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THE GAFFER to GILLIGAN'S ISLAND
GIRLS ABOUT TOWN to GOODNIGHT AND GOD BLESS
GRAHAM'S ARK to GUS HONEYBUN
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THE GAFFER
(1981-83)
YORKSHIRE
NOT MUCH to recommend this post-FROGGITT BILL MAYNARD trundler. Here the "sit" was a small engineering company with a smaller list of orders, a pile of debts and a stroppy shop-steward played by RUSSELL "LONELY" HUNTER. The "com" was supposed to accrue from Gaffer Maynard's attempts to keep the company afloat. Topical enough for its day but, on the whole, you'd rather have a pint of cookin' and a bag of nuts.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...IN THE END HE PISSED OFF TO AUSTRALIA, WHICH WAS A RELIEF ALL ROUND
THE GALACTIC GARDEN
(1985)
BBC
CURIOUS CHROMAKEYFEST centring on a couple of tiny aliens - Vektor (ANDREW SACHS) and Plasmid (SARAH NEVILLE) plus their ship's computer, Chimera - arriving in a suburban back garden and having plenty of BELLAMY'S BACKYARD SAFARI-style encounters with spiders, frogs, and a nuclear family. They float about on a grasshopper-shaped "bug" thing which promptly gets killed off by leaking batteries. BBC Bristol natural history unit provided background animal footage. A bit of a Sachs pet project, all told.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...SPACESHIP LATER REVEALED TO BE A SILVER-PAINTED COURGETTE. THEIR HOME PLANET "ORBITO" WAS LIKEWISE REVEALED, AT THE END, TO BE A SILVER TREE. OBVIOUS, REALLY, WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT.
GALLOPING GALAXIES!
(1985-86)
BBC
THAT EXCLAMATION MARK says it all. Textbook "sideways-look-at" kids sitcommery penned by BOB "RENTAGHOST" BLOCK, here substituting wacky aliens for "visitors from the spirit world" and 25th century spacemen for Harold and Ethel Meeker. Whole thing enlivened by unlikely presence - in voice form only - of KENNETH WILLIAMS played onboard ship computer SID. Further zaniness epitomised by character names like Dinwiddy Snurdle. Blue-screen blarney supplied, as ever, by MATT IRVINE.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...SECOND SERIES SAW KEN ESSAYING PATENTED "STRANGLED OIK" VOICE AS SON OF SID
THE GALLOPING GOURMET
(1965-75)
ITV
IN AN AGE where even crisps are no longer safe from having their ingredients meddled with in order to become 70% more healthy or something, it's assuredly worth reflecting upon an era when affable bouncing bon viveur GRAHAM KERR would frolic onto our screens every afternoon, running through the ITV daytime line-up like a skewer and, along with CROWN COURT and AFTERNOON PLUS, make up a kind of tasty entertainment kebab. Very much a cross between George Hamilton and Robert Carrier, Kerr would gambol onto his Schreiber red kitchen set (somewhere in Australia, judging by that kind of early smudgy colour picture quality) and get down to work. Work being creating the most cholesterol-packed, artery-congesting meal humanly possible. This being the seventies, the average Kerr menu resembled what was on offer down at your local Berni Inn; a time when Coq Au Vin and Chicken Maryland were the height of Cinzano'n'Milk Tray Man-style glamour. But with lots of cream. Lots and lots of cream. However, central to the compelling nature of GG was Kerr's splendidly flirty repartee with his (mainly female) audience: "why not make this for your husband, girls, and have a special night, eh?". Crowning glory came when Kerr would invite one lucky blushing audience member to share his latest culinary concoction at an on-stage, candle-lit table. Whether or not this rendezvous would continue post-show is unclear.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...ILL-ADVISED COMEBACK IN THE '90S, WITH CREAMY RECIPIES REPLACED BY YOGURT TO "CUT DOWN THOSE CALORIES" IN THE CALIFORNIAN MANNER, BEST GLOSSED OVER
THIS AND SALE OF THE CENTURY were the only times the rest of the country ever willingly sat down to watch Anglia's spinning antique knight. Both were unashamedly glitzy affairs (oodles of shining prizes and swooping camera shots in the opening titles; joyous parping theme tunes; whooping crowds of best-dressed pensioners out on an excursion to Norwich; the mind-rattling mellifluous voice of announcer John Benson) but GAMBIT was the one that had the edge in the play-along-at-home stakes thanks to it being, well, pontoon on the telly. With FRED DINENAGE in the big chair. "You got a problem there?" he would bark at nattering contestants inbetween rounds. Nation fell silent in terror. "It's a quiz show for married couples" Fred explained, matter-of-factly, at the start of every episode. Said twosomes sat at brown desks in front of tiny audience. MICHELLE LAMBOURNE fulfilled Dopey Female Assistant duties. Giant oversized playing cards, perhaps borrowed from JOKERS WILD, wielded in attempt to add up to magic 21 and bag that elusive dinner plate warmer.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...IN FRED'S OWN WORDS, "AN OLYMPICS OF THE MIND"
GAME FOR A LAUGH
(1981-85)
LWT
GENERATION GAME-SLAUGHTERING, hysteria-mongering, surprise-springing, staircase-shimmying, Beadlebum-annointing ogre of Saturday nights which bequeated "people telly" to the nation along with shrieking studio audiences and Sarah Kennedy. Helmed by feted fateful foursome HENRY KELLY ("headmaster" figure, smartly dressed in suit, would "arrive" on set by striding sensibly down studio steps); MATTHEW KELLY (harmless "kid brother", casually dressed in rainbow jumper, would hop and skip down the steps); SARAH KENNEDY (evil matron, sporting giant smocks, would totter down steps in purposefully slow and boring fashion); and JEREMY BEADLE (Jeremy Beadle). Each would then perch on the obligatory 1980s chrome stools while discharging menu comprising wacky stunts (feel the melon/Duncan Goodhew's head); zany reports (nudist colony in Bognor, "world's slowest 100m race") and inane vox pops ("What stupid noises can you make?" etc.). Audience, the loudest in the free world, would hoot and holler every other second. Beadle would venture among them, begin casual question ("Supposing you lived next door to someone...") before whipping round and fixing luckless individual with evil eye and half-jutting hand ("...who hung their washing out in the nude!"). Madness soon paled and Henry, Matthew and Sarah all quit. Show moved to Sundays. Beadle threw a hissy fit ("You're fucking killing the golden goose!") but hung around with - yikes - replacements LEE PECK, RUSTIE LEE and MARTIN P. DANIELS. Audience buggered off. Show followed shortly afterwards.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."TUNE IN NEXT WEEK, WHEN WE HOPE YOU'LL BE WATCHING US..." "...WATCHING YOU..." "...WATCHING US..." "...WATCHING YOU!"
GAME, SET AND MATCH
(1988)
GRANADA
BLOATED SPY GAMES from busy-busy pen of LEN DEIGHTON. IAN HOLM is returned to active service to sort out familiar rotten-apple suspicions. Mega-budgeted affair, trailing heels across London, Berlin and Mexico, but which subsequently bombed in the ratings. AMANDA DONOHUE, FREDERICK TREVES and PETER VAUGHAN ran for cover.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...ALSO FEATURED SEYMOUR OFF OF LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE
CONVOLUTED MURKY-DEPTHS shooting and shagging melodrama set in the pressure cooker multi-racial atmosphere of Britain's Second City (that's Birmingham, by the way, not Norwich). MAURICE "HOWARD'S WAY" COLBOURNE led a small-star cast of several (ELIZABETH CASSIDY, SAEED JAFFREY, ROBERT LEE) as the bodies piled up and the plot drifted away. Came back for a contractual obligation second series but the game was up by the end of the first run. Additional laffs accrued from the irrelevant stand-up comedy snippet at the beginning of each episode.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."QUICK! THERE'S WORD OF A RUMBLE AT THE BULLRING!"
GARY HALLIDAY
(EARLY 1960s)
BBC
PASSING RESIDENT of post-GRANDSTAND teatimes, prior to being usurped by the good Doctor. Titular airline pilot played by TERENCE LONDON is joined by Bergerac's dad to do battle against unassumingly named baddie The Voice (ELWYN BROOKE-JONES). Japes and jocularity follow, as do stern morals about right and wrong.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...A PILOT, NOT A DAMN CHAPLAIN, WHICH IS WHAT WE WANT
THE GEMINI FACTOR
(1987)
THAMES
UPMARKET YARN for Children's ITV concerning itself with twins-separated-at-birth conundrum. Lee (the bad one) and Leah (the good one) are found on the obligatory doorstep each with one half of a ring which when put together forms that Feng Shui symbol resembling ying and yang. Lee ends up in a children's home (as did almost every boy in 80s CITV dramas), whilst Leah is adopted by a fluffy middle-class family (ditto every 80s girl). Lots of telepathic "adventures" a la CHOCKY ensue. CHARLIE CREED-MILES and LOUISA HAIGH were the titular twosome, who finally ended up atop a clock tower being struck by lightning and realising they were, er, the same person. Or something.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...OBLIGATORY COMPUTER-GENERATED TITLE SEQUENCE HAD THE TWINS' HEADS MORPHING TOGETHER, LIKE ON THAT QUEEN ALBUM
BEN "ALIAS SMITH" MURPHY is an invisible man with a strict operating limit of a quarter of an hour. Otherwise he'll "stay like that". Ultra-hasty adventures followed.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."SURE WISH THE GOVENOR'D LET ME OFF THIS DIRE SERIES!"
DAYTIME SOAP froth set in Covent Garden workshop of titular fashion design company. Boasted no star names whatsoever. Featured dresses designed by students from Royal College of Art. Cast got to keep some of them, presumably in lieu of working on such shite. TONY SLATTERY was among them. The shite, not the dresses.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...LYNNE HOWARD OFF OF HOWARD'S WAY WASHED UP IN IT AS WELL
GENERAL HOSPITAL
(1972-79)
ATV
DR LEW GRADE re-opens the ATV medical wing, mothballed since EMERGENCY WARD 10. Lo and behold, everything still present and correct, including manky metal-framed beds, manky janitor with metal mop and pale, manky canteen with brown and orange plastic chairs upon which brown and orange plastic cups of coffee are drunk, and manky patients. Only this time boasting a profusion of facial hair. Harmless fare, ironically, which idled away many a drizzly weekday afternoon. Plenty of heroes and villains to swoon/swing for, including LYNDA BELLINGHAM, TONY ADAMS, LEWIS JONES and JUDY BUXTON.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."WHAT'S THE DIAGONSIS, DOCTOR?" "I'D SAY THERE WAS EVERY CHANCE OF YOU ACCOMPANYING ME FOR DINNER TONIGHT" "OH HONESTLY!"
THE GENERATION GAME
(1971-82)
BBC
QUITE SIMPLY, one of the finest programmes ever ever made. The jewel in small screen's light entertainment crown, this was absolutely essential viewing for, hey, a generation, and anyone who thinks otherwise ought to be tied to a conveyor belt for eternity, preferably one moving through a never-ending Jim Davidson stand-up routine, whose tenure at the helm of this institution we're obviously not counting because a) he fucked up all the games b) he had fucking Mr Blobby on every week c) he fucking gunged the contestants at the end and d) he was just fucking shit.
Anyway, we're dealing with two distinct but equally imperial eras here.
PART ONE: THE BRUCIE YEARS. "Life," croons Bruce, "is the name of the game, and I want to play the game with you." Sequence of stills show our host pulling variety of comedy faces (mock-horror, mock-shame, mock-amusement). Curtain rises. Brucie strikes "thinker" pose at back of stage then shimmies towards camera. "Ladies, gentleman, children, nice to see you, to see you..." Gags about weather/what's on the other side/old woman in front row before ANTHEA REDFERN comes on in a giant smock ("Give us a twirl!"). Two pairs of contestants ushered into shot (mother and son-in-law; old man and daughter). Bruce interrogates them in a manner to imply they're idiots/drunks/both ("I'll just make a note of that") with much wry aside glances to camera. "Watching" game ensues, involving contestants identifying mystery objects/people/places. Answers recorded on giant clipboards. "I've got 'Richard Baker' written down here!" "Doing" game follows, involving contestants observing demonstration of ludicrously difficult vocation (pottery making, formating dancing, campanology) then copying it. Bruce joins in to further imply contestants stupidity/score more easy gags, but hey, "didn't they do well?!" Next, the playlet, wherein contestants assume famous historical roles in comic pageant co-starring Bruce and surprise celebrities. Contestants never able to deliver lines properly, despite script in front of their nose. Celebrities screw up and interrupt Brucie. "I'm in charge!" he howls. Finally, conveyor belt memory test for winning pair: steak knives, plate warmer, teas-maid, cuddly toy etc. "The decanter, don't forget the decanter." Audience blatantly shout out answers. Then everyone - and that's everyone, including all earlier formation dancers/pottery throwers, plus complete haul of prizes positioned on giant display stands - return to wave at camera while Bruce promises to see us all again next week. Roll credits and extended theme ("life can be terribly tame...").
PART TWO: THE LARRY YEARS. It's 1978. With Brucie off to ITV for his Big Night, Beeb cast around frantically for a replacement. Genius idea forms to pick someone the polar opposite of the Forsyth saga. Call goes out to Lal, who casts frantically around for his spectacles, packs his best beige three-piece suit and heads for BBC Television Theatre. Theme tune gets stylish makeover: "Shut! That! Door!" chirp close harmony choir, "and enjoy the Generation Game/What's in store?/The best of relations is our aim!/Larry Grayson is heeeeere to play/soooooooooooooo...." Larry interrupts. "Shut that door!" Second "Lal" theme kicks in ("Der da da der-der, der da-da da-da der-der") as host leaps through false frontispiece. Meaningless anecdote follows ("I said to Everard, you don't want to put it out in this weather"). ISLA ST CLAIR ("My very best girl") sashays on to keep things ticking over. Lal spends next 50 minutes mithering and mooching, while Isla ensures games actually take place. "Scores on the doors". Celebrities turn up for no reason (usually Rod Hull and Emu). Contestants try hand at "doing" game. Larry tries and fails. "What a gay day!" Contestants try hand at "watching game". Larry tries and fails. "Ooh, I've come over all queer." Celebrities appear from behind sliding doors. Musical-based finale sees contestants having to become instant ballerinas/morris dancers/snake charmers. Winning pair decided by half-arsed yes or no trivia question. Conveyor belt. "Now keep thinking, keep thinking." Contestant sits in giant wicker chair. "The music centre, don't forget the music centre!" Audience blatantly shout out answers. Then everyone returns to bid goodbye and wave throughout extended theme ("That's! Your! Lot!").
EPILOGUE: Show dumped in panic at success of GAME FOR A LAUGH; revived brilliantly in 1990 with all flags flying (Brucie, Rosemary Ford, celebs, playlets, Bruce teaching the nation how to do the lambada).
EPILOGUE TO THE EPILOGUE: No comment.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...GOOD GAME, GOOD GAME
HUGE FUCK-OFF grizzly "befriends" chipmunk-faced son (CLINT "RON'S BROTHER" HOWARD) of Everglades patrolman for sub-Flipperian "adventures". Countless repeats down endless decades culminate in wanky Broom Cupboard chorus of "Beeeeeaaannnnn!" from Messrs Anstis and Peters.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...STILL, THOSE ONE-MAN SWAMP HOVERCRAFTS AND ENORMOUS BEDSTEAD-TRACTORS ON STILTS WERE ACE
THE GENTLE TOUCH
(1980-84)
LWT
.JPG)
.JPG)
CAPABLE WOMAN-IN-A-MAN'S-WORLD coppery with JILL GASCOINE as DI Maggie Forbes dispensing tea-cosy conciliation in London's Seven Dials police station before popping home to lecture her teenage son about "feelings". WILLIAM MARLOWE was perenially pissed-off boss DCI Russell, while PAUL MORIARTY swanned about in a three-piece suit making the tea.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...JILL LATER SWAPPED SHOPPING LISTS AND SAVING PROSTITUTES FOR C.A.T.S. EYES
GEORGE AND MILDRED
(1976-79)
THAMES
"PASS THE kettle love, I've been up all night." "You could've fooled me, dear". Sparkling suburbcom shenanigans spun-off from MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE wherein our heroes decide to up sticks from their London terrace and relocate to commuter belt bliss, thereby allowing Mildred to indulge in much Abigail's Party-mooning about quality of life as typified by textbook middle class neighbours the Fourmiles ("They've even got wall-to-wall carpeting!") replete with bespectacled smartarse son Tristram, who in turn gives professional idler George the runaround ("I tells yer, there's summat wrong with that kid!"). Whist drives, dinner drives, tupperware parties and coffee mornings ensue. ROY KINNEAR dropped in from time to time, inevitably, as did Sir Dennis off of TERRY AND JUNE (ditto).
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...HERE'S-HOW-IT-WORKS TITLES RECAPPED PROTAGONISTS LIVES THROUGH PHOTO ALBUM PALAVER TOPPED OFF WITH POT BLACK-ESQUE HONKY TONKY PIANO
GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
(1966-68)
ATV
SCRATCHY VEHICLE for SID JAMES in post-Hancock hinterland, now settling for repeated scrapes with eponymous "Dragon", PEGGY MOUNT. Below-stairs knockabout saw Sid (controversially not called Sid) as handyman/chauffeur, Peg as housekeeper, both in the employ of JOHN LE MESURIER.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...LECHEROUS LAFFABLE "SID" AT BLUEPRINT STAGE
GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE
(ARSE END OF THE 1970s)
JAY WARD
THICKO TARZAN-ALIKE and his well-spoken English gorilla chum ("Somebody within stone's throw again!") do the usual crap Ward wisecrackery.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!" "OOOFFFF"
THE GEORGIAN HOUSE
(1976)
HTV WEST
JUST LIKE the way the Presidency of the EU rotates between different countries, so a script involving posh kids in a haunted house was passed around the ITV regions during the 1970s so everyone could have a crack at it. And here's Bristol's turn! Adolescent toffs, haunted stately pile, blah blah - but wait! There's time travel to boot! Thanks to weird antique carving thing, the posh kids suddenly find themselves in the 18th century where they have to help a black slave (BRINSLEY "ASWAD and DOUBLE DECKERS" FORDE, no less!) return to his home country. Which they do. And that's it.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."CAN YOU HURRY UP WITH THAT PLOT TWIST, IT'S NEEDED DOWN AT ELSTREE FOR AN EPISODE OF TIMESLIP"
GET FRESH
(1986-88)
ITV
PHIL CORNWELL to Aswad: "Skin up, drummie!"
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...COMING UP: KID JENSEN WITH THE NETWORK CHART
GET IT TOGETHER!
(1977)
GRANADA
WHO ORDERED the embarrassing uncle? Two small teas and a round of post-BASIL BRUSH ignominy for sometime Owenite stooge "MISTER" ROY NORTH, thanks to this dire pop show misfire featuring insipid guests of the sub-Rollers likes of Our Kid and Lieutenant Pigeon doing grinny mimes to unamused children in T-shirts. By way of an encore, Roy himself would step up to the mike to deliver, PETER GLAZE-esque, a strangulated rendition of a hit parade disc in his own, inimitable style.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."A MAN IS BORN TO DO ONE THING, AND I WAS BORN TO SING"
GET SET FOR SUMMER/THE GET SET PICTURE SHOW/THE SATURDAY MORNING PICTURE SHOW
(1982-86)
BBC
"AND LATER on, I'll be trying my hand at something called paragliding."
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...HIT THE NORTH. PLEASE.
EARLY RUN-OUT for your blueprint Barrymore, wherein our host chaperoned three upmarket couples in colour co-ordinated jumpsuits (this was the '80s) through half an hour of sub-KRYPTON FACTOR physical and mental tasks. In retrospect 3-2-1 was nearer the mark. Prizes were an Innovations catalogue-take on usual BBC parsimony, i.e. pink neon "American diner"-style clocks.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...FLOPPED DUE TO ABSENCE OF BARRYMORE-BAITING AUDIENCE OF HYSTERICAL PENSIONERS
TOP HOLE Bond spoofery by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, starring DON ADAMS as Maxell Smart ("Missed me by that much!") crapola spy working for CONTROL with the help of BARBARA FELDON (Agent 99) and a comedy dog. Adams later lent pipes to grating Gallic-manufactured guffoonery which passed for INSPECTOR GADGET.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."AH, THE OLD GUN-IN-A-PEG-LEG TRICK!"
PART OF THAT 1950s revival which seemed to stretch from, well, 1959 right through to the final death cry of HI-DE-HI. Only this was quite good, thanks to the presence of Esmonde and Larbey (EVER DECREASING CIRCLES) on script duties and the likes of TONY SELBY, DAVID JANSON and ROBERT LINDSAY doing the gags. "Three ration coupons for a packet of nylons? Blimey!"
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...NATIONAL SERVICE WITH A SMILE
GET UP AND GO!
(1980s)
YORKSHIRE
TITULAR INSTRUCTION obeyed to the letter by kids the country over as soon as they got whiff of this noneducating small tottery with green puppet Mooncat learning about council estates and Golden Syrup courtesy of a faceless bloke and a dignity-shedding BERYL REID. Hand up moggy's arse belonged to David "ROLAND RAT" Claridge. Fetid feline would transport colleagues to mystery location (invariably a field) with hair-raising 80s electro-esque cry. Later rebranded as Mooncat And Company. The kids weren't fooled.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."MMMMMIIIIAAAAOOOOOEEEEEERRRRWWWW!"
GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE/AFTER IMAGE
(1983-86)
CHANNEL 4
REMIT-SATISFYING PSEUDATHON chucked out in the small hours by a bored Jeremy Isaacs. Three words to strike fear in the heart: "experimental" "video" "magazine". Familiar suspects - Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson - indulged in all manner of repetitive, esoteric stuff on poor-quality tape. Inevitable longeurs meant that often, when the transmission broke down into colourbars and test tone, no-one noticed.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...IF ANYONE WAS STILL WATCHING, THAT IS
THE GHOSTS OF MOTLEY HALL
(1975-78)
GRANADA
SUPERLATIVE SUPERNATURAL derring-do dished out over teatimes for kids and adults alike pitting battery of cross-generational ghouls FREDDIE JONES (po-faced Victorian general Sir George Uproar), ARTHUR ENGLISH (court jester Bodkin), NICHOLAS LE PROVOST (fey foppish gambler Sir Francis, aka Fanny), SHEILA STEAFEL (depressive wailing White Lady) and SEAN FLANAGAN (stable lad) up against property tycoon PETER SALLIS. Aforementioned band of spirits repeatedly conspire to deny sale of titular hall to unassuming local types thanks to much pulling-out-chair things-flying-through-the-air antics. Exceptional stuff all told, and written by the same bloke responsible for the decidedly less impressive CATWEAZLE to boot.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...FINAL EPISODE SAW OUR HEROES EXORCISED INTO NOTHINGNESS
THE GIDDY GAME SHOW
(1985)
ITV
NATION SWITCHES on telly. BERNARD BRESSLAW and BILL FRASER turn up doing voices of animated observatory duo Gorilla and Gus, helming odd-one-out puzzles for kids with the help of Giddy, a green alien who sits on a floating arrow and points out the right answer. Nation shrugs and goes elsewhere.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."GORILLA'S READY! GIDDY'S READY! GUS IS READY!"
TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR, looking for a job a work while the others wrote more GOODIES episodes, undergoes metamorphosis into an animated cutout duck suffering the the social stigma of an abnormally long neck but still doing good deeds to all he meets. Gets eaten by a crocodile but makes it out again in one piece. Moral of each week's adventure recited in song before closing credits.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...LAST SEEN DISTRIBUTING BIBLES ROUND TRAVEL TAVERNS
BONKERS JAPANESE cartoon about the mightiest robot in the world, who happened to be controlled by Jimmy Sparks, a ten year-old kid (just how mighty is that, then?) Also involved were such rounded characters as Dr. Bob Brilliant, Inspector Blooper, Dick Strong and "The Space Pussies".
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."CARE TO SHARE THE JOKE WITH THE REST OF US?" WENT YOUR DAD
GILLIGAN'S ISLAND
(1964-67)
CBS
LITTLE-SEEN OVER here but beloved of everyone over there. Skittish sitcommery ticking all the usual "zany American" boxes (rich characters, weird location, guest stars, will-they-ever-get-home premise). A bunch of wealthy holidaymakers (titular first mate, a captain, a "Professor", a millionaire and wife, a model etc.) get washed up on eponymous rock for 98 episodes, despite being a mere stone's throw from busy holiday paradise of Hawaii. Russian cosmonauts, pop stars et al stop off for non-hilarious consequences. Endless spin-offs and tie-ins followed, including - spectacularly - Harlem Globetrotters On Gilligan's Island.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...BRINY
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