>Another thread could be: When, if ever, did ITV last produce a funny programme?

Men Behaving Badly.

>>Another thread could be: When, if ever, did ITV last produce a funny programme?
>
>Men Behaving Badly.
>

Could be argued that ITV only started it.

Enfield said that the show would have never had been made without him, but never had been a success without Morrisey (Neil not Steven tho'... no let's not go there right now), by which time it was on BBC.

Saying that I vaguely remember the 1st series of MBB and it seemed a lot um, nastier in the humour.

Great any more for any more.

The trails for The Sketch Show look appalling. "From the man behind Alan Partidge and the co-creator The Royal Family":

Man at the front of an empty trandem: "Well, it was windy going over that last bridge wasn't it?" [turns around, sees no-one and hilarity ensues]

Hotel Receptionist: "So you want a rookm for two nights?" [cut to see two men dressed in armour (Knights, nights, geddit?) nodding. Hilarity ensues.]

More to come as soon as the writers find their copy of Gyles Brandreth's 1001 Punny Jokes For Kids.

And The New Statesmen was the last good ITV comedy show. The only good ITV episode of MBB is The Troublesome Twelve-Incher, which I only like because it's about coloured vinyl.

>Enfield said that the show would have never had been made without him, but never had been a success without Morrisey (Neil not Steven tho'... no let's not go there right now), by which time it was on BBC.

Strictly speaking Morrissey arrived at the start of the second series, which was still on ITV, though subsequently repeated on BBC.

IDNEATS! etc.....

Rereading your message, it just ocurred to me that you probably meant it was on the BBC by the time it was a success rather than by the time Neil Morrissey arrived.

Sorry.

>
>Strictly speaking Morrissey arrived at the start of the second series, which was still on ITV, though subsequently repeated on BBC.
>
>IDNEATS! etc.....

Cheers, I didn't know that.

Still it's only one prog to ITV so far.

And you know how many minus points they get for Tim Vine, who I reckon got his career from joke books I threw out when I was 9.

Why is it on at 10.30pm, surely they can put something on a bit more grown up?

BTW has anyone ever seen a repeat of the 1st series of MBB? I really can only remember one joke from it, involving Enfield wearing some tight lycra pants he borrowed off of Ash.

Is it avaliable on video, or have the BBC destroyed it cos it's much better/worse than the following series

>
>And The New Statesmen was the last good ITV comedy show. The only good ITV episode of MBB is The Troublesome Twelve-Incher, which I only like because it's about coloured vinyl.


Ten points for the New States man, althought it did lose it's teeth as the series went on, last year I watched an episode from a very early series (can't remember which one) and it was very nasty.

Last post from me for a while I promise, it's just I don't read others posts as well as I should, sorry.

So 2 to ITV, but with The Sketch Show I think we need more.

I saw some of the try outs for this show and I thought there was some very funny sketches in it. And Vine's stuff worked well in the middle of longer ideas because their shortness made them a genuine surprise.
Let's not try and judge a TV series by what the trailer people make of it (have you ever seen a good trailer for anything?)
And let's wait til the show is actually broadcast before we decide it's shit.
I thought Cold Feet was a pretty funny show. I suspect many of you did not.

>Let's not try and judge a TV series by what the trailer people make of it (have you ever seen a good trailer for anything?)
>And let's wait til the show is actually broadcast before we decide it's shit.
>I thought Cold Feet was a pretty funny show. I suspect many of you did not.

Good point about trailers, but I've seen Tim Vine quite a few times and he pisses me off, tho' maybe with the benefit of editing he won't be so bad, the main problem is the large amount of awful jokes to not bad jokes.
He also did a game show for channel 5, which is a kin to doing an ad, well in my book anyway.

I s'pose we forget ITV is the light entertainment channel.

As for Cold feet, it was good, but I don't think it survives repeating (I just can't watch it again)

If it helps...many of the tickets for the recordings were returned after the first coup[le of recordings I think.

what about spitting image, dipped in quality toward the end but mostly great (it was on ITV wasn't it?).

i think tim vine is the new tommy cooper. but then i'm only mildly amused by tommy cooper.

I wish Lizard Scum had started the ITV debate in a different thread. I think the supposed death of silliness is a much more interesting topic. I, however, have nothing to add to either debates.

>BTW has anyone ever seen a repeat of the 1st series of MBB? I really can only remember one joke from it, involving Enfield wearing some tight lycra pants he borrowed off of Ash.

>Is it avaliable on video, or have the BBC destroyed it cos it's much better/worse than the following series

All the rights are owned by Hartswood Films who have put all six series of MBB (including the ITV ones) on video and DVD with Pearson TV. I don't think series one has ever been repeated on the BBC (who presumably think that the viewers brains would explode if they saw Harry Enfield in MBB) but the second series was repeated a year or two ago.

http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/010712/128/by012.html

no comment.

"people who could appear on the Royal Variety Show but who
would still be funny"

I like this quote for so many reasons...

Re:ITV things...
The oft quoted 'Rising Damp' is a complete comic masterpiece. Leonard Rossiter is, in my opinion, the finest comic actor this country has ever produced. ITV have nothing else in their cannon to rival this series and I fear never will. A full discection of this series will follow if anyone makes the appropriate noises...(edits and all)Or indeed if they don't. I'll do it anyway. And so to bedsit.

And JC can leave whenever he likes if he's not prepared to contribute to the silliness. It must be 20 years since he did anything worthy of comment.

I'm going to court controversy by saying that I agree (for once!) with Richard Herring about Cold Feet AND I went to two recordings of Men Behaving Badly and I laughed lots, even at the warm-up man (he happened to be Lee Hurst). Oh, and Ant and Dec are fairly silly. And stupid.

Silly behaviour should be encouraged at all stages of life.

>Man at the front of an empty trandem: "Well, it was windy going over that last bridge wasn't it?" [turns around, sees no-one and hilarity ensues]
>
>Hotel Receptionist: "So you want a rookm for two nights?" [cut to see two men dressed in armour (Knights, nights, geddit?) nodding. Hilarity ensues.]

Cool. Sounds like the three sketches I've already done for my sketch show at some point in the future:

1. Man goes into pub, and asks for a pint of Tetley. Barman makes him a pint of tea.

2. Establishing shot of department store. Tannoy announcement: "Could someone from menswear come to customer services please." Cut to customer services, the singer from the band Menswear is there.[possibly most people won't get this one]

3. Someone's driving a car somewhere, following those signs you get that are represented by shapes. He's following a black triangle sign. He parks, gets out and we then see him looking happily at a bib black pyramid.[I imagine this in the section of Naked Video where they had quick sketches with no dialogue and the theme music playing.]

Did I get the job?

>Man at the front of an empty trandem: "Well, it was windy going over that last bridge wasn't it?" [turns around, sees no-one and hilarity ensues]
>
>Hotel Receptionist: "So you want a rookm for two nights?" [cut to see two men dressed in armour (Knights, nights, geddit?) nodding. Hilarity ensues.]

Cool. Sounds like the three sketches I've already done for my sketch show at some point in the future:

1. Man goes into pub, and asks for a pint of Tetley. Barman makes him a pint of tea.

2. Establishing shot of department store. Tannoy announcement: "Could someone from menswear come to customer services please." Cut to customer services, the singer from the band Menswear is there.[possibly most people won't get this one]

3. Someone's driving a car somewhere, following those signs you get that are represented by shapes. He's following a black triangle sign. He parks, gets out and we then see him looking happily at a bib black pyramid.[I imagine this in the section of Naked Video where they had quick sketches with no dialogue and the theme music playing.]

Did I get the job?

Fucking hell!

I'm fairly sure the BBC did repeat the first series of MBB, but could be wrong. The second series on ITV did indeed feature Neil Morrissey, but was shite - it only hit form once it had transferred to the beeb (though I watched it t'other day and didn't much like it at all)

>Oh, and Ant and Dec are fairly silly. And stupid.
>

The problem with Ant and Dec is they always seem to be smirking over their shoulders as if to say, "Hur hur, we're not really kids TV presenters, we just do this for a laugh. Look at our secretly adult gags and double entendres, aren't we clever?"
That said, SMTV live does have it's moments, particularly Challenge Ant. But enjoyment of the thing is always tempered by the fact that they seem to secretly shitting all over their target audience. At least Schofield pretended do be down wiv da kids, even if he hated their guts it never showed
Since A & D always give the impression that they think they're too good for children's television, it's ironic that they seem to flounder when they move away from that format, like in their recent Saturday evening series. In that context their act just doesn't work, because it stops being "dangerous" when it's done in front of an adult audience, and just becomes two Geordie blokes doing a lame Morecambe & Wise pastiche. But then, there was that brief C4 series they did which was full of genuinely silly gags with very little smirking irony. It puzzling that they've never been quite that good again.

Blimey, it's 2 o'clock. I really should stop typing now.

UK Gold have repeated the first series of MBB many times, but they tend to favour the 3rd-6th series in their repeats, for obvious reasons.

>http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/010712/128/by012.html

(External Link basically saying how a pilot of the Sketch Show was made for the BBC who dropped it and ITV picked it up)

>
>no comment.

Didn't something similar happen with Jam?