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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Other Topics  |  Television  |  The Goodies « previous next »
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Author Topic: The Goodies  (Read 3691 times)
AndyC
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« on: August 24, 2010, 09:52:35 AM »

The Brits on the board are probably more familiar with this one. Basically three guys for hire to do any job, leading to wacky adventures. The Goodies did air in North America briefly in the 70s or early 80s, which is when I have vague memories of it. Anyway, this show was a contemporary of Monty Python's Flying Circus. It has a similar, albeit tamer style of surrealist comedy and the stars, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie, share some background with some of the Pythons. Anyway, I went looking for the show recently, and turned up some episodes on video that I've been enjoying. The great thing is, most of the comedy is such that I can watch episodes with my daughter and we both get something out of it. She loved the giant kitten rampaging through London.

Here's a couple of clips from an episode that is infamous for its connection to a documented case of someone laughing himself to death in 1975. Apparently, the sight of a kilted Scotsman wielding bagpipes against a Lancastrian armed with a black pudding was enough to kick off an uncontrolled 20-minute laughing fit that eventually caused a 50-year-old fan of the show to die either of a heart attack or a stroke. His widow wrote a letter thanking The Goodies for making him so happy in his final moments.
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Anybody else enjoy The Goodies?
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Flick James
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« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2010, 04:21:47 PM »

I remember The Goodies, and yes, I remember seeing the show in the late 70s/early 80's growing up. I watched it because I liked Monty Python. It was a little more slapstick than Python, if I remember. I don't remember that much. The only bit that sticks out in my mind was some episode where they were inside a giant human mouth (either they were miniaturized or they were in a giant mouth) and heading to the back of the throat to slide down into the stomach, and I remember one of them boxing the uvula as if it were a punching bag as they passed it by. Very slapstick and ample use of sped-up camera gags if I remember.
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AndyC
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« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2010, 11:02:20 PM »

Definitely more slapstick than Python. I'd put the style somewhere between Monty Python and Benny Hill, with more of a sitcom format, rather than straight sketch comedy. Kind of a groovy early-70s countercultural feel to it as well. Not as naughty as Hill, and without some of the darker humour of Python. Easy to see why some of the critics of the time dismissed it as a kid's show. Seems to me they managed to do the same surreal comedy in a format the whole family could watch and appreciate.

The only bit that sticks out in my mind was some episode where they were inside a giant human mouth (either they were miniaturized or they were in a giant mouth) and heading to the back of the throat to slide down into the stomach, and I remember one of them boxing the uvula as if it were a punching bag as they passed it by.


I remember that one too. I think they might have been inside a dinosaur. The other one that stands out in my memory is the one where they try to dispose of a drum of "tomato soup" that is really a chemical weapon that turns the population of Great Britain into clowns.

I think I have both those episodes. I'll have to take a look.

Here's the intro from Season 5, which has the Ecky-Thump episode. Yep, definitely a lot of slapstick and sped-up camera gags. TeddyR Catchy theme too.
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The Burgomaster
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« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2010, 06:20:59 AM »

This used to be on PBS (Boston's Channel 2) in the 1970s.  Channel 2 was showing a lot of imports around that time including Monty Python, Dave Allen at Large, and The Two Ronnies.
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AndyC
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« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2010, 08:45:49 AM »

I remember that one too. I think they might have been inside a dinosaur.

Just watched that episode. Yep, it was an unusually large and well-preserved T-Rex they found in a cavern under their apartment building. They got trapped inside and lived in the stomach for six months, until they accidentally revived it.

This used to be on PBS (Boston's Channel 2) in the 1970s.  Channel 2 was showing a lot of imports around that time including Monty Python, Dave Allen at Large, and The Two Ronnies.

Dave Allen. I used to love that show. Back in the 80s, one of the stations we got ran Benny Hill and Dave Allen back to back every weeknight. Probably the only hour of TV my dad and I could enjoy together. He usually only watched news and sports, but those two shows cracked him up. I actually had the good fortune of seeing Dave Allen live on stage when he was touring Canada around 1990. When he wasn't toning it down for TV, Allen's standup routine was even funnier.

I remember The Two Ronnies from around the same time you do. Probably the same PBS broadcasts, just a different affiliate. Nobody else was showing British TV in North America at that time, to my knowledge.

There were quite a few British shows I only caught a glimpse of as a kid. The Two Ronnies, The Goodies, On the Buses, Kenny Everett in the early 80s, and the actual Monty Python series. Thanks to the movies, I saw more Monty Python growing up. I don't think it was until the late 80s and early 90s that a lot of shows were imported directly. In the 70s, if a show was big in Britain, American networks just based their own show on it, giving minimal credit to the source. All in the Family, for example.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind checking out 'Til Death Do Us Part. I've never actually seen it.
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