What American TV comedy of the 70s was based on Steptoe and Son?
"Hancock for a time. After their association with Hancock had ended, they wrote a series of ""Comedy Playhouse"" (1961–62), ten one-off half-hour plays for the BBC. One play in the series, ""The Offer"", was well received, and from this emerged ""Steptoe and Son"" (1962–74), about two rag and bone men, father and son, who live together in a squalid house in West London. This was the basis for the American series ""Sanford and Son"" and the Swedish series ""Albert & Herbert"". Their comedy is characterised by a bleak and somewhat fatalistic tone. ""Steptoe and Son"" in particular is, at times,"
"2007, Season 6 and Season 7 in 2008 and Season 8 in 2009. Steptoe and Son Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business. They live at Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962–65, followed by a second run from 1970-74. The theme tune, ""Old Ned"", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 poll by the BBC to find ""Britain's Best Sitcom"". It was remade in the United States as ""Sanford"
"Steptoe and Son (film) Steptoe and Son is a 1972 British comedy drama film and a spin-off from the popular British television comedy series of the same name about father-and-son rag-and-bone dealers. It starred Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett as the eponymous characters, Albert and Harold Steptoe respectively. It also features Carolyn Seymour. A sequel, ""Steptoe and Son Ride Again"", was released the following year. During a gentlemen's evening at a local football club, Harold meets one of the acts, a stripper called Zita. After a whirlwind romance the couple are married, although the actual wedding ceremony is delayed"
"cries but when he pulls back a curtain a mixed-race baby is there instead. It turns out that Zita and her musician, who is black, are now a couple. Harold then learns that he is not, after all, the father of her first child. The film had investment from the Robert Stigwood Organisation. The film was popular at the box office and made a profit of five times its cost. Steptoe and Son (film) Steptoe and Son is a 1972 British comedy drama film and a spin-off from the popular British television comedy series of the same name about father-and-son"
"seriously and could only see him as Harold Steptoe. Corbett found himself receiving offers only for bawdy comedies or loose parodies of Steptoe. Production of the sitcom was in the last few years stressful as Brambell was an alcoholic, often ill-prepared for rehearsals and forgetting his lines and movements. A tour of a ""Steptoe and Son"" stage show in Australia in 1977 proved a disaster due to Brambell's drinking. During the tour, the pair appeared in character in an advert for Ajax soap powder. The TV episodes were remade for radio, often with the original cast; it is these that"
"Steptoe and Son Ride Again Steptoe and Son Ride Again is a 1973 comedy film. It is a sequel to the film ""Steptoe and Son"" (1972) based on the television series. Again the film starred Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. The Steptoes have retired their horse - because the horse is lame, after having to pull the cart (and Harold) home from York, after the horse walked into the back of a removal van which then drove off - and plan to buy a new one with Albert's life savings of £80, putting £9 away for ""emergencies"". Harold sends"
"to that date, based on overnight returns. ""Steptoe and Son"" led Corbett to comedy films: as James Ryder in ""Ladies Who Do"" (1963); with Ronnie Barker in ""The Bargee"" (1964), written by Galton and Simpson; ""Carry On Screaming!"" (1966); the ""Lust"" segment of ""The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins"" (1971); and Terry Gilliam's ""Jabberwocky"" (1977). There were two ""Steptoe and Son"" films: ""Steptoe and Son"" (1972) and ""Steptoe and Son Ride Again"" (1973). He also had the leading role in two other television series, ""Mr. Aitch"" (written especially for him, 1967) and ""Grundy"" (1980). He had a supporting role in the"
"members of Theatre Workshop, where he worked. Harry H. Corbett Harry H. Corbett, OBE (28 February 1925 – 21 March 1982) was an English actor and comedian. Corbett is best known for his co-starring role in the popular and long-running BBC Television sitcom ""Steptoe and Son"" which was first broadcast from 1962–1965 and 1970–1974. Corbett, the youngest of seven children, was born in Rangoon, Burma, where his father, George Corbett (1885/86–1943), was serving as a company quartermaster sergeant in the South Staffordshire Regiment of the British Army, stationed at a cantonment as part of the Colonial defence forces. Corbett was"
"en zoon"" and in Portugal as ""Camilo & Filho"". In 1972, a film adaptation of the series, ""Steptoe and Son"", was released in cinemas, followed by a sequel ""Steptoe and Son Ride Again"" in 1973. The series focused on the inter-generational conflict of father and son. Albert Steptoe, a ""dirty old man"", is an elderly rag-and-bone man, set in his grimy and grasping ways. By contrast, his 37-year-old son Harold is filled with social aspirations, not to say pretensions. The show contained elements of drama and tragedy, as Harold was continually prevented from achieving his ambitions. To this end, the"
"the autumn of 1961 he approached Hancock's writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, with the idea of a series called ""Comedy Playhouse"". He had ten half-hour slots and asked them to fill them with anything they wanted, insisting only that his title of ""Comedy Playhouse"" be used. The fourth episode of the series, broadcast on 5 January 1962, was entitled ""The Offer"" and starred Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell as Steptoe and Son. Sloan badgered Ray Galton and Alan Simpson to write a series of ""Steptoe and Son"" episodes, which were broadcast between May and June 1962. A further"
"""Steptoe and Son in Murder at Oil Drum Lane"", written by Ray Galton and John Antrobus, brought the storyline to a close. The series was one of the first UK situation comedy programmes to employ actors rather than comedians in the principal roles. Galton and Simpson had decided that they wanted to try to write for performers who ""didn't count their laughs"". The series' title music, ""Old Ned"", won its composer Ron Grainer his second successive Ivor Novello award. The series had no standard set of opening titles but the opening sequences would often feature the Steptoe's horse, Hercules. ""Steptoe"
"""Steptoe and Son"", the sitcom became firmly entrenched in the television schedules. Some of the most successful examples include ""To The Manor Born,"" ""As Time Goes By"", ""Steptoe and Son"", ""Dad's Army"", ""Keeping Up Appearances"", ""Red Dwarf"", ""The Good Life"", ""The Likely Lads"", ""Fawlty Towers"", ""Allo Allo"", ""The Good Life"", ""Are You Being Served?"", ""Yes Minister"", ""Only Fools and Horses"", ""Drop The Dead Donkey"", ""Men Behaving Badly"", ""The IT Crowd"", ""Absolutely Fabulous"", ""The Vicar of Dibley"", ""The Mighty Boosh"", ""Father Ted"", ""Mr. Bean"", ""Blackadder"", ""One Foot in the Grave"", ""The Brittas Empire"", ""I'm Alan Partridge"", "" Some Mothers Do 'Ave"
"and Simpson and Corbett's family. In March 2011 the Engine Shed Theatre Company performed three episodes of the iconic series live on stage at the Capitol Theatre, Horsham. Jack Lane played Albert Steptoe and Michael Simmonds played Harold. The three episodes performed by the company were: ""Men Of Letters"", ""Robbery With Violence"" and ""Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard"". Engine Shed went on to adapt and perform the two Christmas Specials later that year. Many of the original TV episodes of Steptoe and Son have now been officially adapted to the stage by the original writers Ray Galton"
"the comedy was derived from the two playing off each other's characteristics. A common trend in sitcoms is to place the double act in a situation where they are forced together through uncontrollable circumstance. In another Galton and Simpson production, ""Steptoe and Son"", a son, with great ambition, was forced to live with his elderly, manipulative father as a rag and bone man. The comedy derives from the way the characters interact in their tempestuous relationship. The series also has more heart-rending moments as the son despairs at his inability to escape his needy, selfish, grasping father. ""Porridge"" saw ""an"
"Harry H. Corbett Harry H. Corbett, OBE (28 February 1925 – 21 March 1982) was an English actor and comedian. Corbett is best known for his co-starring role in the popular and long-running BBC Television sitcom ""Steptoe and Son"" which was first broadcast from 1962–1965 and 1970–1974. Corbett, the youngest of seven children, was born in Rangoon, Burma, where his father, George Corbett (1885/86–1943), was serving as a company quartermaster sergeant in the South Staffordshire Regiment of the British Army, stationed at a cantonment as part of the Colonial defence forces. Corbett was sent to Britain after his mother, Caroline"
"One early US show to regularly feature rhyming slang was the Saturday morning children's show ""The Bugaloos"" (1970–72), with the character of Harmony (Wayne Laryea) often incorporating it in his dialogue. In Britain, rhyming slang had a resurgence of popular interest beginning in the 1970s, resulting from its use in a number of London-based television programmes such as ""Steptoe and Son"" (1970–74); and ""Not On Your Nellie"" (1974–75), starring Hylda Baker as Nellie Pickersgill, alludes to the phrase ""not on your Nellie Duff"", rhyming slang for ""not on your puff"" i.e. not on your life. Similarly, ""The Sweeney"" (1975–78) alludes"
"British sitcom in the 1960s and 1970s. Ray Galton had been one of the two writers of the original series, and he co-wrote this play. It brought an end to the ""Steptoe and Son"" saga, explaining the two protagonists' lives together and their deaths. The year is 2005. Steptoe's old house is now the property of the National Trust. Harold Steptoe, now in his 70s, visits the place but gets shut in after closing time. Through his monologue, the audience discovers that he eventually killed his father by throwing a spear at him when he was sitting on the toilet."
"alike. Among these are ""Frasier"", ""Seinfeld"", ""All in the Family"", and ""The Mary Tyler Moore Show"". The television sitcom provides an opportunity to compare British and American humor. Many British sitcoms have been re-made for American audiences. For example, ""Till Death Us Do Part"" became ""All in the Family""; ""Man About the House"" became ""Three's Company""; and, the immensely popular ""Steptoe and Son"" became ""Sanford and Son"". ""The Office"" was originally a British sitcom that has been successfully remade for an American audience using the same title (and in the case of the pilot episode, the same script). However, most"
"the comedians who would soon appear in the ""Carry On"" film series. In the 1960s the BBC produced the earliest of Richard Waring's domestic comedies, ""Marriage Lines"" (1961–1966), with Richard Briers and Prunella Scales, and a then-rare workplace comedy with ""The Rag Trade"" (1961–1963, 1977–1978). Two long-running series began around this time, ""Steptoe and Son"" (1962–1965, 1970–1974) and ""Till Death Us Do Part"" (1965–1968, 1972–1975), the latter criticised by Clean-Up TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse for its bad language. With ""Steptoe"" (and ""The Likely Lads"", 1964–1966) producers began to cast straight actors, rather than comedians, around whom earlier series like ""Whack-O!"""
"Lion, who produced ""The Wicker Man"", were finally absorbed into the film division of EMI, who had taken over ABPC in 1969. The duopoly in British cinema exhibition, via Rank and now EMI, continued. Some British producers, including Hammer, turned to television for inspiration, and big screen versions of popular sitcoms like ""On the Buses"" (1971) and ""Steptoe and Son"" (1972) proved successful with domestic audiences, the former had greater domestic box office returns in its year than the Bond film, ""Diamonds Are Forever"". Low-budget British sex comedies included the ""Confessions of ..."" series starring Robin Askwith, beginning with ""Confessions"
"Irish, spoke with a received pronunciation English accent, as did Corbett. Brambell was aged 49 when he accepted the role of Albert, only 13 years older than Corbett. For his portrayal, he acquired a second set of ""rotten"" dentures to accentuate his character's poor attitude to hygiene. During its production in the 1960s and 1970s, ""Steptoe and Son"" marked itself out as radical compared to most UK sitcoms. This was an age when the predominant sources of laughter in British comedy were farce, coincidence, slapstick and innuendo. However ""Steptoe and Son"" brought greater social realism. Its characters were not only"
"and Son"" and ""Steptoe and Son Ride Again"". A boxed set of Series 1–8 and the two Christmas specials was released on Region 2 DVD by 2entertain on 29 October 2007. Also, 52 episodes were remade for BBC Radio, initially on the Light Programme in 1966–67 and later Radio 2 from 1971 to 1976. A special one-off remake of the ""A Winter's Tale"" episode aired on BBC Four on 14 September 2016, as part of the BBC's Lost Sitcom season recreating lost episodes of classic sitcoms. In 1977, Brambell and Corbett appeared in character for two television ads for Ajax"
"and its role in their subsequent careers. Following their break with the Derek Roy vehicle ""Happy Go Lucky"", they became writers for Tony Hancock, including the ""Hancock's Half Hour"" radio show and Hancock's later television specials. Subsequently, the pair wrote several comedy series for television, including ""Comedy Playhouse"" and ""Steptoe and Son"". The latter became the basis for the American series ""Sanford and Son"" and the Swedish series ""Albert & Herbert"". Many of their works were re-adopted for later production, such as the Paul Merton revival of the ""Hancock's Half Hour"" for ITV, and the 2009 audio plays ""Galton and"
"""The Life and Times of David Lloyd George"". He also played numerous cameo parts in sitcoms, notably ""Dad's Army"" (1969, 1977), ""Steptoe and Son"" (three episodes, 1970–74), ""Nearest and Dearest"" (1973), ""Man About the House"" (1975), ""Rising Damp"" (1975), ""George & Mildred"" (1976, 1978) and ""To the Manor Born"" (eight episodes, 1979–81). He worked frequently with such TV comedians as Benny Hill, Morecambe and Wise, Frankie Howerd and Bernie Winters, and towards the end of his life appeared in the early 1980s alternative comedy programmes ""The Young Ones"" and ""The Comic Strip"". In 1978, he appeared as both Garkbit, the"
"The Curse of Steptoe The Curse of Steptoe is a television play which was first broadcast on 19 March 2008 on BBC Four as part of a season of dramas about television personalities. It stars Jason Isaacs as Harry H. Corbett and Phil Davis as Wilfrid Brambell. The drama centres on the actors' on- and off-screen relationship during the making of the BBC sitcom ""Steptoe and Son"", and is based on interviews with colleagues, friends and family of the actors, and the ""Steptoe"" writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The screenplay was written by Brian Fillis, also responsible for the"
"Hill, Frankie Howerd, Harry Worth, Reg Varney and Spike Milligan in their comedy shows. He appeared in five episodes of ""Steptoe and Son"" during its original run from 1962 to 1965, and in 1973 appeared in the film ""Steptoe and Son Ride Again"" and that year's television Christmas special, the most recurring actor in the series aside from Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. From 1966 to 1968 he starred in the BBC radio comedy ""The Embassy Lark"", a spin-off of ""The Navy Lark"". He appeared in at least one episode of ""The Navy Lark"" as CPO Nathanial Pertwee, filling"
"City"" and NBC's ""Will & Grace"". Most PBS stations affectionately refer to British sitcoms as ""Britcoms"". Several British sitcoms have been successfully remade for the American market. Notable examples include ""Steptoe and Son"" which became ""Sanford and Son"", ""Till Death Us Do Part"", which became ""All in the Family"" on CBS and ""The Office"" which was remade into an American series of the same name. Three's Company, a remake of Man About the House, spawned identical spinoffs: The Ropers (George and Mildred) and Three's a Crowd (Robin's Nest). More recently, shows such as ""The Inbetweeners"" have been adapted, as well"
"Stepford Children"" (1987), ""Spontaneous Combustion"" (1990), """" (1990), ""Necessary Roughness"" (1991) and ""Any Given Sunday"" (1999), and as a regular character on TV shows such as ""Blue Thunder"", ""My Two Dads"", ""Vega$"" and ""Hang Time"". He portrayed himself in both the critically acclaimed TV movie ""Brian's Song"" (1971) and the 2002 comedy ""Teddy Bears' Picnic"". Butkus has also made cameo appearances in episodes of several television shows. Butkus endorsed Prestone, a brand of antifreeze, in a commercial during Super Bowl IV in 1970, stating the tagline, ""Because plugging holes is my business."" The ad marked the first highly successful celebrity"
"""The Odd Couple"" (Jerry Paris, Harvey Miller, Bruce Bilson and Garry Marshall among others). Barefoot in the Park (TV series) Barefoot in the Park is an American sitcom that aired in 1970 on ABC. Based on the Neil Simon Broadway play of the same name, the series cast members are predominantly black, making it the first American television sitcom since ""Amos 'n' Andy"" to have a predominantly black cast (Vito Scotti is the sole major white character). ""Barefoot in the Park"" had also previously been a 1967 film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. Scoey Mitchell plays Paul Bratter, a"
"Stop! Look! and Laugh Stop! Look! and Laugh! is a 1960 feature-length Three Stooges compilation featuring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard. Eleven of the Stooges shorts were shown and bridged together with segments featuring Paul Winchell and his dummies, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. Near the end of the film, the Marquis Chimps perform a version of Cinderella narrated in rhyme by Winchell with June Foray providing female voices (and Alan Reed providing the male ones) as part of Knucklehead's bedtime story. New York Stooges TV host Officer Joe Bolton (a staple of WPIX-TV through the early 1970s)"
"in which she played a passive-aggressive executive. She starred with Annette O'Toole and Meredith Baxter Birney in the critically acclaimed ""Vanities"" (1981), a television production of the comedy-drama stage play about the lives, loves and friendship of three Texas cheerleaders starting from high school to post-college graduation; it aired as a part of ""Standing Room Only"", a series on the premium-television channel HBO. She had a well-received leading role in the cult horror film ""The Stepfather"" and was a regular on two short-lived TV series of the 1980s: ""Cutter to Houston"" (1983) and ""Jack and Mike"" (1986–87). She had several"
"Barefoot in the Park (TV series) Barefoot in the Park is an American sitcom that aired in 1970 on ABC. Based on the Neil Simon Broadway play of the same name, the series cast members are predominantly black, making it the first American television sitcom since ""Amos 'n' Andy"" to have a predominantly black cast (Vito Scotti is the sole major white character). ""Barefoot in the Park"" had also previously been a 1967 film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. Scoey Mitchell plays Paul Bratter, a newlywed attorney for the law firm Kendricks, Keene & Klein living in lower Manhattan"
"When Steptoe Met Son When Steptoe Met Son is a 2002 Channel 4 documentary about the personal lives of Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett, the stars of the long-running BBC situation comedy, ""Steptoe and Son"". It aired on 20 August 2002. The programme reveals how Brambell and Corbett were highly dissimilar to their on-screen characters. Corbett felt he had a promising career as a serious actor, but was trapped by his role as Harold and forced to keep returning to the series after typecasting limited his choice of work. Brambell, meanwhile, was a homosexual, something that in the 1960s"