The following clip sums up my thoughts on The Good Life to a tee -
Has anyone ever laughed at The Good Life? Page 2
Quote: zooo @ September 13 2009, 4:45 PM BSTI can't believe most people wouldn't laugh at the (rather often shown) scene with the newspaper hats and the square egg joke Margot doesn't get.
I just laughed at that joke. 
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 13 2009, 6:38 PM BSTThe following clip sums up my thoughts on The Good Life to a tee -
That was more predictable than any scene in any television programme EVER.
Quote: Aaron @ September 13 2009, 7:04 PM BSTThat was more predictable than any scene in any television programme EVER.
Trust me, it wasn't considered that way when it was first broadcast. It was the first time that sort of technique or joke had been done. It was near-blasphemy in those days. And it was very, very funny first time around.
Quote: Tim Walker @ September 13 2009, 2:53 AM BSTJerry and Margot were great.
I agree.
Quote: Tim Walker @ September 13 2009, 7:31 PM BSTTrust me, it wasn't considered that way when it was first broadcast. It was the first time that sort of technique or joke had been done. It was near-blasphemy in those days. And it was very, very funny first time around.
I was referring to RC bringing up the clip.
Quote: Tim Walker @ September 13 2009, 7:31 PM BSTTrust me, it wasn't considered that way when it was first broadcast. It was the first time that sort of technique or joke had been done. It was near-blasphemy in those days. And it was very, very funny first time around.
Thank you Tim. One television show slagging off another just wasn't done in those days. And to pick on one of the most loved sitcoms on British telly was really playing with fire.
Stewart Lee picks on OFAH and it's suddenly cutting edge comedy? Sorry but The Young Ones broke all the rules first and was ten times funnier because it hadn't been done before.
Plus, I couldn't find any other television show that had a go at The Good Life. Why? Because it was made in nineteen seventy dinosaur and most of the population either doesn't remember it or can't physically remember it.
Quote: Aaron @ September 13 2009, 8:29 PM BSTI was referring to RC brining up the clip.
Oops, apologies. 
Quote: Aaron @ September 13 2009, 8:29 PM BSTI was referring to RC brining up the clip.
*Bringing >_<
Honestly Aaron, a blind thumbless chimp with brain damage attending the University of Bolton has better spelling then you...or summat. 
I think this show was much more interesting for reasons other than whatever comedy was involved. It presented a very subversive idea, that an executive could drop out and still lead fulfilling life, with a loving wife, despite not having any money.
Quote: Nogget @ September 13 2009, 8:48 PM BSTI think this show was much more interesting for reasons other than whatever comedy was involved. It presented a very subversive idea, that an executive could drop out and still lead fulfilling life, with a loving wife, despite not having any money.
Plus, it had an air of wife-swappiness about it. The flirtation between neighbours had a throbbing undercurrent of sexual depravity.
Damn those dirty 1970s people and their sexy corduroy flares.
Quote: Nogget @ September 13 2009, 8:48 PM BSTI think this show was much more interesting for reasons other than whatever comedy was involved. It presented a very subversive idea, that an executive could drop out and still lead fulfilling life, with a loving wife, despite not having any money.
It may have seemed a subversive idea, but it presented in the most twee, respectable middle-class way possible. Tom and Barbara never dropped out of society or shunned most social conventions. (Not saying they should have.) The (original) series of The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin was the far more subversive of these two 70s sitcoms. Reggie was try to shun everything about the middle-class lifestyle that he found so soul-less, tedious and dispiriting. (Although he was a failure at "letting go", as he was too scared to completely turn his back on middle-class security. Instead he tried to re-shape it in his own image, but this didn't work because he despised his own creations - e.g. 'Grot' and his "middle-class commune".)
I really should shouldn't write a book about all this, you know.
Quote: Tim Walker @ September 13 2009, 9:22 PM BSTIt may have seemed a subversive idea, but it presented in the most twee, respectable middle-class way possible.
Sure, but to me, that made it all the more interesting. These are middle class folk turning their backs on a safe career in search of something else. As a little middle-class boy, it set me to thinking.
Also, the writers don't take the easy route of making the wealthy neighbours look utterly ridiculous, instead the Goodes are often very miserable, while the Leadbetters are allowed to remain largely contented; Jerry especially so. And the lead character Tom is not a nice guy, he is selfish and prone to tantrums, which makes identifying with him that much more of a challenge. It all makes for a satisfying (and inspirational) mix.
Good points. Tom Goode is actually a bit of prick (as Richard Briers has commented upon in interviews).
Surely for the idea to work they had to be quite straight laced and sensible middle class people. If they were hippies to start with then it wouldn't have been so interested.
I think the Young Ones comments that the Good Life could have been more edgy is total bollocks, in particular, saying the pig episode could have been edgy is crap. How can an episode about a pig giving birth really be edgy or make a statement about society.
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 13 2009, 10:05 PM BSTI think the Young Ones comments that the Good Life could have been more edgy is total bollocks, in particular, saying the pig episode could have been edgy is crap. How can an episode about a pig giving birth really be edgy or make a statement about society.
The pig and all the piglets could have died and to survive, Felicity could have gone on the game and Tom becomes a drug dealer growing spliff in his allotment.
Or -
The pig could have been born a chimera with Tom's face and a pig's body. Felicity would have to face the moral dilemma of knowing that Tom cheated on her with some livestock and whether she will nurse the creature or kill it.
See, that's two right there. 