iPlayer? What's an iPlayer? ILX's top 50 TV shows of the 90s!

B&B with Irish accents wd be kinda excellent tbh

15 - Ren and Stimpy (Nickolodeon, 1991-96)
- 2290 points, 18 votes

http://www.lysator.liu.se/~marcus/ren_stimpy/Ren_and_Stimpy-opening-3.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orO-_n0NlmA

Something I never fully 'got'.

Personally I thought this got kinda old kinda quick but, y'know, off you go.

Put it like this, I would rather watch Tom and Jerry any time ever.

OTM.

by that measure, roadrunner destroys KOTH

what is wrong with u ppl tbh

xpost

nah cos they two v. different things, whereas I always felt like Ren & Stimpy was tryna be a pomo appropriation of ver classics.

the episode where ren is in charge of the stimpy fan club is my favorite

xp there's room for that!

Yeah, but I don't think it did it all that well. Many obviously disagree with me.

R&S is genuinely incredible, on the whole, if flawed (the flow of dialogue and timing was often pretty poor, certainly in the early ones). Huge imagination visually and conceptually but the big lols are all from pretty basic reduced moments - facial expressions, randomly weird voices and similar traditional tropes just ramped up to 111. Excellent music used throughout too, from Tchaikovsky to Raymond Scott.

14 - The Fast Show (BBC, 1994-2000)
- 2440 points, 16 votes

http://sharetv.org/images/the_fast_show_uk-show.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClcwKgxu2wk

Not the most representative clip, but one quite appropriate to ILX I felt.

i have no idea what that is

Sketch show. All the sketches were very short, hence the title.

Here's Johnny the Nice Painter while I'm at it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRJxafiqHvw

Oh jesus.

For reference, I found the only good Fast Show sketch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UFUxTZwsJk

Ironically the sketches stopped being punchy v quickly and just dragged and farted on for the most part.

The "Bob Phlegming" sketches must rank as the most tedious, draw out, and laugh free comedy of all time.

it's great! none of those clips are representative of its best though.

Also I hated the Fast Show's general use of repetition - oh look, it's that guy who lives in a shed again...

Simon Day >>> most of the others.

kind of missing the point, here

Oh man Paul Whitehouse walking past different backgrounds in a bobble hat being charmingly naive and enthusiastic just never starts being funny

it became one of the most funniest, subtle and layered programmes on tv simply through repetition of laugh free sketches. i don't quite know how to explain that.

I like this one a lot, though it's particularly Brit-specific (Britcific?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGYUd4mNaBM

And yeah, I kind of know what you're getting at, Darragh.

There is something in what you say, darragh, and I will be the first to admit I watched every single ep, but dear god I wouldn't watch it now.

tbh it's more like a drama series in that if you don't watch it through from the beginning you're going to be lost and wondering what the fuss is about...like lost, really.

I occasionally catch a repeat on Dave or whatever, and still find a fair bit to laugh at.

If I was being even-handed I could probably draw up a list where I liked about half of the characters and their sketches. Probly a bit under half.

But it's sat here above Vic and Bob and King of the Hill and bollocks to being even-handed tbh

John Thomson shouting "YOU WANT A WHORE" almost redeems the entire show tho

already said enough about the Fast Show. nothing so repetition/catchphrase-based can hold up over 10 years later.

and oh man the live dvd

damn near the pinnacle of human cultural achievement imo

it was v impressive

I think the Fast Show bears a lot of responsibility for ruining British sketch comedy. We're still being fed appalling lazy and hugely popular sketch shows that don't really extend beyond a collection of catchphrases week in week out, Little Britain being the most recent example.

I am wondering if The Kingdom/Riget is gonna make the list. Heart says yes, head says maybe not.

Fast Show didn't create that, if anything it tried to corner the market and kill it. Subsequent sketch shows have not been as inventive or varied. xp

Simon Day >>> most of the others.

Nah, the bloke in a shed was okay, but hated his music hall compare and Dave Angel: Eco Warrior. They were the weakest - the only weak? - characters in the whole thing.

Brilliant show. Haha "Brilliant!" Geddit?

should i wait for this whole countdown to be posted before i post that gif of snoop dogg shaking his head or just get it over with now?

I mean I agree in that TFS was the death of repetetive sketch, and you can't blame them for taking that format and getting the most out of it that anyone could.

Oh wait, Day's Competitive Dad was really well observed tbh.

but hated his music hall compare

He always introduced Arthur Atkinson though, who was brilliant. Agreed on Dave Angel.

I guess what I really meant was that Simon Day's characters tended to be more fleshed out, so perhaps they seem more long-lasting. But I still have a fondness for plenty of the slighter characters, e.g. running luggage-carrying "come on!" family.

I never liked Suits You Sir, despite it being one of the flagship sketches.

Fast Show didn't create that, if anything it tried to corner the market and kill it. Subsequent sketch shows have not been as inventive or varied. xp

^^^^ truth

also simon day rules esp dave angel

I still think it's funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bb_Pfgu-wg