Anyone remember a very funny parody sketch (in the days when they could get away with it) of Terry & June, in an early-ish series of 'Alas Smith & Jones'? It was entitled 'Achmed & June' with Mel Smith playing the Iranian version of Terry Scott.

They even used the same set and theme music to perform it, I'm pretty certain.

As I recall Achmed was in a tizzy because the mullah was coming round for tea.

(I think they did it partly to take the piss out of T&J writer Colin Bostock-Smith, who wrote T&J, but had previously been a sketch writer for them on NTNON & 'Alas Smith And Jones'.)

If anyone can dig out this sketch on/to the InterHighwayNet please post a link. For some strange reason the Beeb never seem to show this classic sketch moment. (All I can find about it was that it was in 'Alas Smith & Jones' Series 3, Episode 4 (9th October 1986)

Yes that was very, very funny.

There was a shit-load of really good stuff in those early series.

In Terry and June we never see this mysterious adult 18 year old son.

He never wants to see his mum and dad, have his laundry done, or a home cooked meal?

I propose he's either a fictional creation.

Or he met a darker fate.

I might actually have that episode. I'll have to check later.

OMG - the Chuckle Brothers........really!!! Does ANYBODY know someone who wouldn't say "to you" after hearing "to me" (especially while carrying something)????? While we're on the subject of chilren's TV (see what I did there?), does anybody else find the Wiggles just a little bit scary/odd?

Moving swiftly on... My top 3 over-rated sitcoms are (in no particular order):
1) Dad's Army (ugh, I cringe every time it's on....and it's on toooooo much!(might as well nail my colours to the mast in my first post)).
2) Father Ted - sorry, never got it.
3) Ab Fab - I don't know where all the hostility comes from, but by jingo it has a focus!

No particular order, but all these are horrible:

Last of The Summer Wine
Green Green Grass
Goodness Gracious me
Gimme Gimme Gimme
Absolutely Fabulous
My Family
Vicar Of Dibley
The Good Life
Hi-de-Hi

Two Pints... is, of course, lowest common denominator dog shite, but I thought most had established that anyway- hence the exclusion.

Here's what I consider some of the most overrated, though not necessarily the worst, sitcoms (no one rates Dregs of the Summer Wine for instance, and I suspect its longevity is more down to the Beeb having to appease older viewers and finding work for old actors). What is more annoying than merely bad programmes are mediocre programmes that everyone else seems to praise to the high heavens.

1. Only Fools and Horses...a fairly ok sitcom most of the time, but certainly does not deserve the praise lavished on it. It had more than its share of dire episodes especially early on and late into its umpteenth series.

2. Ab Fab...what was the joke about this?

3. Fawlty Towers...sorry, but this has a few moments of inspired Cleese lunacy amid long swathes of tired and dated French farce.

I see a lot of people don't like Ab Fab, I always enjoyed it myself.

Any criticism for Fawlty is baffling and needs not to be taken seriously.

As for OFAH, well I thought the early series (1-3) were the best. It's an overrated show on a widespread basis (not a patch on Adder, Fawlty, Partridge) but still had some fine moments at its best. Series 4 was the last consistent series, a few good/decent episodes beyond that (the Hull one was one of the very best), but they were definitely better with grandad.

When the episodes were 30 minutes long and when the storylines foccused on their scams, with them usually losing out it could be very good at times. Once it became centred around marriages, babies, miscarriages etc, it flogged the dead horse and became not funny and therefore mostly shit.

Quote: Cheesehoven @ June 19 2009, 12:46 PM BST

Here's what I consider some of the most overrated, though not necessarily the worst, sitcoms (no one rates Dregs of the Summer Wine for instance, and I suspect its longevity is more down to the Beeb having to appease older viewers and finding work for old actors). What is more annoying than merely bad programmes are mediocre programmes that everyone else seems to praise to the high heavens.

1. Only Fools and Horses...a fairly ok sitcom most of the time, but certainly does not deserve the praise lavished on it. It had more than its share of dire episodes especially early on and late into its umpteenth series.

2. Ab Fab...what was the joke about this?

3. Fawlty Towers...sorry, but this has a few moments of inspired Cleese lunacy amid long swathes of tired and dated French farce.

View original

Farce can never be tired or dated. But I agree about Ab Fab.

Quote: Cheesehoven @ June 19 2009, 12:46 PM BST

3. Fawlty Towers...sorry, but this has a few moments of inspired Cleese lunacy amid long swathes of tired and dated French farce.

View original

Have you ever actually seen a French farce? I imagine they would appear tired and dated as they haven't really been around (in earnest) since the late 19th century. La Cage Aux Folles is a French farce and that's pretty funny - though not as funny as Fawlty.

I don't understand how people seem to hate Absolutely Fabulous! It's not the best sitcom ever but it has it's moments.

1. Patsy burning down the kitchen with a fag.
2. Whoopi Goldberg sniffing Patsys hair for nicotine
3. Edina & Patsy falling into graves

I love it.

Overrated?

1. Dad's Army - Good but too many rose tinted glasses
2. Only Fools - Same
3. The Office - Main star full of himself

1 The Royale Family
The first of the anti-sitcoms - cool but boring, couldn't stand it.
2 Men Behaving Badly
Far too pleased with itself, wasn't as good as it thought it was - much of it was cringeworthy.
3 Only Fools and Horses
Good sitcom but went on far too long, a shame.
4 Ab Fab
Funny, but self indulgent in the extreme.
5 The Vicar of Dibley
Sort of made to order silliness, Richard Curtis at his most commercial.

Quote: david carmon @ September 28 2009, 4:25 AM BST

3. The Office - Main star full of himself

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Wasn't that one of the main characteristics of the Brent character? As opposed to anything to do with the guy who co-wrote him?