Charlie Tango Tea Kettle Barbeque--Alexei Sayle rocks hard!
Really violent slapstick has always worked best when there is absolutely no indication that the participants enjoy each other's company in the slightest . This show works as a sort of capsule of social darwinism--every man is out to serve his own best interests. That they all live together in the same dilapidated house is simply brilliant.

This is the ugliest program I've ever obsessed over. Honestly, these characters are refugees from a cartoon made by illustrators on really hard drugs.

CASH

This one is highlighted by antics of two headless aristocrats who lose their heads yet again and boogie about casa de Scumbag. Vyvyan turns cheeky scoring cups of sugar from his sexy, flatulent neighbor. Then he goes and gets himself knocked up. The boys are so broke that Neil becomes a fascist pig and everything gets really heavy for a bunch of drug casualties. Alexei Sayle is again brilliant as a police commander who is always being mistaken for Benito Mussolini (and his subsequent performance as Il Duce singing "Stupid Noises" for a talent show defies description.)

INTERESTING

Dawn French is dead sexy as a Jesus-hungry yokel. Rick turns into a fascist and won't let any of his early guests have any fun at all at the party. The hippy gets really high and literally goes into outer space. Vyv turns into Mr. Atlas to impress a couple of birds. The party kicks on and loads of ugly people show up. Alexei Sayle plays Tommy Balowski, who comes to the party drunk. "Are you a virgin", he says to Neil at the party. "I'm not asking you. I'm just using that as a general term of abuse." This is one of my least favourite episodes. Rick is even more annoying than usual and Vyv doesn't smash enough things up.

SUMMER HOLIDAY

This is one of the best episodes and also the last. One of the best bits is the afro-hitler postal man delivering the lads' dismal test results. REALLY funny. There's "cricket" in the house and Elephant Head singing a bit of "Stop! In the name of love" Alexei Sayle is hilarious as Jrzy Balowski coming to bust some heads and toss our boys out into the street. Desperation takes hold and the only thing left to do is take it to the establishment. So our Scumbags pretend to rob the Fascist Pig Bank with water pistols--just when an actual bank robber is being led to the back to fill his coffers with cold hard cash. The end result is that the whole lot turn into stinking hippies riding about in a stolen double decker bus. The finale is fitting.

How much do I miss the Young Ones, let me count...
My wife introduced me to these maniacs years ago, and I'm still hooked. These three episodes are among the best.

CASH--After Neil announces that there's a "poltergoost" in the house, the lads realize that things aren't really just disappearing: they are being burned for firewood. The cash just isn't there. After composing (and fortunately burning) a letter to Neil's bank manager, Vyv announces his delicate condition and Neil is selected to become the breadwinner. How? By joining the police department. The episode turns upon itself several times with hilarious effect. This is truly among the best. (NB--An all-star new wave supergroup performed Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", when my wife taped it years ago. However, the scene doesn't appear on this tape! Must've been a copyright issue.)

INTERESTING--Actually, this is truly among the best also. The boys throw a house party, and the cameos abound. Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are hysterical party-crashers who run into Santa Claus and a nineteenth century chimney sweep. Oh, and Neil flies passed the Space Shuttle and encounters aliens. Typical party for the lads.

SUMMER HOLIDAY--The weakest of the three, and it's still incredibly funny. This finale to the show features Mr. Balowski evicting the boys, a night spent sleeping in the streets, and a bank robbery that features a bimbo teller who only knows how to say, "Good morning, how can I help you?" And Rik finally runs into Cliff Richards, but not in the way he wanted to.

Another terrific trio of comedy.

Once in Every Lifetime
The Young Ones epitomised the confusion of the generation that came of age in the Thatcher Years. Caught between a right wing government, the residue of punk and left-wing ideas from the 60s and 70s, and the continued disolution of the class system, British youth went through an identity crisis, struggling to find a suitable sub-group to belong to, whether it be punk (Vyv), spiv (Mike), hippy (Neil), or 'right-on' left-wing radical (Rick). Throwing these 4 student-types together in an anarchic, surreal house-share was a stroke of genius.

The main focus is the explosive relationship of the pretentious Rick (Rik Mayall) and the brutally straightforward Vyvian (Adrian Edmonson). These 2 actors later reprised a stripped down version of this relationship in "Bottom". Neal the Hippie and Mike the Spiv provided useful ballast and a wider range of plot options preventing this central comedic relationship from imploding.

People who saw the Young Ones the first time round tend to remember it as much funnier than it really is. With repeated viewing the some of the weaknesses in the writing become apparent. Nevertheless there is also a lot of comedic genius and an anarchic spirit that remains eternally refreshing.

America's Sweethearts
Funny, witty, catty, bitchy all rolled into one.

School's out for-ever....for the Young Ones
A spectacular trio of episodes from the 80s British comedy series THE YOUNG ONES, starring Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan and Alexi Sayle. This tape features shows from both the 1982 and 1984 season, primarily notable the last episode of the series, SUMMER HOLIDAY.

CASH - (1984 season) - Neil has to become a pig because the boys don't have any bread and Vyvyn is going to have a baby. Mike nails his legs to the table. Rik gets a wacking great splinter up his bottom. A supergroup including Glenn Tillbrook, Jools Holland and Stewart Copeland sing Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

INTERESTING - (1982 season) - The boys have a party. Neil insists he has a friend, if only they can find him. Giant sandwiches fall from the sky. Vyvyn invents great new party games. Mike gets the girl. Rik is out of control as usual. Jennifer Saunders makes a guest appearance. Musical guests are Rip, Rig and Panic, featuring a young Neneh Cherry, singing "You're My Kind of Climate."

SUMMER HOLIDAY - (1984 season) - In the series finale, the boys learn that Rik's parents are dead and then they get thrown out of their house. Will a sudden heist fix their problems? Guest appearance by Lenny Henry as the fascist mailman. The musical guest is John Otway singing "Body Talk."