Paid Members gmoney Posted July 7 Paid Members Posted July 7 5 minutes ago, tiger_rick said: Some classic stcoms (not necessarily good) were ITV productions, or the subsidiaries. Like Rising Damp was Yorkshire TV, I think, and On The Buses, George and Mildred and loads of other stuff in the 70s that's pretty well-remembered. From the early/mid 80s, their sitcom output became really crap. I remember watching Watching, The Upper Hand and The Two Of Us amongst some other stuff but none of them were hits and they pretty much gave up after that. ITV sitcoms through the 90s and 2000s were really sporadic and rarely seemed to get a second series. Benidorm, for all it's faults, must be by far their biggest success in the last 30-40 years? Can't think of anything else that comes close. I still like the first series. It's got a lot about it. It's rapidly diminishing returns from that point on though. Late 90s and 2000s ITV studio sitcoms are mostly disasters really. Babes In The Wood, Days Like These (That 70s Show remake) spring to mind. They had more success with non studio stuff like The Grimleys I suppose. Quote
Chili Posted July 7 Posted July 7 Just now, gmoney said: Late 90s and 2000s ITV studio sitcoms are mostly disasters really. Babes In The Wood, Days Like These (That 70s Show remake) spring to mind. They had more success with non studio stuff like The Grimleys I suppose. Yeah the Grimleys was genuinely not that bad even though Amanda Holden and just past his 'peak' Brian Conley were in it. Quote
Paid Members gmoney Posted July 7 Paid Members Posted July 7 I couldn't really stick it, but it did alright for them. Four series. Not too bad. Quote
Paid Members Gus Mears Posted July 7 Paid Members Posted July 7 At Home With the Braithwaites somehow ran for four series around that time. A plotline for a 20 minute episode of a bad sitcom stretched out over 4 years. Quote
Chili Posted July 7 Posted July 7 I think we can all agree the peak of ITV comedy was Bottle Boys. Aired the same year as the second series of The Young Ones. Quote
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted July 7 Paid Members Posted July 7 At Home with the Braithwaites is definitely in comedy-drama territory. My meory is that The Grimleys was too, although they were half hour episodes which would be unusual. Definitely didn't feel like a sitcom though. I had a lot of crushes in the 90s but Amanda Holden and Sam Janus in The Grimleys might have been the peak. Quote
Members SuperBacon Posted July 7 Members Posted July 7 47 minutes ago, tiger_rick said: ITV sitcoms through the 90s and 2000s were really sporadic and rarely seemed to get a second series Men Behaving Badly was an ITV production originally wasn't it? The BBC then picked it up and it was a huge success. I've never watched the first series with Harry Enfield, despite being a huge fan of his at the time, and to be honest, still to this day. Quote
Chili Posted July 7 Posted July 7 Just now, SuperBacon said: Men Behaving Badly was an ITV production originally wasn't it? The BBC then picked it up and it was a huge success. I've never watched the first series with Harry Enfield, despite being a huge fan of his at the time, and to be honest, still to this day. Very much not worth your time, it's not that Enfield is bad, he's just not clearly comfortable in the sitcom set-up at all and took low energy. Quote
Paid Members gmoney Posted July 7 Paid Members Posted July 7 Just now, SuperBacon said: Men Behaving Badly was an ITV production originally wasn't it? The BBC then picked it up and it was a huge success. I've never watched the first series with Harry Enfield, despite being a huge fan of his at the time, and to be honest, still to this day. The first two series were ITV, and they're both a bit shit. First is worst because Enfleld can't act, but the second is still pretty creaky. Definitely took moving to BBC to find it's feet. Quote
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted July 7 Paid Members Posted July 7 Just now, SuperBacon said: Men Behaving Badly was an ITV production originally wasn't it? The BBC then picked it up and it was a huge success. I've never watched the first series with Harry Enfield, despite being a huge fan of his at the time, and to be honest, still to this day. Yes, it was. I only found that out years later with the DVD releases. It's OK with Enfield. He's like a grown up Kevin the teenager. Infinitely better with Neil Morrisey. Quote
Members SuperBacon Posted July 7 Members Posted July 7 Just now, gmoney said: First is worst because Enfleld can't act, I feel like he's a bit like Jerry Seinfeld, in that he knows he can't act though. Most of the sketches of him in the early series of Harry Enfields Television Programme are him barely getting through the takes. Quote
Paid Members gmoney Posted July 7 Paid Members Posted July 7 Just now, SuperBacon said: I feel like he's a bit like Jerry Seinfeld, in that he knows he can't act though. Most of the sketches of him in the early series of Harry Enfields Television Programme are him barely getting through the takes. I think he's great in sketches, playing an over the top character, but he's awful trying to do anything a bit subtle. He's serious dreadful in MBB, way, way worse than Seinfeld. Quote
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted July 7 Paid Members Posted July 7 Not really the point but this thread really makes me miss the way we used to discover stuff. Men Behaving Badly, The Grimleys, Game On - all shows that just came on one night because I already had the channel on. I've no idea which episode of MBB I first saw. It would definitely have been 2-3 series in. Then I saw some of the older episodes on repeats or UK Gold. I never really saw them in order until I bought the DVDs. There's loads of benefit to having everything you could want a click away but it's not like flicking the channel and discovering a show you've never heard of, or having only seen a film from 15 minutes in because it'd already started. Also reminded that when I first got internet access, I used to print out the episode guides for stuff I liked in case it ever went away. Like it was Encarta 95 or something. Quote
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