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(Redirected from The Young Ones (television series))
'''The Young Ones''' was a popular British sitcom, first seen in 1982, which aired on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers. Soon after, it was shown on MTV in its early days, being one of the first television shows to appear on the fledgling channel when it wasn't showing music videos.
The programme revolved around four undergraduate students sharing a house: violent punk rocker Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson), pompous anarchist Rick (Rik Mayall), long-suffering hippie Neil (Nigel Planer), and the mysterious and diminutive Mike (Christopher Ryan). It also featured Alexei Sayle, who played the quartet's landlord, Mr Balowski, and other members of the Balowski Family.
The show combined a traditional sitcom style with very violent slapstick, non sequitur plot-turns and surrealism. In addition, these older styles were mixed with the lower class attitudes of the growing 1980s alternative comedy boom, in which all of the principal performers except Ryan had been involved.
Although the series was set in North London, many of the external scenes were filmed in Bristol. All four characters attended the fictional Scumbag College, although they were never seen attending the institution and were rarely seen studying.
The show was voted #31 in the BBC's Best Sitcom poll in 2004.
The series originated on London's comedy club circuit during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most of the cast gained popularity performing at The Comedy Store in London. Alexei Sayle was the most prominent act, drawing attention as the manic, aggressive compere of the club. Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall worked together as the double act 20th Century Coyote (which later became The Dangerous Brothers). Nigel Planer was in a double act with Peter Richardson called "The Outer Limits."
As The Comedy Store became popular, Sayle, 20th Century Coyote and The Outer Limits, along with French and Saunders and Arnold Brown, set up their own comedy club called The Comic Strip in a nearby Soho strip club. The Comic Strip fast became one of the most popular comedy venues in London, and came to the attention of Jeremy Isaacs of Channel 4. Peter Richardson then negotiated a deal for six self-contained half-hour films, using the group as comedy actors rather than stand-up performers.
The first of this TV series, ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', first aired on Channel 4 on November 2, 1982. In response, the BBC began negotiations with Edmondson, Mayall, Richardson, Planer and Sayle to star in a sitcom in the same anarchic style. Paul Jackson was installed as producer.
The series was written by Mayall with his then girlfriend Lise Mayer; Ben Elton (who had attended Manchester University with Mayall and Edmondson) was then asked to co-write the scripts. Richardson was originally set to play Mike, but clashed with Jackson. He was replaced by Christopher Ryan, the only member of the group who was not a stand-up comedian. According to some sources, Elton was willing to play Mike but was ruled out because he lacked acting experience.
The series revolved around the squalid shared house where the students lived during their time at Scumbag College. It can be classified as a comedy of manners.
When it was first broadcast, the show gained attention for its extremely violent slapstick. Though new to mainstream audiences, Mayall and Edmondson had been using it in 20th Century Coyote for some time. The show also featured many surreal elements, such as puppets playing the part of talking animals or objects. Confusion was often deliberately added with lengthy cutaways to other scenarios not involved in the main plot.
Episodes in the second series sometimes included "flash frames" lasting only a fraction of a second (three frames, equivalent to 1/8 of a second), but these were edited out of some repeated showings. These were included as a mockery of the British and American public's fear of subliminal messages in television and music. Unlike the 'original' flash frames, which lasted only for one frame, these were long enough to be noticeable without being identifiable as to what they were. The images included the end caption of ''Carry On Cowboy'', a rusty dripping tap, a leaping frog, a dove in flight, a skier, and somebody's hand making a piece of pottery.
The series originally ran to 35 minutes per episode, and many episodes were cut for timing when repeated on the BBC or satellite channels.
In the United States, ''The Young Ones'' ran on PBS, MTV and, several years later, on Comedy Central.
The series' theme song featured the cast singing the Cliff Richard song "The Young Ones". Throughout the series there were many references to Richard, as Mayall's character was a devoted fan.
In 1984, after the second season, Planer reached No. 2 in the UK charts with a version of Traffic's "Hole In My Shoe". In 1986, the cast sang "Living Doll" with Cliff Richard and Hank Marvin for Comic Relief. The song, a reworking of his 1959 hit, again reached the top of the UK Charts.
Most episodes had a musical guest (for no apparent thematic reason) performing in the house or the street. By including the groups, the show qualified as variety rather than light entertainment with the BBC and therefore was allocated a bigger budget than a regular sitcom. This helped to introduce several British bands to American viewers, such as Dexy's Midnight Runners, Motorhead, and Madness. The latter appeared in two different episodes, as they were under consideration for a Monkees-style show at the time.
Some of these performances were omitted from Region 1 (North American) DVD release for copyright reasons. Some musical acts were also edited out for similar reasons on some satellite reruns.
Played by Nigel Planer, Neil Pye, the hippie of the group, is a clinically depressed, suicidal pacifist, vegetarian and environmentalist working towards a "Peace Studies" degree. He is victimised by the other housemates (especially Rick and Vyvyan) and is forced to do all the housework, including shopping, cleaning and cooking. He is never acknowledged for it unless it goes wrong.
Neil is extremely pessimistic and believes everyone and everything hates him, a belief which is mostly true, though he does have some friends, two hippies, one also named Neil and one named "Warlock". He dislikes technology (except for videos) and speaks out for "Vegetable Rights and Peace". He is a chronic insomniac, believing that "sleep gives you cancer".
Neil wants the others to feel sorry for him, or even just to acknowledge his presence. His attention-seeking antics range from repeatedly banging himself in the head with a frying pan to attempting suicide. He claims that "the most interesting thing that ever happens to me is sneezing". This is because whenever he sneezes, it causes a large explosion.
In the second series his parents (who appear in the episode Sick) are revealed to be upper-class. They are very conservative Tories who look down on Neil for starring in such a disreputable comedy series.
Played by Rik Mayall, Rick is a self-proclaimed anarchist who is studying sociology and/or domestic sciences (depending on the episode). Rick writes poetry and calls himself "The People's Poet".
Rick is a hypocritical, tantrum-throwing attention-seeker who loves Cliff Richard. Rick tries desperately to impress the other housemates with his non-existent wit, talent and humour to no avail. He verbally insults (and often physically assaults) Neil at every opportunity (because Neil is the most vulnerable of the four). He fights and bickers endlessly with Vyvyan but is often found attempting to impress Mike.
Rick is portrayed as intensely unlikeable and so self-absorbed that he believes he is the "most popular member of the flat" even though the rest of the housemates hate him (Vyvyan describes Rick's name as being spelled "with a silent P"). Despite the fact that the other members of the house blatantly dislike and disregard Rick, at one point he is heard to say that they "really are terrific friends". Unfortunately, Rick is so unlikeable that even his own conscience dislikes him.
Believing himself to be the 'People's Poet' or the "spokesperson for a generation", Rick often greatly exaggerates or lies about his political activism and class background and is exposed in the final episode "Summer Holiday", when it is suggested he comes from an upper class, Conservative background.
It is also to be noted that his political interests clash with one another, causing a contradiction. While he perceives himself as an anarchist, he is actually very fond of ideals produced by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and states his interests in them in several episodes.
Played by Adrian Edmondson, Vyvyan is an orange haired, mohawked punk rocker and medical student. He is extremely violent and regularly attacks Neil and Rick with pieces of wood, cricket bats and other large objects. He never harms Mike, whom he respects. He despises Rick more than he does Neil, taking every opportunity to insult and attack him. For example, when Rick, Mike and Neil meet his mother at a bar in the episode 'Boring', he calls both Neil and Mike his friends, but not Rick, whom he refers to as "a complete bastard".
Vyvyan owns a yellow Ford Anglia, with red flames painted along the sides, and a Glaswegian hamster named Special Patrol Group ("SPG" for short) which he is very fond of, although SPG is also frequently subjected to Vyvyan's extreme violence. His mother is a barmaid and former shoplifter who before "Boring" had not seen Vyvyan in ten years and has absolutely no idea who his father is.
Vyvyan displays feats of inhuman strength on occasion (moving entire walls with his bare hands, lifting Neil above his head in a fight with Rick, biting through a brick and even being decapitated and re-attaching his own head whilst still alive), and eats just about anything; televisions, cornflakes or caviar with ketchup.
Despite being a homicidal maniac, Vyvyan seems quite sociable and creative; In one episode ("Flood"), he has developed his own potion to transform a person into an axe-wielding maniac. He has more friends than the others but apparently "he doesn't like any of them". He frequently causes havoc or damage such as wiring the doorbell to a bomb and adding a 289 CID Ford V-8 engine to the vacuum cleaner which proceeded to suck up the carpet, the floorboards and a friend of Neil's.
Played by Christopher Ryan, Mike was the odd-one-out of the four. He is the assumed leader of the group, despite his diminutive size, and does not involve himself in the battles between the other three. He constantly makes puns, which are either deliberately cheap or humorous but over-celebrated.
There is a mysterious, elusive quality to Mike. He frequently utters confusing, profound-sounding phrases which baffle the others (for example, when asked by Rick if he stole his apple, Mike replies "Well, if you're gonna sin you might as well be original."). Mike is supposedly the ladies' man of the bunch and brags about his prowess with women, although he is eventually forced to admit his virginity to the others in "Nasty". Though he is a virgin, as are the rest of the housemates, he makes every attempt at wooing the fair sex, being quite forward and incredibly unsuccessful.
A con artist, he always has some kind of plan to make quick money such as renting out Rick's bedroom as a roller disco and soliciting bids for the unexploded atom bomb that fell into the house. Mike attends Scumbag College only nominally as he has blackmailed his tutor and the Dean of the school for grants and apparently passing grades. In "Summer Holiday" he muses "I think I'll ask for one of those Ph.D.s next year".
While Mike often does things at the expense or detriment of his housemates, he rarely expresses the sort of open hostility that the others do, and seems to cause them trouble only when it benefits him, rather than out of sadistic joy.
Throughout the two series', Alexei Sayle routinely appeared as many different characters, interjecting his own material into the programme in ways that emulated his stand up comedy routines. His main role was that of the flat's landlord Jerzy (Jeremy) Balowski, which was the only character he reprised, appearing in "Demolition", "Flood" and "Summer Holiday". The rest of the time, he was billed as playing various male members of "The Balowski Family", including nephew Alexei Balowski (a protest singer), son Reggie Balowski (an international arms dealer), brother Billy Balowski (a lunatic who believed he was a taxi driver), cousin Tommy Balowski (a drunk), escaped convict Brian Damage Balowski, and a medieval jester "Jester Balowski" (with Helen Lederer as his sidekick).
In the second series, Sayle's characters also included a train driver, a Mussolini look-alike (by day the head of the local police force, by night an entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest), "Harry the Bastard" (manager of the local video store, disguised as a South African vampire), and a Military recruitment officer.
It cannot be said of the flatmates that they are particularly fond of one another - however, one can detect some sort of order between them.
Mike is the natural "leader" of the house. Always trying to make himself appear more important and exciting than he really is, he does appear to have done some of the things he claims to have done (such as getting Bambi the "Babycham" commercial in "Bambi"). He experiences very little hostility from the other members of the house. If there is any "fruitful" or amicable relationship in the house it is between Mike and Vyvyan. Vyvyan probably accepts Mike's role as the house leader whereas Mike needs Vyvyan's physique and willingness to act forcibly to enforce his own authority.
Neil is not particularly liked by anybody, although he is the only one who actually performs any kind of household chores and is therefore, if nothing else, needed by the other three.
Rick is the least liked of the four. Rick thinks very highly of himself. He also tells poor jokes and stories (but finds them hilarious himself), is a would-be anarchist (although deep-down he is quite conservative) and frequently acts like a child when he doesn't get his way. He generally vents his frustration (when trying to impress the others) on Neil, since Neil never sticks up for himself and is ignored by the others. But the majority of his anger is generated in endless battles with Vyvyan, which he invariably loses.
You can also see them as a family; Mike is the father, Neil the mother (as he says himself, "My function 'round here, I might as well be your mothers",) Vyvyan the son and Rick the daughter (particularly shown in the episode 'Nasty'). It is also possible to see the four characters as representatives of four decades: Mike the 1950s Fonzie-style ladykiller; Neil the 1960s hippy; Vyvyan the 1970s punk; and Rick the 1980s sociology student.
Main articles: Summer Holiday (Young Ones episode)
In the final episode, the four students steal a red AEC Routemaster, only to drive it over a cliff, exploding into flames at the bottom of a quarry. This was atypical of many sitcom endings, as it ended the show's popularity on a high, without a loss of good ideas, storylines, or jokes, and was intended to allow the cast and writers to move on to new projects before they became too typecast.
The end of the series was not the last appearance of ''The Young Ones''. For the British charity television appeal Comic Relief, the four recorded a song and video for Cliff Richard's Living Doll, accompanied by Richard himself and Shadows guitarist Hank B. Marvin. Alexei Sayle was not involved, but had already tasted some chart success of his own in 1984 with "'Ullo John, Gotta New Motor?".
At the 1986 Comic Relief stage show they did the song live (following a short skit which involved Rick doing a comic song about showing his underwear and bodily parts, before being ejected from the group by Mike, and Vyvyan supposedly having backstage sex with Kate Bush with Neil as his contraceptive). The skit climaxed with Neil claiming Cliff Richard couldn't perform with them and John Craven had been booked as a replacement, only for Bob Geldof himself to then appear onstage. Adrian Edmondson's guitar-playing skills meant Vyvyan could play guitar during the performance.
Mayall, Planer and Edmondson reunited in 1986 for the Elton-written ''Filthy Rich & Catflap''. The series had many of the same characteristics as ''The Young Ones'' as did Mayall and Edmondson's next sitcom ''Bottom''. Ryan, for his part, was regularly recruited to play roles on associated series (such as ''Happy Families'', ''Bottom'' and ''Absolutely Fabulous''), as part of his successful acting career.
DVD releases have been somewhat basic: only the US edition featured documentaries and none of the extra footage known to exist was included, such as the music video, raw footage, and TV announcements. Moreover, musical references proved difficult to clear so "The Sound of Silence" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues" were simply excised from the US editions. A Bloopers tape made for the amusement of cast and crew has often been suggested as a potential DVD extra, but according to a BBC employee, all known copies of this have gone missing from the BBC archives. A new DVD release of all episodes is due for release in August 2007 which will contain new documentaries and a reunion of the original cast.[1] .
Then in 1986 MTV decided to buy half the programs to run on their cable systems, during 1987. CO Jack Lett liked it so much, he let it run on the air 2 times a week, during the night. MTV had a break of not-running music videos, and this British sitcom was added to the rest of non-music programs.
A pilot episode was filmed of an American version of "The Young Ones." Very little about this episode is known, apart from the fact that Nigel Planer was the only cast member of the original series to reprise his role. Robert Llewellyn wrote in his book ''The Man In The Rubber Mask'' (1994): "''The Young Ones'' was taken over the Atlantic in the mid eighties, and Nigel [Planer] was the only member of the British cast to go. He had experienced a fairly hideous time, worried sick that he was going to have to stay there for six years with a group of people he hated who managed to make ''The Young Ones'' into a sort of grubby ''Benny Hill Show''. He was hugely relieved when the pilot was a flop and he was released from his contract."
In ''Bambi'', the housemates appeared on University Challenge, where they played against Footlights College, Oxbridge, a reference to Footlights drama club at Cambridge University. The Footlights College team was played by show writer Ben Elton and three actors who were once members of the real Cambridge Footlights: Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, and Stephen Fry, the last of whom had actually appeared on the quiz show while at Cambridge. The episode title is a reference to the show's presenter, Bamber Gascoigne, impersonated by Griff Rhys-Jones.
Mayall and Edmondson elaborated on some of the series' concepts later in their sitcoms ''Filthy Rich & Catflap'' (written by Elton, with additional material by Mayall) and ''Bottom'' (written by Mayall and Edmondson).
Most of the regular cast (and several of the guests) also appeared in Channel 4 and BBC2's comedy films, ''The Comic Strip Presents''. All four main actors have gained reputations as dramatic, as well as comic, actors.
★ Keith Allen - as Pestilence in ''Interesting''
★ Mark Arden - as policeman #1 in ''Boring''; as cornflakes box dad in ''Bomb''; as gatecrasher #1 in ''Interesting''; as gravedigger #1 and police victim #1 in ''Flood''; as headless ghost #1 in ''Cash''; as spy #1 in ''Nasty''; as manure deliverer #1 in ''Sick''
★ Roger Ashton-Griffiths - as Orgo the devil in ''Boring''
★ Helen Atkinson-Wood - as the woman in the painkiller advert in ''Nasty''
★ Nicholas Ball - as Rick's lecturer in ''Interesting''
★ Gary Beadle - as the DJ's servant in ''Time''
★ Chris Barrie - as the ship captain in the wall-poster in ''Nasty''
★ Paul Bradley - as the pilot in ''Demolition''; as Warlock in ''Interesting'' and ''Cash''
★ Arnold Brown - as the criminal waiting to be cast in the pit in ''Flood''; the chess player in ''Nasty''
★ Robbie Coltrane - as the doorman in ''Oil''; as Dr Carlisle in ''Bambi''; as the one-eyed pirate DJ in ''Time''
★ Ron Cook - as a convict on the wall-poster in ''Nasty''
★ Andy de la Tour - as the co-pilot in ''Demolition''; as a convict on the wall-poster in ''Nasty''; as the road safety announcer in ''Cash''
★ Ben Elton - as the TV presenter in ''Demolition''; as the blind DJ in ''Flood''; as Mr Kendall Mintcake in ''Bambi''; as the campaigning schoolboy in ''Sick''; as the drinker in the lager advert in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Alan Freeman - as God in ''Cash'' and ''Summer Holiday''
★ Dawn French - as the religious visitor in ''Interesting''; as the devil in the painkiller advert in ''Nasty''; as the Easter bunny in ''Time''
★ Stephen Frost - as policeman #2 in ''Boring''; as gatecrasher #2 in ''Interesting''; as gravedigger #2 and police victim #2 in ''Flood''; as headless ghost #2 in ''Cash''; as spy #2 in ''Nasty''; as manure deliverer #2 in ''Sick''; as the bank manager in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Stephen Fry - as Lord Snot in ''Bambi''
★ Gareth Hale - as medieval guard #1 in ''Flood''; as gravedigger #1 in ''Nasty''; as yokel #1 in ''Time''
★ Lenny Henry - as the postman in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Jools Holland - as the punk in the bank in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Terry Jones - as the vicar in ''Nasty''
★ Hugh Laurie - as Lord Monty in ''Bambi''
★ Helen Lederer - as Gwendolyn the jester's assistant in ''Time''; as the repetitive bank teller in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Norman Lovett - as the penny arcade owner in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Pauline Melville - as a bus passenger in ''Demolition''; as Vyvyan's mother in ''Boring'' and ''Sick''; as a witch in ''Sick''
★ Paul Merton (under his real name of Paul Martin) - as yokel #3 in ''Time''
★ Norman Pace - as medieval guard #2 in ''Flood''; as gravedigger #2 in ''Nasty''; as yokel #2 in ''Time''
★ Daniel Peacock - as the stabbed man in ''Nasty''
★ David Rappaport - as Ftumch[sic] the devil in ''Boring''; as Shirley in ''Flood''
★ Tony Robinson - as Dr Not The Nine O'Clock News in ''Bambi''
★ Griff Rhys-Jones - as Bambi in ''Bambi''
★ Jennifer Saunders - as Sue the party guest in ''Interesting''; as Helen Mucus the murderess in ''Time''
★ Mel Smith - as the commissionaire in ''Bambi''
★ Emma Thompson - as Miss Money-Sterling in ''Bambi''
★ Amazulu (''Time'', performing "Moonlight Romance" in the kitchen)
★ Ken Bishop's Nice Twelve - a one-off conglomerate which included Jools Holland, Stewart Copeland, Derek Griffiths, Chris Difford, Simon Brint, and Rowland Rivron (''Cash'', performing "Subterranean Homesick Blues" on the street.
★ The Damned (''Nasty'', performing "Nasty" in the living room)
★ Dexys Midnight Runners (''Bomb'', performing "Jackie Wilson Said" in the bathroom)
★ Madness (two appearances - ''Boring'' and ''Sick'', performing "House of Fun" in the Kebab and Calculator, and "Our House" on the street, respectively)
★ Motörhead (''Bambi'', performing "Ace of Spades" in the living room)
★ Nine Below Zero (''Demolition'', performing "Eleven Plus Eleven" in the living room)
★ John Otway (''Summer Holiday'', performing "Body Talk" on the street)
★ Radical Posture (''Oil'', performing "Doctor Marten's Boots", with Alexei Sayle on vocals, in the living room)
★ Rip, Rig and Panic - featuring a teenage Neneh Cherry (''Interesting'', performing "You're My Kind Of Climate" in the kitchen)
No musical act appeared on the episode ''Flood''; instead, a lion tamer performed an act in Mike's bedroom to fit the criteria for a variety budget. Vyvyan refers to him at the end as 'Bobby' but the character did not receive a credit.
'Series 1' (Originally broadcast 9 November-14 December 1982 on BBC2; shown Tuesdays at 9 pm)
#"Demolition" - The boys get a letter from the council telling them their squalid house will be demolished.
#"Oil" - Upon moving into a new house, Vyvyan announces that he has struck oil in the cellar.
#"Boring" - The boys attempt to fight off boredom whilst several very exciting things go unnoticed around them.
#"Bomb" - An unexploded atomic bomb falls through the boys' roof and blocks the refrigerator, but worse, the TV Licence man calls.
#"Interesting" - The flat hosts a party that gets out of hand.
#"Flood" - During heavy rains, London floods and the boys are trapped in the house with a homicidal, axe-wielding Mr. Balowski.
'Series 2' (Originally broadcast 8 May-19 June 1984 on BBC2; shown Tuesdays at 9 pm)
#"Bambi" - The boys go to the launderette and compete against Footlights College, Oxbridge in ''University Challenge''.
#"Cash" - Cash-strapped, Neil is forced (by his flatmates) to join the police force.
#"Nasty" - A strange package from South Africa interferes with plans to watch a video nasty on a rented VCR.
#"Time" - For a first, Rick wakes up in bed next to a beautiful girl, and the house passes through a time warp.
#"Sick" - While ill, the boys must deal with an escaped criminal and worse, Neil's parents.
#"Summer Holiday" - Summer is here and the lads finally get their results.
★
★
★ The bbc.co.uk Guide To Comedy: The Young Ones
★ BBC: I Love 1982: The Young Ones
★ Young Ones locations in Bristol
★ The Young Ones Tribute
★ British Film Institute Screen Online
★ The Young Ones scripts
'''The Young Ones''' was a popular British sitcom, first seen in 1982, which aired on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers. Soon after, it was shown on MTV in its early days, being one of the first television shows to appear on the fledgling channel when it wasn't showing music videos.
The programme revolved around four undergraduate students sharing a house: violent punk rocker Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson), pompous anarchist Rick (Rik Mayall), long-suffering hippie Neil (Nigel Planer), and the mysterious and diminutive Mike (Christopher Ryan). It also featured Alexei Sayle, who played the quartet's landlord, Mr Balowski, and other members of the Balowski Family.
The show combined a traditional sitcom style with very violent slapstick, non sequitur plot-turns and surrealism. In addition, these older styles were mixed with the lower class attitudes of the growing 1980s alternative comedy boom, in which all of the principal performers except Ryan had been involved.
Although the series was set in North London, many of the external scenes were filmed in Bristol. All four characters attended the fictional Scumbag College, although they were never seen attending the institution and were rarely seen studying.
The show was voted #31 in the BBC's Best Sitcom poll in 2004.
History
The series originated on London's comedy club circuit during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most of the cast gained popularity performing at The Comedy Store in London. Alexei Sayle was the most prominent act, drawing attention as the manic, aggressive compere of the club. Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall worked together as the double act 20th Century Coyote (which later became The Dangerous Brothers). Nigel Planer was in a double act with Peter Richardson called "The Outer Limits."
As The Comedy Store became popular, Sayle, 20th Century Coyote and The Outer Limits, along with French and Saunders and Arnold Brown, set up their own comedy club called The Comic Strip in a nearby Soho strip club. The Comic Strip fast became one of the most popular comedy venues in London, and came to the attention of Jeremy Isaacs of Channel 4. Peter Richardson then negotiated a deal for six self-contained half-hour films, using the group as comedy actors rather than stand-up performers.
The first of this TV series, ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', first aired on Channel 4 on November 2, 1982. In response, the BBC began negotiations with Edmondson, Mayall, Richardson, Planer and Sayle to star in a sitcom in the same anarchic style. Paul Jackson was installed as producer.
The series was written by Mayall with his then girlfriend Lise Mayer; Ben Elton (who had attended Manchester University with Mayall and Edmondson) was then asked to co-write the scripts. Richardson was originally set to play Mike, but clashed with Jackson. He was replaced by Christopher Ryan, the only member of the group who was not a stand-up comedian. According to some sources, Elton was willing to play Mike but was ruled out because he lacked acting experience.
Synopsis
The series revolved around the squalid shared house where the students lived during their time at Scumbag College. It can be classified as a comedy of manners.
When it was first broadcast, the show gained attention for its extremely violent slapstick. Though new to mainstream audiences, Mayall and Edmondson had been using it in 20th Century Coyote for some time. The show also featured many surreal elements, such as puppets playing the part of talking animals or objects. Confusion was often deliberately added with lengthy cutaways to other scenarios not involved in the main plot.
Episodes in the second series sometimes included "flash frames" lasting only a fraction of a second (three frames, equivalent to 1/8 of a second), but these were edited out of some repeated showings. These were included as a mockery of the British and American public's fear of subliminal messages in television and music. Unlike the 'original' flash frames, which lasted only for one frame, these were long enough to be noticeable without being identifiable as to what they were. The images included the end caption of ''Carry On Cowboy'', a rusty dripping tap, a leaping frog, a dove in flight, a skier, and somebody's hand making a piece of pottery.
The series originally ran to 35 minutes per episode, and many episodes were cut for timing when repeated on the BBC or satellite channels.
In the United States, ''The Young Ones'' ran on PBS, MTV and, several years later, on Comedy Central.
Music
The series' theme song featured the cast singing the Cliff Richard song "The Young Ones". Throughout the series there were many references to Richard, as Mayall's character was a devoted fan.
In 1984, after the second season, Planer reached No. 2 in the UK charts with a version of Traffic's "Hole In My Shoe". In 1986, the cast sang "Living Doll" with Cliff Richard and Hank Marvin for Comic Relief. The song, a reworking of his 1959 hit, again reached the top of the UK Charts.
Most episodes had a musical guest (for no apparent thematic reason) performing in the house or the street. By including the groups, the show qualified as variety rather than light entertainment with the BBC and therefore was allocated a bigger budget than a regular sitcom. This helped to introduce several British bands to American viewers, such as Dexy's Midnight Runners, Motorhead, and Madness. The latter appeared in two different episodes, as they were under consideration for a Monkees-style show at the time.
Some of these performances were omitted from Region 1 (North American) DVD release for copyright reasons. Some musical acts were also edited out for similar reasons on some satellite reruns.
Characters
Neil Pye
Played by Nigel Planer, Neil Pye, the hippie of the group, is a clinically depressed, suicidal pacifist, vegetarian and environmentalist working towards a "Peace Studies" degree. He is victimised by the other housemates (especially Rick and Vyvyan) and is forced to do all the housework, including shopping, cleaning and cooking. He is never acknowledged for it unless it goes wrong.
Neil is extremely pessimistic and believes everyone and everything hates him, a belief which is mostly true, though he does have some friends, two hippies, one also named Neil and one named "Warlock". He dislikes technology (except for videos) and speaks out for "Vegetable Rights and Peace". He is a chronic insomniac, believing that "sleep gives you cancer".
Neil wants the others to feel sorry for him, or even just to acknowledge his presence. His attention-seeking antics range from repeatedly banging himself in the head with a frying pan to attempting suicide. He claims that "the most interesting thing that ever happens to me is sneezing". This is because whenever he sneezes, it causes a large explosion.
In the second series his parents (who appear in the episode Sick) are revealed to be upper-class. They are very conservative Tories who look down on Neil for starring in such a disreputable comedy series.
Rick
Played by Rik Mayall, Rick is a self-proclaimed anarchist who is studying sociology and/or domestic sciences (depending on the episode). Rick writes poetry and calls himself "The People's Poet".
Rick is a hypocritical, tantrum-throwing attention-seeker who loves Cliff Richard. Rick tries desperately to impress the other housemates with his non-existent wit, talent and humour to no avail. He verbally insults (and often physically assaults) Neil at every opportunity (because Neil is the most vulnerable of the four). He fights and bickers endlessly with Vyvyan but is often found attempting to impress Mike.
Rick is portrayed as intensely unlikeable and so self-absorbed that he believes he is the "most popular member of the flat" even though the rest of the housemates hate him (Vyvyan describes Rick's name as being spelled "with a silent P"). Despite the fact that the other members of the house blatantly dislike and disregard Rick, at one point he is heard to say that they "really are terrific friends". Unfortunately, Rick is so unlikeable that even his own conscience dislikes him.
Believing himself to be the 'People's Poet' or the "spokesperson for a generation", Rick often greatly exaggerates or lies about his political activism and class background and is exposed in the final episode "Summer Holiday", when it is suggested he comes from an upper class, Conservative background.
It is also to be noted that his political interests clash with one another, causing a contradiction. While he perceives himself as an anarchist, he is actually very fond of ideals produced by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and states his interests in them in several episodes.
Vyvyan Basterd
Played by Adrian Edmondson, Vyvyan is an orange haired, mohawked punk rocker and medical student. He is extremely violent and regularly attacks Neil and Rick with pieces of wood, cricket bats and other large objects. He never harms Mike, whom he respects. He despises Rick more than he does Neil, taking every opportunity to insult and attack him. For example, when Rick, Mike and Neil meet his mother at a bar in the episode 'Boring', he calls both Neil and Mike his friends, but not Rick, whom he refers to as "a complete bastard".
Vyvyan owns a yellow Ford Anglia, with red flames painted along the sides, and a Glaswegian hamster named Special Patrol Group ("SPG" for short) which he is very fond of, although SPG is also frequently subjected to Vyvyan's extreme violence. His mother is a barmaid and former shoplifter who before "Boring" had not seen Vyvyan in ten years and has absolutely no idea who his father is.
Vyvyan displays feats of inhuman strength on occasion (moving entire walls with his bare hands, lifting Neil above his head in a fight with Rick, biting through a brick and even being decapitated and re-attaching his own head whilst still alive), and eats just about anything; televisions, cornflakes or caviar with ketchup.
Despite being a homicidal maniac, Vyvyan seems quite sociable and creative; In one episode ("Flood"), he has developed his own potion to transform a person into an axe-wielding maniac. He has more friends than the others but apparently "he doesn't like any of them". He frequently causes havoc or damage such as wiring the doorbell to a bomb and adding a 289 CID Ford V-8 engine to the vacuum cleaner which proceeded to suck up the carpet, the floorboards and a friend of Neil's.
Mike TheCoolPerson
Played by Christopher Ryan, Mike was the odd-one-out of the four. He is the assumed leader of the group, despite his diminutive size, and does not involve himself in the battles between the other three. He constantly makes puns, which are either deliberately cheap or humorous but over-celebrated.
There is a mysterious, elusive quality to Mike. He frequently utters confusing, profound-sounding phrases which baffle the others (for example, when asked by Rick if he stole his apple, Mike replies "Well, if you're gonna sin you might as well be original."). Mike is supposedly the ladies' man of the bunch and brags about his prowess with women, although he is eventually forced to admit his virginity to the others in "Nasty". Though he is a virgin, as are the rest of the housemates, he makes every attempt at wooing the fair sex, being quite forward and incredibly unsuccessful.
A con artist, he always has some kind of plan to make quick money such as renting out Rick's bedroom as a roller disco and soliciting bids for the unexploded atom bomb that fell into the house. Mike attends Scumbag College only nominally as he has blackmailed his tutor and the Dean of the school for grants and apparently passing grades. In "Summer Holiday" he muses "I think I'll ask for one of those Ph.D.s next year".
While Mike often does things at the expense or detriment of his housemates, he rarely expresses the sort of open hostility that the others do, and seems to cause them trouble only when it benefits him, rather than out of sadistic joy.
Balowski Family
Throughout the two series', Alexei Sayle routinely appeared as many different characters, interjecting his own material into the programme in ways that emulated his stand up comedy routines. His main role was that of the flat's landlord Jerzy (Jeremy) Balowski, which was the only character he reprised, appearing in "Demolition", "Flood" and "Summer Holiday". The rest of the time, he was billed as playing various male members of "The Balowski Family", including nephew Alexei Balowski (a protest singer), son Reggie Balowski (an international arms dealer), brother Billy Balowski (a lunatic who believed he was a taxi driver), cousin Tommy Balowski (a drunk), escaped convict Brian Damage Balowski, and a medieval jester "Jester Balowski" (with Helen Lederer as his sidekick).
In the second series, Sayle's characters also included a train driver, a Mussolini look-alike (by day the head of the local police force, by night an entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest), "Harry the Bastard" (manager of the local video store, disguised as a South African vampire), and a Military recruitment officer.
In-House Relations
It cannot be said of the flatmates that they are particularly fond of one another - however, one can detect some sort of order between them.
Mike is the natural "leader" of the house. Always trying to make himself appear more important and exciting than he really is, he does appear to have done some of the things he claims to have done (such as getting Bambi the "Babycham" commercial in "Bambi"). He experiences very little hostility from the other members of the house. If there is any "fruitful" or amicable relationship in the house it is between Mike and Vyvyan. Vyvyan probably accepts Mike's role as the house leader whereas Mike needs Vyvyan's physique and willingness to act forcibly to enforce his own authority.
Neil is not particularly liked by anybody, although he is the only one who actually performs any kind of household chores and is therefore, if nothing else, needed by the other three.
Rick is the least liked of the four. Rick thinks very highly of himself. He also tells poor jokes and stories (but finds them hilarious himself), is a would-be anarchist (although deep-down he is quite conservative) and frequently acts like a child when he doesn't get his way. He generally vents his frustration (when trying to impress the others) on Neil, since Neil never sticks up for himself and is ignored by the others. But the majority of his anger is generated in endless battles with Vyvyan, which he invariably loses.
You can also see them as a family; Mike is the father, Neil the mother (as he says himself, "My function 'round here, I might as well be your mothers",) Vyvyan the son and Rick the daughter (particularly shown in the episode 'Nasty'). It is also possible to see the four characters as representatives of four decades: Mike the 1950s Fonzie-style ladykiller; Neil the 1960s hippy; Vyvyan the 1970s punk; and Rick the 1980s sociology student.
Finale
Main articles: Summer Holiday (Young Ones episode)
In the final episode, the four students steal a red AEC Routemaster, only to drive it over a cliff, exploding into flames at the bottom of a quarry. This was atypical of many sitcom endings, as it ended the show's popularity on a high, without a loss of good ideas, storylines, or jokes, and was intended to allow the cast and writers to move on to new projects before they became too typecast.
After The Series
The end of the series was not the last appearance of ''The Young Ones''. For the British charity television appeal Comic Relief, the four recorded a song and video for Cliff Richard's Living Doll, accompanied by Richard himself and Shadows guitarist Hank B. Marvin. Alexei Sayle was not involved, but had already tasted some chart success of his own in 1984 with "'Ullo John, Gotta New Motor?".
At the 1986 Comic Relief stage show they did the song live (following a short skit which involved Rick doing a comic song about showing his underwear and bodily parts, before being ejected from the group by Mike, and Vyvyan supposedly having backstage sex with Kate Bush with Neil as his contraceptive). The skit climaxed with Neil claiming Cliff Richard couldn't perform with them and John Craven had been booked as a replacement, only for Bob Geldof himself to then appear onstage. Adrian Edmondson's guitar-playing skills meant Vyvyan could play guitar during the performance.
Mayall, Planer and Edmondson reunited in 1986 for the Elton-written ''Filthy Rich & Catflap''. The series had many of the same characteristics as ''The Young Ones'' as did Mayall and Edmondson's next sitcom ''Bottom''. Ryan, for his part, was regularly recruited to play roles on associated series (such as ''Happy Families'', ''Bottom'' and ''Absolutely Fabulous''), as part of his successful acting career.
DVD releases have been somewhat basic: only the US edition featured documentaries and none of the extra footage known to exist was included, such as the music video, raw footage, and TV announcements. Moreover, musical references proved difficult to clear so "The Sound of Silence" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues" were simply excised from the US editions. A Bloopers tape made for the amusement of cast and crew has often been suggested as a potential DVD extra, but according to a BBC employee, all known copies of this have gone missing from the BBC archives. A new DVD release of all episodes is due for release in August 2007 which will contain new documentaries and a reunion of the original cast.[1] .
Then in 1986 MTV decided to buy half the programs to run on their cable systems, during 1987. CO Jack Lett liked it so much, he let it run on the air 2 times a week, during the night. MTV had a break of not-running music videos, and this British sitcom was added to the rest of non-music programs.
A pilot episode was filmed of an American version of "The Young Ones." Very little about this episode is known, apart from the fact that Nigel Planer was the only cast member of the original series to reprise his role. Robert Llewellyn wrote in his book ''The Man In The Rubber Mask'' (1994): "''The Young Ones'' was taken over the Atlantic in the mid eighties, and Nigel [Planer] was the only member of the British cast to go. He had experienced a fairly hideous time, worried sick that he was going to have to stay there for six years with a group of people he hated who managed to make ''The Young Ones'' into a sort of grubby ''Benny Hill Show''. He was hugely relieved when the pilot was a flop and he was released from his contract."
Links To Other Series
In ''Bambi'', the housemates appeared on University Challenge, where they played against Footlights College, Oxbridge, a reference to Footlights drama club at Cambridge University. The Footlights College team was played by show writer Ben Elton and three actors who were once members of the real Cambridge Footlights: Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, and Stephen Fry, the last of whom had actually appeared on the quiz show while at Cambridge. The episode title is a reference to the show's presenter, Bamber Gascoigne, impersonated by Griff Rhys-Jones.
Mayall and Edmondson elaborated on some of the series' concepts later in their sitcoms ''Filthy Rich & Catflap'' (written by Elton, with additional material by Mayall) and ''Bottom'' (written by Mayall and Edmondson).
Most of the regular cast (and several of the guests) also appeared in Channel 4 and BBC2's comedy films, ''The Comic Strip Presents''. All four main actors have gained reputations as dramatic, as well as comic, actors.
Guests
Guest appearances
★ Keith Allen - as Pestilence in ''Interesting''
★ Mark Arden - as policeman #1 in ''Boring''; as cornflakes box dad in ''Bomb''; as gatecrasher #1 in ''Interesting''; as gravedigger #1 and police victim #1 in ''Flood''; as headless ghost #1 in ''Cash''; as spy #1 in ''Nasty''; as manure deliverer #1 in ''Sick''
★ Roger Ashton-Griffiths - as Orgo the devil in ''Boring''
★ Helen Atkinson-Wood - as the woman in the painkiller advert in ''Nasty''
★ Nicholas Ball - as Rick's lecturer in ''Interesting''
★ Gary Beadle - as the DJ's servant in ''Time''
★ Chris Barrie - as the ship captain in the wall-poster in ''Nasty''
★ Paul Bradley - as the pilot in ''Demolition''; as Warlock in ''Interesting'' and ''Cash''
★ Arnold Brown - as the criminal waiting to be cast in the pit in ''Flood''; the chess player in ''Nasty''
★ Robbie Coltrane - as the doorman in ''Oil''; as Dr Carlisle in ''Bambi''; as the one-eyed pirate DJ in ''Time''
★ Ron Cook - as a convict on the wall-poster in ''Nasty''
★ Andy de la Tour - as the co-pilot in ''Demolition''; as a convict on the wall-poster in ''Nasty''; as the road safety announcer in ''Cash''
★ Ben Elton - as the TV presenter in ''Demolition''; as the blind DJ in ''Flood''; as Mr Kendall Mintcake in ''Bambi''; as the campaigning schoolboy in ''Sick''; as the drinker in the lager advert in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Alan Freeman - as God in ''Cash'' and ''Summer Holiday''
★ Dawn French - as the religious visitor in ''Interesting''; as the devil in the painkiller advert in ''Nasty''; as the Easter bunny in ''Time''
★ Stephen Frost - as policeman #2 in ''Boring''; as gatecrasher #2 in ''Interesting''; as gravedigger #2 and police victim #2 in ''Flood''; as headless ghost #2 in ''Cash''; as spy #2 in ''Nasty''; as manure deliverer #2 in ''Sick''; as the bank manager in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Stephen Fry - as Lord Snot in ''Bambi''
★ Gareth Hale - as medieval guard #1 in ''Flood''; as gravedigger #1 in ''Nasty''; as yokel #1 in ''Time''
★ Lenny Henry - as the postman in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Jools Holland - as the punk in the bank in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Terry Jones - as the vicar in ''Nasty''
★ Hugh Laurie - as Lord Monty in ''Bambi''
★ Helen Lederer - as Gwendolyn the jester's assistant in ''Time''; as the repetitive bank teller in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Norman Lovett - as the penny arcade owner in ''Summer Holiday''
★ Pauline Melville - as a bus passenger in ''Demolition''; as Vyvyan's mother in ''Boring'' and ''Sick''; as a witch in ''Sick''
★ Paul Merton (under his real name of Paul Martin) - as yokel #3 in ''Time''
★ Norman Pace - as medieval guard #2 in ''Flood''; as gravedigger #2 in ''Nasty''; as yokel #2 in ''Time''
★ Daniel Peacock - as the stabbed man in ''Nasty''
★ David Rappaport - as Ftumch[sic] the devil in ''Boring''; as Shirley in ''Flood''
★ Tony Robinson - as Dr Not The Nine O'Clock News in ''Bambi''
★ Griff Rhys-Jones - as Bambi in ''Bambi''
★ Jennifer Saunders - as Sue the party guest in ''Interesting''; as Helen Mucus the murderess in ''Time''
★ Mel Smith - as the commissionaire in ''Bambi''
★ Emma Thompson - as Miss Money-Sterling in ''Bambi''
Musical guests
★ Amazulu (''Time'', performing "Moonlight Romance" in the kitchen)
★ Ken Bishop's Nice Twelve - a one-off conglomerate which included Jools Holland, Stewart Copeland, Derek Griffiths, Chris Difford, Simon Brint, and Rowland Rivron (''Cash'', performing "Subterranean Homesick Blues" on the street.
★ The Damned (''Nasty'', performing "Nasty" in the living room)
★ Dexys Midnight Runners (''Bomb'', performing "Jackie Wilson Said" in the bathroom)
★ Madness (two appearances - ''Boring'' and ''Sick'', performing "House of Fun" in the Kebab and Calculator, and "Our House" on the street, respectively)
★ Motörhead (''Bambi'', performing "Ace of Spades" in the living room)
★ Nine Below Zero (''Demolition'', performing "Eleven Plus Eleven" in the living room)
★ John Otway (''Summer Holiday'', performing "Body Talk" on the street)
★ Radical Posture (''Oil'', performing "Doctor Marten's Boots", with Alexei Sayle on vocals, in the living room)
★ Rip, Rig and Panic - featuring a teenage Neneh Cherry (''Interesting'', performing "You're My Kind Of Climate" in the kitchen)
No musical act appeared on the episode ''Flood''; instead, a lion tamer performed an act in Mike's bedroom to fit the criteria for a variety budget. Vyvyan refers to him at the end as 'Bobby' but the character did not receive a credit.
Episode list
'Series 1' (Originally broadcast 9 November-14 December 1982 on BBC2; shown Tuesdays at 9 pm)
#"Demolition" - The boys get a letter from the council telling them their squalid house will be demolished.
#"Oil" - Upon moving into a new house, Vyvyan announces that he has struck oil in the cellar.
#"Boring" - The boys attempt to fight off boredom whilst several very exciting things go unnoticed around them.
#"Bomb" - An unexploded atomic bomb falls through the boys' roof and blocks the refrigerator, but worse, the TV Licence man calls.
#"Interesting" - The flat hosts a party that gets out of hand.
#"Flood" - During heavy rains, London floods and the boys are trapped in the house with a homicidal, axe-wielding Mr. Balowski.
'Series 2' (Originally broadcast 8 May-19 June 1984 on BBC2; shown Tuesdays at 9 pm)
#"Bambi" - The boys go to the launderette and compete against Footlights College, Oxbridge in ''University Challenge''.
#"Cash" - Cash-strapped, Neil is forced (by his flatmates) to join the police force.
#"Nasty" - A strange package from South Africa interferes with plans to watch a video nasty on a rented VCR.
#"Time" - For a first, Rick wakes up in bed next to a beautiful girl, and the house passes through a time warp.
#"Sick" - While ill, the boys must deal with an escaped criminal and worse, Neil's parents.
#"Summer Holiday" - Summer is here and the lads finally get their results.
References
★
External links
★
★ The bbc.co.uk Guide To Comedy: The Young Ones
★ BBC: I Love 1982: The Young Ones
★ Young Ones locations in Bristol
★ The Young Ones Tribute
★ British Film Institute Screen Online
★ The Young Ones scripts
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