RTE Comedy: Roaring Twenties etc...

[Poor Student]

Did anyone watch that show on RTÉ last night? What did you think of it?

[Anto McC]

I didn't actually see it but any show i listened to, on the radio this morning panned it, or more so the texters panned it.

[tetsujin1979]

Saw the first 10-15 minutes. There simply aren't words to describe how awful it was.

[BohsPartisan]

Yes there are ;)

RTÉ’s latest attempt at Sitcom will join Leave it to Mrs. O’Brien, Upwardly Mobile and The English Class in the pantheon of crimes against comedy.

The premise (4 twenty somethings share a flat) while not startlingly original had at least some potential. The writing had to be good though.

From the get-go this was a horrific experience. The voice-over, clearly a reference to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, just didn’t work in this context. At the very least it should have been a reference used during the opening sequence and then dropped after the point (nothing else other than that the writers are fans of THGTTG) was made. To my continuing and heightening annoyance this went on throughout the show. It might has well have been an audio-book.

Read the rest at my blog (http://gripofhysteria.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/the-roaring-twenties/)

[joema]

Shocking

[Billsthoughts]

Did anyone watch that show on RTÉ last night? What did you think of it?

fairly non commital from you there....did you know someone involved? (accents seemed to veer towards the d4.......writing seemed to veer towards the smug and unfunny)

was interesting to see the doc on graham linehan tonite. easy seein how him and mathews wouldnt have gotten thru the door of rte yet seem to be fawned over by the uk comedy fraternity. who the f*ck commisioned this crap and why the hell do they all act like they are in a panto...

on a side note.....great to see ted and ralph again on the grahm linehan doc....:D

[anto1208]

I saw the ad and was instantly turned off it i thought oh great another comedy with waky irish charactors.

Similar to that awfull the IT crowd with the lead guy being a wacky Irish rougue. cringe :o . and the black guy is one fo my favourite comedians ( from Mighty boosh, Dean learner, Gareth Marenghi) so i was really dissapointed.

[cheifo]

Oh God it was so awful, so bad on just about every level, it beggars belief that it got the go ahead for production.Writing comedy is difficult but it helps if you can make the characters in some way loveable.The people in this were as loveable as an STD.

[Poor Student]

fairly non commital from you there....did you know someone involved? (accents seemed to veer towards the d4.......writing seemed to veer towards the smug and unfunny)


I do, though if you're making a D4 connection I'm not from that part of the city nor are the people I know involved.

[Wolfie]

Sounds like it was up to the usual RTE comedy standard.

I'd imagine if a few posters on here put their heads together they certainly couldn't do any worse.

[Billsthoughts]

I do, though if you're making a D4 connection I'm not from that part of the city nor are the people I know involved.

its more of a mindset than a geographical location....

[Lionel Ritchie]

It's a phenomenon alright that these utterly crap comedies keep spewing out (haven't seen this one but with RTEs form I'm easily taking yeer word for it).

We do actually produce some bloody good comedians in this country.

Yet there's Ads running as well for that whatsisface 'Naked Camera' chap doing a show from America and you can see from the ads alone that it's ****e. A budgetless version of Borat.

He's as funny as arse cancer, as irritating and dated as his mentor 'The Live Mike' (70's kids'll know what I'm on about) and frankly if a transition student doing a friday afternoon media class came up with it I'd hit him a slap.

...and Dan and Becks gets a second season?.:confused: Sweet muther of merciful fxxx!

[Bluebeard]

Just had a look at the trailer (the true joy of emigration is not having to watch RTE). I would become worried when they start having to push the word "Sitcom" so heavily - a bit crass. Add to that "Rathmines"...

It looks like the usual RTE photocopy an idea ten years too late. Is it as bad as Extra Extra Read All About It?

When I watch RTE Sitcoms, I believe in a God on the strict condition that there is a Devil, and therefore a Hell, for it appears that no mortal punishment will do them justice.

As usual.

[stann]

Caught a couple of seconds of it, but didn't watch any more of it thank f**k, hopefully will never see it again, even accidentally. The phrase 'RTE sitcom' literally makes me come out in a rash. I just can't understand it, they can't do anything right where sitcoms are concerned. Not one thing. You'd think even at random they'd get one worth watching. But no. (Paths to Freedom ain't the exception here either, that'd be more a spoof documentary)
And it's written by a Waterford man I believe. The shame! :o :(

[thischarmingman]

Didn't see it myself but having seen the ads can imagine just how bad it was. It's ridiculous that we have such a feeble standard of comedy writing in this country despite possessing a fair number of at least decent quality comedians. The British TV schedules may be full of crap, but at least you can see the work and effort that goes into making shows like Extras, Peep Show or Time Trumpet (to name a few), into quality comedy shows. If stuff like Podge and Rodge is bandied about as the height of homegrwon comedy then we're in serious trouble.

On one hand it reassures me personally that in 9 months or a year when me and my mate send our material to RTE, we stand a good chance of succeeding, but then again, if the **** that passes for most new series on RTE is any indication of what they're looking for we've no chance.

[pete]

Had it on the background so not really watching. I smiled at the 'coming next week' bit when said "featuring hot girl from FAS ads" :p

The voice over was very annoying though. Whoever allowed that to be included should be shot.

Do RTE pilot shows? :confused:

[cheifo]

I really like that hot girl from the Fas ads but not enough to put myself through watching it again.

[Block G Raptor]

...and Dan and Becks gets a second season?.:confused: Sweet muther of merciful fxxx!
Dan and Becks has something though. I've only seen a couple of episodes and I sit there thinking this is bizarre but I'm compelled to keep watching. Don't know why

[noby]

Dan and Becks has something though. I've only seen a couple of episodes and I sit there thinking this is bizarre but I'm compelled to keep watching. Don't know why
I agree. Probably helps that it's only on in four minute bursts.

[Roadend]

I can't believe that RTE comedy gets such a bad rap, has nobody seen Stew?:p

[Lionel Ritchie]

I can't believe that RTE comedy gets such a bad rap, has nobody seen Stew?:p

...or Questions & Answers?

One of these nights I'm expecting John Bowman to stop an audience comment and say "Okay ...Is there ANYONE in the audience who ISN'T planted by a party? Ye stay. Can the rest of **** off out to the green room please?"

[Newryrep]

I saw the ad and was instantly turned off it i thought oh great another comedy with waky irish charactors.

Similar to that awfull the IT crowd with the lead guy being a wacky Irish rougue. cringe :o . and the black guy is one fo my favourite comedians ( from Mighty boosh, Dean learner, Gareth Marenghi) so i was really dissapointed.

Thought the IT crowd was great - the piracy ad/Chris Morris etc

[bennocelt]

Glad to see this show panned. God RTE must think the whole country loves D4 "wit"
I was reading about the two "funky" and "hip" writers. They mentioned their hatred of all things RTE and said they loved american sitcoms. That was enough for me to know it was going to be balls. I mean RTE do produce good documentaries and sport, and american TV to me is very simple.
Anyway......

[Poor Student]

Glad to see this show panned. God RTE must think the whole country loves D4 "wit"
I was reading about the two "funky" and "hip" writers. They mentioned their hatred of all things RTE and said they loved american sitcoms. That was enough for me to know it was going to be balls. I mean RTE do produce good documentaries and sport, and american TV to me is very simple.
Anyway......

The show is a steaming pile of horse manure (trust me, this feedback has been returned personally;)) but I can tell you there's nothing D4 about the two writers.

[TonyD]

I can't believe that RTE comedy gets such a bad rap, has nobody seen Stew?:p

Anytime I hear that "RTE can't do comedy" quote, I think "You people clearly haven't seen "Fair City".

Seriously though (:)) RTE "Comedy" is dire, with very rare exceptions. Paths to Freedom was good (Movie was muck though) Soupy Norman from last year was inspired stuff. Any good comedy on RTE seems to sneak out while nobodys paying attention.

[BohsPartisan]

I have to say though that TRT has been the best traffic attractor to my blog since the picture of Megan Fox.

[superfrank]

I saw an ad for this the other night. I heard "so and so's bringing back the 80's" and some lad spun round on a chair in an Ireland jersey about 5 sizes too small and a big stupid grin on his face. End of my interest in it.

Stew was terrible. Monty Python thirty years too late.

I caught twenty seconds of the English Class, the over-acting and wackiness was too much.

Upwardly Mobile was so bad it was actually funny.

There was that show with Ed Byrne about his family, can't remember the name, which was plain terrible.

I had assumed Roaring Twenties was something along the lines of the Big Bow Wow, another piece of RTE crap.

I also thought that I Dare Ya show was a bunch of crap.

There's a trend here......

On the subject of Jake Stevens/PJ Gallagher, another show I detest, he gave an interview in the Irish Times' CAO supplement the other day in which he stated he left school in transition year and never went to college. Why would something like that be printed in a CAO supplement which seems to encourage people to think carefuilly about their future? Then they give space to this celebrity who is maybe popular enough to actually influence teens to think "Hey, I might just drop out of secondary school and try my hand at comedy."

End of rant.

[Bluebeard]

I have to say though that TRT has been the best traffic attractor to my blog since the picture of Megan Fox.

You have a picture of Megan Fox on your blog!!!!!!!

Why the hell didn't you say so before?

Good blog, by the way.

[Aberdonian Stu]

The show is a steaming pile of horse manure (trust me, this feedback has been returned personally;)) but I can tell you there's nothing D4 about the two writers.

Perhaps that's the problem then, if they're trying to write about these types whilst not actually having experienced being these types.

[Billsthoughts]

I watched the second episode of this last nite. voiceover is terrible. the overacting in it as well..jaysus why when people do comedy in this country do they feel like they need to go on like they are in some brutal panto. shocking.

[Block G Raptor]

Watched about five mins of, I want my license fee back NOW!!!!

[Jerry The Saint]

I struggled through the last 5 minutes or so, just to see how bad it would get. It's clear the actors aren't sure what type of show it's meant to be - some of them are jumping up and down screaming and others are trying to act naturalistically. The script is unforgiveably lazy at times and don't even get me started on the voiceover. Ill-conceived may be the kindest description to use.

Anyway, it finished with some guy taking out a Samurai sword and running down the street shouting "Vengeance is mine!" :eek: Of course it was immediately followed by the news headlines and the top story was... you've guessed it (http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jTkqtOr_p1WiDH87gJuR6PpnYCrA) :(

[pete]

Anyway, it finished with some guy taking out a Samurai sword and running down the street shouting "Vengeance is mine!" :eek: Of course it was immediately followed by the news headlines and the top story was... you've guessed it (http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jTkqtOr_p1WiDH87gJuR6PpnYCrA) :(

Now if they arranged that i give them 10 out of 10 :D

Office style comedy would suit Ireland better although maybe that was the idea of that English class thing.

[cheifo]

Thee was another new one on last night called Katherine Lynchs working girls.
Oh Lord help us...I somehow sat watching ten minutes of it through my hands which involuntarily kept wanting to cover my face.The crude comments thrown in seemed to exaserbate its bloody awfulness.
I never crititcize for the sake of it but you can only sit and wonder how this stuff gets through whatever process it does before it gets to air.
If you would like to be a writer then pick up a pen and go for it.If these two
"comedy programmes" are anything to go by then you all you will have to do is come up with something that is vaguely amusing.Heres your plot...there is this man who works as a commisioning editor for a national Broadcaster...

[jebus]

Watched 5 minutes of it, hate to say this about two young writers but I'm delighted that their careers are over before they have even started. Jesus it's like they watched Spaced and thought they could remake it with a capital Irish Stereotype.

Worst. Programme. Ever.

and that includes Makin Jake

[Billsthoughts]

Did nobody watch the pilot for any of these in RTE and think..."these are not funny".
cant get over the acting in roaring twenties. even if the script was great it would kill any jokes stone dead. unfortunately it aint.
making jake was just dumb.
as for the working girls thing......all I will say is "homosexuals working in entertainment industry shocker!"
not my cup of tea but I suppose if she has an audience she deserves her chance as much as anyone.

[pete]

Saw 5 minutes of Jake Stephens thing & not funny (i never watched that other show he in).

Working girls thing strangely watchable in a "how bad is this really" research type of thing. Who is Katherine Lynch? If she gets her name on the title am I supposed to know who she is? :confused: If it was a 3 minutes youtube sketch might have limited appeal but on National TV :eek:

I really do wonder how bad are the shows/concepts that RTE are actually rejecting.

[anto1208]

I liked the naked camera thing but have to admit the Makin Jake had me going red watching it. But there are a few moments where i laughed.

I know its just a poor rip off off Borat but then again to hold that against a show is silly every show now is just a copy of another show i cant remember the last time i saw a genuinely original show.

The main problem with Irish shows & all acting in ireland, is Irish actors are generally terrible( bar a hand full ) and over act. I think that was part of the success of say the Office again not an original idea by any stretch yet the under acting made it that bit funnier.

On a side note listening to meave Higgins on Darcy yesterday does any one still think she is funny at the start she seemed like a funny quick witted girl but now every thing is so worked out to be wacky i cant remember the last time she made me laugh. YEt she cracks herself up constantly.

[Bondvillain]

The only possible thing I can think of is that Brendan Kilkenny has been made head of Comedy development at Rté. My first thought was that it was Soky the sock monster from Children's tv show "The Den", but in fairness, Soky knows funny.

I have no idea who Katherine Lynch is, and by the looks of it, no one else except Ma & Da Lynch & the commissioning dept at Rté do either.
Long may it remain that way. She's about as funny as scraping your face down a pebble dash wall.

"Ha ha ha. I'm doing a traveller accent. Ha ha ha. Knacker jokes - Hiaces. You know? Hiaces! ha ha ha"

Oh feck off. Buffoon.

Makin' Jake is a thorough embarrassment. The film-makers have forgotten that what made the character initially mildly amusing was the fact that as 'Jake' interacted with ordinary people, the TV audience was already in on the joke.

Ergo , shots of "Jake" in character, not interacting with anyone , relieving himself against a hedge with his bare arse exposed, accompanied by a 'humourous' overdubbed voiceover about toilet troubles for the benefit of the viewer are redundant.
Assuming this type of crap was an attempt to belatedly ride the coat tails of "Borat", the inclusion of scenes like this has instead reduced the programme to the level of 'Mr Bean for Morons' and show that the filmmakers have no idea who their audience are, and what they find funny.

Someone in RTE just figured Gallager was popular, and chucked money at him for fear he'd bring his audience elsewhere. That, on the current evidence, would have been no bad thing.

Which brings me onto the "Roaring Twenties".

Jesus wept.

I've seen some tripe in the course of my employment, but by Christ, this is truly the worst example of a waste of Airwaves that I have EVER come across.

Where does one start?

The redundant 'zany' voiceover that couldn't decide whether to Homage a Dry Hitchhikers style or a surreal Little Britain one, and in either case, should have been dumped at script stage?

The underdeveloped characters that all seemed to be written as various incarnations of Jack Black, with the exception of the female lead who, unlike her inspirations from "Spaced" and "Seinfeld", had absolutely nothing to do?

The obvious directorial & editorial inexperience which lead to every scene looking like a rehearsal for Tubbercurry's entry for the Short Drama category in Tops Of The Towns 1983?

The comedy accents? Jesus christ. The accents. No, no, a thousand times no. Irish people doing silly voices is not funny on it's own. The silly voices have to have funny lines to say before anyone will laugh.

There are sooooo many other reasons to hate it, each more tragic than the last, but it's time to stop, as kicking a cripple is not big or clever (but is, ironically, funnier than "The Roaring twenties")

Of course, the entire blame for this unmitigated disaster shouldn't fall at the door of the film makers. They simply followed their remit : "Here's some money. Make a programme".
They did, and although it was exceptionally badly written & poorly acted, they lived up to their side of the bargain.

The real blame should lie with whatever eejit saw fit to greenlight this project (Not to mention the other "comedy" programmes above - Oh, and don't think anyone's forgiven you for that vile multi-car pile up that was "The English class" either!) without obviously EVER checking on it's progress. Even the most cursory of glances from authority at any stage would have uncovered the fact that this tripe was nowhere near broadcast quality.

Whoever's responsible for this pee-take should be sacked immediately, and his salary used to compensate licence payers who were traumatised by this foul, manky and downright offensive waste of our money.

[Poor Student]

For what little it's worth, the guy doing the voiceover is not who they wanted at all, he was just something they scrambled together when plan A fell through. I know at least one person involved wasn't happy with it.

Thankfully my mate forgot to remind me it was on and I didn't have to watch it.

[pete]

The comedy accents? Jesus christ. The accents. No, no, a thousand times no. Irish people doing silly voices is not funny on it's own. The silly voices have to have funny lines to say before anyone will laugh.

Pet hate of mine. Like impersonations for the sake of it. The line has toi eb funny on its own!!! :(

The only thing I can think of with "Working Girls" is was planned for RTE 1 (Killinascully tie in) but because language a bit dodgy had to dump late night (not late enough) on RTE 2.

[jebus]

For what little it's worth, the guy doing the voiceover is not who they wanted at all, he was just something they scrambled together when plan A fell through. I know at least one person involved wasn't happy with it.

Thankfully my mate forgot to remind me it was on and I didn't have to watch it.

How are the people involved taking the very public humilation of this show? I felt bad for everyone involved yesterday whilst listening to the Ray (Kelly? the guy on after Ray Darcy on Today FM) Whatever show.

[anto1208]

How are the people involved taking the very public humilation of this show? I felt bad for everyone involved yesterday whilst listening to the Ray (Kelly? the guy on after Ray Darcy on Today FM) Whatever show.

Ray Foley.

I presume there pretty gutted, I imagine to write a show takes an awfull lot of time and energy and a certain amount of risk. With most shows you will get some people that love it some that hate it especially on the internet ( for example there was some one on here that said Larry Davids curb was rubbish :eek:) but this seems to have bombed i have nt heard one kind remark about it on any station / website etc.

I kind of feel sorry for them i must watch a full episode to see just how bad it is but i have a feeling there was a lot of imput into it that they either didnt agree with or had no choice in. Stinks of TV executives "fixing" the show.

[Poor Student]

I kind of feel sorry for them i must watch a full episode to see just how bad it is but i have a feeling there was a lot of imput into it that they either didnt agree with or had no choice in. Stinks of TV executives "fixing" the show.

I know there was a joke cut out of the first episode, possibly the opening scene (can't remember) that put the whole zooming into earth and voiceover narrative thing a bit better into context. I don't know how the creators are taking it, I know one of them but not so well anymore but another mate of mine who worked on production knew it was pretty bad when he watched it on TV and accepted my many many criticisms. He mentioned the voiceover thing not working at all without me having to say so. I'm hoping the lads see it as a chance to cut their teeth and take the criticism on board. I feel the whole thing looks like it's in a draft phase before any sort of critical assessment and might not have been so crap had that happened.

It will get renewed for a few more episodes if the ratings are any good.:eek:

[Bondvillain]

Better for all involved had someone in comissioning took the lads aside and said :

"Look, we cant broadcast this. It's bloody awful. You've already been paid, so we'll chalk this up to experience, there is some evidence of talent there , so maybe we'll work on another script for yez, ok?"

Television network vaults around the world are full to the brim with pilots that never got aired, many made by talented people. Thats what should have happened here. If it had, I wouldn't have had to watch this muck, and the creators of the show wouldn't have 99% of the country calling them talentless eejits, simply because no-one at Rté had the balls to say "Sorry lads, Not good enough, no airtime for you with this. Try again with something else..".

[pete]

How many episodes was the Roaring Twenties scheduled for?

Everytime I switched on RTE there seemed to be an advert for prior to episode 1.

[DmanDmythDledge]

How many episodes was the Roaring Twenties scheduled for?
Just the two... glad I forgot to watch it.

[Bondvillain]

I've just noticed the Today FM comment...

Jaysus, if it's gotten to the stage where Ray Foley feels he's entitled to take the p1ss out of you because you aren't funny, then you know your comedy career is over...

The Simpson's equivalent would be Millhouse calling you a nerd.

[Aberdonian Stu]

A two episode commission is very short for a half hour show. Most comedies, irrespective of how bad they are anticipated to be, get a six episode run. If the show is doing badly they might double up over the last two weeks to end it sooner but will still result in the full six being shown.

RTE might have been wary though as they knew comparisons would be drawn with The Big Bow Wow which got an inexplicable 13 episode commission, a full season for a drama by Irish/UK standards, before any viewer/reviewers had seen it.

[Billsthoughts]

the big wow wow..jaysus....
I remember Eoghan Harris bigging it up as being quality cause he runs some writing course and yer man who wrote it was on his course.....northern soul club???....what da ****??????? I think I need some "poneeey" to rid my mind of the memories of it....