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Post by profbooboo on Jan 18, 2017 16:00:35 GMT
Another US comedy was Perfect Strangers that BBC1 used to show on weekday afternoon. (I think they showed various different US comedies over the week, I also remember Head Of The Class and Valerie/The Hogan Family)
It starred Bronson Pinchet and Mark Lynn Baker as Balki and Larry who would get into lots of misunderstandings. One of my favourite episodes as a kid was Just Desserts, it's the only episode I could really remember anything about, and as I was a kid that was pretty vauge. Balki is having fun making cakes for an order and has to make them in the tradtional way, with the Bibbi Babka ditty! But Larry has over delivered on the order, with the time and resources there's no way they can fulfil the order, so Larry starts to get dictatorial and thinks go wrong. There's a clip on youtube, but I can't find the full episode or a very clear shot.
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Post by profbooboo on Jan 18, 2017 16:18:37 GMT
I'm not a massive detective show fan, but one of my all time faves is Homicide Life On The Street. You can get the boxsets pretty cheap. Without this show you wouldn't have The Wire. Most of the cast of The Wire and Oz were in this show first.
One of the best episodes in Three Men and Adena. Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Pembleton (Andre Braugher) are trying to get a confession out of a suspect in the case of a murdered girl. Most of the episode takes place in 'the box', a small tiled room which is usually either too cold or too hot.
The show also has Clark Johnson, Melissa Leo, Yaphet Kotto, Reed Diamond, Ned Beatty, Michelle Forbes, Austin Pendleton and Zeljko Ivanak (but he's been in everything!) and lots of guest stars including Robin Williams and Jake Gyllenhaal as father and son.
Well worth a watch. You can pick it up pretty cheaply from Amazon or second hand from Cex, if you can find one with a copy. The UK version isn't as good as the US (a friend gave me her US copy when she upgraded to the filing cabinet box set!) the episodes have been put in a different order but that's easily rectified, and although it says 'The Complete First Season', I think it's actually season 1 & 2. And The Complete Second Season' is actually season three and so on. I think season 2 was only 4episodes long so it was bundled with the first season. Also there are a couple of crossover episodes with Law & Order and I'm not sure these episodes are included. I have a disc with these L&O episodes and it's a 'Bonus Disc'. Also the movie, which is a stand alone anyway, isn't included, but the scenes with Bayliss and Pembleton have to be seen.
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Post by diziet sma on Jan 18, 2017 21:50:26 GMT
If you like those Prof, you'll no doubt enjoy the Corner, made by the same people as the Wire. Its a six episode miniseries, all available on YouTube (with French subtitles).
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Post by profbooboo on Jan 19, 2017 1:24:15 GMT
If you like those Prof, you'll no doubt enjoy the Corner, made by the same people as the Wire. Its a six episode miniseries, all available on YouTube (with French subtitles). I couldn't get into The Corner, maybe I'll try again because most of the stuff David Simon (writer of Homicide A Year On The Killing Streets which HLOTS is based on) has done I've enjoyed. I've got the 5 seasons of The Wire, I like how each season is based on a different part of Baltimore life, politics, education but my favourite was the media with Clark Johnson showing up at the newspaper. (There's a scene where Clark Johnsons The Wire character goes to a bar and meets THE John Munch from HLOTS who He worked with when He played Meldrick Lewis. But as this is a different show and a new character he has to act like hes never met him before! There's a defo nod and a wink in that scene!lol) Simon co-write Treme but I need to catch up on that as I only saw the first season which was great. (although set in New Orleans not Baltimore like Simons other stuff) He adapted the book Generation Kill for HBO with Lee Tergesen (who appeared in HLOTS) as a journalist and that was really good, it also had Alexander Skarsgard and he wrote Show Me A Hero. He's not a good pedigree. I also like anything by Aaron Sorkin. The West Wing, The Newsroom, the underrated Studio 60 (they just needed to dump Amanda Peet!) and the amazing and fantastic Sports Night. Love. That. Show. Josh Charles pre-Good Wife, Felicity Huffman pre-Desperate Housewives, Peter Krause pre-Six Feet Under and Parenthood and Joshua Malina pre-West Wing. Amazing |
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Post by diziet sma on Jan 19, 2017 19:11:48 GMT
You've got good taste there Prof. I've thought about getting HLOTS but there are 7 seasons and there's not enough time in the week. Never heard of Sports Night. I will look into it though.
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Post by profbooboo on Jan 19, 2017 21:00:50 GMT
I went on a HLOTS bender! I managed to get through every episode and the movie in about 32days!! I started watching episodes at midnight on Saturday and finally went to sleep at midday on Sunday and got through about 15episode's! I think there's about 132 in total, but we'll worth it.
Sports Night is a lot easier, there's only 46 episodes (2seasons 23 episodes each) lasting about 22minutes each. Its well worth the watch, its not your out and out comedy like Friends but it is funny, but more drama included in the comedy. I think the first season has a laugh track but try to ignore that, they get rid of that in season two.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2017 14:41:08 GMT
Speaking of John Duttine the early '80s BBCtv series, "To Serve Them All My Days" comes highly recommended.
One programme I love is the original, "Special Branch" series from 1969. Made at the time ITV was about to go colour the first few episodes are in black & white with the last few in colour.
I ended up watching episodes until 0300hrs. Just brilliant with a great theme and title sequence. Different titles were used for the colour episodes.
Suitably impressed I purchased Series 2 from 1970 which is nowhere near as good.
"Special Branch Series 1" is available from Network. If you like "Public Eye" and "Callan" you'll like this.
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Post by Miranda on Jan 29, 2017 14:52:58 GMT
Welcome to the forum!
Was Special Branch the inspiration for The Sweeney? I seem to remember it being similarly gritty.....
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2017 21:35:27 GMT
Hi Miranda, Thank you! The original"Special Branch" was a videotaped series starring Derren Nesbitt. There's no connection to the later George Sewell version, only the programme title is the same. This tends to confuse Wikipedia etc. Both were Thames Television productions. The relaunched series was made by Euston Films for Thames Television and filmed on location throughout in 1973 and 1974, starring George Sewell and later with Patrick Mower. It was indeed seen as a predecessor to "The Sweeney" in format but there was otherwise no connection. For many years the original 1969 and 1970 videotaped series lay forgotten it the archives. By great good fortune no episodes were wiped. After seeing the later series I was really impressed by the standard of the original version when Network released it on DVD. Looking at the Network site the original Series 1 set appears to have been deleted. All episodes including the later Euston Films series are available as a box set however. I've spotted this on Amazon however. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000LXHJKK/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1485725546&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=special+branch+dvd&dpPl=1&dpID=51ipoIcs9GL&ref=plSrch |
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Post by Miranda on Jan 29, 2017 21:39:53 GMT
Ahhh interesting! Thank you.
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Post by lugsbug on Jan 29, 2017 22:38:56 GMT
I also like anything by Aaron Sorkin. The West Wing, The Newsroom, the underrated Studio 60 (they just needed to dump Amanda Peet!) and the amazing and fantastic Sports Night. Love. That. Show. Josh Charles pre-Good Wife, Felicity Huffman pre-Desperate Housewives, Peter Krause pre-Six Feet Under and Parenthood and Joshua Malina pre-West Wing. Amazing I missed the West Wing first time around and have now binge watched it all (box set on Sky) - seven series, 23 episodes per series - took me a week! Thought it superb, especially the first four series which Aaron Sorkin was involved with. It was especially interesting in view of the recent happenings across the pond - can we have Bartlett as president now, please? |
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Post by Miranda on Jan 29, 2017 22:48:13 GMT
I've mentioned it before but American TV always seem to produce a series about the kind of Prez they would like to have when the real politics goes blooey. I would expect a lot more in the next four years......
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Post by Delia on Jan 30, 2017 9:59:14 GMT
Am in the middle of watching the box set of the original "War & Peace" which ran for weeks, originally, in 1972. It's about 15 hours.
Very good, and although of course they struggle in the big battle scenes without CGI, it's well done. It's in colour and has a good cast including Anthony Hopkins as Pierre, Alan Dobie and Morag Hood.
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Post by Delia on Jan 30, 2017 10:00:37 GMT
I've mentioned it before but American TV always seem to produce a series about the kind of Prez they would like to have when the real politics goes blooey. I would expect a lot more in the next four years...... Really amuses me that in fiction, the President is always young and handsome, and usually unattached! |
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Post by profbooboo on Jan 30, 2017 14:05:16 GMT
I've mentioned it before but American TV always seem to produce a series about the kind of Prez they would like to have when the real politics goes blooey. I would expect a lot more in the next four years...... Really amuses me that in fiction, the President is always young and handsome, and usually unattached! Most the ones I've watched they're married but they tend to be younger-ish and good looking, Scandal (who wouldn't vote for him!), Designated Survivor, Madam Secretary...the president isn't so much young and good looking but the shows about the Secretary and she is. |
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Anymore to come?
