Hypocritical beeb selling old non PC shows..

[MikePotts]

....good!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc...un-PC-classic-comedies-it-banned-from-TV.html

 

[MisterCairo]

This quote is Orwellian in its hypocrisy (ref "It Ain't Half Hot Mum":

“An enormous hit of the 1970s, the exploits of a Royal Artillery Concert Party in India in 1945 is an un-PC product of its time, but remains a cherished piece of vintage comedy.”

 

[Edward]

I rather suspect there's an element of the particular newspaper playing to a known audience in its choice of phrasing in much of this article (not least the loaded term "PC", nor the emotive term "ban" - the BBC has no power to "ban" anything, legally speaking, though they do have the right not to broadcast a programme should the organisation so choose). Seems fair enough, really, to make these available for those who still want to watch them, while not screening them on general broadcast for the larger group who would find some of them offensive. Archive television downloads in general is an interesting step for the BBC. There's much consideration of the organisation going on currently, with the looming charter renewal issue, and all broadcasters facing the looming death of traditional, linear broadcasting. This should allow the BBC to begin to experiment with online subscription services and such,which represents their future.

 

[MisterCairo]

Semantics over the word "ban" aside, the BBC refuses to broadcast what it will gladly profit from nevertheless.

That is hypocrisy in my view.

If one is "offended" by something, one can change the channel. I'm lead to believe that even in the UK there are now hundreds of channels to choose from, up from the previous four.

We're not talking criminal behaviour, or even civil issues like slander, but the subjective opinions of some, incredibly small in numbers, people.

I'm amazed when a broadcast viewed by people in the millions is "outrageously offensive" if two or three thousand people call to complain.

In case anyone is wondering what we're talking about, do a search for "Fawlty Towers and the Major and cricketers".

Only a simpleton wouldn't understand the context.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I watched "Fawlty Towers" when it first aired in the US over PBS in the late '70s, and that particular scene was cut even then -- I never saw the unexpurgated version until the Internet came along. Ditto the C.J.-in-blackface scene in "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin." Apparently the US distributors for these programs were much more wary of such things than the BBC itself was at the time.

 

[Edward]

Over here, the Beeb are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Usually by the same people.

In terms of complaints, it only takes one person to complain, but the number of complaints isn't considered by Ofcom (the broadcast regulator), only whether it is in breach of the boradcast content codes

 

[MisterCairo]

PBS in Buffalo showed the original versions of both Fawlty Towers and Reginald Perrin. I guess it wasn't an issue in Western New York or Southern Ontario (WNED bills itself as broadcasting from Buffalo/Toronto, it gets so much Canadian support).

As for Ofcom, has it ruled in fact that this scene breaches the content "code", whatever that possibly means?

Or is, as the article suggests, the BBC self-censoring?

While at the same time profitting...

 

[Stormy]

Not long ago, I watched the pilot episode of "Happy Days" online. That show would stir up quite a fuss in the U.S. today. It raised both my eyebrows, which isn't easy to do as carefree and laid-back as I am.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a lot of seventies US television that would never get on the air today. The early seasons of both "All In The Family" and "Sanford and Son" were impossibly raw by modern standards -- and both were derived from BBC comedies that went even further. I watched British sitcoms with great enthusiasm in the '70s and '80s, but never saw "Till Death Us Do Part" or "Steptoe and Son" shown here. When I did see them via DVD, they made their US versions, as strong as they were, look like "My Three Sons" by comparison.

 

[stratcat]

There's a lot of seventies US television that would never get on the air today. The early seasons of both "All In The Family" and "Sanford and Son" were impossibly raw by modern standards -- and both were derived from BBC comedies that went even further. I watched British sitcoms with great enthusiasm in the '70s and '80s, but never saw "Till Death Us Do Part" or "Steptoe and Son" shown here. When I did see them via DVD, they made their US versions, as strong as they were, look like "My Three Sons" by comparison.

The strange thing about "til death us do part" is that it's so well written that people don't always see the parody and the attempt to show up the bigoted and racist views that many people hold.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Exactly so. "All In The Family," even though greatly watered down from the Speight version, ran into exactly the same issues here. One group of viewers were outraged that such a character should be expressing such views on television, and another group rooted for him because he "wasn't afraid to tell it like it was." It took quite a while before people came to realize that he was neither a villian or a hero, but rather just a product of a specific time and place struggling to adapt to a world he didn't understand. Such characters make for great literature, but they don't really have much place in mainstream television anymore.

 

[Edward]

PBS in Buffalo showed the original versions of both Fawlty Towers and Reginald Perrin. I guess it wasn't an issue in Western New York or Southern Ontario (WNED bills itself as broadcasting from Buffalo/Toronto, it gets so much Canadian support).

As for Ofcom, has it ruled in fact that this scene breaches the content "code", whatever that possibly means?

Or is, as the article suggests, the BBC self-censoring?

While at the same time profitting...

S
ome of it might be problematic for broadcast now. It would depend on whether the humour is clearly designed to mock the groups about whom the terms are used, or the person who is using such terms. Context is everything for Ofcom. Time of broadcast can also be an issue.

Most likely the Beeb has chosen not to show this stuff itself. Tbh, though, with some of it, I'd be surprised if there was much of a market for the likes of It ain't half .. these days; it's a style of humour that is just very dated now. The Beeb also comes in for a lot of criticism if they show a lot of repeats, so.
There's been a lot of talk, too, in recent years about access online to Beeb back catalogue more generally, so perhaps this is an experiment. They may of course also be aiming it at a market that wants to buy it while avoiding another audience that isn't interested and doesn't in the main want it. I don't personally consider that automatically hypocritical, but that's to personal opinion.

 

[Edward]

The strange thing about "til death us do part" is that it's so well written that people don't always see the parody and the attempt to show up the bigoted and racist views that many people hold.

That is a danger with some types of humour. Poor Warren Mitchell was often upset by bigots who congratulated Alf Garnet rather than laughed at him. Much the same has happened to Al Murray with regards to his 'Pub Landlord' character in recent years. Simon Nye stopped writing "Men Behaving Badly" because too many saw his protagonists as positives rather than morons. Plus ca change...

 

[MikePotts]

In related news, 'Alf Garnett' just passed away. RIP Warren Mitchell, you gave me many laughs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...-Mitchell-Alf-Garnett-actor-dies-aged-89.html

 

[LizzieMaine]

A remarkably gifted actor. Much like Carroll O'Connor did in the US, he took a character who was precisely his opposite and imbued him with genuine life.

 

[Stormy]

There's a lot of seventies US television that would never get on the air today. The early seasons of both "All In The Family" and "Sanford and Son" were impossibly raw by modern standards -- and both were derived from BBC comedies that went even further. I watched British sitcoms with great enthusiasm in the '70s and '80s, but never saw "Till Death Us Do Part" or "Steptoe and Son" shown here. When I did see them via DVD, they made their US versions, as strong as they were, look like "My Three Sons" by comparison.

Thanks for this tidbit. I just pulled up "Steptoe and Son." I've just gotta see at least one episode of this.

 

[Edward]

Steptoe is well worth looking into. It's of its time, certainly, but it has dated far better than a lot of both its contemporaries and more recent material (such as Only Fools and Horses, for instance, which really should have been put down a good ten or fifteen years before it was).

 

[Stormy]

I rather enjoyed watching that and plan to watch the other episodes available on youtube! Again, thanks

 

[Edward]

I saw an ad for this the otherday. AS I suspected, it's the Beeb getting into digital sales more broadly, including but not limited to stuff from its archive that doesn't have much of a broadcast audience any longer.