70s comedy, BBC v ITV

[Cartman]

I have always personally felt that, during the 70s, the classics which are well regarded and well remembered were on the BBC, Fawlty Towers, Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads, Porridge etc, Dads Army too, although I appreciate it wasn't everyones cup of tea, but the acting in it I always thought was good.

In contrast I always thought that ITVs efforts were mediocre at best, with the solitary exception of the excellent Rising Damp. 

Thoughts anyone? 

[Arthur Pringle]

I agree, ITV comedy is a poor relation, they also seem to look cheaper for some reason, lacking the polish of BBC shows, I got the dvd of  Morecambe & Wise's ITV series & it has a very different look about it. On The Buses & Rising Damp are the only two I can think of off the top of my head that have stood the test of time. What ITV did better than BBC I think was comedy drama- Minder, AWPet. To be snobby about it, ITV has always been a bit lowbrow, the tabloid to BBC's broadsheet.
Take a show like Only Fools And Horses, working class characters living in a tower block but it has a respectable sheen about it, had ITV made it I think it would've been more rough & ready. Rising Damp actually has a seedy feel about it, whereas Only Fools doesn't. Maybe it has something to do with the quality of cameras used, ITV shows of all types shot on videotape look cheaper to me compared to the BBC output.

[Gene Hunt]

I agree with both of you on this. I would like to add a couple more exceptions to the rule though.

Man About The House. I have always loved this and it stands up well even now. The forerunner to the next on my list.
George & Mildred. I thought this was OK at the time and it has improved with age (after giving the whole series another watch recently.)

Gene.

[Sam Tyler]

I don't think the lower standard was just related to comedy though.

Being in my teens from '75 onwards I can remember than childrens' TV was also the poorer relation. The first thing that sprung to mind when I started to read this thread was how Magpie couldn't compare to Blue Peter (until a few years later when I started to 'appreciate' the form of Jenny Hanley and Susan Stranks of course!  )

It did seem to be a thing in our house that aside from the few excellent programs that they did have, the majority of our viewing was on BBC whether it was childrens' TV, comedies, or the news.

Sam.

[Arthur Pringle]

Forgot about Man About The House & George & Mildred, both very good, I'd watch Robin's Nest if it was on
Bless This House, not bad, Sid James makes it watchable
Get Some In okish
Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt, not exactly a classic but I like it
Shelley, more 80s than 70s ( started in 79 ), well written & a great performance by Hywel Bennett, more witty than funny
Mind Your Language, gets stick for racial stereotyping but used to enjoy watching it on UK Gold
Please Sir & the Doctor sitcoms, I've watched these for the period charm but really not that big on laughs
Don't Drink The Water, pretty thin stuff but it has its moments mainly due to Stephen Lewis
Odd Man Out with John Inman, I like it despite its reputation
Love Thy Neighbour, top rated at the time, good performance by Jack Smethurst & it's hard not to laugh at the now ridiculous sounding racial slurs

[Vienna]

From my fading memory, in the 2004 best sitcom poll Rising Damp was the only highly rated ITV comedy. Shows you how superior BBC were to ITV in this field I suppose.

Vi 

[Cartman]

Cheers for the replies, guys.

Taking Arthur's list:

George & Mildred/Man About the House/Robins Nest - Passable, didn't dislike them at the time, seem to vaguely remember Dave from The Winchester Club turning up in one or more episodes

Shelley - Excellent, very clever and well written

Please Sir - Have'nt seen it since the early 70s, pretty much forgotten it

The Doctor ones - started off passable, got progressively worse, the final manifestation was one called Doctors Daughters in about 81 ish which was truly terrible

Bless This House - Sid James made it just about OK

Odd Man Out - Don't remember this at all

Selwyn Froggitt - Like Sid, Bill Maynard made it just about OK

Mind Your Language - I thought this was crap

Love Thy Neighbour - Difficult to be objective about this. A sort of cheap and inferior rip off of Till Death do us Part, possibly intended to satirise racism but lacked the cleverness of Till Death and was too crude to work

Overall I agree that ITV is inferior to the BBC most of the time, yet they did occasionally produce some fantastic TV, The Sweeney, stands out, the BBCs attempt to copy it, Target was very poor. They also did gems like The World at War, IMO the best ever documentary series and the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

The magazines reflect this too, the BBC's Radio Times is an intelligent magazine with some excellent articles, whereas ITV's TV Times is a bit like Chat or Take a Break, although it wasn't bad in the 70s.   

 

[Arthur Pringle]

Not sure if 'Odd Man Out' was ever repeated, I like John Inman so bought the dvd, he plays a Blackpool fish & chip shop owner ( Inman was born in nearby Preston & his real life brother lives in Blackpool, not sure if he's still alive ) who takes over the running of his dad's rock factory. Peter Butterworth plays the manager of the factory. It only lasted one series of 7 episodes.
Written by Vince Powell who I think may be the most prolific of all British sitcom writers with 11 under his belt according to wikipedia.

Inman did another one series ITV sitcom called 'Take A Letter Mr Jones', a role reversal comedy where he plays a secretary to a businesswoman played by Rula Lenska. Despite being written by On The Buses Ronald Chesney & Ronald Wolfe, it is really awful.

[Cartman]

A couple of pretty big at the time ones have been missed off, On The Buses and Benny Hill.

On the Buses, I’m afraid I have to file in the mediocre category, even though I loved the location filming which had a great late 60s/early 70s feel and I did watch it at the time and it was top rated. I thought Blakey made it really, it was his programme and would have been nothing much without him. Incidentally, neither Reg Varney or Bob Grant got much work after it finished. Reg did quite a bit of research for the part and actually passed the PSV test so he was actually a qualified bus driver!

initially the producers approached London Transport to film at one of their depots but got turned down, so they had to use Eastern Counties buses and a depot instead.

Benny Hill was a funny one. He could be inventive and funny on occasions and was a talented comic, but I always slightly got the impression he couldn’t be arsed and just stuck to a samey, sexy slapstick style as it was easy and got cheap laughs. If he had made a bit more effort I thought he could have been a decent comic actor, like Ronnie Barker.

[Arthur Pringle]

I love On The Buses, I first got a taste for it watching repeats then bought the dvds. Ok, it's basic stuff & can be a bit shouty, but for me it's one of those shows that doesn't get old no matter how often I see an episode. It's mostly down to the rapport between the characters, with the exception of Anna Karen who I think, bless her, is a weak link, the actors knew their stuff backwards having worked on stage for years. Bob Grant in particular, can you imagine an actor today embodying a character as well as he did with Jack?

The problem with Benny Hill is that he became synonymous with the ITV shows he did in the 80s, everything he did before that has been forgotten & of course he became a symbol of outdated humour. His tv career went back to the 50s, unfortunately we don't get to see most of this early stuff either because it's too low a quality to be broadcast, has been wiped or is judged as being minority interest. There's so much comedy pre the 70s that has been all but forgotten as it's never shown on tv, Harry Worth, once a top BBC star, being an example, over the last few years I've discovered some of his shows from the 60s & really enjoyed them.