"The Goodies" (1970) TV series 1970-1981

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Creators:

Tim Brooke-Taylor
Graeme Garden
Bill Oddie

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | unknown

Release Date:

8 November 1970 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Long running British situation comedy with the vaguest of situations. The Goodies are a three man agency whose brief is to do 'anything...

Plot Keywords:

Slapstick | Surrealism | British | Sitcom | Trio

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Bill Oddie	...	Himself / ... (76 episodes, 1970-1982)
Tim Brooke-Taylor	...	Tim Brooke-Taylor / ... (76 episodes, 1970-1982)
Graeme Garden	...	Graeme Garden / ... (76 episodes, 1970-1982)

Also Known As:

"Narrow Your Mind" (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

30 min (76 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

The running joke concerning "A Walk In The Black Forest" by Horst Janowski dates back to an episode in the first series, "Radio Goodies", in which the team set up a pirate radio station with only one record - Janowski's 1965 light-instrumental hit.

Quotes:

Bill: We're all dead! Dead! D-E-D-D, DEAD!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Screenwipe: (#3.3)" (2007)

The Funkiest Gibbons In Town!

It's funny how the controller of BBC2 can allow repeats of "The Good Life" and "Fresh Prince Of Bel Air" (to name but two admittedly excellent comedies) to be shown over and over but her reasoning for not repeating "The Goodies" is that she doesn't want to air too many repeats. But the good, nay utterly brilliant, news is that Messrs Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie themselves have bought the rights to their classic show and plan on releasing it on DVD and video. At this time it's unknown whether they'll publish the whole lot with loads of fabulous DVD extras (a commentary from the trio would be wonderful) but the fact that us Goodies fans can finally get to see our wacky heroes any time we like is reason for the most joyous of celebrations.

The jokes that sailed too close to the wind and the occasional mis-fired episode have already been discussed here but it still remains that these were some of the funniest guys of the Seventies (and beyond) and deserve a good deal more recognition than they currently enjoy. "Kitten Kong" and "Bunfight at the OK Tearooms" are no doubt their best known sketches but their take on "Bright Eyes" was hilarious and their flat-capped Yorkshiremen knocking nine bells out of each other with blackpuddings were side-splitting (unless you're from Yorkshire and therefore fed up to the back teeth with that kind of "eckie-thoomp" stereotype).

It's about time we finally got to see The Goodies on DVD but while we wait I can highly recommend that you listen to the BBC Radio 4 "quiz" show "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" which features both Graeme and Tim.