Heil Honey I'm Home!

Well, what can be said about "Heil, Honey I'm Home"? Basically, any sitcom about Adolf Hitler living next door to a Jewish couple is destined for disaster from day one. The fact that there were only eight episodes filmed but only one was ever shown says it all. This was made by the old BSB satellite company back in the days when satellite TV was something of a joke in the UK. Looking back at this programme makes it easy to understand why this was the common presumption.

The content of the programme was shocking, especially when it is from the so-called "more understanding" 90's rather than the politically-incorrect 70's. An example of the crass, offensive content is a scene in which Adolf is almost suffering a nervous breakdown. His wife Eva tells him to "think happy thoughts". "Poland!" shouts Hitler, with a devilish grin. And this is funny?!

It's a spoof of 1950's sitcoms starring Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun and their wacky interactions with their Jewish neighbors. Yes, that's the plot. Are you laughing yet?

This was a show that was cancelled after just one showing. It was something that for the longest time existed only as legend and some thought it was never real but some wacky late night sketch show that people had mistaken for an actual sit com. But no, it was real and it was incredibly unfunny.

I'm not the type that says that there are certain subjects you can't make fun of but there is this thing called "tone" and how it's used. The tone for this show is all wrong. I get what it was they were going for. It's a spoof. They use all those tropes from the 1950's with catchphrases, wacky situations and colorful characters but it's just not done properly. This could have worked had they just added a little more subtlety.

But no, it was a failed experiment and it's remembered strictly for the fact it was cancelled after one episode. There are copies floating around out there if you care to see it out of curiosity but don't expect to laugh.

Presented as a lost American sitcom that was never heard from again until lost tapes were found and shown again, this sitcom is an "I Love Lucy" style sitcom which features Hitler and Eva Braun living in an apartment block and dealing with all the comic confusions and communication breakdowns that all sitcom couples seem to have. Of course the irony of the fictional "rediscovered" framing of the show is that the actual show itself was binned after one episode and never seen again apart from some bad copies floating around on the internet.

The reason for this was supposedly on the grounds of bad taste to have a show featuring Hitler as a comedy figure – thus making light of history. Of course this is a fair accusation to level at the show, but also not a totally straight one since other shows such as Allo, Allo, films such as The Producers and others have used WWII and the Nazis as comedy figures and have been successful. No, while the accusations of poor taste may have come, I'd guess what sank the show was that frankly the first episode is not at all funny. Instead of spoofing Hitler it appears to be more about aping the conventions of the American sitcom while using these characters. I was surprised to see Geoff Atkinson as one of the writers – I know him from very sharp work with Bremner, Bird & Fortune, so it was disappointing to see nothing really clever or challenging about the content beyond the shock value of the characters.

The performances are pitched well to play into the sitcom style but the material they have is weak and soon I got tired of their big delivery and the laugh track doing all the work. Pop-culture History will recall that this was the show that got removed for being in bad taste, however the evidence we are left with that, while some in the papers may have kicked up the usual hand-wringing as they do with many shows, what probably saw this show pulled was that nobody had any interesting in fighting for a show that didn't appear to be any good.

OK, so I'm a curious person. I like digging into the rare and infamous stuff, stuff that sticks out, mainly with TV and movies. (For example, the biggest box office bomb, the biggest box office success, the worst TV show ever, yadda yadda yadda). And this show is right up my alley! A few days ago, I was on a Facebook page called "The Rise and Fall of Nickelodeon", which is dedicated to hating the aforementioned kids channel. One post was about Angelica and Susie's Preschool Daze, a Rugrats spin-off that didn't last very long, and focused on the two older kids, Angelica and Susie, in preschool. Now, in the comments section of this post, someone mentioned Australia's Funniest Home Videos. Being the curious person that I am, I looked it up, found out some things about it, and so forth. I also managed to see some suggested searches, one of them being "Heil Honey, I'm Home!". Seeing as how it had nothing to do with my search (or, at least I thought at the time), I decided to take a look. I found out that this show did the impossible, it took something like Hitler and the Third Reich, and turned it into a sitcom. I just had to see this, and I did.

Now, obviously, right from the start, this show is a straight-up parody. It's intention was to mock the old sitcoms of the '50s, '60s, and '70s, which had lots of stupid ideas, but lasted fairly anyway (hence the show's premise). So, I wouldn't be taking this show seriously. When I saw the one and only episode ever aired, I... didn't know what to think of it. I mean, it's kind of funny, but when you look at the historical side, it's just hard to look at. It's based off of an infamous person from history, but it's taken so lightly. I know, it's a parody. But when you base something off of something that actually happened, you just wonder where the history takes place.

I wasn't offended by this show, and I didn't want my time back after watching this show, I just felt pretty blank about it. It has some fairly decent comedy to it, but that's all I can say about it. It just left me with nothing. But it didn't leave the world with nothing. This is known as the most tasteless sitcom of all time. And I get where they're coming from with that. There were other episodes that were shot, but never aired (for obvious reasons.) So, that's Heil Honey, I'm Home! It's something that you truly have to see to believe.

Sometime in the mid 1980s. A Channel 4 sketch comedy show mocked the BBC sitcom Allo Allo. They had a similar premise set in modern day Belfast.

Heil Honey I'm Home! Had a same type notion but it was set in the late 1930s. Only one episode was broadcast, then again British Satellite Broadcasting was short-lived. Running out of cash it merged with Sky television by the end of 1990.

It is set like the typical 1950s/60s US sitcoms. The only difference is, Adolf Hitler is the fuhrer, living with Eva Braun in the next door apartment to the Goldsteins.

In the first episode, Hitler is going to have a visit from the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He does not want the Goldsteins to know about it as they seem to find out everything. Little knowing that Eva spills the beans.

Neville wants Hitler to sign an important document called Peace In out Time. Something Hitler is reluctant to do.

Somewhat ahead of its time. The Marvel show Wandavision parodied US sitcoms. Mainstream news channels in 2023 both in America and Europe parrot and promote fascistic talking points. The enemy are liberals and Antifa (short for anti-fascists.)

So in that context if you approach the show with an open mind. It is very well made for 1990 but not that funny. It works better as a spoof of old US sitcoms but has less satirical bite when it comes to Hitler and what the Nazis stood for. Although here Neville embarrasses Hitler to sign the document as a signal that he really is a nice guy.

If it was made a few years ago, it would have been a perfect fit for the Murdoch owned Fox network and they would have been sympathetic to the Nazis.