AYBS
They entered as muzak and stayed as family.
AYBS. Written by David Croft & Jeremy Lloyd. Directed by Bernard Thompson. Comedy Playhouse, 1972 – 1985.
VIEW CONTEXT: PBS (Miami)
VIEW DATE: 1987
AWARDS: Most Comforting Show. Period. PBS was the comfort station par excellence. After school—PBS. Eating dinner alone and in from of the TV? PBS. Now, everything on PBS was good and comforting and had that special aura of being friendly. None of the loud bullshit scary sounding attack music of the Nightly News. No, on PBS we find the psychedelic sounds of Doctor Who and the encouraging educational sounds of 3-2-1 Contact.
My love for it was almost unconscious. Like a complex but pale wallpaper pattern, I liked it without noticing.
The best part: the music. It had those soft French horns that remind you of the early 1970s gameshow themes. And (or is this my imagination?) shopping malls? Did shopping malls in the 1970s play French horn-heavy Burt Bacharach songs?
AYBS?
What the hell is this?
It looked dreary and pale. And the images seemed haloed and fuzzy. This was the Hotter than Hell of Britcoms, or PBS generally. It was Are You Being Served?, a show that almost never was. And one where the “poof”—and the main character—was almost fired for acting gay.
It was “Our Figures Are Slipping,” Series 1 Episode 3, and it was one month after my fourth birthday. But I never started seeing thee until college. Summer vacations and there they were—the gay guy with white hair, and the old chubby woman with multicolored. Hair.
They say that the series started as a vehicle by the writers (David Croft & Jeremy Lloyd) for Trevor Bannister, to make him a TV star. Well, this episode, one of the best, proves it.
The show was supposed to be the Trevor Banister Comedy Hour. Like the Bob Newhart Show. Or Carole Burnette. Two of the unfunniest shows in history. (Disgustingly so.)
Anyway, you see that he was supposed to be the star and what his character was supposed to be. The lovable cheeky jokester and trouble-maker.