Monty Python's Flying Circus !

[DoubleDutch]

Went to a Fawlty Towers dining experience a few weeks ago. Best evening out ever!

I know nothing. I am from Barcelona.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I know nothing. I am from Barcelona.

I speak very good eengleesh....l learn it from a book!

 

[Fishmanic]

I know nothing. I am from Barcelona.

 

[Colin_T]

Benny Hill, Jasper Carrott, and Lenny Henry

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I used to like watching Allo Allo

"Rrrrrrrrrene"

The French policeman with the bad pronunciation had me in stitches

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Are you being served?
Captain Peacock, we need you......

in The 1980s PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) TV stations carried a number of BBC programming. One series that garnered them many donations was Dr. Who. Where I live I could pick up the signal from 3 or 4 different ones.Besides Monty, I also saw:
Fawlty Towers
Benny Hill
Are You Being Served?
Red Dwarf
Blackadder
Allo Allo
To the Manor Born
Mr. Bean

Fortunately, I had worked ins Saudi Arabia in the 1970s and we had a number of Brits on the payroll. So I learned to speak the Queen's English ......

 

[TwoTankAmin]

If I had to rate American Sitcoms that were pure gold, in no particular order:

Your Show of Shows
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Soap*
Taxi*
All in the Family
Mork and Mindy*
3rd Rock Form the Sun
Cheers
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
I Love Lucy
Mash

One of my favorite movies is a B&W film from 1954, Hobson's Choice. It is a real gem. Back then you needed a greao plot and even better acting since there were no spacial effects and green screen or CGI.

* These often made me laugh out loud so hard and long it actually hurt. And I did this even if i was watching alone.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

There is a generational problem with the comedy shows of the 1960's thru 1990's and not just in the UK

Benny Hill, Bill Cosby and a few others behave in ways that at the time was seen as funny....and tbh...to most people over the age of 40, are still funny and still raise a chuckle. Today they get vilified for being inappropriate and maybe some did take that off camera, well no-one is perfect and in showbusiness a good many of these women pointing the finger in accusation should take a good look at themselves too....even now, after #MeToo (which I feel was a disgrace btw) you have showbusiness galas etc where women wear less clothing than a house has curtains and the "casting couch" is and always has been more than just for "casting", women used their bodies and looks to get parts in shows and films...so if a male reacts to that in a natural way, it cannot be called inappropriate now 30-40 years later

These shows were part and parcel of growing up......and coming out of the 60's when what people could do and say was so loose compared to nowadays. It was perfectly normal and funny to see Benny Hill upskirting cos it was done in a specific context that meant it was never perceived as being offensive nor was any offense meant by it.

To The Manor Born, The Goode Life, The Goodies, Dads Army, Love Thy Neighbour...

All groundbreaking comedy series that were brilliantly written, harmless fun

Then at some point in the 2000's everything changed and everything was offensive to someone somewhere...and the innocent poking fun at each other and calling each other out in silly ways has become so toxic and that is so sad cos I honestly do not know why these wonderful old series have suddenly become so unacceptable, inappropriate and offensive

Trigger warnings have appeared on old comedy series....others have had parts edited out or whole programmes or series banned. Women being pinched on the backside or wolf whistled by Benny Hill or Syd James & Barbara Windsor getting silly in a Carry On film.....its harmless fun, nothing is meant by it.

And as a woman, I used to be very flattered by builders up scaffold wolf whistling at me...I didn't find it offensive at all

I sit a watch these series again now...20, 30, 40 years later and I am sorry but I still cannot see what is offensive, especially when you take everything written and filmed in the context that it was meant.

Its sad that you have to watch what you say and do...whats wrong with spontaneous comedy sketches and series?

If people don't like what they are seeing, change the channel or turn the TV off

 

[Fishmanic]

If I had to rate American Sitcoms that were pure gold, in no particular order:

Your Show of Shows
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Soap*
Taxi*
All in the Family
Mork and Mindy*
3rd Rock Form the Sun
Cheers
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
I Love Lucy
Mash

One of my favorite movies is a B&W film from 1954, Hobson's Choice. It is a real gem. Back then you needed a greao plot and even better acting since there were no spacial effects and green screen or CGI.

* These often made me laugh out loud so hard and long it actually hurt. And I did this even if i was watching alone.

You forgot Seinfeld and Andy Griffith

 

[Deleted member 149562]

If I had to rate American Sitcoms that were pure gold, in no particular order:

Your Show of Shows
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Soap*
Taxi*
All in the Family
Mork and Mindy*
3rd Rock Form the Sun
Cheers
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
I Love Lucy
Mash

One of my favorite movies is a B&W film from 1954, Hobson's Choice. It is a real gem. Back then you needed a greao plot and even better acting since there were no spacial effects and green screen or CGI.

* These often made me laugh out loud so hard and long it actually hurt. And I did this even if i was watching alone.

I used to enjoy Benson and Different Strokes too when I was younger.

 

[Colin_T]

There is a generational problem with the comedy shows of the 1960's thru 1990's and not just in the UK

Benny Hill, Bill Cosby and a few others behave in ways that at the time was seen as funny....and tbh...to most people over the age of 40, are still funny and still raise a chuckle. Today they get vilified for being inappropriate and maybe some did take that off camera, well no-one is perfect and in showbusiness a good many of these women pointing the finger in accusation should take a good look at themselves too....even now, after #MeToo (which I feel was a disgrace btw) you have showbusiness galas etc where women wear less clothing than a house has curtains and the "casting couch" is and always has been more than just for "casting", women used their bodies and looks to get parts in shows and films...so if a male reacts to that in a natural way, it cannot be called inappropriate now 30-40 years later

These shows were part and parcel of growing up......and coming out of the 60's when what people could do and say was so loose compared to nowadays. It was perfectly normal and funny to see Benny Hill upskirting cos it was done in a specific context that meant it was never perceived as being offensive nor was any offense meant by it.

To The Manor Born, The Goode Life, The Goodies, Dads Army, Love Thy Neighbour...

All groundbreaking comedy series that were brilliantly written, harmless fun

Then at some point in the 2000's everything changed and everything was offensive to someone somewhere...and the innocent poking fun at each other and calling each other out in silly ways has become so toxic and that is so sad cos I honestly do not know why these wonderful old series have suddenly become so unacceptable, inappropriate and offensive

Trigger warnings have appeared on old comedy series....others have had parts edited out or whole programmes or series banned. Women being pinched on the backside or wolf whistled by Benny Hill or Syd James & Barbara Windsor getting silly in a Carry On film.....its harmless fun, nothing is meant by it.

And as a woman, I used to be very flattered by builders up scaffold wolf whistling at me...I didn't find it offensive at all

I sit a watch these series again now...20, 30, 40 years later and I am sorry but I still cannot see what is offensive, especially when you take everything written and filmed in the context that it was meant.

Its sad that you have to watch what you say and do...whats wrong with spontaneous comedy sketches and series?

If people don't like what they are seeing, change the channel or turn the TV off

Resident Plant Killer

The stuff from the shows of bygone days was more racist and sexist and I don't have a problem with it.

The stuff on TV and movies today is more violent and there is a lot more swearing. Again, I don't really have an issue with it but the swearing isn't always needed.

Basically they have changed from racism and sexism to violence and vulgar language. Who knows, maybe in 50 years the next generation will find the violence and language offensive and these will be removed from TV.

On Australian TV back in the 70s & 80s we had Kingswood Country with Ted Bullpit (no, I said Bull pit). That had some racist comments in but it was also funny. Most of it was funny humour about a working class man, his beer & fridge, and his car. "Your not taking the Kingswood, I just Mr Sheened the hubcaps".
Kids of today would probably be horrified by it.

 

[itiwhetu]

Look at this guy, he took the ***** out of the Maori and was one

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Love Thy Neighbour, first produced in 1972-76. It was the very first sitcom to have multiracial actors and subject matter.

At the time it was very very forward and there were a few vocals against it thanks to the trailer (linked below)

However, it became one of the most popular and ground breaking sitcom series in the UK......across the entire racial divide.

I will put a trigger warning on the trailer since it really was not the best in regard to vocabulary used (for the benefit of youngsters)....BUT...taken in context and speaking to its West Indian stars long afterwards when in interviews, they actually had no issues with it and still didn't right to the day that most of those actors passed away

As the actors said more than once, if the content was not good or well written or not realistic they would not have taken part in making the series and that the trailer and the series that followed was done in the best British humour of the time

As strange as it might seem, it actually managed to break down barriers tween real mixed communities. The idea was good, the execution looking back might have been done better but on the whole people enjoyed it, laughed at it and were generally not offended by any of it.

The trailer.....

It completed 8 seasons and gained rave reviews by critics too

Love Thy Neighbour (TV Series 1972–1976) ⭐ 7.0 | Comedy

30m

www.imdb.com

 

[TwoTankAmin]

So the violence we see in many films today is considered OK?

Love Thy Neighbour, first produced in 1972-76. It was the very first sitcom to have multiracial actors and subject matter.

Not true- All in the Family went on the air in Jan 1971. They had three black actors, look it up- Sherman Hemsley, Mike Evans and Isabel Sanford.

And the show addressed racial bias since Archie Bunker was a racist and got called out on it a lot on the show.

 

[Essjay]

Not true

It was the first in the UK though