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Most successful sitcoms?

Started by Famous Mortimer, November 12, 2020, 04:48:07 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Endicott

Just adding, as well, that Bottom and TYO had different writers, and that Bottom was more closely related to the Dangerous Brothers which was an act Rik and Ade had before TYO.

the

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on November 13, 2020, 12:05:32 PMI think it's fair to say that they're essentially the same characters, at different ages in different sits. Rik's character is a deluded fool who thinks he's everything he's not, and doesn't see why everyone else doesn't think as much of him as he does himself. Ade's character is a violent lunatic who settles down gradually as he ages. They may not actually be the same people, but there's a definite Blackadder style lineage there.

So Richie was a radical student activist, then a continuity announcer on TVS and rubbish light entertainer, then a man who's lived in his auntie's flat in Hammersmith for 25 years? No.

There are some obvious dynamic similarities due to writing and performance but they are not the same characters. It's just whimsical sci-fi fandom bollocks to try and thread them all together.

magval

Rik and Ritchie are much more easily linked that Vivian and Eddie. I can't see any similarity in the latter two at all.

Captain Crunch

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on November 13, 2020, 12:05:32 PM
I think it's fair to say that they're essentially the same characters, at different ages in different sits.

This is the sort of thing you'd overhear some gibbering wide-tie tosser saying in the staff room and you'd come on here to take the piss out of it.   

Brundle-Fly

Richard O'Sullivan.

Played leads or a supporting regular cast member in all these sitcoms of varying degrees of success

Doctor In Charge,  Now Look Here, Alcock & Gander, Father Dear Father, Man About The House, Robin's Nest, Me & My Girl, Trouble In Mind

Actually, Arthur Lowe gives Dickie a run for his money.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: the on November 13, 2020, 12:16:32 PM
So Richie was a radical student activist, then a continuity announcer on TVS and rubbish light entertainer, then a man who's lived in his auntie's flat in Hammersmith for 25 years? No.

But Rick wasn't a radical student activist was he? He was an arsehole who played at being a radical student activist, and it's not uncommon for them to end up in media jobs.

Gulftastic

Not to mention his appearance in one of my favourite films  'Au Pair Girls'.

mrClaypole

Sgt Bilko or the Phil Slivers show.  Didn't that run for 140 odd episodes?

Tony Tony Tony

Quote from: Gulftastic on November 12, 2020, 06:16:31 PM
Holland breaks the tie by appearing in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum.

And runs away with the match by also being in Dads Army, albeit a single episode as 'The Soldier' in Wake up Walmington.


Ignatius_S

Quote from: mrClaypole on November 13, 2020, 05:01:01 PM
Sgt Bilko or the Phil Slivers show.  Didn't that run for 140 odd episodes?

It did, but there are longer running and ones with more episodes US sitcoms. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (starring real-life couple Ozzie and Harriet Nelson) was on TV for well over a decade and had more than 400 episodes - and before that, it was a radio sitcom for several years and had nearly as many episodes.

There were more than 250 TV episodes of The Jack Benny Program, which started when his radio show was going; the latter lasted over two decades and over 900 episodes. When he first started radio, the shows were essentially him providing comedic links between music numbers, so not a sitcom, but within a few years, it essentially was - a show-within-a-show with Benny playing a fictional version of himself.

The Life of Riley was another successful radio sitcom that was a hit on TV - or rather the second attempt was when they got radio star, William Bendix to play the titular character. The Jackie Gleason version lasted one season (there were approximately ten times as many Bendix episodes).

Although there wasn't attempt to do a television version of Lum and Abner, there were seven films and the radio show ran for 23 years (one and off) and broadcast more than 5,000 shows - it was so popular, one town changed its name to Pine Ridge, the fictional setting for the show. Largely, it was a comedic serial of 15-minute episodes (apart an disastrous experiment making it more like a normal sitcom) and featured some pretty bizarre elements like someone attempting to build a rocket to a moon and a character obsessed with owls.

Attila

The Mary Tyler Moore show spawned three of spin-off shows - Rhoda, Phyllis, Lou Grant, all of which were fairly successful.

All in the Family had 7 -

Maude

Good Times

The Jeffersons

Archie Bunker's Place

Gloria

704 Hauser

--

Happy Days had a fair number, too:

Laverne and Shirley

Mork and Mindy

Joanie Loves Chachi

Out of the Blue

Blanski's Beauties

McChesney Duntz

Hell, Happy Days itself was spun off from a segment on the (mostly fucking terrible) rom-com anthology series Love, American Style.

Gulftastic

Quote from: Attila on November 13, 2020, 06:47:50 PM

--

Happy Days had a fair number, too:

Laverne and Shirley

Mork and Mindy

Joanie Loves Chachi

Out of the Blue

Blanski's Beauties

You forgot 'The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang'. Two seasons, that lasted. Two!

Attila

Quote from: Gulftastic on November 13, 2020, 07:31:06 PM
You forgot 'The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang'. Two seasons, that lasted. Two!

Oh wow! Completely forgot that one -- ta!

the

#44
Quote from: Gurke and Hare on November 13, 2020, 04:38:00 PM
Quote from: the on November 13, 2020, 12:16:32 PMSo Richie was a radical student activist, then a continuity announcer on TVS and rubbish light entertainer, then a man who's lived in his auntie's flat in Hammersmith for 25 years? No.

But Rick wasn't a radical student activist was he? He was an arsehole who played at being a radical student activist, and it's not uncommon for them to end up in media jobs.

Rick's level of attainment in being an activist doesn't lead to the rest of the idea making any sense.

You rightly highlight that there are some dynamic similarities in the characters (there are), but to arrive at the conclusion that they're therefore the same characters is just nonsensical.

Coprolite

Chris Barrie: Red Dwarf and Brittas Empire.

I haven't seen Happy Days for about 30 years- what's the connection to Mork and Mindy?

Blue Jam

Matt Leblanc?

Friends (10 seasons)
Joey (2 seasons)
Episodes (5 seasons)

Alright, maybe not Joey, though I was surprised to learn it ran for more than one season.

Shaky

Quote from: Coprolite on November 14, 2020, 12:40:19 PM
Chris Barrie: Red Dwarf and Brittas Empire.

I haven't seen Happy Days for about 30 years- what's the connection to Mork and Mindy?

Mork appears in an episode of HD, trying to take Richie to Ork.

Jittlebags

For writers, Roy Clarke:

Last of the Summer Wine
Open All Hours
Keeping Up Appearances

and let's not forget 'Oh no, it's Selwyn Froggitt'.

Tony Tony Tony

Quote from: Jittlebags on November 14, 2020, 02:38:23 PM
and let's not forget 'Oh no, it's Selwyn Froggitt'.

On reflection, probably best we do.

Otherwise we might have to bring up Ronald Fraser in The Misfit.

Coprolite

Quote from: Shaky on November 14, 2020, 01:44:49 PM
Mork appears in an episode of HD, trying to take Richie to Ork.

Thanks. That's surprising, I'd assumed it would have been Mindy. I must have misremembered what Happy Days was like

thenoise

Quote from: Coprolite on November 14, 2020, 12:40:19 PM
Chris Barrie: Red Dwarf and Brittas Empire.

Clearly Rimmer used that time zapper gizmo to enter a photo of a Brittas Empire and changed his name. And covered up the H.

Mark X

Quote from: Blue Jam on November 14, 2020, 01:11:50 PM
Matt Leblanc?

Friends (10 seasons)
Joey (2 seasons)
Episodes (5 seasons)

Alright, maybe not Joey, though I was surprised to learn it ran for more than one season.

Plus, Top of the Heap, which was a semi-spinoff from Leblanc's character in Married With Children - one MWC episode was actually a backdoor pilot for Top of the Heap.

Psmith

Leonard Rossiter,Rising Damp,Reggie Perrin,Trippers Day(not so good)
And the ubiquitous Geoffrey Palmer.Too many to mention.

jamiefairlie

Wendy Craig? Off the top of my head... Not in Front of the Children, And Mother Makes Three, And Mother Makes Five, Butterflies.

Mr Farenheit

Quote from: Shaky on November 14, 2020, 01:44:49 PM
Mork appears in an episode of HD, trying to take Richie to Ork.

Surely Richie on an alien planet should have been the spin-off!

greencalx

My childhood memories had tricked me into thinking that all the classic British sitcoms of the 70s/80s were penned by Esmonde/Larbey or Croft/Perry but actually it's about three each. (They each wrote more, but I'm not sure they hold up as "classics").

Shaky

Quote from: Coprolite on November 14, 2020, 04:17:26 PM
Thanks. That's surprising, I'd assumed it would have been Mindy. I must have misremembered what Happy Days was like

Checking wikipedia, it happened during the same season as the infamous "jumping the shark" moment so they were getting desperate. Apparently the producer's son wanted an alien episode and that's what they came up with. Weirdly, it works well enough in the show as Williams is charismatic as fuck.

olliebean

Mork & Mindy was actually a spin-off of Happy Days, wasn't it? The character of Mindy didn't yet exist when Mork appeared in HD.

Catalogue Trousers

Yeah. Basically, the Happy Days production team decided to do a gimmick episode where Richie is almost abducted by a comedy extra-terrestrial. The ending of the episode seems pretty firm that Mork was just a bad dream of Richie's, but the producers were so taken by Williams' energetic performance that they thought, 'there's a series in that alien guy'. And the rest, as they say, is continuity.