Barely a Scotsman
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HelveticaFont — 13 years ago(February 25, 2013 02:52 PM)
Craig has always said he was thrown out of Scotland for being too upbeat. Guess he wasn't kidding.
That and the fact that no one either side of the border found him funny. At the time he was a bloated alcoholic Glaswegian shouting out random ideas in a vague attempt to be like Sadowitz.
Sobering up and moving to America sorted him out but he's more American than Scottish these days. Not a criticism. -
dundo-3 — 13 years ago(February 25, 2013 10:56 PM)
He was hardly bloated on The Ferguson Theory. Smokin' hot.
I can't account for British humor. Benny Hill, Fawlty Towers, 'allo 'allo, etc. etc. leave me cold.
Anyway, their loss is our gain. "Welcome to America, son." -
susanc94765 — 13 years ago(February 25, 2013 11:50 PM)
Not to mention "Dirt Detective". I needed to go to my fainting couch for awhile with that one.
I never liked the shows you mentioned either. I loved Monty Python but not Fawlty Towers. To much overwrought screaming. I do like British humor though. Izzard, Billy Connolly, Beyond the Fringe, going back awhile for that one. -
HelveticaFont — 13 years ago(February 27, 2013 08:41 AM)
I can't account for British humor. Benny Hill, Fawlty Towers, 'allo 'allo, etc. etc. leave me cold.
Are you holding those up as beacons of British comedy? You do realise that nowadays Americans watch Benny Hill more than the British.
In fairness though British comedy changes from country to country and county to county. -
dundo-3 — 13 years ago(February 27, 2013 12:50 PM)
Truth be told, I don't pay to much attention to British TV even though the BBC runs here in Holland. If you want me to be more contemporary, I can tell you The Inbetweeners is on here and I find the promos absolutely revolting. I don't even want to imagine what the show is like.
If the US and Craig is a better fit, then so be it. Everyone's happy. -
toottoot — 13 years ago(March 04, 2013 09:52 PM)
Re: American's watching Benny Hill more than the Brits:
Can't speak for the rest of the country, but I haven't seen Benny Hill on any TV schedule in Michigan since the 1970s
Most posters won't even know who he was. -
MrBlondNYC — 13 years ago(March 09, 2013 02:43 AM)
Benny Hill was shown six nights a week in New York City in the 80's and 90s's when I grew up. It was shown on Comedy Central in the 90's and BBC America in the 2000's. And it was shown on Saturday nights in Los Angeles where I've lived for many years in the 90's and on Antenna TV until just last year. We all can't be as sophisticated as Michigan but 16d0I just find it funny that you assume that people wouldn't know of him because it hasn't been aired there. There's probably more people in NYC and L.A. combined than the entire state of Michigan.
George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya. -
kduncell — 13 years ago(March 11, 2013 05:20 PM)
MrBlondNYC, that's my experience as well. In my region, all of our local Public Television stations promoted British progamming like
Benny Hill
,
Fawlty Towers
,
Mr. Bean
and any number of BBC drama series. They all have BritCom blocks on their current schedules, showing
As Time Goes By
,
Keeping Up Appearances
, etc., along with
BBC World News
,
Sherlock
,
Downton Abbey
,
Wallender
,
Inspector Lewis
and the eternal
EastEnders
People across generations not only know who Benny Hill is, even many my age instantly recognized that some of Craig's earlier skits were
Benny Hill
homages. -
HelveticaFont — 13 years ago(March 13, 2013 12:55 PM)
Whereas Benny Hill hasn't been entirely forgotten in the UK but he has retained the same level of interest as some of his contemporaries.
Benny Hill, Fawlty Towers, Mr Bean, As Time Goes By, Keeping Up Appearances are all great but would you like me to give you some comedies that have made in the last 15 years? -
kduncell — 13 years ago(March 16, 2013 09:06 PM)
Benny Hill, Fawlty Towers, Mr Bean, As Time Goes By, Keeping Up Appearances are all great but would you like me to give you some comedies that have made in the last 15 years?
MrBlond and I were pointing out how younger American viewers came to be so familiar with classic BritComs like
Benny Hill
, et al. Though U.S. television lags behind in broadcasting very recent BritComs, Netflix and the Internet help to fill that void.
Of the newer U.K. comedies, I liked
The Office
(U.K.) and
Black Books
. I occas5b4ionally catch episodes of
Still Game
and
Rab C. Nesbitt
. Unfortunately, I'm not at all impressed with the
Yes Prime Minister
reboot; IMO, the orignal episodes I've seen were superior in every way. Though not comedy per se, I'm now exploring
6Degrees
to get a feel for Terry Loane's directing.
I'd love it if you have additional current, quality British comedies to recommend! You might also want to cross-post those suggestions to the BritComs board.
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000102/threads/ -
MrBlondNYC — 13 years ago(March 17, 2013 04:05 PM)
PBS and BBC America show pretty much all the big British shows. We get them about 6 months to a year after they premiere there. HBO has a deal with Ricky Gervais and airs all of his stuff. We'll probably get Derek sometime this year.
George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya. -
Sic Coyote — 12 years ago(May 23, 2013 01:32 PM)
I'm 33 and I can't remember Benny Hill ever being on TV at all in the UK.
He was popular in the seventies but by the early 80s was almost forgotten about.
Allo Allo isn't a shining example either. it's quaint and nostagic but was never that good, it was mostly just loads of characters coming on and doing their trademark 'bit' every week. With a load of innuendo and nob gags.
I'm still very fond of it.
I could list off a great number of shows from the 90s and 00s that are good examples of British comedy.(sitcoms)
Father Ted, Teachers, One Foot in the Grave, Red Dwarf, Men Behaving Badly, Absolutely Fabulous, My Family, The Office, Drop the Dead Donkey, Phoenix Nights The League of Gentlemen, I'm Allan Partridge, Bottom, The Brittas Empire, Coupling, Black Books, Spaced, Peep Show & Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.
That should give you a few to look at.Even if you hate Uwe Boll, give Postal a try, be offended or entertained.
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Loomis_Orange — 12 years ago(August 18, 2013 07:20 PM)
Didn't they find Benny Hill in his house days or week after he died? Americans loved the Benny.
I just saw a film on the TV the other night called "Born Romantic" Ferguson actually has real acting ability. I especially enjoy watching him think. I love it when you can look at an actor and feel him thinking. He should do more acting before the gray hairs take over and his skin and bone structure begins giving into gravity -
activista — 11 years ago(May 06, 2014 10:30 PM)
@toottoot
Actually, The Benny Hill Show has been running late Saturday nights on WADL TV Channel 38 in Michigan for about the past year, I think-here's the schedule:
http://www.wadldetroit.com/
I watched it for the first time in years (it used to show on WKBD Channel 50 in the Detroit area back in the early '80's) and the episode2000 watched wasn't half-bad. I pretty much ignored it until recently because I brushed it off as just some dumb,old sexist s*** (which it is) but it used to crack me and my brother up as kids. -
kduncell — 13 years ago(March 03, 2013 11:03 AM)
chivers677, other Scottish personalities don't have an ongoing U.S. television audience to contend with. American viewers are generally inward looking, resisting nearly everything outside their ken. He tailors his persona to appeal to a broader base. As for being upbeat, Craig breaks out the gloomy, cranky side of himself often enough.
Privately, his accent is more pronounced, and his attachment to Scotland is still going strong. He owns a home there, and returns as often as possible so that his boys develop an appreciation for their Scottish roots.
Personally, I much preferred his less Americanized public persona, but there you are, the vicissitudes of show business. Bah.