The worst sitcoms ever are probably those long forgotten by most but like the previous poster I never 'got' the League of Gentlemen and used to half expect the writers to reveal it was an 'emperor's new clothes' style scam but I assume it wasn't.
It was more of a comic horror than a sitcom and had a lot of grotesque/dark humour that would not be to everyone's liking.
I keep watching 'on the buses'. Even though I find it seems to be written by people who hate the working class.
Stan and jack are meant to be our 'hero's', sticking it too the man. Blakey. So, what's blakey's big crime? Wanting to run an effective public service, one people rely on to get to work or go to the shops.
If blakey was a bastard, I'd see the point. But jacks a militant union duche, wanting something for nothing, stans a feckless incompetent. And, poor olive, Is just a door-mat. Perpetuating the ideal that women are useless if their not beautiful.
It's hateful shit. And I don't know who the bigger fool is. The working class audience of the 70's for watching this garbage then, of me for watching it 40 years later....
Interesting analysis, but its the old establishment versus the workers scenario- which was arguably much more polarised and newsworthy in the seventies given the apparent clout the unions had back then. Stan and Jack were just seventies style "cheeky chappies", lovable half rogues sold very well to its then (very different) audience by the actors. The fact that the audience were more than willing to accept the middle age leads lounging around and getting off with girls half their age, the fact that Olive was there to be laughed at mainly because she was ugly just proves what a different world it was back then. The audience lapped it up though. The BBC turned it down, ITV took it on and it was a number one rated show for 5 or 6 years-immensely popular.
The film versions are particularly interesting imo because they are great period pieces-the outdoor sequences (especially in Holiday on the Buses) are a real seventies timecapsule.
Interestingly the film "Carry on at Your Convenience" took the bosses/ workers scenario to a different angle. Here the establishment are the goodish guys and the union reps disruptive buffoons. If I remember correctly there was a backlash against it from its traditional core working class fans due to this and it became I think the first real C/O flop at the box office. Just another example of the us/them situation at the time.
This thread would have made a good sit-com. I'm laughing at some of the suggestions people put for the "worst sit-com".
Bread? Game On? OFAH? On The Buses? Deary me today!
Anyway, no-one is probably going to agree with my suggestions (my type of comedy and taste seems different to others) but here goes; these are the sit-com's I find utterly awful, ridiculous, shocking, crap and any other similar wordings.
The Office - Gervais is unfunny anyway, and so this "comedy" was just going to go the same way
Friends - Typical American tripe that everyone lauded over, the "stars" got paid a fortune, yet it just isn't funny in the slightest
The Big Bang Theory - See above
Gavin & Stacey - Just didn't find it funny at all, plus it spawned the media **** that is James Corden so I despise it even more
Little Britain - Again, utterly humourless.
This wave of new comedy just doesn't appeal to me at all. Give me the likes of Chalk, One Foot in the Grave, On The Buses, Men Behaving Badly, Game On, Coupling, OFAH, Never The Twain (only a select few) and others in the UK, and the likes of Perfect Strangers, WKRP in Cincinnati, Crazy Like A Fox, Frasier, 3rd Rock From The Sun and others from the US.
Me too.
However it just goes to prove that its subjective I guess-even if it seems a bit weird ;-):D
I do think though that the sitcom is 95% dead from the start of this century. There were ofcourse flops in the 70's,80's and 90's but overall a great body of funny and legendary successes. I think part of the reason is that writers were effectively(for much of the period) forbidden to use expletives so a generation of comedy had to be pre-watershed family orientated-and thus we have an all encompassing golden age of memories. I think if, for instance, Porridge was launched today it would be very different in feel, Porridge is a gem because it has a real warmth and accessibility(and many other qualities) to it for such a difficult subject. I doubt it would be done that way now.
As well as Brush Strokes that occupied the old Monday 8.30pm on BBC1 which I never found funny at all. Don't Wait Up and Dear John I never found funny either.
Yet somehow they are classed as classic comedies, but George and Mildred, Man About the House, Robins Nest and Only When I Laugh that were all very funny compared with the above mentioned unfunny BBC ones are scoffed at by so many as being terrible comedies.
If ITV scheduled a drama instead of a boring documentary in World In Action at 8.30pm some of those BBC comedies on air at the same time would have got much poorer viewing figures.
Interesting analysis, but its the old establishment versus the workers scenario- which was arguably much more polarised and newsworthy in the seventies given the apparent clout the unions had back then. Stan and Jack were just seventies style "cheeky chappies", lovable half rogues sold very well to its then (very different) audience by the actors. The fact that the audience were more than willing to accept the middle age leads lounging around and getting off with girls half their age, the fact that Olive was there to be laughed at mainly because she was ugly just proves what a different world it was back then. The audience lapped it up though. The BBC turned it down, ITV took it on and it was a number one rated show for 5 or 6 years-immensely popular.
The film versions are particularly interesting imo because they are great period pieces-the outdoor sequences (especially in Holiday on the Buses) are a real seventies timecapsule.
Interestingly the film "Carry on at Your Convenience" took the bosses/ workers scenario to a different angle. Here the establishment are the goodish guys and the union reps disruptive buffoons. If I remember correctly there was a backlash against it from its traditional core working class fans due to this and it became I think the first real C/O flop at the box office. Just another example of the us/them situation at the time.
I recall seeing some of OTB broadcast at the time, but looking back it shows how the Stan character was horrifically abused by his family.
He was the only one with a steady job but his dragon of a mother expected him to provide for her, his sister, her layabout husband and dreadful child.
Obviously a copy of the Steptoe father/ son abuse cycle with a selfish parent destroying any chance of happiness (outside of the family) for their meal ticket.
Interestingly some episodes of King of Queens on C4 mornings show the elderly Father (Arthur played by Jerry Stiller) as a kind of monster, who has destroyed his daughter's chances of a decent life (hid her college acceptance letter)
Imo One foot in the grave, and The Vicar of Dibley were the last great sitcoms. Nothing I have seen in the last 10 years has come close. They are so sterile nowadays, and over PC. And why the obsession with family based sitcoms ie My Family and Outnumbered? I think comedies based around nuclear families are always bad. And often cliched.
I also think that Dear John, and Sorry are the most underrated sitcoms of the past thirty years.
As well as Brush Strokes that occupied the old Monday 8.30pm on BBC1 which I never found funny at all. Don't Wait Up and Dear John I never found funny either.
Yet somehow they are classed as classic comedies, but George and Mildred, Man About the House, Robins Nest and Only When I Laugh that were all very funny compared with the above mentioned unfunny BBC ones are scoffed at by so many as being terrible comedies.
If ITV scheduled a drama instead of a boring documentary in World In Action at 8.30pm some of those BBC comedies on air at the same time would have got much poorer viewing figures.
Since when was Don't Wait up considered a classic?:o
IMHO, the biggest waste of studio time ever. 'Arfur' Mullard and one time nightclub crooner, the estimable east end stereotype harridan Queenie Watts join forces with the usual suspects (Stuart Allen, Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney) to make the most lamentable attempt at comedy ever to infest our tellies..
Stuart Allen directed the first episode of 'Yes Minister'. He didn't direct any more episodes. Nigel Hawthorne recalled in his autobiog that Allen wanted to do 'tight shots of Annie's arse'. Some things don't change...
No Frills.....I used to hate that and the BBC decided it was prime time viewing in 1988 . It starred Kathy Staff and was shit. Thankfully it got pulled after the first series.
Comments
It was more of a comic horror than a sitcom and had a lot of grotesque/dark humour that would not be to everyone's liking.
Interesting analysis, but its the old establishment versus the workers scenario- which was arguably much more polarised and newsworthy in the seventies given the apparent clout the unions had back then. Stan and Jack were just seventies style "cheeky chappies", lovable half rogues sold very well to its then (very different) audience by the actors. The fact that the audience were more than willing to accept the middle age leads lounging around and getting off with girls half their age, the fact that Olive was there to be laughed at mainly because she was ugly just proves what a different world it was back then. The audience lapped it up though. The BBC turned it down, ITV took it on and it was a number one rated show for 5 or 6 years-immensely popular.
The film versions are particularly interesting imo because they are great period pieces-the outdoor sequences (especially in Holiday on the Buses) are a real seventies timecapsule.
Interestingly the film "Carry on at Your Convenience" took the bosses/ workers scenario to a different angle. Here the establishment are the goodish guys and the union reps disruptive buffoons. If I remember correctly there was a backlash against it from its traditional core working class fans due to this and it became I think the first real C/O flop at the box office. Just another example of the us/them situation at the time.
Me too.
However it just goes to prove that its subjective I guess-even if it seems a bit weird ;-):D
I do think though that the sitcom is 95% dead from the start of this century. There were ofcourse flops in the 70's,80's and 90's but overall a great body of funny and legendary successes. I think part of the reason is that writers were effectively(for much of the period) forbidden to use expletives so a generation of comedy had to be pre-watershed family orientated-and thus we have an all encompassing golden age of memories. I think if, for instance, Porridge was launched today it would be very different in feel, Porridge is a gem because it has a real warmth and accessibility(and many other qualities) to it for such a difficult subject. I doubt it would be done that way now.
The Cassidys (a short lived Irish sitcom with Being Human's Sinead Keenan and comedian Ed Byrne)
My Family
Yet somehow they are classed as classic comedies, but George and Mildred, Man About the House, Robins Nest and Only When I Laugh that were all very funny compared with the above mentioned unfunny BBC ones are scoffed at by so many as being terrible comedies.
If ITV scheduled a drama instead of a boring documentary in World In Action at 8.30pm some of those BBC comedies on air at the same time would have got much poorer viewing figures.
I recall seeing some of OTB broadcast at the time, but looking back it shows how the Stan character was horrifically abused by his family.
He was the only one with a steady job but his dragon of a mother expected him to provide for her, his sister, her layabout husband and dreadful child.
Obviously a copy of the Steptoe father/ son abuse cycle with a selfish parent destroying any chance of happiness (outside of the family) for their meal ticket.
Interestingly some episodes of King of Queens on C4 mornings show the elderly Father (Arthur played by Jerry Stiller) as a kind of monster, who has destroyed his daughter's chances of a decent life (hid her college acceptance letter)
I also think that Dear John, and Sorry are the most underrated sitcoms of the past thirty years.
Since when was Don't Wait up considered a classic?:o
Fiddler's Three from the 90's (about an accountancy firm). I'm an accountant so I can truly say how bad this was.
Love it
IMHO, the biggest waste of studio time ever. 'Arfur' Mullard and one time nightclub crooner, the estimable east end stereotype harridan Queenie Watts join forces with the usual suspects (Stuart Allen, Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney) to make the most lamentable attempt at comedy ever to infest our tellies..
Stuart Allen directed the first episode of 'Yes Minister'. He didn't direct any more episodes. Nigel Hawthorne recalled in his autobiog that Allen wanted to do 'tight shots of Annie's arse'. Some things don't change...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J0EJDwPoKc
I'm not sure what the late David Croft was drinking when he came up with 'Come Back Mrs Noah'...but I wish he hadn't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FibwNP5I2Qc