Fawlty Towers

Fawly Towers is a British Sitcom produced by BBC Televesion.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/fawltytowers/   This link is information and reviews about the British Sitcom Fawly Towers.


Inept and manic English hotel owner and manager, Basil Fawlty, isn't cut out for his job. He's intolerant, rude and paranoid. All hell frequently breaks loose as Basil tries to run the hotel, constantly under verbal (and sometime physical) attack from his unhelpful wife Sybil, and hindered by the incompetent, but easy target, Manuel; their Spanish waiter. Written by Rob Hartill  

The Royle Family

The Royle Family is a British comedy drama produced by Granada Televison for the BBC. The series rand for three series between 1998, and 2000. Specials of the programme have also been made from 2006 and onwards. The series is about the television fixated family from Manchester, The Royles.

The series is based on a typical benefit dependent family in Manchester, it was such a big hit as people could relate to it, making them laugh. It is based around the millenium. Almost all of the episodes are set in the Royle's home, most are the family sat infront of the tele.

The first series was written by Caroline Aherne and Craig Caste, who both acted in it, along with poet and comedian Henry Normal. In the second series Aherne and Cash were joined by Carmel Morgan, and finally the third series was written by Aherne and Cash alone.

My Family

My Family is a high rated sitcom based on a middle class family. This is a popular series as it is easily related to by the audience. It was first broadcasted in 2000, and finsihed in 2011. The main character is Ben Harper, who is a dentist with a cynical outlook on life. Ben's wife is Susan, who is a control freak and cant cook! Ben and Susan have three children: Nick, who is dosy and quite stupid. Janey, who is shallow and Micheal who is really clever. Each character in My Family has their own character in which the audience can relate themselves to.

Here are some reviews from the website: http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/my_family/

Our Review: My Family is without a doubt the most successful British sitcom that launched in the 2000s - that is if the judgement is based soley on audience figures. Whilst the last series was a little down on the previous average, almost every week My Family crushes all others in the ratings - millions tune in to see the family's latest adventures.My Family certainly has all the right ingredients to be an audience-grabber: strong stereotypical characters that are easy to identify with placed in embarrassing and comical (yet believable and familiar) situations.

This show is regularly criticised by many for being rather 'generic', utilising an unsophisticated strategy to make the audience laugh (simple one-liners are key in this sitcom, rather than cleverly built-up jokes). Even the cast have said the scripts are sometimes "dross". This doesn't seem to bother a large percentage of the population though - after all, My Family was carefully designed by creator Fred Barron to appeal to the masses.

Whilst comedy snobs and critics continue to look down on the comedy, it has bulldozed on to notch up over 100 episodes. However, the end is now in sight - Series 11 has been confirmed as the last.

Ratings

Definition & History of Sitcoms

Sit-com stands for situation comedy. This means that it is set in a common place, such as a house hold or work place, and it is made funny by adding jokes and comedy the audience can relate to. Sitcoms originated on the radio, but now is often on the television and also set in front of a studio audience so you can hear the digetic sounds, emphasising the comedy.

History of a Sit-com

In the 1950s the first sitcom was broadcasted on the television, ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’, this was thought to have been the first most popular British sitcom. In the 1950’s sitcoms were a lot different from what they are now, as instead of fictional characters made up, it was comedians playing extensions of themselves.

In the 1960s ‘Steptoe and Son’ was created by the same writers as Hancock’s Half Hour.’ This instantly made an impression with audiences. Political issues were then brought into sitcoms which audiences could relate to and now because of sitcoms they could also laugh at political situations.

The 1970s were the main 10years that sitcoms were made popular, and some of the most famous sitcoms where created in this decade. The 1970s was known as ‘the golden age of British sitcom.’ In this decade sitcoms such as, ‘Faulty towers,’ ‘Are you being served?’ ‘Last of the summer wine’ and ‘open all hours’ were created.

In the 1980s typical sitcoms changed because of the political and social revolutions. More anarchic and less-traditional comedies were created such as ‘The Young Ones’, sitcoms like this pushed old fashioned sitcoms off the screen. ‘Only Fools and Horses was created in which was the most popular sitcom in the 90s.

By the 2000s the traditional sitcom seemed to be over, instead cult sitcoms watched by smaller audiences became more popular. ‘Phoenix nights’ and ‘Peep show’ are and example of this. In 2001 Ricky Gervais’ ground breaking new sitcom ‘The Office’ was broadcasted and was a sitcom success story, and was also broadcasted in America. In the mid-naughties sitcoms became increasingly unpopular and boring leading to the ‘death of the British sit com.’ However eventually the sitcom bounced back and became as popular as ever with sitcoms such as ‘my family’ and the ‘IT crowd .’

http://www.comedy.co.uk/features/articles/british_sitcom/