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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The IT Crowd

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09:55 / 03.02.06

I watched the first two episodes online of this new comedy and I was pleasantly surprised. The first episode isn't that good, but pilots often aren't. It has a few good lines and Chris Morris being pleasingly stupid, but little more.
The second episode, though. Gosh, I liked it. It seems to be aiming for traditional stupid 1970s sitcom territory (Reggie Perrin is a good comparison in some ways) and is miles away from the smugness of Nathan Barley. Morris looks as though he's actually having FUN. The jokes are telegraphed but still quite funny when they arrive, and there's more than a little slapstick. The one bit I wasn't too happy about was the cliched shoe obsession, but it does have a good payoff.
Online version here.

Oh, and they've done a little research: look out for the FSM poster on the wall.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

10:19 / 03.02.06

From watching the first episode, I found this enjoyable enough in that... it's just sort of comfortable viewing, y'know? I like that in a sitcom. I respect that. It's just there. It's not good, it's not edgy, the jokes aren't new. But it is there.

However, there's only 6 shows in the first series! A show like this... needs a run of 22 or the like, so it can merely exist in the background always, like a good run of the mill but sometimes strangely amusing/endearing sitcom should.

10:43 / 03.02.06

You comission anything for 22 episodes at a stretch then the consistency will vary in a downward trajectory. You start with a pleasent comedy.. by episode 8 you have a grating unfunny comedy... comissioning 6 episodes at a time is the best way to maintain consistency and quality...

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

10:53 / 03.02.06

It is quite unfunny and not quality though! I just like Richard Ayoade.

Most US shows have a much larger run, don't they? Do they start off smaller? Every British comedy I can think of has a run of around 6, though, so I concede that that is probably just the way things are done here. I am thinking of a comedy that breaks out of that niche though, and becomes ubiquitous in a Cheers/Friends fashion (which is really what an easy comfortable comedy should do, if you ask me - it's there when you need it, ie "it's always on").

Arrested Development had plenty of episodes in it's first season. And that was actually good straight through!

12:20 / 03.02.06

A standard US TV season is 22 episodes, yes.

12:25 / 03.02.06

There’s a good TV Review column in the current Private Eye about the numbers of episodes in USA and UK TV shows, worth a look (apart from some errors, like suggesting Twin Peaks ended after one series).

I know someone who worked on the IT Crowd, and am keen to check out the double-bill tonight and see if it’s good. Nice to have Morris back in front of the camera.

As Suedey rightly points out, Arrested Development had a 20-odd episode first season, though I think they were progressively trimmed down (18 and 13?) as the seasons went on. Usually, though, it’s something like 22 episodes in the USA, but more like 6 in the UK – occasionally there are variations in the UK (I think the creators of Birds of A Feather did a series US-style once, bringing in loads of extra writers and doing more episodes), but it tends to be short series, invariably with the same writers on all the episodes. But they’re not looking to hit the 100 episode syndication mark, I guess.

And if memory serves, the studio uncertainty about Seinfeld (ironically) was so great that after the pilot they commissioned the shortest possible series they could – something like 3-4 episodes. Then again, the pilot was only the faintest shadow of the programme it came to be.

While I’m on the subject, and probably threadrotting, for which I apologise, what’s with the whole ‘clip show’ thing in US shows – I’ve seen it in Starsky and Hutch, Seinfeld, Friends, and I know it’s a standard thing. Is there a certain number of episodes in after which they do a clip show (the Clerks cartoon notwithstanding)? And why is it accepted in the USA but rare if not never-present in the UK ? Anyone know?

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

13:05 / 03.02.06

I realise that the runs are mostly shorter here due to the amount of people working on them, with say, one writer as opposed to an entire team.

But it does seem odd to me that they don't utilise that other way of working more often, esepcially when - as in the case of the IT crowd - it seems to be aiming for that sort of easy appeal. It doesn't seem to be the sort of show that is any comedy writer or performer's passion, just a very easy broad comedy. Computer geeks unpopular! Girls don't like them! etc. (Although I'm still waiting to watch the second episode to see if it blossoms like a flower... I hear it's an improvement on the first).

The only case I can think of where team writing and (I think) larger runs have been used in British comedy is on My Family. Which is produced by an American. Nobody likes it, and yet it's simulteanously incredibly popular, and on all the time.

All Acting Regiment

18:34 / 03.02.06

How do you actually download the episodes?

paranoidwriter waves hello

19:59 / 03.02.06

Nice to have Morris back in front of the camera.

Agreed. The bit with him shouting "Hello!" angrily at the computer is still making me chuckle. Class.

Overall, I like concept and the show definitely has its funny moments. e.g. "Chairman Wow!".

Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

20:13 / 03.02.06

I just like the way they make really obvious gags funny. The profanity button was a wonderful bit of surrealism, too. Aoyade's delivery is also very well-timed.

paranoidwriter waves hello

20:29 / 03.02.06

Yeah, Ayoade's delivery is good, although I think at times the acting of the others can be a little too over the top at times. But then it's "early days", and it does feel as though they're all still finding their feet - actors and writers alike - so I'm going to wait and see.

05:08 / 04.02.06

I wonder how much of it is actors and writers finding their feet rather than us, as an audience, not knowing the characters yet. As simple as they are, a lot of the funny with shows like this is seeing a situation unfold, knowing how the characters will react to it and then watching that happen. Seinfeld is a perfect example of that, knowing that George would be obsessing about something before he actually started obsessing about it was part of the charm.

I thought The IT Crowd was really funny, perhaps I was just in the right mood for it, I am a huge fan of Linehan's writing anyway and this, to me, was everso reminiscent of early episodes of Father Ted or Black Books both of which had moments of extreme over acting and both of which I also loved.
Definitely going to be staying with this for a while at least.

08:25 / 04.02.06

Yeah, I watched the first two on-line.

I have honestly had more laughs sitting drinking coffee with real IT people.

14:11 / 04.02.06

Second episode practically leagues better than the first; the first almost felt like a pilot, compared to the second where quite a bit was established.

The second also felt like a sitcom, in that it was less about their job, and more about the situations.

"Nice screensaver!"

14:14 / 04.02.06

the first almost felt like a pilot

Comedy. Gold.

17:13 / 04.02.06

[Turns off the hit-and-run snark siren]

But. What. Did. You. Think. Of. The. Programme?

All Acting Regiment

23:43 / 04.02.06

So er, nice to know that some people had fun watching it online, how would one do that?

Tryphena Absent

01:17 / 05.02.06

My big problem with this is the canned laughter, I enjoyed it but sometimes a bit that I found amusing but not laugh out loud funny would have uproarious laughter stuck in over the top and I would stop being amused.

I mean, why would you DO THAT to a perfectly fine show? Why?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:51 / 05.02.06

Ah well, you obviously didn't watch Alan Yentob's program on sitcoms earlier in the week. It would have all made sense then.

I'm surprised that no one seems to have made the obvious connection between IT Crowd and Father Ted, Roy is quite Ted-like in that he's always letting his mouth talk him into situations, Moss is the Dougal-esque manchild (I loved the business with the glasses in the first episode) and Denholm is Bishop Brennan, only stupider. Jen is the bits of Ted that were actually quite good at getting him out of trouble, though I winced at the 'pretty shoes' aspect of episode two.

But after years of trying to find another Father Ted and instead giving us Hippies it looks like Graham Linehan has managed to translate it to a basement in London.

09:22 / 05.02.06

Hmm, the isolation of craggy island is like the isolation of the IT department in the office basement.

But I never thought of Len Brennan as stupid or demented, just angry.

10:10 / 05.02.06

Legba, I'm feeling your pain.

So, watching it online, then...

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

11:11 / 05.02.06

The laughter is actually "live studio audience" laughter. Another part of adding to the old 70s feel of the show, I think (although I don't think the audience is actually there on the larger sets like they are on those shows).

The second show was a lot better, and had a much more Ted-like structure. ie, lots of little things all slot together to make one huge (priest/IT dep threatening) mass idiocy. The shoe thing was a bit lame, but I feel forgiving and I know enough people who would act like that with PRETTY SHOES...

Richard Ayoade makes a good geek Dougal, but I think they'll always be struggling if they're trying to get anyone who could be an equivalent Ted.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:24 / 05.02.06

I think the online episodes are up for a limited time - that's how BBC3 does it anyway, and I can't find a link. Although I might just be being dumb...

Mysterious Transfer Student

11:26 / 05.02.06

It's just shatteringly odd to me that Chris Morris is appearing in what amounts to a fairly MOR sitcom. Surely he lives in a dark tower on a remote island, surrounded by bubbling retorts and alembics filled with his own distilled bile, brooding over the idiocies of the world and venturing forth only to destroy the tiny minds of vapid minor celebrities who never realise that they're just one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan?
All right, that was too much.

The only bits of this (missed ep1, caught ep2) that made me laugh aloud featured Morris - his cycling outfit, and the finger-clicking "that's one... that's another one". He and Linehan have clearly decided to have a go at creating the ultimate "crazy boss" character. So far it seems to be working.

11:44 / 05.02.06

Linehan has done a nunber of radio interviews here in Ireland publicising the show and has stated that he just wanted to get people to see Morris on the telly without having to put up with live babay skinning and the like.

He also said that he wanted to get back to the "classic" style of sitcom without being too out there or anything.

I wasn't blown away by the first ep, second was better,Ayoade was excellent (the fire email) but Chris O Dowd was a bit too broadly drawn for me.

I wonder if "Roy gets horrifically injured" will become a part of the show each week.

12:31 / 05.02.06

Saw the first half of the second episode and thought it was awful, for much the same reasons that Suedey seemed to like it. Awful because it was so mediocre, so pointless. I had absolutely no idea that Linehan was involved in it - it feels like it could be on BBC1 at about 8:30, where the canned laughter shitcoms (Brittas Empire, Keeping up Appearances, My Hero, you know the sort of thing) usually get dumped.

Rubbish.

miss wonderstarr

13:58 / 05.02.06

I also thought episode 1 was old-fashioned unfunny; maybe I've lost a connection with traditional sit-com sets, scripts and performance (too used to "realistic" sitcoms like The Office) but it seemed very laboured and theatrical.

Apparently Chris Morris is paying tribute to "CJ" from Reginald Perrin.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:22 / 05.02.06

This does seem to be one of those divider shows, people all seem to be saying "great!" or "awful!", often for the exact same reasons.

Has anyone seen any of the other stuff Chris O'Dowd has done to verfiy whether he always acts exactly the same way as Dylan Moran in Black Books or whether I'm just imagining it?

14:51 / 05.02.06

I thought that the Chris Morris character was based on CJ from TFARORP, so it's good to see Kovacs confirm that.

Mysterious Transfer Student

14:53 / 05.02.06

I don't think it's as divider-ish as all that... so far it seems to be just there, despite the hype. I'm happy to fennec-sit it out until more episodes come along. Even Father Ted, which was one of the greatest, most innovative sitcoms ever seen, took a while to hit its stride IMO.

Chris O'Dowd has been seen before, as a horrendously insecure stand-up comic, in the 2005 film Festival, directed by Annie Griffin of The Book Group. (Now that was a show that divided people... I adore it, but my impression at the time was that not a few passionately loathed it.) His Moran-isms appear to stem more from Graham Linehan's script and directing, so far as can be determined.

15:15 / 05.02.06

How could anyone dislike The Book Group? Series 1, anyway.

miss wonderstarr

15:24 / 05.02.06

Yeah, episode 2 seemed more successful for some reason. Perhaps there were just more jokes and funny lines, or I was more accustomed to the format and mode of performance. The "four... five... FIRE!" and emergency-services jingle scored a chuckle.

It's family fun (apart from the "fuck") and perhaps that's something that deserves a place in the comedy schedule.

22:58 / 05.02.06

I've just watched ep 1 of this, and I just cannot believe how depressing I found it. Could that really have been genuine studio laughter? Either way, I agree with Nina, it was a lose/lose. It was so inexplicably uproarious that even if you thought 'Have you tried turning it off and on again' was a clever or original bit of observational comedy, you must've felt alienated by how thigh poundingly hysterical the studio audience seemed to think it was. And if you found it about as funny as I did, the laughter sounded positively mocking.
I've never liked laughter tracks, and they set any comedy up for a fall - like when people open an anecdote with 'I'll tell you a funny story' (*I'll* be the judge of that, you think). In this case, it was on a par with Hawksmoor's 'Apple' story.

I'm going to have to regain my strength and huff some nitrous oxide before embarking on ep 2. It's only because of the comments here that I'm even entertaining the idea.

10:29 / 06.02.06

Some of my suspicions about this have been confirmed by an interview with Linehan in The Times.

“I got married,” says Linehan grinning, “so the idea of a woman coming into the life of nerds and changing it was to the front of my mind.” He was also determined to write something for Ayoade, whom he describes fondly as having “funny bones” and, it was pointed out, looks like an IT guy. Linehan’s wife Helen then suggested the title, pronounced the “it” crowd rather than the eye-tee crowd, and everything fell into place.
“The title gives you everything. The hardest part of writing a sitcom is the initial idea; the actual episodes are a piece of p***.”

No Graham, no it isn’t and no they’re not. Programmes ideas that start with a punning title are invariably shit. See Rosemary & Thyme for more details.

11:03 / 06.02.06

I liked it as it felt warm and fuzzy and nice, rather than the car crash "nasitiness" of more recent fair (such as the Office which I never got into). No cringing moments (even the wrong amsterdam story was quite sweet) and it was just silly, which, personally, I think we could do with more of.

Although having said that I did find myself getting more excited by the teaser trailers for the new series of the Green Wing which bookended the adverts in the two episodes.

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