In the Hyperdrive thread there's an intersting point about whether the show can learn from it's mistakes and improve in the second series. I'd like to widen this discussion and ask if, in modern comedy, any shows ever do this? One of my bugbears with the scene at the moment is that flawed shows tend to come back for a second series and repeat all the sins of the first series. It's as if comedy has lost the ability to improve and develop. Step forward Catherine Tate, Tittybangbang and Perfect World, to name but three.

Blackadder is a classic case where the erratic and not exactly funny first series evolved into absolute classic later on.

I'll let other discuss the modern comedy

Yes, Blackadder, agreed. Little Britain did the complete opposite of course, and slid downhill pretty quickly. But that's not a sitcom. Anyone else?

Right on WrongTale - I think Blackadder is the perfect example of a show which learnt from its mistakes second time around. As for modern examples... um....

Graham Lineman has said that he's learned from his mistakes and will improve the second wseries of The IT crowd. We'll have to wait and see on that one.

Mind you, BlackAdder dumped Atkinson as writer for the subsequent series. So that would have a huge effect, but yes, they managed to save it from being dangerously patchy to genius.

I always felt Blackadder was a programme that fitted a thread like this one like a glove until, miraculously, the forth and final series where I felt it developed a very funny edge. And as for the final episode, well, despite my serious misgivings about Ben Elton - yes, I know it's me and not him - it never fails to bring a lump to throat. So perhaps something was learned after all by the Blackadder production team because what was produced by the end of the run was, thankfully, a far cry from the way it all began.

anyone of you seen the pilot of Blackadder? A passable VHSrip-like copy is circulating the net (not to speak of several horrible quality copies). If not, it basically has some plot lines from one from series 1 eps (the one where the king has a party, and BA is the party-planner).
Two major changes occur afterwards:
GOOD: Tony Robinson is cast as Baldrick (ah, that reminds me, I need to order Maid Marianne & Her Merry Men season 1 DVD)
BAD: Edmund, while perhaps a bit naive in pilot, turned childishly idiotic (Beanish, you might say now)

I often wonder... you know... what if the latter never happened?

Yes, I've seen *coughgotcough* it. Very interesting. Like you say, a mix of plotlines which developed into that first series. Certainly some lessons learned from it!

Oh, and Maid Marian is one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.

Actually, that's quite a good example. The first two series' were bloody good, but the show really came into its own about half way through series 3, IMO.

Blackadder's probably the best example of a show being on a learning curve. |Trouble is, that's quite a while ago now. Modern comedy can't seem to do it. And the point about Little Britain is not only valid, but quite common. To me Monkey Dust, The Smoking Room and Nighty Night were all examples of comedies that seemed to lose something in the second series.

Nighty Night. Christ. That was poor, at best.

Thought the first series of Nighty Night was really good. But I agree that it lost something with the second outing.

Nighty Night's great!
But I think I preferred the first series too.