I personally loved the new editor's letter apologising for the readers's "stupidity" in not recognising the excellence of Seinfeld (just 2.5% voting for it in the best US sitcom). Apparently Howard Rosenberg from TV Guide in the States will be writing next week about why it took off in the States and not the UK. Not necessary - anyone could argue "Because it wasn't mostly screened at a million o'clock in the morning in America". Jesus.

That'll be self fulfilling scheduling then.

"No-one will watch it, so we'll put it on at erratic, ungodly times so... that way no-one can watch it."

It's as if they'd worked out their target viewer for the show was "nobody" and then deliberately scheduled it to perfectly hit that market.

Can't wait for the cultural / sociological justifications for Seinfeld's failure to be explored in the RT. Probably the same ones that suddenly dogged the previously-popular Taxi when it was rescheduled past 11 at night.

Amazing, isn't it, that "Taxi" was first shown here at 8.05pm on BBC1.

Anyone here agree that AbFab is overrated? And judging by this week's Radio Times overhyped.

It used to be the case that, by and large, only halfway decent imports would be bought by ITV and BBC. But when increased broadcasting hours came in during the mid-late 1980s, the number of hours they needed to fill with cheap imports increased correspondingly, so they started to buy anything and everything. A couple of idiot schedulers put the wrong things on at the wrong time repeatedly (eg Doogie Howser MD on BBC1 at 7:30pm) and viewing figures fell, which led to the pervading "imports do not belong in decent timeslots" attitude that appears to have been pervading the industry for too long now. "Seinfeld" is a victim of this.

I won't even get started on Channel 4's attitude to imports.

Incidentally, is it just me, or does anyone else think that "The Simpsons" would have been a runaway success on primetime BBC1?

>Incidentally, is it just me, or does anyone else think that "The Simpsons" would have been a runaway success on primetime BBC1?

Yeah, but would they still have cut it to hell as per BBC2 6pm showings or C4 showings of Futurama? (BTW is it the BEEB/C4 that do the hatchet job, or are they sold on in this form from Murdochvision?)

>Incidentally, is it just me, or does anyone else think that "The Simpsons" would have been a runaway success on primetime BBC1?

BBC1 had that sort of idea. They ran 13 episodes or so on Saturday teatimes (about 5.45pm) from November 1996, but it got fewer viewers than Sabrina The Teenage Witch on ITV, and so it got shunted over to BBC2 early evenings from April 1997. That said, it still got six million, which is what the majority primetime BBC1 gets now. Perfect for 8.30, I'd have said.

>BBC1 had that sort of idea. They ran 13 episodes or so on Saturday teatimes (about 5.45pm) from November 1996, but it got fewer viewers than Sabrina The Teenage Witch on ITV, and so it got shunted over to BBC2 early evenings from April 1997. That said, it still got six million, which is what the majority primetime BBC1 gets now. Perfect for 8.30, I'd have said.
>
>

Season 1 got rerun on "Live & Kicking" about '99....... note to BBC, IT'S NOT A FUCKING KIDS SHOW!!!!!!!!

>BBC1 had that sort of idea. They ran 13 episodes or so on Saturday teatimes (about 5.45pm) from November 1996, but it got fewer viewers than Sabrina The Teenage Witch on ITV, and so it got shunted over to BBC2 early evenings from April 1997.

Didn't they also show quite early episodes, which even the most rabid Simpsons fan would concede are not the series' finest moments? I recall when it finally got show on terrestrial TV plenty of harrumphing reviews about how it wasn't up to the Great British animation tradition of Wallace & Gromit, and they couldn't understand what the fuss was about.

>Didn't they also show quite early episodes, which even the most rabid Simpsons fan would concede are not the series' finest moments?

They did, the first full length episodes. But just to add confusion, they were all in the wrong order and had series 3 & 4 mixed in with the slightly crap earlier ones as well, leading to sudden odd changes in animation quality and writing.

I recall when it finally got show on terrestrial TV plenty of harrumphing reviews about how it wasn't up to the Great British animation tradition of Wallace & Gromit, and they couldn't understand what the fuss was about.
>
Well, those people are morons, obviously. Despite all the hype they put behind it, the BBC didn't exactly give the series much of a chance, did they? Pulling it from the air after a few weeks and sticking it in the crap weekday evening slot, when the majority of people are still coming home from work.

Perhaps ironically, Sky One have been showing The Simpsons pretty non-stop for the last ten years, only pausing to show Ibiza Uncovered every now and then.

>Anyone here agree that AbFab is overrated? And judging by this week's Radio Times overhyped.

Yes, it is. I remember reading an interview with June Whitfield who said that she thought that the last series of AbFab was "not very good really", but she did it out of loyalty to Jennifer Saunders. She continued that, in terms of the scripts, they were not a patch on the work she had done for previous writers and performers. (She guested on several Hancock's Half Hours, not just The Blood Donor)

Anyway, back to the thread.....

Wasn't 'Chef' on a RT front cover once? I'm sure it was. And why choose that, anyway?

A little like the '100 TV moments...', really. No better or worse than thousands of sitcoms.

And apparantly, Victoria Wood As Seen On TV is a better sketch show than Monty Python.

Did she ever do anything as funny as the restaurant sketch from the last show of the first series of Python?

"Quite frankly I'm against people who give vent to their loquacity by extraneous bombastic circumlocution.

Oh, I don't like that!"

>Anyway, back to the thread.....
>
>Wasn't 'Chef' on a RT front cover once? I'm sure it was. And why choose that, anyway?

every new bbc 1 sitcom is on the cover. chef wasn't cringe inducingly bad, it just wasn't funny. and it got recommisioned so it can't have performed badly. the worsh sitcoms are the ones nobody remembers, natch.