Mr Bean actor makes biggest ever car repair claim

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TrainofLove
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16 Feb 2013, 6:35 pm

Tequila wrote:

TrainofLove wrote:

Mr. Bean is the worst TV show ever. In order to make it, they had to cancel The Benny Hill Show, which is my favorite show of all time.

Don't forget that it had been on the air, on and off, for 45 years (and had amassed 99 UK episodes), that audience ratings were declining as people were no longer showing as much interest in it and it was increasingly costly to make them. Consider yourself lucky that you got literally days of material - many great comedy shows only last a couple of hours combined running time.

I take it you have the uncut region 2 DVD sets of the series?

Anyway, here's an old episode of a TV series broadcast in 1970, featuring Benny Hill but not part of The Benny Hill Show, called Eddie in August:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gslKZ5ho9wA[/youtube]

(and that's Tommy Godfrey in that photo!)

And here's an episode of Mr. Bean - "Mr. Bean in Room 426":

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi9207WmpTc[/youtube]

Yeah i've got the region 2 discs. and yes, I know it ran for that long. I just don't like the way in which they cancelled it. He was basically taken into a 5 minute meeting and was promptly sacked, no thank you for any of the millions he made for them, nothing. Most of the reason, apart from the cost was that it was "Pollitically Incorrect" and Thames and ITV as a whole was trying to get all the alternative comedians. 4 years later, Thames Television was gone. Simply put, and many agree, sacking Benny Hill was one of the worst desicions in the British television history ever. And if it couldn't get any worse, the man who sacked Hill was a Mr. John Howard Davies, who produced some of the most rude, crude humor of all, just watch such stuff as the first series of The Goodies, in which right from the get go shows a woman's bare breasts. He also produced the awful Mr. Bean, in which could be the most repetitive and unfunny programme of all time.

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TrainofLove
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16 Feb 2013, 6:44 pm

Cornflake wrote:

TrainofLove wrote:

Mr. Bean is the worst TV show ever. In order to make it, they had to cancel The Benny Hill Show

I thought the show was cancelled because it was becoming the same old tired, sexist tat every week. Audience figures had also dropped from a peak of 21 million in 1977 to 9 million for the last show in 1989.
It wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway in the face of the alternative comedy acts appearing and the evolving sketch shows like Fry & Laurie and French & Saunders, who were all more insightful and satirical.
Attitudes and humour moved on; Benny Hill didn't. His time had passed and his "saucy postcard" -style of humour (and I think that's being generous) was no longer mainstream. It's a bit rich to try and cast the blame on Mr. Bean for that.

First of all, his peak 21 million was in 1971, in which there was only BBC1, BBC2 and ITV (Thames in this case) to watch. His 9 million in 1989 was now in a more expanded time with cable, sattellite, and loads of viewing choice, it was no longer the trend that everybody sat down to watch the same thing as it was back in the 60's and 70's.

You're comments about Alternative comedy being evolving amuses me, if cheap knob jokes and constant bad language with a hateful undertone makes you laugh, I pity you.

Sexist? Well, if it is sexist is it definitaley sexist against MEN, the woman always one and the men always lost.

"Same old sexist tat every week". How many times do I have to explain, The Benny Hill Show was NOT A WEEKLY SERIES, it was a TELEVISION SPECIAL which aired a few times each year over around 40 years, only about 100 editions were made, 58 for Thames between 1969 and 1989.

It's sad that the misinformation on Hill is still spread around. Next thing you'll try to say he was gay...

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J-Greens
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16 Feb 2013, 6:53 pm

While Bean was indeed awful, Blackadder was not! :lol:

Four comedy geniuses in one scene:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BxFlmb6S6E[/youtube]

TrainofLove
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16 Feb 2013, 7:06 pm

Sadly series 2 to 4 were co-written by Ben Elton, who increased the crude humor and knob gags. They should've left Atkinson to write it like they did the first series, which was the best IMO.

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Cornflake
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16 Feb 2013, 7:11 pm

TrainofLove wrote:

Well, whatever - the viewing figures are broadly accurate and they still slumped. The fact is that interest waned in his type of humour while it was increasing with others - despite all the extra stuff being broadcast.

Quote:

You're comments about Alternative comedy being evolving amuses me, if cheap knob jokes and constant bad language with a hateful undertone makes you laugh, I pity you.

I didn't say I approved of it or found it funny - but like it or not, that's what was replacing Hill and his style of humour.

Quote:

Sexist? Well, if it is sexist is it definitaley sexist against MEN, the woman always one and the men always lost.

So you never noticed the stereotypical ways in which women were portrayed on his shows. Well Ok, fair enough.

Quote:

"Same old sexist tat every week". How many times do I have to explain, The Benny Hill Show was NOT A WEEKLY SERIES, it was a TELEVISION SPECIAL which aired a few times each year over around 40 years, only about 100 editions were made, 58 for Thames between 1969 and 1989.

Ok then, every time - and it was still the same tired old format towards the end. There was nothing new and people lost interest.

Quote:

It's sad that the misinformation on Hill is still spread around. Next thing you'll try to say he was gay...

I didn't know the man so I couldn't possibly say. You, on the other hand, are doubtless going to rely on second or third -hand stories - so good luck with that.

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Cornflake
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16 Feb 2013, 7:13 pm

TrainofLove wrote:

Sadly series 2 to 4 were co-written by Ben Elton, who increased the crude humor and knob gags. They should've left Atkinson to write it like they did the first series, which was the best IMO.

FWIW I entirely agree. Ben Elton was gobby and unfunny.

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Tequila
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16 Feb 2013, 7:15 pm

Cornflake wrote:

I thought the show was cancelled because it was becoming the same old tired, sexist tat every week.

That less and less people were watching.

Cornflake wrote:

Audience figures had also dropped from a peak of 21 million in 1977 to 9 million for the last show in 1989.

If this was poor for 1989, and this was consistently poor, then one can understand ITV wanting to axe it. Other point is that, by 1989, VHS had been around for several years anyway so those that wanted to watch some of the episodes could buy them on video. It wasn't like the 1970s when VHS didn't exist.

Cornflake wrote:

Attitudes and humour moved on; Benny Hill didn't.

I don't think that's a justification for axing him on its own if the public still like it. If you've ever been to Blackpool, you'll realise how extremely popular Roy 'Chubby' Brown is, for instance - although I personally find his material repellent (my dad and brother love him, but I find him unpleasant). That said, he is rarely seen on terrestrial television.

Last edited by Tequila on 16 Feb 2013, 7:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tequila
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16 Feb 2013, 7:16 pm

Cornflake wrote:

Ben Elton was gobby and unfunny.

The Thin Blue Line was pretty funny, though.

Tequila
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16 Feb 2013, 7:23 pm

Cornflake wrote:

and it was still the same tired old format towards the end. There was nothing new and people lost interest.

I'm sure that the likes of The X Factor and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! will be discontinued for the same reasons. That's usually why long-running programmes are axed.

Cornflake
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16 Feb 2013, 7:28 pm

Tequila wrote:

Cornflake wrote:

Attitudes and humour moved on; Benny Hill didn't.

I don't think that's a justification for axing him on its own if the public still like it.

But going by the drop in viewers, they were liking it less and less. Since commercial TV has to attract viewers to make it work there comes a point where he wouldn't have been attracting enough to make it worthwhile.
If he had any kind of club-based act he might have been able to fall back on that and continue performing but AFAIK, TV was all he did.

Quote:

If you've ever been to Blackpool, you'll realise how extremely popular Roy 'Chubby' Brown is, for instance - although I personally find his material repellent (my dad and brother love him, but I find him unpleasant). That said, he is rarely seen on terrestrial television.

I know of him and how popular he is oop north, but I doubt it would translate well darn saaf. This is possibly an inverse situation: he's popular in the clubs and theaters but it's a type of local, bawdy humour that wouldn't work on TV. I doubt anyone would dare! :lol:

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Cornflake
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16 Feb 2013, 7:38 pm

Tequila wrote:

Cornflake wrote:

and it was still the same tired old format towards the end. There was nothing new and people lost interest.

I'm sure that the likes of The X Factor and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! will be discontinued for the same reasons. That's usually why long-running programmes are axed.

Yep, very likely. They all suffer from the same failure to recognise when it stops being inventive and original, and just becomes a production line working to the same formula.
I'm mildly surprised I'm a Celebrity... is still running as it is - that's been scraping the bottom of the barrel for a long time now, and the definition of "celebrity" was stretched past breaking point ages ago.

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Tequila
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16 Feb 2013, 7:39 pm

Cornflake wrote:

But going by the drop in viewers, they were liking it less and less.

Yes, and that's what provided the reasoning to axe him. If he was consistently taking 15 or 20 million viewers, then that justification can't exist.

My point is that it usually has to be accompanied by that drop in audience figures or by a lack of desire for the people involved to want to make any more.

Cornflake wrote:

Since commercial TV has to attract viewers to make it work there comes a point where he wouldn't have been attracting enough to make it worthwhile.

Well, yes. Which is sort of my point in that this decreasing interest has to be backed up by figures. And, as I already said, if there was still demand for his material, some of it could (and probably) was released on VHS in the UK and Australia.

Cornflake wrote:

If he had any kind of club-based act he might have been able to fall back on that and continue performing but AFAIK, TV was all he did.

One wonders if that would play as well to a club based audience anyway. Many of the sort of people who like Chubby Brown are probably watching him after a few drinks.

Cornflake wrote:

This is possibly an inverse situation: he's popular in the clubs and theaters but it's a type of local, bawdy humour that wouldn't work on TV. I doubt anyone would dare! :lol:

I don't know about bawdy - some of the content is pretty unpleasant about women and is arguably racist, but then again, some of his very biggest fans are women and black and Asian people. You just can't tell, and I'm not going to take offence on behalf of other people. They're more than capable of doing that themselves.

Tequila
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16 Feb 2013, 7:42 pm

Cornflake wrote:

I'm mildly surprised I'm a Celebrity... is still running as it is - that's been scraping the bottom of the barrel for a long time now, and the definition of "celebrity" was stretched past breaking point ages ago.

My mum has stopped watching I'm a Celebrity and Deal or No Deal long ago - you know that when she stops watching something like that, it's definitely become repetitive and jumped the shark!

I wonder how long it will take for her to get sick of Pointless...

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