Quote: gb901 @ 30th May 2015, 10:53 PM BSTCook wrote individually, whereas Elton was part of a team on most of those shows you list.
He did write The Thin Blue Line by himself though, and that is still one of the funniest and most underrated sitcoms of all time imho.
Decided to give these a rewatch this afternoon whilst staying at home. It was the first time I'd seen them since they first aired in 2013 and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them again.
David Haig in particular steals every scene he's in just like he did in The Thin Blue Line. Such a shame that a second series of this never came to fruition.
So glad I recorded them onto a DVD at the time as I believe it was never officially released.
What? 2013! Seems like yesterday they were on and being hammered by everyone here except you and me. Now with a little hindsight I can see why it flopped although the faults were quite visible at the time, I just thought the good points were being ignored. It needed tweaking, just a shame they couldn't have used the pilot for this, as I thought that's what they were for.
Nothing wrong with the premise, a couple of characters were clearly overdone, the Mayor especially, the dialogue in general was too direct and unsubtle, as it is with most Eltonian scripts, turning the characters into 1D cartoons. From memory though I found it pretty funny, which is an Elton strong point, surely the priority of a studio sitcom?
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ 11th July 2013, 7:30 AMI doubt that anyone foisted on Elton several people from The Thin Blue Line or his mates' daughter in one of the supporting roles. And I doubt that any prospective script-editor would have got very far with the proposal that some of it needed rewriting, and I doubt that Elton was taking notes from the director.
Good points, maybe Elton's ego got the better of him here, but it also hints at big names having too much free reign and green lighting while unknowns either can't get a look in or are over controlled by prods and editors to the point of distorting their work. The writer of Warren came on here and said as much. 
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 29th March 2020, 10:12 AMFrom memory though I found it pretty funny, which is an Elton strong point, surely the priority of a studio sitcom?
Neither funny nor studio are a key aspect of modern comedy, it feels.
I've spoken to Ben Elton about this series in recent years, as it happens. He's still angry at the way it was treated - and rightly so, IMO.
Treated by the critics or the broadcaster? I'd have thought it's hard to argue with the critics especially when backed up by public forums as it was with TWW. You run the gauntlet of public opinion now, there is no hiding place, make it good or face the flak.
With the broadcaster from memory this is, they had it on in a graveyard slot from the first episode and you have to ask why? The obvious answer is they had no faith in it and knew it would bomb. Any writer would be angry with that, not giving it a chance. They might argue that airing there would ensure that it bombs. I'm guessing Elton did. ???
Other things the broadcaster did, from memory - bad production, including direction. Several moans on here were about the poor directing. Many more including mine were of hideous over production, mainly with the horrible intrusive laugh track, a thing which will incur great criticism on its own, especially if the viewers aren't laughing.
What I wonder is, would they have treated it as badly if the script hadn't been as blunt and puerile? And shortly after this flop he got another sitcom commissioned so it didn't exactly kill his career! (As it almost certainly would have for a first commissioned writer.) ((So what's he whinging about?))
Quote: Aaron @ 29th March 2020, 9:07 PMI've spoken to Ben Elton about this series in recent years, as it happens. He's still angry at the way it was treated - and rightly so, IMO.
He should be angrier about how Happy Families was treated.
When this came out I was Youtubeless in Rome. I still can't be arsed. The Young Ones is my comedy Mel C, but I'm not buying every Ringo album because of Sgt Pepper.
Ben has had his peaks and his troughs.
"The Wright Way" was a trough that even a pig wouldn't eat from.
Do you see what I did there? 
I heard it was crap and I f**king hated The Thin Blue Line so I didn't bother.
"How is it possible this dire new comedy was written by the same person behind Blackadder and The Young Ones?" (The Guardian)
"The Wright Way is a sitcom that would have looked and felt badly dated in the 1970s." (The Guardian)
"The Wright Way: New BBC comedy by Ben Elton is the worst sitcom ever." (The Mirror)
"How did Ben Elton's "The Wright Way" get it so wrong?" (New Statesman)
"Ben Elton's The Wright Way (BBC1) is groan-inducing." (The Independent)
"The Wright Way was so old-fashioned, I said in my TV review the next morning, it should have been made in black-and-white. But that's not going back far enough: The Wright Way should have been a pre-war, silent comedy. It still wouldn't have been funny, but at least we would have been spared those tired old lines." (Daily Mail)
"It stinks from nose to tail." (Beyond the Joke)
"If, on a progressive scriptwriting course somewhere, a tutor were to set an exercise demanding that students produce a sitcom script devoid of any trace of originality - or indeed any trace of genuine comedy - this would pass with flying colours." (The Telegraph)
"A pile of poo" (The Arts Desk)
"Atrocious" (York Mix)
"The Wright Way is all wrong." (The Times)
"I lasted all of five minutes . . . a totally sincere five minutes (or possibly less) of such agonised writhing and head-burying-beneath-the-duvet that I knew with every fibre of my being that were I not to switch the iPad off that very second I would surely die." (The Spectator)
But wait - the reviews were not all bad!
"I laughed my head off." (Aaron from BCG)
On balance then, I think we can say it got a mixed reception.
Loved the Young Boys Ones and Happy Families. Blackadder was criminally overrated. Thin Blue Line was crap.
Life's too short.
I rewatched the first episode and my goodness it really is as bad as I remember. I feel so sorry for Beattie Edmondson who I have seen in a lot of comedy since and she is hilarious but here she is served with truly awful material.
Haig plays the character as written brilliantly. It's a shame the character is so broad and has no consistency (the scene with the tap that requires him to have never used, seen or indeed ever heard of a tap before for it to make sense)
Quote: Sitcomfan64 @ 11th July 2020, 7:28 PMI rewatched the first episode and my goodness it really is as bad as I remember. I feel so sorry for Beattie Edmondson who I have seen in a lot of comedy since and she is hilarious but here she is served with truly awful material.
And you don't think she had a hand in it? A superfluous character doing impromptu impressions unconnected to the story, while being the daughter of friends of the scriptwriter. If Elton had've taken this project more seriously then maybe viewers and the BBC schedulers would have, if that's what he was angry about, as I still don't know.
He was probably angry at himself for churning out this kind of crap. He is the Paul McCartney of sitcoms.
Oh man, I forgot this existed. Extremely rare that there's a sitcom that I find *nothing* to like about, but this was one. Didn't hate it, I just found it boring.
I remember the negative reception at the time being wildly OTT though. People had a real fire up their arse about it.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 12th July 2020, 7:29 AMAnd you don't think she had a hand in it? A superfluous character doing impromptu impressions unconnected to the story, while being the daughter of friends of the scriptwriter.
Do you reckon she had a part in the "this is so a YouTube moment" catchphrase too?
