I'll not have a bad word said about Hi-De-Hi.
First rule of comedy Spike...
Who killed the sitcom? Page 6
Quote: Griff @ March 24 2011, 12:09 AM GMTI love Hi-De-Hi as well.
It was a lovely piece of work that caught the atmosphere of the era perfectly. I have nearly all of them on DVD and enjoy the odd night at Maplins every now and again.
Quote: Griff @ March 24 2011, 12:03 AM GMTIs My Family adored by the public? What kind of AI figures does it get?
Not sure. Perhaps 'adored' is slightly strong for it of the past couple of series, but it still gets pretty good viewing figures, and I for one rarely hear people outside of the comedy/media world complaining about it.
I'm not sure that sitcoms of that kind tend to elicit much comment like that, do they? Nor indeed does any TV show that isn't in some way a real break from the norm novelty or mass-market-pap. What I mean is, think about the things you do hear people discussing, and it's maybe only a couple of different programmes a week? People must watch more than that, that they enjoy, but just don't rave about?
I dunno - the public continue to perplex me. But the viewing figures and evidently healthy DVD sales show there's a loving audience, somewhere.
Just picking one episode from the last series at random, it got 4.26 million - 20% of the audience - and that was on a Friday evening right in the middle of August! There's just no arguing with those kind of numbers.
Quote: Aaron @ March 23 2011, 11:56 PM GMTPlenty! There's My Family, hated by reviewers but adored by the public; Not Going Out, also hugely popular and broadly so with critics too; and Miranda, another big silly sitcom that audiences adore.
I think adored is far too strong a word. My dad's the sort of person who usually likes those kind of shows and he grumbles that My Family is well past its sell-by-date, Not Going Out is so-so, and Miranda is okay but "a bit samey".
And when I do talk to the normal people about sitcoms, none of those ever get mentioned. They've been far more impressed with Life on Mars than anything the sitcom world has to offer.
Late to this thread but pleased the BBC have finally called it a day with 'My Family'. Just reading a piece about it and saw this comment from Lindsay & Wannamaker in an interview in 2009 - "Out of 100 episodes maybe we've done ten that you can say are really good shows" - pretty telling really.
In general I get the feeling that comedy seems to be done almost by committee these days. Swathes of Oxbridge educated executives taking their blue pencil to a script throughout the process until the end product comes out as a pale, cobbled together by working group imitation of what first made them interested in the script. But I may be wrong. There was a lot of rubbish comedy in the 70s and 80s too, but there were also some cracking shows. Shows where the writer literally walked in and said they wanted to make it and off they went! Maybe there's something to be said for spontaneity and staying true to what it was you originally saw in a script that made you laugh.
Quote: Griff @ March 24 2011, 12:03 AM GMTIs My Family adored by the public? What kind of AI figures does it get?
I have never heard anyone talk about My Family.
I know a few people who like it and a few that 'never watched it since Nick left' but can still be found watching it.
Quote: JJ Cocker @ May 27 2009, 3:41 AM GMTI use to love that. Got a little tired once the war was over, though.
So Goodnight Sweetheart was only tired for the final episode? Not bad going that really.
Quote: David Carmon @ March 26 2011, 12:33 AM GMTSo Goodnight Sweetheart was only tired for the final episode? Not bad going that really.
In fairness, I think the whole of the final series was poor- it involved crazy storylines which were unbelievable (even for a sitcom based on time-travel!).