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Shitcoms - The Worst Sitcoms In History

Started by Fambo Number Mive, February 24, 2021, 08:04:16 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Jake Thingray on February 25, 2021, 06:48:11 PM
Presenting characters just arguing with each other, in lieu of plot, was also a criticism made of Till Death Us Do Part, defenders claimed that Speight was a polemicist like his inspiration, George Bernard Shaw. Whose work doesn't do anything for me either.

franticplanet, on your blog, when examining the psychological minefield of Michael Barrymore's live mid-90's act, you mentioned that the blind devotion displayed by his followers was similar to that of devoted fans of Michael Jackson. I really do have to ask -- are you aware of a onetime toilet cleaner from Essex named Christine Guntrip?

I don't think that can be applied to Curry and Chips though as there is some character development in the series. In particular, Kenny Lynch's character starts with being complicit in the racism of his co-workers (essentially, his initial position is to keep his head down and hope for gradual acceptance) but gradually begins to speak out and challenge it (ending in a fight in one episode). Eric Sykes' character is often said to be the liberal voice of reason, which one could contend in the initial episode and indeed, from the the quoted section from an ITC report into the complaints for the show, which I read in one academic paper, I would infer that they had not looked any further than that episode. As the series progresses, he's seen in a different light - e.g. when O'Grady complains about being physically assaulted by (IIRC) the milkman, Sykes replies something like 'it's just his way... you have to understand that you are a guest in in our county' - increasingly, he is shown as essentially wanting a quiet life, doesn't want to make waves and like, the other white characters, is prejudiced.

In terms of similar issues in Till Death Do Us Part, the chief ones (IMO) is that there is no clear author's voice, unappealing characters and Speight not drafting or editing scripts. Whereas with TDDUP, there was a clear vision that the cast (on the whole) signed up to, C&C was born out of someone else's concept but who wanted to palm off the writing and the three main creative players, although good friends, worked very different and had different ideas. The plan to try and mitigate Speight's unreliability was obviously never going to work - to any satisfactory degree anyway - there's a lovely story that on the day that one of the scripts was meant to be turned in, no one could find Speight but the poor sod who had been tasked with collecting scripts managed to find him in a drinking club with George Best, both totally smashed; there was no script, but Speight did managed to scrawl a few ideas on a beermat, leaving Sykes and Milligan to write the script overnight.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on February 25, 2021, 06:05:15 PM
Really enjoying the blog in the initial post. I know what I'm watching Christmas 2021.

https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/i-watched-jim-davidsons-adult-panto/

Someone I know was in one of the productions.

In case anyone is wondering, 'being involved in the those pantos sound like a deeply grim and depressing experience, but perhaps it was actually a good laugh and not something that ate at your soul every second?' I'm reliably that the answer is no.

Ptolemy Ptarmigan

I doubt it's as bad as Bottle Boys when it comes to sitcoms with the pitch 'cheeky comedian in unglamorous job', but Reg 'On the Buses' Varney starred in Down the 'Gate, set in Billingsgate fish market.

It's on DVD but I can't find any clips on youtube. I'm guessing he says gorblimey a lot.  Anyone here seen it?

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on February 25, 2021, 06:05:15 PM
Really enjoying the blog in the initial post. I know what I'm watching Christmas 2021.

https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/i-watched-jim-davidsons-adult-panto/
I'm reading that post now and it's hilarious. franticplanet, you have a new reader.

Cuellar

It's making me want to watch it again, but the link in the Jim Davidson thread is dead :(

dr_christian_troy


jobotic

Been reading the blog all day off and on. Really good stuff. Must visit the patreon site (find out what one is).

Cuellar

But wait! Sinderella is back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et84CmWl4Fk

Fantastic. Going to have that on tomorrow.

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

#98
Quote from: dr_christian_troy on February 25, 2021, 10:28:04 PM
Does anyone remember when Gorden Kaye did a rap song as Rene?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHkrywRWq3A
I got twenty seconds in before I cringed so hard I did myself an injury

(and I like 'Allo 'Allo)

H-O-W-L

I used to have BBC3 on all the time (mostly because I loved Being Human, probably the best thing that channel ever produced) just for the noise, before I switched to E4 which showed actually decent US sitcoms, and Coming of Age was exactly as bad as people say.

Wonderful Butternut

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on February 25, 2021, 06:05:15 PM
Really enjoying the blog in the initial post. I know what I'm watching Christmas 2021.

https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/i-watched-jim-davidsons-adult-panto/

For my own personal amusement, I started writing my own panto a while back that quickly descended into taking digs at anti-feminist alt-right gammons that probably aren't even relevant anymore. Along with many breaches of the Fourth Wall. Because there's something wrong with me.

I bet if I ever finish it, (must shoehorn Glinner into it somehow) it'd be funnier than Jim Davidson's "adult" panto. Then again, a clown's funeral with Andy Parsons as the celebrant would probably be funnier too, so I'm not setting a high bar.

Mr Banlon

Quote from: Cuellar on February 25, 2021, 10:37:18 PM
But wait! Sinderella is back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et84CmWl4Fk

Fantastic. Going to have that on tomorrow.

My favourite from the comment section :

"Brought I remember watching this on dvd with my dad and cusion"

Wonderful Butternut

Quote from: Youtube twatBest of Brit humour,please don't lose it

Fuck's sake.

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

Quote from: Youtube twat
Best of Brit humour,please don't lose it
How could anyone say that with their whole entire chest when Fawlty Towers exists

famethrowa

Quote from: Jake Thingray on February 25, 2021, 06:48:11 PM
are you aware of a onetime toilet cleaner from Essex named Christine Guntrip?

Comments are turned off.

What a disappointment.

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on February 25, 2021, 05:23:26 PM
I think he's a bit of a thesp that does telly to pay the bills so I'm not sure he's that fussy.

Absolutely astonished to find out he's only 65.

I was doing a slow channel surf and he popped up in Soldier Soldier, broadly playing that same character.

Mr Trumpet

Quote from: A Hat Like That on February 26, 2021, 10:29:30 AM
I was doing a slow channel surf and he popped up in Soldier Soldier, broadly playing that same character.

He was very well cast as Rudyard Kipling in that thing he did with Harry Potter. But I believe he wrote the script himself, which no doubt helped.

thr0b

My Family was occasionally funny. I do not begrudge its existence.

I also quite liked Two Pints. It was awful, but also knew it was awful. It could also be inventive - the musical episode being a peak.

Should've ended as soon as Ralf Little quit however. By the end, only Will Mellor of the original cast was left, and it wasn't exactly a concept that stretched to replacing the whole cast.

dr_christian_troy


MiaConfused

There was a story at the time Bottle Boys was on (and it was recognised as being extremely poor even at the time) that Robin Askwith hid in a cupboard rather than film that week's episode, so awful was the script. I think it was the Daily Mirror's TV critic at the time who was so impressed by this that she instigated the Commemorative Robin Askwith Plaque for services to television comedy.

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on February 24, 2021, 08:04:16 PM
Inspired by Stuart Millard's excellent seven part series on his blog.

What do you think are the worst sitcoms in History? And what makes a bad sitcom?

Having read Stuart's blog post on Bottle Boys, I watched a couple of episodes on Youtube and I think it deserves to be featured as one of the worst sitcoms ever.

It stars Robin Asquith as a milkman who works at a dairy full of racist and sexist stereotypes. As well as the scripts only appealing to ultra-gammons, the sitcom has about one actually funny joke every couple of episodes (when it veers away from hateful stereotypes for a few minutes).

I think it would appeal to the type of Little Englander who thinks women are stupid (the character of the secretary), Scottish people drink all the time (Milkman Jock, who only seems to be in the show for these kind of jokes) and enjoy anti-BAME racist jokes (the black milkman is the butt of many racist jokes). And Asquith's boss is Welsh, which allows for even more racist jokes.

I think Stuart says it better than I can:

https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/bottle-boys/



Retinend

Quote from: thr0b on February 26, 2021, 01:19:31 PM
My Family was occasionally funny. I do not begrudge its existence.

That's what I told my family the last time we met. For some reason they took it completely the wrong way.

MiaConfused

Quote from: Ptolemy Ptarmigan on February 25, 2021, 08:44:01 PM
I doubt it's as bad as Bottle Boys when it comes to sitcoms with the pitch 'cheeky comedian in unglamorous job', but Reg 'On the Buses' Varney starred in Down the 'Gate, set in Billingsgate fish market.

It's on DVD but I can't find any clips on youtube. I'm guessing he says gorblimey a lot.  Anyone here seen it?

Haven't seen it. but IIRC the only surviving copies came from Reg Varney's own archives, on a non-professional format.

samadriel

Let's see you Brits beat "Hey Dad!...", the endless, shitty Australian '90s sitcom starring Robert Hughes, now best known for having visited Paedogeddon upon several very young girls.

Quote from: MiaConfused on February 26, 2021, 01:24:02 PM
There was a story at the time Bottle Boys was on (and it was recognised as being extremely poor even at the time) that Robin Askwith hid in a cupboard rather than film that week's episode, so awful was the script. I think it was the Daily Mirror's TV critic at the time who was so impressed by this that she instigated the Commemorative Robin Askwith Plaque for services to television comedy.

We need a definitive list of comedians who've hidden in cupboards.


Ptolemy Ptarmigan

Quote from: MiaConfused on February 26, 2021, 01:37:20 PM
Haven't seen it. but IIRC the only surviving copies came from Reg Varney's own archives, on a non-professional format.
Seems incredible that a mainstream sitcom would be completely wiped in 1976, especially as Varney would still have been a massive star in the wake of On the Buses.

His home video-recording of Series 2 on the DVD appears with all the 1976 ad breaks intact - £4.20 today in the Network sale if anyone's interested in that historical aspect.

Deanjam

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on February 26, 2021, 02:17:49 PM
We need a definitive list of comedians who've hidden in cupboards.

Didn't Lee Mack claim he hid in a cupboard from Anthea Turner. And who could blame him.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: dr_christian_troy on February 26, 2021, 01:21:27 PM

Odd Man Out.

I started a thread about this a few years back. The opening episode is frightful but compelling to watch. Like any LiveLeak video from the Ukraine.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Some ones that spring to mind for the ol' Nineties they had there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dad_(TV_series)

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef!

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

It's  difficult wanting to suggest a dozen others knowing that despite being mainly shit for all manner of reasons, they did actually, on some levels, function.

Haven't seen most of the above since the time though, so please correct me if I am mistaken here.