This is a rather remarkable reprise of Some Mothers Do Av Em that was done for charity in 2016. Even if you don't recognize the cameos it's very funny (and there is one cameo you definitely will recognize) and the stunt work is incredible when you consider Crawford, who does his own stunts, was in his early 70s at the time. If you're not familiar with his character of Frank Spencer he is a child-like accident prone innocent evocative of silent film era comedians like Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton.

Last edited by Hansa (August 20, 2023 1:19 pm)

CBC also aired the Two Ronnies, Absolutely Fabulous, Yes Minister, Mr Bean and they even had the anarchic Goodies on daily in the after school spot for a year or two.

The 70s Britcoms and sketch shows tended to be racier than anything coming out of the US - though tame by today's standards.

What gets me is when British shows air today, particularly those with working class and regional accents , there's a litany of complaints from viewers about not being able to understand what's being said but this didn't seem to be a problem in the 70s. Did people just have a better ear or were they more accustomed to hearing British accents in real life due to the number of expats here at the time?

Last edited by Hansa (August 20, 2023 3:00 pm)

Peter the K wrote:

Hansa wrote:

This is a rather remarkable reprise of Some Mothers Do Av Em that was done for charity in 2016. Even if you don't recognize the cameos it's very funny (and there is one cameo you definitely will recognize) and the stunt work is incredible when you consider Crawford, who does his own stunts, was in his early 70s at the time. If you're not familiar with his character of Frank Spencer he is a child-like accident prone innocent evocative of silent film era comedians like Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton.

How could I possibly forget Some Mothers do 'Avem 'Em!  Michael Crawford was absolutely brilliant.

The 2016 Reprise was also quite wild.  

Silly piece of trivia.  The rhythm of the theme music for the show is made up of the title spelled out in Morse Code: "S-O-M-E-M-O-T-H-E-R-S-D-O-A-V-E-E-M"

I don't know about the reprise but in the original series, Michael Crawford did his own stunts too.
 

Amazingly, the Michael Crawford who starred in the slapstick Some Mothers is the same Michael Crawford who was the original Phantom in Phantom of the Opera on both the West End and Broadway.

Last edited by Hansa (August 20, 2023 4:23 pm)

Growing up in the ‘90s, I remember YTV showing reruns of different Britcoms at night in the hours before their nightly sign-off. The one I remember the most was Are You Being Served?.

I was a child at the time, so I was unable to understand the comedic stylings of the show’s legendary ensemble cast. It was only years later that I truly understood and appreciated the show for what it was.

Last edited by M. David (August 20, 2023 9:29 pm)

And although I don't think it ever aired in North America, let's not forget what may have been the most influential Britcom of all time - "Till Death Us Do Part," which was the basis for "All In The Family" on this side of the pond, the show that changed TV here forever.  

RadioActive wrote:

And although I don't think it ever aired in North America, let's not forget what may have been the most influential Britcom of all time - "Till Death Us Do Part," which was the basis for "All In The Family" on this side of the pond, the show that changed TV here forever.  

An interesting parallel between the two series: Edith Bunker's character died off before the second season of Archie Bunker's Place (the continuation of All in the Family) and her British counterpart, Else, had also died before the start of the second season of In Sickness and in Health (the second continuation of 'Till Death Us Do Part).

The only difference was that Edith was written out of the show because Jean Stapleton chose not to renew her contract after the final season of All in the Family (although she did agree to appear in a few episodes of the first season of Archie Bunker's Place to help kick the series off), whereas Dandy Nichols, who played Else in the British series, had actually died in real life.



PJ

RadioActive wrote:

Hansa wrote:

CBC also aired the Two Ronnies

I didn't discover The Two Ronnies until Channel 17 started showing them in the mid-70s. They truly were incredible, whether doing musical sketches or straight up comedy. 

Ronnie Barker was an absolute genius when it came to word play. His performance in the sketch below is astounding. Imagine trying to get through this script when everything is completely and deliberately mispronounced. It is a lot tougher than it looks. 

This is my favourite Two Ronnies sketch

One of the reasons for the proliferation of British content on Canadian television in the early 60s is what you might call an "anti-American" provision in the regulations.  After some research I managed to find the Canada Gazette December 1959 volume with the regs.
"5) For the purposes of this section, in computing the portion of Canadian content of any station or network, there may be included,
a) programs produced outside Canada in Commonwealth countries, to the extent of one-half of the program time of such programs, but the total program time used for this purpose shall not exceed 1/3 of the broadcast time of a station or network;"
The Commonwealth designation also explains the presence of "The Flying Doctor" from Australia.
Apart from the various Britcoms (not mentioned was Tony Hancock's series), there were the earliest versions of Dr. Who, and police shows such as The Vise.
There was a similar provision for programs made in French language countries.

If you do the math, you could achieve 16.5% Cancon by filling 33% of your program schedule with British shows, and add another 29 to 34% Canadian. The starting requirement was for 45% Cancon.

At some point, the Commonwealth provision was rescinded.
 

Last edited by Skywave (August 22, 2023 10:46 am)

Here's a clip from In Sickness and in Health (I believe this is from 1986) which features a young Eamonn Walker – who, a few decades later, would go on to play Chief Wallace Boden in NBC's Chicago Fire!





PJ

Skywave wrote:

One of the reasons for the proliferation of British content on Canadian television in the early 60s is what you might call an "anti-American" provision in the regulations.  After some research I managed to find the Canada Gazette December 1959 volume with the regs.
"5) For the purposes of this section, in computing the portion of Canadian content of any station or network, there may be included,
a) programs produced outside Canada in Commonwealth countries, to the extent of one-half of the program time of such programs, but the total program time used for this purpose shall not exceed 1/2 of the broadcast time of a station or network;"
The Commonwealth designation also explains the presence of "The Flying Doctor" from Australia.
Apart from the various Britcoms (not mentioned was Tony Hancock's series), there were the earliest versions of Dr. Who, and police shows such as The Vise.
There was a similar provision for programs made in French language countries.

If you do the math, you could achieve 25% Cancon by filling 50% of your program schedule with British shows, and add another 20 to 25% Canadian. The starting requirement was for 45% Cancon.

At some point, the Commonwealth provision was rescinded.
 

There was a similar provision for film production at some point.

Skywave wrote:

I forgot Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, Dial 999, Stingray, and The Thunderbirds.

Here in the States, the digital subchannel MeTV airs Thunderbirds early Sunday mornings as part of its Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night lineup.(Amazon Prime has the rights to the more recent update, Thunderbirds Are Go.)

The Sci-Fi Channel in the U.S. aired Terrahawks, Stingray and Captain Scarlet.