The Definitive UK Sitcom List ============================= Copyright (c) 1996-1999 by Dave Budd (D.Budd@mcc.ac.uk). Using this text without crediting the authors would be theft from over 200 contributors worldwide. Any non-profit usage is permitted if this copyright notice remains attached. CONTENT This is *supposed to be* a complete list of all situation comedies that have ever been made in the UK and broadcast on UK terrestrial TV. "Definitive" is a very big claim - it's not, of course, but it's not bad. SOURCES The data has been assembled from a variety of sources and contributors, and though it isn't possible to guarantee its accuracy or completeness, on the whole it's pretty good. CRITERIA I don't care if they're actually funny or not, only whether they were supposed to be (though sometimes I wonder....) Not included are sketch shows, stand-up comedy, comedy dramas, or cartoons. AVAILABILITY USENET Newsgroups The list is posted on, or as close as possible to, the 1st of each even numbered month to newsgroups alt.comedy.british and rec.arts.tv.uk.comedy It's posted in sections because some newsreaders have a filesize limit: each section is kept to less than about 700 lines (at the moment). In addition to the main body of the list I post this Intro file and a file containing just the changes since the previous posting. Gopher: I no longer have a Gopher server here so the keyword search facility will be unavailable until I get time to learn PERL, or con somebody else into writing the necessary script for me. Archive sites Currently under review Web There's a link to the complete list on my web page http://www.man.ac.uk/~zlsiida/sitcom/all Email If you're really stuck, I can email it to you. D.Budd@mcc.ac.uk THANKS Many thanks are due to Jerry Kohl who has provided MASSES of the data in this list: and he's American! A few other people are responsible for large amounts of data: you know who you are, thanks, I owe you a drink. A few whose names I can recall are: Pete Fenelon, Ian Collier, A R Burford, um..... HELP! There are still plenty of question marks in the list just waiting for answers to arrive - let's hear from you! Please email any contributions to D.Budd@mcc.ac.uk FORMAT title (year shown) channel(production) writers possible extra writers or explanatory comment synopsis cast optional more cast (There are occasional deviations from this format, just to mess you about) NOTATION A hyphen may be used to indicate a series that starts one year and ends the next: eg 71- means "started in 71". -72 also means "started in 71" but shows that the majority of episodes were broadcast in 72. This usage is new and many existing nn- forms are likely to be innacurate for some time. Letter suffixes a, b, c, ... indicate multiple series in the year. Other letters indicate specials: x=xmas, e=easter, s=summer, ny=newyear, p=pilot, r=royal command performance If the letter precedes the year it means there was a special but no series. Note: a typical UK series has only 6 episodes. COPYRIGHT Although there are now several books available about sitcoms, I'd just like to point out that THIS list was first (February 93 [or earlier?]). So far I've come across one instance of the list being presented as somebody else's work, and that was by mistake: all I ask is that the copyright notice at the top of each file is included, or some alternate form of credit given, wherever the list is used; however I allow only non-profit use except by special arrangement. REFERENCES Books: Television's Greatest Hits: Paul Gambaccini & Rod Taylor, 0-563-36247-2 The Guinness Book of Classic British TV: Cornell, Day & Topping 0-85112-543-3 The Guinness Book of Sitcoms: Rod Taylor 0-85112-638-3 Ftp sites: The Tardis archives: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/ Melinda's list of books: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/tv/british-comedy/books/ Web sites: Prairienet: http://www.prairienet.com/britcom Tardis: http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/ Newsgroups: alt.comedy.british, rec.arts.tv.uk, alt.comedy.british.blackadder, alt.tv.absolutely_fabulous, alt.tv.absolutely-fabulous, alt.tv.red-dwarf E-zines: The BritComedy Digest. Lost the address at the moment I'm afraid! VIDEO SUPPLIERS Check the lists on the prairienet web pages mentioned above {end of section: Intro}