John Sullivan not impressed with current comedy Page 3

Quote: Griff @ January 17 2010, 2:27 PM GMT

To be fair Alan, I've blown four aspects of what he said out of all proportion. Give me my dues.

View original

Nah I saw you mention the other bits, Griff, the discussion around them was in proportion. The lazy comment is definitely the star of this debate!

I think Sullivan could have made his points in a better way, as I said earlier - it is a generational thing. Nobody every believes that things are better now than they were when they were young? It's the Grumpy Old Man syndrome me thinks.

Quote: Alan C @ January 17 2010, 2:33 PM GMT

Nah I saw you mention the other bits, Griff, the discussion around them was in proportion. The lazy comment is definitely the star of this debate!

I think Sullivan could have made his points in a better way, as I said earlier - it is a generational thing. Nobody every believes that things are better now than they were when they were young? It's the Grumpy Old Man syndrome me thinks.

View original

I don't think it's the grumpy old man sydrome, in the 'good old days' we had

Steptoe
Bless This House
Till Death Us Do Part
Dad's Army
and others

Quote: David Carmon @ January 17 2010, 2:31 PM GMT

Just Good Friends isn't something I've seen (Nick Lyndhurst?) but I have heard of it, but it was years ago now, as were Dear John, Heartburn Hotel and Roger Roger. Would be interesting to hypnotise him to forget about Only Fools and it's characters and see what he would come up with with a clear head.

View original

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/just_good_friends/

If you could stop G.O.L.D. repeating it all the time then you could probably stop people wanting to see it and Sullivan thinking about it?

I'm done now, I'm not his agent - after all :-)

To be fair, there's too much swearing in society. Period.

Quote: Griff @ January 17 2010, 3:09 PM GMT

I don't even like it when people say "period".

View original

You're a menstrualist!

Bloody hell! We're not going to get a load of puns now?

Quote: David Carmon @ January 17 2010, 2:02 PM GMT

What's he done since 1981? erm, let's have a think! Only Fools and Horses, Roger Roger(just Only Fools set in a taxi thingy)

View original

Roger, Roger was awesome, and bore very little resemblance to OFAH.

Quote: chipolata @ January 17 2010, 1:30 PM GMT

If anybody's got a right to make sweeping statements, it's the guy who wrote Only Fools and Horse.

View original

Indeed, Sullivan's gutsy attempt to convey the grip of heroin addiction on the mentally challenged in thirty minutes of knockabout farce is often overlooked.

John Sullivan wrote lots of different things - can't say I liked them all (see Just Good Friends, Green, Green Grass). He also wrote a lot of Two Ronnies stuff such as the Sid and George sketches (It's A Duck!). He might know what he's talking about.

Surely it's hard to argue that the quality of BBC1 sitcoms have been pretty ropey since the mid-90s. When I was growing up the worst sitcoms were the wacky, middle-class family ones and now they're the only ones on BBC1 (Outnumbered excluded). Surely you don't have to literally write a 'family' sitcom to get all the family to watch these days, do you? There does seem an obsession with chasing younger viewers, which is strange when we've got an ageing population.

Anyway, hundred up. Raises bat (unlike most English bastmen)

Bravo. I am delighted that our greatest writer and one of our greatest thespians have been able to say what we were all thinking. Present comedy is a murky place to be at the moment but mehopes a certain Miss Hart can hurry up and write another series to brighten it up. Laughs out loud.