The Good Life

When I heard of Good Neighbors, I didn't think much of it. Then when they began airing it after Waiting for God on WLIW Long Island last year. I became enchanted by a star cast, Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith, and the late Paul Eddington. Paul, Richard, and Felicity have been honoured with a C.B.E.(Commander of the British Empire). Richard and Penelope also received the O.B.E.(Officer of the British Empire) and now have C.B.E.'s as well. It's so amusing to watch these four talented actors at work. Richard and Felicity's roles as Tom and Barbara Good are wnderfully portrayed with such charm. Felicity has such a wonderful musing face to watch on screen. You can't take your eyes off her. No wonder Richard Briers is one of Kenneth Branagh's favorite actors. He is simply likable. Paul and Penelope's Margot play their neighbors who prefer offices and modern technology to Tom and Barbara's new lifestyle of pigs and crops. You wouldn't know it if you knew that Penelope actually is an avid gardener herself and lives in Surrey from her performance as the socialite, Margot Ledbetter. Good Neighbours actually had a command performance for the Royal Family who were big fans of the show. No wonder, it's a great show.

The Good Life has been repeated many many times on the BBC ever since it first aired back in the mid to late 70s and for good reason too.

Back then Britain was going through years and years of industrial strikes culminating in 78/79 with the so-called "Winter Of Discontent" when National Strikes crippled the country. During the 70s there were many situations when most of the country had its power cut off for nights on end by striking energy workers.

Thus millions of families would be cast in darkness huddled round candles, talking or trying to read under the gloom. It also gave thought to our total independence on eletricity and the power it provides us at the simple flick of a switch.

And so The Good Life came to light (bad pun I know). However, the writers decided not to make a comedy about people suffering darkness at the hands of militants and strikers. Instead they decided on taking a typical middle-class couple into the realms of voluntary self-sufficiency.

So enter, Tom & Barbara, our selfless & willing guinea pigs who decide the rat race and huge bills is not a world for them. And for the next 4 years we seem them struggle & succeed in their attempts at going their own self-sufficiency way at the bemusements of their neighbours.

This kind of environmentalism was a relatively new concept to British audiences in the 70s and perhaps underlined why the show was such a great & enduring success. But it also raised lots of questions both for us the viewing audience and Tom & Barbara themselves.

Generating electricity is no easy thing as Tom found out when the Electricity Board finally cut their power for not paying their bills. Both Tom & Barbara had to adapt really quickly and get used to the idea that nothing was going to happen any more by simply clicking on a light switch, opening a fridge or turning on a tv.

All these creature comforts we take so much for granted are all gone for Tom & his wife. And trying to build his own little power generator in his celler using the effluent of his pigs to create some form of electricity not only makes for a great episode but also shows us how much hard work & self sacrifice is involved by going the Green Route.

Two major questions that surfaced during the show involved the keeping of animals in Tom's back garden and the hard work, noise, odours etc that this creates and the problems it causes to the neighbours; the difficult matter of having to kill their own chickens bare handed rather than simply going to the shops and buying frozen foods killed by other people.

Interestingly the Goods (Tom & Barbara) were childless which was probably intended by the writers otherwise the show could have suffered if children were involved.

As time went on some of the episodes looked very "samey" from earlier episodes and the laughs were becoming just a little desperate. So to learn that the series would finally end in 1978 was the right choice. Its always best to finish on top than try to stretch a joke too far.

Even though the topicality of the show was popular at the time, I don't think it set a trend with the British in reality. Self-sufficiency was good & funny providing someone else did it, but for the majority of the population it was just too damned hard to even contemplate.

****/*****

I remember watching this show on PBS in the early 80's and loving it. However, I hadn't seen it in nearly 20 years, and wasn't sure how much of my "wonderful" memory was simply nostalgia.

So I was thrilled to discover that my local library has a few episodes on VHS, but it was with a bit of trepidation that I checked them out. Would the show be as good (unintentional pun) as I remembered? I can happily say that yes, this show stands the test of time. True, most of Jerry and Margo's wardrobe is horribly dated, and the typical American wouldn't get a few of the jokes. However, by and large this charming sitcom is still big on laughs, in a very family-friendly way (except for some light innuendo, and the occasional drink, there's virtually nothing to offend here).

Oh, and even wearing a raincoat and wellies, Felicity Kendal is still one of the loveliest ladies I've ever seen.

This is one of those series that give Britcoms such a good name! "Good Neighbors" (as we know it here in the states) is intelligent, funny, and extremely endearing. And who can beat the cast? Richard Briers is a very respected veteran now -- he was nominated for a Tony last year for "The Chairs" -- and he was just as talented when he was younger! Felicity Kendall is absolutely precious as his wife (I *love* her scratchy little voice!), and Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith are terrific as the snooty next-door neighbors. "Good Neighbors"/"The Good Life" is dry, but in a good way... You'll laugh out loud at this one! And it has a heart -- you'll fall in love with the Goods, and enjoy following them through their ups and downs! Do yourself a favor and check out this series!

Neither as acerbic as FAWLTY TOWERS or ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS or as radical as THE YOUNG ONES, THE GOOD LIFE remains cosily stuck in a middle-class time-warp but happens to be blessed with terrific scripts (by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde) and extremely strong characters, played to perfection by the four principle actors. Originally airing 1975-1978, the series managed to maintain a very high standard despite a slight air of exhaustion that crept into the fourth final series. It was decided to quit while they were ahead, at the peak of the series popularity, with a final episode filmed in front of the Queen.

The basic set-up concerns Tom and Barbara Good (Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal) who decide to opt-out of the rat race and try self-sufficiency in Surbiton. On this slender premise hung all kinds of imaginative plots farmyard animals (and their excretory processes), generators, rotary cultivators (and contraptions of all kinds) as well as political machinations in the local music society headed up by the formidable Miss Mountshaft (often referred to, but never seen).

As the series progressed, the plots tended to depend upon situations guaranteed to cause maximum embarrassment to the Goods social-climbing fully paid-up member of the white middle-classes neighbour Margo Leadbetter (played marvellously by Penelope Keith). Margo's husband, Jerry (Paul Eddington) maintains just the right amount of total resigned bemusement throughout.

Stand-out episodes include 'The Windbreak War' (a feud erupts over the positioning of Margo's windbreak), 'A Tug Of The Forelock' (Tom and Barbara go into domestic service...for Margo), 'Silly...But It's Fun' (the Christmas 1977 episode in which Harrods fail to deliver Margo's Christmas), 'Mutiny' (in which Margo plays Maria in the local music society's production of The Sound Of Music) and 'The Thing In The Cellar' (Tom installs a methane generator which runs on something that comes out of pigs).

It's easy to forget the critical approval and the public appreciation the series gained during it's initial tenure, along with the fame that greeted the actors (especially Penelope Keith who memorably appeared on the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show, the ultimate accolade at the time).

THE GOOD LIFE easily ranks up with the best TV comedies ever produced but, unfortunately, it is not remembered with quite the same fondness as DAD'S ARMY, STEPTOE & SON or the magnificent FAWLTY TOWERS. What is needed is some repeats to correct this shameful oversight.