Tuesday, June 04, 2013
Forgotten TV:'COMMON AS MUCK
Probably only a Brit will know this one. It was on TV the year we were in Manchester, 1994, and we loved it. It was about a team of trash collectors (binman) and their troubles with the local council who was trying to privatize their jobs. It also dealt with their camaraderie and their personal lives. It came back for another series in 1997 when luckily we were in Amsterdam and got to see it again. The only face familiar to US audiences was Edward Woodward. Lots of fun. It would never get made here. But British TV seems more inclined to such shows. Remember Sanford and Son came from British TV too.
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8 comments:
Well, Steptoe and Son was British, Fred Sanford was Redd Foxx and the cast was about half his old cronies. There were some knockabout guy shows (probably more cartoony than your choice here) in the US before S&S, and a few gritty clock-punching sitcoms, most notably The Bill Cosby Show (even if he was a high-school teacher/coach), before, and certainly Roseanne and Grace Under Fire after the Foxx series...but, yes, I've heard of this one before but never have seen it...
Patti - I must admit; this is a TV show that I hadn't heard of before. Thanks for sharing it.
Now it seems that the Swedes and Danes provide models for U.S. TV: BORGEN and WALLANDER and THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGAN TATTOO.
And U.K. TV, with THE BRIDGE and THE KILLING and IRENE HUSS and so much more...as BBC Radio 4's THE NOW SHOW parodied them in passing last week...BBC4 television is investing as heavily into them as is MHz Worldview and Netflix in the US.
This was a great show Patti, I remember it well. And Woodward was a terrific actor (and singer too).
Never heard of it.
Never heard of it either.
But have you seen the classic Rab C. Nesbitt?
Jeff M.
I also have not seen this TV series. It would have been interesting to see how Norman Lear would have Americanized it.
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