Campus/PhoneShop

I just read that Campus has been commissioned for a series. How is this possible? It wasn't as bad as Guantanamo Phil (which made me feel ill), but it was still an unfunny piece of television. PhoneShop was the one sitcom out of the recent Channel 4 comedies that I really thought had a chance of becoming a fully commissioned series. It had likeable characters and the situation that the young student found himself in was believable. As for Campus, I just thought that it was too out of the ordinary. No Vice-Chancellor would behave in that way. Terrible comedy; I won't be watching.

Quote: Adam Blaize @ January 9 2010, 9:29 PM GMT

I just read that Campus has been commissioned for a series. How is this possible?

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I personally hated PhoneShop and the only one out of all the pilots that actually made me laugh was Campus.

Quote: Adam Blaize @ January 9 2010, 9:29 PM GMT

PhoneShop was the one sitcom out of the recent Channel 4 comedies that I really thought had a chance of becoming a fully commissioned series.

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And it has, hasn't it?

Quote: Adam Blaize @ January 9 2010, 9:29 PM GMT

As for Campus, I just thought that it was too out of the ordinary. No Vice-Chancellor would behave in that way.

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I kind of think you're missing the whole point of that show, aren't you? (I'm not discussing the quality of the actual script here.) I don't think the character is in any way supposed to be an accurate portrayal of a university vice-chancellor.

Quote: Adam Blaize @ January 9 2010, 9:29 PM GMT

It wasn't as bad as Guantanamo Phil (which made me feel ill)

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How odd. I thought Guantanamo Phil was head and shoulders above the others.

Quote: Adam Blaize @ January 9 2010, 9:29 PM GMT

No Vice-Chancellor would behave in that way.

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Whereas, say, Father Ted was an almost documentary depiction of Parish life.

I'm excited about Campus. It was a bit iffy (as Aaron mentioned on another thread) in parts, but with a little bit of tweaking could be great. They need to decide on the format of the show and make at least a couple of the characters a bit more likeable in some way. Bring it on, though!

PhoneShop was terrible. Unfunny and horrible characters.

On the other hand, Campus was not great but has quite some prospect.

Guantanamo Phil wasn't bad at all, but I don't think I'd like to see a series of it. I'm not sure what the plot would be exactly. Perhaps the character could be taken out of that context.

(This should probably have gone in the existing Comedy Showcase thread. Or whatever the strand was called.)

I'm excited by neither.

Quote: Adam Blaize @ January 9 2010, 9:29 PM GMT

PhoneShop was the one sitcom out of the recent Channel 4 comedies that I really thought had a chance of becoming a fully commissioned series. It had likeable characters ...

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Did you watch the same episode as the rest of us?

I know one person, (I say know, he was in the year above when I did A level Drama at college) who is happy that Campus has been commissioned http://twitter.com/andynyman

Quote: Adam Blaize @ January 9 2010, 9:29 PM GMT

PhoneShop was the one sitcom out of the recent Channel 4 comedies that I really thought had a chance of becoming a fully commissioned series. It had likeable characters and the situation that the young student found himself in was believable.

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Likeable? About as likeable as real phone shop staff.

Believable? Why does sitcom have to be believable?

And it has been commissioned too. It's being filmed at the same place as the pilot. I Sutto High Street.

Campus at least had the virtue of 'my old mate' Joe Millson in the cast.

PhoneShop has no real chance of development, I wouldn't have thought.

I quite liked the David Cross one and the Girl Friday was pretty good, too.

Quote: KJSmyling @ January 11 2010, 10:10 PM GMT

I know one person, (I say know, he was in the year above when I did A level Drama at college) who is happy that Campus has been commissioned http://twitter.com/andynyman

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Well, you know two now!

I liked Campus probably most out of all of them. Tickled my humour buds nicely. I'm glad it's been commissioned for series as I thought it had potential.

Dan

When I say likeable, I mean in terms of them being believable. I work in a retail environment and as a recent graduate, I found the graduate character funny to watch, just because he was so nervous and out of his depth in that phone shop environment. He wouldn't have wanted to work in retail when he was in the comfort of lecture halls, but in the end, we all have to do things that we don't want to do. I liked the manager character, even though he was a 'wankaholic'. I thought at first that this would have annoyed me, but they didn't over play that gag and so it wasn't too bad in the end. I liked the two salesmen characters because they were competitive and sometimes it is quite intimidating to be around those kind of people. So for me, the contrasts in each of the characters really made Phone Shop a funny comedy. It had a simple story and I think that it had everything needed to make a series.

The main problem I had with Campus was that the Vice-Chancellor character was just too aggressive. As soon as he said, 'Spastic', the character was too far fetched for me. I just wasn't interested in the story or any of the characters either.

Just going down Sutton High Street today I went past the Phone Shop. All painted new outside and the inside being fitted. I asked someone and he said they were starting filming today. I did take a couple of photos on my phone but don't know how to upload them.

I should have asked him for some advice!