User Reviews

... or so went the lesser-remembered early version of the theme tune. It's easily forgotten that The Goodies, running for twelve years, was spawned out of the tail end of the 60s. This goes from the sneaky drug references (just check out the initials of Bill's Lemon Sherbet Dip which gives him all the hallucinations) and the musical numbers by Oddie which seem to pass them over as wannabe Monkees. The first credit sequence sees them leaping in the air like some kind of carefree, youthful troupe, which of course The Goodies never really were. Corduroy and wild abandon never really sat well together, and Graeme Garden even confesses that he sprained himself jumping into the air. But looking back over the seven episodes of the first series from 1970, it's still difficult to answer the all-important question: are they still funny anymore? The initial signs weren't good. Seeing the trio on an old Top of the Pops repeat singing The Funky Gibbon was a painful realisation that three middle class (well, except for Bill) and practically middle-aged men dancing around and mugging hasn't followed us into the new century very comfortably. Dating, of course, is not the fault of the programme, which was made with the intention of airing to a 1970-1982 audience, not to be thrown into the harsh light of DVD in the 21st century. Yet it's strange how one decade's subversion is another's mainstream, and while at the time it was cutting edge and quite political, seen in 2007 its surrealism is very much end of the pier, while even the skits on the Royal Family are quaint in a modern context.

Naturally, being a product of the 70s, there's much to debate in terms of content. There's a "poof" or "fairy" joke in two of the first series episodes, topless women in three of them, and while blackface doesn't feature here, it was a semi-regular Goodies staple, even being used as late on as the 1981 Christmas special. Heritage is a question among the series. For a long time the stars touted themselves (legitimately) as peers of Monty Python, unfairly regarded as a "kid's show". Such things are not helped by their merchandising ventures, such as my dog-eared copy of The Goodies 1974 annual. Brought out by World, traditionally the makers of children's annuals, it's helped by the interest taken by the Goodies themselves, and there are one or two racy jokes in there, such as the tribal wife named Gentilia. But to allow what is a glorified kid's book (complete with five comic strips) to enter Christmas stocking and then complain about not being taken seriously is a little rich.

The heritage extends further back, with slapstick indebted to both the golden age of cartoons (a series a post-Goodie Tim would present, and directly referenced in Kitten Kong, and more) plus silent comedy, Tim's cries a blatant crib from Stan Laurel. Bringing this forward, one suggestion to give the series latter-day credibility is that its natural offspring was The Young Ones. Watching the staid opening episode might not immediately bring this to mind, but by the time we reach March 1975 and Graeme's eating a foghorn while they strike oil and launch a lighthouse into space, you can see where the claims are coming from. By the time The Goodies left our screens (sacked by a commercial channel who didn't really know what to do with them once they had them) it was the same year Rik, Vyvyan and Neil were due to take their place back on BBC2. That the year before saw the aforementioned final "blackface" incident perhaps indicates the real gulf between them and the "alternate" regime in terms of idealogy.

The 1970 series, then, while not being laugh-out-loud hilarious, is quite charming in its staid way. Sure, there are plenty of counterculture jokes, some bare boobs and Bill's bare backside, but a series that has an episode with Tim pretending to be a woman is a very quaint, almost music hall throwback. The decision to mimic television adverts in the middle of all the episodes is less Python style satire, more the sort of stuff that Benny Hill had been doing since the 1950s. (Having said this, the advert for "Razz" is probably the funniest part of the first series). In fact, "Caught In The Act" is arguably the most dated episode of the lot, one that predicts the rise of women's clubs – complete with male strippers – but has bawdy sexism, rear nude women and randy housewives as part of its lexicon. In referring back to The Young Ones, then having the third episode centred around police brutality is commendable, though curiously lacking in real edge to a modern audience. By some way the best episode of the first series, "The Greenies" (AKA "Army Games") sees not only a satire of the British military, but also an early dig at Apartheid and swipes at vivisection. The final episode of the first series, "Radio Goodies", is interesting in that Graeme becomes the "bad guy" for the episode, a narrative tool that they would go on to employ more frequently throughout future episodes.

Overall, while the 1970 episodes ARE dated, almost quaint, and linear compared to what came after, the tighter scripts and more verbal based nature means they stand up fairly well nearly four decades later. Not only that, but while the acting may have improved over time, there's a freshness and energy that the last couple of series may have lacked. Oh, one last thing... isn't it weird seeing Bill without a beard?

The Beatles broke up in 1970, but another Fab Four were waiting in the wings to take their place - Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, and director Jim Franklin. They created some of the funniest and most memorable television comedy of the '70's.

It was not their first series for the B.B.C. 'Broaden Your Mind: An Encyclopaedia Of The Air' was. I never saw it ( my television set could not pick up B.B.C.-2 in those days ) so had to contend with odd clips on the viewers' request show 'Ask Aspel'. In 1969, 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' was launched on an unsuspecting world, so instead of continuing with 'Broaden Your Mind' the lads decided to create an entirely new show. The result was 'The Goodies'.

The idea behind the show was simplicity itself; an agency composed of three men ( ultra-patriotic Tim, hippie-like Bill, and brainy Graeme ) who rode about on a three-seater bike and who did 'anything, anytime'. That was all, but it allowed the writers freedoms they otherwise would not have enjoyed. The chief inspiration seems to have been the American series 'The Monkees'. The wacky plots, 'Tom & Jerry'-style chases, catchy pop music, and cartoon violence were elements common to both shows. There was satire involved too. A regular feature in the first three series were the spoof commercials.

In one episode, the Goodies tried to capture the Loch Ness Monster. In another, they went to the Moon where they encountered super-intelligent rabbits. In yet another, they set up a safari park whose main attractions were showbiz stars. In 'The Goodies & The Beanstalk', they spoofed the traditional British pantomime.

Because 'The Goodies' took the mickey out of '70's pop culture, some have mistakenly interpreted it as an attack on the decade itself. 'Star Wars', 'Close Encounters' and 'Jaws' were popular and thus ready-made targets for parody. 'The Goodies' soon became a part of that very same pop culture, especially when they started having Top Ten hits such as 'Black Pudding Bertha' and 'Funky Gibbon'.

The show boasted an impressive array of guest stars such as George Baker, Stanley Baxter, Bernard Bresslaw, Patrick Troughton, Beryl Reid, Liz Fraser, Mollie Sugden, Jon Pertwee, Joan Sims, June Whitfield, Ronnie Stevens, Jack Douglas, Alfie Bass, and Jane Asher. Celebrities of the calibre of Eddie Waring, Sue Lawley, Michael Aspel, Patrick Moore, Raymond Baxter, and most notably Tony Blackburn were happy to send themselves up.

Because children loved the show, the B.B.C. got uptight over the content, most notably 'Rock Goodies' in which they tackled punk rock, 'South Africa', and 'Royal Command' which was broadcast in the Queen's Silver Jubilee year, and predictably upset rabid monarchists.

'Monty Python' also featured near-naked girls, racial stereotypes, and bandied about words like 'poof'. So did Spike Milligan on his 'Q' series. The point is this - it was incredibly funny.

Yet adults preferred the more anarchic 'Python'. For my money, 'The Goodies' was the more consistently funny; 'Python' ran out of steam after three seasons, 'The Goodies' hit its stride with Season Five.

After a decade on the B.B.C., the Goodies defected to I.T.V. for a final ( disappointing ) run. They pedalled off into the sunset in 1982. Since then, repeats have been noticeable by their absence. Unlike 'Porridge', 'The Good Life', and 'Some Mothers Do Ave Em', 'The Goodies' was too much a product of its time period. But fond memories linger. Those of us who lived through the '70's will never forget 'those blokes and their bike'.

Comedy in Britain in the 1960s was a tangle. John Cleese, Jo Kendall, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie were on a radio show called "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again." Where Eric Idle is often credited as a writer.

On TV, Cleese joined Graham Chapman, Brooke-Taylor, Marty Feldman and the lovely Aimee MacDonald on "At Last the 1948 Show." Kendall made one important appearance on that show. On "Please Do Not Adjust Your Set" Idle appeared on-screen with Denise Coffee, David Jason, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

Coffey and Kendall both went on to further fine work on the brilliant radio show "The Burkiss Way to Dynamic Living" while Brooke-Taylor went on jokey radio show "Hello, Cheeky" with John Junkin and Barry Cryer.

Whew. And that's just a start. In the 1960s and 1970s the BBC and the few other outlets were experiencing a new wave of Oxford and Cambridge grads filling various posts and hiring young writers and performers crashing in from both universities in a new old-boy (and girl) network, following up the successful biting-satire college show "Beyond the Fringe" with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett.

From this milieu (especially after the TV programs "Do Not Adjust Your Set" and "At Last the 1948 Show") two new, surreal, TV shows broke out: first, the Monty Python juggernaut of Cleese, Jones, Palin, Chapman, Idle and added American expatriate Terry Gilliam. Then "The Goodies" with Garden, Brooke-Taylor and Oddie.

The point is, the brave, new world of British TV and radio comedy by the late 1960s and early 1970s was small and tight and most of them knew each other. Marty Feldman could just as easily have been plugged into Monty Python and David Jason wondered bitterly why he'd been left out.

Good pals Garden, Oddie and Brooke-Taylor decided to do a show to change the face of British comedy. Then, tuning into Python and seeing that had been done they took a different tack and did "The Goodies."

How did "The Goodies," differ from Python? First of all, it wasn't primarily a sketch show. Each episode might have had various vignettes, but these were set within story-lines filling the time period. Second, the lead boys played the same characters with little variation from episode to episode. "The Goodies" were a team one could hire to clear up any sort of problems. Garden was more often the brilliant, if slightly detached, inventor of gadgets. Brooke-Taylor was the hyper-patriotic type given to satirical speeches about Queen and country and wearing Union Jack waistcoats. Oddie was a down-to-earth slob.

Another way they differed from Python was the ever-changing cast from episode to episode, often featuring guest stars well known in Great Britain if not so much in America: Freddie Jones, Liz Fraser, Joan Sims, Stanley Baxter, Alfie Bass and plenty of others.

Sometimes the full-length stories proved detrimental. If a sketch was failing or taking too long in Python, the writer/performer boys simply discarded it and carried on with something else. The Goodies had more limited options. And since their surreal antics nevertheless had to be confined to boundaries with at least pretense of reality they couldn't just have a Graham Chapman dressed as a viking shove in a "meanwhile."

Their friends the Pythons came first and had a formidable presence. "The Goodies" put on a different kind of show that necessarily played by different rules, and they require acceptance on their own, rather than on comparative, terms.

Besides, the Pythons had twice as many comedy geniuses working to fill their half-hour format.

"The Goodies" were good at what they did, taken on their own terms. But their satire, like the Pythons', often took aim at already soft targets like the Church, giving them the appearance of kicking people once they're down. But thanks to all these lads English-speaking comedy started taking a cruel turn about that time and it's only gotten worse in the intervening years until a nice guy like me no longer pays attention to it.

"The Goodies" is the most surreal sitcom until the arrival of the under-appreciated "Andy Richter Controls the Universe."

I have enjoyed the madcapped humour of the Goodies for many years now and are yet to find someone that even comes close to them in originality. Their shows were a laugh a minute and certainly made the 70's well worth being a part of. We would race home from school so we could set ourselves up for our favourite English double - The Goodies and Dr Who. And then we would spend the next day at school discussing both shows in detail. Tim, Graeme and Bill have brought a lot of joy to a lot of people and have in the process influenced many an up and coming British comedian. Who could forget a Giant Kitten, a giant cod, a pirate post office/radio station and stacks of hilarious drag sequences. The brilliant writing was seconded only by the fabulous songs. 'Wild Thing', 'Funky Gibbon' and 'The Inbetweenies' are more than just funny words to music - they are fantastic songs in their own right. The Goodies - a much over looked and unappreciated British 1970's comedy. The Goodies Rule - OK!!!