SS104 - Barbara

Not Going Out gets nominated for the episode Escape Room from 2018. How will Lee Mack and his family & friends get out this one? However they end up, hilarity DOES ensue! Thanks to Kieran Scott for the suggestion (told you we'd get there eventually). There's also some Sitcom Showdown housekeeping, where we suggest everyone subscribes to us on YouTube, as that's where future episodes will be released.

Aussie sitcom Fat Pizza (aka Pizza) is brought to the table by Jeffers, serving up something Steve doesn't want to consume! Partying, fights, drugs, sexy time, fake IDs, tabloid photos, burnouts and more. We cover 'Road Trip' from Pizza's third season in 2003, discussing the Paulyverse and creator Paul Fenech's legacy in the history of Australian sitcoms. We also issue the first ever Sitcom Showdown trigger warning. Buckle up and settle in!  

Up Pompeii is brought along by Steve who introduces Jeffers to the delights of Frankie Howerd and his dinky donky doo-dahs! The episode in question is S01E08 'The Love Potion', from 1970, which also features Lynda Baron, John Ringham, Mollie Sugden and many more.  

The Absolutely Fabulous classic episode 'Poor' (s02e05) gets put under the microscope by Jeffers & Steve, who are impressed by AbFab's amazing cast, but will it win them around to the series as a whole? The show has a top-shelf group of regulars including Joanna Lumley, Jennifer Saunders, Julia Sawahla and the great June Whitfield, so what's not to like?

This episode is a visit the Hall of Shame as we check out the infamous British sitcom 'Heil Honey I'm Home' (1990) which was cancelled after only one episode! A big shout out to the Talking Bottom podcast, from whom we borrowed a clip of their amazing interview(s) with Paul Jackson.  

Community gets the Christmas nod from Steve in 2023 as we look at the musical episode 'Regional Holiday Music' and all it's gleeful satire! Community starred Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Chevy Chase, Ken Jeong and Jim Rash. Merry Christmas y'all!

We hang with Mr Cooper in this episode of the Showdown, looking at the 1990s sitcom starring Mark Curry, Holly Robinson, Sandra Quarterman, Raven Symone, Nell Carter and Marquise Wilson. Thanks to listener Nick O for the suggestion! 

ALF is selected by Jeffers for an almost Halloweenish peek into an alien-on-Earth sitcom. 'Working My Way Back To You' is the opener to ALF season 2, broadcast in late 1987, where Alf tries to avoid exile to the garage by becoming the Tanner family's butler for a week! Steve & Jeffers also chat about Earth-based alien sitcoms in general, and this sitcom's challenges of filming around a puppet, which reportedly drove the cast to distraction.

Steve brings 'Barbara' to the showdown (a listener suggestion) so that he and Jeff can check out the turn-of-the-century UK sitcom starring Gwen Taylor and Sam Kelly. The ep in question is Series 3 episode 2, titled FLOOD, and it turns out to be packed with plenty of quality jokes.  Thanks to Jono for the suggestion!

Steve uses Blackadder's 'Ink & Incapability' as a springboard to go on a Grand Tour of Edmund: A Butler's Tale & Boswell's Life of Johnson. What were the links between Dr Johnson & Boswell, and the Prince Regent and Gertude Perkins and the great romantic poets (if any)? Or did Ben Elton and Richard Curtis simply fabricate them with hilarious results? We find out in this ep of Sitcom Showdown.