Running into a sitcom glut

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 19

Running into a sitcom glut

By Margaret Chapman With relief I greeted the substitution of the Parliamentary luncheon for t he third comedy scheduled by TVI on Tuesday night. It was the first time I had seen the earlier two “Good Times” and "The Cuckoo Waltz” and hopefully it will be the last, but I had sat dismally through two earlier episodes of the “Prince of Denmark.” We must almost have a glut of sitcoms at the moment on our screens. From war to marriage through to minority groups we are more than adequately served if not always amused. On Tuesday's “Good Times” explores what must be one of the largest of all minority groups — America’s blacks. Made by the same producer who gave us the Bunkers, Norman Lear’s touch has lost its lightness or perhaps the jokes have all been served up in a different guise by Archie and family. Heaven help us if he

gets around to the Italians and the Poles. Mexicans we have already with “Chico and the Man.” British television seems to steer clear of this sort of material having started it all with "Till Death Do Us Part.” They stick stolidly to the tried and true, mothe r s-i n-law, bachelor friends, nubile young ladies and babies. As a formula it is always good for the occasional laugh, and “The Cuckoo Waltz,” the latest offering in the genre, delivered one or two. The leads are pleasant enough and at least they don’t live in a designer-deco-rated house but the torn wallpaper looked a little too nicely torn. The babies were cute and Clare Kelly who, if memory serves, was also Ken Barlow’s mum-in-law, is a more fetching one in this. The coy attempts at a little risque humour here and there were at best ridiculous . and at their worst embarassing. The placement of “The Sweeney” as a mid-even-

ing programme is of dubious merit. While the earlier series had some episodes with minimal violence and one wondered what the original fuss was all about, Tuesday’s episode had practically everything.

The car chase would have made Starsky and Hutch green with envy and even Kojak isn’t as cavalier with his prisoners as Regan and Carter were. In fact “The Sweeney” was a thoroughly nasty piece of television, added to which the convolutions of the story were such that I was completely lost at the end as to what on earth was going on, so that all that remains is an impression of violence. The piece was somewhat redeemed by the acting of Colin Welland who has, of late, been landed with amiable idiot parts but was able to let himself go in this role. But even good acting does not redeem the gratuitous violence.

“Tonight” gave us a fairly bland piece about the performance of the

Opposition and in particular Mr Rowling. It was fairly predictable and not very interesting, in that most of the subject matter had all been aired before.