RTE - will they ever produce a comedy????

Andy454

Alright - here's one for ya...
I was watching Fr Ted today, I think the last one produced, Of course with the infamous hat-trick channel 4 productions stamp at the end and I recalled the way our national broadcaster turned down the original idea.

I think I also remember a certain national broadcaster also seeking a hike in a certain license fee and the hike was granted on the basis that it got intouch with modern day ireland (IRISH PEOPLE!!!) and produced something that was remotely watchable! and perhaps loose some of that awful bawdy d4 acting!

So what have we gotten for our money???!!! - well lets see - theres re-run after re-run of FR ted, that crap puppet show that rte believes appeals completely to the irish youth - (god if they play another ancient clip of some owl twerp foogie from the year dot and laugh incidiously i think i'll ask sky politely to remove them stations from my planner under duress of canceling my subs!) oh god MIKE MURPHY's America - RTE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WE BEG YOU DO US AND THE ENVOIRNMENT A GREAT GREAT GREAT BIG FAVOUR!! TURN OFF THAT BIG BLASTED TRANSMITTER ON TOP OF THREE ROCK! -BECAUSE ALL YOUR DOING IS WASTING PRECIOUS ENERGY!!!

DMC

So you've never heard of the extremely popular Killinaskully?

daithimac

man what about the cassidies. a comic legend if ever there was one. history will prove me right

delta_bravo

Bull Island - I thought that was quite good political satire

Mossy Monk

the acting on Fair City is supposed to be pretty funny

RTE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WE BEG YOU DO US AND THE ENVOIRNMENT A GREAT GREAT GREAT BIG FAVOUR!! TURN OFF THAT BIG BLASTED TRANSMITTER ON TOP OF THREE ROCK! -BECAUSE ALL YOUR DOING IS WASTING PRECIOUS ENERGY!!!

wht would those without satellite or cable do without that transmitter?

Goodshape

RTE didn't turn down Fr. Ted; they were never offered it.

Podge and Rodge is extremely over-rated alright.

The Panel is a great show, imo. Bachelors Walk was good, and funny. What's that other one, set in Tullamore, I think? That wasn't bad either. Not too sure what to make of 'Dan and Becs', but so far I don't hate it.

Could do with more, sure, but it's not like we've got the talent-pool, or licence fee resources, in this country that they might have in England. Compare our 5million population the England's 50million.

Basq

I want RTE to turn off that "BIG BLASTED TRANSMITTER" too..... but for a very different reason:



THEY'RE STEALING MY THOUGHTS......

....AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!

aidan_walsh

It could be worse. They could be trying to make Sci-Fi.

rlogue

They did. Remember Fortycoats & Co ?:eek:

aidan_walsh

Ooh blimey, very vaguely.

Ulsterman 1690

Bull Island - I thought that was quite good political satire

Personally I thought it pretty poor but at least it was something.

Hardly anyone in RTE has the b :mad: :mad: :mad: s to take on the establishment and gawdonlyknows it needs taking on !

Incidently I dont buy into this "a country of four million cannot be expected to produce comedy of the quality of the BBC" argument.

I mean if it were true than American TV should be bloody hilarious

Then again............

L1011

Andy454 wrote:

RTE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WE BEG YOU DO US AND THE ENVOIRNMENT A GREAT GREAT GREAT BIG FAVOUR!! TURN OFF THAT BIG BLASTED TRANSMITTER ON TOP OF THREE ROCK! -BECAUSE ALL YOUR DOING IS WASTING PRECIOUS ENERGY!!!

Three Rock = 4x25kW analogue + 4xsomethinglow digital. Its not using much compared to...

Cairn Hill = 4x800kW. Thats the one you should be getting angry about

fta keith

Upwardly mobile was another bad rte comedy alongside leave it to Mrs O'Brien for some reason was repeated many times on UTV than rtetv in the 1980s and the 1990s

Foggy43

Anyone remember Hall's Pictorial Weekly? We could do with a few more councils like the Ballymagash District Council!

Must have been the 1970's

Found it! 1971 it started.........http://www.rte.ie/laweb/brc/brc_1970s.html

mike65

Imagine if the conveyor belt of Irish talent thats been successful in the UK was tempted back by a serious offer from RTE or indeed anyone?

Written by Graham Linehan and Dylan Moran starring Moran, Ardal O’Hanlon and Tommy Tiernan with Chris O'Dowd and of course Ed Byrne!

Mike.

Elmo

It's not all about comedy.

R+P do what they set out to do, perhaps over rated but then its not like anyone in Ireland had done this type of show before, lets face Graham Norton was also getting old on C4.

They should really stop with the re-runs of Fr. Ted just for a while, I think they are afraid that TV3 might pick it up, unless TV3 come up with a better comedy I wouldn't worry that they could show Fr. Ted.

As for Bull Island, It got old very quickly. For real satirical comedy look toward X-it poll/file, colin murphy at his best however very underrated.

Paths to Freedom was a good show pity it was followed by the dreadful spin the bottol.

_Kaiser_

DMC wrote:

So you've never heard of the extremely popular Killinaskully?

You're joking right? I can't stand anything Pat Shortt is in.

Although it is very popular with lads from Cavan I know. They reckon "Dubs just dont get it" - probably true!

Mossy Monk

Waterford people dont get it either then as i only know one person who enjoys it

DMC

Kaiser2000 wrote:

You're joking right? I can't stand anything Pat Shortt is in.

Although it is very popular with lads from Cavan I know. They reckon "Dubs just dont get it" - probably true!

Note my neutral comment. I don't watch it myself, but thousands of people do. I was referring to the TAM ratings, it's been in the top 10 all the time, and its Christmas episodes top the tree on the day itself. If it still pulls in the viewers after 3 series, it must be popular....

watty

A bit childish IMO. I sometimes wonder
a) If the ratings make sense
b) Lowest common denominator ratings is the best guide of program quality.

For example you could have a 10 programs all much better liked than Coronation Street and regarded as GREAT TV by the watchers, but individually each viewer only watches some of those (as they are different genres). So individually the programs get worse ratings than Coronation street, yet everyone agrees that the selection of series they watch is far far better than Coronation street.

Illustrates the fallacy of only chasing "headline" ratings. Soaps get all the top ratings yet are rubbish, relativly speaking.

It's like as if book publishers used Newspaper sales to decide on content of novels. TV execs need to wake up. More and more people of all ages are now not watch ANY TV and many teenagers are watching very little.

As Karl Marx said TV will become the Opium of the Masses.

DMC

That was great foresight of the boy Marx, considering he died in 1883

Charles Slane

I think Marx was talking about religion rather than TV, but if you've ever read the Doctor Who forums at say, Outpost Gallifrey, you'll see that there's a very thin line sometimes...

watty

Yep TV wasn't invented till at least 1894

Elmo

As Karl Marx said TV will become the Opium of the Masses.

Is this not a line from Television, Drug of the Free

Below Ok answering my own questions but I think its a good song

by Disposable Heroes of Hipocrisy (Michael Franti, 1991)
One nation under god has turned into
one nation under the influence of one drug

(chorus)
Television, the drug of the nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V., it satellite links
our united states of unconsciousness
apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive
the methadone metronome pumping out
150 channels 24 hours a day
you can flip through all of them
and still there's nothing worth watching
T.V. is the reason why less than ten percent
of our nation reads books daily
why most people think Central America means Kansas
socialism means unamerican
and apartheid is a new headache remedy
absorbed in its world it's so hard to find us
it shapes our mind the most
maybe the mother of our nation
should remind us that we're sitting too close to...

(chorus)
Television, the drug of the nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V. is the stomping ground
for political candidates
where bears in the woods
are chased by grecian formula'd bald eagles
T.V. is mechanized politic's
remote control over the masses
co-sponsored by enironmentally safe gases
watch for the PBS special
it's the perpetuation of the two-party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom
where sound bite politics are served
to the fastfood culture
where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the words
that come out of it
race baiting is the way to get elected
Willie Horton or will he not get elected on...

(chorus)
Televison, the drug of the nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V., is it the reflector or the director
does it imitate us or do we imitate it
because a child watches 1500 murders
before he's twelve years old
and we wonder how we've created
a Jason generation that learns to laugh
rather than abhor the horror
T.V. is the place where armchair generals
and quarterbacks can experience first hand
the excitement of video warfare
as the themesong is sung in the background
sugar sweet sitcoms that leave us with
a bad actor taste while pop stars metamorphosize
into soda pop stars you saw the video
you heard the soundtrack
well now go buy the soft drink
well, the only cola that I support
is a union C.O.L.A. (cost of living allowance) on...

(chorus)
Television, the drug of the nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

Back again, "new and improved"
we return to our irregularly programmed schedule
hidden cleverly between heavy breasted
beer and car commmercials
CNNESPNABCTNT but mostly B.S.
where oxymoronic language like
"virtually spotless" "fresh frozen"
light yet filling" and
"military intelligence" have become standard
T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined
like "recession" to "necessary downturn"
"crude oil" on a beach to "mousse"
"civilian death" to "collateral damages"
and being killed by your own army
is now called "friendly fire"
T.V. is the place where the pursuit of
happiness has become the pursuit of trivia
where toothpaste and cars
have become sex objects
where imagination is sucked out of children
by a cathode ray nipple
T.V. is the only wet nurse
that would create a cripple
on...

(chorus)
Television, the drug of the nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

Richard

Elmo wrote:

As for Bull Island, It got old very quickly. For real satirical comedy look toward X-it poll/file, colin murphy at his best however very underrated.

I only ever saw a few episodes but I thought it was funny. I particularly liked the Bertie Ahern Budwiser spoof ("watching the match, having a spud").

Also liked "Don't feed the gondolas"

watty

In case anyone is not sure, (those that have not read my posts or don't know me), despite not being as far left as Marx, I'm well aware of what he actually said.


Frank Hall was good. Has there been decent Irish comedy since him and possibly Fortycoats for younger (or young at heart) folhs since the Illustrated Weekly?

Foggy43

Watty!
I was getting worried. Begining to think I was the only one old enough to remember Frank Hall :eek:

Foggy43

Come to think of it wasn't Frank Hall on the censorship board?

I do remember a home produced soap I think it was, that got axed after showing a girl topless for an art class. There was uproar in Ireland over it. The church went balistic. Not sure if Frank was on the board then.

Can't remember the programme's name.

rlogue

That was "The Spike" which was a drama series set in an inner Dublin community school, from 1977.

The episode concerned featured a night class in art, this class was about drawing nudes, hence the nude woman. Back in 1977, the UK channels used to feature a lot of casual nudity by today's standards, and given that these channels were widely available in much of the Republic it was not really that shocking to be honest.

But in a spectacular about turn RTÉ very cowardly withdrew The Spike after the transmission of that episode. Not one of their finest moments, and since then I believe not one episode has ever been repeated.

Foggy43

rlogue!

Thank you for the info! I lived in the South West and we didn't have any UK channels then. It was embarrasing how RTE reacted. That is the way it was then. Remember the trouble the Boomtown Rats had trying to find a venue for a concert when they came to fame? Lord Henry Mountcharles came to their aid.

Having no multichannel TV left us with what the priest had to say on Sunday and the price of heifers at the mart on Monday. That was all we needed to know and looking back I feel that was all the Dail wanted us to know.

DMC

Mart and Market, Michael Dillon.....

Pure comedy genius! Who'd have thought the price of ewes would've been so entertaining