Yesterday's News
I'm usually a few days behind everyone else, except when it comes to fashion and haircuts when what I do today the rest of the world does tomorrow. When I say behind everyone else, I mean in terms of current affairs and events, so forgive me if this is old hat but I just learned that Charles Nelson Riley died the other day.
One of those aging luvvies who just delighted in being camp and gay before it was cool to do so. Back in the 70's he was a regular on Match Game, the yank version of Blankety Blank. Lately, he was the voice of The Dirty Bubble on Spongebob. Effete as he was, he was still no match for John Inman although he probably would have had him in a bitch fight......Pneumonia got him in the end and America, particularly gay America lost an icon.
R.I.P Dirty Bubble. The kids never knew how
gay you really were......
This time it's the excellent Creature Comforts which will begin on CBS on Monday. Fortunately they actually spent some money and remade the whole thing with new "real people" interviews and animation. They could have just cheaped out and done a voiceover with a new yank friendly script but didn't. I hope it's a success but will probably just settle for re-runs of the original on BBC America. I hear all kinds of good things about "The Office" but despite liking Steve Carrell just don't want to see it. Too many bad experiences with those that have gone before, "Men Behaving Badly", "Coupling" and so on. I can't stand Sanford & Son but will watch Steptoe & Son for hours on end. All In the Family is almost bearable thanks to Carroll O'Connor and Rob Reiner but not even close to "Til Death Us Do Part".
Why is it that US comedies make so much more sense to Brits than vice versa? Do we as Brits really have a much broader sense of humour or is it just that we have been saturated with American TV all our lives and have become accustomed to it? I would put Seinfeld up there in my top 10 shows of all time along with the best of British but how many Americans would put British shows in theirs (not counting Monty Python or Benny Hill)? Sadly, many British shows would never make it on to TV here at all due to content.
Bo Selecta! anyone?
Thank fuck for BBC America and even that stinks most of the time.
Is network TV's desperate search for a replacement
for The Simpson's over?
23 comments:
I always thought it was strange how much American entertainment is exported to other countries, and not vice versa (except music). I was on Steph's blog the other day, and I mentioned "Wonder Twin Powers - Activate!", thinking she might not get the reference, and she was like, Duh!, of course I know that show. I thought, weird... that show was pretty mediocre. Why would people all the way in Australia watch that crap?
The only other British show that I liked that I can think of off the top of my head is The Young Ones, which I haven't seen in years. There're probably a couple others, but they just don't show them here. Perhaps I can download them from the internet. What would you recommend?
The Comic book series is pretty good.
The dirty bubble is dead? do I believe you? ach who cares? I don't.
I blame J.R.
Captain - You can get The Young Ones on a domestic DVD release. Well worth having it is too, as is Bottom, the drunker you are the funnier it gets until you are sick all over yourself and pass out.
I bought a region free dvd player so that I could watch DVD's from the UK. It was only $80 an' all. Worth every penny.
Knudsen - Dead and hopefully buried by now.
Ellie - As in JR Ewing? Larry Hagman is still alive and barely kicking. Might not be a bad pick in a death pool now I think about it. He must be almost 80...
The American version of 'The Office' was pretty good. Larry Hagman had a near death experience and is facing his demise with serenity.
I hope Kirk Douglas dies soon I've got a class picture to use on me blog.
"R.I.P Dirty Bubble. The kids never knew how
gay you really were......"
Although with a name like "Dirty Bubble," you'd think they might have guessed. We just watched that ep today (thereby fulfilling part of our 22 ep SpongeBob quota for the day and redcuing the chance of the Nestling Sparrow whining all the fucking day long); I didn't realize that Charles Nelson Reilly did the voice until you posted about it.
"Why is it that US comedies make so much more sense to Brits than vice versa? Do we as Brits really have a much broader sense of humour or is it just that we have been saturated with American TV all our lives and have become accustomed to it?"
I think it's both. The Spouse Sparrow and I have a lot in common because we both watched the same TV shows, despite having grown up on different sides of the world.
And as for Americans getting British humour, it's just not going to happen. For the most part, Americans are thick as fuck, and just don't get the double entendres, wittiness, and dry humour of British shows. As it is, I was well on my way already, but the Spouse Sparrow's been a bad influence on me. I have to catch myself on when I talk to family, neighbors, etc. as they just don't have a clue what I'm on about. Even on my blog, I've ended up with way more Brit/Irish commenters than Americans, including quite a few that assumed I was a Brit/Irish expat. Go figure.
And we'd kill to have BBC America; all we get is PBS, which means "Jeeves & Wooster," "Black Adder," and a half-hour of the BBC World News.
Canucks in general appreciate British humour and if asked would rate Brits higher than anyone else on the humour scale.
Americans always fucker up Brit shows when they attempt to remake them. Leave well enough alone.
Lucky to have BBC Canada up here but too many DIY/home makeover shows on it.
What about Cheers, Friends, more recently Ugly Betty Desperate Housewives etc. etc. Great shows...
I WOULD KILL TO HAVE MORE BRITISH TV SHOWS!!!!!
kids, you have no idea how starved americans are for decent comedy! you know, the type thats actually funny? where you laugh? that's why so many of us are stuck on monty python...thats the first time any of us ever saw what television comedy could be and so blatantly, sadly WAS NOT and still IS NOT.
no argument from me here...but i represent a majority voice, folks. unfortunately, that majority doesn't seem to be buying lots of large ticket items...remember, in america, television is first and last a profit driven medium and SAFE SELLS MORE SUV'S.
i loved watching benny hill and monty python growing up. today, sometimes i watch 'eastenders'... i know, shoot me... it's on public tv and suprisingly entertaining. but when visiting the uk, i love bbc one and the programs in general. maybe i'm the exception... or a blacksheep.
i wish we saw more brit shows, but first nations is right...tv=money it's always been a bottomline thing
GB - For a man who allegedly drank four bottles of champagne a day on the set of Dallas I'm surprised it wasn't an actual death experience.
Knudsen - I'm hoping it's Jack Nicholson so that they will show all his films on telly.
Sparrow - I didn't realize that Charles Nelson Reilly did the voice until you posted about it.
It takes on a whole new dimension now doesn't it?
MJ - I'm not talking to you....cunt. You know how much I wanted those shorts. I'll buy my own fucking shorts and send you the pictures of me and the shorts having fun together just so that you can see how much fun the shorts would have had if you had awarded them to me like you should have done, but nooooooooooooo........
Mutley - I think you are agreeing with me but with different examples or maybe you are high/drunk. I don't know.
FN - Here is the thing though... Back in the UK, many excellent shows are not on in "primetime". Those slots are reserved for soaps and the kind of safe sitcoms that the majority will watch and buy whatever is being sold (or in the case of the BBC their own shows/products that they are promoting). The "good" stuff is generally on later or at odd time slots on cable/satellite/digital channels when the people who are most likely to watch "that kind of thing" are watching. Father Ted was shown at 9.00 on a Friday night on Channel 4 when most people were either out in the pub getting pissed, or already in bed. Then there are the folks who are ripped to the tits in front of the telly laughing their asses off. One thing the Brits do really well is market their product to the right group of people at the right time. The US is slowly catching up, Adult Swim on Cartoon Network is the perfect example.
Raffi - I don't watch Eastenders because it's about soft southern shites. BBC1 is/was too restrictive. Reeves & Mortimer were fuckin hilarious when they were on Channel 4 and then BBC 2 but when they were promoted onto BBC 1 they couldn't be as risky or as funny as they once were. The breeding grounds for great comedy in the UK are BBC 2 and Channel 4, lately newer cable channels like BBC 3 and E4 have been home to more ground breaking shows due to their commitment to variety and risk taking. Here in the US the networks do not take risks and there is little chance that PBS will air anything that may even slightly offend some group or other.
Savannah - Religious boycotts, offending the moral majority, advertisers dropping their sponsorships. The first year I was in the States, Taco Bell withdrew their sponsorship of The Dana Carvey Show because he did a sketch where he microwaved a kitten. The show was canceled immediately. Granted, things have come a long way since then but it could still happen. Freedom of speech? Artistic license? Yeah.....
*sets The Mitchell Brothers on that cunting Waring*
I don't think that it is that we have a broader understanding of comedy. We just get the best American shows on mainstream terrestrial channels.
Sadly, I had to sit through one episode of 'The War at Home'. It was fucking shite. I'm reliably informed that this is the average standard of comedy over there.
I watched creature comforts and didn't know it was a knock off of a BBC show. I would rather see the BBC version. We Americans are not as thick as FS says, we are just censored!
I'm devastated ans need a drink, ahhhhh!
That's because they're a crowd of cunts.
Hello People - I am in desperate need of votes in the Blogpower wards -where I am being crushed by the forces of reaction. Follow the link on the right hand side of my blog and vote for me in cats 1 and 14!!
Prudence - Welcome... I'm sure you can get on DVD.
Dirty - Welcome to you too... Devastated by the death of Charlie or by the remake of CC?
Bock - I'm assuming you are referring to our colonial cousins?
Mutley - You shameless bastard. I suppose I will vote for you, more out of sympathy than anything else.
I see you're still not talking to me.
I'm not sending you The Shorts, you sore loser, but I'll send you a pair of used knickers as a consolation prize.
Talking? Me to you? Of course I am. I will take the knickers...
They're in the post.
Now update, you lazy cunt. This is yesterday's news.
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