Repeat The Goodies for the 40th Anniversary! Page 4

And most importantly why would you want to?

If you can't somehow guess five minutes before it happens that Tim Brooke Taylor is somehow going to end up covered in egg yolk then The Goodies is the show for you. Even the Cleese inspired pay-off is rushed and almost edited into oblivion.

I have very retro tastes, I would defend things like Monty Python and the Carry Ons until my last dying gasp, but I honestly can't see why, forty years on, The Goodies have anything left to offer. Each episode feels sort of the same. The Goodies are short of money, so they run around a park for a bit while an amateurish piece of music plays, a giant prop menaces them, Tim's trousers fall down, Graeme has a good idea, Bill is covered in custard, something blows up, and then that's sort of it...

Yes, of course, because the Carry Ons aren't formulaic at all, are they?

Let's agree to differ on this one.

No let's argue until one of us dies. I lead a very unhealthy lifestyle so you may be on to a winner.

Quote: Agnes Guano @ February 17 2011, 4:52 PM GMT

No let's argue until one of us dies. I lead a very unhealthy lifestyle so you may be on to a winner.

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As tempting as that is, I'll pass...

The Goodies were very diverse in their subject-matter; sure, they often relied on Looney Animals and taking the mick out of John Peel and Nicholas Parsons a bit too much, but the sheer range of the subject-matter, and its go-anywhere premise marked it out as more ambitious and exuberant than literally any other comedy show of it's time.

A lot of comedies simply re-used the same sets, but The Goodies visited Ancient Rome, for example, or 25 years into the future, danced on the Moon, and the very last BBC show was set during WW2: so much for it all being 'samey'. Their extended visual gag sequence at the end of Movies rivals any other surreal comedy ever produced by anyone, period. Visually, this show was years ahead of what anyone else was doing, keeping the BBC visual effects dept just as busy as they were on Doctor Who.

Even when the budget ran out, and they were forced to put out a handful of episodes without speeded-up film, they produced decent work; one of the best ever episodes sees their office encased in concrete, and the episode showed what happened to them stuck in the same building for 70 years: even this limited premise struck a rich seam of comedy gold, more than many other comedies that were actually built around a claustrophobic premise with limited sets.

I accept it's not everyone's cup of tea, but for zany, imaginitive comedy - with adult references subversively slipped in only really noticable over repeated viewings - this show was definitely not a souped-up Banana Splits.

Oddie and Michael Gibbs also contributed original backing tunes to the chase sequences. Many casual onlookers only see the cartoon-like elements of the show, but they also produced biting satire (compared to most other comedies of the time) and a good example is the apartheid piss-take, South Africa.

Subjects like censorship were also covered in Gender Education or sexism in Women's Liberation. Yes these examples were framed within a slapstick format, but there was valid social criticism behind these episodes.

That was a brilliant defence, a few more posts like that and I could renounce my ways.

I was really looking forward to the Christmas repeats but despite the odd bit of greatness I was disappointed. A lot is a bit lame, corny, even ham. But I will defend the Oddie musical interludes - the music is shit, and I hated it as a kid, but these are the sequences that stand up best. The Goodies were presenting silent comedy to an audience that thought of silent film as history in at least two ways (sound and colour). In my view the invention of the sight gags in the best Goodies shows is superb.

Quote: Agnes Guano @ February 17 2011, 11:56 PM GMT

That was a brilliant defence, a few more posts like that and I could renounce my ways.

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Or you could just watch some more episodes. Any defence of how good the show is is right there.

Even some of the stuff from the LWT series made me laugh out loud (mainly 'Robot').

Quote: Badge @ February 18 2011, 12:31 AM GMT

But I will defend the Oddie musical interludes - the music is shit, and I hated it as a kid, but these are the sequences that stand up best.

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Eh? I loved the music by Bill Oddie and Dave McRae (see Dave in The Goodies Almost Live special). Especially the song 'Needed' and the instrumental bit called 'Funky Chase' (which appears in String and Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express). The music in Saturday Night Grease is great. And the songs in Almost Live.

Quote: Agnes Guano @ February 17 2011, 9:10 AM GMT

I loved the Goodies as a child but watching it all these years on as an adult it just didn't really do anything for me.

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I had warned you:

Quote: Kenneth @ December 9 2010, 10:37 AM GMT

British children who enjoyed The Goodies in the 1970s may be a bit disappointed upon re-watching it 30 years later as cynical adults.

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Quote: Agnes Guano @ February 17 2011, 1:32 PM GMT

Each episode feels sort of the same. The Goodies are short of money, so theyy run around a park for a bit while an amateurish piece of music plays, a giant prop menaces them, Tim's trousers fall down, Graeme has a good idea, Bill is covered in custard, something blows up, and then that's sort of it...

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No, overcoming impecuniousity was rarely the motive. Often it's one of them goes mad and the other two try to stop the mad one. In the earlier episodes they would have a 'guest' villain until they realised it was more fun to be the baddie themselves. As for the music, it's all fun.

I am a curmudgeon I admit. I want to like the Goodies I really do, I loved them as a child but found the repeats more an exercise in nostalgia rather than an exercise in making me laugh. Oh well.

Talking about the music though, I played a DJ set last week. My first big step into the world of turntables and packed bars full of mad people hanging on my every spin. Amidst a very serious bunch of chin-stroking obscure music fans I somehow got away with playing a selection of six comedy related vinyl things. One of the tracks was Baby Samba from the New Goodies LP. Very funky and a track that had the non muso punters at the bar jigging and jiving away on their stools. If I play another set next month I may dip into some more Goodies. When Mr Oddie put his mind to it he could craft a damn fine piece of funk.

Decided last night after watching a few more, that I quite like The Goodies. There you are, you wore me down in the end Oddie.