Posted on 10/06/2018 7:39:14 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Screenwriter Ray Galton, who co-wrote the landmark British comedy series “Hancock’s Half Hour” and “Steptoe and Son,” has died at 88.
Galton’s family said Saturday that he died Friday evening after a “long and heart-breaking battle with dementia.” […]
Galton and (Alan) Simpson wrote “Hancock’s Half Hour” for popular post-war comedian Tony Hancock.
Their biggest hit was “Steptoe and Son,” a sitcom about father-and-son junk dealers, which ran between 1962 and 1974. Producer Norman Lear adapted it into the U.S. sitcom “Sanford and Son.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
That’s a shame. In ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’, Galton and Simpson largely invented the sitcom, and the genre has seldom been as consistently good. On my office wall alongside diplomas, I have photos of Samson Raphael Hirsch, two favorite law school professors, and Tony Hancock.
Thanks for the post, Olog-hai. I wouldn’t have known of this for days otherwise.
Maybe because the sitcom use to be based around a theme or idea. Now it is usually about a group of people and their sex and personal life. Much like how comedy use to be based on what humor could be found in a certain situation, instead of just writing jokes around a plot.
Yeah OK, but what ever happened to Lamont?!
Prayers to his family...
Demond Wilson, who played Lamont is a Viet Nam vet who became and ordained minister, author and has been involved in a few faith based production.
RIP.
And considered one of these most difficult people to work with in the industry, largely attributed to his bad habit of thinking independently.
What you might not know is that Three’s Company descended from a British sitcom called Man About the House. MATH was superior to the US version in that the guy was constantly trying to bed his female roommates, unlike the quasi-faggot John Ritter we put up with.
You are really up on UK sitcoms. Well done.
In which case, did you ever watch Clochemerle?
“The book is a comic work, satirising the conflicts between Catholics and Republicans in the French Third Republic by telling the story of the installation of a pissoir or vespasienne (a structure housing one or more urinals) in Clochemerle’s town square.
“The work has been translated in various editions and adapted into film and television series, notably by the BBC in 1972.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clochemerle
Was too young for that one, and BBC Northern Ireland (available in the Republic on cable) didn’t do reruns in those days when the TV stations shut down at 11 pm.
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