How did they even get made?
Posted by Scottie on 10 July 2008 - 1:06pm.
The most unfunny "comedy" programmes in history.
I'll start with three:
'Allo Allo'
Nothing to say. There IS nothing to say.
God help us.
'Some Mothers Do 'Av 'Em'
Possibly the most irritating programme ever broadcast.
Watch Frank Spencer get himself into yet another hilarious predicament.
'Hi-Di-Hi'
"Hello campers"!
Goodbye campers I say.
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Robin's Nest
This actually made it in the top twenty comedies of all time in The Word a couple of months ago. I still don't know if they were serious. Absolutely dreadful.
My Hero
'nuff said.
Anything with Nicholas Lyndhurst in it
that isn't Only Fools & Horses
Your Wrong About
Some Mothers Do 'Av 'Em. Funny still I reckon.
The other two are rotten I agree. Would also suggest that the world really didn't need Bread.
Some Mothers…
I'd like to have seen/heard the pitch for that:
“Well, there's this bloke, and he's a bit mentally challenged, right, and…”
Also in the grim pile: anything by Carla Lane/starring Wendy Craig
and…
… anyone remember Up The Elephant And Round The Castle with Jim Davidson?
Anything
by Carla Lane full stop.
Sorry, that's what I meant
I had a mental image of a venn diagram with a Carla Lane circle intersecting with a Wendy Craig one - all fit to be heaved into the dustbin.
Mind you
anything with Wendy Craig in works just as well
Trivia note
The theme song to "Butterflies" was sung by Claire Torry, as in "The great gig in the sky".
Agree about Wendy Craig. Lovely.
I'm with you on that
I just don't understand this love of Carla Lane "comedies".
Sorry
but...
Sorry - Corbett helpless without Barker
Thin Blue Line - after Bladder this was one of the biggest disappointments since....(I'll stop there)
My Family - how many series has it had and I still have never so much as tittered
Thin Blue Line
Utter Sh*t and that goes for Bean too.
Apologies for the sledgehammer.
Rowan Atkinson
Yes it's depressing that sarcastic/rude Atkinson has been swallowed up by gurning idiot played out ad infinitum in whatever he does
And are any of his mates any good still?
There has been the odd classic (Ab Fab for some?) but there are not many 80s' survivors that are current comedy currency are there? Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith, Pam Anderson, Lenny Henry, French & Saunders, all the Young Ones. Not really still up there to become comedy legends are they?
Good point
used to love Smith & Jones even though it wasn't always gold
Griff - like Palin he has become too serious and probably too rich as has...
...Mel - directs bad films (Blackball, High Heels and Low Lifes anyone?)
"Pam Anderson"...
... !
Pamela then...
Was that a correction, agreement or disagreement?
Oh sorry of course
Stephenson!....both had fine figures I suppose
Can't remember the name..
but it had Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden in it. It was on a couple of years ago, in the dreaded early Friday evening crap-sitcom slot.
Proof...
...that TV lacks sufficient quality control surely?
Oh, Doctor Beeching....
The cast of Hi De Hi (borderline folks, borderline - saved by Ruth Madoc and Simon Cadell) - shunted aside to a branch line railway in 1965 about to be closed down by the titular Dr Beeching.
Perry and Croft - What were you thinking!
Perry and Croft
I've always thought that, Dad's Army (pretty much) aside, the ouevre of P&C had rather misanthropic leanings - most of the characters in Hi De Hi, Are you Being Served and the lesser spin-offs are pretty unpleasant.
But then I guess that applies to many comedies. Maybe even the best ones (Seinfeld, eg)
What was the other one?
After Hi-de-hi and before Dr. Beeching? You Rang M'Lord I think it was called, also featured the cast from Hi-di-hi. It was shite M'lord.
That Mrs. Bucket unfunny nonsense...
... can't even remember the real name of the Godawful shi*e.
Keeping Up Appearances
Yes, terrible
Little Britain
Little Britain
Catherine Tate
Pointless and mirth-free.
Now you're talkin'
On the button with those two.
Catherine Tate's 'comedy'...
brings me out in a rash. But she's OK in Doctor Who...
Simply Dick Emery
for the new generation....
Vicar of
sodding Dibley.
I love it when Ricky Gervais
winces at Dibley to Richard Curtis....how he gets away with it...
Mind Your Language
No really. That's what it was called.
In fact, unless you can prove otherwise, ITV have never produced a decent sitcom. Not counting The Lovers. Or Rising Damp.
Or... (shut up - Ed.)
A minor McGann
So Haunt Me, Never the Twain, Home to Roost and one with a McGann in with Honor Blackman. There are hundreds more - this could run and run.
Home to Roost
Was that the one with John Thaw? Never a more criminally wasted actor in a programme ever.
Brittas Empire
The BBC take on ITV and win - sadly.
Confession
I always rather enjoyed the Brittas Empire and thought it under-rated.
While I'm here, 'All About Me', which IMBD sum up as 'Sitcom about life in a mixed-race Birmingham family as seen through the eyes of a teenager with cerebral palsy.' Less amusing than it sounds.
Contrived link
Ha! I can better that.
ITV = Don't Drink The Water, the follow-up to On The Buses
(geddit? Water? Britta? Please yourself...)
On the buses...
Whilst we are on that crapulous subject...that geezer with the hitler moustache (Reg someone)...he is equally laugh free in Last of the Summer Wine
I'll have you Butler
Oh Yes
Mind you
The only time I ever laughed regarding Last of the Summer Wine was when Bill Bailey suggested it was remade with Snoop Dogg
'Muthaf*****g bath on wheels!'
Well....
here's something that is not going to change that ...LOTSW is the world's longest running comedy series
I suppose
'comedy' is probably used to describe its genre as opposed to making a judgement of its content...
LET ME AT IT
Right here we go
BREAD
DUTY FREE
RINGS ON THEIR FINGERS
JUST GOOD FRIENDS
THE RIVER (DAVID ESSEX;NUFF SAID)
AS TIME GOES BY
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
BOTTOM (SOUND OF SCRAPING A BARREL,not funny in any way,shape or form.)
THE BRITTAS EMPIRE
MY WIFE NEXT DOOR
TO THE MANOR BORN
YOU RANG M'LORD
All the above make Terry and June seem like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld
Agre apart from..
Just good friends, it was pretty funny and it had Jan Francis in it - enough said.
Jan Francis
Whoooah... caught her in an episode of Minder last week (dont ask, I've been on gardening leave) and she looked absolutely stunning. Of course, Terry "had a crack" at her.
Aah Minder
Halcyon days, Terry often usd to date strippers which you don't really get on current telly.
Jan Francis
Form a line. One of those women that men fancy much more than women give them credit for, if you see what I mean.
Indeed
My interest did cool when I found out she was the same age as my mum! Such is the burden of being born in the 70's. There always seemed to be a disparity in on screen couples in the 70's sit com land, Felicity Kendal should have done better than Richard Briers in the marriage stakes for example.
Felicity done better? Yes.
Jerry (Paul Eddington) definatley fancied her and he'd have been a better catch than Tom. Can't believe i've just typed that sentence. ;)
Keeping Up Appearances...
someone
shoot
me
please.
Love Thy Neighbour
Putting the mirth into racism in the 1970s. See also, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Mind Your Language and Only When I Laugh, with the "hilarious" Indian doctor.
A drop of context is called for, I think
In retrospect, yes, but remember that we're talking about a time when one of the highest rated shows on TV was still The Black & White Minstrel Show. And even the mighty Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan were responsible for "Goodness Gracious Me" and Curry & Chips.
I bet they all smoked too. And had oil-fired central heating.
Fawlty Towers
Made you look!
Not really.
No, it's 'My Family' isn't it. Pained over-acting from all concerned and some of the smuggest and unfunny dialogue ever to ruin an evening in front of the telly.
I could go on and illustrate those points with examples but will simply swear instead. It's utter shit.
So Haunt Me
Early 90s, BBC effort. So poor that if anyone in our house openly laughed, they had to do the washing up for the next week.
The really terrible ones are mostly forgotten
because they never made it to a second series. However, submitted for your approval: "Babes in The Wood" - with Denise Van Outen as "the brassy one", Samantha Janus as "the uptight one" and some other girl as Lisa Kudrow out of Friends. Also starred Karl Howman as a cockney wideboy divorcee lothario (seemingly fallen through a time warp from the 70s). It was spectacularly awful.
Set in St Johns Wood
I recall. Surely a title that was thought of before the show was evolved. I have never heard of St Johns Wood referred to as The Wood before or after.
Practically anything on BBC3
For example, I give you (and you can keep her) Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor, which has just begun a second series. Yes... A. Second. Series. And there is also a new one - the name, thankfully, escapes my numb brain - about two rappers which simply beggars belief.
How do TV creatives work? Do they roll into a West End wine bar, grab the nearest person they can find and give them their own show?
If so, it explains why our licence fees are being wasted on the sort of programmes that make you wonder if destroying every TV in the world might be a good idea.
A glance at the credits shows that dozens of people are involved in these things. Do none of them look up from their pay packet long enough to think that they're creating unutterable drivel and should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves?
Disagree about Ms Taylor
I think she is funny in bits. Funnier than Catherine Tate. Mind you, that is like saying she is better looking than Bianca off Eastenders.
The worst comedy shows...
I'll second anything written by Carla Lane. And anything on ITV that wasn't 'Rising Damp'.
But I'm surprised we've got this far without mention of 'My Hero'. What really annoyed me about this was that it was a genuinely good concept for a sitcom, handled poorly and then done to death.
I'd say 'Bo Selecta!' too, because although I can appreciate that it's been very successful and popular, it's never made me laugh once, unfortunately.
according to Bex
I never saw it, but apparently it was so bad that the star (Jessica Stevenson) sacked her agent for getting her involved. That must have been pretty bad.
Love thy neighbour was one that must have rapidly seemed like a bad idea.
jan francis
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please join us in her yahoo group:
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rosa
Memberance
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