The British TV show thread

[MikaelaMuppet]

Monty Python:John Cleese
Whose Line:Ryan Stiles

Awesome! I especially like Ryan Stiles as well. Here's mine:

Whose Line: Colin Mochrie

Monty Python: Eric Idle

 

[fuzzygobo]

If you liked Monty Python and Benny Hill, you'll probably like The Goodies.

 

[snichols1973]

A number of Britcoms have been adapted into American versions, including a number of Norman Lear sitcoms:

All in the Family: Till Death Do Us Part
Sanford & Son: Steptoe & Son

in addition to other sitcoms not connected with Norman Lear:
Three's Company: Man About the House
The Ropers: George & Mildred
The Office

And of course, from the 1980's Nickelodeon era, we have Danger Mouse....

 

[Drtooth]

Danger Mouse and Count Duckula are perfect examples of extremely British cartoon shows. And while I respect the animation was extremely limited in this series due to the fact they had like 5 animators on staff, the fact the shows both relied on verbal humor to make up for the lack of animation gave both the amazing British humor that they're remembered for. Even the new Danger Mouse, which gets a strong upgrade in animation due to digital animation, still manages to keep that witty style with more action sequences.

And let's not forget Amazing World of Gumball, which tries very hard to look like it comes from the US...until of course Nichole Watterson says "annih-thin.'" Or they say "car park." Or this:

And sure, the first season and a half comes off as a standard American wacky cartoon. Then the social commentary and dark humor kick in, and there's no denying this is a British series with British humor.

 

[mr3urious]

A number of Britcoms have been adapted into American versions, including a number of Norman Lear sitcoms:

All in the Family: Till Death Do Us Part
Sanford & Son: Steptoe & Son

in addition to other sitcoms not connected with Norman Lear:
Three's Company: Man About the House
The Ropers: George & Mildred
The Office

And those adaptations were able to diverge into their own thing rather than being inferior shot-for-shot remakes, such as the U.S. version of Coupling, The Sketch Show (anyone remember that Fox flop with Kelsey Grammer?), or Kath & Kim (I know that one's Australian, but it's the same scenario). That's how I feel more American producers should set out to do when adapting foreign shows: keep the basic premise, but give it its own identity.

 

[snichols1973]

If radio comedies quailfy, then you could possibly include The Goon Show:

 

[animalrescuer]

My favorite British TV shows are:
All Creatures Great and Small
Top Gear
The Chase (watching the host, Bradley Walsh laugh is so funny!)
Monty Python
Mr. Bean

I've only seen a little bit of the British version of Whose Line is it Anyway? But there's still great stuff there

 

[fuzzygobo]

One overlooked gem from the late 60's was "Do Not Adjust Your Set". Stellar cast: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, who a year later would form Python (in its second season, Terry Gilliam had a few cartoons shown), David Jason (the future voice of Danger Mouse) and the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, who performed brilliant song parodies, and whose Neil Innes joined Python as well.
Used to air in England at 5:30 pm. Even though it was geared for kids, adults would rush home from work to catch it. Kinda like an ultra-hip Sesame Street.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

One overlooked gem from the late 60's was "Do Not Adjust Your Set". Even though it was geared for kids, adults would rush home from work to catch it. Kinda like an ultra-hip Sesame Street.

It definitely feels similar to an early kid show from PBS.

Some people have also called the show "Rainbow" the british version of Sesame Street. It's another show from the 70s that had a cast of puppets and humans. I haven't seen much of it but it sure has a pretty catchy theme song:

 

[BlakeConor14]

It was virtually the UK version with less characters