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Colonel Flagg · #26

Some of the gags were incredibly cliché (Mrs. Slocombe starting a phrase with the words "My pussy ..." for example) but for the most part, I thought the show was rather cleverly written, compared to American sitcoms of that era. Most of the Brits I knew thought it was shlock, though. Go figure.

Kitsa · #27

I see it like this: at a time when Americans were "shocked" to hear Archie Bunker flush a toilet on TV, the staff of Grace Brothers were making Pussy jokes.

The show, for the most part, I felt was cleverly written. For the time. The only fault I can find with them (other than Grace and Favour, which was an attempt to keep the dynamic going a little longer and can be forgiven) was the abomination of a movie. I know that at the time all sitcoms were expected to spawn a feature-length movie sooner or later, and I know that they were generally low-budget, but the AYBS movie was horrible. It didn't work once they were out of the store and they kept recycling jokes (like the one where they all had to stay in a row of tents).

That being said, though, for me it was one of those comfy-as-old-loafers shows that was about 99% warm fuzzies. My mother-in-law bought me the box set one of the times I was on bedrest and I watched it through several times.