Men Behaving Badly

One of the best British sit-coms that the BBC have produced in the last twenty years. Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey are perfectly cast as Gary and Tony, as are, Caroline Quentin and Leslie Ash as their long suffering girlfriends. I don't think British audiences took well to the U.S. version of the show that came out in 1996, because the UK version had been around four years prior to this, and we had taken to the characters. But it is the same with any sit-com that is re-made from the UK Version and vice-versa. The BBC make a habit of re-running this show, and I never get tired of watching it.

Brilliant, hilarious, crude, and did I say brilliant!!! Neil is great in these series, as is Martin, Caroline and Leslie. The look at their hum-drum lives couldn't be funnier and yet so close to the heart of so many of us out there!!! These two unlikely house-mates (Clunes and Morrisey) somehow make a fantastic coupling of characters which tug at the funny-bones, and even a little at the heartstrings, as they try to impress (but often insult) the patient and persevering Deborah and Dorothy. Not to mention their less than impressive career moves. Leaves a certain American series starring a certain American comedian for dead!!!

It still makes me mad that the lousy American version is called Men Behaving Badly and this version is called British Men Behaving Badly It should be reversed.

A classic example of great brit TV that didn't make the grade when translated into an American sitcom. (You may recall the "Men Behaving Badly" with Rob Schneider, Ron Eldard and Ken Marino which flopped despite a good cast, decent chemistry and desperate reformatting.) I wished it to survive due to my partiality to this original.

The formula is simple: Responsible guy with wacky roommate, relationship humor and sticky situations...but it works splendidly. It's comparable to Dennis' better known "Coupling", which is scripted just a bit tighter, and obviously more attractive. But "MbB" is just every bit as witty while being a little more down to earth and not confined to the sexual humor genre.

Not since The Young Ones have I been so hooked on a British comedy!

I lived in England for a brief period and while over there was introduced to Men Behaving Badly, possibly THE funniest sitcom I've ever seen. I was embarrassed when we (that is, the United States) tried to remake it with Ron Eldard and Rob Snyder (how does this guy continuously get work??). As TV censors are more uptight here, it was impossible to replicate the show's madcap, off-color humor, which is what made it work in the first place. (Ditto when High Society - another sitcom that thankfully flopped - tried to mimic Ab Fab.) The part where Gary finds his girlfriend's diaphragm and tries fitting it in his mouth - the way little kids do orange sections - was priceless, and would never make it past censors here, aside from maybe a Saturday Night Live sketch.

As a woman, I probably should have been repelled by some of Tony and Gary's antics, but found them oddly endearing and fun to watch. (Of course, if I was dating either one, the story would be different!) The only complaint I have was that the Gary-Dorothy romance wasn't very convincing...but then again, maybe she dated him because "I wanted someone I could feel superior to!" as she herself once said.

Gary's dad/officemates are also a hoot...I don't know if it's just because ageing British eccentrics are played for laughs (see The Major on any Fawlty Towers episode) or what.

I wish this show would come out on video!!!!!!