US shows which are mentioned a lot in US pop culture but unknown in the UK

[Gulftastic]

Taxi was pretty popular in the UK in the late 1970s, early 80s, shown late on BBC1, (possibly Sunday nights)?

It was very well regarded. I remember when Channel 4 started and they mentioned often that their new US comedy 'Cheers' was from the makers of 'Taxi'. It's probably why I watched it from the very beginning.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I don't think Seinfeld, like Larry Sanders, ever had a regular slot, or promotion on BBC/ terrestrial. If you wanted to watch it you had to look for it.

The first series of " Seinfeld" got a 9:00/ 9:30 slot on BBC 2 Circa 1993 . I distinctly remember viewing that episode where they're all trying to get in that exclusive restaurant at that timeslot. It might have been broadcast after an episode from series 1 of " The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer".

[Mr Vegetables]

I kind of prefer TV when it's full of references to things I don't understand, it makes the world seem strange and exciting. When I actually get them, I usually just think they aren't funny, and that's not as good

[TheMonk]

What's the one where the bloke threatens to punch his wife "Pow right in the kisser" as referenced on Family Guy? Lovely stuff

Before I knew about The Honeymooners I saw the Warner Brothers cartoon on the Bugs Bunny Show.

I remember wondering what was funny about his catchphrase. Also the  Three Bears cartoons on there from memory had a father punching his (much bigger) infant son in anger. They were, apparently, different times.

[letsgobrian]

The first series of " Seinfeld" got a 9:00/ 9:30 slot on BBC 2 Circa 1993 . I distinctly remember viewing that episode where they're all trying to get in that exclusive restaurant at that timeslot. It might have been broadcast after an episode from series 1 of " The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer".

To be a pedant, they skipped the first series, and broadcast series 2 in an odd order (that or Radio Times has the wrong episode descriptions).

According to RT/bbcgenome, The Chinese Restaurant episode went out at 2100 Wed 10 Nov 1993 between Celebrity Mantelpiece (?) and The Buddha of Suburbia.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I can even remember BBC 2 promoting that series of " Seinfeld" by showing little teaser clips. One involved the young mulleted Jerry himself saying " you're a cashier!", and one with Michael Richards saying " Wow...psycho- sexual!".

[C_Larence]

Was MacGuyver popular here? It took me a while to find out it wasn't a fictional show within The Simpsons

[George White]

Wasn't it on Sky?


Talking of Simpsons,

Never shown in UK or Ireland, though it was a spinoff of BJ And The Bear, where Akins appeared in two episodes as Lobo, a recurring nemesis for Greg Evigan and his simian haulage buddy.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Was MacGuyver popular here? It took me a while to find out it wasn't a fictional show within The Simpsons

I remember it. I think it replaced The A-Team or Night Rider on ITV.

[non capisco]

To be a pedant, they skipped the first series, and broadcast series 2 in an odd order (that or Radio Times has the wrong episode descriptions).

According to RT/bbcgenome, The Chinese Restaurant episode went out at 2100 Wed 10 Nov 1993 between Celebrity Mantelpiece (?) and The Buddha of Suburbia.

That makes sense, although was it later on that it was broadcast in a double bill with Larry Sanders? I remember seeing The Pony Remark around 1993 and thinking "Ah, this is OK I suppose" but not sticking with it and then what felt like about a year later (although Genome says Jan 96 so clearly not) catching the opening The Trip two parter from series 4 and thinking it was fantastic. Hooked from then on. 

[non capisco]

I remember it. I think it replaced The A-Team or Night Rider on ITV.

First series of MacGyver was on BBC1 in summer 1989 (I remember there being letters in the Radio Times complaining that one episode used action footage nicked from The Italian Job) and then switched to ITV in the 90s. Although in the late 90s the ropey feature length TV movies were shown on BBC1, including the one where there's an establishing shot with the caption 'The Balkan Peninsula' and it's Battersea Power Station.

[Sebastian Cobb]

There was a time when this might have been different - when I was young, let's say the 1990s and maybe into the early noughties, US sitcoms were shown regularly on the BBC and Channel 4 so I became as familiar with The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched as telly fixtures as I was with Last of the Summer Wine and other shite that was "ours". BBC even ran Top Cat at like fucking lunchtime on weekdays. Who was that for?!

Fair enough but I think it's worth noting that multi-channel television seemed to catch-on much earlier and was more common in the us, so the stuff that got imported will have been a filtered selection. We'll have missed a lot of second-rate copycats of more popular shows.

Although endless repeats/syndication seems more common in the US. A little tidbit around audio-processing is that one of the first uses for the eventide harmoniser (an early pitch-shifter that found use as a proto-autotune like device) was to downshift sped-up versions of I Love Lucy so the network could run it fast and cram more ads in. This seems to be a common practice:

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Oh shit I've been conflating Matlock and MacGyver. Never seen either of them

[jamiefairlie]

Howdy Doody seemed to be the answer to roughly half the TV questions in the original US version of Triv.

The US version of Man About The House was massive over there but I don't remember it making it to the UK

[willbo]

I'd seen MacGyver a couple of times before Simpsons mentioned it. It's basically a Chuck Norris/Kung fu/A-Team ish rural action show IIRC

[Captain Poodle Basher]

Different Strokes and Family Ties were on Sky One in the late eighties. Family Ties was religious viewing for us. My family still quotes it today - the dead aunt Trudy episode and the Rooms for Rent episode and the Pick Up A Penguin episode.

Brady Bunch used to be shown on Sky One at 1600, so I would watch it when I got home from school. This is why I think The Brady Bunch movie is one of the best comedies ever. Marcia Marcia Marcia!

Never seen Gilligans Island, Full House, or any of the American soaps.

I don't think Seinfeld, like Larry Sanders, ever had a regular slot, or promotion on BBC/ terrestrial. If you wanted to watch it you had to look for it.

The Brady Bunch was shown by RTE in the mid '70's in an early evening slot. Along with The Partridge Family, Six Million Dollar Man etc. They showed a whole raft of US detective shows as well.

[Famous Mortimer]

Anyone remember "Remote Control"? Not the British remake, but the American original. It was on Sky or MTV in the early 90s, and was a puzzler for this young comedy appreciator because pretty much every show they mentioned was a complete mystery to me.

[Rev+]

(Seinfeld) That makes sense, although was it later on that it was broadcast in a double bill with Larry Sanders?

The BBC made the same mistake with Seinfeld that they made with the Simpsons - they advertised and hyped them endlessly before they started showing them, but although there were loads of episodes in existence by that point, they went with the conventional one-episode-a-week approach.  They should have been bunging out more to start with, particularly with Seinfeld, as it's the kind of thing you need to get a feel for.  In the end, yeah, they double-billed it with Larry Sanders and bunged them out late 3 nights a week just to burn it off.  A disservice to both shows, but an absolute bloody treat as a viewer.

Some of the other stuff mentioned was very big in the UK on terrestrial TV in the 80s:  Diff'rent Strokes, MacGuyver, Taxi were all things most people would be aware of even if they didn't watch them.  Family Matters on the other hand is one of the real blind spots, and something I'm only aware of due to references.  That one's particularly weird as it was a spin-off of Perfect Strangers, which ran for years in a pretty desirable primetime spot on BBC1, despite being an absolute pile of shit.

[letsgobrian]

I'd seen MacGyver a couple of times before Simpsons mentioned it. It's basically a Chuck Norris/Kung fu/A-Team ish rural action show IIRC

Its central gimmick is "MacGyver solves a problem using engineering, with the items available at hand".

It starts off as a jet setting secret agent show, but turns into a social issues show later (i.e. in season 1 he might be smuggling microfilm in Eastern Europe, in season 7 he's helping his local community combat its crack problem).

[George White]

It kind of changed when production moved from LA to Vancouver.

[up_the_hampipe]

Not a show but did Weekend at Bernie's make any impact over here? I've only ever known it as a reference in American stuff and didn't know what it meant for years. Was it even in cinemas here?

[Mr Trumpet]

Leave it to Beaver

Doogie Howser

[willbo]

Not a show but did Weekend at Bernie's make any impact over here? I've only ever known it as a reference in American stuff and didn't know what it meant for years. Was it even in cinemas here?

I remember seeing one of them on TV as a kid in the early 90s, if that means anything. I think it was the 2nd one

also I assume the host of "Family Feuds" was called Richard Dawson from the Wu Tang lyric

[Mr Trumpet]

I remember seeing one of them on TV as a kid in the early 90s, if that means anything. I think it was the 2nd one

also I assume the host of "Family Feuds" was called Richard Dawson from the Wu Tang lyric

Yes, Richard Dawson. Actually an Englishman, from Gosport. Most well known in this country for playing the game show host (Killian?) in The Running Man opposite Arnie.

[Rev+]

Doogie Howser

That's another one that got a reasonably decent slot on BBC1.  I think part of the feeling of obscurity might be that imports are often only shown the once, and when the final episode's hit that'll be it for a long time.  Your Quincies and your Petrocellis might float back up in daytime eventually, but it seems to happen a lot less with sitcoms.

If we're talking gameshows: Jeopardy.  Referenced so much in US stuff we knew the format back to front when it eventually got a UK verson.

[neveragain]

What's the one where the bloke threatens to punch his wife "Pow right in the kisser" as referenced on Family Guy? Lovely stuff

That, as I don't think anyone has replied directly, is The Honeymooners.

[JesusAndYourBush]

For me it's...
Gilligan's Island (despite numerous mentions I've no idea)
Fantasy Island (something about a boat and a little guy called Tattoo, or is Gilligan's Island the the boat one?)
The Brady Bunch (I know the title sequence is divided into 9 squares showing the cast members).
The Beverly Hillbillies (I know the theme tune and lyrics because shows didn't stop bloody referencing it.  I *think* it was shown in the early days of Channel 4 although I never saw it).

Night Court...

I saw that on The Paramount Channel (as it was called then) in around 1996-ish.  It was ok.

[George White]

Fantasy Island was shown on ITV, but they stopped it after VIllechaize left and was replaced by Christopher 'Roger De Bris' Hewett. Like the Love Boat, it's something people think as an Eighventies show, but it ran until  1984 (Love Boat till 1986!).

Mentioning Hewett, his sitcom Mr. Belvedere is a perfect example.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

" The Beverly Hillbillies" used to get shown on ITV in the 70s. The British comic " Whoopee!" homaged it, shall we way, with their strip " The Bumpkin Billionaires", a fun  little strip about a pig ignorant thick yokel family with Fred and Rose West accents who win shitloads of money on the lottery or something, and don't like being rich, so spend their time trying to get rid of the money, but always end up making more of it, the stupid cunts. They didn't go down the Bill Gates route of becoming philanthropists, but that might not have made a very good comic strip.
One thing I distinctly remember about " The Beverly Hillbillies" is the family coming outside of their mansion to wave goodbye to the viewers while the credits played ( " y'all come back now, y'hear?* said the narrator) , and had to maintain cheery grins and waving arms for an amount of time that just about became uncomfortable. This was referenced on " The Simpsons" in one of the last funny things that show did ( Bart Simpson's stopping waving and the " fuck this for a lark" expression on his face while the rest of the family carried gamely on).

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

" Mad " magazine used to reference " Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman", but that never got shown on British telly as far as I know. Has anyone seen It? It used to be up on YouTube, might still be.
It's basically a surreal precursor to " Soap", but as if That show were written and directed by David Lynch. No studio audience, quite unusual for them days. Louise Lasser Louis Lasser played the eponymous heroine.