SUPPORT 13 WEEK THEATRE ON PATREON AND GET EXCLUSIVE EARLY ACCESS: / 13week This week we look at what's been called the most offensive show in TV history: BSB's "cancelled after one episode" sitcom "Heil, Honey, I'm Home!"
Rachel Newstead He would have. The concept wasn’t a bad idea, and I saw why it could have worked, but the execution was flat out horrid. It was just copy and paste plots from 1950s sitcoms and place it onto Hitler and World War II. That’s it. The writing was lazy and uninspired. Instead of using The Honeymooners as a template, they should have looked to The Producers instead. It could have worked if more of an effort was made.
@@cityhawk Brooks probably would have made it a story within a story, which I believe is what you are suggesting. It could have been a story about the effects of such a horrible decision on the lives of TV producers, audiences, actors, etc. Making this the primary story, however, was really foolish.
John R Sometimes established show-runners, writers, and producers can sprint through the process if they an established track record, even if the idea for a show is flat out terrible. For example, The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfeiffer had producers from The Golden Girls lead the way on the sitcom. We all know how that worked out.
Brian OSullivan Yeah, that makes sense. I think in any business or industry being already established means a lot. I think I can see exactly what you mean.
John R And that’s part of the problem sometimes. Instead of taking on a program on the merits of its concept, it’s taken because of its name recognition (South Park and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia being the exception). It’s part of the reason why we are left underwhelmed by the programs we see. A program should be reward for its creativity, wit, and willing to take chances at the risk of cancellation, not necessarily because of its marketability, but it is a business.
I saw a VHS of this (or perhaps it was one of the lost episodes) during the summer of 1990. An American writer who served as a Consultant on Heil Honey, screened it before a silent, aghast room of sitcom writers & staff.
Oh well, this is why I sing the praises of Dan Curtis. Yup, the man who created the classic TV show DARK SHADOWS! Why do I bring him up? He had the foresight to make sure his baby didn't become lost media. He made sure ABC didn't reuse any of the master tapes by making sure his production company owned the videotape rights. The series became the first soap opera to have its entire run preserved on tape. In the early days of TV series being released on DVD, DARK SHADOWS became the 1st soap opera to have a Complete Series DVD Set.
Funny thing is I saw this one episode go out live and even then I thought it was just a one off, imagine my surprise then that it was actually intended as a series.
This would have been a scream if Mel Brooks made it! But it was made by complete hacks. They even screwed up the opening credit by just ripping off the Bewitched opening instead of just doing something unique in the style of classic animated openings.
The entire premise seems to be, "Boy, 1950's sitcoms sure were corny!" That works for a parody sketch you can run on Monty Python or SNL, but there's nothing there to sustain it for more than about 5 minutes. It doesn't matter how shocking your material is.
You could have stopped this at 2:37 and we would have ALL understood. This looks like it should have been an early 80s SNL sketch. Great post, as usual.
Proof that cocaine was always the drug of choice for tv producers on BOTH sides of the herring pond. This makes Springtime for Hitler look like Les Miserables, wow. Thank you for an awesome channel, looking forward to watching more
Speaking of Monty Python...in addition to the Mr. Hilter sketches that this piece is referring to, they also gave us "The Attila the Hun Show," which is the exact same premise of a corny 1950's or '60s American sitcom about a genocidal madman (complete with Eric Idle in blackface as "Uncle Tom," the servant, just for extra shock value). But--The Attila the Hun Show was a two-minute sketch. Footage of an invasion as a fakeout, a sitcom intro, and about 30 seconds of dialogue before they transitioned to something else. And that's about all the material that I think you can mine from this premise. You can use Hitler and the Nazis to make larger points about something else, but did this sitcom have anything to say besides, "A lot of American '50s sitcoms were corny"? That's pretty low-hanging fruit, and a target that I don't think people were really crying out to be taken down a peg.
This was a real show? I thought it was just a joke... I am being dead serious, I've seen clips but I assumed it was just a gag. Just had to make sure that wasn't posted on April 1st.
James Warner It certainly was and a poorly executed one. If you want a better parody of this type of television, there was a show with a similar title that I thought was original and well done called “Hi Honey, I’m Home”. It was on ABC and Nick at Nite in the early 90s. I thought it was well done and well crafted. There should be an episode or two of it on RU-vid. It’s worth a look at least.
So, you figured out that whats-her-face was Canadian, but did you ever dig up anything on the hero, Neil McCaul? Cuz theres no real info about him online.
Pab sorry you didn't see my reply to your comment. I uploaded a HQ 50fps copy of the BSB closedown for you but I see you used the existing one. Looks good anyway.
This concept works better as a sketch on SNL or something Mel Brooks would do and only last 5 minuets....not for the entire length of an actual sitcom episode! GEEZE!
probably would have worked better as a one-off comedy skit rather than a drawn out series. I don't think the idea is naturally bad as a satire of old 60's sitcom - as you described - which was the whole point (and purposely in "bad taste"), but I would gather most people were probably not in on that joke so if you were tuning in "unaware" of that it probably would have garnered and rightfully deserved the reaction it got. It also didn't help that the writing sucked and the jokes not funny in and of themselves - this type of comedy is a tightrope act, and unless you strike that right balance, it falls flat and at worst offends.
I'm kind of hoping WandaVision doesn't turn out to be something like this (not in terms of anything like offensiveness of course here; I just hope that the whole retro parody thing doesn't misfire in terms of corniness or anything like that).
Gosh, after a teaser like this, how could anyone NOT be interested in seeing the unaired episodes? On Gareth Marks' RU-vid site, I recall that when someone (OK, me) noted his comedy reel had two scenes that apparently came from "Heil Honey, I'm Home" but were not in the pilot, Marks confirmed this and stated that negotiations were ongoing to air the remaining episodes. Apparently that never came to fruition. Too bad. Sure, the show is in bad taste, but any intended satire that doesn't at least border on bad taste is pretty lame.
Amazing... but how did Hogan's Heroes get it right? I've always liked Hogans Heroes, but I cannot imagine anyone doing a "Bin Ladin' Buddies" just 20 years after 9/11.
To answer the question of 'should the remaining episodes be released', I think so. Hear me out. No doubt in my mind that the whole thing is off in taste, but I think it should be preserved for the sake of saving art from another time...and for the fact that this is a show that effectively killed an entire TV channel. Can't say that about much else! If anything, do what Warner Bros did when they'd release DVDs of their older cartoons with racist jokes and gags. Have a celebrity or historian pop up before the show to explain that the show was made in a different time and that burying it is just as bad as pretending it didn't happened. That's a fairly nuanced take I feel.
I think this would be funny as sh^te! I mean no different than that movie that was made by Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit I mean offensive humor is what made South Park historic
But South Park and Jojo Rabbit were well written and skewered their targets. This show was mocking TV, not Hitler. And the jokes were deliberately bad. It was poorly executed.
This show should be presented as evidence to those snobs who watch public TV that think everything that comes out of Great Britain is some kind of masterpiece.
The premise reminds me of the Comedy Central series "That's My Bush", which made then-new President George W. Bush the center of a sitcom that parodied sitcom troupes. IIRC that one lasted a while but pretty much got buried in the aftermath of 9/11. But that was at least somewhat funny, from the little I remember of it. This thing is just awful.
I just don't get the shock or indignation directed at this series, its not like Hitler hadn't been the subject of parody and jokes in British Television, or even in America. Having watched this the biggest complaint would be how boring and staid the comedy is and how the premise wears a bit thin even for one episode. It would have been a funny sketch perhaps... I think this is also a victim of timing, if this had been made a few years later, when studio bound sitcoms have fallen out of favour and offensive outrage comedy was in then I could see this working but its too conventional for such a tabloid-outrage bait premise. I don't want to say it's ahead of its time, that would be giving too much credit to the show itself.
Um dude, Sky didn't buy BSB [British Satellite Broadcasting], they merged The reality is BSB was a federally funded competitor to Sky [the federal funding came from ITV's former owner, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) (the IBA went defunct because of the Communications Act of 1990 that went into law under Margaret Thatcher)] The reason BSB failed isn't because of Heil Honey, I'm Home - there's more to it than that 1. Timing - Sky beat BSB to the punch in regards of satellite tv by a year [Sky Television (now Sky Limited)'s satellite tv service launched on February 5, 1989, BSB launched on March 25, 1990] 2. Choice - Sky had more variety then BSB 3. Cost - While both Sky's Astra and BSB's Marco Polo satellites are technically luxury items by the late '80s in the UK, Sky was more appealing to UK public 4. Financial Woes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Television_plc#BSB_competition_and_merger (learn more here) as to BSB's channels after Merger Galaxy didn't die because of Heil Honey, It merged into Sky One (Then formerly known as Sky Channel) Now (BSB's news channel) merged into Sky News The Power Station (BSB's answer to MTV) stuck around post-merger until it shut down on April 8th, 1991 in favor of Sky Movies The Sports Channel (BSB's sports channel) also survived merger but shut down on April 20th, 1991 in favor of Sky Sports The Movie Channel (not to be confused with The Movie Channel here in the US, BSB's film channel) also survived merger but was shut down on November 1st, 1997 For more UK TV facts, I recommend Bob The Fish Productions: ru-vid.com/show-UCQE9WSkctKfd6EyKyoiI08w If i were to pick from him, I say watch his "ITV in the Face" documentary series
Most if not all of the funding came from commercial companies such as Granada Television which was regulated by the IBA. There is no way the IBA itself could have funded BSB.
This was a premise with quite a lot of potential, and I actually think the pilot was far from terrible. The idea of using Old Nasty to poke fun at the conventions of mid-century American sitcoms wasn't a bad one. But the ultimate product didn't work hard enough to justify the offence, and it didn't really succeed in putting enough distance between itself and the mediocre comedies it was supposedly parodying. I wish it had been done better, because this could have been classic television.
It's like a little aside in a Family Guy episode. But it's also from a time and place when we all agreed Hitler was bad, now we have lil fascists and Trump followers all over who would elevate this.
I would to see the other episodes; the first one was a silly, typical sitcom. Those who were triggered should probably dig a hole and fill it in with themselves at the bottom, as they must be very unhappy in the real world.
Aiber Lane If it was billed as a parody, it still would have been bogged down by its atrocious writing. The controversy wasn’t the issue, it’s the execution that was. There have been many shows over the decades that pushed the bounds of social norms and succeeded. However, they succeeded because they were well crafted by people who knew what they were doing. “Heil Honey, I’m Home” was nothing more than a lazy cut and paste job of satire. If you’re going to do satire, you have to go all in and live with the results.
