Over recent weeks I have had a surprising number of conversations about sit coms and it always brings a smile to my face when I think of the handful of really good ones.The British have supplied a number of wonderful comedies but there have been so many wretched efforts to wade through in order to find them. 'Fawlty Towers' is universal and will still be making people laugh decades into the future. So many date quickly and become unwatchable so why is it that simple comedies such as 'The Good Life' maintain their appeal whilst 'Monty Python', nostalgia apart, has lost whatever it may once have had?
In this field America manages its usual trick of being the best and the worst. When theirs are bad - they really stink!
'Cheers', 'Mash', 'Taxi', Soap' all have had that 'touch of the universal' and will survive into perpetuity.
The very best, either side of 'The Pond'? - Well, it has to be 'Frasier' which has brought untold pleasure over a long period. I caught several episodes last night and was reminded of the genius of a programme with an average of 16 scriptwriters per episode - and doesn't it show?
Admittedly, the episodes with the cockney-speaking mancunians were dragged down somewhat, but this apart, the standards were always astronomoically high and never tailed away in the customary fashion as vast numbers of episodes accumulated.
It had everything: a superb cast, poignancy, reality ("You must 'ave reality, Spike") wit, brilliant writers, craft and even genius.
Comedy for the intelligent, it produced genuine chuckles and belly laughs. In one 22 minute episode I counted 45 such instances when in so many 'comedies' there are literally zero.
There were several episodes where it even tried farce - something which is done so badly 95% of the time. No surprises when it was pure perfection. The Ski Lodge episode must rank as the best ever in that entire genre.
It involved you; you cared what happened to the characters. It brought the great themes of unrequited love, the sadness of the human condition, genuine human failings wherein we were able to recognise ourselves.
The nearest thing I have ever seen to comic perfection!
Many thanks for something so wonderful. I spend so much time on this Blog criticising, how nice to be able to be positive.
