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Post by Pete Morris on Dec 17, 2011 6:56:33 GMT
NYTNOCN was originally made as a series of half-hour episodes. Then later re-cut into compilations. The re-cuttings changed the material. Some sketches had cuts. For example, the gramophone sketch originally ended with Mel stepping outside the shop to meet wife Pamela, who has had similar treatment in the record shop. This is cut in the compiled version. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSINO6MKtcoSometimes they joined two different sketches together. The hospital bed auction and the suicide jumper were originally two different sketches. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S19_CD1fGc&feature=relatedI've not seen the original versions since their first TV broadcast. Every time I've seen NTNOCN since then it has been the recut version. Do the originals still exist? If so, how can I get to see them?
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Post by Anthony Harvison on Dec 17, 2011 8:10:37 GMT
It would be really odd if any NTNOCN HAD been wiped. I think the issue is more(and I'm being brutally honest here) the fact that a lot of NTNOCN was quite frankly crap. We all know and love the classic bits, but it was pretty hit-and-miss a lot of the time. These compilations give the impression that the show as a whole was a lot funnier than it actually was. There are other sketch comedies with similar stuff. To be frank, watching all 45 episodes of MPFC, there was a LOT of unfunny dross. Still, I do hope there are plans in the work to release proper NTNOCN episodes.
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Post by Robert Belford on Dec 17, 2011 14:30:52 GMT
I completely disagree with this. I don't remember there being a lot of dross. In fact it was must-see television of a kind that the BBC has never matched since.
I would say that the material that was cut in the reruns was probably the more obscure topical content.
What's MPFC?
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Post by Pete Morris on Dec 17, 2011 18:54:02 GMT
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Post by Jim Exley on Dec 17, 2011 21:26:01 GMT
I'd second that comment about Python - especially remember a sketch called "Deja vu" which IIRC involeved a film of a milk float driving up to a house repeated ad infinitum. Back to Not... the compilations seemed to omit of lot of topical material.
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,864
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Post by RWels on Dec 17, 2011 22:28:01 GMT
Very true, but doesn't that apply to many series, especially sketch comedy once they have more than 6 episodes a series? Name me one long running comedy that is consistantly and always funny.
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Post by Robert Belford on Dec 18, 2011 3:34:43 GMT
The deja vu sketch was shown when it was repeated in the 1980's and in 1995. I love that sketch! ;D I'd second that comment about Python - especially remember a sketch called "Deja vu" which IIRC involeved a film of a milk float driving up to a house repeated ad infinitum. Back to Not... the compilations seemed to omit of lot of topical material.
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Post by Dale Rumbold on Dec 18, 2011 11:56:45 GMT
In my view NTNOCN was the finest 'satire' ever produced, and actually brought to an end the days when British TV knew the difference between amusing satire and total rubbish : "A Kick Up the 80s" started the trend of unfunny repetitive drivel, in the name of satire, that continues to this present day and includes terrible unfunny dross like The Office and Little Britain. Comic satire should always be short, topical, genuinely funny and never made into repeating sketches like the above. I also wish that the original NTNOCN shows were re-shown, or at least issued on DVD, instead of endlessly recycling the compilations.
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Post by Robert Belford on Dec 18, 2011 19:07:08 GMT
Not the Nine O'Clock News was one of the reasons why I first got a video-recorder in late 1980. In those days I was very aware of how programmes were shown once, maybe twice, but then disappeared forever. Funny in retrospect, as the programmes haven't been shown again in their original form.
I was a student and it was a big cost at the time. Equivalent to £30 in today's money for a three hour tape or 16p a minute! This is why people didn't record the ads in those days: an ad break cost you the equivalent of 45p.
So I don't have complete versions of Not the Nine O'Clock News. I would edit the recordings as I watched -- rewinding and recording over anything that wasn't funny enough to keep. I'm not sure what's in the compilations and how it compares to what I have.
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Post by Richard Hunter on Dec 18, 2011 22:44:03 GMT
Like Robert my Father owned a video recorder in 1980.
We managed to record all of season 3 & 4 of NTNOCN and recorded the best of compilations from the secound season.
I would love to see a complete DVD release of this series as I have never watched season 1 however as this was a BBC production I doubt this will ever happen.
Going slightly O/T my Father also managed to record all of Seaon 3 of the Kenny Everett Video Show which I watched again recently and it still makes me laugh as much as when I first watched it as a 14 year old 31 years ago.
It's a shame video tapes were so expensive back in 1980 (£13 for a 3 hour tape) we would certainly have recorded and kept more TV material.
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Post by Robert Belford on Dec 19, 2011 0:36:32 GMT
You should have gone to Radio Rentals! Tapes were only £10 there. You multiply by three to get roughly the equivalent today. So you were paying equivalent to £39 Like Robert my Father owned a video recorder in 1980. We managed to record all of season 3 & 4 of NTNOCN and recorded the best of compilations from the secound season. I would love to see a complete DVD release of this series as I have never watched season 1 however as this was a BBC production I doubt this will ever happen. Going slightly O/T my Father also managed to record all of Seaon 3 of the Kenny Everett Video Show which I watched again recently and it still makes me laugh as much as when I first watched it as a 14 year old 31 years ago. It's a shame video tapes were so expensive back in 1980 (£13 for a 3 hour tape) we would certainly have recorded and kept more TV material.
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Post by Nathan Dickel on Mar 28, 2012 14:46:06 GMT
I'm guessing the compilations being discussed are the ones that were put on dvd? as i've got the 2 dvds, and they are 4 compilations on each dvd.
To be honest, the compilations are better, apart from the bad editing of "I Like Trucking", they are much funnier than the actual episodes, which seem to drag on abit.
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Mar 28, 2012 15:08:42 GMT
O/T....a friend of mine actually 'covered' the Deja Vu sketch in the late 80's when me and my cohorts in the Lightwater area used to make tapes of stuff....mainly songs, but very occasionally sketches too.
Unfortunately, for posterity's sake the January 1987 performance (recorded live in the mean streets of West Surrey) concerning National Chicken Week, with the 6 of us asking randoms whether they had killed any tomatoes, was wiped....
End of O/T.
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Post by Dean Williams on Mar 28, 2012 16:07:35 GMT
I think NTNOCN was strong throughout, not mostly dross with a few highlights (which is how I see Flying Circus). There are great sketches in each and every episode of NTNOCN and I never have to his the Fast Forward button. As others ahve pointed out it was much more original than modern shows too, not endless repeating sketches and gags.
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