just watched Campus and I enjoyed it. I haven't been arsed to read the other posts, but its Teachers meets Green Wing for me. I'd watch episode two if there ever is one. 
Comedy Showcase 2009 Page 11
Quote: Ian Wolf @ November 9 2009, 1:59 PM GMTI've found another connection between Green Wing and Campus, all be it a much more obscure one.
Joseph Millson, the actor who played the English professor, played the male lead in the same production of Much Ado About Nothing for which Tamsin Greig won her Olivier Award.
In what way is that obscure?
Quote: Badge @ November 9 2009, 11:57 PM GMTIn what way is that obscure?
Oh God, let's not have that conversation again... 
I thought this had obvious potential, but it wasn't quite there yet. I'd be happy to see a series.
Interesting article about US and UK comedy writers working together and talks a bit about David Cross's pilot The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/analysis/us/uk-comedy-spreading-the-laughter/5007962.article
Interesting read. Pity there's not more about UK work in the US though.
Campus annoyed me a little bit. People are always telling me my sitcom scripts need to have likeable characters or they won't get on the telly. Campus didn't have any likeable characters, but it was on the telly.
Quote: Aaron @ November 12 2009, 7:16 PM GMTInteresting read. Pity there's not more about UK work in the US though.
True. There is currently a petition trying to get QI shown in America which has over 8,800 signatures. The main problem with getting QI showin in the states is reportedly the cost of copyrighting the images that appear in the show.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ November 12 2009, 7:58 PM GMTCampus annoyed me a little bit. People are always telling me my sitcom scripts need to have likeable characters or they won't get on the telly. Campus didn't have any likeable characters, but it was on the telly.
People talk about sitcoms having to have nice characters. What about Basil Fawlty?
Quote: Ian Wolf @ November 12 2009, 8:00 PM GMTWhat about Basil Fawlty?
He was likeable. You could identify with his frustration.
Everyone in Campus just seemed to wander around being unnecessarily unpleasant to each other and I couldn't figure out why.
Think I get what you're saying, Kevin. I've been told that characters can't be either wholly likeable or wholly dislikeable - it's not realistic. Everyone should have a flaw or conversely a redeeming, otherwise there's no chance of tension/redemption respectively.
Campus had a couple of characters that seemed like they could be quite relatable (the accountant and the maths lecturer struck me as the 'everyman' elements of the pilot) but the rest appeared (to me at least) utterly two dimensional.
Found myself thinking back to Green Wing - can't think of one character who doesn't have at least some balance of good and bad, so I don't know why they abandoned that in Campus.
PhoneShop has already been commissioned as a full series. So much for the ideas that Channel 4 will take some chances with good, new comedy. (To be fair, a couple of the characters are reasonably good, but I don't fancy spending a whole series with most of them.)
I wonder how much of their decision to commission a full series was based on the fact that 'Ricky Gervais' script-edited...
Hmm. Some jokes would be welcome.
Right, that's it. I've given up...I lasted much longer than Campus though.
I thought we'd got over this 'cringe-comedy' phase? I thought shows like Not Going Out and Outnumbered proved that it's okay to actually include jokes and humourous plots in comedy again. This show is a step in the wrong direction, and like I guessed, surely the only reason it got a full series go ahead is because of the Gervais link.
I should think the (low) cost of producing Phoneshop has a lot to do with it being commissioned, it couldn't have been for humour reasons. I thought this was pretty void of laughs, the black guy and the 'whigger' were too obnoxious for my tastes, I don't find the girl from Home Time funny in the slightest, this whole dead pan, straight-faced schtick doesn't do owt for me. Martin Trenaman's character was ok, could have tried to bring him in to the story a bit more and the lad from 'Shoot the Writers' wasn't too bad either, I feel they spent too much time on the weakest characters. It just wasn't funny enough, so I doubt I'll be watching it when it gets a full series.
Quote: Martin H @ November 13 2009, 10:30 PM GMTI wonder how much of their decision to commission a full series was based on the fact that 'Ricky Gervais' script-edited...
I'd guess something around 110%.
Quote: Martin H @ November 13 2009, 10:30 PM GMTHmm. Some jokes would be welcome.
...
I thought we'd got over this 'cringe-comedy' phase? I thought shows like Not Going Out and Outnumbered proved that it's okay to actually include jokes and humourous plots in comedy again. This show is a step in the wrong direction, and like I guessed, surely the only reason it got a full series go ahead is because of the Gervais link.
Quite, quite, and indeed, quite. Fully agree on all points.
I was a bit confused with the opening credits as after the writer it said 'Additional Material The Cast'. If both Ricky Gervais and the cast had to alter the script so drastically that it was filmable, how did the writer get this commissioned in the first place?
I must be one of those stupid, naive people who thinks scripts get commissioned because they are good. What a foolish cretin I am.
As for PhoneShop, yeah, it was okay, nothing special - it didn't particularly entertain me that much neither did it annoy me that much either. I did however really, really enjoy the performances and I thought the casting was quite well done.
Hopefully once it gets going a story arc can develop that will fully explore the characters.
The Boss being a compulsive masturbator was very weak, if that's the most interesting thing they could do with the character, then they should really have another think.
Better then Campus, but that's just damning with faint praise.