Back in 1995 this show looked like it had cult classic written all over it. It had a concept ahead of its time: A disjointed channel surf through cable TV as if you're stuck watching the box with a friend who has a very short attention span and they've got the remote control. You'd be watching one segment of the show and before it reached a conclusion, or even a punchline, it would suddenly switch to a completely different sketch or quickie.
This was ahead of something like The Fast Show but that programme has endured and is remembered fondly and yet GMD isn't. Even when GMD was first broadcast, it wasn't met with the kind of reception other unconventional British comedies of the early '90s were; such as Vic Reeves Big Night Out, Absolutely, Bottom, The Day Today, Harry Enfield and his Chums or even The Fast Show. It was met with a rather lukewarm response despite there being a Marvel comic tie-in and a title song written and performed by Trevor Horn, Godley & Crème and Jeff Beck. The show came and went and is dimly remembered by those who were around at the time.
Looking back on it I think the reason for it just failing (and only just) was that the concept was top notch but the material was just not laugh out loud or memorable. The quickie mock ads, quick clips of something random or very brief links between the bigger sketches were often better than the centrepiece ones. Things such as Betty's Mad Dash and Happy Hour were one joke premises but instead of working towards a punchline they'd come in, do the set up from the previous episode and just end without there having been a build up to something. Colin Corleone required the viewer to have knowledge of the Godfather films to work and GMD itself was kitsch and fun but, again, not many jokes to it. As for the other main strand, Bloodsports, it was something done better by Alan Partridge and The Fast Show.
That's not to say GMD is bad or unwatchable, it isn't. It's so well made, going from the glossy production of the title sketch and Betty's Mad Dash to the horrid looking U-matic VHS video public TV material which made up a lot of the quickies. Some of the brief inserts are triumphs of random and surreal humour. And the cast does well, particularly Doon McKichan, Phil Cornwell and Mark Caven. Shortly after GMD aired, Gary Beadle and Sara Stockbridge went on to Eastenders. Doon and Cornwell have gone on to bigger success but the others haven't reached the same heights. But GMD is very much from the mind of Peter Richardson, who has always been great at concepts and understanding genre, but sometimes struggles with getting jokes into a comedy script.
