I'm a huge fan of Benny Hill. Ever since I was a kid. I was never offended at anything the show did unlike some demographics that accused him of being a smut peddler, amongst other unsavory commentary. I also never thought of him as racist (he did have a tendency in the earlier years to wear blackface imitating some black singers BUT he also used to wear yellow doing his Chow Mein); as far as I was concerned he was equal opportunity in spoofing everybody. I even thought him going more to natural skin complexions in the 1980s proves he wasn't being disrespectful doing the impersonations.
I dropped almost 500 bucks and bought the complete boxsets in the states when the first came out (yeah, I should have waited, lol), and the BBC era as well. While I'm not too much a fan of his BBC era, I think the creative freedom Thames let him have starting in 1969 was absolutely the single most revolutionary moment in sketch comedy, because he didn't have the restrictions of, say, Carol Burnett being on America's CBS and could be daring how he saw fit.
I must be fair and honest; the best era to me of the Thames years were when his ensemble cast consisted of Hill (before his massive weight gain) Henry McGee, Jackie Wright, Bob Todd (after he came back for the 2nd time), Eddie Buchanan, and at that time the sporadic appearance of Jon Jon Keefe; Helen Hayes, and Rita Webb. The tail end was Sue Upton was coming into her own with Wondergran, and Louise English was coming into her own doing leads instead of just being dancers. So, 1977-1983. This was the era that included a lot of America Television show spoofs, a lot of Elizabeth Taylor spoofs, Disco show spoofs, the Eddie Buchanan soul singer moments, of course the rise of Love Machine into Hill's Angels, Superteech, Henry McGee really coming into his own as the straight man, Victorian Scandals, The Scarlett Pimple, Women's Liberation Television (One with Helen Hayes and One with Hill in drag hosting), The Monte Carbolic Show, Holiday, Chubby Dodds Doc, Wondergran Meets Jekyll and Hyde/Dracula, and those random vignettes of Hill as a husband with a ugly wife, a gardner or a butler trying to mess around with the maids, or the one where the chick kills him and the new husband started doing to her everything she did to him.
Granted, I'm biased; as a kid I LOVED the spoofs of the Aaron Spelling shows. Specifically his take on Charlie's Angels with Charlene's Angels and Archie's Angels. The Bionic Baby and Starsky and Hutch, Kojak were top notch and on point. Also, since he loved American plays, I always got a kick out of his sendups to the American classic era of filmmaking like Who's Afraid of Virginia Wool, the Cinemascope spoofs, and even Chubby Dodds - THAT one gets me right in the chest every time. His teacher spoofs, Wondergran, Wanda the Wicked Witch Woman From The West, ALL OF IT - great. I had the privilege of growing up where Carol Burnett Show reruns were 9-930pm, and Benny Hill 10-1030, and then one Carol Burnett at 11 and One Benny Hill at 1130, then the Mary Tyler Moore and spinoffs after that all night. Hands down Benny Hill was funnier at the spoofs than Carol Burnett's ensemble (which tended to spoof exclusively soap operas and classic black and white films sans Torchy and Gone With the Wind) and took more risks with the material (Carol Burnett was still fighting to have black male dancers on her show back in 1974 and that was considered a risk then) and unlike the latter, the show still stands up.
I didn't particularly care for the post 1984 years; the Little Angels were abysmal and Hill didn't look to have the same spirit and energy, in part to heavy drinking, the loss of Jackie Wright to that other guy who sucked, the loss of Eddie Buchanan, the firing/quitting of Bob Todd, Helen Hayes, and Rita Webb, plus the recycling of a LOT of material from the glory years. Even his Cagney and Lacey spoof just was meh. I'm gandering it also was the PC Thatcher era where all of a sudden he was slut shamed and considered to be amoral.
The 1970-1976 years weren't bad; I loved the Fanny Craddock Julia Child spoofs with Bob Todd and him, I loved the Game Show spoofs better in that era, plus the ballroom competition spoofs, the Shot Black segment, Jackie Wright trying to go on Holiday with Duffo (I think it was Duffo) Tours, the sports segments before Women's Liberation Television, and those commercial spoofs for shampoo and chocolate, cleaning products, and just random acts of television madness. Let's call this the Nicholas Parsons years.
Now, my least favorite part of his shows were the opening musical numbers. I just didn't like them all that well but I did like the musical numbers in between the shows (like the disco sendups with Roy Orbison or those ones where he'd imitate Jackie Trent). When he did have musical acts they were great, from that down home TN band to the chick that sang one of the bond themes (not Shirley Bassey, the chick that sang the alternative version of Live and Let Die who performed "Tell It Like It Is") I also didn't like the Fred Scuttle skits; as the years went on it seemed like they just would not end, and comprise almost the entire episode (being in the states we only saw BH in 30 minute blocks when it did air on regular TV back in the day).
Some Americans absolutely loved this man because never in the history of American television was anything remotely like this ever done. It was really revolutionary, so much so, there were conservatives that campaigned heavily censoring the shows and/or removing them from television on morals clauses from the 1950s. Keep in mind a comedy show like Brady Bunch, which was out in 1970, still had Carol and Mike sleeping in a room with 2 beds. Today, you can't find any Hill shows on unless its BBC America, and that's cable (which you're paying for that privilege, so it should be uncensored). The Benny Hill Show was removed from regular network television back in 1993. What I find interesting is that I'm an anomaly; I like British Humor across the board. Most who were exposed to Hill first tend not to get into any other British show because the humor is different and they don't get it - case in point Python. Most brave souls I know that are into Benny Hill hate Python, and those that are into Python find Benny Hill crude and unfunny.
