Sitcoms that couldn't be made today

robfosters

robfosters

robfosters

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Got thinking last night of just how many British sitcoms of the past couldn't be made today because of the march of political correctness and well, tbh, just plain decency. Lets save the debate on PC and the like for GD or SC, I'm just interested in the sitcoms and how they crossed the line of what is acceptable today.

I've thought of as many as I could. I'll start with the most obvious ones.

Curry & Chips
Love Thy Neighbour
In sickness and in health/Till death do us part

All guilty of outrageous racism. Now the rest.

Porridge - Racism towards Mclaren and slight homophobia
The likely lads - Racism and Xenophobia
Only Fools - Tenuous one this, but there are examples of casual racism and homophobia throughout
Dad's Army - 'Fuzzy wuzzies' would surely be construed as racist nowadays
Fawlty Towers - The Major in Particular, but Basil could be xenophobic too
Rising Damp - Rigsby was racist towards Philip
Gimme Gimme Gimme - Homophobic language
Men Behaving Badly - Tenuous, but one episode in particular would be thought of as homophobic now

That's all I can think of atm, can you think of any others? Again, lets not let it descend into a racism/PC argument.
 
Some of them are a bit of a stretch?

Only fools and horses?
Faulty towers?
Men behaving badly?

Might as well add Queer as Folk ?

But yea, In sickness and in health, oh that would give some folk heart attacks!! Could you imagine the melt down some people would have if that aired again.
 
Thekwango said:
Some of them are a bit of a stretch?

Only fools and horses?
Faulty towers?
Men behaving badly?

Might as well add Queer as Folk ?

But yea, In sickness and in health, oh that would give some folk heart attacks!! Could you imagine the melt down some people would have if that aired again.
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Have you ever seen the scene in Fawlty towers where the major talks about taking a girl to see cricket at Lords :eek:

Del Boy uses the four letter derogatory term for a Pakistani quite often and there is numerous other snippets which would be unacceptable today.

MBB was one episode in particular where Gary thought that Tony was gay and that he would have to move out if he was. There would be a scream up about that today.
 
robfosters said:
Got thinking last night of just how many British sitcoms of the past couldn't be made today because of the march of political correctness and well, tbh, just plain decency. Lets save the debate on PC and the like for GD or SC, I'm just interested in the sitcoms and how they crossed the line of what is acceptable today.

I've thought of as many as I could. I'll start with the most obvious ones.


In sickness and in health/Till death do us part


Fawlty Towers - The Major in Particular, but Basil could be xenophobic too
Rising Damp - Rigsby was racist towards Philip


That's all I can think of atm, can you think of any others? Again, lets not let it descend into a racism/PC argument.
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Wow, the point of those ones went right past you, didn't it? In each case the racism of the character is explicit, and the character is intended to be unpleaseant, at least part due to their racism. This is completely different to pushing racial stereotyping such as in Love Thy Neighbour, which was oblivious to the racism. But given the tendancy of some people to see Alf Garnett as a role model and wonder why people were laughing at his racism, it's not like you are alone.
 
Meridian said:
Wow, the point of those ones went right past you, didn't it? In each case the racism of the character is explicit, and the character is intended to be unpleaseant, at least part due to their racism. This is completely different to pushing racial stereotyping such as in Love Thy Neighbour, which was oblivious to the racism. But given the tendancy of some people to see Alf Garnett as a role model and wonder why people were laughing at his racism, it's not like you are alone.
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That’s all well and good but irrelevant to the question asked by the op. The fact remains, the likes of In sickness and in health would not get made today.
 
Meridian said:
Wow, the point of those ones went right past you, didn't it? In each case the racism of the character is explicit, and the character is intended to be unpleaseant, at least part due to their racism. This is completely different to pushing racial stereotyping such as in Love Thy Neighbour, which was oblivious to the racism. But given the tendancy of some people to see Alf Garnett as a role model and wonder why people were laughing at his racism, it's not like you are alone.
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No the point didn’t go past me cleverclogs, I knew exactly what they were. But they still wouldn’t be able to be made today would they? That’s what my OP was about.
 
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