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IT Crowd (UK) Coming Back For Season 4
sammyF70 writes "Every geek's favourite non-sci-fi show (the original UK one, not the abysmally bad German and US remakes) is coming back for a fourth season! According to the IMDB's message board, it should be on the air 'Juneish.' While you wait, you can check out what kind of vintage hardware will be on the show this time, and remember: if you illegally download movies, you will face the consequences!"
By which I mean the RSS'd BitTorrent client, and the batch script that passes its products to Handbrake, then loads the transcoded files into iTunes.
Also, the batch script that restarts iTunes at 5am to force it sync with the iPad and hacked iPod touch attached.
One-dimensional, cliched characters that portray IT people as social inadequates. Tacky sets and embarrasingly bad plots (well from a sample size of 2) and utterly forgettable dialog. No thanks.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I was part of the audience the other week for the filming of the last episode for this season. The laughing? It's real, and this season round some of it will be from me.
Though obviously it takes a long time to film and so things don't flow as seamlessly as the TV episode itself, and perhaps they reuse laughs from one take over the top of acting from another take...it's still actually real. The writer came out to the audience and specifically talked about laugh tracks - he said he filmed in front of a live audience so that a) he was sure enough things were funny and b) because the actors could spark off the reactions.
I'm not going to give anything away about it, but we saw two episodes - one already filmed and edited, the other was being filmed on the night. They are both great, so tune in and have a watch this time.
Cheers,
Ian
At least it's funnier than The Big Bang Theory.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
That so many people seem to think there's some sort of objective measure for what is and isn't funny.
Some people like it. Some people don't.
I found it quite funny, but have the same objection. I wonder if the presence of laugh tracks is a preemptive move; later, they can offer a "regular" version for download, or, for twice the price, one with the laughtrack stripped out. My hopes on that front have dried up, though. I actually like certain sit-coms, but unfortunately for sit-coms they generally include it by default. (Arrested Development in one exception, but not the only one.)
Related aside: I used to watch the show MASH a lot -- it was my favorite show from a young age (I remember seeing it when the re-runs weren't yet re-runs ...), but seeing the movie on which the TV show is based unfortunately ruined it for me. Not just because I liked the movie's cast better (the show's cast is still well-suited), but because the notably absent laugh track suits the actual mood of the film; the TV version suddenly felt tacky and cheap.
Now, the IT Crowd is not a socially ponderous, lessons-of-life type show, as MASH tried to be (and, despite it all, succeeded) -- it's a light-hearted farce, comedy of errors and lack of manners, etc. But even so -- no laugh-track should be an option, just like "laugh track" should *not* be an option on The Godfather, Schindler's List, Black Beauty ...
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Never heard of it. I guess it was really bad.
bickerdyke
a) Though it's case-by-case, I've liked more sit-coms than it's smart to admit. British ones, esp.
b) As I just wrote in another comment, laugh tracks are obnoxious, but eh, I overlook them generally. When I was small, I thought that they were all recorded from the "live studio audience," but that's just what they *want* you to think.
c) There's a lot of workplace humor in The IT Crowd that rings true (slightly exaggerated if at all - like managers who don't actually understand the thing they're supposed to "manage," and huge, often willful communication gaps between departments), but I also like the more over-the-top absurdities, like the soul-searching goth (Mason? might have the name wrong) who lives in the back room.
d) All that said, I wish they worked in more wacky sketch-like stuff like the piracy ad linked in the post.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
-- no laugh-track should be an option
MASH on disc has the option to disable the laugh track on some (not all) episodes
So they tried turning the show off and then on again?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
As I understand it, MASH was broadcast in the UK without a laughter track. I vaguely remember there being complaints when they accidentally showed it with one.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
good god mash had a laugh track? i only ever saw it without. I imagine the whole thing seems a lot more undignified and lowbrow with a laugh track - like watching "happy days goes to vietnam" or something. On the other hand, the bbc once aired the addams family without the laugh track and every single joke hung in the air like a bad fart. It was extremely uncomfortable to watch.
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
For a real geek comedy show see, The Big Bang Theory
Are you having a laugh?
... and then they built the supercollider.
As an IT worker, I found the show more depressing than funny. Too many similarities with my life and theirs.
I can see many possible positive interpretations to adding a laughter track to Schindler's List. The Nazis' killing of millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other deviants[tm] was obviously unacceptable and inhuman (or "very human", if you're appropriately cynical), but Schindler's List is a fictionalisation. Some possible purposes/interpretations might be:
(1) Experimenting with causing discomfort in an audience by juxtaposing happy emotions with ones of horror;
(2) Getting the audience to see things from the power-crazed Nazi PoV, no matter how perverse: to a true Nazi, getting rid of Jews was a a positive, enjoyable, productive, thing, and why not smile and be happy while you're doing what you think is the correct thing?
(3) Questioning the media's exploitation of victims of the Holocaust: was Schindler's List's main mission and/or lasting effect to remind people about the Holocaust, or to make a few media companies richer? Are they laughing at you by publishing this? Couldn't it be a Song for Whoever?
... why not smile and be happy while you're doing what you think is the correct thing?
Especially when it's springtime.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Assuming we're talking about comedies that are somehow geek related and aren't sci-fi, would be Spaced.
The branch of the linden is leafy and Green,
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea.
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen...
Fascism is dangerous because it can be made so appealing and positive.
I'm not sure whether this makes me happy or sad for characters like Moss. On the one hand, he'd be completely uninterested in the sort of social ritual that was Nazism. On the other, he might be too singlemindedly unaware to realise the implications of working in the basement of the IBM office which processed the census that was key to efficient execution of the Holocaust.
http://thedilbertstore.com/comic_strips/search?hidden_pc_terms=&pc_terms=damp+rag&start_date=&end_date=&x=0&y=0
are great.....
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Great to hear The IT Crowd is returning for a new series, but does anyone know where I can get a copy of the 1995 tv show Dweebs?
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
I really miss douglas' faaaaaaaaaaaaatheeeeeeeer
"Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING".(shut it, this really needed caps. ffuuu)
I don't know about the German remake, but I thought the US remake got canned during the 2008 Writer's Strike.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
To be honest, I thought about not writing "Every geek's favourite non sci-fi show" in the summary, but then "IT crowd coming back to the screen" sounds a bit lackluster, don't you think? You just need to check the IMDB boards to notice that it's NOT "Every geek's favourite non sci-fi show".
I worked in all three categories ( maintenance, Web dev and ~real~ programmer (c++ mainly), and I guess you are right that if you worked in IT support, a lot of the situations just make more sense. On the other hand, the show isn't particularly one-sided. It pokes fun at both ends Roy going on a date, Jen being given "Ze Internet"), and I actually liked the "shoe" episode, as it somehow reminded me of previous girlfriends who had fixations on footwear (and the resulting finale with the japanese investor was fun). As with everything, it boils down to a matter of taste.
"DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
There was only a pilot filmed for the US, never aired. The German one only aired 2 episodes. Although the UK version is great, you're not comparing apples to apples subby. You wanna do that? Let's talk the The Office.
Call the whambulance: 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3
What I am starting to notice is that when I talk about IT, I am talking about programmers, developers. But others are thinking about tech-support which I personally put closer to janitors and such
What if it's a small shop and the same people both run the building and keep it running. How does that fit into your uppity view of IT?
I never realised until you just said it but yes, I don't recall ever having heard a laughter track whilst watching MASH over here.
God, it must be awful with one...
Bad news, everybody, unlike with "Futurama," the lead sentence does not write itself.
You have my sympathy and it's times like these that I call upon the power of IT, Instant Tautology. If and only if one is a geek, than one's favorite non-sci-fi show is "The IT Crowd." Not your favorite non-sci-fi, not a geek, ipso facto, and please stand over there with the nerds or the norms. Thenk you.
Thinking about comedies, episodes of Monty Python, I Love Lucy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, SCTV, Seinfeld, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In have been as funny as the funniest of "The IT Crowd." One wonders if a single person having many months to write 3 hours per season makes a difference when ranking it among situation comedies in which teams of writers had a few weeks to write 10-13 hours. How would one compare "The IT Crowd" to a favorite drama or mini-series?
Then again, it certainly occurs to me that picking apart a harmless bit of hyperbole is tres geeky.
godwinned.
Is that when God wins? It's not really surprising. He makes the rules, after all.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Not if he's watching Big Bang Theory.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Actually, even with Monty Python's Flying Circus, provided Graham Chapman rose from the dead, I'm rather sure that a slashdot article titled "The Best UK show ever is coming back!" would be greeted with "who cares? never understood it!" comments. Still, let me apologize if you felt left out of the "geek" crowd by my, as you put it so accurately, hyperbole which was, in all probability, the result of personal excitement.
On a side note : I'm not a big fan of Futurama, so I just ignore the articles about it
"DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
What I am starting to notice is that when I talk about IT, I am talking about programmers, developers.
That's interesting, because the very last thing I would think of when confronted with "IT" is programmers and developers. When I hear "IT" I think of mindless middle-management and bureaucracy. It's such a meaningless term. It could mean anything from an abacus lubricator to a librarian.
Why would a programmer want to be associated with such a term? Programming has much more in common with mathematics and writing. After all, it is the mastery of languages and numbers. It deserves a much higher station than "IT."
IT is basic janitorial work.
... and then they built the supercollider.
"Damn these electric sex boots!"
You're kidding right, the prog is unfunny in the extreme and the writer explididly choose not to include any geek humor. For a real geek comedy show see, The Big Bang Theory
Stupid Flanders...
I just dug out the series 1 box set, bought in Belgium and sitting in a drawer ever since. According to the box it has "Francais, Anglais and Anglais, piste des rires."
I'm afraid to even try it!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
no the show is about working in a bigish firm same as the office isn't about making paper and dilbert isnt on the whole about technology a lot of dilberts gags could apply to any workplace.
Especially when it's springtime.
Can you imagine Shindler's List to the soundtrack of this song?
Thank god they didn't air the American version of the show.
First few seasons anyway. Instant play or dvd. Easy enough to check out if you subscribe. Now on my instant queue.
What I am starting to notice is that when I talk about IT, I am talking about programmers, developers. But others are thinking about tech-support which I personally put closer to janitors and such.
Wow, you're an asshole.
Comment of the year
Did that ever get aired or leaked online? I never saw it. I read it was awful.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
1. isnt it called ITS now.
2. isnt all janitor work basic.
3. IT is really more like HR for technology, TR more like it.
Developers/programmers are more in the game of implementing business logic/processes into working automated systems/applications.
We developers are like god, we create digital life, the things that do the magic that mere mortals could never create.
Muwhahaha
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
1. isnt it called ITS now.
I don't really give a fuck what it's called anymore. I never liked "IT" in the first place, it was always a meaningless bullshit term. "Information Technology" could mean a pencil, for fuck's sake. An IT worker could be someone who operates a pencil sharpener. And it's only gotten worse since they tried to think up more "clever" initialisms.
2. isnt all janitor work basic.
Perhaps, but some clogged toilets could get pretty complicated pretty quickly.
3. IT is really more like HR for technology, TR more like it.
I might have some witty response if I knew what "TR" meant, other than "table row" or "Total Recall."
... and then they built the supercollider.
In the development shop where I work, the project managers love Big Bang Theory, but the developers don't think it's funny at all. Nobody likes seeing their ox being gored...
Ask Me About... The 80's!