Top 50 Sitcoms

I've got the 1996 OFAH Christmas specials on video (proper BBC video, not dodgily recorded) and love them all. I expect they'll be shown over the next two weeks because they can't just show Heroes and Villains then not show Modern Men or Time on our Hands. Best bits from those episodes:

Mike: Ladies and Gentlemen, could you all please raise your glasses to our future mum and dad - Casandra and Rodney!
All: Casandra and Rodney!
Trigger: ....Dave!

and:

Casandra: Why didn't they mention Rodney?
Rodney: Eh?
C: They say 'man', but Rodney was there too.
Albert: They do mention him, here : [reads from the paper] Derek Trotter was assisted in the capture of the muggers by his younger brother, Rooney.
R: You see, it's bloody Rooney!

LOL, great stuff. But I think Fawlty Towers should win. The sheer quality of the episodes compared to, say, OFAH, which is very good but because there's so many it kind of looses it's quality after a while. The sheer quality of the writing of Fawlty Towers as well shows through - just watch the episode 'Communication Problems', with the deaf Mrs Richards in. The plot is so in-depth and quality that it's a wonder they wrote it. It really is a work of genius.

But to be honest, nothing comes close to Fawlty Towers and OFAH, they're really the only two ones that should win.

Er, Blackadder is right up with those two, Dave. Rowan Atkinson is a funnier comedic actor than John Cleese, IMHO and the ending of "...Goes Forth" is truly sublime.

BLACKADDER: "This is a crisis. In fact, if you've got a moment Baldrick; it's a ten-storey crisis, with carpeting throughout, 24-hour porterage and a large sign on the roof saying: 'This is a crisis."

Brilliant!

Nice sig KQ. Best thing ever is either I'll have a Waldorf Salad, We're fresh out of Waldorfs. Or The Batman and Robin scene I've seen it countless times but it still makes me laugh.

"Don't say anything about war..."
Good old cleese...

True Dave.

I love the "Mrs Richards" episode of Fawlty Towers; Joan Sanderson was brilliant in that and had that wonderful voice. My other fave is "The Builders" with David Kelly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sitcom/

Well it was obvious it was going to win, my favourites Fawtly Towers and the flawless Porridge finished disappointingly low. Blackadder is funny but number two?

Being a saddo, I voted for Blackadder.

Nothing sad about that Bob.

It was an absolute disgrace though. When Jonathan Ross said Fawlty Towers was going out at number 5, I was waiting for him to say "Only joking", as he did earlier on with Dad's Army.

How the fuck people can find The Vicar Of Dibley funnier than Fawlty Towers is completely beyond me.

My top 3 would have been FT, Blackadder and The Office, although I'm not sure in what order.

By the same logic used last night that voted The Vicar of Dibley above One Foot in the Grave, Fawlty Towers, Open all Hours, Porridge AND Dad's Army, it must also be that Busted are better than The Beatles, Timberlake is a better music writer than Mozart and that the BBC can't even fix their polls correctly. The fact that the top 10 were all BBC sitcoms when anybody in the world can see that Father Ted and Pheonix Nights are WAAAAAY better than Vicar of Dibley and The Good Life, along with the fact that The Vicar of Dibley finished NUMBER 3!!! prove that the BBC couldn't rig anything properly even if they were given a very large sheet of instructions on how to rig things, given a special type of rigging hammer and special anti-rigging bodyguards were hired to stop all types of anti-rigging terrorists (probably from channel 4) who may well have wanted to stop the rigging from taking place in the first place. (A bit of Blackadder humour)

How though?! How?? It beggars belief how The Vicar of Dibley got over 30,000 more votes than Dad's Army and Fawlty Towers, and about 150,000 more than One Foot in the Grave. I mean what??! How? Bloody hell...who are these people!? I'll tell you - they're the same people who rated Lord of the Rings over 1984, rated Imagine over BoRhap and rated the Star Wars trilogy as the best ever film - didn't they even read the title?! Best ever FILM - not best trilogy of films, not best collection of a space-related films, it was best film. Personally I think the voting public should be locked up. Incidentally, that wouldn't include me as I voted for Fawlty Towers.

Incidentally, as soon as Fawlty Towers went (at a very sad number 5), it was show over. I like Only Fools and Horses but it doesn't deliver the jokes as well as Fawlty Towers or as cleverly. And btw, I'm not sure if I've said this but the falling through the bar joke was done in Fawlty Towers in the episode 'The Pychiatrist' - watch it, you'll see - it's about 27 or so minutes in.

Yes, I am quite furious about it - and also my laptop had to be restarted too. Bloody Windows - what a piece of shit that is. Or, as Basil would say: YOU BASTARD!

Thank you so much. My pleasure.

I wanted OF&H to win but I began to think that Blackadder might sneak it on the poignant ending of "Goodbyeeeee" so I was quite surprised it didn't win in the end.

I don't dislike the Vicar of Dibley but I can't believe Porridge, Yes Minister and Open All Hours got voted off before it.

It's madness, isn't it!

Mad! Absolutely mad!
*tch* I say to her you go up the ladder to see the girl - and she go crazy! *tch*
What?
*tch* I say to her you go up ladder - you want to see the girl, you crazy about this girl - and Mrs Fawlty - she go crazy.

Ah you've shown your self

"This, Basil's wife. This, slap on head"

"You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky"

"Ever seen my wife make toast?"

"Don't mention the war. I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it"

"You have rats in Barcelona don't you, or did Franco have them all shot?"

"Washed down with lashings of hot screwdriver"

"Racket? That's Brahms! Brahms fifth racket!"

"Duck's off. Sorry"

Now, harmless entertainment though the Vicar of Dibley may be, can it really compete with writing like that? No. SO this poll is now officially shite, and only representative of the short term-ism of the collective UK memory.

The Vicar of Dibley is a great show, but I don't think it's the best. My pick would have to be Are You Being Served? or Keeping Up Appearances.

Totally agree - off hand I could probably list about 10 clever, witty and funny lines from Fawlty Towers and, when pushed, probably 1 from The Vicar of Dibley....no, scratch that - make that 0.

"Where's Sybil?" "Huh...where's the bill?"

"I meant that awful man...Harold Robinson! God, it's awful!" "How about Waldorf Salad?" "Is that one, yes, you're quite right - awful!"

"Anywhere which does French food?" "Yes, France I believe -they seem to like it there - you'll have to leave quick though, the tide leaves in six minutes."

"Is this a piece of your brain?"

"Do you want plain ones or ones with our address on it?"

"Oh, we don't have any this week - no...no germans this week, Major."

"Well deduct half now, and if my wife brings up the other half during the night, we'll claim the balance in the morning!"

"Alright, we'll put an add in the paper - 'Wanted, kind home for enormous savage rodent.' Answers to the name of Sybil."

"No, no - I can't abide cruelty to living creatures!" "Well I'm a creature, you can abide it to me." "You're not living."

"I tell you - if the Good Lord..." "...is mentioned once more I shall move you closer to him!"

Classic stuff there. Of course, the co-writer of this is the same person who played the joint-best role in 'MP and the Holy Grail' (along with the Knights who say Ni...ni! ni! ni!) - the French Knight! "You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person! I'll blow my nose at you so-called Arthur King - you and all your silly English kerniggets!"

What an eccentric performance.