Presented as a lost American sitcom that was never heard from again until lost tapes were found and shown again, this sitcom is an "I Love Lucy" style sitcom which features Hitler and Eva Braun living in an apartment block and dealing with all the comic confusions and communication breakdowns that all sitcom couples seem to have. Of course the irony of the fictional "rediscovered" framing of the show is that the actual show itself was binned after one episode and never seen again apart from some bad copies floating around on the internet.
The reason for this was supposedly on the grounds of bad taste to have a show featuring Hitler as a comedy figure – thus making light of history. Of course this is a fair accusation to level at the show, but also not a totally straight one since other shows such as Allo, Allo, films such as The Producers and others have used WWII and the Nazis as comedy figures and have been successful. No, while the accusations of poor taste may have come, I'd guess what sank the show was that frankly the first episode is not at all funny. Instead of spoofing Hitler it appears to be more about aping the conventions of the American sitcom while using these characters. I was surprised to see Geoff Atkinson as one of the writers – I know him from very sharp work with Bremner, Bird & Fortune, so it was disappointing to see nothing really clever or challenging about the content beyond the shock value of the characters.
The performances are pitched well to play into the sitcom style but the material they have is weak and soon I got tired of their big delivery and the laugh track doing all the work. Pop-culture History will recall that this was the show that got removed for being in bad taste, however the evidence we are left with that, while some in the papers may have kicked up the usual hand-wringing as they do with many shows, what probably saw this show pulled was that nobody had any interesting in fighting for a show that didn't appear to be any good.
The reason for this was supposedly on the grounds of bad taste to have a show featuring Hitler as a comedy figure – thus making light of history. Of course this is a fair accusation to level at the show, but also not a totally straight one since other shows such as Allo, Allo, films such as The Producers and others have used WWII and the Nazis as comedy figures and have been successful. No, while the accusations of poor taste may have come, I'd guess what sank the show was that frankly the first episode is not at all funny. Instead of spoofing Hitler it appears to be more about aping the conventions of the American sitcom while using these characters. I was surprised to see Geoff Atkinson as one of the writers – I know him from very sharp work with Bremner, Bird & Fortune, so it was disappointing to see nothing really clever or challenging about the content beyond the shock value of the characters.
The performances are pitched well to play into the sitcom style but the material they have is weak and soon I got tired of their big delivery and the laugh track doing all the work. Pop-culture History will recall that this was the show that got removed for being in bad taste, however the evidence we are left with that, while some in the papers may have kicked up the usual hand-wringing as they do with many shows, what probably saw this show pulled was that nobody had any interesting in fighting for a show that didn't appear to be any good.