BENSON DuBOIS WOULD HAVE BEEN RIGHT AT HOME IN THE REAL LIFE GOVERNORS MANSION OF ARNIE SCHWARZENEGGER
If you take away Seinfeld and its classic sequenced situation comedy and the better efforts of one line humour which Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer have dished up over the past few years on Two and Half Men there hasn`t been comedy that actually makes you have a genuine belly laugh since about when George and Mildred first hit the screens.
Maybe not quite that bad but I am so sick and tired of unfunny American comedy these days that I just about always tune out before I even put the telly on.
I know a lot of people would tell me to go and get pay TV if I want a good comedy channel, I probably would if I actually watched a lot of TV. Need to get off Blogger.
The fact is I don't, I guess I cant really whinge in that case too much, but it would be great if the commercial TV networks decided to actually air some classic old comedies much more often which aren`t too try hard for comedy and make you laugh like yesteryear.
The fact is I don't, I guess I cant really whinge in that case too much, but it would be great if the commercial TV networks decided to actually air some classic old comedies much more often which aren`t too try hard for comedy and make you laugh like yesteryear.
Friends was one of those shows which was said to be a comedy but really, despite its warm and fuzzy characterisations, was always too cliche and the humour was always forced, especially if you compared the show alongside that other American giant of 90`s humour, Seinfeld.
If you go back to the 1980`s, you may remember a few other sitcoms from America which leaves the unfunny and slapstick sitcoms for dead in the humour stakes - The Cosby Show, Who`s The Boss, Growing Pains and Different Strokes were all brilliantly amusing and always had an emotive storyline behind each show, even though commercial TV doesn't`t replay them anymore, well not in my neck of the woods anyway, at least in their day they were popular and really entertaining.
One rather quirky oddball sitcom from America which was screened from 1979 to 1986 and often absolutely hilarious was BENSON.
One rather quirky oddball sitcom from America which was screened from 1979 to 1986 and often absolutely hilarious was BENSON.
BENSON was a great comedy because it was one of the rare times where situation humour and one line humour featured together on the same show in equal portions.
The show was slightly a take off on the Fawlty Towers concept, in other words, it was centred largely around the chaotic dummy spits between people who worked in a governor's mansion as housekeepers where most of the time there where too many cooks in the kitchen, or at least too many fingers in the pot from a verbal perspective.
Robert Guillaume starred as Benson DeBois, rather french sounding for a black American character. The totally dodo and thick as
a brick Governor Eugene Gatling was played masterfully by James Noble, truly no one has ever played a better dipstick in the history of sitcom comedy. A very young Missy Gold played the role of the Governor`s daughter.
The snappy tom cook Gretchen Kraus was played by Inga Swenson, and probably the biggest drip of them all on the show, which is saying something considering the intelligence of the Governor, was the unmistakable and enormously irritating character of Clayton Endicott, played to perfection by the infeminite Rene Auberjonois.
a brick Governor Eugene Gatling was played masterfully by James Noble, truly no one has ever played a better dipstick in the history of sitcom comedy. A very young Missy Gold played the role of the Governor`s daughter.
The snappy tom cook Gretchen Kraus was played by Inga Swenson, and probably the biggest drip of them all on the show, which is saying something considering the intelligence of the Governor, was the unmistakable and enormously irritating character of Clayton Endicott, played to perfection by the infeminite Rene Auberjonois.
BENSON was a bit like mixing the situation humour of Fawlty Towers with the one-line
humour of Different Strokes, very unorthodox mixture of different types of humour and characterisations.
humour of Different Strokes, very unorthodox mixture of different types of humour and characterisations.
BENSON was hired by the Governor to be
head of household affairs in the governors mansion, the show basically revolves around his infuriating runnings in with the bitchy German cook Gretchen who always knows better and the intellectual black holes he keeps bumping into everytime he opens his mouth near the silly Governor or the scatterbrains Endicott.
head of household affairs in the governors mansion, the show basically revolves around his infuriating runnings in with the bitchy German cook Gretchen who always knows better and the intellectual black holes he keeps bumping into everytime he opens his mouth near the silly Governor or the scatterbrains Endicott.
There are a few other bit players in the series who also shared a room at Gatling`s ranch as well, but the series mainly revolved around the antics of these main four characters.
The quote which was played at the beginning of each show posed the question if Benson DuBois would one day be governor himself.
Well I guess if Arnold Schwarzenegger can be the real life governor of California then maybe Robert Guillaume could have been the real life governor of Connecticut. If Barack Obama can be president why not?
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