Forgotten sitcoms

[hatler]

Tutti Frutti, though I'm guessing that doesn't really count as a sitcom. But, it was funny, it's mostly forgotten, and there was more than one episode. Does that count ?  (Unlike a sitcom though, it told a story as opposed to each episode standing on its own.)

[Torslanda]

A comedy vehicle for Dennis Waterman, post Minder and pre New Tricks was 'On the Up'.

Mostly utterly forgettable bollox with the possible exception of the catchphrase "Just the one, Mrs. Wembley!"

[Jaded]

Just watched the first episode of Chance in a Million

Bits of funniness in it.

Didn’t look like a fake glass.

[Mr Larrington]

'Get Some In' is a title I remember from the 70s but it's left an indelible blank.

I doubt Rising Damp could be made nowadays. Likewise 'Man About the House' or 'Shelley', which starred Hywel Bennett.

I thought "Shelley" was a fine thing and can't recall anything that would have caused pearl-clutching among the PC brigade, other than the title character being a layabout.

[Wascally Weasel]

Tutti Frutti, though I'm guessing that doesn't really count as a sitcom. But, it was funny, it's mostly forgotten, and there was more than one episode. Does that count ?  (Unlike a sitcom though, it told a story as opposed to each episode standing on its own.)

I think of it more as a drama - see also "Your Cheating Heart".

I got a copy of Tutti Frutti on DVD a few years back - it took a long time to get out due to rights issues for the music in it I understand.

[citoyen]

I remember "Rosie", vaguely.  Mostly the awful theme song.

https://youtu.be/cUxyru5HKbo

Hell yeah, that is truly awful.

Apparently, Rosie was created by Roy Clarke, who was also responsible for Open All Hours, Last Of The Summer Wine and Keeping Up Appearances.

[citoyen]

Fairly Secret Army

Dimly remembering seeing a few of these & thinking they were quite good but disappeared without trace and no repeats AFAIK.

EDIT:  Just found them on YouTube and watched the first one.  Very un-PC which probably explains the lack of repeats but still quite amusing and could be the inspiration behind UKIP.  Cracking end title music from Michael Nyman.

Think that one was a spin off from Reggie Perrin. Geoffrey Palmer as the inept ex-army type.

Yep, not precisely the same character, but essentially the same. It's all there in the magnificent 'Forces of Anarchy' speech...

https://youtu.be/8nxo0fS2VMM

Geoffrey Palmer seems to have been a stalwart of British sitcoms since the 70s, and they are all enhanced by his presence. I'd love to watch Fairly Secret Army again but if it has ever been repeated, it passed me by. Having a theme tune by Michael Nyman is a real touch of class. If it's on Youtube, I'll check it out...

[citoyen]

Just watched the first episode of Chance in a Million

Bits of funniness in it.

Didn’t look like a fake glass.

I don't recall ever thinking it was a fake glass when I watched it, but Simon Callow said it himself in an interview, so it seems likely to be true.

Looking at this clip, I reckon he downs those pints far too fast for it to be real:
https://youtu.be/nJlZ3euVwTE

(You can see in each instance in that clip that the bottom of the glass is painted, which is probably to hide the fact that it has a hollow middle.)

[toontra]

Yep, not precisely the same character, but essentially the same. It's all there in the magnificent 'Forces of Anarchy' speech...

https://youtu.be/8nxo0fS2VMM

There is indeed an even funnier extended version of that in either episode 1 or 2 - and yes, they are all on Youtube.

The country house setting, oddball twittery and stalwart character actors remind me of the Henry at Rawlinson End film.

Look out for a young Ray Winstone.

[Exit Stage Left]

Just watched the first episode of Chance in a Million

Bits of funniness in it.

Didn’t look like a fake glass.

I don't recall ever thinking it was a fake glass when I watched it, but Simon Callow said it himself in an interview, so it seems likely to be true.

Looking at this clip, I reckon he downs those pints far too fast for it to be real:
https://youtu.be/nJlZ3euVwTE

(You can see in each instance in that clip that the bottom of the glass is painted, which is probably to hide the fact that it has a hollow middle.)

I used to be able to down a pint in three seconds, and that's slower.

[citoyen]

I used to be able to down a pint in three seconds, and that's slower.

Three seconds! That's mad, Ted.

I once won a pub quiz on a tiebreaker by chugging a pint faster than anyone else but I would have lost if I'd been up against you.

For the record, here's the quote from Simon Callow:

I loved Chance in a Million, and still love it - it's on DVD but I don't believe it's ever been broadcast since 1984-6 when it was a big success. First of all on Channel 4 and then on ITV. It had fantastic reviews and an excellent viewership; the writing was uniquely brilliant and endlessly inventive, and Brenda Blethyn was extraordinary. It's a mystery as to why it disappeared for 25 years. I'm trying to persuade Brenda to revive it and show the characters years on, and inexplicably she hasn't risen to the bait. As for the beer - although I did drink a pint of beer in each half of every episode, it was a trick glass. It did involve drinking two thirds of a pint of disgusting fake beer though - greater love hath no man...

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/live/2017/jan/27/simon-callow-webchat-being-wagner-book

[rafletcher]

Much more recent, but equally forgotten I think, The Smoking Room. Another BBC3 offering, with Robert Webb. And perhaps The Book Group from 2002 with Michelle Gomez, later of Green Wing and (the rightly forgotten) Feel the Force.

[citoyen]

Much more recent, but equally forgotten I think, The Smoking Room. Another BBC3 offering, with Robert Webb.

Yes! I was going to mention that earlier in response to Hillbilly bringing up BBC3 but forgot.

BBC3 was generally very good in its early days, until Stuart Murphy left and it became Da Yoof Channel.

[rafletcher]

Much more recent, but equally forgotten I think, The Smoking Room. Another BBC3 offering, with Robert Webb.

Yes! I was going to mention that earlier in response to Hillbilly bringing up BBC3 but forgot.

BBC3 was generally very good in its early days, until Stuart Murphy left and it became Da Yoof Channel.

Yes it was - my favourite of it's output was Monkey Dust.

[ElyDave]

Black Books - another Dylan Moran, but also with Bill Bailey and Tamsin Grieg, an utterly antisocial bookshop owner, verging on the alcoholic

Not really a comedy, but certainly a lot of humour in it, and quite bizarre towards the end was Northern Exposure

[ian]

Black Books - another Dylan Moran, but also with Bill Bailey and Tamsin Grieg, an utterly antisocial bookshop owner, verging on the alcoholic

Not really a comedy, but certainly a lot of humour in it, and quite bizarre towards the end was Northern Exposure

Finally, another one that I recognize and I think Black Books was firmly a comedy.

I am handicapped by lack of TV viewer, some kind of conversational leper. Every time someone starts a 'did you see...' conversation with me, it pauses after those three words, and you can see them frantically looking for a conversational escape route because I mostly probably didn't see. If everyone just watched Netflix my life would be a bit easier.

[mattc]

I've just re-read Dave's post and now it makes more sense 

Yay for Black Books (a comedy) - but way too soon to be classed as "forgotten" I'd say.

And Northern Exposure (not a comedy) was a great series, with a lot of humour in it. And a rather rubbish ending, sadly.

[mrcharly-YHT]

How about The Beiderbecke Trilogy?

[ElyDave]

How about The Beiderbecke Trilogy?

I think I caught the re-runs of that, it was good though.

[rafletcher]

How about The Beiderbecke Trilogy?

Excellent, but not a sitcom. I had a thing for Barbara Flynn then.... (when it was first shown)

[JennyB]

How about The Beiderbecke Trilogy?

Excellent, but not a sitcom. I had a thing for Barbara Flynn then.... (when it was first shown)

Indeed. Also in the category of 'not a sitcom, but a very sitcom premise'  Being Human

[mrcharly-YHT]

Two weekends ago I was informed that for something to be a sitcom, it had to be filmed in multicam. This is because one of the original defining features of a sitcom was being filmed in front of a live audience - so multicams were required to get the shooting angles.
"what about MASH" asketh I, "Isn't that a sitcom?"
"What's MASH?" says the media/film/tv graduate-with-a-1st. 

No, I didn't kill him, just collapsed on my cot and drank rotgut from a martini glass.

[citoyen]

How about The Beiderbecke Trilogy?

Excellent, but not a sitcom. I had a thing for Barbara Flynn then.... (when it was first shown)

Mmmmm. I was totally besotted with Average-size Jill Swinburne... and Dr Rose Marie in A Very Peculiar Practice.

Beiderbecke is definitely not a sitcom though, nor is AVPP. And are they forgotten? I suppose neither of them gets repeated much any more. Both genuine classics though.

Side note about Beiderbecke: the low-speed car chase in the first series goes past two of the houses I lived in as a student. Although I didn't live there until a good few years after it was filmed.

Anyway, if we're broadening the remit of the discussion to comedy-drama serials, how about Tales Of Sherwood Forest? Starred Pete Postlethwaite as a Nottingham nightclub owner who fantasised about being Rick Blaine in Casablanca. Ran for one series in the late 80s. Then sank without trace. Which is a shame, because I remember it being excellent.

[citoyen]

"What's MASH?" says the media/film/tv graduate-with-a-1st. 

No, I didn't kill him

Very remiss of you.

[Kim]

"What's MASH?" says the media/film/tv graduate-with-a-1st. 

No, I didn't kill him

Very remiss of you.

Sounds like a xkcd://1053 situation to me...