Nightfly
Screenwriter
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Post by Nightfly on Oct 15, 2021 21:03:18 GMT
I don't think Jack Smethurst got a lot of work after Love thy Neighbour finished. The only other things I ever saw him in were A Kind of Loving (the 1962 film) and a bit in Coronation Street, probably late 90s, not long before I stopped watching it. I think he moved to Australia and had a bit of success in the Australian version of Love Thy Neighbour, but little else after that. Have to agree about Mrs Brown's Boys too. Is it my imagination, or do those bloopers/fluffed lines seem deliberately scripted ?
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Post by Sam Tyler on Oct 15, 2021 21:19:59 GMT
The cosy family sitcoms of the 80s were an instant turn off for me. Was Keep it in the Family the one where the central character drew comic strips for a living and drew them all with a glove puppet on his hand ? If it was, then that was the only thing I can recall from it. Yes that was 'Keep It InThe Family'. I remember it more for Sabina Franklyn Sam.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Oct 16, 2021 17:02:04 GMT
Mind Your Language looks to have been ( maybe still is ) popular in India as some of the episodes I've seen on youtube have an Indian certificate of some sort at the start & I've noticed comments from Indian viewers saying how much they like the show. Ironic really that it's long been considered offensive due to its stereotyping of 'foreigners' as they seem not to be offended by it.
I think there is a marked distinction between the blatant racial slurs used in Love They Neighbour, which when heard in a comic context made them 'acceptable' for use in the school yard, work place, football terrace, etc. & the national ( rather than racial ) stereotypes seen in Mind Your Language which I don't think were racist or harmful so much as silly.
I'm sure some of the bloopers, like the breaking of the fourth wall, in Mrs Brown's Boys are added for effect. They obviously tried to make this show in the spirit of older sitcoms, but the scripts & the supporting cast are so poor that it just looks desperate. It irritates me when people compare it to classic sitcoms of the past when it has none of the quality that makes such shows so endearing. Many 70's sitcoms get written off as crap, On The Buses being an example, when in fact they are often brilliantly performed. The writing might not be brilliant but try & find actors today who could play those parts, they just don't exist.
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Cartman
Producer
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Post by Cartman on Oct 16, 2021 17:12:03 GMT
Agree. Mind your Language was just banal and silly, whereas Love thy Neighbour was nasty.
Mrs Brown's Boys I thought was quite funny at first, but it's long since run out of steam and it now needs to be canned.
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Cartman
Producer
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Post by Cartman on Oct 16, 2021 17:21:21 GMT
The cosy family sitcoms of the 80s were an instant turn off for me. Was Keep it in the Family the one where the central character drew comic strips for a living and drew them all with a glove puppet on his hand ? If it was, then that was the only thing I can recall from it. Yes that was 'Keep It InThe Family'. I remember it more for Sabina Franklyn Sam. Didn't know, until just now, that she was briefly married to John Challis
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Vienna
Verified
Curled up on Miss Jones' lap
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Post by Vienna on Oct 16, 2021 18:32:44 GMT
Yes that was 'Keep It In The Family'. I remember it more for Sabina Franklyn Sam. Yes Sam, so do I. Sabina (on the right of the photo below) and Stacy Dorning, who played her sister, on the left. Vi
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2021 8:19:59 GMT
Does anyone remember, No place like home, which ran from 83-88 with William Gaunt from the Champions. Guess it was quite drawn out, even for standards back then, but saying that, the style of TV programs especially sitcoms from the 70s/80s have changed so much, and peoples expectations and tolerance are so different now, which I blame a lot on social media and just the simple downward spiral of progression of the way society is, and also what people may or may not find funny anymore. But if ya think about it, in the 70s and 80s there were so many different type of sitcoms, and people just watched um didn't they! Probably the ones that people would watch the least today and not find funny, would be the likes of Dad's army and It ain't half hot mum, on the other side of the coin if ya think of all the sitcoms from that era, and think which one would people still find funny and watch the most today, then I'd say Fawlty towers.
GC
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Palmer
Cameraman
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Post by Palmer on Oct 27, 2021 9:39:30 GMT
I think that even bad television shows deserve an airing every now and again just to remind us how bad television could be back in the day!
We truly are spoilt for choice nowadays whether it is with new, big budget televisions productions across a myriad of platforms (not really my cup of tea) or whether it is with being able to watch classics that you may have missed many moons ago (if you missed an episode of something 40 years ago you probably would never see it!)...!!!
Let's see Robin Askwith back on our screens or even Bruce Forsyth as a supermarket manager...! Complete $h!t but still good fun (maybe) nonetheless...
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