I really didn't like Absolutely Fabulous but watched a little when it was first on because it was so popular. All my friends liked it and kept telling me I didn't 'get' it so I tried as much as I could stomach. To me it would fall into the 'least clever' category - repetetive, shallow, no wit or warmth, no redeeming features at all. However these qualities or lack of qualities do not, on their own, make a sitcom successful. It is its unique balance of attributes that makes or breaks a sitcom - and this is subjective as well.

Yet again one of my favourite sitcoms gets a negative.

Dinnerladies might just be shot in a canteen but the writing was very clever so it certainly doesn't deserve to be in this thread.

Plus Victoria Wood was very generous in sharing out the great jokes between the cast.

And who can't love Julie Walters as Brenda's mum.

Petula: What ward am I on?

Paramedic: 8.

Petula: It's mixed isn't it?

Paramedic: Yes.

Petula: Oh, might have a bit of sex. Though after Richard E Grant you don't really want to bother with a load of shagged-out old pensioners.

Petula: I'm sorry I haven't been a very good mother. You can't be good at everything and I was A1 with a hula hoop.

LOL

Are you serious, Richard? Dinnerladies, clever?!

I can certainly appreciate some people liking it. Folks are entitled to bad taste. And It would be really interesting to watch it filmed how VW wanted it. But I just can't see an ounce of clever in it. It's all obvious gags and panto humour.

So, I think it definitely deserves a place in this thread, though a runners-up place. Teenage Kicks, as far as I can see, is like the perfection of what Dinnerladies was trying (for some unknown reason) to be.

But I like panto humour.

I like panto, seaside postcard, sexual, trashy, innuendo laden comedy.

Damn it lol.

Quote: graham @ April 27 2008, 11:33 PM BST

It's all obvious gags and panto humour.

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The best kind there is.

dinnerladies isn't, by the way, but that's the best kind.

I thought Dinnerladies was a nicely understated comedy well written. Strange. I can't crack a smile when Victoria Wood does her one woman thing but I think her writing in this form is really good. Now she can sleep easy.

There have been a whole load of sitcoms during and since the 80s which substituted bizarreness and rude noises for genuine humour. They relied on a mixture of the 'Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome' and an educationally dumbed-down population for an audience. They're still ongoing.

Quite frankly, take your pick.

You know I didn't actually realise how many comedy snobs there are on here.

This dumbed-down population line really annoys me.

Be as annoyed as you like.

I understand the flat earthers are still annoyed over companies offering round-the-world cruises...

Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 27 2008, 11:00 AM BST

Oh, I quite liked Dinner Ladies; obviously not aimed at someone my age, and could be quite wooden, but I always found it very watchable. Interesting to note that Wood didn't want it to be shot like it was, she wanted it as a none audience show with the camera speeding around them in an E.R-esque fashion; but was told she couldn't. Not sure the material actually suited the style she wanted, but it would have certainly made it a quite different viewing experience to the cosy version we ended up with.

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Are you sure about that? I only ask because she did what the Americans do and re-wrote gags that the studio audience didn't find funny. I assumed that she always wanted an audience.

Quote: Robin Kelly @ April 28 2008, 5:41 PM BST

Are you sure about that? I only ask because she did what the Americans do and re-wrote gags that the studio audience didn't find funny. I assumed that she always wanted an audience.

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Yep, she said it in an interview a while back. I seem to remember her also saying that that was one of the reasons she didnt do any more. I dont think it would have really suited the material, but it certainly would have been a different end product.

Quote: Richard Wells @ April 28 2008, 12:45 PM BST

You know I didn't actually realise how many comedy snobs there are on here.

This dumbed-down population line really annoys me.

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But there are also a lot of people on here who are 'inverted comedy snobs', those that champion all the 'simple' comedy regardless of whether it is actually any good, over smartly written and so called 'clever' comedy.

Smart doesn't necessarily equate to good. Neither does simple. I don't think people are particularly advocating it specifically OVER 'clever' comedy, as you seem to be suggesting (?), but rather standing up for it against almost totally negative, widespread criticism and hatred of it, seemingly purely because it is simple, and ignoring any merit it may otherwise have.

Well, that's my stance anyway.

A sitcom will end when the main characters leave, or when they run out of ideas. There is nothing clever about regurgitating old story lines in a spin off series with one or two original cast members. To try and restore a little origiality writers have attempted to open out studio-based sitcoms by looking abroad. The school trip in Please, Sir set a precedent for all spin-offs that followed. The premise of sending the characters on holiday, it later seemed, was enough to justify an entire film, regardless of script. Consequently, Steptoe and Son went to Spain; the staff of Grace Brothers took a package trip to the Costa Plonka; and George and Mildred celebrated their anniversary with a romantic weekend away. The worst of all is the spin off of On the Buses called Don't Drink the Water. This series follows Blakey when he retires to Spain, it is not just the least clever, it is abysmal.

On that ringing endorsement, I have to see it!