Bits of British LE/low cultural tat cropping up in US things

[George White]

Was watching The Final Conflict (1981) and delighted to finally confirm that the comic the character of Peter, Damien's stepson is seen reading is indeed a Beano, judging from the double-spread that looks to me like a Bash Street Kids, and the back is clearly the old Dennis and Gnasher back page.

Obviously, there's stuff like Brucie in Magnum PI during his US daytime gameshow phase, and also Arthur English in the UK ep.


BTW I'm not looking for British actors in US sitcoms and stuff, but references to shows, billboards in uS news montages showing Cannon and Ball, stuff that kind of accidentally crept into frame

A Beano also pops up in Inspector Clouseau (1968).

Whizzer and Chips in Juggernaut (1974).

Or the American DJ Kat on Fox stations WNEW and KTTV.
The Mickey Mouse Club (ABC) featured Harry Corbett and Sooty, in specially shot segments, similar to Emu's appearances on the Hudson Brothers Razzle dazzle Show (CBS, 1975) and the 1/2Hour Comedy hour (ABC, 1983), or the Dean Martin Comedy World (NBC, 1975) featuring Keith Harris and Cuddles or Pinky and Perky and Arthur Worsley and Charlie on the Ed Sullivan show (CBS) or Neol presenting BBC bloopers on FoulUps, Bleeps and Blunders (ABC), and of course the Neol Edmonds Show on ABC.
 
Or Beano in Insp Clouseau (NBC, 1968)
Sparky in Charlie Bubbles (NBC, 1970)
Judy comic pop up in Magical Mystery Tour (WGN/Disney Channel/Bravo, 1967)
My Weekly in The Company of Wolves (Showtime, 1984)
Or IPC-wise in terms of big international films set in Britain
Or Whizzer and Chips in Juggernaut (CBS, 1974)
Or Tiger in the Wild Geese (NBC, 1978)
Or Teddy Bear in The Black Windmill (ABC, 1974)

Obviously, it's British-made but Shirley Valentine has a Beano annual.

Or Death's Head in The Rachel Papers (1989)


Or
WH Smith in
Murder with Mirrors (CBS, 1985)
Night and the City (NBC, 1950) (the WH Smith Building)
The VIPS (ABC, 1963)
Married with Children (Fox, 1994)
 
Or Wimpy in
The Love Boat/Dynasty - that Holiday Spirit/The Spy Killer (ABC)
Murder She Wrote - Murder in White (CBS)
Ironside - Shadow Soldiers (NBC)
The Piccadilly wimpy seen in Murder She Wrote, Love Boat and Dynasty ended up being a Burger King, as seen in Blade 2 (2002).



The Lost World - Jurassic Park (1997) -
The Financial Times Robin Sachs reads (to show us he is British) has a lengthy article on panto, and how EastEnders stars are allowed to do, going into minute detail how Ross Kemp, Patsy Palmer, Anita Dobson, etc are doing in current pantos, but how Granada has banned Corrie stars from doing it. https://archive.org/details/FinancialTimes1996UKEnglish/Dec 14 1996, Financial Times, #14, UK (en)/page/n37/mode/2up
Isn't that wonderful?


Columbo - Dagger of the Mind (1972) - The LWT Centre/London Studios are seen in construction in the opening credits.
There's also product placement for Punch and Crawford's Biscuits for Cheese in the gentlemen's club.

Rosie - the Rosemary Clooney Story (1982), Sinatra (1992) and Out on a Limb (1986) all feature the Palladium.

The Night Stalker (1972) features an ad for  60s variety staple/Maori crooner/Shakin' Engelbert Sir John Rowles.

Alfred Hitchcock Hour - Thou Still Unravished Bride (1965) features an ad for Rediffusion Television on a prop bus on the Universal backlot (by then, production had moved from Revue studios to Universal City itself). Now curious was this some kind of secret backhand gesture from ITV for showing the series.

[Registering to lurk]

Rod Hull and Emu on the Johnny Carson show, with Richard Pryor. It's brilliant but weird to see the collision between US television and cinema, and Emu.

[George White]

That was promoting the aforementioned 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour.

There's an ep of Charlie's Angels where Norman Wisdom in Pitkin mode appears in a photo on a wall.

Similarly, an ep of Rich Man, Poor Man Book 2 (1976), set in 1968, an office has a Time-Life trade ad for Alistair Cooke's America on the wall.


The Hackney Empire in Chaplin (1992). Robert Downey Jr the Clive Rowe of his day.

[Brundle-Fly]

There must be a fair few in The Simpsons? The Yakety Sax/ Benny Hill chase sequence in their garden for a start.

[George White]

There must be a fair few in The Simpsons? The Yakety Sax/ Benny Hill chase sequence in their garden for a start.

And the various Tom Baker/Fourth Doctor appearances.
And the Thames ident in Do Shut up!

King of the Hill had Peggy getting Bobby to watch Yes Minister.

[BlodwynPig]

Charlie from Bergerac in Star Trek V saying "now come on, Jim"

[George White]

Found the Sunday News of the World TV mag with Nail's fizzog on it that ended up in a Murder She Wrote.

[mippy]

I want to know what America's most amazing diet is!

[BlodwynPig]

I want to know what America's most amazing diet is!

Substance abuse

[Zero Gravitas]

1992 is when the USDA food pyramid was first published, so probably just: eating fruit and veg.

[Blumf]

Rod Hull and Emu on the Johnny Carson show, with Richard Pryor

Rod Hull and Emu also turned up on The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show which was then used in one of Family Guy's space filling memberberry references:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Tsq3c6dYc

So a two-fer there.

Looking it up the show also had Bob Monkhouse turn up for at least one episode.

[George White]

Monkhouse and the Hudson Brothers did Bonkers! together, ITC's attempt to do a live action Muppet Show. Bombed in the US, and curtailed in the UK after the ITV Strike.

Murray Langston, the Unknown Comic continued being mates with Rod, as he worked on EMU-TV, the Canadian version of EBC (Razzle Dazzle Show was a Canadian coproduction).

[A Hat Like That]

Julian Joachim in Hannibal

[neveragain]

Rod Hull and Emu also turned up on The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show which was then used in one of Family Guy's space filling memberberry references:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Tsq3c6dYc

So a two-fer there.

Another Family Guy had a reference to Les Dawson in it, which gave me a little shock.

[The Culture Bunker]

Another Family Guy had a reference to Les Dawson in it, which gave me a little shock.

That's certainly a bigger eyebrow-raiser than references to Benny Hill, who I think was quite well known in the States. I wouldn't be surprised to find out Les never even gigged over there.

[Brundle-Fly]

Neither of these are particularly low cultural tat (depending on one's snobbery)

I might be mixing up shows, but doesn't Angel Batista from the final season of Dexter enjoys watching Downton Abbey in his hospital convalescence?

And this double incongruity in a opening montage in S7 of The Walking Dead. A 1980s U.S. sitcom PLUS music accompaniment from a certain Woking mod trio.

[Theoretical Dentist]

A clip of This Morning with Phillip Schofield appeared in the background on the US drama The Morning Show.

[George White]

That's certainly a bigger eyebrow-raiser than references to Benny Hill, who I think was quite well known in the States. I wouldn't be surprised to find out Les never even gigged over there.

I think the only time Les' material ever got a US airing was his stuff on the Grand Knockout Tournament, which aired on USA Network, and even that might have been cut.

 

[George White]

Julian Joachim in Hannibal

Reminded of a bit in thw 1979 Bruce Li film The Gold Connection.
The only kung fu film to feature the 1970s Nottingham Forest squad, thanks to a scene where Li watches the Nottingham Forest vs AEK Athens match at City Ground, Nottingham - part of Notts Forest's glory run of the 1978-79 European Cup...
Birtles, Clark, Martin O'Neill too, making him possibly the only Ireland manager to appear in a kung fu film (though it wouldn't surprise me if Jack Charlton got in something). Ads for British Sugar, a FIAT dealership, National Giro Bank,  Hoover, Mornflake Oats too on the ground...

[Blumf]

The Bee Gees musical tribute to The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) has Frankie Howerd as the evil Mr Mustard. But then that film is nuts for it casting range. How does a film have both Frankie Howerd and Alice Cooper in it!?

Pity it's shit.

[Bingo Fury]

I might be mixing up shows, but doesn't Angel Batista from the final season of Dexter enjoys watching Downton Abbey in his hospital convalescence?

Wasn't that Happy Hogan in Iron Man 3?

Maybe Angel as well, but the final traces of Dexter's final season were expunged from my brain over a decade ago, so it's hard to be sure.

[mr. logic]

There must be a fair few in The Simpsons? The Yakety Sax/ Benny Hill chase sequence in their garden for a start.

Ah, Andy Capp, you wife beating drunk.

[neveragain]

That's certainly a bigger eyebrow-raiser than references to Benny Hill, who I think was quite well known in the States. I wouldn't be surprised to find out Les never even gigged over there.

To be fair, the joke of the scene was someone making a reference that the audience wouldn't get. It then cut to two frat boys watching. One was confused, the other explained who Les Dawson was (albeit in quite a reductive way, only mentioning mother-in-law jokes.)

Other British references in FG that have taken me by surprise include Gemma Arterton, Last Tango In Halifax and of course the cameo by Alan Bennett.

[Glebe]

Don Rickles mentions Brucie and Jimmy 'Tarbucks' on Johnny Carson:

Dennis and Gnasher T-shirt in video for Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down':

Remember Benny Hill being mentioned in an episode of ALF, the character assuming he works for the BBC.

[Magnum Valentino]

There was the prominently visible "Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank" sign held up by a fan at WrestleMania a few years ago, does that count?

[dontpaintyourteeth]

To be fair, the joke of the scene was someone making a reference that the audience wouldn't get. It then cut to two frat boys watching. One was confused, the other explained who Les Dawson was (albeit in quite a reductive way, only mentioning mother-in-law jokes.)

Other British references in FG that have taken me by surprise include Gemma Arterton, Last Tango In Halifax and of course the cameo by Alan Bennett.

What was the Gemma Arterton reference?

[neveragain]

What was the Gemma Arterton reference?

Joe mentions her as his favourite actress, and is outraged that no one else has heard of her.

[Glebe]

"Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank"

Happened for real (sort of):

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Joe mentions her as his favourite actress, and is outraged that no one else has heard of her.

Thanks. That sounds vaguely familiar now actually (if I ever watch FG it's mostly just background noise to whatever pointless shit I'm doing on my phone)

[George White]

JFK outside a Cork TV rental shop
Also this photo from Tubridy's book means JFK would have been aware of Palmgrove, the poor third of Irish ice cream.