Quote: Oldrocker @ February 1 2010, 12:03 AM GMTHaving read the episode guide, I'm surprised it ever got on the air in the first place !
Ha! Just did the same. Loads of killings...
Underrated, undervalued or forgotten gems Page 19
Quote: Cheesehoven @ December 25 2009, 7:29 PM GMTI can vaguely remember Oneupmanship with Richard Briers sometime back in the 70s. I cannot recall too much about it though.
I remember Oneupmanship. It was based on a series of books about how to get one over somebody. There was a feature film as well in the 1960s starring Alastair Sim, Ian Carmichael and Terry-Thomas.
The plot was that there was a college of Oneupmanship where you learnt all the skills. All I can remember was a sketch about providing caddies for a golf match at your local course and whether you give your opponent the best or worst caddy. The secret being to give yourself the worst caddy as you know the course anyway. The best caddy rather than giving advice to your opponent goes into a long anecdote about when he caddied for various top golfers.
Glad to get that reminiscence off my chest, sorry.
I'm going to say "Game On". Saw the first series a few years ago and thought it was fantastic. Second & third series were both good but I can't take Neil Stuke's version of Matthew Malone seriously. Ben Chaplin was just too damn good in the first series. Great show anyway - and hugely underrated but certainly not forgotten.
Quote: peter gazzard @ December 25 2009, 2:04 AM GMTKelly Monteith's self-titled show. I remember it being on but didnt watch it,I was usually in bed by the time it was on. It sounds like an early Seinfeld from what I've read
I remember thinking it was hilarious at the time. Sadly, the second series was painfully forced with material stretched out to fill the time.
I was only young, but I think it was the first time I was seriously disappointed by a show. And come to think of it, the funniest thing I remember about it was a skit questioning where missing socks disappear to after entering the washing machine. That's either dreadfully hack or the first recorded example of the classic missing-socks-in-the-washing-machine bit.
Maybe Kelly Monteith wasn't that great after all.
I really thought that Believe Nothing was scandalously clever and quite marvellous - tapping into all of the conspiracy talk culture and the geo-political and economic trends of the time. A very mature work. I wonder if they knew it would only get one series or if they only ever wanted to make one - beacuse they blew up the main characters in the final episode. I miss it.
I would have loved to see more of Mirrorball with the cast of Absolutely Fabulous - the right ingredients were there - but Jennifer decided that what she really wanted to do was make more Absolutley Fabulous. This shows in Mirrorball - but as an actor I would have loved to see them continuing to lampoon the theatre industry and performers' lifestyles.
I really love Girls On Top - you can see the great talent growing there when French, Saunders, Wax and Ullman were young. Like The Young Ones, it is not as polished as later work by those involved, but it is fesh, anarchic and full of potential.
Class Act with Joanna Lumley was great - whatever happened to it? Joanna was very busy at the time, maybe that had something to do with it - but it was a great show and the first time Lumley had a sitcom where she was the main character and drove the show - and it was great.
Anyone brought up Heartburn Hotel, written by John Sullivan? I think it ran for 2 series. I liked it. "It's a game man, it's a game."
Also just thought of Happy Families. I don't think it's even on DVD - outrageous!
When old threads like this are revived I can never remember whether I have contributed already, and there are too many pages to read back.
So in case I have not already mentioned it, It Takes A Worried Man meets all the criteria for this thread.
Quote: ToddB @ February 19 2011, 1:02 PM GMTAlso just thought of Happy Families. I don't think it's even on DVD - outrageous!
Agreed. Filthy, Rich And Catflap is and that one was slated!
Girls On Top is an absolute f**king abortion of a programme. So offensively bad, it deserves to have ended the careers of its stars.
Quote: Aaron @ February 19 2011, 2:46 PM GMTGirls On Top is an absolute f**king abortion of a programme. So offensively bad, it deserves to have ended the careers of its stars.
It was bad - apart from the lovely Ruby.
Bad? I can think of plenty of other sitcoms that have come along and become quite popular with writing that was no more basic or corny than this show - and the show isn't bad. This was not a perfect show but, like The Young Ones, it was an early effort of those involved - I found plenty to laugh at. The subsequent work of those involved demonstrates why their careers didn't end here - all four young stars have superior gifts for comedy and have gone on to create much maturer work.
What makes you guys dislike it so - and if you could be a little more articulate this time, perhaps...
Where to start? Odious characters trotting out terrible, unfunny lines, with plots a mixture of the bizarre and the boring. Admittedly some ... promise, at least, in a number of the performances, but not even the greatest comic actor could have saved the sorry writing provided by the scripts.
A terrible sitcom in every respect.
'oneupmanship' was pretty much in the 'school for Scoundrels' mode: if getting a 'damned good thrashing' in the name of ruthless competition counts as part of the British psyche, well, this smugular series might well be up your street.
It's not just middle-class stuff: snobbery is still rife in all walks of British life, so this series was darned relevant.
Quote: Rico El Vista @ February 19 2011, 9:42 PM GMT'oneupmanship' was pretty much in the 'school for Scoundrels' mode: if getting a 'damned good thrashing' in the name of ruthless competition counts as part of the British psyche, well, this smugular series might well be up your street.
It's not just middle-class stuff: snobbery is still rife in all walks of British life, so this series was darned relevant.
I've heard a lot of good things about oneupmanship. I don't *think* it's been released on DVD yet, so I assume the BBC are waiting for 2 inches of dust on the reels before they fly out of their hands into the public.