In classic tv watching, I just finished the 3rd series of
Red Dwarf a week or two ago. This was a show I'd never really gotten into when it was out - it seemed whenever I tried to give it a go, it turned out I was watching one of the handful of episodes I had already seen. Whatever the reason, it never grabbed me at the time but I'm enjoying it now. I think the difference is seeing it from the beginning an getting to know the characters gradually - anf of course not seeing the same episode over and over again!
I also watched the first episode of
Fry and Laurie. Like everyone else, I've seen both performers in lots of other things but not in this, their own sketch comedy series that started in 1989. As you'd expect from two such talents, it's really good, look forward to catching more of it.
Season 3 is where they started to get the BBC to kick ibn some money and vastly improved the sets and were able to get off the ship more and goof around.
I think a lot of people, when they first encounter it, have trouble deciding if it is a comedy or a sci-fi series, especially the first two seasons (though a lot depends on the first episode you encounter). If you see a sci-fi show and the low budget, you might be turned off (assuming you've never watched classic Dr Who or Blake's 7). If you are expecting comedy and get an episode with one of the complex sci-fi plots, you might not get into the serious plot.
I had been weaned on a steady diet of Dr Who, a little Blake's 7, some Gerry Anderson, then a whole bunch of Britcoms; so, when I first encountered this, on South Carolina public broadcasting, I was perfect for it. I think the first episode I saw was "Queeg", so I caught it in a good "in-between" phase. They had a better feel for the characters, in the Second series and the plots were a bit funnier. It was still kind of grey-looking; but, I enjoyed it more than when I saw the full First series.
By Series 3, the sets are much, much better, Starbug was a cool design and they did some good model work with it (and some great visual gags), and the addition of Robert Llewellyn to the cast really upped the character dynamic. It did, however, reduce the role of Holly quite a bit and I understand why Norman Lovett got frustrated and left. I liked Hattie Hayridge as the new Holly, while she was there.
I'm not so down on Series 7 and 8. 7's uneven, but there are some really sharp episodes in there, including the season opener ("Tikka to Ride," with the JFK Assassination plot), "Ouroboros" (where Lister discovers the truth of his abandonment, in childhood) and "Stoke Me a Clipper," with the return of Ace Rimmer.
I like 8, pretty much the whole way through. It's kind of like see what the show might have been, had they not killed off the crew in the first episode of the series. Enjoy Mac MacDonald, as the captain and the Canaries are a bit of fun.
The show, in the first two series, is really emulating the British show Porridge, with Ronnie Barker (of The Two Ronnies and Open All Hours) and Richard Beckinsale (of Rising Damp). That show was set in a prison, and featured the two cellmates talking and bantering, which is much of the dynamic of Lister and Rimmer, in those first two series.
What is really wild is to watch some of the episodes and catch cameos by people who became famous later, or who you might have seen elsewhere, if you watched British tv of that era. Season 1 episode "Confidence and Paranoia" has a young, pre-US fame Craig Ferguson (looking heavier, too). Claire (CP) Grogan, who originally played Kochanski, had appeared in the film Gregory's Girl and was the singer for the New Wave band Altered Images ("I Could Be Happy" was their big hit). Mac MacDonald (the captain of the ship) is in Aliens and a bunch of other movies shot in the UK. Charles Augins, who played Queeg, was a noted choreographer and dancer and had worked with Danny John Jules, in the West End. The female parallel universe Lister actress I had seen in the original Prime Suspect, as a witness (she also played the new ehad of UNIT, in a Sylvester McCoy Dr Who, "Avalon"). "Timeslides" has ex-Prince Andrew flame Koo Stark, who was also in deleted scenes from Star Wars (Tosche Station), as well as Robert Addie, who was Mordred, in the film Excalibur, and Sir Guy of Gisbon, in Robin of Sherwood (with Michael Praed as Robin, then Jason Connery, Sean's son). It also had a small cameo by Ruby Wax (who was bigger in the UK, but is American and had a talk show here, in the 90s), aka Mrs Eddie Bye, the director's wife. The 6th Series episode, "Psirens," has a small role with Jenny Agutter (Logan's Run, The Eagle Has Landed, Avengers, CA: The Winter Soldier). It also has Anita Dobson, aka Mrs Brian May, of Queen.
I started to watch Back to Earth, but really wasn't getting into it and haven't watched the rest, not anything that followed.
Fry and Laurie I first encountered in the "Bambi" episode of the Young Ones, back when that first aired on MTV, in the US (my college days). That's the episode where the gang goes on University Challenge, the quiz show, against Footlights College Oxbridge, which features Fry & Laurie, Emma Thompson and Ben Elton (who was a writer on the series and did bit parts, as well as the UK's top stand-up comic, in the 80s and one of its most successful tv writers, with Blackadder and The Thin Blue Line also featuring his writing). I was a major Blackadder fan and Fry was a regular in Series 2 (Lord Melchett) and a guest in Series 3 (Duke of Wellington), while Laurie had a guest appearance in 2 (as a German assassin, in the final episode) and a regular in 3 (as the Prince Regent). Both were regulars in Series 4 (Gen Melchett, and Lt George St Barleigh, respectively). I caught a little of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, when it was briefly carried on Bravo, then got a Best of VHS, when that was released. Since then, I got the dvds and have seen the whole thing. I have since seen them and Emma Thompson in Alfresco, a sketch series that pre-date their own show. I caught them in Jeeves & Wooster, when the 3rd series premiered on masterpiece Theater, in the US (which led me to read the PG Wodehouse stories, for which I am ever grateful).
I highly recommend A Bit of Fry & Laurie, as it has a great mix of verbal humor, sophisticated humor, low-brow humor, musical parody and character stuff. Some good guest stars, in the later series of the show. If you enjoy those you have to watch Jeeves & Wooster. They are superb as Wodehouse's dim Bertie Wooster and brilliant man-servant Jeeves. Some of the episodes have a bit of sameness to the plots (Wodehouse did repeat some themes) and a couple of actors changed roles across series ). The upper-crust names can get a bit confusing (Gussie Finknottle, Tuppy Glossop, Bingo Little) as can bertie's Aunts (Aunt Dahlia Travers is the one he adores, who pulls him into schemes, because she needs Jeeves' help and Aunt Agatha Gregson is the nasty one everyone fears). Also, the Jazz Age music is terrific and Laurie gets to demonstrate his musical prowess (while also showacsing how dim Bertie is) and there is one or two where Jeeves is asked to be the chorus (and Fry couldn't carry a tune in a dump truck), especially on "Minnie the Moocher."
If you've never seen Blackadder, rectify that, too. Stars Rowan Atkinson, of Mr Bean and has fun with British history. The first series is the weakest, set in the time of a Richard 4th, after Blackadder accidentally kills his uncle, Richard the 3rd, as Bosworth Field), where Blackadder is portrayed as dumber than Baldrick. Series 2 had Ben Elton join on the writing and switched the dynamic so that Blackadder is the clever one, whose schemes get mucked up by the dim Baldrick (or th crazy Queen Elizabeth and her court, with Miranda Richardson as Queen Elizabeth). It is set in the Elizabethan era and has a hilarious turn by Tom Baker as a sea captain. Series 3 is set during the time of George the 3rd, when the Prince Regent ruled in his stead, with Blackadder a servant to the Prince. Series 4 is set in the trenches, in World War 1. There was a Christmas special, set in the Victorian era, which spoofs A Christmas Carol (kindhearted Blackadder sees his nastier ancestors and realizes he has been a chump) and there was a special that dealt with Charles II (with Fry playing him like Prince Charles, the current Prince of Wales) and a Millennium Special, involving a time travelling Blackadder.
Also recommend The Young Ones, which is hilarious, crude, surreal, satirical and features great music; plus, some of the top young comedians from the world of 80s alternative comedy. It starred Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmonson, Nigel Planer and Chris Ryan, with Alexi Sayle featured as members of the Bolowski family, and has appearances by Fry & Laurie, Emma Thompson, Ben Elton, Lenny henry, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Robbie Coltrane and music from Madness, Motorhead Rip Rig & Panic (which featured young Nena Cherry, on vocals), Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Damned, Nine Below Zero, and Amazulu.
