After seeing "Man About the House", what is your opinion? I'll post mine later, though I'll say I liked it.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it somewhere between a 9 and a 10. I liked the opening credits. I thought that how Chrissie (Paula Wilcox) lost her shoe on the doubledecker bus was funny, and that close up of Jo's (Sally Thomsett's) butt was interesting LOL

It was pretty weird how everything was so identicle with the first episode of "Three's Company," but I noticed some things added in (And somethings were added in on the TC one LOL) that didn't make it into the TC pilot, like the guy who Robin at first plans to live with is gay.

I think it would be great if PBS showed this or it's spinoffs in it's Britcom block.

oh my god! i was SO surprised at this show! i thought it was SO great! but, i always thought that the blonde was chrissy and jo was the brunette! i think that's one of the only differences in the shows. but, i have to say that this is my favorite britcom! i loved it.

Robin: No Douglas, I didn't know you wore a toupee.

I've never seen a real British Show (Other than the Weakest Link or those crumby British shows on PBS) before. I rather enjoyed it. But to tell you the truth I like The Ropers in the US Version better, and why did they have the names changed? Jo instead of Janet? George (I think it was) instead of Stanley? But I did like Robin. He was very funny. Better than Jack Tripper. I think his last name was just "Trip" I think I'm not sure. But all in all i loved watching the show. I wonder how long it lasted there? I think they should show more TV from the UK. I'td be a hell of a lot better than "Kids Say The Darndest Things" I'll tell you that.

Cordially,
Nathan Bush
"The Rain Man"

Yeah, I thought it was kind of fun to see how much of the MATH pilot was used word-for-word in the TC pilot. And the little subtle differences were interesting as well.

My guesses about the name changes:
Jo - Maybe they thought that it was too "masculine" at the time. Or that people would think of Little Joe from Bonanza. Or...? Interesting that the writers had no problems with that a few years later on FOL. But even then Jo was a bit of a tomboy.

George - Had The Jeffersons already started? If so, then there was already a prominent George character in sitcoms at the time.

And yes, I heard the British last name as "Trip."

:talk:

I missed it! I really wanted to see it but I missed it! If I did I would give an opinion but I can't because I missed it! (is anybody sick of me saying that I missed it?lol) Aww oh well! :(

MATH ran on Thames Television from 1973 to 1976.

I broke it down:

OPENING CREDITS/THEME SONG:
For those who didn't see, like JOblairJOblair, here is a description of the opening credits:
First Scene:A bunch of guys are getting on their motorcycles.Then they roll off and Robin gets on his and they show a close up and it says "Richard O'Sullivan" on the screen.
Second Scene:A doubledecker bus is shown.When Chrissie gets on a crowd of people get on with her and she loses her shoe.The bus pulls off as "Paula Wilcox" is seen on the screen.
Third Scene:Jo walks out of a building (a store?) and she passes an old man sitting on a bench.There is a closeup of her butt while "Sally Thomsett" is on the screen.
Fourth Scene:They show Robin looking at some statue.
Fifth Scene:They show Chrissie getting off of the bus and a man who gets off way after her finds her shoe hanging in the door.
Sixth Scene:Jo and a man both put up their umbrellas in a narrow doorway.Jo's umbrella is a plastic blue one while the man's is an expensive-looking one.
Seventh Scene:Jo and Chrissie go up to the flat/apartment building and they show Robin on his bike and it says "Man About The House" on the screen.
I liked it a whole lot!!!!!!!!!It was funny and the theme song was cool.

CHARACTERS:
The characters were JUST LIKE the TC characters.Robin was a show off who cooked,Chrissie was an average brunette,Jo was dumb,The Ropers weren't intimate.I like the characters alot.Characters' names were:Robin Tripp,Chrissie Plummer,Jo ????,George and Mildred Roper.I gotta admit Mildred seemed younger than Helen.She seemed to have a softer voice.

ACTORS/ACTRESSES:
They were brilliant.Richard O'Sullivan was great as Robin.Physical comedy and all.Paula Wilcox reminded me alot of Joyce DeWitt as Janet.They both had basically the same 'do.Sally Thomsett was OK as Jo.She was ugly but she was OK.Brian Murphey and Yootha Joyce were great as the Ropers.

THINGS THAT I NOTICED:
There were a LOT of lines and scenes from MATH and the first TC episodes were in common.Her are some I noticed:

1)In the beginning both brunettes come out their rooms while the other is vacuuming.They btoh ask "Do you have no respect for the dying?".The blonde says "You're not dying."The brunettes says "I'm hoping too!"

2)Both brunettes asks if the terrible girl at the party was them.Both blondes say yes.

3)Both brunettes look at their tongues.

There are others I'll post later.

At one point, Jack's name in TC was going to be Jack Tripp, but the producers found out that there was a real-life Jack Tripp living in the area, so they added the "er". They didn't use the name Robin because it's not a common name in the U.S. The first, unaired TC pilot retained George and Mildred as the Ropers' first names, though. Who knows why they were changed.

I think they may have also tried to differentiate "Three's Company" from "Man About the House" by not having the same names, like when "Till Death Do Us Part" was remade for the US market as "All in the Family". Chrissy didn't originally have a name in "Three's Company", I believe the second Chrissy (Susan Lanier) came up with 'Snow'. Same with Janet's name orinally being Jenny.

"Till Death Us Do Part"*

(sorry for all the spelling corrections)

may i ask a question?

why do you peeps continuely spell Chrissy's name as Chrissie? I have 'Man About The House' on tape and at the end, it has the character's name at the bottom of the actor's name and it is spelled 'Chrissy'.

Originally posted by sitcomsnow
(sorry for all the spelling corrections)

may i ask a question?

why do you peeps continuely spell Chrissy's name as Chrissie? I have 'Man About The House' on tape and at the end, it has the character's name at the bottom of the actor's name and it is spelled 'Chrissy'.

And can I ask a question? Why the Priscilla Barnes does it matter? So we're mispelling it, no one really cares except you. And what was the point of just one post that says "Till Death Us Do Part*"? You may as well have put it into one post :rolleyes:

MATH was funny I would like BBC/America to air it.

I enjoyed the Man About The House episode. I laughed out loud several times. I would like to see more episodes. I also think it would be interesting to see the pilots for Till Death Do Us Part and Steptoe and Son.

I absolutely loved it!!! I'm definately glad I taped it. Like what Sean said, I thought the begining intro was pretty interesting and weird, but I still loved it. I just had a hard time understanding what they were saying b/c of their heavy English accents and they talk really fast, it almost sounds like they were mumbling. I wish BBC america would air some episodes though. You gotta love Robin's sideburns! :D

It would have been nice if Nick-At-Nite would have rerun the
entire TC 25th year celebration on that Sunday so those of
us who don't HAVE Tv Land could've had had a shot at viewing
MATH.

I think they decided on Jack instead of Robin for TC since Robin
is more of a girl's name over here.

So in MATH Chrissy is the brunette?
Now that would seem a bit confusing if you watch both shows
back to back!!!!:)

Personally I'd love to see both pilots back to back.

Also I agree it be a nice change if PBS could show MATH.

If you liked Man About the House write BBC/America and ask them to air it here is a link to make programming suggestions... http://www.bbcamerica.com/contactus_suggestion.html

I doubt it will air on BBC America as the show is made by Thames television and was shown on a completely different network over here, it has nothing to do with the BBC.

I personally don't like the first episode much, some later ones were much better.

I would rather watch MATH because at least on that one we know they don't switch the blonde characters.

I've never seen a real British Show (Other than the Weakest Link or those crumby British shows on PBS) before. I rather enjoyed it. But to tell you the truth I like The Ropers in the US Version better, and why did they have the names changed? Jo instead of Janet? George (I think it was) instead of Stanley? But I did like Robin. He was very funny. Better than Jack Tripper. I think his last name was just "Trip" I think I'm not sure. But all in all i loved watching the show. I wonder how long it lasted there? I think they should show more TV from the UK. I'td be a hell of a lot better than "Kids Say The Darndest Things" I'll tell you that.

Cordially,
Nathan Bush
"The Rain Man"

The Ropers in the UK version were far superior, sorry. So good they got their own spinoff, which was arguably even better than Man About the House. No disrespect, but Norman Fell and wife couldn't hold a candle to Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as the original George and Mildred Roper.