British Comedy Guide

Worst American sitcoms inflicted on the UK Page 7

Quote: Tursiops @ January 6 2013, 7:09 PM GMT

No one has yet mentioned Mork & Mindy, the show that introduced us to the whacky funster that is Robin Williams.

I liked that when I was a little boy. At that age you tend to like adults behaving like mental cases. Haven't seen it since then...so I don't know if it was good or shit.

Quote: Gordon Bennett @ January 6 2013, 7:13 PM GMT

I liked that when I was a little boy. At that age you tend to like adults behaving like mental cases. Haven't seen it since then...so I don't know if it was good or shit.

I too loved it as a kid

Last year I bought series one, out of curiosity, for a bit of nostalgia

Oh dear

It's rubbish!

It's that really naff, Happy Days style family humour

Quote: lofthouse @ January 6 2013, 9:16 PM GMT

It's that really naff, Happy Days style family humour

Well it is a spin-off from Happy Days, don't forget. Not quite sure what's "naff" about that type of humour though? Are you referring to the typical American schmaltz in the shows?

Maybe not naff

Just very very very light hearted family humour

Which has its place

It's just not for me

THere was a bizarrely shitty sitcom that used to pop up on daytime BBC in the 90s called Out of this World.

Bizarre because it featured one unfunny joke about time-hopping aliens, Burt Reynolds and a sheriff played by Doug McClure, last seen in low budget British monster movies 20 years before.

Has Herman's Head had a mention yet?

Generally I'll say our sitcoms are far superior, becasue they are, but I don't really slate US sitcoms I can't stand like I do our own, because I know there's still a cultural difference between us and I'm bound not to get or understand the source of some of their humour. Whereas I live in Britain so feel well qualified to slag off every British sitcom I despise.

I found a lot of their older sitcoms very corny but then you have to realise that Americans are the largest producers of corn in the world so this must have a bearing on their taste. Then came a clutch of much more daring, less cosy and smaltzy US sitcoms like Roseanne and now they're making sitcoms better than our current lot. But surely our more robust style was what inspired them.

Damon Wayan's My Wife & Kids is the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen. I have only seen a few episodes in German but I can't imagine it being a lot better in original. Wayan's self satisfied grin despite his lack of talent and good ideas is nearly offensive. Even worse are the references to its role model show, the Cosby Show, a show which is 1000x better even in its worst moments than this rubbish.
I don't know if it was shown on British TV, if not then you're lucky.

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Quote: youngian @ January 7 2013, 11:52 PM GMT

THere was a bizarrely shitty sitcom that used to pop up on daytime BBC in the 90s called Out of this World.

Bizarre because it featured one unfunny joke about time-hopping aliens, Burt Reynolds and a sheriff played by Doug McClure, last seen in low budget British monster movies 20 years before.

Has Herman's Head had a mention yet?

Didn't Germans head have a freakishly serious anti abortion episode?

Quote: Gordon Bennett @ January 9 2013, 7:43 PM GMT

Damon Wayan's My Wife & Kids is the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen. I have only seen a few episodes in German but I can't imagine it being a lot better in original. Wayan's self satisfied grin despite his lack of talent and good ideas is nearly offensive.

He was also responsible for LittleMan, a pathetic sad excuse for a comedy you ever likely to see.

Quote: Gordon Bennett @ January 9 2013, 7:43 PM GMT

Damon Wayan's My Wife & Kids is the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen. I have only seen a few episodes in German but I can't imagine it being a lot better in original. Wayan's self satisfied grin despite his lack of talent and good ideas is nearly offensive. Even worse are the references to its role model show, the Cosby Show, a show which is 1000x better even in its worst moments than this rubbish.
I don't know if it was shown on British TV, if not then you're lucky.

That was on for a while. It wasn't anything special, but I found it fairly watchable the few times I caught it! Better than some similar US family sitcoms.

Quote: zooo @ January 9 2013, 10:59 PM GMT

That was on for a while. It wasn't anything special, but I found it fairly watchable the few times I caught it! Better than some similar US family sitcoms.

Maybe it's my general "Wayans-Allergy". But no, it even makes Miranda feel realistic...and Miranda has lots of good jokes in it which this can only dream of.

Don't think it was shown overhere but has anyone sampled Bill Cosby's One Foot in the Grave remake? I understand it completely missed the point.

Quote: Gordon Bennett @ January 9 2013, 7:43 PM GMT

Damon Wayan's My Wife & Kids is the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen. I have only seen a few episodes in German but I can't imagine it being a lot better in original. Wayan's self satisfied grin despite his lack of talent and good ideas is nearly offensive. Even worse are the references to its role model show, the Cosby Show, a show which is 1000x better even in its worst moments than this rubbish.
I don't know if it was shown on British TV, if not then you're lucky.

I thought this quite reasonable.
Not groundbreaking or award winning humour but drew a few smiles from me.
Which takes some doing! Angry

Quote: youngian @ January 14 2013, 12:24 PM GMT

Don't think it was shown overhere but has anyone sampled Bill Cosby's One Foot in the Grave remake? I understand it completely missed the point.

I caught it once on a French channel and watched it for a few minutes (although my French is relatively poor). I didn't even realise it's a OFITG remake at that time. Then it was a strange decision to cast the same actress who played Cosby's wife in the Cosby Show.

What I find really annoying about many American sitcoms is their constant need to have some cheesy music sandwiched between almost every scene, sometimes accompanied by the shot of the outside of a building. Not to mention the over the top laughter tracks.

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