Hippies

Had this series on tape from its first airing as a fan of Mathews/Linehan and Simon Pegg and rewatched all six episodes recently and found it to be great.

Father Ted was too hard an act to follow and maybe the premise of a group of hippies didn't capture the zeitgeist of the time but compared to a lot of the so- called 'comedy' around today - and in the past - this is a treasurable gem.

The spirit of Neil from the Young Ones is evoked in the hippy adventures that take place and it's a chance to gaze upon the pre-Spaced Peggster in all his youthful glory.

Underrated and deserving of more than one series - this comedy troupe could have been involved in a Blackadder type comedic study of other social groups in subsequent six episode series.

I hated the first episode of this show ( 'Protesting Hippies' ) so much in 1999 that I shunned the rest. However, when it came on 'The Paramount Comedy Channel' I watched it in full and, to my surprise, found it absolutely hilarious ( Motto: never judge a comedy series in its first week )!

Set in 1969, 'Hippies' stars Simon Pegg as 'Ray Purbbs', editor of an 'Oz'-like underground magazine called 'Mouth'. His friends are the feminist Jill, laid-back Alex, and the half-wit Hugo. Back in the late '60's, there was a feeling of incredible optimism amongst the young, that they could change the world through the printing of magazines nobody read. Rather than sneering at the hippies' naivety, 'Hippies' is affectionate towards it. Arthur Mathews' scripts cheekily parody a number of that era's icons - 'Hair', 'Woodstock', 'The Graduate', even the infamous 'Oz' obscenity trial of the early '70's. Excellent performances from the cast; Julian Rhind-Tutt's 'Alex' strangely put me in mind of the Richard O'Sullivan character from 'Man About The House'. Its a shame that there was never a second series, possibly because of people like me. If you missed 'Hippies', give it a try. Once you get past the dire opener, you're in for a treat!

I am currently watching the repeats of 'Hippies' on Sky and have confirmed my original thoughts on the programme. Hippies, together with Father Ted, is the best sitcom of the last twenty-five years! When it was first shown I expected to hate it. Unashamedly, I adore the music, ideals and sentiments of the 60s (best music, best fashion, best television, best films.....) and hated portrayals of the era in other sitcoms such as The Young Ones (the Neil character) and Absolutely Fabulous. How dare people from lesser eras poke fun at the best decade of all; The Young Ones was made in the ghastly 1980s....didn't anyone at the time recognise the absurdity of laughing 'AT' the 60s from the viewpoint of that appalling era!!!!

The writers of Hippies, however, appear to have a great affinity with the 60s, yet a previous comment on this site, which was otherwise positive, appeared to believe that the programme was poking fun at the era. I don't see that at all. If you think that, do you think the same writers were poking fun at Ted, Jack and Dougal in Father Ted? I don't think so. Like Ted, Hippies is very strong on 'sight' gags, reprisal jokes ('Get on the bus, Ray!')and dream sequences and, personally, I think that the scripts are water-tight. Highlights are Eleanor Bron, the fabulous Rickman character, the scenes with Ray's parents, Hugo's 'Pink Floyd' review and Bob Helmets' obituary, Ray appearing naked in a 'Hair'-type production not realising that his whole family are in the audience.....

And yet in trying to find out anything about the series, I found a CV of one of the writers, and 'Hippies' has been completed written out!!!! Not even listed!!!! A resounding 10/10.

I cannot believe how negative most of the other comments are about this programme. Dare I say I think Father Ted is slightly overrated,I like it but it does rely on clichés about Ireland and the Catholic Church. On the other hand Hippies had mean roaring with laughter. The people in this programme show how stupid some of the 1960s people could be. I love the protest against Sandpaper. I love the way they follow the American superstar hippie blindly when he talks rubbish. The Bob Helmets episode is about the funniest thing I have seen in years. As for the cast,great performances,Sally Philips is great and I have not seen her in anything as good as this since. Would love to see the DVD in the shops. I must be in a minority because the critics were unkind to this show and it only got one series. Perhaps I like it because I remember the end of the lippy era and how daft it could be.

I loved Hippies, really very, very funny. Best episode, 'Psycho Sociology, art classes one' or the 'Festival' episode. I can't understand why this series was not so popular. I suppose it lived directly in the shadow of Father Ted, so it was inevitable people would rate it against FT.It was also criticised because it was nothing like the sixties - but hey, it was a comedy, not a social commentary. 10 out of 10 for gags and great situations. Now, when's the DVD coming out?? There's a petition online to get it brought out, link can be found here: http://www.petitiononline.com/hippies1/petition.html

Please all fans of hippies go onto sign the petition!