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| | Situation comedy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
 | | The first situation comedy is often said to be Sam and Henry which debuted on the Chicago, Illinois clear-channel station WGN in 1926, and was partially inspired by the notion of bringing the mix of jokes and continuity found in comic strips to the young medium of radio. | | | The show is unusual in that it is animated. | | | Classic British sitcoms include Only Fools and Horses, Porridge, Fawlty Towers, Dad's Army, Blackadder, Open All Hours, and The Young Ones. |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_comedy
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| | British sitcoms |
| | When British television is interested in an American show, it usually just buys and broadcasts the original. | | | The cast of the British television show “Coupling” poses in this undated publicity photo. | | | LOS ANGELES -Americans have been watching British TV shows for years, even if they haven't realized it. |
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http://www.fredonia.edu/department/communication/schwalbe/britcom.htm
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| | Bright Lights Film Journal British Sitcom Spin-off Films |
| | Two further British spin-offs have been made since — Guest House Paradiso (1999; from the BBC show Bottom) and Kevin and Perry Go Large (2000; from comedian Harry Enfield’s BBC sketch show). | | | Vehicles for radio comedians such as Arthur Askey were fashioned in the thirties and forties, and, later, some radio and television shows led to more or less unconnected features. | | | Over the next nine years, Hammer and companies such as EMI, Associated London, and British Lion dipped continually into the TV pot for ideas. |
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http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/35/britishsitcoms1.html
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| | Fawlty Towers |
| | Like so many sitcoms, the premise was simple, stable and rooted in everyday life (reputedly being based on the proprietor of a genuine Torquay hotel in which Cleese and the Monty Python team stayed whilst shooting location footage). | | | The opening of each episode (with hackneyed theme, stock shots and inexplicably rearranged name-board) and the satisfying circularity of their plotting shared with the audience a "knowingness" about the norms of sitcom. | | | Basil Fawlty (Cleese) and his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) ran the down-at-heel seaside hotel of the title hampered by a lovingly-drawn cast of believable characters embellished in varying degrees from comic stereotype. |
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http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fawltytowers/fawltytowers.htm
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| | British Sitcom Guide - New Sitcoms and News |
| | The likable hosts of the hit shows "Pop Idol", "I'm A Celebrity...", "Saturday Night Takeaway" and "Gameshow Marathon" have had meetings with TV bosses about a new show which is based loosely on their own life stories. | | | Dave is a thirty-something cab driver who is always looking for the next big thing while Lisa, the more practical of the two, is content to let Dave do the dreaming. | | | The show was co-written by Shaun Pye and is set to broadcast in the autumn. |
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http://www.sitcom-guide.co.uk/news.shtml
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| | Boston.com / A&E / TV / Why he stopped giving at 'The Office' |
| | A: I was surprised that it did, because British shows usually don't. | | | But I was surprised that it went as big as it did in England, too. | | | ''Larry Sanders," a sitcom with flawed people, no laughter track, very American, but no laughter track. |
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http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2004/11/14/why_he_stopped_giving_at_the_office?mode=PF
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| | Links to other Fawlty Towers sites |
| | The website celebrates the life and times of a British comedy institution and remembers a gifted actor and performer who brought laughter and enjoyment to millions. | | | Frank Fanning spotted a Fawlty Towers in China: "Passing through Guangxi in southern China a few weeks ago I saw a Fawlty Towers Hotel in the little village of Yangshuo, somewhat south-southeast of Guilin. | | | Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads website has episode details, an interview with Rodney Bewes (Bob Ferris in the series), quiz, photos, etc. Best of all is the opportunity to buy a DVD set containing everything: 26 episodes, feature film and two Christmas Specials! |
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http://www.fawltysite.net/links.htm
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| | BuffyWorld Forum - Best British sitcom? |
| | althought there is alot of really really good sitcoms out there like fawlty toweres, the office, ab fab and littel britian only fools and horses has a much bigger audience and is really funny the first episode that i watched was a touch of glass (the chanderlier one) and i couldn't stop laughing. | | | And then there is Fawlty Towers-If ever a show made me squirm it would be this one, masters of uncomfortable humor..Like watching an accident scene on the side of a road. | | | Spike:What a big rock,i have to tell my friends.They don't got a rock this big. |
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http://forum.buffyworld.com/showthread.php?t=21650
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| | BRITISH TV SHOW REVIEWS "L" |
| | Frankly I was surprised when this mini-series from last year returned for a second season, but clearly the British public (and the BBC) wanted to see more of the soap-like shenanigans in a small village in the Lake District. | | | A two-part BBC drama starring Tara Fitzgerald, Cherie Lunghi, and Peter Bowles) about a disintegrating marriage is shot on video and none-too-subtle. | | | Perhaps to make it more interesting to today's audiences, the pigs can talk and in fact narrate the story, in this light-hearted adventure. |
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http://www.eskimo.com/~rkj/l.htm
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| | BRITISH TV SHOW REVIEWS "B" |
| | But in the present day, Hancock has a surprise for everyone with recently discovered outtakes that cast a whole new light on the "miracle season" in the movie. | | | Followed by its sequel set two years later, this time two 90-minute episodes. | | | What BBC America has renamed The Fast Show for no particularly good reason. |
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http://www.eskimo.com/~rkj/b.htm
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| | The Great British Comedy Web Ring |
| | Enjoy more than 9000 pictures from the movies and the TV shows and the memories will come back... | | | Comedy wav sounds from British TV and the Simpsons | | | Also includes resources for other BritCom radio shows. |
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http://i.webring.com/hub?ring=britcom
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| | Whitfield, June |
| | After guesting in various sitcoms for 12 years, she landed a starring role in Beggar My Neighbour (1966-68) a show about ill-matched neighbours. | | | One can only lament that it was never considered viable in British television to produce The June Whitfield Show. | | | Whitfield made her debut on television in 1951 in The Passing Show (BBC) and appeared as support to Bob Monkhouse and Derek Goodwin in Fast And Loose (BBC, 1954). |
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http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/whitfieldju/whitfieldju.htm
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| | British comedy feature |
| | And its impact on British film was as significant as Easy Rider's had been in Hollywood two years earlier. | | | But he resisted the temptation of a Fawlty Towers film and instead made A Fish Called Wanda, a more appropriate cinema vehicle for his comic genius, with the emphasis shifted from situation to a more conventional narrative plot. | | | Cinema attendance was plummeting and film production in decline when a low-budget film came along, saved the British film industry and created a whole new cinema movement. |
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http://www.iofilm.co.uk/feats/featkevinandperry.htm
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| | Fawlty Towers the classic British comedy |
| | Fawlty Towers is one of the best-known, and most-loved, series from the halcyon days of British comedy—the 1970s. | | | This is a tribute to the classic 1970s comedy series set in the fictional Fawlty Towers hotel in Torquay on the English Riviera. | | | Donald Sinclair died in 1981, apparently he emigrated to Florida in the 1970s where he was once tracked down by a British newspaper after Cleese unfortunately named him in an interview. |
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http://www.fawltysite.net
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| | British Embassy, Warsaw Britcoms |
| | Audiences all over the world are familiar with the British TV series, such as “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, “Benny Hill Show” or “Jimmy Bean”. | | | For many of us, the image of John Cleese in a black suit and a bowler, walking to his office at the Ministry of Silly Walks, is the essence of the British sense of humour. | | | When it was on air, the streets and the pubs were empty, just like in Poland during the screening of the Brazilian soap opera „Isaura the Slave”. |
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http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1107295729062
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| | sitcoms trivia - Learn English bytes - British Council |
| | Canned laughter: recordings of laughter that have been added to a humorous radio or television programme when something amusing has been said or done. | | | Within three years, it became a huge hit around the world and by 1997 Seinfeld was the highest paid actor with $1,000,000 per episode. | | | The first situation comedy is often said to be Sam and Henry which debuted on the Chicago clear-channel station WGN in 1926, and was partially inspired by the notion of bringing the mix of humor and continuity found in comic strips to the young medium of radio. |
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http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/trivia/sitcoms_trivia05.html
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| | screenonline: Sitcom |
| | Audiences have responded to these portrayals in millions and reruns of shows more than 25 years old still regularly get significant ratings. | | | Initially radio sitcoms of the time were simply transferred to television, but eventually the need for new material encouraged the development of shows and forms designed specially for the medium. | | | The new sitcoms dispense with the old formal conventions like the studio audience, heavy lighting and theatrical performances, as technology and audience tastes have changed. |
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http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/445368
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| | [No title] |
| | That seems to be the case for "Coupling," the new NBC show about six oversexed singles set in Chicago. | | | And that's amazing because the show is taken almost word for word from the well-written British scripts (with some language and scenes censored for American audiences). | | | Those who caught the original series, which aired on BBC America last year, got the feel of a naughty but clever sexual comedy that didn't seem quite so tacky as the NBC pilot. |
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http://www.cincinnati.com/text/post/2003/10/03/broad092503.html
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| | BBC NEWS Entertainment TV and Radio British sitcom set to follow Friends |
| | Ben Silverman, the producer overseeing the project for NBC, said: "We think Coupling would be a perfect show for the fans of Friends. | | | Hartswood Films, which makes the British show, said the mother, daughter and son-in-law trio behind it will also be responsible for the US version and will not water-down its risqué story lines. | | | The team behind Coupling said NBC saw the show "as Friends with sex" and were enthusiastic about its potential to replace the top-rated US comedy, which is coming to an end after nine seasons. |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2053407.stm
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| | OFF THE TELLY: Comedy/Funny Business |
| | Consequently, original or offbeat premises are more difficult to sell to an audience expecting populist entertainment. | | | Undeniably though, American television has an excellent track record in sitcoms, and long-running series such as Seinfeld, Frasier and The Simpsons have displayed an enviable consistency, as well as a willingness to engage in a sophisticated level of comedy. | | | Everything has to be in stasis, it's a constant loop." Whilst Linehan did not return to write the second series (broadcast in 2002), the structure remains largely unchanged. |
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http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/comedy/funnybusiness.htm
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| | screenonline: Rising Damp (1974-78) |
| | What could have been just a set of sexist spinster clichés is instead both hilarious and touching. | | | Traditionally the BBC made the British classics, largely because a structure was in place to encourage script development, there were regular repeats to build audiences and commercial pressures were less intense. | | | His tenants include lovelorn spinster Miss Jones and two students, the gauche Alan, and Philip, son of an African chief. |
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http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/579131
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| | Are You Being Served? Virtual Video Vault |
| | Jones": The 1981 sitcom starring John Inman is now represented here at the Vault, including a video capture of the show's opening and an MP3 of the theme song. | | | Site layout and all comments and episode reviews © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Emily Jackson and may not be used without express permission of the author and webmaster. | | | I'm Miss Jackson, formerly of the Gramophone Department at Grace Brothers. |
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http://home.hiwaay.net/~emilyj
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| | Thursday |
| | Last year, I finally forgave the British for inflicting “Big Brother” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” on the world. | | | Debuting Sunday, it's the year's best new show | | | Though it is, at heart, a mystery-thriller, “State of Play”—written by Paul Abbott, creator of the British miniseries “Touching Evil,” which spawned the strong adaptation currently airing on USA—is strikingly ambitious. |
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http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2004/apr04/apr12/4_thurs/news3thursday.html
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| | "Coupling": The Next "Friends"? - Jun 19, 2002 - E! Online News |
| | In the game-show arena, the novelty of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Weakest Link soon died off. | | | The Peacock has bought the rights to Coupling, a sexy British sitcom, in hopes that it can be reconfigured using American actors into a possible replacement for their super hit sitcom when it likely leaves the air in 2003 after nine seasons. | | | Jack Davenport and Sarah Alexander star as fictional versions of Moffat and Vertue. |
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http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,10130,00.html
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| | Playbill News: Steptoe and Son Opens in London Feb. 22 |
| | Steptoe and Son, a new play based on the classic British television sitcom of the same name opens tonight Feb. 22 at the West End’s Comedy Theatre. | | | The original television series gave rise to two of British comedy’s best-loved characters, Albert Steptoe and his son Harold. | | | Previews began Feb. 16 following a season at York Theatre Royal. |
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http://www.playbill.com/news/article/98058.html
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| | TechnoFILE Reviews "Coupling" on DVD |
| | Forgive us if we sound a tad pompous; it isn't that Coupling is an intellectual show suitable only for the elite. | | | The show revolves around the six singles, each of whom brings his own baggage to the table, trying to balance their sexual appetites with their varying insecurities, though it all revolves for the most part around sex and dating. | | | The most disappointing thing about having the complete first season on DVD is that it only consists of six episodes, and they fly along so quickly their half hour running times are gone while you& just getting interested. |
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http://www.technofile.com/dvds/coupling.html
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| | Quick hook on U.K. exports no laughing matter |
| | Other recent failed transfers include the WB Network's "A Young Person's Guide to Being a Rock Star" and CBS' attempt to redo "Fawlty Towers" as "Payne" with John Larroquette. | | | Unlike "Coupling," which directly involved the British writer and producers in the U.S. creative process, Polone says that "Father Ted" will be written in the United States by American writers for an American audience. | | | But the long odds haven't dampened the enthusiasm on the U.S. side of the pond for British material, in part because it's easier to evaluate the prospects of a show that is up and running rather than a single pilot script. |
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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2040825
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| | RSAMD Students' Union -> Best British Sitcom |
| | Do they all not just recur the same themes in one way or another? | | | Tend to agree - the most interesting sitcoms are those which take it outside of the cosy surroundings that you normally associate them with - Friends, My Family, all the "families are funny and lovely" sitcoms. | | | a sitcom (as the name suggests) just chooses a setting and then makes jokes about it. |
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http://forums.rsamd-su.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=87
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| | Digital Spy Forums - Worst British Sitcom? |
| | Plus Brass Eye, The Day Today and Jam for PURE comedy as opposed to sitcom's. | | | Worst ones currently still going have to include "Vicar of Dibley" (yep, it's in the Top 10 Best list !) and "My Family" (why do so many people keep watching it, forcing it to be recommissioned for another painfully unfunny year - yep, it's back next week - arrgh !). | | | Oh, the winner should be either "Fawlty Towers" or "Blackadder" - any other result will be a fix, IMHO. |
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http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=115862
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| | DVD Times - British Sitcom movie adaptations in May |
| | Till Death Us Do Part (1969) - Discover the story behind opinionated old so-and-so Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) in the big screen adaptation of the hugely popular and long-running TV show Till Death Us Do Part. | | | Love Thy Neighbour (1973) - This extended screen version of the popular yet controversial sitcom in which West Indian neighbors Bill and Barbie Reynolds (Rudolph Walker and Nina Baden-Semper) laugh off a spurn of abuse from prejudice white worker Eddie Booth (Jack Smethurst) and come out on top, is reborn onto DVD. | | | Warner Home Video have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of four movie adaptations of your favourite classic British sitcoms for 10th May 2004 with a retail price of £12.99 each... |
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http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=10811
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| | The Best of British - The American's guide to speaking British... |
| | Every kitchen has a jar in the cupboard or the fridge and many people still make their own. | | | Treacle pudding is a steamed pudding, eaten for dessert with a runny syrup topping. | | | Beers are the dark ales that are so popular amongst British drinkers. |
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http://www.effingpot.com/food.shtml
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| | British Sitcom Guide - Fawlty Towers |
| | Fawlty Towers is now considered, quite rightly, one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. | | | The terrible American sitcom "Payne" was based on this show. | | | The programme is a magic formula of fantastic writing, brilliant acting, perfect comic timing and flamboyant characterisation. |
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http://www.sitcom.co.uk/fawlty_towers
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| | Sitcom Today |
| | Virginian-Pilot television critic Larry Bonko is in Universal City, Calif., for the semi-annual Television Critics Association press tour. | | | Living TV, the station which brought British viewers Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, has been named Channel of the Year. | | | LAMONT Bentley, an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films and TV shows but was best known for his role on the comedy series Moesha, died early last Wednesday in... |
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http://archive.wn.com/2005/01/30/1400/sitcomtoday
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| | British sitcom |
| | List of British TV shows remade for the American market | | | Through these, a number of "Britcoms" have become achieved cult status[?] in the United States - particularly Fawlty Towers, Mr. | | | Many British sitcoms are distributed worldwide by Lionheart Productions[?] and can been seen in the United States on stations that are part of the Public Broadcasting Service. |
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http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/lookup/encyclopedia/br/Britcom.html
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| | British Sitcom Guide - Steptoe and Son - About |
| | It was an absolute landmark, the first ‘proper’ sitcom in the sense that it featured actors playing actual characters as opposed to comedians playing extensions of themselves. | | | "Steptoe and Son" is a landmark in British sitcom history as it set the standard against which all sitcoms were judged. | | | It all started when Tony Hancock dispensed with the services of the top comedy writers in Britain at the time, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. |
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http://www.sitcom-guide.co.uk/steptoe_son/about.shtml
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| | British Comedy: The Fawlty Towers FAQ v.1.13 |
| | According to _The British Location Guide_ the house was an Indian restaurant, then a nightclub called "Basil's". | | | The structure was damaged by fire some years back and was demolished. | | | From: Antti J Tuominen Newsgroups: alt.comedy.british, rec.arts.tv.uk.comedy Subject: British Comedy: The Fawlty Towers FAQ v.1.13 Date: 19 Sep 1999 14:14:41 GMT Message-ID: <7s2r4h$9jb$1@midnight.cs.hut.fi> Summary: This posting is a list of common questions (with answers) about the famous British sitcom show Fawlty Towers. |
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http://www.faqs.org/faqs/tv/british-comedy/Fawlty-Towers
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| | For 'Family' Britcom, it's all in the writing |
| | The experiment was such a success that Barron eventually left the show to join the BBC full-time to develop and be the showrunner on new team-written sitcoms for the British broadcaster. | | | Now DLT is looking to bring its British hit to the United States in its original form and is in talks with several major cable outlets to pick up the repeats. | | | Most British shows end up on public TV partly because of the pace and partly because of the (low) number of episodes available. |
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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/icopyright_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2043657
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| | CKY Forums - Best British Sitcom |
| | I had to go for Spaced, although it was a close call between that or the League of Gentlemen. | | | Originally posted by AsparagusTrevor@Apr 20 2004, 04:20 PM I had to go for Spaced, although it was a close call between that or the League of Gentlemen. | | | They're so fresh and funny, they don't conform to the normal 'sitcom' formulae, and are much funnier for it, but Spaced has the edge, I think. |
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http://www.ckyforums.com/showthread.php?t=32109
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| | British Sitcom Guide - Website Links |
| | The website contains a list of the shows you can go and see - you can sign up there and then for free tickets. | | | Memorable TV A comprehensive list of memorable British television shows with brief descriptions about each. | | | Search for any sitcom to find out who was in it and what else the actors have been in. |
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http://www.british-sitcom.co.uk/website_links.shtml
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| | News: The sitcom is dead, says Victoria Wood |
| | Last year, the obituaries were written for the sitcom were written in the States, where the end of such long-running shows as Frasier and Friends coincided with a glut of reality TV shows. | | | ‘People can no longer relate to the kind of sitcom that's filmed in front of a studio audience and has very obvious jokes. | | | The Dinnerladies creator said she would not be doing any more sitcoms because audiences now regard them as too contrived. |
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http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/dec05/dead451202.php
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| | DVD Times - Father Ted: the complete 1st series |
| | It's a 4:3 PAL picture of a low-budget sitcom which was shot on video. | | | If people have to name the best British sitcom of the 1970s, the answer is normally Fawlty Towers. | | | The best episodes of Ted are the ones which feature other priests, and this one has a great assembly of them, all with one especially amusing character trait. |
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http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=4815
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| | faulty towers |
| | The british have a really awesome sense of humor..three's company was based on a british sitcom man about the house, it was alot funnier than the american version. | | | I caught the British version afew times only, it was neat to compare the charactors on both sitcoms, they really picked them to look similar. | | | Posted: 09/25 12:27 AM The british have a really awesome sense of humor..three's company was based on a british sitcom man about the house, it was alot funnier than the american version. |
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http://www.etches.net/forum/phpBBToGo/thread.php?topic_id=758
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| | DVD Talk Forum - Help with title of 90's British sitcom |
| | Thanks again (have wondered what the name of the show was). | | | I have always been curious to remember the name of a British sitcom I saw sometime in the early 90's or so. | | | I probably saw it around '95 on PBS. |
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http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/printthread.php?t=319288
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| | See it in sequence to really enjoy brilliant British sitcom - The Honolulu Advertiser - Hawaii's Newspaper |
| | As hard as it may be to imagine, the second and allegedly last season of "The Office" is better than the first, and it's being released as "The Complete Second Series" (BBC). | | | Had the thrilling "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" not been released in a year that also produced "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "Mystic River," it almost certainly would have done better at the Academy Awards. | | | One of last year's most welcome theatrical surprises happened to be set on the 19th-century British warship Surprise. |
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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Apr/23/en/en22a.html
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| | News: British manga sitcom in the pipeline |
| | The show is about four half-human, half-cat demons who were accidentally resurrected by the British Museum and are now going through their difficult teenage years in Northwood, a typical sitcom suburb. | | | But rather than pitching the idea direct to broadcasters, the producers, backed by a Japanese animation company, will make the entire series first, which they will then try to sell as a finished product. | | | A British manga artist has created a new animated sitcom described as Pokemon meets Terry and June. |
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http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/jan03/kittens.html
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