Shitcoms - The Worst Sitcoms In History

[DrGreggles]

Good to see Bread finally get a mention, because that's the correct answer.

[paruses]

Judging a book by its cover - that Full English animation looks very much like F Is For Family.

I don't know how animation production works - are there just big companies it's outsourced to and you choose your style?

[Wayman C. McCreery]

What was that sitcom Adam Buxton did that he occasionally sheepishly mentions in his podcast? Never saw it but that was supposedly dire, or at least he says it was and refers to it being panned critically too.

Edit; Found it, it's The Persuasionists.

At least The Persuasionists led to this, which includes a namecheck for CaB: https://youtu.be/_tRXpkYLSIc

[Retinend]

Can't be coincidence, can it?

My God, that's uncanny.

Shit begets shit.

[Retinend]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PF_SCNWw_w

A decent summary/review of the show (Full English) for those who (reasonably) feel they have better things to do than to watch the show - head to the 8 minute mark to skip the waffle.

[Petey Pate]

The script was written by two brothers, and the artistic direction was handled by Gerald Scarfe's son. The two brothers have since gone on to find great success with their production company, but they don't rush to mention this early misfire - an attempt to emulate the acerbic style of Family Guy in a rare counter-example of the Brits stealing from the Yanks in comedy.

Was wondering what happened to the creators of this. I suppose the TV business is not always unforgiving when it comes to failures (see also: Marc Wootton inexplicably getting multiple series).

The final episode was ostensibly pulled for being too offensive (it was a 'My Fat Gypsy Wedding' themed episode IIRC), but I suspect the real reason was that Channel 4 wanted to bury the show as quickly as possible. It's not available to watch on All 4.

Similarly, another animated British sitcom, Popetown, was never aired on BBC3 and later released on DVD proclaiming that it was a 'banned series they didn't want you to see'. In reality, the 'controversy' was a convenient excuse for the BBC to not broadcast what was a very poor series that had numerous production issues.

[Huxleys Babkins]

My personal worst was Coming of Age. Off the back of the success of Susan Nickson's Two Pints and Grownups, the BBC decided they wanted to try to recapture that lighting in a bottle and commission another sitcom written by a teenager. The result was somehow worse. Enter Tim Dawson. Now a Tory Eurosceptic grifter cunt who writes for the Spectator, he just so happened to have a sitcom he wrote when he was at school. He also happened to be Nickson's boyfriend. What a coincidence.

In terms of performances, imagine CBeebies sitcom Justin's House, yet somehow broader. The characters are hormone-charged teenagers and never elevate beyond very basic outlines. They never truly become people. And each of these outlines are paired off into hilariously mismatched relationships. Ahah, a chav, right, trying to get off with a posh girl. A horny girl and a frigid boy. Could you even imagine??? It's just hollow grotesques making bawdy jokes at the expense of other hollow grotesques.

Just look at these cunts:



Sadly, it ran for 23 episodes and was only killed as part of the cost saving drive that also saw the end of Two Pints, Doctor Who Confidential and Ideal.

[Gulftastic]

Aye, Coming Of Age was despicable telly. I despised Two Pints.... but CoA made it look like Fawlty Towers.

This Brooker spoof is a direct result

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7zt6NS-6ns

[Brundle-Fly]

I'm just reading Peter Paphides' autobiography and he mentioned how his Greek immigrant parents loved Mind Your Language and specifically the Greek character. It was essential family viewing in that household.  And not one but two Pakistani friends of mine have mentioned in the past how much they enjoyed it. As did I. My view is that if everyone's a total national stereotype it's just funny. Like (and I know this isn't exactly the same thing), Russ Abbot's C U Jimmy character. As a young Scot living in England I'd heard every fucking stereotype and 'joke' about a million times by the time he started with that. But I just found it very amusing.

As for Love Thy Neighbour I'll do my usual mention of the time I said on another forum that I didn't think it was as racist as remembered and got followed around for weeks by some weirdo making allegations about my political views. A few months after this I ended up going for a drink with a mate from school who happened to be black and mentioned this. He was aghast. He remembered the programme as being totally anti-racist. Which is beyond even what I thought of it. I do think there is quite a bit of history rewriting about it, whereas for some reason Till Death Us Do Part is seen as a great satire on prejudice, although all I can really remember about it is Alf Garnett being abusive about minorities, none of whom were ever featured.

I can't remember ever seeing Bottle Boys. But I do remember hearing a tale about Robin Askwith being so ashamed he hid in a cupboard while filming it.


Anyway, You Must Be The Husband is the worst sitcom ever. Closely followed by Bread.

That's weird. I'm listening to Paphides book and heard that chapter only the other day. I've never understood the derision towards Mind Your Language as being this appalingly racist show. Mildly xenophobic, perhaps? The overview of those TV list shows (usually narrated by CaB favourite TAO) would have you think the show was written by John Tyndall rather than Vince Powell. Like you say, Jock, it was just daft national stereotypes. Everybody laughing at each other's perceived national traits. It was just corny not malicious. I dunno maybe I need to watch it again and double down.

The intent of Love Your Neighbour was anti-racist but the execution was clumsily delivered. Like Til Death Us Do Part, most of the kids watching, bigots and thick people didn't understand the irony or the message. My memory back then was that the worst by-product of LTN was giving a generation of children a list of creative racist slurs. The sole term 'honky' wasn't a great trade-off for the black community.

A short interview with cast members.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC2mio3LU-M

Bottle Boys was shit though. I once went to a Robin Askwith one-man show and in the Q & A asked him about it. He said it was the worst crap he'd ever done in his career and added, "...And you're talking about the man who starred in Queen Kong here." 

[Retinend]

Ugh, I remember Coming of Age... infantile rubbish from the same "gross out" era as Full English - completely on-brand for the BBC3 of its day (a channel whose output has improved massively since).

CoA made Two Pints look like Fawlty Towers

LOL

[Gulftastic]

That's weird. I'm listening to Paphides book and heard that chapter only the other day. I've never understood the derision towards Mind Your Language as being this appalingly racist show. Mildly xenophobic, perhaps? The overview of those TV list shows (usually narrated by CaB favourite TAO) would have you think the show was written by John Tyndall rather than Vince Powell. Like you say, Jock, it was just daft national stereotypes. Everybody laughing at each other's perceived national traits. It was just corny not malicious. I dunno maybe I need to watch it again and double down.

I think one of the problems with Mind Your Language come from the fact that the only people of Asian descent you saw on telly back then were the 'goodness gracious me' stereotypes MYL celebrated with such delight.

There was little balance.

[Petey Pate]

Coming of Age had the distinction of being set in my home town (the exterior shots were filmed there as well).  Everyone I knew hated it.

[Retinend]

As a former classroom TEFL-teacher, I will weigh in and certify that "Mind Your Language" is absolutely accurate about the varieties of mistakes people make in English, and the amusing situations that come up when various nationals share the same classroom. 

I think its bad reputation was retroactively extrapolated from the correct notion that if a foreigner doesn't understand you, you shouldn't imagine that they are stupid. Obviously, a show in which characters are written to comedically play up linguistic misunderstandings risks coming across as portraying those characters as stupid. Yet the show is written as if by someone who paid their dues working in such a classroom and knew their onions.

edit: minding my language

[Gulftastic]

As a former classroom TEFL-teacher, I will weigh in and certify that "Mind Your Language" is absolutely accurate about the varieties of mistakes people make in English, and the amusing situations that come up when various nationals share the same classroom. 

I think it's bad reputation was extrapolated from the correct notion that if a foreigner doesn't understand you, you shouldn't imagine that they are stupid. Obviously, a show in which characters are written comedically play up linguistic misunderstandings risks coming across as portraying those characters as stupid. Yet the show is obviously written by someone who paid their dues working in such a classroom and knew their onions.

So did someone ever do the 'present/gift' thing when you were doing the register?

[Jockice]

I think one of the problems with Mind Your Language come from the fact that the only people of Asian descent you saw on telly back then were the 'goodness gracious me' stereotypes MYL celebrated with such delight.

There was little balance.

Indeed. But my best platonic female friend is Pakistani (well her parents are. She is Sheffield born and bred) and we have this running joke where she does all the appallingly-accented 'och aye the noo' stuff and I respond with a head-nodding and equally-appallingly accented 'oh dearie dearie me.' But then we're two individuals who have known each other for nearly a quarter of a century. I can still totally understand people hating being stereotyped though. I've had quite a bit of it through my life for various reasons.

[Retinend]

So did someone ever do the 'present/gift' thing when you were doing the register?

It's a good example because, admittedly, the way it was adapted into a joke for the purposes of a sitcom distorts reality - I mean, that misunderstanding would never actually happen in the context of doing the register. But the core of the joke is true to life: the words sounding the same is indeed a riddle for beginners. The two meanings of "present" (adjective and noun: "a gift") are not homophones in any other language, so it's funny to cast a light on that, and no one is stupid for not intuiting this peculiarity of the English tongue.

[jobotic]

Guess what Tim Watson looks like? And what he now thinks of the BBC. You never will.

http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2018/12/tim-dawson-the-bbc-murders-how-the-corporation-used-anti-brexit-poison-to-kill-poirot.html

[Icehaven]

Guess what Tim Watson looks like? And what he now thinks of the BBC. You never will.

http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2018/12/tim-dawson-the-bbc-murders-how-the-corporation-used-anti-brexit-poison-to-kill-poirot.html

Are both those photos him? Because if so the bigger one on the right (ha!) must be considerably older than the smaller one.

[dissolute ocelot]

Jonah Hill's animated sitcom Allen Gregory was mindbendingly awful, somewhat homophobic, and all the characters were hateworthy. It was presumably only animated because real human beings couldn't stand still, do nothing, and be unfunny for that long. There's a lot of utterly shit animated sitcoms (Brickleberry, The Cleveland Show, ...) but truly in a class of its own.

More controversially, Clerks: The Animated Series, which made your 8 year old brother's Flash cartoons look well animated (it was supposed to look like a comic book, which was a very bad design decision) and was entirely comprised of in-jokes and in-not-jokes. If you made a flip-book while stoned it would probably be better.

[Replies From View]

derke

[Replies From View]

The Wright Way

[idunnosomename]

Oh god. I only watched the first episode (much like everyone else I believe) but it was so bad it was immediately obvious it wasn't a case of giving it a chance or letting it grow into itself or anything, it was an attempt to copy the hugely successful American adult animations equivalent to trying to write in a mirror. I'm amused to learn Sam Wollaston liked it though, of course he did.

Richard Ayoade did the Dad's voice?! Doesn't mention that much does he?

Worth quoting sams prose about it in full

Full English (Channel 4), a new family-based animation, lacks the warmth of The Simpsons and the smartness of Family Guy. It's baser, more British, more about arses, and blow jobs, and shagging the Queen, wey hey.

If you're puerile, a 13-year-old boy at heart, it may amuse you. I think it's hilarious. It's already series-linked.

Amazing how poor his writing is even in just five sentences.

[A Hat Like That]

I think one of the problems with Mind Your Language come from the fact that the only people of Asian descent you saw on telly back then were the 'goodness gracious me' stereotypes MYL celebrated with such delight.

There was little balance.

I do a bit of work in Ghana and found that Mind Your Language gets repeated, weekend, primetime on the main local channel there. The first time was quite the shock.

I do think that having three distinctly different South Asian characters (a Punjabi Sikh, a Pakistani Muslim and a Hindu) - and trying to base some of the plotlines and characterisation on these differences - does show some insight and understanding beyond the obvious. Maybe I'm being generous.

Of the other comments:

Bread - there's a reason why this has faded so far from the public consciousness even if it is a Scouser writing presumably quite close to her own experiences. Also, its not actually funny?

Coming of Age - three seasons (!) - but it reminded me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off_the_Hook_(TV_series)
which was desperate.

[Jockice]

Jonah Hill's animated sitcom Allen Gregory was mindbendingly awful, somewhat homophobic, and all the characters were hateworthy. It was presumably only animated because real human beings couldn't stand still, do nothing, and be unfunny for that long. There's a lot of utterly shit animated sitcoms (Brickleberry, The Cleveland Show, ...) but truly in a class of its own.

i actually know someone called Alan Gregory, but have never heard of that sitcom. Wonder if he has.

[A Hat Like That]

It's a good example because, admittedly, the way it was adapted into a joke for the purposes of a sitcom distorts reality - I mean, that misunderstanding would never actually happen in the context of doing the register. But the core of the joke is true to life: the words sounding the same is indeed a riddle for beginners. The two meanings of "present" (adjective and noun: "a gift") are not homophones in any other language, so it's funny to cast a light on that, and no one is stupid for not intuiting this peculiarity of the English tongue.

Completely off topic, but I like the way that pawn (a chess piece) and pawn (the shop) have completely different roots.

[ajsmith2]

I'm more shocked by the fact that The Beezer had gone tabloid.  When the hell did that happen?

The Beezer went from A3 to A4 in 1981 according to the wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beezer

[Dayraven]

Judging a book by its cover - that Full English animation looks very much like F Is For Family.

It's the "make sure it's not mistaken for a kid's cartoon by being pleasant to look at" style.

[Dusty Substance]

At least The Persuasionists led to this, which includes a namecheck for CaB: https://youtu.be/_tRXpkYLSIc

TIL The Persuasionists was "the sitcom writing debut for Jonathan Thake, best known until then for 'the slag of all snacks' campaign for Pot Noodle".

Explains a lot.

[Ignatius_S]

Was wondering what happened to the creators of this. I suppose the TV business is not always unforgiving when it comes to failures (see also: Marc Wootton inexplicably getting multiple series).

The final episode was ostensibly pulled for being too offensive (it was a 'My Fat Gypsy Wedding' themed episode IIRC), but I suspect the real reason was that Channel 4 wanted to bury the show as quickly as possible. It's not available to watch on All 4.

Similarly, another animated British sitcom, Popetown, was never aired on BBC3 and later released on DVD proclaiming that it was a 'banned series they didn't want you to see'. In reality, the 'controversy' was a convenient excuse for the BBC to not broadcast what was a very poor series that had numerous production issues.

Re: final episode of Full English - at the time, no one bought that explanation; it was heavily hyped and when it was received so badly, they wanted to bury it and it truly had abysmal viewing figures.. (Haver a feeling they also reduced the amount of times it was scheduled to be shown as well).

Re: Popetown - funnily (not a word one would normally associate with the series), a BBC executive being interviewed on the Today programme cited it not being shown because it would have been offensive to Christians (this would have been part of part of the - for want of a better word - defence of showing Jerry Springer: The Opera) but the DVD coming out way before then put paid to that idea.

[idunnosomename]

that video is far too generous to Full English in suggesting it had even a shred of potential (and didn't even mention the significance of the Scarfe credit which was surely part of its marketing) but forwards the hypothesis that because My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding was a C4 show, any controversy the episode might generate (if anyone watched it) might work against the channel so best not to risk it. because no one cares anyway