This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This being the last Thursday of the month, it's time for another TV edition, this month with the very broad theme of comedies. With that in mind, I picked three that I wanted to mention for no particular reason other than their coming to mind today. Unfortunately I'm on my tablet, and the mobile Youtube site doesn't seen to want to give me the embed code, so you're getting links to the opening themes instead:
AKA Pablo (1984). Short-lived sitcom about a Mexican-American stand-up comic (Paul Rodriguez) who, unsurprisingly, has a wacky family at home that served as an inspiration for his humor.
227 (1985-1990). Marla Gibbs, fresh off 11 years as the maid to George and Weezie Jefferson, plays the wife in a family living in a middle-class apartment building in Washington DC. My memories of the show were of something inoffensive and well-meaning; when I saw it show up on one of the African-American oriented channels a few years back I was and was surprised at how much it was filled with lowbrow (but clean) insult humor.
Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister (1980s). Brilliant British sitcom about Cabinet member Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) and the civil service chief of staff for his department Sir Humphrey (Nigel Hawthorne). The civil service sabotages maverick, reform-minded Hacker's ideas at every turn, long before anybody ever scoff at the idea of a "deep state". Back then, everybody took it for granted. Even though it's British, so much of it fits in with American government, as in this scene when Sir Humphrey is talking with another of his senior civil service colleagues about politicians' logic.
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3 comments:
I used to watch Paul Rodriguez's stand-up from time to time and thought he was pretty good. I had no idea he had a sitcom. You learn something new every day.
I was a big fan of 227 back in the day. Haven't seen it in years, though. Good pick.
Oh wow...I remember Paul Rodriguez’s show but I have to see it again to spark ny memories. I still had a few episodes of 227 but just never got into it. I know of Yes, Prime Minister but never watched it...yet. British sit coms are so funny.
The other thing I noticed about 227 was how much of a product of the 80s it was, like the etagere with brass trim. And of course all that hair you see in the opening credits.
British comedies aren't necessarily more funny than the American ones; it's just that we get the best ones. I've seen some pretty lousy ones on PBS, too.
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