A Horseradish
Wednesday 6th November 2013 11:56pm [Edited]
8,475 posts
Quote: sglen @ 6th November 2013, 10:50 PM GMT
I had never realised those two were the same channels.
As for the comedy boom question, it's a good one but I'm not really sure. I heard on the circuit during the brief period I thought I could hack stand-up a lot of comedians complaining about the boom encouraging people to take up comedy (because "it's an artform, not a way to get famous" - bit of a pissy argument even if true).
Comedy did get cool at some point, though, and I think you might be right on the Peter Kay angle. And possibly the Office? 'Cool' but not cult television comedy that led to comedy celebrities like Kay and Gervais? I wasn't really up on the comedy scene in the 90s, being a child at the time, but would I be right in presuming the 'comedy celebrities' of the time were more likely to be cult heroes than splattered over the pages of the Daily Mail? Or were there Kays and Gervais' back then?
Oh yes. BBC Radio 7 became Radio 4 Extra and was a rare example of a successful new digital station. I sense that Ben is right on Baddiel, Newman etc but earlier roots are significant too in that they place what has happened in a longer transition. Television sitcoms and sketch shows in the 1970s were not considered comedy as such. It might sound a funny thing to say but they were more just an enjoyable part of life. I don't think most of us would have said that comedy was a study in its own right or even a genre. There wouldn't have been a British Comedy Guide. It was what a few people did - the writers and actors - and many millions watched the programmes. As there were only three TV channels, everyone saw the same things and discussed them the next day. Like the soaps and football, they were common reference points.
Although the number of channels was so small, it was the television decade. TV replaced the role of radio in light entertainment in the 1970s. Comedy on radio, some of which was quite good, had an image of being old hat. The 1970s was also the decade when home buying took off so staying at home was the new going out. Certainly music hall comedy had long since died although some of it had gone into TV. It was evident everywhere in the mass media to anyone who cared to look, both in content and style. In contrast, modern celebrity is big business or it is sexy. It is considered sexy for being big business. Music hall comedy wasn't the same. It was the downtrodden side of film star glamour. People were not famous for their lives or any image but for their comedy act and their name. Fame is by professional reputation when access is limited.
Television in the late 1970s was the magic lantern in the living room. It had such a hold on people that not only much of theatre but indeed cinema really looked finished. Later, videos added to that feeling although they boosted cinema rather as the net can increase sales. Perhaps an Englishman's home is never more a castle than in times of austerity. But then in the early 1980s, the comedy clubs started, led by the new breed. Many people went to them a couple of times a year out of curiosity. Eugene Cheese and the Chuckle Club etc. I did attend them occasionally. There were two or three stag dos there and that was typical.
In the 1990s, Baddiel, Newman and Skinner made the big link between comedy and football. Was it from 1990 or just 1996? I'm not sure but it went into the national psyche. Culturally it was a place where Joe Public and slightly alternative types met, a natural follow on and a broadening out. I wonder if that led on to the arena idea what with football being in stadiums? It is possible but, broader still, arenas became more popular with many new ones being built. Soon after, the new TV talent shows, supported by the press, were a gateway into big stage events for a wide range of performers in a way that Opportunity Knocks and New Faces in the 1970s hadn't been. Peters and Lee at Wembley? No chance. Lenny Henry might ultimately have got there but not directly via a process of pre-determined management. Tony Hatch was not Simon Cowell.
That era may well have been the start of people going out for entertainment more. More people had money. Television figures were tailing off because it had been around a long time. The pub was not any longer the be all and end all. There were news stories to that effect. So the new television - considerably expanded with liberal measures and Freeview plus the internet - was more about an integrated platform of experience. The comedy of stage and the comedy of the mass media were connected up more. With all the modernism, there is an ironic circularity in the changes. Current comedy as an extensive theatre experience is rather reminiscent of the music hall era even if its origins - often the universities - and production styles are not the same. With hindsight, it is surprising how so much potential for making money was simply written off!
