brian_singapore wrote:I've always appreciated british TV series for making the number of episodes required to tell the story rather then forcibly extending tv series until they are old and stale.
Much older series (or at least the ones that migrated over to NA) tended to be very variable in number of episodes. Not so much over the last decade. But then maybe moving to England exposed me to everything so the usual is (shorter) fixed episode lengths for every season.
GSM8 wrote:Many of the BBC series (e.g. older ones like Yes Minister/PM) seem to contain complex/subtle humor, possibly taking longer to write than the more slapstick American ones (including the timeless classic Seinfeld to an extent). But another reason could be the production quotas that BBC programs are apparently subject to (restricting high viewership programs like Top Gear), unlike in the US where open bid slots allow them to "milk" the more popular ones
Maybe there is a parallel between British and American humour?Sporkin wrote:I've just been watching seasons of BBC sitcoms and some American ones, one thing struck me is that almost all BBC sitcoms have very few episodes per season, whereas the American ones usually run into the teens.
Anyone noticed that?
I am not sure, actually. Jeremy Clarkson mentioned it on Top Gear a couple of times, but perhaps it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt coming from whom it did"Sporkin wrote:I did not know that BBC has production quotas, is the purpose to even out the playing field so lesser known writer's series still get air time?
American TV is most certainly sanitized compared to BBC. US version of Top Gear humor is so utterly lame compared to the original BBC series with Clarkson/Hammond/MayJR8 wrote:OMTG too risque by half for the puritanical US audience !
'Mericans like cosy comfort, predictability, no risk of offence, (TV with a white picket fence around it?)
I think Fawlty Towers stumbled because of a fall out between Cleese and Connie Booth (Polly - in real life his wife). I agree it's hard to believe it was only two seasons as well. Booth and Cleese divorced between the seasons in fact.JR8 wrote:^ Interesting PNG, I'd never considered it that way.
Maybe another reason why some UK comedy 'lives fast dies young', it gets made in smaller chunks, and doesn't get the critical mass to continue from one 'season', or year, to the next. In fact the concept of TV seasons, is an American thing to me, IMHO.
It's funny (ha) the UK series that just burn out, and you reeeaalllly wish there had have been more. The Young Ones was a case in point. On when I was a uni student, fresh, different, irreverent, crazy, hilarious [poof!], over.
Fawlty Towers [John Cleese etc] was very similar. Insanely popular [poof!] > finished. It is unbelievable, in retrospect, that a series of that historic stature, and reputation, ran to a mere 12 episodes - incredible!
'In a list drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted by industry professionals, Fawlty Towers was named the best British television series of all time.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawlty_towers
Seems that tired old Brit humour = sarcastic wit vs. US humor = slapstick old generalization chestnut is still alive and well.GSM8 wrote:Many of the BBC series (e.g. older ones like Yes Minister/PM) seem to contain complex/subtle humor, possibly taking longer to write than the more slapstick American ones (including the timeless classic Seinfeld to an extent).
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