downstairs shouting BARSTARD"

I have never heard a single person say this.

[Nmkl Pkjl Ftmsch]

You keep saying this, but I've genuinely never heard anyone say it of TYO.

It's TV Cream's thumbnail description of the series, along with "alternative comedians not being funny".

I swear the Easter Bunny outfit worn by Dawn French in 'Time' is one of the bunny outfits from the G**dies episode 'Animals Are People Too'. This bit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDsLZmGBdt8

[Natnar]

Has anyone actually heard Neil's Heavy Concept Album? Died a death back in '84.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22heavy+concept+album%22

It's probably my favourite "comedy" album. It works because musically it's well produced (by the non-Eurythmic Dave Stewart), it's funny without being too silly and Nigel Planer can sing pretty well.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Neil's Book Of The Dead got slated as well. And David Quantick wrote in the 90s: "Someone should just tell Nigel Planer he's not funny".

[Famous Mortimer]

And someone should tell David Quantick he's a smug twat with no reason to be so, but that's by the by.

[Brundle-Fly]

Apropos of fuck all, Jennifer Saunders made my legs buckle when I first saw her in this at 16. It was my ultimate girlfriend aspiration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk5pO06BdSk

the interesting thing about that thirty year old clip is Vyvyan's head studs. Originally a sarky comment on the absurd lengths punks might do to gain attention but now this sort of body modification is de rigeur for your average high street Toni & Guy stylist.

[checkoutgirl]

It's a shame people tend to narrow the Young Ones down to "oh, it's just four men falling downstairs shouting BARSTARD"

What people ? Isn't The Young Ones just accepted as classic BBC comedy now ? Aren't Edmonson, Mayall and Planer and Sayle and the rest now considered as establishment comedians ? Haven't the BBC released it on DVD and doesn't it still show up on clip shows and top 100 programmes as seminal and influential ? You're not happy unless you're disagreeing with something.

I have to say, apart from Bambi, I find The Young Ones kind of hard going. There's the first few minutes of excitement, then about ten minutes in my mind sometimes wanders and at 20 minutes I'm wanting it to end. At 35 minutes they feel quite long. There's no problem with the acting and the surreal cutaways are interesting but the writing is a little laboured at times and it feels a bit aimless as well. There's still lots to enjoy but I don't find it's a show that I keep going back to. I'm not even 100% sure that I've even seen every episode. Alexie Sayle is an unadulturated joy but then I liked his Merry Go Round so what do I know ?

[Nmkl Pkjl Ftmsch]

What people ?

TV Cream, for starters, and some miserable git on Amazon who reckons it's all just screaming and shouting. I dread to think how that poor man would react to Australian TV's Let the Blood Run Free, where the stage origins of the cast members (indeed the series as a whole) were never less than stunningly obvious, right down to the way almost every line was delivered at near-Brian Blessed volume in case someone on the back row missed it. Plus, a lot of people who absolutely loved the Young Ones at the time seem to either feel compelled to slag it off, condemning it as 'really dated' and 'embarrassing', or play it down as a guilty pleasure - 'Look, I know it's completely childish and stupid, but Rick and Vyv talking about bottoms really creases me up!'

I don't know how modern audiences - younger audiences especially - would react to the Young Ones. Maybe they would find it a bit strident and intimidating, who knows. But not half an hour ago I saw a kid in Boots the chemist who was no more than nine years old, wearing a Prisoner t-shirt with Patrick McGoohan's face on it, so who knows?

[Tiny Poster]

A large part of me thinks that TV Cream capsule was written just to wind up some "enemies" of the writer(s).

[Nmkl Pkjl Ftmsch]

TVC's entry in full -

TATTIEST, NOISIEST, hammiest and blusteriest thing BBC2 has ever shown. You all know what went on here. Suffice to say age hasn't treated it well, but the special effects still look good. And that bit with THE GOOD LIFE titles is ace. It was contractually obliged that everyone who was in it went on to be famous, which alas meant stardom beckoned both for PAUL MERTON *and* CHRIS BARRIE.

So everyone who was in it went on to be famous, did they? Hm.

I'm just checking some of the lesser cast members on the IMDB. Some interesting career paths.
Paul Bradley (Warlock) did some voices for Family Guy and is now a Holby City regular.
Jim Barclay (the racist copper) was a 'speed dater' in an episode of New Tricks.
Ruth Bennett (Goldilocks) last appeared on TV in Jeeves and Wooster back in 1990.
Pauline Melville (Vyv's mum) was Bob Hoskins's wife in Mona Lisa (1986).
Peter Laxton (the boy in the chimney / Darren) was a regular in Press Gang (1990).
Lee Cornes (Spazbecker) was in Grange Hill for twelve years, 1990 to 2002.
Peter Wear (Death - "bollocks to this!") appeared most recently in The Inclination - Zombie Invasion and Gangster Kittens.
Patrick Newell (the King / man on liferaft) died in 1988 after completing work on Consuming Passions.
Maggie Steed ("stop making him paranoid, you slag!") was in Jam and Jerusalem.
Michael Redfern ("the neighbours have been complaining!") - OXO dad, hasn't worked since 2005 apparently (The Jealous God).

[checkoutgirl]

TV Cream, for starters, and some miserable git on Amazon who reckons it's all just screaming and shouting.

Who the fuck are those guys ? Are they your house mates or something ? I've certainly never heard of them and even if I had I don't see how their opinion could really matter.

Plus, a lot of people who absolutely loved the Young Ones at the time seem to either feel compelled to slag it off, condemning it as 'really dated' and 'embarrassing', or play it down as a guilty pleasure - 'Look, I know it's completely childish and stupid, but Rick and Vyv talking about bottoms really creases me up!'

It probably has something to do with the fact that it's based around student life and rebellion and punk and that. Maybe it seems less relevant now. You would do well to remember that as a rule of thumb people get more conservative and embarassed about their youth as they get older. They have kids, pets and mortgages and say things like "Oh my god, did I really look like/dress like/listen to that?" Then there are the left over husks who cling to their past and post on CAB. We are the husks. The comedy nerds. The outcasts. Although TC you are an extreme example, you don't even like Partridge or Blackadder, what's that about ? Don't answer, it's a rhetorical question.

[Dirty Boy]

Did anyone ever work out what that mad bastard in 'Cash' was a reference to? y'know that "you won't catch me wiv me trousers HAHAHAHAHA" bloke. It's always disturbed me.

[Nmkl Pkjl Ftmsch]

Did anyone ever work out what that mad bastard in 'Cash' was a reference to? y'know that "you won't catch me wiv me trousers HAHAHAHAHA" bloke. It's always disturbed me.

The closest I've come to puzzling this out is that it's a reference to Driller Killer, hence the line "I've just been round me neighbour's house to borrow a drill". Either that, or like it says on SOTCAA, it probably meant something to Elton, Mayer and Mayall at the time, so they decided to throw it in there for posterity.
As a child, I remember thinking "that'll probably make more sense when I'm older." Well, I'm 39 now and I still haven't a bloody clue, so I'm going with the SOTCAA theory.

[Nmkl Pkjl Ftmsch]

Because I love you, here's a screengrab from the ZX Spectrum version of the Young Ones computer game.



In case you're wondering, it wasn't very good, despite the involvement of Elton, Mayer and Mayall. On the Spectrum platform at least, it contained several bugs that made it difficult to actually complete the game, and not even the appearance of SPG or 'Girlyfun' magazine could spice it up. I remember a few people complaining because occasionally the word 'bastard' would pop up in the characters' speech balloons. Crash magazine's overall verdict was "Oh dear!", which really sums it up.

Also, there was an American adaptation of the Young Ones with Nigel Planer reprising his role as Neil. Oh No! Not Them! was made in 1990 and the internet appears unclear as to whether it was ever actually broadcast. Planer was scared shitless that the pilot would be a success and that he'd have to spend several years in America with a group of people he hated, and he described the finished product as "a sort of grubby Benny Hill Show". Vimeo has eighteen seconds of it...
http://vimeo.com/37417130

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

For reasons lost to the mists of time[nb]Money.[/nb], Ade, in character as Vyvyan, once recorded a promo cassette for DuPont Antron ultra plus carpets. And here's the proof! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBYiAPg7fBQ

[Brundle-Fly]

For reasons lost to the mists of time[nb]Money.[/nb], Ade, in character as Vyvyan, once recorded a promo cassette for DuPont Antron ultra plus carpets. And here's the proof! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBYiAPg7fBQ

That opening stock sound effect of glass smashing is my favourite SFX ever.  Joyous.

To be found on this album.

[Kane Jones]

I don't even need to listen to that to know which sound effect that is, and you're right: it's bloody marvellous.

[Hollow]

I've always really disliked TYO...there is an undeniable air of smug about the whole thing.

I think the first and parts of the second series of Bottom to be superior.

Growing up it encapsulated everything I thought was creepy and odd about British culture...I liked Alexei Sayle's bits and the little puppets...that was very good stuff...there is one particularly funny incident with one of the puppets I can remember.

I haven't seen it for about 20 years and its staying that way.

Oh and girls don't like it either, and if you do like it you're an idiot...fact.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

there is one particularly funny incident with one of the puppets I can remember.

Would that be the one in the very last episode, when they crashed the car, and Vyvian, at the wheel, starts crying.  When the others ask him what's wrong, he points to the bonnet, where the furry puppet like Gordon the Gopher is squashed flat.  I found that quite funny!

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I liked Alexei Sayle's bits

I've always loved this bit from Alexi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYXxfF2k-DU

[Hollow]

Would that be the one in the very last episode, when they crashed the car, and Vyvian, at the wheel, starts crying.  When the others ask him what's wrong, he points to the bonnet, where the furry puppet like Gordon the Gopher is squashed flat.  I found that quite funny!

No...but that is good...oh you're going to make me watch the whole thing just to find it now.

Prepare for the inevitable grovelling climb down as I realise its great.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I've always really disliked TYO...there is an undeniable air of smug about the whole thing.

In what way? I honestly don't know what you mean by that.

[Hollow]

I think I have a chip on my shoulder to be honest...:)

Too much a middle class idea of poverty...i like all the performers in it...Rik Mayall in particular...it just rubbed me up the wrong way for some reason.

I'm watching it again anyway.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Too much a middle class idea of poverty

I see. I've personally never thought about it in that way.

[Nowhere Man]

I brought it on DVD recently, partly because of this thread and also because I just knew (or assumed) my best friend would LOVE it as much as I do. We watched the first two episodes with barely a smirk from him and he even started looking at Facebook on his phone. He's a good friend but I honestly felt like slapping him then.