Benny Hill: British Comedy That Americans Embraced

[TMC]

https://groovyhistory.com/benny-hill-show

The Benny Hill Show was formatted kind of like a variety show. Each episode typically started with one or more “quickies,” which were brief, humorous sketches. The quickies were followed by an opening ballad or a monologue which was accompanied by music and quite often, the music was laden with innuendo. After the opening monologue/ballad, the show featured sketches, acts, fake blooper reels, and guest spots. Each episode ended with a comedy tag that culminated in a chase scene set to the "Yakety Sax" theme. This gag featured members of the cast as well as stock comedy characters such as policemen, vicars and old women chasing Hill. The song was so inextricably linked to the show that people sometimes called it “The Benny Hill Theme.” The show also included young and glamorous model/actress/dancers, dubbed the "Hill’s Angels" (somewhat like the Hee Haw Honeys).

Hill's Role On The Show

Hill played a number of characters and most of them weren’t very smart. His characters were often looking for love but never finding any success with the women. As some of his characters attempted to look up women’s skirts, they were frequently whacked on the head. Of these characters, his most popular character was Fred Scuttle, who was jovial and extroverted, and who had tried his hand at a number of jobs.

It Was An International Hit

In the late 1970s, the show became international, as it began to air in 140 other countries, including the U.S., demonstrating a wide appeal for the humor in the show, which was not intellectual comedy, but more immature. The show seemed to have a connection to the physical comedy of Charlie Chaplin, one of Hill’s influences; the admiration seems to have been mutual, as Chaplin had a collection of recordings of The Benny Hill Show. The show itself relied on slapstick, burlesque, and double entendres and Hill moved seamlessly between characters, he sprinkled one-liners among physical comedy and visual gags in silent scenes. Hill was also able to use his overly expressive face as a comedic asset as well.

Hill's Success Beyond Television

Benny Hill was not confined to the small screen though, as he appeared in several movies such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Italian Job all while continuing his television show. He also wrote songs for more than just his television show, with several songs becoming a success, including his number 1 hit, “Ernie: The Fastest Milkman in the West.”

It Didn't Survive The Changing Times

Despite the continuing success of The Benny Hill Show, Thames Television cancelled production of the show in 1989, citing production costs and declining ratings. However, Thames may have dropped him because of the emerging wave of political correctness and accusations of sexism. The show continued to make money after Thames dropped it though, and three years after its cancellation, Hill was invited to return to the airwaves by Central Television. However, before the show could be completed, Hill died. Prior to his death, he released a one-time special in 1991, Benny Hill in New York.

A Lonely End

Although he was an international celebrity, Hill kept to himself and no one had a bad thing to say about him. He also refused to spend the significant money he made during his career. He never owned a house or a car, wearing his clothes until they were threadbare. Hill never married or had children, and died on April 20, 1992 in his apartment, following a heart attack. He was found two days later in his armchair in front of the television.

[W.B.]

I'd have to say, looking at his Thames output, I'd prefer the ones up to the point Dennis Kirkland became his producer/director in 1979. It was Kirkland who put the show on the path to ruin, which ultimately led to its cancellation - and the whipped up political climate against Hill and his show. I read Kirkland's memoir (under its original title, Benny: The True Story - it was later republished as The Strange And Saucy World Of Benny Hill), and he (Kirkland) came across as rather antediluvian towards women, he was convinced people only saw the show for the girls and little or nothing else (and unfortunately structured the program that way), and was unapologetic about his misogynistic attitudes. The hold he had on Hill was rather unfortunate, and it is equally unfortunate that Hill trusted Kirkland and his judgment far too much and for way too long.

Cited by Thames execs as justification for the 1989 cancellation was an increasing repetition of old gags, sketches, catchphrases and gestures. By then, the show had become increasingly labored, stilted, strained, stale, mechanical, robotic, mannered, affected, predictable, calculated and contrived, with not an ounce of spontaneity; he performed his increasingly timeworn gags in a lifeless, rote, perfunctory, self-conscious/indulgent, phoning/mailing-it-in, been-there-done-that and going-through-the-motions manner; and he and his cast were more and more operating on autopilot and running on fumes, their timing not as sharp and their energy level not as high as 10-15 years before, their delivery not as natural in flow. From 1982 onwards more and more Hill shows looked like - to quote Jackie Gleason on the final season of his own 1962-66 American Scene Magazine - "they had been made on the way to the men's room." (And in terms of some of the gags, especially the quickies, even written on the way to the men's room.) Another concern was that, with the creative well run totally dry, the show was slipping into uninspired mediocrity, amid ever diminishing returns. (They felt even more justified when they saw his New York special on one of the monitors, thinking it "tacky and nasty.")

[dee2364]

Originally Posted by W.B.

I'd have to say, looking at his Thames output, I'd prefer the ones up to the point Dennis Kirkland became his producer/director in 1979. It was Kirkland who put the show on the path to ruin, which ultimately led to its cancellation - and the whipped up political climate against Hill and his show.

That's not why the show was canceled. It was canceled because the show had become incredibly dated and corny and losing ratings in the process, especially in the wake of the new style of comedy that was emerging at the time. A lot of Americans only seem to know the show through the heavily edited half hour syndicated version that took the best of Hill's programs, which gave the false impression that he and the comedy were as sharp as ever before he died. So, the lore is that the show was killed in its prime due to political correctness.

With the full version of his last shows, you can see in plain sight that the energy wasn't there, the humor outdated, and the same jokes and characters being recycled. The show also had a harder time knowing what to do when Benny Hill became too old to play a dirty old man It didn't know whether it wanted to continue being a naughty show or a family friendly one.

[Hawkee]

My father used to love Benny Hill and I can say if there is one Britcom that never gets old The Benny Hill Show is one of them and next to Britcoms like Are You Being Served? and others Benny Hill's Britcom never loses it's charm and it's a shame that you don't see reruns of The Benny Hill Show anywhere because Benny Hill was one funny guy and people would love to see his show on American TV

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by dee2364

That's not why the show was canceled. It was canceled because the show had become incredibly dated and corny and losing ratings in the process, especially in the wake of the new style of comedy that was emerging at the time. A lot of Americans only seem to know the show through the heavily edited half hour syndicated version that took the best of Hill's programs, which gave the false impression that he and the comedy were as sharp as ever before he died. So, the lore is that the show was killed in its prime due to political correctness.

With the full version of his last shows, you can see in plain sight that the energy wasn't there, the humor outdated, and the same jokes and characters being recycled. The show also had a harder time knowing what to do when Benny Hill became too old to play a dirty old man It didn't know whether it wanted to continue being a naughty show or a family friendly one.

Indeed, if looking through objective lenses, TBHS was indeed past its prime when Thames pulled the plug - in every which way. But it had also come to cost a king's ransom to produce, with Thames even passing hat in hand to the other ITV companies to defray the costs of a show that had slipped into uninspired mediocrity. It would have been like, in Jackie Gleason's final season on CBS (1969-70), that network asking ABC and NBC to pitch in for the costs of his shows.