Category: Comedy
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The Marshall Chronicles Changed Sitcom History (Probably)
A small fact nugget keeps popping up about Seinfeld – that the show was renamed after the pilot to avoid allusions to the ABC show The Marshall Chronicles. As the pilot had been called The Seinfeld Chronicles, and the ABC show was cancelled after four episodes, they went with the much snappier new title. It’s…
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All Rise For Julian Clary
It’s always fun when two disparate things collide. I was reminded of All Rise For Julian Clary by, of all things, The Secret Barrister book, which mentions the show in passing. Barely a day later, following a mention on a YouTube video, I found theoldnet.com, and decided to look at the BBC’s website from 1996.…
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Hewitt – The British Answer To Seinfeld
Inevitably, during the late 1990s, British broadcasters were looking for something a bit like Seinfeld. When BBC Two launched Rhona, The Stage asked the eponymous star: So am I right in thinking British Seinfeld?‘We have more of a Seinfeldian interest,’ she says carefully. The Real Rhona, Ben Dowell, The Stage, Thursday 20th July 2000 Then…
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Kathy Burke Clippings
I had a little lament the other evening, that it’s such a shame Kathy Burke never appeared in The New Statesman. She would have been equally wonderful as a slick Tory backbencher, or a Labour frontbencher. Here’s an early review of Kathy’s work – a performance in the play Ghosts. In 1989, Maureen Paton is…
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Big-Mouth Billy
There’s a line on page 73 of Proctology: A Bottom Examination which reads: Rik also made a corporate video in 1988, but his was for John Cleese’s Video Arts production company. Managing Problem People: Behavioral Skills For Leaders was directed by Charles Crichton (who directed A Fish Called Wanda), and was written by Stephen Fry.…
