MovieChat Forums > The Young Ones (1998) Discussion > How well known is this in America

How well known is this in America

posted 12 years ago by burun100
17 replies | jump to latest

I never thought this was that well known in America but it seems to be better known than I thought. It was shown on MTV which was quite a big channel to be shown on and the Nostalgia Critic mentioned it in his review for Drop Dead Fred he says about Rik Mayall "that guy from the Young Ones" as though that's a reference he expects people will get. I also hear that they got Rik Mayall to be in Drop Dead Fred because he of the young ones. Does it have a big cult following in America I would really appreciate any American fans getting back to me on this.

[–] Nynaeve 8 years ago

Much less well known than shows like Monty Python or Doctor Who. Partly because I don't think it's aired in the U.S. since the 80s. I only know about it through watching other alt British comedies like Garth Marenghi and The Mighty Boosh with TYO being named as an influence. It looks like the episodes are on Daily Motion if you know to look for it.

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[–] Dr Wily 8 years ago

I saw it on MTV in like 1990 and then again in 1994 on Comedy Central. Even though I live in America, I doubt the show every really had anything other than a cult following here. Since there were only 12 episodes, any station that showed it would burn through a rotation of episodes pretty quickly. And I don't remember Comedy Central carrying it as long as they did Monty Python's Flying Circus the same year. There were more episodes of that so it would be on longer.

It seems MTV also had the show in 1985, though I didn't see it then.

And, I've never seen it on a TV network since Comedy Central in 1994. In fact, I hadn't seen the show until I caught up with it on DVD recently.

[–] dreaming (43) 8 years ago

Yeah,MTV was the only channel even broadcasting this show back in the '80s (1985,to be precise.) I was in junior high at time and had been watching British comedy on CBC Channel 9 in Windsor since I was 11---which used to show locally in the Detroit metro area (it's only available on cable now,darn it.) The only real frame of reference I had for anything as crazy as hell/flat-out weird as TYO was Monty Python's Flying Circus,which I would always sneak up to watch on PBS late Saturday nights. I also ended up having to sneak up to watch TYO because it only came on late Sunday nights on MTV at something like one damn o' clock in the morning, after some of their other underground shows like 120 Minutes,Headbanger's Ball,and a British music showcase called The Tube. If MTV had put the show at an earlier time slot on a Friday or Saturday night ( like maybe 10 p.m.,when I could have actually seen it on a regular basis) it may have gotten more notice,but,yeah, it was genuinely too weird and whacked-the-hell out to be anything but an underground cult classic back in those days. Plus I had to go to bed early for school, and only caught a handful of episodes because of that. The only other recent Britcom I can think of as equally weird and reaching similar levels of gleefully deranged insanity, is The IT Crowd from a few years back.

But,yeah,it's always nice to see that other people remember this show,too,and that it made such a WTF-is-this-crazy-s*** kind-of-impression on them like it did me as a teen. My mother joked that I watched all this weird stuff all the time,and I still do after all these years--and damn glad to,lol.

[–] BourbonKing (5777) 4 years ago

I was in middle school and high school when MTV aired it and almost everyone was aware of this show and its characters. It had a bigger following in the States than it's given credit for. Unfortunately it could never capitalize as much on it like so many British TV programs do today

[–] Druff (1796) 3 years ago

I'd say it's pretty well known... to a specific sliver of the populace. I graduated high school in 1987 which was right around the time MTV started showing The Young Ones. I was a punk, and pretty much all of my friends were punks, hessians, general rebels and misfits... seemed like virtually everyone in my circle and scene knew and loved the show.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

I saw it, in the late 1980s or 1990s. I don't remember what channel it was on. I liked the show, it was funny.

And I forgot all about it, when the awesomeness of "Absolutely Fabulous" came across the pond. Greatest Brit comedy show of recent decades!