Classic Comedy Shows
The comedy shows that most appeal to the perverse funny-bone of theNeoplatonist.
---Warning: many of these are UNASHAMEDLY based on the nostalgia of lost youth. In alphabetical order...
---Warning: many of these are UNASHAMEDLY based on the nostalgia of lost youth. In alphabetical order...
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- StarsJohn CleeseGraham ChapmanTim Brooke-TaylorWritten by and starring The Goodies' Tim Brooke-Taylor, Monty Python's Graham Chapman and John Cleese, and comedy legend Marty Feldman, "At Last the 1948 Show" is a groundbreaking, splendidly silly and surreal sketch comedy series.Forerunner of Monty Python.
- CreatorSydney NewmanStarsPatrick MacneeDiana RiggHonor BlackmanA quirky spy show of the adventures of eccentrically suave British Agent John Steed and his predominantly female partners.The comedy-adventure series par excellence.
- CreatorSol SaksStarsElizabeth MontgomeryDick YorkDick SargentA witch married to an ordinary man cannot resist using her magic powers to solve the problems her family faces.The comedy-magic series par excellence.
- StarsJeff RawleGeorge A. CooperPamela VezeyBilly is an idealistic young man who is trapped in a boring life. He works in a tedious job in an undertaker's office with a permanently uptight employer, dates a soppy girl who fails to satisfy him emotionally or physically and lives with his parents and grandmother who stifle his personality. To forget about all of this, Billy escapes into his imagination and fantasizes his life away.Billy's interactions with his employer, the funereal Mr Shadrack, are majestic in their absurdity.
- CreatorRichard CarpenterStarsGeoffrey BayldonRobin DaviesGary WarrenA medieval wizard (though not a very good one) is transported to the modern age.If you were around as a child in the early 1970s, this will be etched into your brain. Geoffrey Bayldon as the medieval wizard whisked into modern times is a comic creation of Dickensian dimensions. (I now retreat back into Pseud's Corner...)
- CreatorJimmy PerryStarsArthur LoweJohn Le MesurierClive DunnA ragtag group of Home Guard volunteers prepare for an imminent German invasion during World War II.Wonderfully affectionate spoof of the British during World War 2. Every character sings with life.
- StarsDenise CoffeyEric IdleDavid JasonShort comedy sketches performed by an ensemble cast accompanied by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, an eccentric English group featuring Neil Innes and fronted by Vivian Stanshall.The adventures of Captain Pathetic - sorry, Captain Fantastic, played by David Jason, are joyously silly.
- StarsJohn CleesePrunella ScalesAndrew SachsHotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.Endlessly rewatchable lunacy.
- CreatorJohn EsmondeBob LarbeyStarsPeter CleallCarol HawkinsDavid BarryThe lives and adventures of the pupils of class 5C from 'Please Sir', after they have left Fenn Street School.Sequel to "Please Sir", not quite as funny, but once you've grown to love the characters, you just want to see them in action as often and as long as you can.
- CreatorMel BrooksBuck HenryStarsDon AdamsBarbara FeldonEdward PlattMaxwell Smart, a highly intellectual but bumbling spy working for the CONTROL agency, battles the evil forces of rival spy agency KAOS with the help of his competent partner Agent 99.
- CreatorTim Brooke-TaylorGraeme GardenBill OddieStarsTim Brooke-TaylorGraeme GardenBill OddieThe adventures of a crazy trio whose motto is "we do anything, anytime, anywhere."Every British boy's favorite comedy series from the early 1970s.
- StarsTony HancockSidney JamesJohnny VyvyanTV version of the popular BBC radio show of the same name, with Tony Hancock as the modern man of the world (in his own eyes). Sid James is there to bring him back to earth.My supreme favorite. Hancock parodies middle-class Britishness to perfection. The humor lies in the character: pompous, ignorant, prejudiced, always heading for disaster, yet somehow lovable.
- CreatorGarry MarshallStarsRon HowardHenry WinklerMarion RossThe Cunningham family live through the 1950s with help and guidance from lovable and almost superhuman greaser Fonzie.
- StarsHarry WorthMary JordanDudley FosterA forgotten gem. A society should be started to revive the memory of Harry Worth. As IMDB contributor ShadeGrenade notes, "When Harry died in 1989, Roy Hudd paid him the following glowing tribute: 'he ( Harry ) was an oasis in a desert of rude, crude and predictable humour.'"
---See also "Thirty Minutes Worth" and "My Name Is Harry Worth". - CreatorSidney SheldonStarsBarbara EdenLarry HagmanBill DailyA United States astronaut finds his life vastly complicated when he stumbles on to a bottle containing a female genie.Perhaps not quite as effective as "Bewitched", in theNeoplatonist's despicable opinion, but still very funny.
- StarsTony HaygarthPatsy RowlandsPrunella GeeLazy, unambitious repairman and UFO enthusiast Des Kinvig encounters a spaceship captained by the beautiful Miss Griffin from Mercury. Or is it all just the fantasy of a man having a quiet breakdown?Hilarious spoof of UFO nerds. (Please distinguish: UFOs are one thing, being a nerd is another.)
- CreatorHarry DriverVince PowellStarsJack SmethurstRudolph WalkerNina Baden-SemperA white working-class socialist has his world turned upside down when an educated black man moves in next door.Side-splitting send-up of British race relations. You couldn't get away these days with the things Eddie says about his black neighbour.
- CreatorVince PowellStarsBarry EvansGeorge CamillerJacki HardingA diverse group of immigrants and foreigners learn English at an adult education school in London.Again, you couldn't get away these days what what many would see as racial stereotyping, but it's so innocent and so funny, and the British don't come off too well themselves (the ineffectual teacher, the dragon of a headmistress, the deaf and criminally-inclined caretaker...)
- CreatorGraham ChapmanEric IdleTerry JonesStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseTerry GilliamThe original surreal sketch comedy showcase for the Monty Python troupe.No comment needed.
- CreatorRowan AtkinsonRichard CurtisStarsRowan AtkinsonMatilda ZieglerRobin DriscollBumbling, childlike Mr. Bean has trouble completing the simplest of day-to-day tasks, but his perseverance and resourcefulness frequently allow him to find ingenious ways around problems.And of course everything else Bean was in.
- CreatorHarry DriverVince PowellStarsHylda BakerJimmy JewelJoe GladwinOn the death of their father Joshua, siblings Eli and Nellie Pledge inherit the family business, Pledge's Purer Pickles, at Colne, Lancashire, in the north of England. Their faithful workers include the myopic Stan Hardman, Bert Taylor and Grenville. Transport is provided by Storm the cart horse. Never far away are second cousin Lily and her husband Walter. While Nellie works hard to keep the business going, Eli prefers to indulge in the delights of beer, cigarettes and young women.
- CreatorRonald ChesneyRonald WolfeStarsAnna KarenBob GrantStephen LewisJack-the-lad bus driver and conductor Stan and Jack enjoy the female employees more than their work and Inspector Blake is relentless in his attempts to make their lives a misery.Wildly popular both then and now with the general viewing public - see the ratings and comments on Amazon UK. The character of Inspector Cyril Blake and his eternal war with "lecherous layabouts" Stan and Jack on the buses is one of the legends of British comedy.
- CreatorNat HikenStarsPhil SilversHarvey LembeckPaul FordMaster Sergeant Bilko, regularly helped by the soldiers at Fort Baxter's motor pool, spends little time performing his duties by constantly trying to obtain money through various get-rich-quick scams and promotions.Sergeant Bilko, to the rest of us. Priceless.
- CreatorJohn EsmondeBob LarbeyStarsDeryck GuylerNoel HowlettJoan SandersonA hapless but caring teacher tries to control his class of unruly kids. The teacher sees much good and potential in his pupils, much to the dismay of his fellow teachers who have lost hope in these kids.Another popular favorite in Britain: the trials of a fresh-faced schoolteacher and his unruly class.
- CreatorBryan FullerStarsLee PaceAnna FrielChi McBrideA pastry chef with the power to bring dead people back to life solves murder mysteries with his resurrected childhood sweetheart, a cynical private investigator, and a lovesick waitress.Once again, the monstrous Powers That Be cancelled this gem after only two seasons. May they be banished into outer darkness.
- CreatorDennis SpoonerStarsMike PrattKenneth CopeAnnette AndreWhen Hopkirk gets killed, he reappears as a ghost - pretty handy to have around in this line of work.Comic detective series. How I longed to be Marty Hopkirk when I was a boy. Odd, considering that he was dead (the "deceased" half of the detective duo, back on ghostly business).
- StarsEric IdleNeil InnesDavid BattleyComedy sketch series purporting to show the programming of a low key regional television service.Worthy successor to Monty Python, with some classic sketches, notably the man who discovers that he is "normal" and needs psychiatric help...
- StarsAnthony NewleyEdwin RichfieldJoy StewartGurney Slade wanders from place to place after breaking the fourth wall to escape from the mundanities of making a family sitcom.Surreal fantasy show, very Postmodern for its time. One episode is totally given over to a courtroom trial, in which the show itself is put on trial for "not being funny"...!
- CreatorJohnny SpeightStarsWarren MitchellAnthony BoothUna StubbsA working-class Cockney bigot with a biased and experienced opinion of everything shares them bluntly and carelessly.Gentlemen, what on earth is "expirienced"???
Still, a great show... - StarsPaul EddingtonNigel HawthorneDerek FowldsThe Right Honorable James Hacker has landed the plum job of Cabinet Minister to the Department of Administration. At last he is in a position of power and can carry out some long-needed reforms, or so he thinks.Read the diaries of Richard Crossman, and you'll see that British politics really was like this in the 1960s-80s. Can't speak for today... Sir Humphrey Appleby, the manipulative civil servant, is a creation of comic genius.
- StarsPaul EddingtonNigel HawthorneDerek FowldsJames Hacker was propelled along the corridors of power to the very pinnacle of politics - Number 10.See above.