The cheer up thread.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Accurate!

[Morgrim]

I'm guessing the stuff in the quiz must be rather region specific, there were multiple questions that made no sense. Like what on earth is 'Mork and Mindy'? (Answer for me was wildly incorrect, but see above.)

[Kirsten]

mine was spot on...

[YorkNecromancer]

what on earth is 'Mork and Mindy'?

How does anyone not know what 'Mork and Mindy' is?

Okay, so there was this TV show called 'Happy Days', and it had hit a rut. Where previously it had been a gentle character comedy about American teenagers and 50's nostalgia, the writers were, to a man, burned out, and had reached the point of throwing random sh!t at the wall to see what stuck. They'd had main character Arthur 'The Fonz' Fonzerelli jump a shark on waterskis, and that had pretty much signalled the end of things (although they didn't know it at the time) and they were now completely out of ideas. So one of the writers went 'We haven't done aliens yet', and the other guys were all so out of f**ks that they went 'Sure, why not?'.

This was a TERRIBLE idea, but no-one, absolutely no-one cared, so the job got approved.

Enter this guy called Robin Williams. It was the end of the Seventies, and he was a stand-up comedian known for his frankly astonishing capacity at improvisation - a capacity fuelled by what can only be termed a 'heroic' consumption of cocaine. Robin Williams was cast as the alien, named Mork, from Planet Ork. Yes, that's how bad the scripts had got.

What no-one expected was just how good Robin Williams was. Through sheer drug-fuelled charisma, the man delivered one of the most amazing performances the show had ever seen, creating a classic episode in the process. Something that should have been warmed over turd and the nail in the coffin of an ailing, once-great show, was somehow the best thing 'Happy Days' had seen in years.

And hence, 'Mork and Mindy' was created: a spin off, where Mork, whose alien remit was to observe life on Earth, would try to fit in with regular society, ably abetted by his only human friend, Mindy, a regular gal-next door type. The scripts largely consisted of 'Robin just does some funny sh!t' and the rest is history.

It's a good show, albeit somewhat dated, and season 1 is definitely worth it to see just how talented Robin Williams was in his youth. I mean, he was amazing. He burned out pretty quick though - his cocaine addiction was not good for anyone, and was only compounded by how stifling he felt the character of Mork had become.

Anyway, yeah. That's what 'Mork and Mindy' is.

[Necron2.0]

What had me laughing from that quiz was the inclusion of both "Mork and Mindy" and pogs. Anyone old enough to know about "Mork and Mindy" (enough to know episodes at any rate) are likely not going to know what a pog is.

[Path Walker]

What had me laughing from that quiz was the inclusion of both "Mork and Mindy" and pogs. Anyone old enough to know about "Mork and Mindy" (enough to know episodes at any rate) are likely not going to know what a pog is.

In the UK, Mork and Mindy was repeated a lot on Channel 4 in the mornings in the early 90s, after the kids TV programs. So it's actually really great indicator of age for a certain group of people.

[YorkNecromancer]

Yup. I remember watching 'Mork and Mindy' when I was about ten, and then Pogs came out when I was around fifteen or something.

England's always been America's poor cousin when it comes to US TV shows and the like. We either don't get them because they never arrive, don't get them until maybe twenty years later, or don't get them because they're on channel 5 on a Tuesday at half past midnight.

Meanwhile, we get endless slow-moving dramas about city lawyers going through marriage difficulties, slow-moving dramas about country lawyers going through marriage difficulties, and slow-moving dramas about police. Who are normally going through marriage difficulties.

This is, like ninety per cent of UK-made 'drama TV for adults'. The only time it's ever good is when it's written by Jimmy McGovern, whose writing is AMAZING; 'Cracker' remains an absolute high point of British TV, and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-53G0q5oGc]the episode of his series 'Accused' where Sean Bean played a trans teacher[/url] was one of the finest roles Bean's ever had.

I bloody love me some Jimmy McGovern.

[Mr Mystery]

I think, on balance, the UK makes more competent TV than the US.

thats not to say the US doesn't pump out top notch quality stuff (for me, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, sci-fi in general), but our output often feels more realistic - less senselessly happy endings. Fewer 20-somethings inexplicably living the high life in low to middle income jobs which frankly they never really seem to go and do.

Compare Friends to Teachers. Both are contemporaneous shows, with broadly similar cast types. One is scarily accurate and bloody hilarious, the other is 10 seasons of a single joke which I didn't find funny the first time. Similarly, can you ever see the US producing something as (apologies for media ponce talk) zeitgeisty as 'This Life'?

Oh, and if you want to talk about nature documentaries?



Sir David is willing to accept your unconditizonal surrender - you will seriously never find a man more in utterly respectful awe of all aspects of our natural world.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Both have their merits, both have their awful shows to be fair. I can't stand Made in Chelsea anymore than I can bear Friends, but both tend to have their strengths. US TV shows tend to handle high-budget stuff better due to the money they throw at it. Game of Thrones couldn't really be made by any other nation.

Conversely, British comedy is clearly objectively superior, British Top Gear was a worldwide phenomenon for a reason, and we do our small-scale stuff like Sherlock pretty well.

Plus apparently British kids shows are incredibly-popular worldwide, and our childrens' authors are top-notch. America may have the Kingslayer himself, George RR Martin for adult stuff, but we've got Rowling, Dahl, and a tonne of others. The main ingredient we seem to nail is not talking down to kids in our media.

[Path Walker]

I think when it comes to comedy, we just have a totally different style of writing it that leads to some brilliant stuff (and a lot of crap). We tend to have small teams, maybe one or two people, writing the whole show, rather than a large writing staff that work on stuff then bringing it all together under a showrunner. Its also because we often make "seasons" (as seems to entered common parlance now) with fewer episodes, instead of having to fill 24+.

Compare the US The Office (which is really lovely and very funny but with some noticeable dips in quality and each season is a bit flabby) with the UK version which was written by two people at the absolute top of their game and is a genuine work of comedic art, every line is well worked out and each moment is perfect.