Bottom thread

[dead-ced-dead]

Glover, Mayall, and indeed most of the actors in the Slaughtered Lamb scene were cast as a job lot - Landis had seen a west end play that they were all in and just said "get those cunts for the pub scene mate, they're skill".

I've mentioned my sighting of Brian Glover here before, early 90's (around the time of Gas) browsing the scottish lit section of Waterstones in Princes St, wearing the most beautiful deep maroon crombie coat. What a superb actor, this scene alone makes him a legend. Also great in this Play for Today,  The Fishing Party (one of a trilogy. He also wrote a couple, the one about the black pudding festival is good if you can find it, Thicker Than Water.

He was a truly gifted and funny actor. His version of Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream is the best.

[the]

Are Americans aware of it?  Has it ever aired on BBC America?  If so, any ideas what they think of it?

It definitely had a Region 1 DVD release, the cover of which makes the connection with The Young Ones:

     

There are a handful of Transatlantic reviews on Amazon, some US, some Canada. Mentioning 'British humour', 'Britcoms', Python and so on.

What El Unicornio, mang said about The Young Ones' cult US following is about right, I think it had a college-y following similar to Python (though to nowhere near the same extent).

[dead-ced-dead]

The Young Ones had an American pilot, with Nigel Planner being the only cast to holdover, so it definitely was known.

[Sebastian Cobb]

L: Now, can you see alright?
E: No.. that's why I wear glasses.

"You realise this paper is upside down, sir?"
"So are my eyes."

[El Unicornio, mang]

1985 American trailer for The Young Ones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I7VnGb4PoE&ab_channel=komedycuts

Sunday nights on MTV, not an altogether terrible slot to have.

[Sebastian Cobb]

1985 American trailer for The Young Ones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I7VnGb4PoE&ab_channel=komedycuts

Sunday nights on MTV, not an altogether terrible slot to have.

From the comments:

This was back when MTV was still watchable. I used to tape the episodes, and what was great is MTV wouldn't edit the epsiodes like they do now whenever it airs on BBC America.

Even the racist cop joke was unedited.

I get why they cut the racist cop, but it does beg the question what else are they hacking out of it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

British shows are usually cut to fit in with the commercial schedule, so I imagine at least 5 minutes and possibly as much as 10 are being cut for time constraints. I'd imagine the musical
numbers are the first to go. Doctor Who gets 15-20 minutes cut out of each hour long episode on BBC America!

[SpiderChrist]

"You realise this paper is upside down, sir?"
"So are my eyes."

That's my favourite, I think...

Richie: I'm Church of England. What are you, Eddie?
Eddie: I don't know.
Richie: Well, what was your mother?
Eddie: A wrestler.

[Sebastian Cobb]

British shows are usually cut to fit in with the commercial schedule, so I imagine at least 5 minutes and possibly as much as 10 are being cut for time constraints. I'd imagine the musical
numbers are the first to go. Doctor Who gets 15-20 minutes cut out of each hour long episode on BBC America!

Fucking hell that's almost a third of an episode. Disgraceful.

[Shit Good Nose]

Dave does the same with a lot of the BBC shows they have.

[badaids]

I don't know if I can place Bottom above the Young Ones as my favorite program ever, but I do know that Bottom Gas is the funniest episode of a thing that I have ever seen. Taylor Parkes does a lovely bit in a recent Chart Music about things that when you are young make you laugh so much you choke and think you will die. Bottom for me has about 6 of those and them beating the shit out of the gasman is the Single funniest Thing I have ever seen.

I've been Rewatching these with my daughter who is 8 and she loves them too. To see her choking with laughter at them too is just the best. She doesn't understand the sexual innuendo thank fuck. Her favorite bits are Eddie carving the Xmas dinner with spud and hedgehog using the plates as shields, after the chess match when Ritchie has something important to tell Eddie, the bit where they raise the fridge to look under it and a great fight where Eddie is the butler. Ritchie hurls him into the kitchen where he curls into a Defensive foetus position as Richie just kicks the shit out of him.

I can remember when Bottom was announced back in 91. As I recall they went on Wogan to promote it and showed the clip where he is drawing chest hair with green biro and then grabs his nose with the pliers. Fucking blew my mind and the school was buzzing with the news the next day. The week was just a wait for the next episode to come round. If you missed it you were fucked. I couldn't afford to buy the VHSs.

The first series is by far the best, it's not dominated by the slapstick and some of the soliloquies are just perfect. The one where he is on the phone is never far from my mind. Was Rik ever more amazing or beautiful than he is in that first series?

[the ouch cube]

While the third series is largely a mess, Terror does contain my absolute favourite non-Rik exchange:

"What I don't understand is, why, when he gets hit with the cattle prod, he has to foul himself."

Eddie (knowingly): "I think it may be a subconscious desire to amuse."

[I.D. Smith]

Love Bottom. Another misunderstanding joke after Ritchie has broken his leg:

R: "Get the ambulance!"

E: "We haven't got an ambulance!"

[JaDanketies]

It's weird how I know the first two series like the back of my hand, but I struggle to recall much of the third series, and the ones I recall (except for the one on the ferris wheel) are some of my least-favourite. Like my child's brain cemented all the good episodes firmly in my memory banks.

[McChesney Duntz]

BBC America used to run half-hour shows in 40 minute time slots to allow them to run 30-minute BBC shows with commercials (though a lot of the shows they aired - KMKYWAP for one - originally ran in 35-minute slots, so they were edited anyway). That's when they actually ran good shows - I haven't watched the channel in years, since these days they tend to show mostly great British programming such as The X-Files and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

As far as I'm aware, Bottom has never aired on American television in any form. The R1 DVD release was a massively pleasant surprise to me for that reason - almost undoubtedly put out because of the vestiges of the Young Ones US cult, which, as mentioned above, is probably restricted to those of us given to watching MTV on Sunday nights in the 80s.[nb]Subsequent attempts to run The Young Ones met with very muted responses - I remember Comedy Central making a big deal about acquiring the show around the turn of the century, only to get such abysmal ratings it was pulled inside of a month.[/nb] (That was a pretty great night of television while it lasted - at one point, it was TYO, Python, and the first two series of The Comic Strip Presents, all presented without commercial breaks [though with some light content edits, especially in the case of The Comic Strip], which seems insane now, followed by the alt-video showcase 120 Minutes. And if I happen to have seen any of those too many times already, I could switch over to the Discovery Channel and watch Wossy on The Incredibly Strange Films Show. Good time to be a geeky Anglophilic teenage comedy wonk, I daresay.[nb]They even showed Eat the Rich a couple of times![/nb])

[Benjaminos]

"You realise this paper is upside down, sir?"
"So are my eyes."

[Blumf]

The Young Ones had an American pilot, with Nigel Planner being the only cast to holdover, so it definitely was known.

Oh, No! Not THEM!

Has a very 90s intro (maybe the same guy who did Alex Winter's The Idiot Box intro?)
https://vimeo.com/37417130

https://lostmediaarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Oh,_No!_Not_THEM!_(Unaired_%22The_Young_Ones%22_US_Adaptation_Pilot)

Planer is said to have had a horrible experience due to the cast and crew and thought negatively of the pilot, thinking the crew had made a "grubby Benny Hill" rather than a faithful adaptation. When the show was not picked up he was relieved to be let out of his contract.

[Glebe]

Primus sample TYO!

[BeardFaceMan]

Oh No, Not Them does kind of sound like the name of a spoof show in The Young Ones, so it sort of fits. Thee are not many things I'm interested in hate-watching, but that pilot would be a show I couldn't help but watch, just through grim fascination more than anything else.

[dead-ced-dead]

Jackie Earle Haley (of Bad News Bears, Watchmen and Little Children fame) played Vivian. Bit of an obscure pub trivia question there.

[DrGreggles]

"Which one of you is Mr. Hitler?"
"Oh, that'll be me."
"Any relation?"
"Well... I've got a mother."
"No, no no no, I meant Adolf Hitler."
"Yes, that's her!"

[Sebastian Cobb]

Love Bottom. Another misunderstanding joke after Ritchie has broken his leg:

R: "Get the ambulance!"

E: "We haven't got an ambulance!"

I always loved Mark Williams' response of "No...well, I mean, you're obviously some sort of arsehole, aren't you?" to Richie's 'don't you know who I aim?'.

[idunnosomename]

The thing I will give to those American including the "sock model" (isn't that a what do you think The Onion profession?) is that it is pretty much vaudeville. what with the booting each other up the bum and the silly misunderstanding dialogue.

i mean also they did make a point how fucking ridiculous the sound effects were but also, that's the joke

[Benjaminos]

R: Now, Eddie. Crackers?
E: Yes, but it's never stopped me so far!
R: No, I mean, have you got the crackers?
E: No, it's just the way my trousers hang.
R: Eddie, enough of the crackers jokes. I'm talking about the things you put in your hand and pull.
E: Well, I've got one of those, but I'm not putting it on the table.

'have you got the crackers' doesn't even make sense as a double entendre, which only makes it funnier.

[Consignia]

This scene lives in my heart for ever:

E: Still, at least we got the duck.
R: The duck?
E: Yeah. It's made out of plastic!
R: Eddie, what in the name of Greek buggery, is the use of a plastic duck?
E: It floats in the bath. Hello?
R: But why?
E: It's hollow.
R: Why the duck?
E: It came free with the telly.
R: Eddie, everything came free with the telly, we were looting! Why didn't you get a free telly with the telly
E: Cause it'd sink in the bath!

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

"...WE'VE BEEN BURGLED!"
"Well you may have been young man but I've never in my life! As a Christian, I'm so tightly clenched -"

[BeardFaceMan]

"They can't see us, they've gone. If only we had something to illuminate us, if only we had some flares!"
"This is no time to make a fashion statement! We're gonna be blown up at dawn!"
"No, I mean distress flares."
"You mean like the ones Suzi Quatro used to wear?"

"I like Stork Margarine because I've only got one leg."

"Well, if you had the common decency to go out and get yourself a proper job and not hang around the flat all day like some vast slug, then perhaps I would have the opportunity to take my top off and wash it without the risk of you seeing my nipples! "

I know series 3 is generally inferior (though still great, obvs) but Hole is the best Bottom episode ever.

[Lemming]

Hole is perfect, especially for this scene:

Eddie, reading newspaper: Not only is it the tallest, it's also oldest Ferris Wheel in Western Europe.
Richie: (weird noise of appreciation, starts lovingly patting the side of the Ferris Wheel)
Eddie: Look! It's all here in this article entitled: "ILLEGAL DEATH TRAP WHEEL TO CLOSE TONIGHT."

Richie's immediate whiplash-inducing snap from fond admiration of the Ferris Wheel to complete pants-shitting horror gets me every time.

[DrGreggles]

[Sebastian Cobb]

I haven't got time to grow a beard!