TV Home Forum

ITV axe sitcoms

Tell viewers to get their comedy from Corrie (February 2019)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
HA
harshy Founding member
JCB posted:
harshy posted:
Never the Twain, Fresh Fields, French Fields, Second Thoughts, Home James, The Upper Hand, Rising Damp, On the Buses, Mind Your Language, Man About The House, Duty Free, Only When I Laugh, Robins Nest, George and Mildred, i thought i would throw are few in there.


Anything from this century? The 80's alternative comedy boom killed ITV comedy and it never really recovered. Since then they've had Mr Bean, The Upper Hand (kinda forgotten) and Benidorm and that's about it. Again, it's not exactly hard to see why they'd rather just not bother.

Don’t know stopped watching itv since they got rid of the regions Wink
CH
chrisdafur
JCB posted:
Anything from this century?


Vicious wasn't too bad.
:-(
A former member
Vicious was wonderful but the PC lot get grumpy.
AN
Andrew Founding member
Vicious also never rated as well as it should have done considering the A list cast.
BR
Brekkie
JKDerry posted:
A historian once wrote that the main reason why ITV sitcoms have rarely sat easy was that a half hour sitcom on ITV runs around 25 minutes and includes a commercial break, whereas the BBC sitcoms run to a near full 29 minutes with no break in the middle to stop the flow of the programme.

He also said the 4 minutes of breaks reduces the time for character development and exposition in stories, and causes ITV sitcoms to appear lacking in character development.

That's why there has never been a successful sitcom on US network TV. Rolling Eyes
UKnews and itsrobert gave kudos
BR
Brekkie
Looking back at recent years it is arguably ITV have given it more effort than BBC1, whose sitcom output seems to have been limited to Still Open All Hours, Car Share and Mrs Browns Boys.
KE
kernow
Brekkie posted:
JKDerry posted:
A historian once wrote that the main reason why ITV sitcoms have rarely sat easy was that a half hour sitcom on ITV runs around 25 minutes and includes a commercial break, whereas the BBC sitcoms run to a near full 29 minutes with no break in the middle to stop the flow of the programme.

He also said the 4 minutes of breaks reduces the time for character development and exposition in stories, and causes ITV sitcoms to appear lacking in character development.

That's why there has never been a successful sitcom on US network TV. Rolling Eyes


US sitcoms are often shorter in duration than ITV sitcoms, sometimes only 20 minutes.

They also contain more advert breaks, sometimes up to 3 in a 30 minute episode.
AN
Andrew Founding member
Brekkie posted:
Looking back at recent years it is arguably ITV have given it more effort than BBC1, whose sitcom output seems to have been limited to Still Open All Hours, Car Share and Mrs Browns Boys.

And as we’ve learnt over recent posts, BBC One’s comedy slate has fallen from much greater heights.

And if the BBC can’t make it work with their privileged position, nobody can.
DA
davidhorman
Was Loved By You (starring John Gordon Sinclair) on ITV? I don't remember a thing about it, but I do remember enjoying it at the time.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
davidhorman posted:
Was Loved By You (starring John Gordon Sinclair) on ITV? I don't remember a thing about it, but I do remember enjoying it at the time.


It was ITV (1997) and it was apparently a total transplant of Mad About You even down to the dialogue.
WH
Whataday Founding member
I'm amazed we've got to page 6 of this thread without a single mention of Barbara, which is usually the go-to option when talking about successful ITV sitcoms.
JA
james-2001
Neil Jones posted:
davidhorman posted:
Was Loved By You (starring John Gordon Sinclair) on ITV? I don't remember a thing about it, but I do remember enjoying it at the time.


It was ITV (1997) and it was apparently a total transplant of Mad About You even down to the dialogue.


During the era they tried that with several US sitcoms. Brighton Belles (Golden Girls), Married For Life (Married With Children), Days Like These (That 70s Show), I'm sure there were more.

Newer posts