Comedy Playhouse is back

[DJWCFC]

As the title says I was shocked to discover today that Comedy Playhouse, the pilot comedy series which of course started our beloved show is back on BBC1, now of course this could be seen as a last throw of the dice by the BBC to revive British comedy and of course the pilots will still be nowhere near the classic ones that became series but its nice that a comedy tradition which I feel has been needed for years to revive comedy on the BBC is back, it started last week and there was also a 30 minute documentary about the original Comedy Playhouse series and of course our show does get a 3 or 4 minute segment about it which considering its the BBC who axed the show its very generous for them, I would have expected a quick mention and maybe that was it, but anyway the link below is for the documentary on the BBC iPlayer, Last of the Summer Wine gets a mention from about the 20th minute (sorry I don't know if it will be able to be seen by people outside the UK) and lets hope this is the start of decent old-style comedy coming back on our screens.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b042m95q/Comedy_Playhouse_Where_it_All_Began/

 

[Marianna]

(sorry I don't know if it will be able to be seen by people outside the UK)

I just clicked the link to see if it was available to people in the US and the system displayed the message, "Currently BBC iPlayer TV programmes are available to play in the UK only, but all BBC iPlayer Radio programmes are available to you."

They offer a link to an explanation. Here's the interesting bit, "Rights agreements mean that BBC iPlayer television programmes are only available to users to download or stream (Click to Play) in the UK. However, we are aware of demand for an international version. BBC Worldwide has recently launched the BBC iPlayer App for iPad and iPhone in various countries. Visit the BBC iPlayer (Global) YouTube channel for further information." I don't have either of the required devices (mine are both Windows), so I can't test whether or not the app lets us view the Comedy Playhouse documentary.

Marianna

 

[DJWCFC]

Update - I forgot to say to people who can view the show that its only on the iPlayer till tomorrow so get watching if you want to see it

 

[Sheree]

Sure wish we had something like "Playhouse" here in the states...or do we? I
don't watch much TV so don't really know.

 

[Sarkus]

Sure wish we had something like "Playhouse" here in the states...or do we? I
don't watch much TV so don't really know.

Not any more, but it used to be common on US networks to have a similar kind of program, something where they could run one shot shows or pilots. In our current system you only see the pilot if the show makes it to air - there are always pilots being made that never get seen by anyone but the people involved and network execs. IIRC, there was a US version of "Are You Being Served?" that got a pilot but wasn't picked up, for example. Same with two different pilots for a US version of "Red Dwarf".