It must be reasonably obvious to anyone who has ever watched television over an extended period that television shows have a point in which they reach their peak, are struggling to not just take it further but even maintain what they have and are staring down the steep slope of oblivion and cancellation. We all have examples of these. My favourite that never became one is Father Ted and it’s such a great example because as I said it never happened. Dermot Morgan, who played the titular character, sadly died of a heart attack before they filmed a fourth series and as a result Father Ted was immortalised, it never grew old and tired. The same could be said of Fawlty Towers which with only two series never got to the point in which it had refined and perfected the jokes and never had to push them too far in the process.
For there must be something in the idea; that once you’ve found the perfect recipe within a comedy you will kill your creation by not realising it’s limits. Just off the top of my head now I can think of Black Books, The Mighty Boosh, Spaced, to name but a few which were and still are incredible television series which knew when their time was up and didn’t destroy their long term reputation in the process. Without doing some research and actually speaking to those involved, we’ll probably never know who pushes a series too far and who stops it at the right time. If I was to make a guess I imagine the networks will want to rinse it dry and the writers, if they’re not driven primarily or solely by money, will want to protect the artistic integrity of their creation.
I’ve started watching the third series of The Young Offenders which is about two good hearted teenage neds in Cork Ireland, running around causing trouble, stealing bikes, getting their girlfriends pregnant and just being idiots. It’s quite a ridiculous program and in time honoured fashion is getting more ridiculous as the show has developed. There was something raw and utterly hilarious in the first series and while I’m still enjoying the third, it is possible they may struggle in the fourth if there is one. You can only up the ante so far until it becomes too much. I always suspected Father Ted perfected everything by the third series and that the fourth may have struggled, The Young Offenders may just do similar, not that they have either perfected everything or can even dream of being at the level of Father Ted but the point stands. And time will tell.
Anyway here’s an Irish cartoon which I’ve never watched but which Dermot Morgan does the voice of I assume a duck, as it flies south for winter, with loads of exciting stuff happening in between.
Observations and Misunderstandings 