The Comedy Vault – Frasier.

Frasier (NBC, 1993-2004)

Following on from Friends, this is another American sitcom that played a big part in Channel 4’s primetime schedule for many years. And again, I have barely seen a full episode of this, but I might as well share what I do know. Frasier was a spin-off from the sitcom Cheers, which was set in a bar in Boston. Dr Frasier Crane joined in 1984, and when this came to an end in 1993, it was decided to explore this character and his life further.

Kelsey Grammer had also found fame by this point for providing the voice of Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons. Frasier had now moved to Seattle and works as a psychologist, hosting a radio phone-in, where he listens to the callers, but many of them aren’t so keen on his advice (they were often voiced by special celebrity guests, and viewers liked to guess who they were).

Other main characters include Frasier’s younger brother Niles, and their dad Martin, who has retired because he has a gammy leg (you never hear any other parts of the body referred to as “gammy” though, why is that). And there is also the English-born Daphne, played by Jane Leeves, who had previously appeared in sitcom Throb (that I reviewed recently), where she had some rather spectacular 80s hair (and a London accent), but in this, she had some 90s hair… mostly because it was now the 90s.

I am sure that I read that Lisa Maxwell off top sitcom Once In A Lifetime auditioned for the role of Daphne, but she didn’t get it. There is also Frasier’s radio producer Roz, and plenty of other people come and go too, but many considered Eddie the dog to be the real star. There were various other quirks, including the opening sequence of every episode being slightly different, and phrases appearing between scenes.

As the episodes progress, Niles and Daphne indulge in more “will they-won’t they?” than most couples do, but not too much else changed over the years. It wasn’t long before critics insisted that this was the smartest show on TV, and the quality was kept up over 11 series. After the end, Grammer went on to appear in other shows, but the trouble was that they would all be seen as inferior to this one (who remembers the sitcom Back To You now?).

There have been rumours of a revival for a while, but it still seems unclear if that will actually happen. All of the episodes have been released on DVD, and there have been a lot of repeats on Paramount Comedy Channel, and they continue on Channel 4 right to this day (as do the Cheers repeats). Maybe this is a sitcom that I should explore further, because few have as good a reputation as this one.

The Comedy Vault – Friends.

Friends (NBC, 1994-2004)

This is an American sitcom that needs little explanation from me really, which is just as well, because I couldn’t give an explanation because I must confess that I don’t think that I have ever even seen an episode in full over the years. But because this is such a well-known show, I thought that I might as well finally review this, because there are a few thoughts and memories that I do have.

Friends of course featured the lives of six rather young and successful people who lived in New York, and enjoyed spending time together. This came to Channel 4 in 1995, and it was also in this year that the theme song “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts was a Top Ten hit single in this country (cue lots of people asking “what does ‘your love life’s DOA‘ mean?”). After a while, the popularity grew, as was proved by the amount of high-profile guest stars who were eager to appear. It didn’t take long for Channel 4 to realise that they had a guaranteed hit as part of their Friday night schedule, suddenly everybody wanted a “Rachel”.

I also remember that The Adam And Joe Show did a very amusing parody, reimagining the cast as toys, and there was also a special episode that was made in England. As the success continued, and the lives of the characters became increasingly entangled, in 1997 “I’ll Be There For You” became a Top Ten hit for a second time, joining a small list of songs to have achieved this. Episodes also did well when they were shown on Sky One, and along with the regular repeats, plus the new episodes, this was very often on the screen. I even remember articles in Inside Soap magazine, which didn’t usually give coverage to sitcoms.

When Channel 4’s companion channel E4 launched in 2001, they took the rights from Sky One, and again, episodes old and new played a big part in the schedule. Friends managed to run for a decade, and when the tenth and final series came to a close, some dedicated viewers found it all rather hard to take. “It’s like losing a limb”, apparently. There had also been lots of special interviews and documentaries reflecting on the success, and all of the episodes have been released on DVD. But the story hadn’t ended just yet.

The character of Joey went into a spin-off sitcom. This was shown in this country by Five, who in an ambitious move, decided that it was time to have some high-profile imported comedy. This did indeed deliver some of this channel’s highest-ever ratings at first, but some critics felt that this was all rather inferior to what had gone before, and this ended all rather quietly by comparison. Channel 5 then bought the rights to Friends off Channel 4 and E4, leading to hundreds more repeats on their companion channel Comedy Central to this day, as if they hadn’t been shown enough.

The main cast had long-since gone on to work on other projects, but a year or two ago, the sextet reunited for the first time (not for a new episode though, but a special looking back at some highlights). There seemed to be a huge amount of news articles afterwards informing us that “Matt LeBlanc looked like your uncle at the Friends reunion”. Although I don’t think that he looked very much like my uncle, although that’s because I don’t actually have any… but I’m sure that he’s thrilled about that being the legacy of what he brought to this show.

More TV Memories – Jesse.

Jesse (NBC, 1998-2000)

In the early-2000s, I used to enjoy watching the American sitcom Married… With Children on the Paramount Comedy Channel (having not seen any of the episodes when they were shown rather late at night on ITV). Around the same time, I was channel hopping one afternoon, when I came across a sitcom that looked like it featured one of the cast members, and that’s because it did, so I was interested in finding out more.

Having seemingly tired of having played the dumb blonde Kelly in Married… With Children for a decade, Christina Applegate took on this new role, and this time, she was the one with the children (well one child anyway). Jesse starred Christina as Jesse Warner, a single mother who was trying to raise her young son John in Buffalo, New York.

Jesse works at her rather overbearing dad John’s bar Biergarten, where the uniform is German traditional dress. She also has two brothers, Darren and John (and that means that with her dad, brother, and son all having the same name, there are three characters in this cast called John Warner). John has decided to give up speaking, and tries to find different methods of communication.

Jesse eventually meets Diego, a rather handsome Chilean, and they soon get together. This was a sitcom that was given some of the “this can’t fail!”-style promotion, with the first series being shown in America in the hugely coveted slot between Friends and Frasier, but this one achieved nowhere near the success of those popular long-running sitcoms.

This meant that there was something of a relaunch for the second series. Jesse was now training to become a nurse, her family are no longer seen, and cast members included her new group of work colleagues. But this didn’t make too much difference, and the second series turned out to be the last, although Christina was commended for trying to move away from her Kelly image.

All 42 episodes of Jesse were shown on Channel 4 in 2000 in an afternoon slot (which is definitely not a coveted place in the schedule), and I think that there were a few repeats too. Around the same time, this was also shown on satellite channel for teenagers Trouble, although I never had access to that one. I’m fairly sure that there has been no DVD release either.

The YouTube Files – Malcolm.

Malcolm (NBC, 1983)

I don’t usually review American game shows, but when I came across this one on YouTube recently, I thought that this was a rather bizarre idea, and it seems that there was only an unaired pilot made. The host was Alex Trebek, who would host many other game shows over the years. But there’s no doubt who the star of this show was. It’s Malcolm!

Malcolm? Seriously though, Malcolm? I did wonder how the character of Malcolm worked at first, because 1983 would be too early for computer-generated images to be rather advanced, and it couldn’t have been a cartoon either. It turned out that this was created using a technique called Aniforms, where a puppet was controlled, but a special effect was used to smooth out the picture, so he did resemble a cartoon.

There was also a rather corny opening sequence where Trebek and Malcolm looked at each other as if they were a comedy double-act, and hopefully they were best buddies too. I suppose that Trebek played the straightman role, as he set up all of the jokes with Malcolm. There were plenty of nice early-80s computer game-style sound effects as well.

Three contestants took part. They would be asked a question, which had a two-word answer. Whoever buzzed in first would have to give the first word to the answer, and whoever buzzed in second gave the second. If they got it right, they both score 10 points. If they get it wrong though, the third contestant is joined by Malcolm to have a go at answering.

When first asked, Malcolm will give a joke answer, in the style of Celebrity Squares. But he will always give the right answer too, the contestant will have to be right to get the points. The first player to score 50 points goes into the bonus round. In this, they are paired with Malcolm. There are eight categories, that contain various prizes, including money and holidays. There are 90 seconds.

Again, they have to give the correct answer together, and if they do, the prize is revealed. Give a second correct answer to win the prize. There isn’t much chance that they’ll get to play all of the categories though, so they have to choose carefully. When time is up, they take what they won, and then the game begins again. They can play again, along with a new contestant. This carried on until time ran out, so I presume that games would’ve straddled.

And this ended with Malcolm commenting on the people in the credits. This was definitely one of the more unusual game show ideas that I have seen. There must’ve been hope that Malcolm would’ve become popular with viewers, or he just could’ve been rather weird and annoying. Trebek probably wasn’t too disappointed though, because not long after, he hosted a pilot of a revival of Jeopardy!, and he never looked back.

The Comedy Vault – 3rd Rock From The Sun.

3rd Rock From The Sun (NBC, 1996-2001)

This is one of the few American sitcoms to have caught my interest over the years. 3rd Rock From The Sun had a science-fiction twist, and took the opportunity to go off in some unusual areas that most other sitcoms couldn’t. The idea is that four aliens assume human form and arrive on Earth, a planet and its people that they are keen to learn more about, and they realise how strange things can be.

This consists of Dick, along with Tommy, Harry, and Sally, known as the Solomons. They soon enter regular human life, and Dick decides to become a professor at a university. Of course, none of them must give away that they are aliens, but it is likely that most people wouldn’t believe them anyway, and their superior is always keeping a keen eye on them from their home planet.

But what is clear to people that they meet including Dr Albright who works at the university with Dick is that they soon realise that there is something a little different about how they respond to various situations. Dick was prone to some unexpected outbursts, Harry would often receive incoming transmissions, Tommy struggled to deal with his changing teenage body, and Sally liked to flirt boldly with everyone and everything.

Most episodes would end with the Solomons sat on their roof trying to make sense of the latest things that they have learned about life. 3rd Rock From The Sun was fairly well received in this country, all of the episodes in the six series have been shown on BBC2 (they all contain “Dick” somewhere in the episode title too). I got into this a little later though when there was a repeat run on the Paramount Comedy Channel.

I do remember watching the special episode where some parts were in 3D, which was very ambitious and enjoyable, and little like anything else that I have seen in a sitcom. In the final episode, they finally returned to their home planet. This has gone on to be repeated on even more channels since, including ITV2, and episodes can be seen on Channel 4 to this day. All of the episodes have been released on DVD too.

The YouTube Files – You Again?

You Again? (NBC, 1986-1987)

This is the American version of the British sitcom Home To Roost, which is definitely one of the better ITV sitcoms of its era, and I was pleased to find some clips of this on YouTube. You Again? starred Jack Klugman (best remembered by viewers in Quincy) as Henry Willows (in the British version he was called, er, Henry Willows, and played by John Thaw).

John Stamos was Matthew (Reece Dinsdale was Matthew in the British version), who about a year or two after this would go on to appear in the more successful American sitcom Full House, which I do remember was shown on Sky One for a while, and he had a terrific mullet too. And rather curiously, Enid was played by Elizabeth Bennett, who also played Enid in the British version.

This seems to be the only occasion when someone has played the same character in both British and American versions of a sitcom. The premise was the same though. Henry is a businessman who gets a divorce, and does enjoy the single life without the rest of his family. But then his son returns home unexpectedly, and this is of course where the comedy comes in.

Some British episodes were recycled. The very first one in America was “All You Need Is Love”, a remake of the one that I was particularly amused by as this featured the 80s punk-type character who only ever seemed to appear in sitcoms, and it was interesting to see the American equivalent of this (although I could only find a trail online for now). They clearly peaked too soon.

There were also some episodes that were specially written for this version, including one where The Beach Boys (or what passed for them by that point) turned up for no particular reason. And as for the episode with uncle Randy? Hey… that guy! You Again? did just well enough with viewers to earn a second series, but this was also the last, and there were 26 episodes (compared with 29 for the British version).

Viewers did find it hard to believe that Klugman and Stamos were father and son, when the age gap between them was over 40 years (more than twice the age gap between Thaw and Dinsdale), but there were still some good moments. Every episode of You Again? has been shown in this country, on Channel 5 in the late-90s at about 5am, presumably when they had run out of episodes of Throb.

The YouTube Files – Scrabble USA.

Scrabble (NBC, 1984-1990, 1993)

I thought that it was about time for me to review another American game show, because they’re just so great aren’t they. This one caught my attention because this is based around Scrabble, the word game that people enjoy playing around the world, although this TV version was somewhat different from the traditional board game format.

The host was Chuck Woolery (a veteran who has hosted many game shows over the years). This began with people shouting the name of the show in a similar style to Wheel Of Fortune, and there were also plenty of flashing lights and podiums that turned around for no reason, which is always nice. The format did change, but mostly was something of a cross between Cross Wits and All Clued Up.

Two contestants took part. They were given a cryptic clue to a word that was between five and nine letters long, with only one letter revealed. This would either be horizontal on vertical on the board. They can take two tiles from a choice which is always two more than the letters in the word. They place them in a slot, and then these letters are revealed. They then pick one to put into the word, and they can guess if they like (and there were various bonuses on offer).

But they should beware, because if they pick a letter that isn’t in the word, it is a “stopper” (similar to what would be called a whammy or a stinger in similar shows), and they lose their turn. How annoying. If all three stoppers are played, and the word still hasn’t been guessed, the remaining letters (except one) are revealed. They buzz in if they know, and whoever gets it right wins that round (games would straddle if they ran out of time).

Another round is then played, with the next word connecting with wherever the previous one is on the board. The first to win three rounds, goes through to the bonus game which was the Scrabble Sprint, to play the defending champion. Again, a clue was given to a word with a particular number of letters in it, and after the clock started, they picked various letters (no stoppers at this stage). Buzz in and get it right, and the clock stops.

If their opponent can guess the same amount of words in a shorter time, they win, but if not, there’s a new champion. Contestants could return several times, and some won five-figure sums. There were also special themed weeks, including college students taking part, and even on one occasion, other game shows hosts. Scrabble ran for almost a decade, and confusingly, a board game of this version was released.

Game Show Memories – Hit Me Baby One More Time.

Hit Me Baby One More Time (ITV1, 2005)

When putting more pieces together about some of my favourite pop music memories recently, I was reminded of this show, that featured several pop stars from days gone by. Hit Me Baby One More Time was hosted by Vernon Kay, and this was yet another singing talent show, which was a little similar to Reborn In The USA from a year earlier, although I think this was much better.

In this, various singers and groups from the 70s, 80s, and 90s competed against each other to determine the favourite. Now as this was just before social media came along, this probably would’ve been the first time in a while that these people had been in the spotlight. Now of course it’s possible for them to document what they do all day online, and it’s odd to think that I must’ve seen and read more about some singers who took part in the past few years, then in just about the 90s and 2000s put together.

There were seven shows, featuring five acts each. Now how to pick a winner out of some of these would be a difficult choice, one edition featured Belinda Carlisle and Jaki Graham, who are both great singers, so that would definitely be a group of death. However, neither of them won their show. Also taking part were Howard Jones (or was it Nik Kershaw?), Mica Paris, Hue And Cry, Chesney Hawkes, Princess, and many more. It was great seeing a lot of them again, and they still had plenty of talent and charisma.

After an introduction, along the lines of the usual “they’ve sold 99 million albums worldwide!” fluff to remind us who they were, they performed their most famous song. And in an interesting twist, they would then perform a song by a contemporary act. There really were some surprises in store. So you would get people cover songs in unlikely genres, such as Jaki Graham taking on Will Young, and Belinda Carlisle did Coldplay.

Viewers at home could then vote for their favourite via phone or text, and the winner progressed to the final. The prize for the overall winner was to release a single. I do remember that a lot of the publicity seemed to be describing this as the big comeback for Shakin’ Stevens, and he was indeed the winner. This meant that his cover of Pink’s “Trouble” was released, and this made the Top 20, his first single to do so for 15 years.

But then, very shortly after the end of Hit Me Baby One More Time, there was an American version on NBC, and this was also hosted by Kay, possibly making an attempt to break into American TV. The format was almost the same (a few acts who had been successful on both sides of the Atlantic took part in this version too), but instead of a final, the winner of every show (after a studio audience vote) received $20,000 to donate to a charity of their choice.

And there were five editions, instead of eight like there were in the UK version. Again, some vaguely familiar names featured. And would you believe it, Dale Bozzio from Missing Persons took part in one edition, performing “Words”, and her take on Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”. She lost to PM Dawn though. Both versions only ran for one series.

CBBC Memories – Secret Squirrel.

Secret Squirrel (NBC, 1965-1966)

This is yet another memorable Hanna-Barbera cartoon that I first saw many years after being originally shown in this country (and there are a few more to come after this). And it’s another one that I saw for the first time during The CBBC Breakfast Show strand back in 1997, seemingly when they had run out of episodes of Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch.

This is another “putting a talking animal into an unusual situation” cartoon. In more recent years, a lot of squirrels have turned up near where I live, they are always running around, or climbing up walls or over fences, and it does always amuse me to see them. But did you know that squirrels can also be spies? Well, yes they can it seems.

Secret Squirrel was always ready to take part in some “bushy-tailed espionage” (as it was memorably described). And this was another one that had a great opening theme (watching a few bits again recently must’ve been the first time that I had seen this when it wasn’t around 7:30am and I was half-asleep), and they also made the most of the silly sound effects that were available.

This was essentially a parody of spy films, as our hero Agent 000 (who seemed to wear his hat over his eyes somehow) would be given his latest mission by the International Sneaky Service. But even he couldn’t do it all by himself, and he would often be assisted by his sidekick Morocco Mole. He would take on several villains, using the gadgets that he had been provided with, just like, er, Inspector Gadget.

There’s no doubt that he was the furriest secret agent around. Another notable thing is that Secret Squirrel was voiced by Mel Blanc, who was famous for voicing some of the most popular cartoon characters of this era (including most of the Looney Tunes), and this explains why he does sound a little like Sylvester The Cat. There were 26 episodes in two series in the mid-60s.

And unlike some of the other cartoons that I have reviewed recently, there eventually was a revival of this in 1993 for one series, which was renamed Super Secret Secret Squirrel, although I haven’t seen that. The repeats on CBBC continued until as late as 1999 (so they clearly got their money’s worth), along with later turning up on other channels including Boomerang.

More TV Memories – Sunset Beach.

Sunset Beach (NBC, 1997-1999)

Let’s take yet another look back at the early days of Channel 5. Another genre that they had to have as part of their launch schedule in 1997, was a soap. Now they had their own Family Affairs in primetime, but they wanted one in a daytime slot too. Up to this point, most of the soaps imported to the UK had been either Australian, or American primetime. But they decided to introduce us to the rather unusual world of the American daytime soap.

Sunset Beach was set in California, where the sun always seemed to shine whatever time of day it was, and featured the lives of a young and rather attractive cast. Every episode was about an hour long, but the stories were rather far-fetched and ridiculous. Not much had been seen like it on British TV before, and most critics were initially baffled. Even Night And Day was modest compared to this. This was a place where people coming back to life was almost an everyday occurrence really.

There were a wide range of characters, along with some guest appearances by celebrities including Jerry Springer, and to put it politely, the standard of the acting was rather varied most of the time. I must admit that I didn’t see that many episodes of Sunset Beach at the time, what I remember most about the show is the rather long credit sequence, where the continuity announcer would try to make sense of what happened in the episode.

I also remember that they seemed to comment a lot on a character called Meg, who was one of the protagonists. Don’t forget Annie, either, who was great. This was then expanded to feature comments from viewers as well, plus interviews with cast members, and it was rather unusual to hear an announcer being so sarcastic and mocking about a show that had just featured on their channel. None of this was taken rather seriously.

And there was also a fanpage on Channel 5’s Teletext service which featured further information about stories, and comments from viewers. Don’t forget the omnibus on Saturday afternoon either, that was about three hours long. There were 755 episodes of Sunset Beach packed into barely three years, so plenty happened. And all this attracted a cult following, who were very sorry when this came to an end.

Channel 5 then imported Days Of Our Lives which was another American daytime soap for a short while, but this didn’t do as well, so viewers had to do with only Family Affairs, until it was decided to poach Home And Away and Neighbours. There was then a brief repeat run on ITV2 in 2000, followed by another short run on Five (as it was by then) in 2004. I’m sure that most viewers who saw this still wonder if it was all a dream.