The Comic Strip Presents...

"The Comic Strip presents . . ." introduced a new crowd of "'varsity comics" (Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Ade Edondson, Rick Mayall, Robbie Coltrane) to British commercial television, and a fresh approach to the half-hour comedy format. Led (as performer, writer, and director) by Peter Richardson, the Channel 4 series broke away from the crazy-sketch format which had dominated the years since the debut of Monty Python, instead focusing each episode on a playful exploration of a particular film or TV genre, some quintessentially British ("Five Go Mad in Dorset," with its deadpan tweaking of Enid Blyton's wartime children's adventure books) to presciently contemporary ("Bad News Tour," which beat "Spinal Tap" to the screen by almost two years). Richardson's penchant for genre critique above all sometimes led to stylishly inert outings like "Beat Generation," but also to wildly idiosyncratic and memorable excursions like "Summer School," "Bullsh*tters," and "A Fistful of Traveler's Cheques." Unfortunately only available on DVD as a nine-count'em nine disc set in PAL format, The Comic Strip deserves a two or three disc compilation of its most marvelous episodes: After 25 years, many play better than most contemporary comedy today.

9 discs of the entire cast of The Young Ones and French and Saunders before they hit their stride. From the opening night of Channel 4 in 1982, to mid-nineties burnout. "Hit 'n miss" is the best description for this collection, but you will have to sit through every episode to find the few you agree with (keep in mind they are over an hour long each, with some at feature length). Each (with the exception of the Famous Five, Bad News and Bullshitters reprises) is completely different, and range from bold and original, to unfunny, or unbearable.

Personal favourites include:

Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door - resides somewhere between Rick and Viv, Bottom and the movie Guest House Paradiso. No-brow humor that will only appeal to those born with a penis. And depends on whether you find Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson screaming "Nicholas, Bloody, Parsons! You BASTARD!" funny. Most will.

Bad News / More Bad News - Predated Spinal Tap. As this is made by actual Brits, it gets right a lot of what Tap got wrong.

The Strike / GLC - Brilliant send-up of pretty much everything, the real highlight of the collection and espoused by all. You will never view a British film in quite the same way after seeing this.

Four Men in a Car/Plane - One-offs independent of the series, and the comedians at the height of their maturity. The best each has to offer.

Spaghetti Hoops - Not laugh-out-loud funny, but not meant to be. Toward the end they were finally able to make the art house short they were aiming for.

Private Enterprise and Gino don't have belly laughs, but they do have an enjoyable forward momentum. Whilst others will make you ask "what the hell were they thinking?" The entire series was timely and topical, which means that all the short films are incredibly dated. And most will no doubt play better in the mind's eye than actually watching them again. Making the first few discs write-offs on repeat viewing. Even at their worst, you have to admire their originality.

Many episodes of 'The Comic Strip Presents' were parodies of specific films or TV shows, or parodies of film/TV genres. The episode transmitted 3 November 1984 was titled 'The Bullsh**ters', and it's an hilarious parody of the ITV action series 'The Professionals' in particular and thick-ear matey action shows in general.

The crime-fighting partners in 'The Professionals' were named Bodie and Doyle, so here in 'The Bullsh**ters' we have Keith Allen and Peter Richardson (both of whom also wrote the script) as Bonehead and Foyle, taking orders from their commanding officer, hilariously played by Robbie Coltrane. Bodie and Doyle, of course, had an expensive car with all sorts of gizmos ... but Bonehead and Foyle have to make do with bus passes as they rush from headquarters to their deadly missions.

Coltrane has one very funny set-piece routine, in which he shows Bonehead and Foyle the proper way for a TV action hero to get into a car. Elvis Costello is also funny in a brief turn as a deaf man. Alana Pellay and Jimmy Fagg (don't ask) play themselves.

I remember catching The Comic Strip back when it was first aired stateside. I waited with anticipation every week to see what the next show would conjure up. My favorite of the series was definitely "Bad News Tour", "More Bad News", and "The Supregrass" flick. These scamps were also responsible for aiding with the development of the phenomenal "Eat The Rich" film. Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan and Rik Mayall would go on to fame as "The Young Ones." Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French would go on to "French and Saunders" and eventually part ways for "Absolutely Fabulous" and "The Vicar of Dibley." Basic comparison as far as career launching would be comparative of "SCTV" or the original "Saturday Night Live" TV series here in the states. The shows and skits were very well written. Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall would go on to do "The Dangerous Brothers," "Filthy, Madcap and Laughing" and "Bottom." Excellent stuff that is all well overdue for a region DVD reissue.

I love the cast but the episodes are more miss than hit. There are a few gems but only for fans of goofy loud comedy.