BL> I loved Steptoe... and it's not the same as "Mother and Son" at
 BL> all, keith. Maggie is nothing like the dirty old man, Arthur is
 BL> nothing like Harold, and the storylines are different. The
 BL> brother is brand new.

 KR> still comes to the same concept of the elderly person
 KR> manipulating the son to do their bidding. m&s is very much
 KR> toned down from steptoe.

  If you want to expand on that reasoning, you could say that there is
only one story in the entire world, and that Steptoe is really based
on Moses crossing the Red Sea.

 KR> i preferred alf, galt and simpson produced some very hard edge
 KR> dialog (they also wrote steptoe, and the older hancocks) where
 KR> the humour and the social comment were intermixed so finely
 KR> that they came out as one.

 At first it was wonderful, but then the genuine hatred between
Mitchell and Dandy Nichols became obvious and I found the show rather
sick: Alf too much, the silly old Moo a sniper, the son-in-law and
daughter stereotyped. You always knew what they were going to say
next. The American version kept the affection in the family alive, and
to to me, this was the point of it.

  The basis of humour is truth, the closer to truth the funnier, and
Alf's family was so clearly dysfunctional that it was not true that
they would stay together. It was Warren Mitchell's fault. He could do
bluster and sly very well, but unlike Carol O'connor in the Yank
version, he could not make you like him at the same time.

  Galt and Simpson were brilliant at showing opposites sides of a
character, but it only works if the character is sympathetic and more
human because of it. Hancock and Steptoe walked the line pretty well,
but Alf and his family ended up monsters.

 KR> there was one us show that started out that way - mash, but it
 KR> ended up taking itself too seriously and became ponderous. 

  I don't subscribe to the general knocking of USA humour. All TV
shows go the same way, as the story line finally finds its limit. An
hour TV show is the equivalent of a novel. MASH has to be the most
successful of all. How many novels could you bear to read on the same
theme? How could you write 26 novels a year?

  I find most US sitcoms appalling, but I find most UK sitcoms just as
bad. The difference is that the USA uses precocious kids and the UK
uses garrulous old farts. My problem is that I am neither so young nor
so old that I have much empathy with either group. I'd shoot both the
fuckers. 

  The best comedy is easy to pick. It shows some part of Truth to us. 
This applies equally to Drop the Dead Donkey, and Home Improvements, both.

 BL> I could'a been a contender, Charlie...

 KR> but your life is so much more character building, the other guy
 KR> is probably just a rich fat slug with a bunch of dolly birds in
 KR> tow now. you wouldn't want to vegitate like that would you? (:

  Yes.

  On the other hand...

  I discovered a terrible thing about myself when I retired. I am
virtually free to do anything I like... but I prefer to do fuck all.

  Maybe I should become a Buddhist.

Regards,
Bob
 
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