Quote: AngieBaby @ November 20 2010, 7:31 PM GMTI'd love Erasure to make a come back.
Erasure make a comeback???????????
They are still going!!!!!!!!
They've never stopped releasing albums and are recording a new one now.
Absolutely Fabulous - New Series Page 2
I am thrilled to hear that Absolutley Fabulous will be back in the generation of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Facebook and Twitter.
Every time this show returns, it re-invents itself like the celebrities and fads that it parodies. This, of course, means that it will always find new fans and, unfortunately, alientate some old ones who will stick to the Ab Fab of their generation. For devoted fans like me, however, their return will always be welcome.
British comedies generally have a shorter run than American ones. I have never understood this. Some say that the jokes wear thin faster. I find this odd - considering many Ameriacan comedies are so pallid that they fail to raise a smile from myself and many Britcom fans. I therefore have no concern with Ab Fab returning for another series.
In answer to the question at the beginning of this forum - yes, the originals were funny - hysterical, and the other series have followed suit. Its true that Ab Fab may be an aquired taste - but when the more mainstream comedies (including many of the very popular ones) are rife with very basic slapstick schtick, toilet humour, repetitive and obvious verbal puns and innuendo and other gags that have been recycled repeatedly since the seventies - Ab Fab's originality and bizarre bent are a true gift to comedy.
By the way - why is it an aquired taste when women behave so apallingly but when men do it - its a bit of rollicking good fun?
Absolutely Fabulous is a smart comedy - but one that is clever enough not to be too serious. The characters develop and have depth lacking in other sitcoms and the verbal humour is sharp, rapid and cuts to the bone. It is frequently dark and contains surreal moments that recall the Comic Strip generation's (Of Which Jennifer Saunders was a part) great early works including "French and Saunders" and "The Young Ones". It also contains ample lashings of truly well timed, commited physical and visual humour - often arising from actually shocking and frightening behaviour, such as heavy drinking and drug abuse.
Saunders does not seek to make her characters likeble. She is brave enough to make them unsympathetic in many ways - however, because she has not airbrushed them and their flaws are on show, they are all the more dear to us.
Absolutely Fabulous may not be rated the most popular British Sitcom - but it does have a huge global following that speaks for itself. It might win the title of smartest or most innovative British Sitcom!
By the way - if you like Absolutley Fabulous, ignore everything else you might hear and watch "Jam and Jerusalem" and "The Life and Times of Vyvian Vyle". They are similarly smart and unsentimental - though neither is pure comedy like Absolutley Fabulous. The first is often sad and has plently of real warmth and compassion, the second is dark, angry and sometimes disturbing.
Jennifer Saunders continues to prove her genius.
Any more news on it coming back?
Couldn't be happier. I even enjoyed the last two series, and as for the cast ageing, it doesn't matter as Eddie and Patsie were well past their prime then and didn't give a hoot so they'd be even funnier now. Good news if it's true.
I like ToddB's enthusiasm for a new series and take his views on board.
My feeling is to move on as they are all a bit old for all this; Julia Sawalha was making jokes about being too old to play teenage daughters ten years ago.
Jennifer Saunders could probably get away with it but Joanna Lumley is older than Bill Owen was when he started to play badly behaved pensioner Compo. Besides, she has done far more mature comedies like Sensitive Skin in which she was acting her age.
I agree with what Joanna Lumley said in the interview. We have already flashed forward to see the elderly Edina and Pats continuing their decadent behaviour (although these flashes are probably not continuity) - so why not continue to follow them as they get older? Plenty of sitcoms run over many years and follow the characters as they age. Most of them are about more normal families - but why not follow this dysfunctional bunch, it might be interesting? Goodness knows there are plenty of sitcoms centred on old characters and their adult children - why not follow these two ageing hipsters as they try to keep up? There are plenty of these sort of people still gracing the gossip pages - and no one has handled it in a sitcom yet. Absolutely Fabulous would be the ideal vehicle to go there.
Still eagerly awaiting on news of what's happening here!
I don't see what they can add to the series, it has already explored every excess imaginable, it was very blatant to begin with, made a big splash when new then inevetibly tired itself out. It has covered practically everything it could, all with its trademark absence of subtblety.
There were some good scripts in there, without a doubt, for me its strongest point by far, but does generally strong writing justify wringing out a long worn out franchise again and again? Not imo!
Any new series would just be seen as a (very) weak attempt to earn more money for its creators and stars, and it's fairly sad that some sitcom creators are all too happy to do this. Even Curtis >_< pah! (spits) knew when to stop his own ultra successful franchises. It is a discipline I wish all sitcomedians had as a second nature. Alas, few even recognise its worth!
But don't you think that trends and fads continue to evolve and revive? There are plenty of long running comedies with much less to say about the world that we live in than "Ab Fab" - and it has always provided a continuous running commentary on our pop-culture.
Quote: ToddB @ February 26 2011, 1:34 PM GMTThere are plenty of long running comedies with much less to say about the world that we live in
Hmm, perhaps, but very few are as blatant and one dimensional as Ab Fab, as far as I see it. The main long running Britcoms that ran as a kind of commentary on the world were shows like Till Death Us Do Part and Rab C Nesbitt, both of which had a central opnionated loudmouth, self-appointed philosopher or orator of our times. Ab Fab is the opposite kind of show, IMO, it is wrapped up in its own insular, self indulgent world, it is about itself.
Because it is so niche and about indulgence, excess and itself, I personally think it has said all it could have to say. To me, this was a one off, of its time and place sitcom, it has already exhausted its own subjects, and has been resurrected too often to little effect. IMO.
The truth about it is, of course, it is mainly a cult show for females and gaylords who like to wallow in this self indulgence with absolutely no regard for good taste in sitcoms or for the views of many others who are rather tired of this garish thing. If it must be churned out yet again, then banish it to BBC Three or Four or sell it to Sky or someone. If its fans can't get enough of it, then let them pay for it. The general public has had more than enough of it! IMO.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ February 26 2011, 2:17 PM GMTHmm, perhaps, but very few are as blatant and one dimensional as Ab Fab, as far as I see it. The main long running Britcoms that ran as a kind of commentary on the world were shows like Till Death Us Do Part and Rab C Nesbitt, both of which had a central opnionated loudmouth, self-appointed philosopher or orator of our times. Ab Fab is the opposite kind of show, IMO, it is wrapped up in its own insular, self indulgent world, it is about itself.
Because it is so niche and about indulgence, excess and itself, I personally think it has said all it could have to say. To me, this was a one off, of its time and place sitcom, it has already exhausted its own subjects, and has been resurrected too often to little effect. IMO.
The truth about it is, of course, it is mainly a cult show for females and gaylords who like to wallow in this self indulgence with absolutely no regard for good taste in sitcoms or for the views of many others who are rather tired of this garish thing. If it must be churned out yet again, then banish it to BBC Three or Four or sell it to Sky or someone. If its fans can't get enough of it, then let them pay for it. The general public has had more than enough of it! IMO.
I don't agree. I don't fit into either of the categories of fan that you have identified. I like it because the characters and their relationships do actually evolve and develop as the show progresses and they have more dimension than the characters in the old "Dad's Army" and "Are You Being Served?" style comedies. There is real drama, damage and vulnerability lying just beneath the surface of the show's central cast - and the show is not afraid to explore it, albeit in an unsentimental way, which ends up being much more honest than other more syrupy treatments of family troubles.
There is a certain element of laughing with Edina and Patsy, as they rage against the modern 'nanny state' - but there is also an element of laughing at the consumerism, vanity and self-indulgence that we all face, in very intensified personifications.
Well, I never saw it as having the depth you've described there but each to his or her own. I'm glad you're not female or gay, and good luck to you. I shall not be joining you in watching this used up piece of self indulgence, though.
It looks like it will now - Joanna Lumley has confirmed that they start work on three new episodes in August! 
Despite Saunders' performance, this show was intermittently funny to begin with but quickly evolved into a tiresome luvviefest. I would sooner have another series of The Persuasionists than see this dead horse flogged.