You are awful..but I like you!

I was sorry to read the other day of the death of the actor Ivan Dixon. Who, I can hear you saying, is Ivan Dixon? Ivan Dixon was a member of Hogan's Heroes, that US sitcom from the 1960s set in a WW2 POW camp. Now when I was a lad this was one of my favourite sitcoms, in fact I think all of my favourites at the time were American imports including such gems as Bilko, Gilligan's Island, F Troop and the Munsters. I would like to say that there were as many good British sitcoms at the time but apart from Steptoe and Son and Till Death Us Do Part I can't think of any, although at the end of the decade we did get Dad's Army and On the Buses (and sadly Nearest And Dearest).
I guess that the golden age of British Sitcom was the 1970s when Fawlty Towers, Porridge, Rising Damp, Reginald Perrin. I'm sorry, I still can't see the appeal of The Good Life. It's hard to think of any US sitcom from that period that could match any of these, apart from MASH. However, since the 80s we have had Cheers, Frazier, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm from across the pond and since that it seems they have started to take our best work, such as the Office, and remaking it. Typical of the Americans to come in late and take credit for the good work...like a couple of wars I could mention..

Finally, congratulations to poster Adam who correctly identified last blog's quiz answer as John Cazale. If the name's not familiar he played Fredo in the Godfather films, for more info look him up on Wikipedia.