The Goodies (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Goodies is a British television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s. The series, which combines surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 sketches
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

 and situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

, was broadcast by BBC 2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

 from 1970 until 1980 — and was then broadcast by the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 company LWT
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...

 for a year, between 1981 to 1982.

The show was co-written by and starred Tim Brooke-Taylor
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964...

, Graeme Garden
Graeme Garden
David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...

 and Bill Oddie
Bill Oddie
William "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies....

 (together known as "The Goodies
The Goodies
The Goodies are a trio of British comedians who created, wrote, and starred in a surreal British television comedy series called The Goodies during the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy.-Honours:All three Goodies now have OBEs...

"). Bill Oddie also wrote the music and songs for the series — while "The Goodies Theme" was co-written by Bill Oddie and Michael Gibbs
Michael Gibbs (jazz composer)
Michael Clement Irving Gibbs is a jazz composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and keyboardist....

. The directors/producers of the series were John Howard Davies
John Howard Davies
John Howard Davies was an English television director and producer and former child actor.Davies was born in Paddington, London, the son of the scriptwriter Jack Davies...

, Jim Franklin and Bob Spiers
Bob Spiers
Bob Spiers was a director. He is particularly noted as the director of the early series of Absolutely Fabulous , the musical comedy Spiceworld, and of the second series of Fawlty Towers . He also worked with Steven Moffat on Press Gang and Joking Apart...

.

An early title which was considered for the series was Narrow Your Mind (following on from Broaden Your Mind
Broaden Your Mind
Broaden Your Mind is a British television comedy series starring Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, joined by Bill Oddie for the second series...

) and prior to that the working title was Super Chaps Three.

Basic structure of the series

The series' basic structure revolved around the trio, always short of money, offering themselves for hire — with the tagline "We Do Anything, Anywhere, Anytime" — to perform all sorts of ridiculous but generally benevolent tasks. Under this loose pretext, the show explored all sorts of off-the-wall scenarios for comedic potential. Many episodes parodied
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 current events, such as an episode where the entire black population of South Africa emigrates to Great Britain to escape apartheid. As this means that the white South Africans no longer have anyone to exploit and oppress, they introduce a new system called "apart-height", where short people (Bill and a number of jockey
Jockey
A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...

s) are discriminated against.

Other story lines were more abstractly philosophical, such as an episode in which the trio spend Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

 together waiting for the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 to be blown up by prior arrangement of the world's governments. The "Christmas Eve" episode titled "Earthanasia
Earthanasia (Goodies episode)
"Earthanasia" is the suspected finale of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "The End of the World Show"....

" was one of the two episodes which took place entirely in one room. The other, "The End
The End (Goodies episode)
The End is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Encased in Concrete" and "Concrete on the Outside"....

", occurred when Graeme accidentally had their office encased in an enormous block of concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

. These episodes were made when the entire location budget for the season had been spent, forcing the trio to come up with a script shot entirely on the set that relied entirely on character interaction - episodes known in the industry as bottle episodes
Bottle episode
The term bottle episode is used in episodic television to refer to episodes which are produced using the least money, and restricted in their scope to use as few, or no, non-regular cast members, effects, and sets as possible...

.

Awards

A special episode, which was based on the original 1971 Goodies' "Kitten Kong
Kitten Kong
"Kitten Kong" is the first BAFTA nominated episode for Best Light Entertainment Programme of the British comedy television series The Goodies.As always, the episode was written by members of The Goodies.-Award:...

" episode, was called "Kitten Kong: Montreux '72 Edition", and was first broadcast in 1972. The Goodies won the Silver Rose in 1972 for this special episode at the Festival Rose d'Or
Rose d'Or
The Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40...

, held in Montreux
Montreux
Montreux is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has a population, , of and nearly 90,000 in the agglomeration.- History :...

, Switzerland.

The Goodies also won the Silver Rose in 1975 at the Festival Rose d'Or for their episode "The Movies".

Nominations

The Goodies is a multiple BAFTA
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...

 nominated television series.

Characters and production techniques

The show featured extensive use of slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...

, often performed using sped-up photography and clever, though low-budget, visual effects, such as when they built a railway station together, and awoke the next morning to discover that the construction equipment outside (steam shovel
Steam shovel
A steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. They played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads...

, bulldozer
Bulldozer
A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...

, backhoe
Backhoe
A backhoe, also called a rear actor or back actor, is a piece of excavating equipment or digger consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. They are typically mounted on the back of a tractor or front loader...

) had come to life, and were lumbering, growling, and battling like dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s.

Other episodes featured parodies of contemporary pop music composed by Oddie, some of which went on to substantial commercial success in the British charts, among them the hit single "Funky Gibbon
The Goodies on record
The Goodies on record is about The Goodies' releases on LP and CD-LP albums:The Goodies released four albums and a number of singles during the 1970s, as well as a various greatest hits compilations on both vinyl and CD...

" as well as character-based comedy. Some early episodes were interrupted by spoofs of contemporary tv commercials.

The group also acknowledges their debt to the usage of music in silent movies. In "The Movies" episode, they buy an old movie studio, and attempt to make their own epic film, MacBeth Meets Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...

 The Wonder Dog
. After several 'takes', they argue and each begins to make his own movie in a different style. The episode finished with an extended silent movie segment, in which each movie comically interferes with the others.

The characters are based on the personae of the three characters: Garden, a bright but bizarre "mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...

"; Brooke-Taylor as a conservative, vain, sexually-repressed, upper-class royalist; and Oddie as a scruffy, occasionally violent, left-leaning rebel from Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

. The group have suggested that the characters of Graeme, Tim, and Bill represent the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

, Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 and Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 wings of British politics or middle-class, upper-class, and working-class stereotypes respectively. The characters played up to their stereotypes, but were not necessarily based on the actor playing the character, even though the actors played characters with their own names, and had some minor characteristics in common. In reality, Garden is a medical doctor, Brooke-Taylor is a lawyer who is not at all conservative ("But I had the double-barrelled name so I was always going to play the Tory") and Oddie is a pacifist, ornithologist and active environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

.

The Goodies episodes

The Goodies made 76 episodes (including specials).

Dual Goodies roles

Episodes in which the Goodies appeared as other roles, including appearing as doubles of themselves — while also appearing in their usual roles of Tim, Bill and Graeme — included the following:
  • "The Baddies" — in which Tim, Bill and Graeme also act as robot
    Robot
    A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

     duplicates of themselves
  • "Daylight Robbery of the Orient Express" — in which Tim, Bill and Graeme also act as mime
    Mime artist
    A mime artist is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a mummer...

     duplicates of themselves
  • "2001 & A Bit" — in which Tim, Bill and Graeme also act as their own son
    Son
    A son is a male offspring; a boy or man in relation to his parents. The female analogue is a daughter.-Social issues regarding sons:In pre-industrial societies and some current countries with agriculture-based economies, a higher value was, and still is, assigned to sons rather than daughters,...

    s
    — ('Bill Brooke-Taylor', 'Tim Garden' and 'Graeme Oddie')
  • "Alternative Roots
    Alternative Roots
    Alternative Roots is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme....

    " — in which Graeme, Bill and Tim also act as their own ancestor
    Ancestor
    An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....

    s
    — 'Keltic Kilty' (Graeme's ancestor), 'Kinda Kinky' (Bill's ancestor) and 'Kounty Kutie' (Tim's ancestor)
  • "The End
    The End (Goodies episode)
    The End is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Encased in Concrete" and "Concrete on the Outside"....

    " — in which Tim, Bill and Graeme also act as futuristic
    Future
    The future is the indefinite time period after the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the nature of the reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist is temporary and will come...

     Goodies.
  • "The Goodies – Almost Live
    The Goodies – Almost Live
    The Goodies – Almost Live is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "The Goodies in Concert"....

    " — in which the Goodies also appear as "Pan's Grannies".
  • "Hunting Pink
    Hunting Pink (Goodies episode)
    Hunting Pink is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Where There's a Will" and as "A Hunting We Will Go"....

    " — in which Tim also appears as his 'Great-uncle Butcher'.
  • "Kung Fu Kapers
    Kung Fu Kapers
    Kung Fu Kapers is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Ecky-Thump"....

    " — in which both Tim and Graeme dress up as their fictional relatives to try and fool Bill.

Alternative Goodies roles

  • "Rome Antics", in which Tim, Bill and Graeme appeared as Ancient Goodies
    (the episode takes place during the time of the Roman Empire
    Roman Empire
    The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

    ).
  • "War Babies
    War Babies (Goodies episode)
    War Babies is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.It was the last episode to be produced and transmitted by BBC Television....

    ", in which Tim, Bill and Graeme appeared as 2-year-old Goodies
    (the episode takes place during the time of World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

    ).

Tim's uncles

Tim's uncles are featured in the following episodes:
  • "Camelot
    Camelot (Goodies episode)
    Camelot is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.As always, the episode was written by members of The Goodies.-Plot:...

    " — Uncle King Arthur
  • "Farm Fresh Food
    Farm Fresh Food (Goodies episode)
    Farm Fresh Food is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Health Farm"....

    " — Uncle Tom
  • "Hunting Pink
    Hunting Pink (Goodies episode)
    Hunting Pink is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Where There's a Will" and as "A Hunting We Will Go"....

    " — Great Uncle Butcher (played by Tim)

Monty Python spoofs and imitations

The Goodies was a consistently very popular show in the UK, although, because it seemed to appeal particularly to younger viewers, some critics dismissed it as juvenile in comparison to the other contemporary UK "alternative" comedy hit, Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

. In fact, whilst this comparison irritated them, Oddie, Garden and Brooke-Taylor were old university friends of the Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...

 cast, and had worked with them in the past, so there was considerable mutual respect between the rival shows. This led to several gentle parodies of Monty Python appearing on The Goodies.

Goodies episodes, in which Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

was either parodied
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 or alluded to, included the following:
  • "The Goodies and the Beanstalk" — At the end of this episode, John Cleese
    John Cleese
    John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...

     portrays a genie
    Genie
    Jinn or genies are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Together, jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Religious sources say barely anything about them; however, the Qur'an mentions that...

     in the guise of a Monty Python character and uses the Python catchphrase "And now for something completely different". When spotted and told to "Push off!" by Tim, he shouts dismissively: "Kids' programme!" before vanishing.
  • "Invasion of the Moon Creatures" — the opening credits of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" can be seen when Graeme switches on the television. Graeme immediately switches off the television in disgust because he has missed what he wanted to see (Moira Anderson
    Moira Anderson
    Moira Anderson, OBE is a Scottish singer.- Life and career :Following an education at Lenzie Academy, Anderson quickly established herself at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow before getting her big break in the media after a successful audition at the BBC.She landed her...

    ).
  • "Fleet Street Goodies" — in which the Liberty Bell March
    Liberty Bell (march)
    "The Liberty Bell" is an American military march composed by John Philip Sousa.It is now most often associated with the British TV comedy program Monty Python's Flying Circus , which began and ended with the first few bars.-History:...

     (the theme for "Monty Python's Flying Circus") can be heard.
  • "Scatty Safari
    Scatty Safari
    Scatty Safari is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "The Existence of Rolf Harris"....

    " — in which four Gumbys are featured.
  • "The Goodies Rule – O.K.?
    The Goodies Rule – O.K.?
    The Goodies Rule – OK.? is a special episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.The costume designer for this episode was BBC costume designer Dee Robson....

    " — in which two Gumbys are seen on Skid Row
    Skid row
    A skid row or skid road is a run-down or dilapidated urban area with a large, impoverished population. The term originally referred literally to a path along which working men skidded logs. Its current sense appears to have originated in the Pacific Northwest...

    .
  • "U-Friend or UFO?" — Bill plays the Python theme on the trombone with the aliens.

Missing episodes

"Kitten Kong
Kitten Kong
"Kitten Kong" is the first BAFTA nominated episode for Best Light Entertainment Programme of the British comedy television series The Goodies.As always, the episode was written by members of The Goodies.-Award:...

" (episode seven from season two) is the only Goodie episode that is officially missing from BBC archives. However, an expanded, more elaborate version of the episode called ‘Kitten Kong: Montreux '72 Edition’, especially made for 1972 Montreux festival, does exist, and is said to have only minor differences with its 1971 prototype. The Goodies were awarded the Silver Rose at the 1972 Montreux festival for this special episode.

Several other episodes that were originally screened in colour are also missing, but exist as black and white telerecordings made for overseas sales.

See also

  • The Goodies
    The Goodies
    The Goodies are a trio of British comedians who created, wrote, and starred in a surreal British television comedy series called The Goodies during the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy.-Honours:All three Goodies now have OBEs...

  • List of The Goodies episodes
  • The Goodies guests
    The Goodies guests
    A listing of some of the guest stars who appeared on "The Goodies", and the episodes in which they appeared.-References:* "The Goodies Rule OK" — Robert Ross, Carlton Books Ltd, Sydney, 2006...

  • The Goodies on record
    The Goodies on record
    The Goodies on record is about The Goodies' releases on LP and CD-LP albums:The Goodies released four albums and a number of singles during the 1970s, as well as a various greatest hits compilations on both vinyl and CD...

    — CD and LP releases

Further reading

  • "The Complete Goodies" — Robert Ross, B T Batsford, London, 2000
  • "The Goodies Rule OK" — Robert Ross, Carlton Books Ltd, Sydney, 2006
  • "TV Heaven" — Jim Sangster & Paul Condon, HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 2005
  • "The Goodies Episode Summaries" — Brett Allender
  • "The Goodies — Fact File" — Matthew K. Sharp

External links

Comedy Guide
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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