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.
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4 comments:
Hiya Hughesy,
Yes I used to love Hogan too "I know NOTHing..."
And I'd forgotten about F Troop...that was great,but the Munsters were up there too.
On the Buses - no thanks,couldn't stand ANY of the characters, I'm surprised you couldn't see the attraction of The Good Life - it was Felicity Kendall !!
Steptoe and Son and Til Death Us do Part were both excellent but not sure you'd get the latter on TV these days with the sexist, racist content (and, to be honest, I don't think I'd wnt to see it again either - it was a different and uneducated world.
Not comedy as such, but what about Sunday Afternoons with Garrison's Guerrilla's a WWII series of escapades with our American commando type friends reclaiming Nazi occupied Europe - quality. And whilst we're on WWII what about The Rat Patrol? Supposedly Desert Rats in the North African desert fighting the enemy - except they were all Americans as I recall! And whilst we're talking about Desert Rats, what about that quality Comedy of the late 60's and early 70's Please Sir that was TOP (do you follow the link of Desert Rats to Please Sir....somebody out there will.
Keep Blogging ! Incidentally, do you have a Facebook / MySpace / Bebo thing? Any value in those??
Over a year since your last post Hughesy? Come ON!
Over a year since your last post Hughesy? Come ON !
Frank,
I was just rereading the old blog and saw your comment!
Thanks for the ongoing interest, I promise to revive the blog in the very near future - any topics you wish to be discussed?
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