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Shows by year first broadcast
The 2000s have so far seen a bit of a comedy renaissance - The Office, Black Books, Coupling, Little Britain and Look Around You being the cream of a very original crop. Some old favourites were resurrected - Alan Partridge and Absolutely Fabulous. While there was also a mini-resurgence of impressionism with
Dead Ringers, Alistair McGowan and 2DTV.
The traditional sitcom came close to giving up the ghost in the later 90's as evening TV schedules changed beyond recognition. ITV gave up on sitcoms almost completely and the BBC relied heavily on repeats.
Perhaps the phenomenon of reality TV affected our tastes because the critically acclaimed comedy hits of this decade, The Royle Family, The Day Today, The Fast Show and Alan Partridge (to name a few) all functioned by presenting a more credible, less theatrical version of the world. Whether Ab Fab fits into this mould is another question, but it was one of the biggest successes of the decade.
This was the decade of Alternative comedy. Conventional comics, in their frilly shirts and bowties, were swept aside to make way for likes of Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French. They cut their TV teeth in such shows as Comic Strip and The Young Ones. Meanwhile Blackadder turned up in 1983, and proceeded to turn the sitcom on its head, with enormous success.
Despite this, however, some of the most popular shows of the 80s were traditional sitcoms like Only Fools and Horses, Last of the Summer Wine and Bread (one episode achieving 21 million viewers in 1988).
Remembered fondly as the golden era of the sitcom and TV in general. When you think of the variety on offer it's easy see why: The Two Ronnies, The Muppets, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Last of the Summer Wine, Porridge, Rising Damp and perhaps the greatest sitcom all time, Fawlty Towers, to name but a handful. Perhaps there was something in the water.
ITV dominated the world of light entertainment right up to the late 80s, but never more outright than in this decade. The BBC was forced to make a concerted effort to be more populist, scoring a big hit with Steptoe and Son. Remembered as an inventive era where the buzzword was 'satire', shows like That Was The Week That Was, Not Only...But Also and The Frost Report were never anywhere near as dear to peoples' hearts as the big-name variety shows recorded at London's premiere theatres.
How much has TV really moved on? In the 50s we had rather dark and pointy home grown comedies like Hancock's Half Hour and sickly sweet US imports like I Love Lucy. Today we have The Office and Friends.
One thing we don't have anymore is an abundance of talent formed in the music hall tradition and forces concert parties. TV's biggest hits in the 50s were invariably light entertainment shows, comedies, game shows, US imports and the Sunday Palladium. Variety ruled the airwaves and, since the BBC at this time felt unable to do 'vulgar', ITV always scored the higher ratings.
The BBC was closed down on the 1st September 1939, halfway through a Mickey Mouse cartoon, and didn't transmit again until June 1946. Not much value for your licence fee you might say. Well, there was a war on.
When it did restart (with the same Mickey Mouse cartoon) TV was here to stay and the comedy was, well, rationed. Mr Pastry (Richard Hearne) was perhaps the biggest and most overworked TV funny-man of that decade. Joyce Grenfell was another rising star of the small screen.
Almost without exception, the early comedy stars of television were already established celebrities of the music hall and radio. It was a good thing that these performers had other places to make a living as TV fees were pretty dismal.
The new medium also had a very limited reach in the 30's and Director General John Reith was not particularly fond of it (he resigned in 1938). What comedy there was tended to play in five and ten minute timeslots, and repeating a show in those days meant getting the cast together and performing it again.
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