BL> The two brilliant comedy shows I can't laugh at are "Yes,
 BL> Minister" and "Mother and Son". The guys who wrote
these, lived
 BL> them... they are too close to the truth for me.

 KR> do they attribute the origin of mother and son? if not it makes
 KR> it a somewhat watered down rip off of the original steptoe and
 KR> son.

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

 KR> still its miles better than the pathetic yank version -
 KR> stanford and son.

  I never saw it. The other genuine rip off was Alf and "All in the
Family". I actually thought the American version was better, for
making Archie more human than Warren Mitchell made Alf. 

 KR> i do see how you could relate to it though (:

  Arrggghh! I guarantee that the guy who writes it lives with an old
mother. It is *exactly* right... even to the brother.

  It's really cruel. Fairchild was looking for an engineer to go to
Hong Kong and sell silicon transistors into TV. As it turned out, the
job was a crock, but I passed it on to a pommie bastard in the lab,
and the Fairchild job led naturally to Astec, and the bastard is now a
multi-millionaire!

  Me, on the other hand... I bought a fucking house and got stuck with
a mother when Dad died. Arrrghh!

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

Regards,
Bob
 

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