My Family: Britain's Miserable Family Sitcom
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- My Family is one of Britain's most successful sitcoms and I think it says a lot about our national character.
/ stubagful
Interview with Fred Barron - gold.uktv.co.u...
Kris Marshall explains why he left My Family - www.mirror.co....
Yes I did spend this video referring to 'series' as 'seasons' on purpose - given the show's American roots it felt appropriate
In this instance, we will allow it.
I remember watching early ….seasons…of this when it was on telly and enjoyed how negative it was. It felt more grounded and cynical. Felt like home.
I dont say it, but I don't get annoyed by it anymore. Which is progress.
I used to avoid using 'seasons' but then accepted that the seasons make up a series
@lindalangart I thought I was over it, but this comment annoyed me. Oh well.
Hi Stuart,
I have loved your videos that go in depth on Friends, Joey & Episodes. Can you do a similar video on Cougar Town & The Odd Couple please?
Oh and I’d love to read your Friends fan script you mentioned in your Friends video.❤
Interesting fact. Robert Lindsay, who plays Ben, had begun to experience some success in movies. Then, one of his costars in one movie got mistreated by Harvey Weinstein and he stood up for her. In return, Weinstein ended Lindsay's big screen career.
If more people had the balls he did then weinsteins power wouldve faded and he'd have been behind bars decades earlier.
I know he cherishes every day Harvey remains behind bars too
@@SuperWolseyhe's getting out
Thats happened to a lot of actors and not just with W stein
@@TtotheCizzelhe's got at least the next 16 years in an LA prison. When the NY retrial happens, no doubt he'll be reconvicted on at least some of the charges, if not all.
My biggest problem with this show is I openly hated the fact he was constantly moaning about being poor, while living in a house which was 10 times bigger than my council house I grew up in.
Watching it now would probably depress a lot of people. The boom years - let's have sitcoms where middle class people complain about having a mortgage to pay, 3 kids and boring desk job.
@@LLydarth Bit like the Simpsons really, not aged well in that regard. You telling me a poor broke guy like Homer whos working a minimum wage job with an unemployed wife can afford a three story home with garden, basement, attic, garage with two cars AND three kids?
@@mpg272727 There's a lot of similar examples from that time, like Friends in which a group of underemployed 20-somethings can somehow afford to live in enormous flats in one of the most desirable parts of Manhatten. Even more absurd now but it was frequently remarked upon as being ridiculous at the time. Part of it I imagine is the need to have large and interesting enough sets to frame the action while writing characters that still feel relatable.
I think that’s actually a pretty valuable lesson. No matter what someone has, they’re never happy with it
I grew up in a first storey two bed flat but had friends at school who lived in five or six bedroom houses with enormous gardens (one of them had a swimming pool) and *all* of their parents complained about money. My dad complained about money all the time, I’ve complained about money all my life, but he and I and probably you as well have a lot compared to the vast majority of the people in the world
@@ericlayton8888 I agree with all of that but I don't think it was the writers' intention. They were just presented as your average family. It reflects the smug we're-all-middle-class-now times it was made in. Ben's nihilistic rants are completely incongruous to the bland plots where nothing happens. The teenagers are spoilt, shallow stereotypes of Millenials.
The Series' with Nick were easily it's golden years. In its latter days, it did feel more and more like a show the BBC just kept making on autopilot and forgot to cancel. And when they finally did, it got zero fanfare, the least episode not being any kind of finale.
It’s cause the show was cancelled without the cast and crew knowing to make a proper finale, the DVD has *Darts All Folks* rearranged from the original episode order to be the last one as it’s more of a finale than any of the other episodes in that series. Gabriel Thomson aka Michael talked about it on Facebook at the time. 👍🏻
Indeed extraordinary inferring David Lynch and a My Family episode.
I own a box set that contains season 1 to 7 for a reason, Nick leaves in 4 and makes the odd appearance in 5 then that was it. He got mentioned and joked about seasons following but it did eventually feel like they'd stopped making those like the character sas forgotten about by his own family members lol
@@gRinchY-op5vr an ideal final episode would have Nick make a return for it. At least that's what I hoped for. Who knows? Maybe they'll try a reunion someday?
ohhh true, noticed in the last few series quite a few jokes are stolen too
As an Australian, i feel you on the 'no one remembers this show'.
But i do. And I love it.
Oddly enough I watched this show as a kid but forgot about it.
I remember my mom watching it on BBC with me not yet understanding english well enough (we're swiss and she knew english from having spent a year in England when she was young).
It was rather helpful in me getting somewhat proficient at age 8, so I have fairly fond memories of it.
I have a real soft spot for My Family. It is one of those shows I remember watching in the living room on the big tele with my parents and two sisters, it always made me feel so grown up because my parents seemed to enjoy it just as much as me. I can understand why it never really remained culturally relevant but for a kid growing up in the 00s it was something to look forward to because it meant the family would all be together. After my dad passed away I used to always watch reruns if I caught them flicking through the channels because Robert Lindsay looked so much like my dad and that comforting feeling of the whole family relaxing in front of the tele after a day of school/work would come flooding back. Thanks for this hit of nostalgia, I did not know how much I needed it.
honestly there's no way this series would've worked without the two leads being as good actors as they are. Stage legends Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker in the same show, pretty much knocking it out the park even if the script was hit and miss (which got even more so as it went on).
edit: Gosh, if My Family is forgotten, imagine discussing MY HERO. Just as popular in its day, even less loved by the critics and even more forgotten.
edit 2: I don't think all British people are miserable and sniping all the time, but I think most British people either have some element of this to their character or have periods of their life that they fall into doing this. A lot of us have this sort of... Camus-esque reaction to life, but we also then deal with it in multiple different and conflicting ways.
Oh my Gosh, I would love a video analysing 'My Hero'; it was one of my favourite sitcoms when I was growing up. I know that recasting the main actor was always considered the reason for the show's demise, but I'd like to see someone discussing how changing its timeslot (thanks to Doctor Who, funnily enough) set off the chain of events leading to its cancellation.
@@totallytv2671I don't think that the time slot helped, but I do feel like the absence of Ardal O'Hanlon really left a massive hole in the show.
I don't necessarily think that the scripts were much worse, or that the replacement actor couldn't have worked, but his charisma had really been the keystone to making it work. Without him, the writing seemed more and more hacky and contrived, whereas O'Hanlon could deliver those ridiculous premises in a much more authentic way that plastered over the obvious deficiencies of the show as a whole.
For the benefit of any Americans: My Hero is basically Mork and Mindy, except it's a Superman parody and they have a terrifying baby who spouts one liners.
@@casanovafunkenstein5090 Yes, that's all true. I just thought that Ardal left because the time slot change caused a drop in ratings, and he could tell that it was only a matter of time before it ended. But recasting is always difficult to deal with, especially when it involves a main character. And since the actors had very different performance styles, it affected the whole dynamic of the show.
And your summary of the show was very accurate!
Even Anthony Head was in two episodes of My Family as Ben’s brother *Richard Harper* ! 😱
I did wonder how they could get two really serious actors on - Wannemaker is no cheap bit-part-player!
British TV at its best tends to be very rooted geographically and socially. Even fictional places - wetherfield, Walford, Sunhill, Dibley you know exactly who, where and what it’s about.
My family is sort of a vague middle class London that’s presented as relatable to everyone.
Don't forget Royston Vasey
You know what I have not really had much interest in British tv other then doctor who or red dwarf. But recently one show has come out and surprised me and that extraordinary which honestly really has so far surprised me.
I watched it when I was younger with my family, and I guess because I was a kid and British I never noticed just how depressing it is, guess that was the appeal tho.
Many sitcoms are far more miserable, including: Bread, Outnumbered, Peep Show, This Way Up, Steptoe & Son as well as Til Death Us Do Part & all its sequels.
They should release a version without the laugh track
It's not very depressing at all it's more chirpy than say one foot in the grave.
Same here. I loved this show as a kid and I never realised how bleak it was, must have just been the norm to me or maybe it just went over my head
Hey I am from Canada and watched this as a kid too and I don't remember the show being bleak as well lol.
The vengeful father performing forced surgery on a man he believes assaulted his daughter is the plot of Antonio Banderas film The Skin I Live In.
That's what I was thinking. Damn, that film is messed up! 😬
When My Family was airing, whoever wrote Pick of the Day for the Daily Mail's TV guide Weekend chose it every week so they could give it a low rating & ask why it's still being made.
The one thing The Daily Mail ever did right.
Obviously they had a lgbt character what would u expect from the daily mail n they're ev*l morals
Remember reading that street parties would be held when the last episode will be broadcast.
Speaking of Kris Marshall and Death in Paradise, I think it's worth mentioning the spinoff that he stars in, Beyond Paradise. A third series has been confirmed I believe and I'm not surprised, it's fantastic cozy telly and he really is quite good in the role.
Me and my parents actually stumble across them filming for the 2nd season, and it was pretty interesting watching him try and perfect fumbling with the car keys. Like. I never realised that was something that actors had to do. I just thought the fumbling was natural. Just goes to show how good he is at acting.
Even though the script isn't good. But that's what being a good actor can do for you: you can improve a lot of the things you're in (though this does have its limits. There's a trope called 'took the bad film seriously' for a reason)
I feel like the reason why it doesn't get called a classic is because there's no big real big moments. Like batman and robin in Only Fools and Horses, the runaway balloon in Dads Army, the puddle in Vicar of Dibley or the Witch Finder in Black Adder.
Agreed! While I enjoy it, most of the best moments are when Nick is involved like when he scared Ben with the Chainsaw, but beyond him being in the show, you’re right, there’s no memorable moments that the audience remembered, if people were still watching at that point, although there is a great one with Nicola Bryant called *Ben Behaving Badly* which was a nice little nod to Men Behaving Badly.
@@CJFS00s Oh there's defiantly memorable moments, but they are just small moments that lack escalation. Like in Dad's Army there's an episode where Pike smuggles a radio onto a base, if it was written like My Family then it would be about them trying to hide it, but in Dad's Army the episode is about the entire group trying to prevent their home town from getting drone striked.
The one episode I’ll always remember is the one where they get lost/locked in the modern apartment complex
The Christmas trees though 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄.
I think in time it might. You knew w when we become the boomers 😉 or it will end up like 2 point 4 kids, fond memories, but vague ones
Brotherhood of the Cockerell was the best episode.
I used to love My Family...but you're right, I basically haven't thought about it since it ended.
I think about Nick occasionally
It also helped that the two leads were Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker.
For me 2point4 Children was a similar kind of show, I think people forgot how surreal and dark it could get at times.
It was very popular at the time, so I don't know why it's almost forgotten.
I must admit I forgot all about it until I saw this comment, yet I remember watching regularly when I was young.
I think both series get forgotten in part because of each other. They are just shoved in the same 'family sitcom' box (along with loads of American shows). Most UK sitcoms that get remembered have a unique setting or setup. (Ab fab, Blackadder, Only Fools, Dibley, Porridge).
In addition to the revolving cast of stereotypes in My Family, it also suffered from being set in a middle class family (when TV was starting to see that as old fashioned, as seen with shows like Shameless and Royal Family).
It also suffered from being written by 25 writers (each writing individual episodes or some as writing duos), this means that characters are inconsistent and never develope.
@@retrogiftsuk4812 2point4children is about a working-class family & was very popular throughout the 90s. However, it's far less remembered & repeated far less often than My Family.
Ha I just made a similar comparison in another thread. Loved 2point4 but apart from the sat nav on bank holiday, and breaking the 4th wall over blending the microwave, not a lot else stuck.
It was something you watched because it was on.
I remember watching it as a child. I don't remember it being so bleak.
@@LilySaintSin They've taken a few bits from hundreds of hours.
Perfect way to describe it.
@@quntface1518 It was before people had internet and phones tbf.
That's how it was for me as a kid actually are you being served and keeping up appearances were also to other shows I watched as a kid.
I loved "My Family" & went to Pinewood Studios many times to watch it being recorded live. The chemistry between Zoe & Rob was incredible on set & when Kris was in the show it was at its best.
I love Ben's character it appeals to my sarcastic & deadpan sense of humour that I grew up with like Basil Fawlty & comedian Jack Dee.
It had a good run.
Felt like this was on DAILY for my entire childhood & adolescence. Every night, on one of the channels (terrestrial and satellite), somewhere. Then one day, it simply evaporated, as if it never was.
I feel like, in addition to your honest and fantastic points, why this series has been buried in the comedy memory is because it doesn't have a strong "the one with" episode.
You know "the one with", everyone does. The one with the giant kitten. The one with Motorhead and University Challenge. The one with the giant maggots. So many people, no matter how long it has been since a repeat of that episode, will at least remember it. I remember watching My Family and liking it, but I have no other details than that.
For me it does, the one where Ben goes to Dental school, or the one with Nick working at the Supermarket or the one where they went on The Weakest Link, but yeah there’s a lot of filler to the point where Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker critiqued the writing in 2007/2008!
For some reason I immediately think of the one where Abby gets married and she confesses to being in love with Johnny Depp at the altar. That’s actually the only thing I remember about the entire episode though so I see what you mean
I don't remember anyone ever liking it. I remember everyone saying "it's mediocre but the son is good." That was it, just one character that people liked.
Perfect way to put it.
I really liked it as a kid. I loved Ben and Nick but it was definitely Nick who made the show for me.
This show used to come on late night in Canada, can't remember the network. They also ran Keeping up with Appearances, Are You Being Served, Father Ted, Fawlty Towers and of course Black Adder. Loved all of them! They largely informed my notion of British people when I was young, lol. Can't believe I forgot it existed until I saw your thumbnail. Gonna have to find this somewhere to rewatch.
Father Ted isnt British
I watched this show for the first time when I was 6 years old and immediately fell in love with it, recording episodes on VHS and then begging for them all on DVD, I ended up with 2 copies of the series 1 dvd as I watched it so much I wore out the disc. This show was pure gold and I can still recite most episodes by heart. Thinking about it now though, I’m was probably too young for such a misanthropic world view that this show preached.
Seeing the thumbnail for this video I just had a "oh, so that's what it's called" moment. I rarely recall watching this show, I kinda feel that this is one of those shows that we only ever really had on when my parents never managed to pay for the cable bill, and this show was on the small handful of channels that we still got for free on the cable box or on Freeview box that would have still been yanked from one the bedroom TVs.
I also faintly remember this show airing more frequently when I lived with my grandparents, I'm not sure if she was ever really engaged, but we all generally hung out in the office, my grandfather and I generally on the PC and my grandmother absorbed in a crossword, reading or knitting, right before BBC news at 9 fired up for perusal before we hit the hay. I feel that this was generally a show which came in a fun era, my grandparents living in a decent area had cable a good few years before we did, I remember when we finally got it, virgin media bought telewest out a few years later and there was generally a huge explosion of American content available to us vs the 4.5 channels we used to get on TV, and so a lot of shows like this just generally fell by the way side when you could tune over to comedy central and have a good laugh at alan harpers expense.
The dynamic between Susan and Ben is a lot like Victor and Margret in One Foot in the Grave. Only difference is Victor rages about the world and when hes confronted with a problem with Margret hes fearlessly devoted. Look at the caravan episode. He loves that thing and tries to trash it for Margrets sake. Also, when she falls ill he drops all his silly obsession with it and goes to her side.
We had this show in Australia too. I'd almost completely forgotten about it!
oh my fucking god is that the lady Cassandra O'Brien
Yes.
Fun Fact: If you watch the My Family episode called *2039 A Christmas Odyssey* Susan makes a Doctor Who reference by saying she “moisturises* and winks to camera twice! 😂
@@CJFS00s that's great
@@CJFS00sthat sound amazing, off I go to find the clip!
It's a very real reflection of British life from what I have experienced. I have no problem in realising the older I get the more like Ben I am becoming.
Apparently the cast and the writers hated each other on this. There was huge tension between them constantly. The writer Paul Rose (he generally goes by the name Mr Biffo online) joined the writing team at one point and was dead excited to meet Richard Lyndhurst. When he was introduced to him Lyndhurst just snarled "Oh, have they told what a bastard I am?" (or something along those lines) and stalked off.
I wasn't aware that 'My Family' had US-influence in its roots, but I'm entirely unsurprised!
It was so formulaic in the way it fell into that "sitcom genre" in the way that US sitcoms do. The way episodes are structured, the setting, the way particular types of scenes are inserted, the roles particular characters play. I think British sitcoms don't historically tend to fall into such formulaic tropes, each has more of it's own authorial sense, written as it's own thing rather than being written "as a sitcom" quite so much, if you get what I mean?
I always saw 'My Family' as being successful (and funny) because of the quality of the actors, which is also what tends to distinguish US sitcoms. If all the writing is much-of-a-muchness, the delivery is what distinguishes success from failure. If it wasn't envisioned by an American, I'd have assumed it was written by a Brit with a love for US sitcoms.
(Compare it to 'Outnumbered' which is ostensibly a very similar setting/concept/tone. The episodes of 'Outnumbered' are more idiosyncratic, less predictable, _much_ less formulaically "setup-tension-punchline" than 'My Family'.)
Seeing this video on my recommeneded was the first time I'd thought about My Family in like 15 years - watched it all the time as a kid but moved on and forgot all about it
Wow I really appreciated this indepth analysis. I'm an american about your age, in the PNW, and I grew up watching this show with my own family at dinner all the time for years as a young teen. We watched lots of BBC shows, like the others you mention, and doctor who which is why I found your channel years ago. With My Family, you hit every point so well. It was cynical, which is why my mom liked it- she was always like that, but to the point of abusive unfortunately, and was very controlling, while my dad was very quiet. So watching this show was like getting to see my dad's internal monologue on the outside. There were a lot of different ways the two characters reflected either of my parents, it was odd. I wouldn't say we were like the kids though, but all kids do go through these various life events that the show covered. And Ben and Susan handled them just as poorly as my parents did. And we laughed at the show a lot. But so much of it hit too close to home. So you are absolutely right. Its why we don't rewatch it, but have looked back at some Vicar, or Faulty Towers or Blackadder, whatever, because those were more removed from our everyday.
Anyway, really enjoyed this video and looking back on it. I do actually have the DVD's that my mom bought back then so we could rewatch episodes at that time, since we did love it, despite its darkness. Robert Lindsay is amazing, we had recognized him from Hornblower series, lol. We're some weird americans I guess. :) I honestly think that the studios were wrong though- Americans can be very cynical too and I think many would eat this kind of show up, especially nowadays.
Check out Robert Lindsay’s other sitcoms. He’s always good in what he does.
Just wrote a comment myself about the parallels I saw with my abusive family and sitcoms. My parents also loved them, this one included. Funny someone else sees the connection
I never thought in my 21 years on this planet I’d see a video on my family, I grew up watching this show in the mid-late 00’s & used to love it (mostly for Ben) going back to it, the later seasons with Rodger & Abbey are big misses for me, i completely forgot this show ran for so so long
I remember being at school and telling a schoolfriend about Modern Family and he thought I was talking about this show. I remember My Family being on all the time but I only ever watched a handful of episodes.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and I really enjoyed it. I haven't watched a show made past around 2012 or so, but I like media analysis a lot. There are two really underrated British shows I love, I've only met one person who has seen both, Teachers and The Book Group, and I'd be interested on hearing your thoughts on them after having watched several of your other videos.
I know two things about this show:
1. I've seen some of the Christmas specials when they were played on the ABC here in Australia, pretty funny
2. The mother makes a joke about moisturizing in an episode since she voiced Lady Cassandra in Doctor Who
It's amazing how this show shares parallels with the show After You've Gone.
The pursuit of not needing to deal with the chaos while knowing that's exactly what the character needs in their life
I remember coming home from school and often putting these two shows on and loving most, if not all, the episodes and not really understanding the ture weight of the situations at hand but loving them anyway
So really good video keep up the good work
My Family and After You've Gone were both created by the same bloke. I've seen every episode of AYG and most episodes of this but I'd much rather watch AYG than about two thirds of this. And I HATED After You've Gone at first; only watched it because I think Nicholas Lyndhurst is awesome and I wanted to like the show because of him (discovered the show on a repeat run about a decade after it finished). I thought series 2 was a significant improvement and eventually grew to like the first series too. Though for some reason I've never liked Goodnight Sweetheart. It's not Nicholas's fault, I just didn't think GNS was funny.
Frasier had an episode where Martin couldn't say "I love you" to Frasier. It's not just a British thing.
Yeah it's definitely more of a generational thing
The last bit of this is one of the best last bits I've seen. The bit where he starts swearing.
Oh my god it’s the 12th AND 13th Doctor Who Kris Marshall!!
Oops, slipped into a different reality for a second
I watched and loved My Family in the US. The issue is that it aired at odd hours on PBS (not a channel known for sitcoms). It came on in between the afternoon kids shows and before the news and prime time. I don’t think our broadcasters gave it a chance
I'm not entirely sure i agree with your conclusion, mainly because critical darlings like Peep Show and The Office are also cynical reflections of repressed people and have lasted in the public legacy.
I think the real issue with My Family is sitcoms, whether they are cynical or idealistic, need to want you to stay with the characters in a sort of parasocial relationship. People always want Gavin and Stacy back because they genuinely want to know what they're up to these days, as if they're old friends who moved away. Crappy 70s sitcoms from back in the day are still loved by those who watched them (On the Buses etc) because they hung out with them every week. Same goes for other shows like Father Ted, Miranda, the Royal Family, Inbetweeners, Vicar of Dibley etc. The issue with My Family is there's no real affection or empathy with the characters, which even very purposefully cynical shows like Peep Show build up. The central marriage is little more than a hollow series of boomer "i hate my spouse" jokes straight out of a newspaper comic, the kids are all replaced season by season. Nobody was watching it and genuinely interested in the Abi/Roger storyline, for example.
I loved growing up watching this show with my family.
Oddly I grew up watching re-runs of My Family, and always enjoy watching it XD. Ben Harper is my spirit animal at times, a kind of resigned to his fate depression I can really relate to
And yet there's still more love shown among this family than in most American sitcoms.
Yes, I feel like they did genuinely care about each other.
The early seasons of this were honestly so funny, I rewatched them for the first time in god knows how many years recently and it really holds up!
i remember it, mainly because the nick character looked just like one of our mates - we used to tell people he was the actor, funny
For me my family felt pretty much real this is how my family is like.
I love this show always seen it as a successor to 2 point 4 children but i love my family one of my favourite shows
I am from NZ and my family loved watching this. It is really different, it has an American premise but has the same sort of Britishness as waiting for god or keeping up Appearances had. I love British comedies.
I hold My Family up in the same pantheon as One Foot In the Grave. Both of them have unlikeable protagonists, who end up being justified in their reactions to things that happen around them. Victor Meldrew and Ben Harper are the stand-ins for every person exasperated with the stupidity of others.
Loved watching this with my dad
There are times where the actor playing the father in this series bears a passing resemblance to Tommy Lee Jones.
Really fun to see someone talk about my family
My parents, specifically my dad, recently were rewatching most of this. Tbh, it never seemed that depressing to me when I saw it on. It fits in quite nicely amongst the other TV shows we have where nobody is all that happy, and even when things are going well, something goes wrong. I think that's something prevalent even in our kids shows. It's like, rather than things getting better by the end of the episode, they return to a rather bland, maybe miserable status quo. The trotters are still broke and playing with the law. The inbetweeners are still looser teenagers suffering through A-levels. Faulty Towers is still barely fit for function as a hotel, if that. Strange hill high is still a miserable mess of a highschool. And even when the status quo isn't miserable or depressing, it's still returned to: Shawn the sheep still lives in the barn under the watchful eye of the dog and less watchful eye of the farmer. The tellytubbies still go to sleep in their beds. Everyone in Gavin and Stacey is still a bit of a weird mess of a person with complicated relationships with some of the other characters. East Enders is still full of interpersonal drama and general messy chaos. And even when the plot does move forwards somewhat, there's still a sort of status quo in the tone. Because you just know that delboy is gonna squander all that money from the pocket watch and go back to being broke. The characters in Gavin and Stacey are a bit of a jolly mess. Shawn is still gonna have to hide the evidence if his shenanigans from the farmer eventually.
I think it's comfort in the status quo that stops it being too miserable. Like, sure. All these stories are varying amounts of fun or miserable, but as much as they won't get better, they also won't get worse. And that's comforting I guess.
Does anyone remember Nightingales with Robert Lindsay? Now that is deepest English telly nihilism lore. There was nothing like stumbling in para the early hours of the morning, in the 1990s, and catching an episode, then falling asleep to it and not recalling if it was a fever dream. Batshit and wonderful and disturbing all at once.
I love it, I stumbled across it on UA-cam not long ago
10:29 *Before she was in Doctor Who I mainly knew her as Pickwell from Bad Education.*
3:39 YO! CAPTAIN HOLLISTER!
I love the show and watch it now and again. I also think it was ahead of it's time too. The Michael coming out episode was really well done.
My family is the best sitcom I have ever seen i laughed soooooo hard when I was watching it it's such a underrated show now
I'd forgotten about this show. Used to watch it as a kid back in the day.
Long running sitcoms are no indicator of quality. As Time Goes By lasted for 67 episodes. The Upper Hand lasted for 94 episodes. Last of the Summer Wine lasted for 295 episodes.
I've watched each and every one of those episodes and not one of those shows had more than 12 episodes worth of ideas.
Unsurprisingly, they did air this on BBC America, and I do remember thinking it was this sort of uncanny valley American family sitcom.
Kind of looks like a copy of Married With Children or something.
Eh. I wouldn't necessarily say that cynicism is the national character of all of the UK. As someone from Liverpool I feel like us scousers can be quite optimistic.
And I think that repressed trait isn’t really characteristic of younger generations. I don’t I know anyone who’s afraid to be open about their feelings and saying “I love you”. I think for all the talk about Britain being miserable even are darker comedies have an uplifting under tone. Vicar of Dibley, Only Fools, Spaced etc. We’re just not as overt. I don’t think we lack it.
When you’re not nicking stuff, yeah
it just feels so vaguely familiar but i don't remember anything about it
So from the comments and as someone who has watched this show several times (yes, I am one of those people, I actually do like the show, it isn't the best but I think the actors make it), I think we all concur that it should have ended when Nick left. They tried to replace him with Alfie, Abi etc. and it just didn't work. No shame on those actors, Nick was just brilliant, shown by the fact his actor is one of the few still with an active career now. I will admit there aren't many episodes that stand out, I guess again the few that do are Nick ones and are based on what Nick does - i.e. Nick has a new flat was one of my favourites, just seeing the joy Ben has at the prospect of Nick moving out. But you are right it hasn't aged well.
One of the criticisms I'm seeing by people I don't agree with though. They don't go on about being poor. Ben goes on about the kids trying to take all his money, which is a very different matter 😂
My Family is why I wanted Kris to be the Doctor
I strangely think about this show a lot, but never heard anyone talk about it.
This show was pretty successful here in Australia too.
Whilst you're on lesser known sitcoms
Would love to see you tackle My Hero
The BBC sitcom about a Superhero played by Ardal Ohanlon
People seem to like that. I thought it was naff as a kid.
There was a Christmas episode we watched as a family and all of us universally hated it. That's never happened before. Usually, at least one of us will say give it a chance. Episode was set in the future and revolved mostly about someone wearing a bad wig.
Did David Lynch work on this? This seems like it would fit in with his kind of bleak surrealism.
Edit. Holy shit I made this joke before I got to the Twin Peaks comparison.
I think it would've been refreshing to see this on American TV back in the day. The closest thing to American TV it reminds me of Married with Children (A classic).
Nick was the only reason I watched the early series.
HI DAD! CAN YOU LEND US A FIVER
JASMINE MY MAN!
Great analysis (subbed!). For me, I think it has to be the only sitcom I've ever watched in which none of the characters struck me as particularly likeable. I didn't hate any of them, but it all just felt very 'beige' to me. To this day, it still gives me that horrible 'Sunday blues' feeling.
I am from Germany. I randomly found this show when I was still in school and watched a few episodes. I remember I found it quite funny.
Ahhhh wow, I'm just finishing a video that mentions My Family and I saw this video on my recommended! Amazing serendipity. I loved this as a kid but it cringes me out way too much now lol
Yeah I can remember the era of “Kris Marshall should be the next Doctor” I guess that legacy faded with time with memory of the show.
I think people remember’My Family’ as an American-style sitcom, as in it’s tame and grounded compared to Morris & Lineham’s works.
I think even with Only Fools & Horses we remember the last series and specials rather than pedestrian earlier series.
"Family Guy" eventually became like this show, except that seemed more like the writers had deep contempt for the characters due to being stuck on a creatively bankrupt series that's wayyyy too popular for Fox to ever cancel again, unless a massive scandal erupts, & if Alexa Nickolas is telling the truth then that could still very much happen.
You mention that you can’t imagine a show like this being made in the USA, but honestly this sounds a lot like the UK white-collar version of Married: With Children; it had a similar vibe, until it became more deliberately absurd in the later seasons
Holy shit I was looking for it watched it as a kid.
I haven't thought about this show in years. I never watched it that much, but I distinctly remember the child-birth scene where the mum grabs the father by the lapels and screams "YOOUUUU DID THIS TO MEEE!!!", which always stuck with me. (That and, "I NEED DRUUUGGS!!")
I recignized her as Caddandra right away for that alone. I always thought she was Cassandra from Red Dwarf too, but I just looked that up, and apparently not. Would have been a weird coincidence; two Cassandras.
The only other thing I remember the Dad from is Extras, where he plays a needy asshole version of himself, ironically very bitter that a young kid has no idea who he is.
I remember this show being fairly typical mainstream stuff, while the high-quality actors made it entertaining to watch.
Nightingales, on the other hand, where Robert Linsey played a security guard, was about as dark and surreal as a British sitcom can get.
I'm very unhappy that people keep saying British people are miserable.
I loved this show.
You should check out Stressed eric, a short-lived series but I remember it to be very bleak.
Just come across your channel; decent video, and I don’t think I’ll look at the series the same way again. Some points on your analysis (apols for length):
- The miserable nature of the show, that’s cleverly hidden and subtle. In a sense, My Family is a spiritual successor to One Foot in the Grave. That kinda led the way for the modern day comedy-dramas, where you can have a laugh but have moments of poignancy and pathos in the same episode, and moments of deep reflection about the serious side of family life (in the modern light, that episode where Susan informs Janey her assault is nothing she should be blamed for is progressive for its time, as is the later inclusion of a transgender character). Outnumbered probably grew out of the same thing, although you could say that came out of the increase in passive-aggressive bitterness that occupied the TV landscape in the late 2000s. My Family was followed up with a string/slew of sitcoms (e.g. In with the Flynns, Citizen Khan) that tried to portray family life more positively. But, arguably, the lack of something underlying the show led to middling success; how many sitcoms that aired after Have I Got News for You in the 2010s only lasted a series or two?
- Is it that we like to laugh about death? It's always in our minds, knawing away, how close it is, and we need to put it off, the bad feelings about it, somehow or other. So it's either laugh or drink, and the latter just makes it worse, while the former at least demonstrates others think the same way, or are at least thinking about it, and we feel better as a result; not alone.
- Or, it’s that we're all stuck in what we've made our beds in and done, so bitterness comes from that. Bitterness comes from everyone in Britain realising it's too late to change things for the good so we just have to plod on, and everyone is expected to do this because drastic change is too much to handle when conditioned otherwise, so fight against it? The middle classes being repulsed by Corbyn, because they didn’t know if his plans would affect the economy to the extent they were harmed by them (despite the benefits to the working class and those disadvantaged), sums this up here.
- I think its lack of cultural influence might have been to do with the formulaic set-up; the fact characters were brought in to replace other characters and occupied the same sort of role/characteristics (Janey replaced by Abi, Nick replaced by Alfie) probably compounded this. Worth pointing out, though, that My Family was still rating OK up until the final few years, when the BBC cut its budget, clearly had had enough of it, and broadcast its final run in two parts over two consecutive summers. The co-leads publicly went on record as hating the show too, even though strangely they'd changed their tune by the time it ended stating they disapproved of how the BBC treated the show.
- In sum, these character replacements could act as a message that you'll always trudge through life having to cope with people you don't like because you can't escape that without having to effectively restart life?
- This combined with the concomitant declining quality you could also say is a metaphor for life - everything is set and grounded and OK at first, then changes happen (kids grow up etc.) and you become desperate to compensate as everything becomes unsettled and unpredictable and having to operate life around changes becomes a chore. Having things settled and in a routine is comforting.
- On Nick, I've rewatched the series a few times since it came back to iPlayer, and I've realised that Nick's actually quite clever; he's deliberately manipulating his parents into thinking he's useless, probably so he can mooch off them for as long as possible. If he makes himself out to be hopeless and unable to operate in the modern world, at least one of his parents will ensure he's protected and shielded from it; and he uses deflection and a shield of pretending he's not to blame for anything when he has a job to his advantage this way. He's learnt how controlling and smothering Susan is, and that she always manages to come out on top over the more caustic, critical Ben, and takes advantage of that. He doesn't need to try with his life because Susan will ensure it all goes OK, and this irritates Ben to no end but he has to stick with what's going on. It's also possibly the case that Ben has to have Nick wind him up; it's effectively the only thing keeping him going, and perhaps distracting Susan from focusing her attention elsewhere now the kids are (almost) grown up and won't be needing her as much anymore, for which she overcompensates and goes overboard (I mean, look at the later episode where she's desperate for a dog!). Nick's effectively still a teenager in his ostensible worldview and actions, and Susan takes full advantage of this, but maybe goes overboard with Michael and Janey as she doesn't know how much longer Nick's extant adolescence is going to last.
- In a way, Ben pressing Nick to ensure he gets a job is pretty much the only parenting job he has left, and when Nick constantly fails that, it hurts Ben and makes him feel like a failure (which just reinforces Susan's criticism of him)? Susan has a lot more on her plate, because - as is established throughout the series - Ben was a typical absent, aloof father when the kids were growing up; so, she feels like she has more responsibility towards them because she's occupied more of the parental roles and expectations than she should've, so has more of a hole/vacuum to fill when they fly the nest.
- My Family's lack of critical or long-lasting appeal that is mentioned: because it reflects real-life rather than a fantastical version of it? Even though MF does become far-fetched and formulaic, One Foot, e.g., was so bizarre - yet still grounded in recognisable reality - it still appealed and is still great; the subversion of suburban life could be taken as comforting in that show, as viewers would watch safe nothing so bizarre could happen in real life (One Foot even addresses that in the episode where a play of a moment from Victor and Meldrew's real life put on by their cleaner is seen as too unconvincing by this high-up producer person).
- It's actually only a matter of fate that the last episode to air actually ended the series better than any other episode in the final run (s10 and s11); "A Night Out" was a perfect ending to the show, as it reflected the new dynamic in the entire family's life... if it wasn't for overrunning Wimbledon on the night it was originally due to air, the series would've ended with an episode about a depressed Susan getting lip-fillers... which reflects ageing and how the dynamic of the series changed towards the end but would've been less of an edifying ending.
- And I fully agree that the first two series are far and away the best. Something changes with series three, the direction, the lighting, the general feel of the show. It feels like it employed more realism in how it was shot, and therefore reflects everyday life more; the first two series had a comforting, almost yellow hue across them that nevertheless imbued it with a sense of safety and security for its characters, living in a household that was sometimes chaotic but ultimately never going away, always reliant upon. It reminded me of growing up, and always being able to rely on the soft light - not too bright, not too weak - from a lamp on the upstairs landing if I had to venture out of my room at night.
Oooh, i saw My Family growing up. I remember enjoying the early ones and the later ones were certainly episodes of a show that was on tv. And that opinion still held when I rewatched it. But it's no more depressing than keeping up appearances
dude i loved this as a kid and completely forgot about it. No clue why I loved it so much, doesn't seem to hold up very well.
I don’t know, I didn’t hate the show because it was “truthful”, I hated it because it was crap. I also thought that Little Britain was crap. There were a lot of those comedy shows in the early 2000s that were just mean-spirited, cliched junk with smug writing and annoying performances. The characters in My Family never rang true. They were always just crude caricatures, stereotypes of stereotypes with no “lived in” quality like you get in the best sitcoms, where you can imagine them existing together on their own plane of reality. That’s why it hasn’t stayed relevant. It lasted as long as it did because it was easy, disposable viewing. But all these years later, no-one (or at least not enough people) fondly remembers the characters, and memorable characters are what make sitcoms truly linger in the public imagination.
I feel like media like this that shows the depressive standard of british life because i find it comforting. As someone whos constantly depressed its nice to hear its not just me its the whole uk and i feel like thats what made stuff like this popular; youre not faulty because youre not happy because no one is.
Personally I love this show. Robert Lindsay is spectacular.
Yeah, he's a great actor
I used to enjoy it - yes, the script and premise was a little hackneyed, but the cast, especially Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker were superb - the dynamic between them was superb.
I loved this show, at least the first few seasons.
One of the few examples bucking the US trend I can think of was probably Christopher Titus which was even about his autobiographical life as a stand up comedian trauma survivor whose mom had been institutionalised with schizophrenia and his alcoholic womanising dad systematically undermined his whole upbringing. Yet despite its edge it had an anarchic charm to it somehow. Heck maybe it was the authentic touch.
Of course it suffered the same fate the exception most likely always does, being cancelled early and banished into obscurity lol
The weirdest thing is that I actually have strong memories of one specific episode - Ben and Susan were seeing a therapist in a very obvious attempt to justify a clip show and there's a bit near the end where Ben admits he hates the fact that he never read to his daughter when she was little. During the credits he reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar to her over the phone... the joke being that it was on her answer machine
That felt the most "American" moment to me.
I have to disagree with some of your points - like the dad not being able to say I love you not working in the US. There is literally a whole episode about this that 70s show.
Also twin peaks was a homage initially to melodramas so the silent of screen character is more at home in My family than in Twin Peaks.
Only episode I remember is the retrospective one that aired after the finale 😂 I watched it on and of for years as a kid
I took Ben and Susan's relationship a different way - they don't divorce because despite their differences they still have an attraction to one another and love having each other in their lives. They have a ton of fun trolling the neighbours in the motel episode, and Susan mentions to his dental assistant that despite Ben's behaviour being often rude, he still have fantastic legs.
Lol I remember watching this and I thought it was hilarious and fun to watch but now I’m in my mid 30s I have to rewatch this now 😂