It's only regarded as the "worst" because it was a rare flop from the normally sure hands of David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. There have been plenty equally unamusing comedies over the years!!!
The biggest production problem was simply that the concept was hugely overambitious. Given how BBC drama used to struggle to make Blake's 7 or the original Dr Who look convincing, can you imagine just how bad a sitcom set in space looked?
David Croft insists the series was never properly promoted and also suffered in the ratings because it was shown opposite The Kenny Everett Video Show on ITV. He still stands by it and, in his autobiography, expresses disappointment that it has never been repeated on UK Gold.
Another problem - and one unimaginable today - is that David Croft was so trusted (with justification) that the Head of Comedy Jimmy Gilbert and the Controller of BBC1 Bill Cotton simply let DC crack on with making what he believed would be a cracking comedy. They never thought to ask him what it was about before they commissioned it!! I can imagine how they must have felt on the sixth floor when they saw the result...
Come Back Mrs Noah was critically panned when it aired in the late 70s, and that's why it only lasted one series. I think the audience figures for it were poor as well.
Another mistake made was to think that recruiting two stars from other BBC comedy series (Mollie Sugden from Are You Being Served?, Ian Lavender from Dad's Army which had just then recently ended) would be enough to guarantee another hit series. As can be seen just by looking at the titles of Come Back Mrs Noah, this wasn't the case.
I always thought that the writing partnership of Croft and Lloyd was better than Perry and Croft. In terms of laughs per minute. But for some reason this didn't connect with the audience. I don't even remember it, so I must have been one of the millions watching Kenny Everett on ITV. Space sitcoms just didn't seem to work, Astronauts was written by Graeme Garden & Bill Oddie and flopped. The only one that was a massive success was Red Dwarf.
:-(
A former member
cylon6 posted:
. Space sitcoms just didn't seem to work, Astronauts was written by Graeme Garden & Bill Oddie and flopped. The only one that was a massive success was Red Dwarf.
that took another 10 years to come about, 1989, and by that time I dare say it woudl have worked
The viewers weren't the only ones who didn't like it - the ITV execs also loathed it, and comedy expert Mark Lewisohn rates Bottle Boys as the worst sitcom of all time.
The viewers weren't the only ones who didn't like it - the ITV execs also loathed it, and comedy expert Mark Lewisohn rates Bottle Boys as the worst sitcom of all time.
Few people would disagree with that sentiment.
I would say Wyatt's Watchdogs was far, far worse!! But because hardly anybody watched it nobody knows of its wretchedness!!
Another mistake made was to think that recruiting two stars from other BBC comedy series (Mollie Sugden from Are You Being Served?, Ian Lavender from Dad's Army which had just then recently ended) would be enough to guarantee another hit series. As can be seen just by looking at the titles of Come Back Mrs Noah, this wasn't the case.
Just looked at those end credits and they had a couple of It Ain't Half Hot Mum people in there as well, Donald Hewlett and Michael Knowles. And a future cafe owner with Gordon Kaye. Incidentally Michael Knowles also helped write a few episodes of Are You Being Served?