What was the most racist sitcom of the 70's?

[tim]

For those of you old enough to remember that glorious decade, which do you consider to be the worst of the lot. There is plenty of choice From "It ain't half hot mum" to "Love thy neighbour". I'd personally go for Till death do us part", because whatever the claimed aims of Johny Speight, Alf Garnett was seemed to appeal as a character to so many. Living and teaching in Saudi Arabia in the late 90's I came across reruns of "Mind your language" which my Saudi students seemed to enjoy, and I also remember reading that it was at the same time quite popular on some Indian satelite channels. Perhaps the fact that the "English" characters were as absurd as the language learners means that it was seen as a satire (perhaps to strong a word for a programme that light) on cultural difference and a familiar educational context rather than just another bit of racist light entertainment.

 

[Loki]

Mind your language, surely

The series was known for its humorous take on national stereotypes: the German woman was dour and humourless; the French woman was sexy and flirtatious; the Swedish woman was liberated and straightforwardly sex-mad; the Chinese woman a rampant Maoist; while the Sikh and Pakistani men were often on the brink of war, and the Spaniard, the Greek and the Italian were macho. Much of the humour also stemmed from the trouble the students had with the English language, their often outrageous speech patterns and the students' hilarious mispronunciations of English. In the politically correct days of the late 1990s the show was criticised, but in its day the show was popular with people of many backgrounds because of its light-hearted take on multiculturalism and because it gave some otherwise unrepresented minorities a television presence.

It was cancelled in 1979 by Michael Grade, then LWT's Deputy Controller of Entertainment, who considered the stereotyping offensive. Nevertheless it was sold to other countries where it found amazing popularity, including Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and Singapore . It was also one of the first British TV programmes shown in South Africa after the end of the boycott by Equity. It was even resurrected, briefly, for the export market by an independent producer, in the late 1980s. Only Granada Television transmitted the final 13 episodes consecutively as a complete series. Some ITV companies didn't show any of the episodes made in 1986. The programme was remade for US television as What a Country! In India, a comedy serial based on Mind Your Language was aired on DD2. In the program Zaban Sambhal Ke (Hindi for Mind Your Language) people from diverse regional Indian background studied Hindi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Your_Language

 

[danny la rouge]

Wasn't there one called "My Neighbour's A Darkie"?

 

[DJ Squelch]

The series was known for its humorous take on national stereotypes: the German woman was dour and humourless; the French woman was sexy and flirtatious; the Swedish woman was liberated and straightforwardly sex-mad; the Chinese woman a rampant Maoist; while the Sikh and Pakistani men were often on the brink of war, and the Spaniard, the Greek and the Italian were macho. Much of the humour also stemmed from the trouble the students had with the English language, their often outrageous speech patterns and the students' hilarious mispronunciations of English. In the politically correct days of the late 1990s the show was criticised, but in its day the show was popular with people of many backgrounds because of its light-hearted take on multiculturalism and because it gave some otherwise unrepresented minorities a television presence

Sounds like a more ethnically diverse version of Allo, Allo. I do remember it actually.

 

[sir.clip]

Mind your language was brilliant.. I got the box set on DVD...

 

[Pieface]

Was Curry & Chips 60s?

 

[sir.clip]

Was Curry & Chips 60s?

i thought you where joking, so I done a search & there blooming was a show called curry & chips... Was it any good...?

 

[madzone]

Oh, I loved Mind Your Language. I fancied the teacher

 

[toggle]

Fawlty towers was a complete fucking pisstake of stereotyping. Everyone was smarter than Basil and ripped shit out of him while he tried to look down his nose at them.

 

[gnoriac]

I'd personally go for Till death do us part", because whatever the claimed aims of Johny Speight, Alf Garnett was seemed to appeal as a character to so many.

Nonsense, Alf was always a figure of derision.

If any deserves to win this it's Love Thy Neighbour. It didn't even attempt to be funny, just the blandest racist cliches strung together. Completely awful, embarrassing even.

 

[pogofish]

i thought you where joking, so I done a search & there blooming was a show called curry & chips... Was it any good...?

Absolutely dire. IIRC, it was pulled before it reached the end of the first series because of the level of racism. Unlike Speight's other sitcom, Till death us do part which lasted for something like 25 years!

I'd also go for Love thy neighbour (although there, the bigot also usually got his comeuppance), or possibly that on the buses spin-off, Don't drink the water - where Blakey moved to Spain & entered stereotype land.

 

[Maggot]

For those of you old enough to remember that glorious decade, which do you consider to be the worst of the lot. There is plenty of choice From "It ain't half hot mum" to "Love thy neighbour". I'd personally go for Till death do us part", because whatever the claimed aims of Johny Speight, Alf Garnett was seemed to appeal as a character to so many.

Just because hs character appealed to many racist it doesn't make it a racist comedy. In fact TDUDP was the first anti-racist comedy:

From TV Cream:

Till Death Us Do Part: LEGENDARY BIGOTCOM which, unlike others of the time (eg. LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR, MIND YOUR LANGUAGE) actually did ridicule the bigotry of the central, West Ham supporting little Enoch, Alf Garnett (WARREN MITCHELL).

BTW I meant to vote for Love Thy Neighbour but voted for It Aint Half Hot mum by mistake.

 

[N_igma]

Big Brother. 30 years before the concept even originated that's how racist that show is.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

i always thought allo allo wasn't really racist as although it was playing with streotypes it wasn't trying to enforce them but rather mock them.... (by turning them up to 11)

 

[Belushi]

My Indian housemate has the Mind Your Language box set

The programme I remember being really offensively racist as a nipper was The Comedians, esp. Bernard Manning and his 'Paki' jokes. Even as a six year old I could tell he was a vicious old bigot.

Black and White Minstrel show I just found terrifying

 

[gnoriac]

Black and White Minstrel show I just found terrifying

terrifying? It just seems so utterly weird in retrospect, a bad dream, like summat PKD might dream up but it actually happened...

 

[Belushi]

terrifying? It just seems so utterly weird in retrospect, a bad dream, like summat PKD might dream up but it actually happened...

I was about five

 

[tommers]

West Ham supporting little Enoch, Alf Garnett

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

He's a spud in real life, of course...