re: In your opinion was this the best sitcom to come out of the UK?

I am 45 years old and currently working my way through every episode of the boxed set for the first time. Yes i had seen the odd episode before but most of it is new to me.

So far i would say that it is very good quality comedy with plenty of laugh out loud moments, but mixed in are lots of dark moments too. It is growing on me with every episode and i would say by the end it will probably find a place in my top 10.

Thing is though there have been so many great sitcoms to come out of the UK over the years and they are all different. I find rating my favourites in order an almost impossible task but Fawlty Towers will always be my number 1. A list of my favourite 10 would include the following -

Fawlty Towers
Drop the Dead Donkey
Black Adder
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
The Office
Steptoe & Son
Alan Partridge
Ever Decreasing Circles
Only Fools & Horses
Red Dwarf

One Foot in the Grave i think will find its way into my particular elite very soon.


By the way my favourites from the USA are -

Frasier (number one by a distance)
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Soap
Friends
Happy Days (can't forget my youth)

One Foot In The Grave is a quality sitcom but Father Ted is the best.

Yes One Foot In The Grave was the best UK comedy of all time, with The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin a very close second.

Other favourite UK series are The Office, Fawlty Towers, Peep Show, Pulling and Hancock's Half Hour.


My favourite US comedy is Curb Your Enthusiasm... genius!!

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One foot in the grave is the most wonderful and exceptional comedy I know. True, there are numerous intelligent and funny comedies that have come out of the uk, only fools and horses was, in a way, bound to win, because it is so loved, and I love it so much, too!
One foot in the grave, though, is different, because it tries to go beyond the traditional limits of a comedy. Well, that's not true, what is special about it is that it is telling a real story. This story is a continuous narrative, not a patchwork of jokes; this narrative has its own natural pace; there is not just humor or puns in it,sometimes the story that evolves slowly and naturally tells us about tragedy or hidden humanity that emerges in the face of it. It talks about indifference and lack of care that Victor often attacks; yet it also talks about seeming indifference that turns out to be something else altogether . ( the woman in the video shop in "Who's listening".)
The multiple possibilities of interpretation of many of the comic situations and the humanity underlying "one foot in the grave" , make this the best comedy ever. And in spite of this complexity, it's the jokes which make it the absolute funniest show ever.

'One Foot in the Grave' is, without any doubt, the best-written sitcom I have viewed to date. I can think of plenty of other shows that have had me in stitches, but there just none in which the writing--both plot and characters--is so sophisticated and multi-dimensional--in spite of its sometimes almost caricature-ish absurdity. In spite of how bizarre and over the top things can get, I would say that nine times out of ten, everything comes across as being plausible if highly unlikely. David Renwick could have had a career as a novelist, IMO. His writing is that deep and rich at times. There was clearly way more thought put into making these shows three-dimensional works of art than is the case with many other TV series.

However, I fully expect that 'One Foot' wouldn't appeal to everyone, and in spite of the prominent laugh track, "sitcom" may not even be the best label for it. That is, it's not necessarily one of the best shows just because it's one of the funniest, although it does often produce excellent comedy. Really, I think it has to be taken as comedy-drama to gain the full effect. 'Father Ted', 'Fawlty Towers', 'Blackadder'--all the ones mentioned here can be gut-busting and hysterically funny, but 'One Foot' is simply way deeper and more meaningful, in my opinion, in terms of story and of character. It's unconventional as a sitcom for a number of reasons, which is why I think it can score better if you look at it as an entirely different kind of show--not something that's there just to "be funny", although it *is* funny.

There's an artistic sensibility all about this show that just appeals to me tremendously. It has darkness and pathos as well. There's really quite a melancholy, mellowing flavor at times. It can be poignant. And I think that really helps me relate to it, since life does have its ordeals and sadnessses. Music also seems to play a key role in expressing feeling and theme, as in when The Traveling Wilburys' "End of the Line" plays over the concluding montage and credits of the final episode. This adds tremendously to mood and audience connection in my opinion. Music and songs really speak. It's great, poignant stuff; as funny as it gets, it also never stops being touching. In fact, it may be the only sitcom I've come across that is emotionally and dramatically challenging at times.

I should add that I'm an American, and I like the show so much that I'm not bothered to sometimes have to look up twenty-year-old UK pop culture references to get some of the lines.

Again, 'One Foot in the Grave' may not be to everyone's tastes in the context of the conventional sitcom, but I just can't think of any show whose writing parallels this show and, along with a brilliant cast, makes it, in my opinion, utterly nonpareil.


'Irregardless' is not a word

For me Fawlty Towers is no 1 and even at it's best this doesn't come close. Yes there were some very funny episodes, the one where Mrs Birkett got stuck in the loft, the one at the seaside boarding house, the one with Brian Murphy visiting and ending up on the roof immediately come to mind, but there were too many that were just ok, and a few that were poor for it ever to get the top spot. I'd put Hi de Hi, The Good Life, Yes Minister, To the Manor Born, Are You Being Served, Only Fools and Horses (though that went on too long and was scraping the bottom of the barrel by the end), Ever Decreasing Circles, Some Mothers Do 'ave Em, and the very under rated You Rang M' Lord all above this.

I always find it tricky to choose a 'best' or #1 when it comes to this kind of stuff. It would definitely be in my top 10, along with

Father Ted
IT Crowd
The Office
Extras
Blackadder

I have Fawlty Towers on dvd and have not watched it yet. I've seen bits and pieces over the years and I know I'll enjoy it.

I've seen a few seasons of Red Dwarf, it's also very enjoyable, as is Alan Partridge.

League of Gentlemen is also funny, if a bit strange.

There is a LOT I haven't seen, my list may change as time goes on.

I think of Curb Your Enthusiasm as a bit like OFITG, older guy always getting himself into sticky situations, often getting the wrong end of it, and at the bottom of it all you find yourself agreeing with his take on life.



You don't choose the soy sauce, the soy sauce chooses you.