Anything with Pegg and Frost.
Overrated sitcoms? Page 23
Whilst I quite enjoy the group's cinematic outings, I've never found Monty Python's Flying Circus funny; to the point it's actually irritating feeling like I'm not getting something so many others love. I appreciate the historical worth and MASSIVE cultural influence of the show, the scripts just leave me feeling cold and irritable.
Quote: Tursiops @ 8th September 2016, 1:45 PMAlways found The Young Ones a bit desperately shouty and self-consciously whacky. In Bottom the lads look like they are having fun, which is nice.
Nice? www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vPUeB2ZqQU
Quote: WarmWasp @ 21st June 2017, 5:51 PMWhilst I quite enjoy the group's cinematic outings, I've never found Monty Python's Flying Circus funny;
It's very hit 'n' miss, but the hits make up for it. People remember the classic sketches, most of which comprised their first film.
Living in Italy leaves me 6567546750750764 years behind but I just saw the first Derek and didn't laugh once. Shortly after Brent On The Road which made me laugh like a jockstrap, because I am.
Quote: DougWonnacott @ 22nd June 2014, 12:07 PMI have no problem with breaking sitcom conventions. I would have welcome the cutaway sketches if they had been even a little bit funny. But they weren't (IMO of course). Vyvyan's sock and Roger Bannister amused me a little, but rest just seemed to kill the show dead for a minute or two.
VERY late follow-up but yet again I'm in the minority - even Ade doesn't like 'em. http://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2018/05/23/40041/how_the_young_ones_almost_had_a_very_different_cast... The most interesting thing from these articles is how Tim Spall was a possible Mike - just goes to show how important casting is. What a different show it might have been... Also Mark Arden and Peter Richardsson. Quite honestly, I'd say Chris was the worst choice of all four.
I have to be brutally honest and say I was devastated by the first episode of Filthy, Rich and Catflap. The Young Ones blew me away, and with Happy Families they managed to be both true to form and original... This was tired, formulaic and forced. There were stronger eps - 2 and 4 are chucklesome - but overall, what a disappointment. And what a short road to the repetitive, yawnsome, what-do-people-see-in-it Bottom. It was like going from Laurel and Hardy's Music Box straight to Atoll K.
There are some funny moments in Filthy like the episode with the Noles and Stephen Fry as Mr Poofarty. Rik has some hilarious lines and expressions like the one in the restaurant "Oh what an interesting table cloth". It must have been great fun for them both doing Filthy and Bottom to arse around like that. During the game of Triv when he says "It's definitely Tarby" he looks like he wants to laugh and I've always wondered if that took a few attempts before he could say it without laughing and ruining the take.
Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 1st August 2018, 10:43 PMIt must have been great fun for them both .
I like playing with myself, doesn't mean I wanna do it prime time on channel one.
Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 2nd August 2018, 10:21 AMI like playing with myself, doesn't mean I wanna do it prime time on channel one.
Are you saying that if you were approached with an offer to play with yourself on prime time TV you would decline such a lucrative deal?
Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 27th May 2018, 2:11 PMVERY late follow-up but yet again I'm in the minority - even Ade doesn't like 'em. http://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2018/05/23/40041/how_the_young_ones_almost_had_a_very_different_cast... The most interesting thing from these articles is how Tim Spall was a possible Mike - just goes to show how important casting is. What a different show it might have been... Also Mark Arden and Peter Richardsson. Quite honestly, I'd say Chris was the worst choice of all four.
Mike had no real character and he was a terrible actor. Apart from that he was fine.
Quote: Chappers @ 2nd August 2018, 11:46 PMMike had no real character and he was a terrible actor. Apart from that he was fine.
Aww that's a bit mean because Christopher Ryan played him about as good as he could. I agree he never says anything funny but he was an important cog in the cake mixture. Peter Richardson would have been too powerful for the spingboard role Mike had and possibly not lead to a second series so I'm glad he wasn't cast. I love his work with Comic Strip but he's always been a writer and not an actor to me. I read somewhere that one of the producers didn't get on with Richardson so his chances of playing Mike were doomed anyway. We will never know so speculation, like my chances of ménage à trois with Seven Of Nine and Janeway, is futile.
Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 3rd August 2018, 12:03 AMI read somewhere that one of the producers didn't get on with Richardson so his chances of playing Mike were doomed anyway.
This rumour was debunked in Gold's recent documentary How The Young Ones Changed Comedy. I don't now recall the exact reason the role went elsewhere though.
Quote: Aaron @ 3rd August 2018, 12:42 AMI don't now recall the exact reason the role went elsewhere though.
They didn't give one. The rumour was that Richardson fell out with the producer cos he only wanted double acts in 'Boom Boom Out Go The Lights'.
Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 2nd August 2018, 11:44 PMAre you saying that if you were approached with an offer to play with yourself on prime time TV you would decline such a lucrative deal?
Don't encourage me.
Quote: Chappers @ 2nd August 2018, 11:46 PMMike was a terrible actor. Apart from that he was fine.
Chris is technically a good actor, but he had no experience of the live circuit, or the squalour they were (however indirectly) trying to convey. Bi-curious coincidence, I've been reliving Happy Families, and he's fine in ep 2.
Glad The Young Ones is finally getting the recognition it deserves.
Mike was, relatively speaking, a very minor character in "The Young Ones". I don't think we can reasonably blame Christopher Ryan for Mike's failure to shine as brightly as his housemates and landlord. Mike wasn't far from being a normal person, while the others were several million times larger than life. I think it's fair to say Christopher Ryan did as much as most other actors could with the script he was given.
The problem with Mike isn't the script, but Ryan's anonymous acting. They needed a foil to work against, like Ringo in that successful group. It's hilarious that Vyv is happy to smash Rik and Neil over the head with randon household appliances, but is very polite when he turns to Mike and even calls him Michael.
Having seen "Mike" play several other rolls, I would agree with Chappers, he's not the strongest actor and he tends to play himself. But I can see why he was cast, he does have comic timing and his dead pan manner contrasted well with the OTT cheeky performance of the Bottom duo. Question is, who would you have cast as Mike? I would have gone for John Wayne with Ruby Wax as his embarrassing (and younger) mother.