Top Five Favorite "Britcoms"
- Thread starter Franklin
- Start date
Brit-coms are the only sitcoms I watch other than Seinfeld reruns. I dont know if I can put them in order so i will list them for now randomly...
1. Father Ted-They'd never show anything this good on American TV.
2. Fawlty Towers-Still a classic. By showing only 13 episodes the series is almost perfect.
3. Rising Damp-Ahead of its time.
4. Black Adder-Clever, funny AND topical.
5. Keeping Up Appearances-I can see why this one would be lost on American audiences.
6. Allo Allo-Really silly, but made me laugh out loud.
7. Monty Python-Another classic.
8. Chef!-One of the best written shows
9. Coupling-Romantic comedy that's actually funny.
10. The Young Ones-Probably mainly nostalgia on this one.
I enjoyed the Office too for its concept but didn't find it that "funny".
RAMA
1. Father Ted-They'd never show anything this good on American TV.
2. Fawlty Towers-Still a classic. By showing only 13 episodes the series is almost perfect.
3. Rising Damp-Ahead of its time.
4. Black Adder-Clever, funny AND topical.
5. Keeping Up Appearances-I can see why this one would be lost on American audiences.
6. Allo Allo-Really silly, but made me laugh out loud.
7. Monty Python-Another classic.
8. Chef!-One of the best written shows
9. Coupling-Romantic comedy that's actually funny.
10. The Young Ones-Probably mainly nostalgia on this one.
I enjoyed the Office too for its concept but didn't find it that "funny".
RAMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVBGj6x32P0
Phoenix Nights - one of the very best - not sure it would travel all that well though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFoUL_bIotw&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLPOTuhhlxQ&feature=related
Thoughts?
Phoenix Nights - one of the very best - not sure it would travel all that well though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFoUL_bIotw&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLPOTuhhlxQ&feature=related
Thoughts?
Isn't Monty Python' Flying Circus more of a sketch show than a sitcom?
Anyway: of the rest of your five I'll agree with Fawlty Towers and Yes, Minister (Yes, Prime Minister wasn't too bad either
).Some of my favourites have already been mentioned in the thread: Black Books, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, AbFab... and since I cant give you any Top-'something'-list anyway, here are a few more of my favourites:
My Family
One Foot in the Grave
Jeeves and Wooster
The Thin Blue Line
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2IjH8BhGZg[/yt]
Rumpole and The Persuaders were also very good but they weren't actual comedies so possibly not for this thread
I treat this list like it was a shopping list
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Red Dwarf
Blackadder
Red Dwarf
Blackadder
1. Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister
2. Fawlty Towers
3. Chef!
4. My Family (I'm amazed that this is still on the air - I haven't seen an episode in about five years, though, and don't know if it's even still airing here
)
5. Blackadder
Actually, My Family featured a moment that I think may be the funniest thing I've ever seen on television - I almost fell off the couch laughing. For those who haven't seen the show, the oldest son, Nick, is forever trying to decide what career path he might eventually want to pursue. In this one episode, he decides to learn to be a piano tuner. Throughout the episode, in scenes in the living room, he's seen in the background practicing on the family piano. After a rough day, the father comes into the living room and sits down at the piano...
2. Fawlty Towers
3. Chef!
4. My Family (I'm amazed that this is still on the air - I haven't seen an episode in about five years, though, and don't know if it's even still airing here
)5. Blackadder
Actually, My Family featured a moment that I think may be the funniest thing I've ever seen on television - I almost fell off the couch laughing. For those who haven't seen the show, the oldest son, Nick, is forever trying to decide what career path he might eventually want to pursue. In this one episode, he decides to learn to be a piano tuner. Throughout the episode, in scenes in the living room, he's seen in the background practicing on the family piano. After a rough day, the father comes into the living room and sits down at the piano...
He presses a key, and a note sounds. He presses another key, and the same note sounds. He starts banging on the keyboard, and discovers that Nick has tuned every single key to the exact same note.
Today's list is:
As Time Goes By
The Good Life
Dad's Army
A Fine Romance
Yes, Minister / Yes, Prime Minister
On the next rung are:
May to December
Executive Stress (would probably have been in the top five if Geoffrey Palmer had stayed with the series)
Absolutely Fabulous
Man About the House
Are You Being Served?
To The Manor Born (in spite of Peter Bowles)
I used to really like Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, but when I rewatched it a few years ago it didn't appeal to me anywhere near as much. I'm not a fan of Fawlty Towers - at all - and I cannot stand anything with Rowan Atkinson in it.
As Time Goes By
The Good Life
Dad's Army
A Fine Romance
Yes, Minister / Yes, Prime Minister
On the next rung are:
May to December
Executive Stress (would probably have been in the top five if Geoffrey Palmer had stayed with the series)
Absolutely Fabulous
Man About the House
Are You Being Served?
To The Manor Born (in spite of Peter Bowles)
I used to really like Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, but when I rewatched it a few years ago it didn't appeal to me anywhere near as much. I'm not a fan of Fawlty Towers - at all - and I cannot stand anything with Rowan Atkinson in it.
Of course, Americans also make utter brilliance like Arrested Development, so we can't be too hard on 'em.
I was about to use Arrested Development as my example but chose Raymond instead.
Keeping up appearances
Some mothers do 'ave 'em
Absolutely fabulous
One foot in the grave
The real McCoy - Roots and culture
Goodness gracious me - The Coopers at the airport
'Allo 'allo
The vicar of Dibley
Waiting for god
The Ali G show
I used to watch a lot of sitcoms with my mum as a youngster, good times.
Some mothers do 'ave 'em
Absolutely fabulous
One foot in the grave
The real McCoy - Roots and culture
Goodness gracious me - The Coopers at the airport
'Allo 'allo
The vicar of Dibley
Waiting for god
The Ali G show
I used to watch a lot of sitcoms with my mum as a youngster, good times.
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No, bad people, stop that.
That was an Irish show, the British were just kind enough to pay for it as Ireland had no money at the time due to the expense of putting on all those Eurovision song contests.In no particular order:
Tony M Nyphot's Flying Riscu
Blackadder
IT Crowd
Peep Show
Red Dwarf
Even though I put Fawlty Towers on my list, I'll admit there are some cringe-inducing episodes with situations that are hard to watch. But to me, they are counter-balanced by about five great episodes where you could actually feel a bit of sympathy for Basil.
A wistful Basil resigned to his fate says to himself: "Zoom! What was that? That was your life, mate. That was quick do I get another? Sorry, mate. Back to the world of dreams. [Wife is calling to him] Yes, dear?"
Or when a scheme failed miserably and Polly says, "Don't panic." Basil's exasperated and frantic response is classic: "What else is there to do?!"
Agreed about Rowan Atkinson. Just can't abide by him for some reason, even though Black Adder is considered very good by many people.
I really, really, REALLY find the infantile humour in "Mr. Bean" cringeworthy and unenjoyable and for many years actually thought it was RA I had a problem with; I didn't get to watch Blackadder before "Mr. Bean" had become an international phenomenon and hence didn't have a solid base-line on the guy...
Blackadder and The Thin Blue Line luckily changed all that -- I now know not to watch "Mr. Bean" and can concentrate on the brilliant stuff the guy has made.
I really really hate Mr Bean but I enjoyed the thin blue line and blackadder.
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I haven't seen that one. Thank you. My list;
1. Monty Python.
The rest in no particular order...
The IT Crowd
The Vicar of Dibley
The Goodies (yes, the Goodies)
Keeping Up Appearances
forgot the thin blue line...
also: Glam Metal Detectives.
(bet no bugger else remembers THAT)
also: Glam Metal Detectives.
(bet no bugger else remembers THAT)
YAY!!!
i wasn't the only viewer then!
i wasn't the only viewer then!