I recently got a DVD boxed set of the British sitcom "Are You Being Served?", which originally aired in the 1970s and early 1980s on the BBC, and can be seen on many local PBS affiliates. It's one of my favorites, even though the shows are dated. Maybe that's why, though. They remind me of a kinder, gentler time in the world, when comedy could be funny without being mean-spirited. There is plenty of wordplay but very seldom, if ever, foul language.
I'm not a prude - I've been known to reel off a string of words that would make a longshoreman blush. But I really prefer clever comedy. A teacher once told me, upon hearing me blurt out a few choice words, that "strong language denotes a weak mind."
"What?" I stopped in my tracks. He wasn't even my teacher, although I did admire him,
"A clever young man such as yourself could probably express thoughts in a more eloquent way," he said.
It was several years later when I saw "Are You Being Served?" for the first time. And those shows, my favorites being from the first five years or so, were very funny and witty. Of course, they were (and still are) unintentionally funny with the fashion styles, which were "in" in the 70s - but now...not so much.
I imagine in another thirty or forty years, shows made now will look pretty silly. And I hope somebody enjoys watching them and seeing the unintentional historical record of how people looked, talked, and acted here in the early part of the century.
I'm not a prude - I've been known to reel off a string of words that would make a longshoreman blush. But I really prefer clever comedy. A teacher once told me, upon hearing me blurt out a few choice words, that "strong language denotes a weak mind."
"What?" I stopped in my tracks. He wasn't even my teacher, although I did admire him,
"A clever young man such as yourself could probably express thoughts in a more eloquent way," he said.
It was several years later when I saw "Are You Being Served?" for the first time. And those shows, my favorites being from the first five years or so, were very funny and witty. Of course, they were (and still are) unintentionally funny with the fashion styles, which were "in" in the 70s - but now...not so much.
I imagine in another thirty or forty years, shows made now will look pretty silly. And I hope somebody enjoys watching them and seeing the unintentional historical record of how people looked, talked, and acted here in the early part of the century.
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