Only Fools and Horses was not an immediate success. It actually didn't really become hugely popular until around Series 3 in 1983. They had Christmas specials for 1981 and 1982, but those were never aired on Christmas Day - it was only in 1983 after the success of Series 3 that their Christmas special got their first of many Christmas Day airings.
I believe the first episode in September 1981 attracted just 9.2 million - which for 1981, a year where we had just three TV channels, wasn't great for a sitcom. Today of course 9.2 million for a sitcom would be an immediate hit!
2.9m would be considered a hit now. The value of repeat runs should not be underestimated though - I'd say both Gavin and Stacey and Mrs Browns Boys show that is still the case in recent years.
Worth noting BBC1 (with a bit of help from BBC3) actually have 5 new sitcoms a week on at the moment with Ghosts, Ladhood, Back to Life, Ladybaby and The Cleaner (replacing King Gary) on Friday. That must be the most in a week for quite some time - though of course all got put on iPlayer in full before airing on BBC1.
Do you remember a time when ITV used to churn out sitcom after sitcom? It was as if they were flinging out as many sitcoms to see which one would stick and become popular, and only a handful actually did become gems.
JK1985 post_id=38480 time= user_id=1347 Wrote:Do you remember a time when ITV used to churn out sitcom after sitcom? It was as if they were flinging out as many sitcoms to see which one would stick and become popular, and only a handful actually did become gems.
I think the last comedy hit that ITV had was Duty Free.
ITV have seem to abandoned the sitcom genre. In 1981, they had a lot of sitcoms to compete with Only Fools and others on the BBC
Benidorm if you can call it a sitcom - which I have seen being done - is maybe ITV's last big success.
JK1985 post_id=38488 time= user_id=1347 Wrote:ITV have seem to abandoned the sitcom genre. In 1981, they had a lot of sitcoms to compete with Only Fools and others on the BBC
They recently tried again on ITV2 with Buffering... didn't do great in the ratings though.
Has everyone forgotten Kate and Koji which aired last year? Did very well but I assume series 2 is on hold since Brenda Blethyn is busy with Vera.
In regards to OFAH, I did enjoy it although I feel it was a little self indulgent in the later series with 50 minute regular episodes and feature length specials.
ITV tried with The Job Lot a few years back, which was moved to ITV2 for their second series.
Humphrey Hacker post_id=38485 time= user_id=1128 Wrote:JK1985 post_id=38480 time= user_id=1347 Wrote:Do you remember a time when ITV used to churn out sitcom after sitcom? It was as if they were flinging out as many sitcoms to see which one would stick and become popular, and only a handful actually did become gems.
I think the last comedy hit that ITV had was Duty Free.
I'd say The Upper Hand was the last truly big sitcom hit they had. It used to get very high viewing figures and I can remember a lot of press coverage when the lead characters finally got together.
JK1985 post_id=38456 time= user_id=1347 Wrote:Only Fools and Horses was not an immediate success. It actually didn't really become hugely popular until around Series 3 in 1983.
I often wonder how much of that is attributed to the fact that the now famous "
stick a pony in me pocket" theme tune wasn't there in Series 1. What viewers originally heard was something that by 1981 sounded very dated and seemed more fitting for a quiz show in the mid-seventies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaCg93od-qY
ITV's other recent sitcom success was the Birds of a Feather reboot, although Bad Move (with Jack Dee) and the previously mentioned Kate and Kojo did well enough to have second series commissioned.
Humphrey Hacker post_id=38485 time= user_id=1128 Wrote:I think the last comedy hit that ITV had was Duty Free.
Depends how you term a 'comedy hit' but what about Mr Bean, The New Statesman, The Upper Hand, After Henry, Benidorm? Not sure if Men Behaving Badly counts
There are other examples, Thames had quite a few fairly long running sitcoms in the late 80s as well as After Henry. There were quite a few weekend sitcoms that did fairly well like Surgical Spirit, Second Thoughts
Inspector Sands post_id=38599 time= user_id=1003 Wrote:Humphrey Hacker post_id=38485 time= user_id=1128 Wrote:I think the last comedy hit that ITV had was Duty Free.
Depends how you term a 'comedy hit' but what about Mr Bean, The New Statesman, The Upper Hand, After Henry, Benidorm? Not sure if Men Behaving Badly counts
There are other examples, Thames had quite a few fairly long running sitcoms in the late 80s as well as After Henry. There were quite a few weekend sitcoms that did fairly well like Surgical Spirit, Second Thoughts
Hmm.To be brutally honest the only one of those that I enjoyed was The New Statesman. I've seen one episode of Benidorm but didn't rate it.MBB was better in its BBC incarnation.The rest seemed twee to me.
I've always believed that the BBC make better comedies.