The Goodies (TV series)
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| The Goodies | |
|---|---|
| Image:Goodiesbike.gif The Goodies Tim, Graeme and Bill </small> | |
| Genre | comedy |
| Running time | 30 – 50 minutes |
| Creator(s) | Tim Brooke-Taylor Graeme Garden Bill Oddie |
| Starring | Tim Brooke-Taylor Graeme Garden Bill Oddie |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original channel | BBC ITV (for final series) |
| Original run | 8 November 1970 –13 February 1982 |
| No. of episodes | 74 |
| IMDb profile | |
- For information about the actors, and the background of the series, see The Goodies
The Goodies was a surreal British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy, shown during prime time, and popular with all ages.
It was created and written by Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie, who also starred in it.
Bill Oddie wrote the music for the series, and "The Goodies Theme" was written by Bill Oddie and Michael Gibbs.
The directors of the series were John Howard Davies, Jim Franklin and Bob Spiers.
Contents |
[edit] Basic structure of the series
The series' basic structure revolved around the trio offering themselves for hire — with the tagline "We Do Anything, Anytime" — to perform all sorts of ridiculous but benevolent tasks. Under this pretext, the show explored all sorts of off-the-wall scenarios for comedic potential. Many episodes parodied current events, such as a show where the Goodies accidentally made all the black people leave South Africa. In the episode, the South African government were very depressed until they thought of "apart-height", where short people (Bill and a number of jockeys) were separated from the rest of society. Others were more abstractly philosophical, such as an episode in which the trio spend Christmas Eve together waiting for the Earth to be blown up by arrangement of the world's governments.
The "Christmas Eve" episode (titled "Earthanasia") was one of the two episodes which took place entirely in one room. The other, "The End", occurred when Graeme accidentally had the apartment encased in an enormous block of concrete. This type of episode was usually made when the entire location budget for the season had been spent, forcing the trio to come up with a script that relied entirely on character interaction. These "claustrophobic" episodes often worked surprisingly well.
[edit] Characters and production techniques
The show featured extensive use of slapstick (often performed using sped-up photography and clever, though low-budget, visual effects), such as when they built a railway station together, and awoke the next morning to discover that the construction equipment outside (steam shovel, bulldozer, backhoe) had come to life, and were lumbering, growling, and battling like dinosaurs.
Other episodes featured parodies of contemporary pop music (in the loosest sense of the term) composed by Oddie (some of which went on to commercial success in the British charts, among them the hit single "Funky Gibbon", a staple of scout-hut discos of the period) as well as character-based comedy. Some early episodes were interrupted by spoofs of contemporary commercials.
The group also acknowledges their debt to the usage of music in silent movies. In one episode, they inherit an old movie studio, and attempt to make their own epic film: MacBeth Meets Truffaut The Wonder Dog. After several 'takes,' they argue, and each begins to make their own style of movie. The episode finished with an extended silent movie segment, in which each one's movie comically interferes with the others.
The characters are based around the personae of Garden (a "mad scientist"), Brooke-Taylor (a conservative, sexually-repressed, Tory-voting royalist), and Oddie (a scruffy, occasionally violent, left-leaning anarchist from Lancashire). The group have suggested that the characters of Graeme, Tim, and Bill represent the Liberal, Conservative and Labour wings of British politics or middle-class, upper-class, and working-class stereotypes respectively. The characters played up to their stereotypes, but were not necessarily based on the actor playing the character. This is not immediately obvious as they were called by their own names, and had some minor characteristics in common. In reality, Garden is a medical doctor, Brooke-Taylor is not really conservative ("But I had the double-barrelled name so I was always going to play the Tory" [1]) and Oddie is a pacifist, ornithologist and active environmentalist.
[edit] Alternative Goodies' roles
- Rome Antics, in which Tim, Bill and Graeme appeared as Ancient Goodies (during the time of the Roman Empire).
- War Babies, in which Tim, Bill and Graeme appeared as the Goodies — aged 2 years — (during World War II).
[edit] Dual Goodies' roles
Episodes, in which the the Goodies appeared as doubles of themselves, as well as also appearing in their usual roles, included:
- The Baddies, in which Tim, Bill and Graeme also acted as robot duplicates of themselves
- Daylight Robbery of the Orient Express, in which Tim, Bill and Graeme also acted as mime duplicates of themselves
- 2001 and a Bit, in which Tim, Bill and Graeme also acted as their own sons
- Alternative Roots, in which Graeme, Bill and Tim also acted as their own ancestors.
- The End, in which Tim, Bill and Graeme also acted as Martian Goodies.
[edit] The Monty Python connection
Tim, Bill, Graeme, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, all attended the University of Cambridge at the same time, and, as well as being friends, they were all members of Footlights and appeared in Footlights' revues.
The shared comedy background of the members of the Goodies and Monty Python also included comedy radio and television programmes — "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again", "At Last the 1948 Show", "Twice a Fortnight", "How to Irritate People" and Amnesty International benefit shows, including:
- "A Poke In The Eye (With A Sharp Stick)", in which Tim, Bill and Graeme sang "Funky Gibbon", and subsequently also appeared as "Mounties" in Monty Python's "The Lumberjack Song".
- "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball", in which Tim appeared as "Tracey" in the comedy sketch "Top of the Form" (John Cleese, who had written the sketch, also appeared in the sketch as the "Quiz Master"). Later, Tim also appeared with John Cleese and Graham Chapman in the dance comedy trio sketch "Cha, Cha, Cha".
Goodies' episodes, in which "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was either parodied or alluded to, included the following:
- The Goodies and the Beanstalk — in which John Cleese portrays a genie in the guise of a Monty Python character
- Fleet Street Goodies — in which the Liberty Bell March (the theme for Monty Python's Flying Circus") can be heard.
- Scatty Safari — in which four Gumbies are featured
[edit] Tim's uncles
Tim's uncles are featured in the following episodes:
- Camelot — King Arthur
- Farm Fresh Food — Uncle Tom
- A Hunting We Will Go — (?)
[edit] The Goodies episodes
- The Goodies made 74 episodes (including specials).
- For a full listing of "The Goodies" episode titles — and also alternative titles for the episodes
see The Goodies episodes
[edit] Guest stars and the episodes in which they appeared
A listing of some of the guest stars who appeared on "The Goodies", and the episodes in which they appeared.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Comedy Guide - The Goodies at bbc.co.uk
- The Goodies at the Internet Movie Database
- The Goodies — Nostalgia Central
- The Goodies — British TV Comedy
- The Goodies — BeebFun
- The Goodies DVD — information and review
- Street map showing Cricklewood station on streetmap.co.uk - Cricklewood is the location for "The Goodies" office
| The Goodies | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Brooke-Taylor — Graeme Garden — Bill Oddie | ||||
