Quote: chipolata @ February 2 2011, 9:52 PM GMTThe seventies certainly had more quality mainstream offerings than today, and it's certainly sad that we seem to have lost the ability to make a modern day Porridge or Good Life or Likely Lads etc
This.
Lordy, I've being saying this ever since I got here.
Quote: zooo @ February 2 2011, 8:46 PM GMTNope. There's always been a mixture of good and bad. But we forget the bad and look back to the past with pink specs on.
Or some sort of similar expression.
Just read the entire thread backwards to find the relevant point in the second post on the first page 
We can repress past horrors but the bad ones today are still gurning in our faces and showing us their middle-aged lady bottoms.
Actually, that was five years ago already, wasn't it? Just can't ... can't ... for ... get.
Ha! Which lady bottom did you see five years ago? 
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ February 5 2011, 11:09 PM BSTLordy, I've being saying this ever since I got here.
But with a liberal helping of anti-semitism and homophobia thrown in. Presumably just for good measure.
Controversial threads aren't as good as they used to be. I'm switching topics.
Quote: David Bussell @ February 4 2011, 3:35 PM BSTI swear to Christ I will scoop out your womb and make an ashtray out of it.
A 'Gashtray', so to speak.
I have never really agreed with the 1970s as being "The Golden Age of Sitcom". Just because there were a lot of sitcoms during the time does not mean that they were all brilliant.
I do agree that we do seem to be unable to create as many good mainstream sitcoms these days as we used to. However, I look at this way. One thing which seems to be on the rise at the moment is comedy for children, with shows such as Horrible Histories and Sorry, I've Got No Head becoming increasingly popular. If it is possible to write good sketch comedy for children, what is to stop people making good sitcoms for children which could become just as mainstream?
Commissioners.
Clive Anderson was funny. Shiningly bald, but a welcome beacon admidst the late 80s dross.
I think my thoughts have been hinted at here. 
The sitcoms from decades past that still show and are still known are the cream of their time - there were plenty of others that weren't so great that have been forgotten. Among the seventies shows that still screen, for example, not many reach the sophistication of "Fawlty Towers".
Comedy is also very subjective - what seems badly dated to one viewer will still seem fresh to another and the seventies, eighties and nineties all had a fair abundance of good shows - they just catered to the taste of the biggest demographics of the time.
Also, the 'defining' shows of any one era are bound not to sit with some fans who loved the 'defining' shows of another era - as it is in these programmes that the difference is most marked.
The 'alternative' generation that broke ground in the late seventies onwards was certainly not for everyone. Some thought that the new stuff was 'The Emperor's New Clothes', but by the late seventies there was a lot of stale, vaguely offensive mother-in-law stuff doing the rounds - so maybe the Emperor wasn't that well dressed to start with.
I think there are still lots of great shows now but I agree that, aside from something like "Miranda" there are not as many great family sitcoms being made, and the best stuff is aimed at a decidedly adult audience, which is a new phenomenon. This was happening in the eighties and nineties too, but there was still a steady stream of family viewing.
There are a few kids/teenage sitcoms being made, but these sometimes feel a bit thrown together and condescending - "it's only for kids - it doesn't need to be that good". This is a real area for growth.
Ever notice how your parents tell you that music used to be great and now it's rubbish?
Quote: Park Bench @ May 26 2011, 6:16 AM BSTEver notice how your parents tell you that music used to be great and now it's rubbish?
There was certainly a lot of rubbish music around in the past, but when I saw the Rebecca Black video, I concluded that even rubbish music has got worse these days.
Quote: Park Bench @ May 26 2011, 6:16 AM BSTEver notice how your parents tell you that music used to be great and now it's rubbish?
Quite.
I've been trying to convince my kids that modern music is bland shit, and that they should have been around in '76.
Then we sat and watche TOTP from 1976.
Guess what?
Bland shit.
Hindsight is selective.
There's more of the past than there is of the present, so you would expect it to accumulate more 'great comedy'.
Take a snap shot of any one year and I think you'll find we're brilliantly served in the 21st Century.