Was it all that?
I mean I enjoyed comedy from the 60's and 70's especially steptoe and son , rising damp, porridge
But I could never get into this or fawlty towers for that matter
I loved Fawlty Towers. Pure brilliance for me. Didn't understand the appeal of Dad's Army though, other than from a nostalgic nod to the past.
The German gathering of names episode was good, but past that it just seemed to be a series of OTT stereotyped characters and a sorry excuse to throw in catchphrases at every given oportunity to attain laughs.
I haven't liked any Croft and Perry stuff at all, though at the time I did like Are you Being Served, but then I knew no better and looking back now, that I find is even worse for the same jokes and catchphrases and OTT characters etc.
Think people like this stuff cos it's safe and non-threatening. Porridge and Fawlty Towers and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, pushed boundaries and were much more daring. So much better written too.
If you look and compare the scripts of Dad's Army to that of Porridge or the Likely Lads, they just pale in comparison.
The latter two are so brilliantly written and clever too, with great storylines. Dad's Army just seems to be the same old tired thing ad nauseum and again, Are you Being Served, worse.
Would recommend anyone to read the scripts of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Porridge, Likely Lads, Auf Wiedersehen Pet) to just see how cleverly written they are.
Sgt Wilson in Dad's Army was a good character, but though there was fun to be had with Fraser and Jones and Pike, it was always the same thing every week with no variation and all played really safe and then the likes of the verger, vicar and warden characters, I thought were all terribly written and very one dimensional. 'One dimensional' I think describes a lot of what Perry and Croft have done, very well indeed.
Are you Being Served just seemed to be an excuse for Mr. Humphries to be incredibly over the top gay to gather laughs each week and for Mrs. Slocombe to have the audience 'roaring' with laughter just by saying 'my pussy' every episode and for the old fella to be wheeled out to say 'You've all done very well!'
Really couldn't stand Ain't half hot Mum and Hi-De-Hi either. All OTT characters and cheap laughs.
I like intelligently written sitcoms and the likes of Porridge, Only Fools and Horses, Likely Lads, Fawlty Towers and Men Behaving Badly really blow away stuff like this tired old dirge.
As I say, I think a lot of the enjoyment comes from a sense of warm fuzzy nostalgia for many of the audience.
Porridge was groundbreaking. A sitcom set inside a prison and all the humour coming from thieves, robbers and murderers. Think at the time it very nearly didn't get made.
I think Dad's Army was incredibly safe and very predictable and full of cheap laughs.
I do understand though why many people love it and then stuff like On the Buses too.
