Best British comedy series to have debuted in the last ten years.

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is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends? i remember the guide running a special piece on the show when the second series began. otherwise, yes! definitely!

was green wing consciously fashioned after scrubs? the faint surrealism?

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Citizen Smith wasn't great but Peter Vaughn was, as he is in pretty much everything.

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link

answer my question tho - what's the minimum re funniness? laughing, smirking, smiling etc.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:18 PM (3 minutes ago)

It maybe needs something else going on beyond funniness, if the laughter is only minimal? I was the one vote for the Armando Iannucci show, and that's as often poignant and slightly unsettling as it is funny (admittedly less with the crap replaced music on the DVD).

A lot of the CaB objection to NB seemed to be "it is advertised/acting like it is a comedy, but it does not make me LOL = it fails"

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link

point of order: Just Good Friends is very good! but yes very dated. awful theme tune. but the soap opera quotient is still quite compelling. penny seems an awful snit in the 21st C but resembles my other half so this is forgiven.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Peter Vaughn fucking killed it in Our Friends In The North. Awesome performance from the man there.

xxp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (seventeen years ago) link

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends?

it never had as prominent a timeslot as 9pm friday c4 "at the time" but owing to constant repeats it's sort of sneaking in.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (seventeen years ago) link

you can say Nathan Barley isn't funny but you can't say it's not a comedy show.

believe me, i tried once.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (seventeen years ago) link

is it rockist to prefer 'reginald perrin' and 'fawlty towers' over other more ingratiating Classic Sitcoms?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Not really, I don't think.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends?

Nowhere near it

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

a more interesting poll/discussion perhaps:

who is the most likeable LEAD character in a British comedy show/sitcom?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I didn't even know "Scrubs" was supposed to be a comedy, I thought it was a "comedy-drama"!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I've only saw it a couple of times tho

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Rene Artois?

xxp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Fawlty Towers is just as ingratiated as Porridge if not more so.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

no way

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Iannucci in bewildered/world weary mode, surely

Scrubs is an awkward cut n'shut of comedy with two minutes of bullshit schmaltz welded to the end of each half

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (seventeen years ago) link

scrubs is repellant. audioly and visually

I thought arrested development was funny but not quite hitting the notes it thought it was or something, the first time I watched it. I did think it got better, as it went on, though--the funniness came from the repetition of situations/allusions to previous incidents and recurring jokes. so, once it had some good things to repeat/previous good things to allude to and good jokes that could recur, it improved. watched it all, again, recently, and I think it v funny and well done, now

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Nana Moon as Wolfie's mother in law is fab. "hello foxy".

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Fawlty Towers is just as ingratiated as Porridge if not more so.

More so, I'd say

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link

AD gets funnier every time you watch it.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link

I obviously haven't watched enough of it

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Nana Moon as Wolfie's mother in law is fab. "hello foxy".

Yes, that was good

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Citizen Smith wasn't great but Peter Vaughn was, as he is in pretty much everything.

Agreed, which is why it was doubly poor once Tony Steedman replaced him.

I may be too harsh on JGF. This is another theme song I sing around the house to amuse 2-y-o and distress wife.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (seventeen years ago) link

no way

-- That one guy that quit

Quitney, Fawlty is the 'Sgt. Pepper' here. tops sitcom lists as much as Porridge if not more so, has mythical status because it was only two series. it's just as rockist a choice as the older shows.

i like it as much as Porridge.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (seventeen years ago) link

reggie perrin is just so fabulously tragic. chunks of it aren't all that great - some of the other actors are dreadful, the pacing seems off to me, the climax rushed - but the story itself is so good, and the central performance so staggeringly perfect, you forgive it all.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:33 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't know if I can forgive the whole of the last series though

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

i wasn't talking scrubs = friends as "cultural phenomenon" i was talking about how it used and who it used by. "comedy" isn't always "used" primarily for the jokes. lack of Smack the Pony on list is interesting.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Scrubs IS like Friends in that it's all about the jokes. I forgive them a lot of shit because they've got a bunch of dudes throwing in gags that would be funny in any show (as Friends also showed).

To like Friends but not Scrubs seems absurd to me.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

the xposts here are drivin me mad

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

AD gets funnier every time you watch it.

I can happily watch all of Arrested Development in order then go back to the beginning again.

Rossiter as Perrin is fucking awesome yeah

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't know if I can forgive the whole of the last series though

is that the 90s one? i never saw that. i've not actually seen all the third series either, it seemed pretty poor.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I prefer Rising Damp to Reggie Perrin. How do you like THEM apples.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Quitney, Fawlty is the 'Sgt. Pepper' here. tops sitcom lists as much as Porridge if not more so, has mythical status because it was only two series. it's just as rockist a choice as the older shows.

i like it as much as Porridge.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:32 PM (41 seconds ago)

yeah i know it's a rockist choice, but like 'perrin' it doesn't fit in with the others, for me anyway. it's the fawlty character himself really -- i don't think you get that level of blackness in 'porridge'.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link

darkness is not a pre-requisite of great comedy (altho for many people these days it seems that it is). it's often a v useful asset but it can do as much damage as good.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link

friends doesn't have zach braff in

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link

is that the 90s one? i never saw that. i've not actually seen all the third series either, it seemed pretty poor.

There was 90s one? Wasn't Leonard Rossiter dead by then? No, I meant
the third series - where he set up some sort of holiday camp or something.... no, more a kind of community.... that was dire

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Friends has Matthew Perry who was OK in Friends but HORRIBLE in that worst Scrubs episode i've ever seen.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (seventeen years ago) link

I prefer Rising Damp to Reggie Perrin. How do you like THEM apples.

So do I, I think

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Reggie Perrin is def. more rockist than Rising Damp, the Here My Dear to the latter's Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits if you will (please don't, though).

not sure if the soap opera in scrubs is as compelling as the ross/rachel saga, or that its as well handled. scrubs often gets messily mawkish and sentimental in a way Friends always zings itself out of.

xpost there was a post-Rossiter series! the legacy of reggie perrin. definitely best forgotten, i think.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:41 (seventeen years ago) link

the scrubs where dr cox imagines his brother in law is still alive until the very end is very well done tho.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link

In Biographical Dictionary Of Film, DT refers to Basil Fawlty as the epitome of "the tragedy of fascism."

Rossiter sort of carried the whole of Perrin, though; Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates give truthful performances but the other actors don't rise above the level of caricature. Also, as I'm sure I've said elsewhere on ILE, the books are better (at least the first two - the third is pretty crappy though).

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link

at a guess the soap opera / drama element is the win for the most important demographic though.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link

A short-lived US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Rossiter sort of carried the whole of Perrin, though; Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates give truthful performances but the other actors don't rise above the level of caricature.

That's because they're supposed to be caricatures surely? What about Doc Morrissey tho, he was good!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link

A short-lived US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.

I remember that!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link

reggie's wife = teh hottness. his daughter was dreadful tho.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link

i think When The Whistle Blows should've been included in this poll.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:47 (seventeen years ago) link

in my mind i always link spaced up with my older cousin going on about how great human traffic and music has the right to children were... is this linkage in any way correct?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:06 (seventeen years ago) link

hahahahaha. go to my 'generation' thread.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link

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