The Kelly Monteith Show (1979-1984)
Before Garry Shandling, before Larry Sanders, before Dream On, before Seinfeld there was the Kelly Monteith Show, a TV series broadcast weekdays on BBC at 9.00 that is largely forgotten but predated the meta comedy of the late 1980s and the 1990’s. It was a mixture of stand up, Sitcom and sketches where Monteith played himself and depicted the day-to-day life of a comedian.
Although the star was American it was a UK production that featured a plethora of British television actors who proliferated on sitcoms of the 70’s and 80’s from Please Sir! To Fawlty Towers, Carry On films and Gerry Anderson's UFO; Gabrielle Drake, Victor Spinetti, Tony Anholt, George Layton, Valerie Leon, Cleo Rocos, Lisa Goddard and Carol Hawkins to name but a few
The show consistently broke the fourth wall by showing Monteith in his dressing room before and after scenes and in this regard was unusual for a mainstream sitcom or any other type of sitcom.
Monteith won the Silver Rose for the BBC at the Montreux Television Festival in Switzerland which at the time was a major accolade and the show had a cult following which was an achievement as he was virtually unknown at the time.
Taken in context it was actually quite groundbreaking and veered towards the suggestive, surreal and bizarre.
Strange to think that a relatively unknown comedian could secure a TV series on BBC that was both ahead of its time and really rather unique, as a precursor. Kelly died two years ago this month, largely unheralded and I think a doff of the hat should be offered to Mr Monteith.
No comments:
Post a Comment
having said that;