The Young Ones

[Oldskool138]

Has anyone else seen this great Brit-Com from the early 80's?  I got the collection due to the high praises my friend gave me...Man, was it worth it.  It's about these four loser college kids that don't like each other sharing an apartment.  There's Rick a "poet" and anarchist wannabe, Neil a depressed hippie, Mike a Rat Pack faux-suave guy and (my favorite) Vyvian a hard-core, ultra-violent punk rocker.

Each show has a basic plot but they always have these weird and hysterical non sequiturs (a la Family Guy).  The only thing that I didn't like was some of the dated and/or Brit specific jokes...and their communist landlord (and some of the musical acts).  On the whole it is a brilliant series and a must see for fans of obscure comedy!

[Snivelly]

My favorite episode is the one where they wake up one morning and find that a missile has somehow landed in the house unexploded.  Loved this show, wish I had those DVDs.

[Oldskool138]

My favorite episode is the one where they wake up one morning and find that a missile has somehow landed in the house unexploded.  Loved this show, wish I had those DVDs.

My favorite episode was the one where they're going to represent Scumbag College on a TV quiz show.  Motorhead was the musical guest and Hugh Laurie (House) has a small part as one of the kids from the rich college.  I also like the one where they throw a party and the one where they get a VCR.

"It's time for a very special bend of psychology and extreme viloence!"
-Vyvian Bastard

Great stuff!!!

[JaseSF]

It's a great show and full of sci-fi, horror and fantasy genre in-references. One episode even has a sequence in Narnia.

[ulthar]

I used to watch this years ago. I friend of mine got me a book "Neil's Book of the Dead" which was pretty funny.  I have no idea what happened to that book...probably loaned it to somebody and never got it back.

[Derf]

I love this show! I have been tempted to get the dvd set, but I never seem to have the money. Plus, my wife doesn't like the show, so watching it would be difficult anyway. The chemistry between the actors is fantastic, and the writing is hilarious (in an anarchistic kind of way).

[Viktorcrayon]

Yes yes yes!!! The show still seems fresh and sparkly when you watch it to this day.

[felgekarp]

To be honest I didn't think the first series was that funny but the second one has all the classic episodes, Nasty, Bambi, Summer Holiday, one of my favourite scenes is in Summer Holiday where Neil turns into the Incredible Hulk and starts throwing the others around.

[Yaddo 42]

Used to love this show, I also need to pick up the DVDs.

Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson were other members of the team from Footlights college in the University Challenge episode. I forgot who the other member of the team was, but there were lots of recognizeable faces on the show, they put many of their friends on the show. Wasn't Robby Coltrane the scientist who fed the sticky bun with the slide stuck to it to the elephant. Still love the image of Vyv's body kicking his own severed head down the railroad track bed for being abusive.

Other bits I liked:

"Oh, have we got a video?"
The Balofsky family (Alexi Sayle). And when he was the vampire, er.....driving instructor from the Transvaal.
Watch out for the special branch!
"Rick!Rick! You can't kill yourself that way! I've tried it a thousand times, you can never get the last nail in!"
Rick's unwitting suicide attempt by laxative pills.
Motorhead!
Laundry day
The bank robbery followed by Vyv's breakdown when STP was crushed from sitting on the radiator and the car hits a pole.
Mike nailing his legs to the table trying to keep the plates in place.

Got to see that show again

[felgekarp]

Used to love this show, I also need to pick up the DVDs.

Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson were other members of the team from Footlights college in the University Challenge episode. I forgot who the other member of the team was, but there were lots of recognizeable faces on the show, they put many of their friends on the show. Wasn't Robby Coltrane the scientist who fed the sticky bun with the slide stuck to it to the elephant.

The other 2 team members where Hugh Laurie and Ben Elton and Yes it was Robby Coltrane as the scientist, Tony Robinson as the guy who brings the elephant in, Gryff Rhys Jones as Bambi and Mel Smith as the security guard that stops them when they get to the show, that's probably more information than you needed to know 

[Yaddo 42]

I've seen mentions of the various guests on The Young Ones on other boards, the problem is that I saw TYO before I saw Blackadder, or knew who Thompson, Fry, Laurie, Smith, and Co. were, and have seen them so rarely in years since. TYO is the show that made me aware of French and Saunders.

To this day, when people I know in real life get on my nerves talking away, I still hear Vyvian in my head shouting, 'Shut up, you bastards!!!" The way he's says it puntuates my anger in those moments perfectly.

[Oldskool138]

To this day, when people I know in real life get on my nerves talking away, I still hear Vyvian in my head shouting, 'Shut up, you bastards!!!" The way he's says it puntuates my anger in those moments perfectly.

The band Primus on their (IMO) best album "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" used that quote several times in the last song "Los Bastardos".  I had no idea where they got it from but when I heard Vyvian say it in the show I almost fell out of my chair. 

It was like when I watched the originial "The Mummy" (I'm still boycotting the remake...I will never see that crap-ola) and heard the female lead say "Do you have to open graves to find girls to fall in love with?".  Being a big White Zombie (the band) fan I always wondered where they got that quote from as they used it as a lead-in for the second part of the song "Welcome To Planet Motherf****r/Psychoholic Slag".

Homages and in-jokes rule! 

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

I really love this show.  Alexei Sayle had a couple TV shows that were quite good as well.
-Ed

[Yaddo 42]

To this day, when people I know in real life get on my nerves talking away, I still hear Vyvian in my head shouting, 'Shut up, you bastards!!!" The way he's says it puntuates my anger in those moments perfectly.

The band Primus on their (IMO) best album "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" used that quote several times in the last song "Los Bastardos".  I had no idea where they got it from but when I heard Vyvian say it in the show I almost fell out of my chair. 

It was like when I watched the originial "The Mummy" (I'm still boycotting the remake...I will never see that crap-ola) and heard the female lead say "Do you have to open graves to find girls to fall in love with?".  Being a big White Zombie (the band) fan I always wondered where they got that quote from as they used it as a lead-in for the second part of the song "Welcome To Planet Motherf****r/Psychoholic Slag".

Homages and in-jokes rule! 

I always loved the dialogue snippet of (I think) Day of the Dead used by Gorillaz at the beginning of the song "M1A1". Just suits the mood of dread building in the music perfectly.

[El Dogo]

The Young Ones had one of my all-time favorite comedy moments.

At the end of one scene, the camera inexplicably zooms in on an apple sitting on a shelf.  It turns out the apple is a puppet, and it says "don't look at me, I'm irrelevant!"

Imagine that happening in an American sitcom.