Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 26, 2019 19:44:06 GMT
Buster Keaton is my favourite of the ones from that era. He was very good. Some of his visual gags and stunt work were excellent. Tell you someone else who I thought was awful - Jerry Lewis. Yes, agree. I think his problem was that he was Jerry Lewis.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on May 27, 2019 11:53:25 GMT
I've always struggled with American comedy. Not sure if it's their humour / timing / delivery - it just all feels a little "pre rehearsed" "pre scripted" and manufactured. Many comedy actors etc seem to look un-comfortable....
British comedians (even if some of it is scripted/pre rehearsed) seem to have this knack of making it look and feel off the cuff and more "naturally" delivered.
Must be me...!
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 27, 2019 12:50:30 GMT
No Sparky, it's not just you! I don't as a rule like American comedy either. A lot of it is, to me, juvenile and silly as well as contrived. A couple of exceptions were Mash and Frasier both in their early days but both were dragged on way too long
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on May 27, 2019 14:38:31 GMT
No Sparky, it's not just you! I don't as a rule like American comedy either. A lot of it is, to me, juvenile and silly as well as contrived. A couple of exceptions were Mash and Frasier both in their early days but both were dragged on way too long I always found the US sitcoms a little too "twee", sickly and as you say - the humour very childish. Saying that - I always enjoyed "Happy Days" & "Mork & Mindy"!
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 27, 2019 15:07:54 GMT
I only saw little bits of Mork and Mindy so I can't really comment on it, but I did try to get into Happy Days as quite a lot of my mates at school at the time liked it, unfortunately I thought it was crap!
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on May 27, 2019 15:22:45 GMT
I only saw little bits of Mork and Mindy so I can't really comment on it, but I did try to get into Happy Days as quite a lot of my mates at school at the time liked it, unfortunately I thought it was crap! I always seem to find with US series, that the first few series are usually pretty good, and at times funny. Though - by series 127, the same old tired jokes are dusted off series after series.
There has been a policy on US TV that if a series was a success (Drama/Comedy/whatever), producers would just keep commissioning series after series... (or season after season as they like to call it.) until it just gets too tedious and boring.
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Post by Sam Tyler on May 28, 2019 12:08:10 GMT
I've never been a fan of comedy programs from the septics either. Many years ago Annie and I used to watch 'Taxi' fairly regularly but even found with that that it could be contrived and predictable.
But it did have Marilu Henner!
Sam.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 28, 2019 12:18:21 GMT
I did like MASH.
TV programme not the instant potato thing although that could have been SMASH.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on May 28, 2019 12:48:21 GMT
I did like MASH. TV programme not the instant potato thing although that could have been SMASH. Shame they didn't include a few old scrap cars - and then called it "Bangers & Mash"
"For Mash get Smash...."
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Post by Steve Austin on May 28, 2019 12:48:43 GMT
US comedies are much like UK ones, very hit & miss. I think Seinfeld (superb) and Curb Your Enthusiasm as well as Louie & Modern Family very funny. Family Guy & American Dad I also find funny, puerile but funny. The last comedy with John Cleese in called Hold The Sunset was dire.
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