Question for the Brits about TV shows

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Cat-a-Tonic

Cat-a-Tonic

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I've always loved British TV comedies, from the day I was a kid and discovered Red Dwarf. I love Little Britain, Coupling, The IT Crowd, Black Adder, and so on. I dislike most American sitcoms and prefer to watch a Brit comedy any day!

But I just have to ask - WHY do your shows only have 6 episodes each season (or series as I believe you call them)? Here in the US our shows usually have something like 12 or 13 episodes per season. I think it varies show to show, but generally speaking, we produce about 2x the shows per season. Is it a quality vs. quantity thing? Is it some weird rule imposed by the BBC? Or something else?
 
episodes is how many eah season. Season is normally a yr.
Its because when somethings fresh and original it doesnt stay that way. Like red dwarf, great early series but really shit the last 2 or so (and dont even count the special grrr).
have you tried films like airplane? naked gun (tv series being poilice squad).
Also try the office (uk version of course) ricky gervais standup
green wing, smack the pony, phoenix nights (peter kay), teachers. also bottom..alltime classic lol
 
Try these too:

Extras
Only Fools and Horses
Vicar of Dibley
Outnumbered
Doc Martin

:D
 
Rygon: I agree with you about the last couple of seasons of Red Dwarf. It specifically got bad when Rimmer left the show. What special are you talking about? Is it that "Back to Earth" thing? If so, I've never seen it and just found out it existed, so Netflix is sending it to me literally tomorrow... I'll watch it even though you say it's bad. I love Airplane, Naked Gun, etc. Tried the UK version of the Office and didn't care for it. Haven't heard of the other shows you mentioned, but I'll see if I can find any of them here in the US. We mostly get only the very popular Brit shows like the ones I mentioned in my original post (Black Adder, Little Britain, etc).

Busy: A couple of those sound familiar, although I haven't watched any of them. I'll see what I can find here (I think at least a couple of those are on Netflix).

Thanks for the suggestions... still doesn't really answer why there's only 6 episodes per year of Brit shows, though, instead of 12 like in the US. It's a mystery to me!
 
try these too

Spaced
Nighty Night
One foot in the grave
Mock the week
QI
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
The Inbetweeners
The Mighty Boosh
The Young Ones
Comic Strip Presents...
Absolutely Fabulous
the list is endless
our telly is second to none!!!
 
i'd also recommend you to watch the series of Fawlty Towers - i think they did 12 episodes. brilliant & timeless comedy :)

also Open All Hours.
 
dingbat said:
i'd also recommend you to watch the series of Fawlty Towers - i think they did 12 episodes. brilliant & timeless comedy :)

also Open All Hours.
Click to expand...

LOVE Fawlty Towers...although my hubby doesn't really get the humor.....

AbFab too.....
 
Not sure about the 6 vs 12 shows, but I'm sure UK shows have more than one series a year, so maybe it's the same number of shows per year but split up?
 
I think most US shows have two seasons per year, so there are 2 periods of 12 episodes per year - usually spring and fall. So really there's 24 episodes per year US, and if British shows also have 2 seasons per year, then there's 12 episodes there per year. So there's still twice as many episodes here (and about half the quality).

I love Fawlty Towers too, it's been awhile since I've seen it. Never really got into AbFab but my husband used to watch that one all the time (he had a crush on the girl who played the daughter). I've heard of about half of the shows Joan mentioned, will look into the others. Thanks for all the suggestions! :)
 
I love British TV as well ! Joan.....I used to watch The Young Ones all the time. What a bunch of wack-o's. I also love Dr. Who and Skins.
Canadian TV had a really funny show a "few" years back which I loved. I used to "crush heads" all the time as a kid ! Anyone remember Kids in the Hall ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pKXMcfx1d8

All we have in the US is Reality TV. I'm so tired of Reality TV.
 
OMG.....Kids in the Hall! Haven't heard that show in AGES!

Another one I liked (Canadian) - The Red Green Show....how many uses for duct tape were there?!?!?!?!?!
 
Kids in the Hall are still together, sort of. They just made an 8 episode mini-series called "Death Comes to Town." It hasn't aired yet in the US but I managed to find it online, and it was pretty funny. I think it airs here on the IFC channel in August. I love Kids in the Hall. :)
 
How dare none of you mention Blackadder!?!? Rowan Atkinson is pure genius! Hmph! lol However I must say I do love american comedies like scrubs, how i met your mother and my wife and kids :/
 
You people watch too much tv. Do something useful like spend hours with a computer on your lamp playing silly word games and reading silly threads about British tv shows. Geez, get a life...do any of you guys like Everybody Loves Raymond? I know it's not British but it is in English.:)
 
Claire: I mentioned Black Adder in my very first post in this thread! I love Black Adder! :)

Mark: I know you're being sarcastic, but you have to understand, for most of us, there are a lot of days where we don't have the energy to do anything but watch TV. I go to work, come home, and just crash on the couch with a good show on. Some days I am lucky if I have the energy to do the laundry. I'm on pred right now so I have more energy than I'm used to which is really nice, but that's not always the case. So TV is important! TV distracts me from the pain and amuses me when I'm feeling bad. My husband even offered to put a small flat-screen TV in the bathroom for me - yes!
 
Sorry Cat, sometimes I have so much fun on here that I forget why I came to this site in the first place. EJ's been feeling so well and acting so much like a ten yr old boy should that I get a little carried away. Glad to hear the pred is helping though. It can't fix it if it ain't broke. I continue to hope you get some firm answers.
 
No worries, Mark. Like I said, I know you were just being sarcastic. Glad to hear that EJ is doing so well - even on the pred, I envy the energy that kids have! I have two nieces and two nephews, all age 6 & under, and WOW do they have energy to burn. I get tired out just watching them run around!

To answer your question from earlier, I'm not really a fan of Everybody Likes Raymond. Don't really like US shows in general. Somebody else mentioned Scrubs, which I do like, and somebody else said that most of our TV in the US is reality shows - too true! I do kind of like the shows that are more documentary than reality, like Deadliest Catch. I don't think that one counts as a "reality" show (isn't it odd that the "reality" shows tend to be more scripted than the documentary-style shows?).
 
I'm not from the ranks of the Barmy Army but I'll add some others to the mix:

Latest favourite - Psychoville

A couple of others - Birds Of A Feather, Jam And Jerusalem

And an oldie - Steptoe And Son.
 
Dusty, are those Australian shows? I've never heard of any of them. It's fairly easy to find British shows here in the US but I don't think I've ever seen an Australian TV show! Now I'm curious, I'll see if I can find any of those online.
 
Hi Cat,

No, they're all British. What no Aussie shows in the good ol' US of A!!! :lol:

Dusty.
 
If you like British comedy then Only Fools And Horses is a must

Im a massive fan and watch it most days , one of the best comedies to come out of britain i think and never gets old :ycool:
 
Thought I'd bump this. Men Behaving Badly was my favourite. I think we never have long series as we get bored easily. Has anyone seen "Outnumbered" I do think we have quite a dry sense of humour.
 
Regarding the OP... I think that British shows tend to be the brainchild of one or two individual writers and/or talents, and they write the lot. US shows tend to have a team of writers in, so it's easier to write more episodes and keep it fresh.... tell me if I'm wrong on that one.
There may also be funding issues, as most of the best British shows are produced by the BBC... most of the above mentioned are BBC shows, I think.
All shows go off the boil after too long, unless they have the good sense to quit while they're ahead, like John Cleese obviously did with Fawlty Towers

Has anyone mentioned "League of Gentlemen"? Royston Vasey is so much like the village I live in... it's scary
 
Last edited:
DustyKat said:
Hi Cat,

No, they're all British. What no Aussie shows in the good ol' US of A!!! :lol:

Dusty.
Click to expand...

I remember an Australian show featuring water police several (many?) years ago. (Ok, I'm in Canada, but we get many of our channels from the US.) I remember really liking the show.

Not sure about to many other Australian dramas or comedies showing here, but I'll keep my eyes open. :)
 
Hey Kath & Kim! Aussie show, hilarious!! loved that!

Steve I watched league of gentlemen live, wot a bunch of weirdos! funny!

I love Misfits at the mo, crackin!
and the IT crowd, funny!
 
Kath and Kim is Hilarious. Anyone seen pondlife (Dolly Pond). Was a cartoon on channel 4 around 5yrs back. Me and my mum used to love it but never came out on dvd except in australia for some strange reason

Life on Mars was a great show about a cop that gets run over and finds himself in the 1970s, great story and its how i can imagine life back then
 
As far as British TV goes, I have to recommend Snuff Box and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

And on a slightly off topic but slightly related note, Mark McKinney from Kids In The Hall (the head crushing guy) is my neighbour, although we've only ever exchanged pleasantries. Eventually there will be more than just a 'Hi" on those rare occasions when we simultaneously take out our garbage at the same time.
 
I used to watch kids in the hall all the time..great show. I also own the all the shows of a standard american 90's sitcom called News Radio, which i think is pretty well done. Dave Foley stars in it along with some other great talent...shame what happened to Phil Hartman and for that matter Andy Dick. I just saw Dave Foley on a couple of episodes of The new adventures of old Christine...which I think is a pretty good show too...Dreyfus is funny as hell!
 

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