Spatz

Initially a joint venture between UK and Canadian TV companies, Spatz was an inspired sitcom for young teenagers that worked for adults too. It blended the great British tradition of farcical comedy with the sophisticated, quick-fire dialogue of the best American sitcoms - and it ran circles around most kids' dramas! TJ Strickland was the all-American (well, Canadian) nice-guy who managed the UK's only branch of fast-food chain, Spatz. Handsome and easy-going, his life was made a lot more difficult by another Canadian, Karen Hansson, Spatz's European Co-coordinator, who shared his office. A cross between Jerry Hall and Cruella De Ville, the only language Karen spoke was money. The show's best moments came from her verbal sparring with TJ; their banter was infused with the same sexual tension that kept everyone hooked on 'Moonlighting'. There were some great comebacks and one-liners too. Downstairs on the shop floor was where the Brits ruled the roost: brazenly ambitious Dexter, wannabe-wide-boy Vince, sensible-but-dull Debbie, and clueless Stanley. In the first series the burgers were also flipped by Lily (working to pay for university) and token northerner, Jo, who was often Vince's partner-in-crime. The second series saw the introduction of Freddy, a mad Celtic fan who seemed to come from the Private Frazer (Dad's Army) school of superstitious Scots. As the series progressed the stories became more and more ludicrous and far-fetched, but that was part of the fun. It's a scandal that they didn't commission a fourth series!

I just checked this out and I wanted to thank the writers of the comments about Spatz. We had a lot of fun doing the show and it is extremely gratifying to hear that it was so enjoyed. As to the comments about the sexual tension between Jenifer Calvert as Karen and myself, I think it really added something to the show. The writers of the show, Grant and Lee really gave us wonderful material to work with and the entire cast worked very hard to make the show work. Also, our primary director. Stan Swann deserves a lot of credit for the look and feel of the show, he was tireless and very patient. Once again thanks and best wishes to all those viewers. sincerely Paul Michael AKA TJ.

What made Spatz work so well was it's characters. Despite having a relatively large cast for such a simple concept, each character was extremely unique. There was: TJ Strickland, the Chanlder Bing type "manager" who couldn't say boo to a goose. Karen - the Eurpoean Co-ordinater who believed the only way to run a successful business was to shout as loudly as possible, treat the staff like dirt, and insult people on a regular basis. Dexter - the cool dude who who had great ambition and wanted to make it to the top, but by doing as little work as possible in the process. Vince, the cheeky chappy who always got into trouble. Stanley - thick as mince. Debbie - the sensible one of the group but was easily badly influenced. Toni - looked down her nose at the job and left to achieve greater things. Lilly - wanted to keep her head down and get on with things but always got caught up in the commotion. Jo - cheeky trouble maker who often teamed up with Vince. And Freddy - Jo's replacement who was equally cheeky and always had a story to tell.

While the situations that the staff landed themselves in each week were always amusing, what made them so funny was that in every case each character remained true to themselves, and always reacted by doing something that was fitting to their character as opposed to what would just be a funny thing to do. In turn this made it even funnier, and eventually some catch phrases and long running gags were established such as:

Karen never getting anyone's name right. The more angry Karen got, the more TJ wound her up with unfunny jokes. Debbie's engagement to a guy called Derek which she was constantly calling off. Freddy having a superstitious Scottish legend to tell for every occasion (Such as the Legend of the Great Hairy Bogey.) Dexter continuously sucking up to Karen with no success. Customers constantly being ignored or mistreated because they were getting in the way of good story lines!

This show was very well written, and while it was ultimately a children's show, some of the humour, especially between TJ and Karen could be quite adult at times. And as someone already mentioned, you could cut the sexual tension with a knife.

A funny kid's T.V. show about a group of workers in a London restaurant called Spatz. The two canadian managers were always at each others throats over how to run the restaurant (which was the only branch in Britain), stupid Stanley was just plain, well, stupid, and Dexter and Vince were the coolest dead-end restaurant workers in the mall.It had a great story every week and was thoroughly enjoyable for all ages.

I didnt actually watch this until its re-runs in the mid-1990s and although I can only manage to remember 2 of the characters (one of them, an American woman), it was incredibly funny enough to keep me glued to the TV set every Saturday afternoon at the age of 9, so i would naturally recommend this to kids. Good stuff.