I think you will find that you might get a backlash against calling Not Going Out a incredibly poor sitcom because it isn't.
The Old Guys - Series 1 Page 9
Then what are you doing on these boards then? You obviously know nothing about good sitcoms. Not Going Out is just a load of bad joke book jokes in sitcom-script format, delivered by 'comedians' who can't act, filmed in a set furnished by brand new appliances from Argos.
i washt this the day it strated and fro me is som etimes laughing other tim ES is not to fun NYH. Soon it may be wi ll eb coMfo table and we al l think is f'anny.
Quote: johnny smith @ February 3 2009, 11:28 AM GMTThen what are you doing on these boards then? You obviously know nothing about good sitcoms. Not Going Out is just a load of bad joke book jokes in sitcom-script format, delivered by 'comedians' who can't act, filmed in a set furnished by brand new appliances from Argos.
This site has nothing to do with "good" sitcoms. It is for ALL sitcoms.
And Not Going Out is excellent.
Quote: Fedro Creche @ February 3 2009, 12:20 PM GMTi washt this the day it strated and fro me is som etimes laughing other tim ES is not to fun NYH. Soon it may be wi ll eb coMfo table and we al l think is f'anny.
... Yeah. We do require our members to write in English.
Quote: johnny smith @ February 3 2009, 11:28 AM GMTThen what are you doing on these boards then? You obviously know nothing about good sitcoms. Not Going Out is just a load of bad joke book jokes in sitcom-script format, delivered by 'comedians' who can't act, filmed in a set furnished by brand new appliances from Argos.
So because I supposedly don't know what a good sitcom is according to you then that means I don't belong on here.
Do you even realise how stupid you sound?
Quote: johnny smith @ February 3 2009, 11:28 AM GMTThen what are you doing on these boards then? You obviously know nothing about good sitcoms. Not Going Out is just a load of bad joke book jokes in sitcom-script format, delivered by 'comedians' who can't act, filmed in a set furnished by brand new appliances from Argos.
Johnny, I think its important you respect that everyone has different tastes when it comes to comedy so you can never define a sitcom lame or good for everyone else. It's like music in that way. I'm not a big fan of the shows you mentioned, although I disagree that NGO's jokes are bad.
Last Year and at the beginning of this year alone there have been LOADS of truly awful new BBC sitcoms (all with studio audience/canned laughter) and 2nd/3rd/4th/etc series of other awful BBC sitcoms that make you wonder how they could have been commissioned in the first place.
- My Family series 8
- After You've Gone series 3
- Two Pints of Lager series 7
- Grownups series 3
- The Green Green Grass series 4
- Not Going Out series 3
- Coming of Age
- Lab Rats
- Clone
- Life of Riley
- The Old Guys
I watched. I liked. I was expecting it to be bad. It was *much* better than I expected and I laughed a lot at it. Roger Lloyd-Pack is *very* good in this. Kudos to him as he's the stand-out.
Dan
You're forgetting The Cup, which lacked laughter (both in a studio and at home).
Methinks you're maybe a hard man to please. 
Quote: Danny K @ January 31 2009, 9:46 PM GMTI've given up on it half way through. What, couldn't they get a live audience? The canned laughter played at full volume every 1.5 seconds, completely drowned it for me.
- Recording it - will watch later when I'm less irritated by the moronic fakery that passes for laughter, trying hard to concentrate; but it's too much effort on a Sat evening.
Okay at last - now I've had a chance this afternoon to see a recording of The Old Guys - but only after achieving some Zen like state in order to filter out the annoyingly constant, manic and overly-LOUD laughter track.
First impressions up to a third of the way through: boring, just talking heads making the kind of clever jibes you can hear round any dinner table party:
"I didn't have a fall - I fell, peeing several times in the night etc.,"
- although I do realise the latter was the set-up for the kitchen peeing scene
The total lack of action, (as I said, just talking heads), seemed to confirm my initial reactions to it when I switched off the broadcast, which is why I'm both surprised and pleased to report a couple of bright highlights that could bode well for the future of this series.
Up until Lloydy burnt his tongue I hadn't laughed once. The exchanges as he repeated the burning a second time had me roaring with laughter in self-recognition, (which of us hasn't been guilty of doing that?)
Then the scene where Clive Swift assumed he wasn't being invited to the party and bellowed, "I mean, What the hell, what the hell!?!" Only for Jane Asher to explain he'd misunderstood, she just wanted him to 'go' and change his stained shirt in readiness for the party. I just wished he'd milked the situation a little longer with some attempt to get out of his predicament as it was a genuinely funny spectacle to see his gurning embarrassment.
And talking of social faux pas, THE GAG of the show that had me in stitches was the scene in which the burnt tongue set-up paid off handsomely in a later scene. At the party we're introduced to Jane Asher's lump of a son who speaks with an unmistakable lisp.
Lloydy genuinely welcomes him with a total lack of self-awareness that when he speaks, his swollen burnt tongue ensures he mimics the lisping son to perfection. I hadn't realised we were being set-up in the previous scene, as that skit appeared complete in itself, so the unexpected pay-off was all the more funnier in this scene. I laughed like a drain! However the final touch was the IT girl assuring the hurt and humiliated son that her father meant no harm and: "that if he really wanted to insult you he'd have mentioned your big ears instead." Cue the depressed big lump forlornly deciding whether to touch and check out his ears or not. The social faux pax in those three scenes were top class. All the scenes preceding it were not. Therefore, I for one will tune in to next week's episode with a clean opinion sheet. But more action/set-ups required and less of the smart-dinner-table-type talking heads.
The IT girl? She's type-cast now apparently playing more or less the same character in every comedy she appears in. Wasn't she the ditzy receptionist at one time in Doc Martin?
The theme music was okay, (the laughter track had battered my ears into submission by then). And Swifty, although not my cup of tea is the perfect 'wifey' foil to Lloydy's antics.
- But please oh please, somebody in production do something about that bloody awful laughter track.
Quote: ContainsNuts @ February 3 2009, 1:44 PM GMTJohnny, I think its important you respect that everyone has different tastes when it comes to comedy so you can never define a sitcom lame or good for everyone else. It's like music in that way. I'm not a big fan of the shows you mentioned, although I disagree that NGO's jokes are bad.
This guy posts under a different name on the IMDb boards and I'm familiar with his rants. He's not a troll but he does have a narrow point of view which doesn't have much room for anyone elses opinion on a subject. I only spotted him just now. I was posting on both BSG and IMDb and noticed the exact same post on both boards. I guess it's either a case of welcome to BSG or Busted! or perhaps both?
Def.
Quote: Deferenz @ February 3 2009, 5:52 PM GMTThis guy posts under a different name on the IMDb boards and I'm familiar with his rants. He's not a troll but he does have a narrow point of view which doesn't have much room for anyone elses opinion on a subject. I only spotted him just now. I was posting on both BSG and IMDb and noticed the exact same post on both boards. I guess it's either a case of welcome to BSG or Busted! or perhaps both?
Def.
I hope you're talking about Johnny. 
I don't want to be a member anymore
I always approach new comedy with some trepidation, particularly in this case as I am an agnostic on Peep Show and both leading men are aquired tastes, but Jane Asher is a nice bit of MILF, so I thought I would give it a go.
I did not really notice the studio laughter, which is always a good sign, as it shows the laughs are coinciding with actual jokes and that the actors have the performing skills to play off the audience. (Watch Chris Addison in Lab Rats for a lesson in how not to do it.)
The show is of course totally unrealistic and entirely unoriginal, but in a sitcom those are not necessarily bad things.
It is at any rate the Beeb's best new primetime offering in a while, and if it is not The Likely Lads it does at least have a thick edge on The Life Of Riley.
Quote: johnny smith @ February 3 2009, 11:28 AM GMTThen what are you doing on these boards then? You obviously know nothing about good sitcoms. Not Going Out is just a load of bad joke book jokes in sitcom-script format, delivered by 'comedians' who can't act, filmed in a set furnished by brand new appliances from Argos.
Yeah - right! 