There was some things that you could always count on in this ever changing would, and The Goodies at 6pm followed by Dr Who, every Monday to Thursday on the ABC was one of them. For many years schoolyard conversations revolved around what had happened in the previous evenings episodes. Every now and then things like Kenny Everette, Monkey or Sugar and Spice crept into the line up, but not enough to disturb the slow brain washing that was going on.
The Goodies are contemporaries of the Monty Python boy, having even done a few shows together. While the six-man (with optional Carol Cleavland) Python lineup debued in 1969, The Goodies took until 1970 with their three-man line up to storm the airwaves. While Python was seen to be adult, in Australia The Goodies were taken as a kids show, hence the 6pm timeslot, and regular cutting by the ABC.
In addition to the 214 minutes of episodes, there are a couple of short clips that the boys made outside of the series and some truly poor commentaries.
Here is the second DVD collection of episodes that have been released on DVD, and they are fabulous. Ranging from 1970 to 1977, including one in black & white (because the BBC chucked a bunch of stuff, and this remaining copy was found in Australia). The episodes look better than ever, with good colour and clear soundtracks.
The group of episodes include Radio Goodies (“and now A Walk In The Black Forrest”), Movies (with the brilliant montage of silent comedies vs Biblical Epics vs Westerns), Bunfight at the OK Tea Rooms (“Where there’s cream there’s strawberry jam”), South Africa (which shows the power or comedy in pushing a political message).
These are a insightful selection, which will please every Goodies fan.
For those that made it to the (still a)live tour that the three recently gave us, you know that they still have plenty of beans in them. The commentaries on the other hand are unplanned and have a lot of repetition and long stretches of silence in them. Bit of a shame, but the episodes are what matters.
One of the best things about this set is that if it is a good seller (which it will be) then there will be more. We are still to see episodes like Snooze, Invasion of the Moon Creatures, Scatty Safari (the plague of Rolf Harris’), The Lock Ness Monster and of course Goodies Rule OK?