The Goodies Episode Guide

Written by Matthew K. Sharp, kirseval@werple.mira.net.au
Version 1.1
Revised 1 August 1995

Introduction

The Goodies, written and performed by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, is perhaps the great forgotten comedy classic of the seventies. It was overshadowed by Monty Python's Flying Circus for the first half of its life, and never gathering the cult following that MPFC had, due to the fact that MPFC was kept alive through films and records. After the original series had finished in 1982, there was only one repeat - in 1985 - until satellite TV came along in the early 1990's. But even this only reaches a fraction of the population. Without exposure, The Goodies faded from the general public's eye. In Australia, the situation was different. Realising the series had appeal for children, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) began strip-showing episodes in 1976. The series was shown almost annually from 1979 onwards, ensuring each new generation discovered this comedic masterpiece. However, 15 years of being scheduled in kiddies' hour has meant that the series is viewed as merely a children's programme, which it most definitely is not (see also "Superstar" - I'm sure I wouldn't have understood half of it when I was 13 - the last time it was shown on Australian TV). In the United States, 26 episodes comprising the Montreux '72 special and Series Three to Five were syndicated around 1976; but these do not seen to have made a lasting imprint upon the consciousness of the viewing millions, and it is only now, with the advent of the home video, and, more importantly, easily available equipment toi convert PAL tapes to NTSC that American fans of British comedy are finally discovering the surrealistic masterpiece that is The Goodies.

The basis of the show is simplicity itself: three men who set themselves up as a team of trouble shooters willing to do "anything, anytime", thus leaving the plot wide open for anything to happen, which it frequently did. Nonetheless, as the series evolved, the agency aspect was quietly retired and the show was run on the idea of one of the three going off the deep end, and the other two having to put him back on track.

The show is full of visual humour, and has quite a high proportion of location shooting on film, compared to an average sitcom. But this is not just your average sitcom; the plot in each episode flows from the original intention in a surrealistic manner. The lead characters can, and often do, die at the end of an episode, only to be resurrected, cartoon-like, for next week's adventure. They can be set in the distant past, or in the near future. The gambit of having no set format has certainly paid off by giving us a broad wealth of comic ideas and situations seen in no other sitcom.

It is only now that we are seeing the beginnings of a re-evaluation of The Goodies, and the beginnings of an awareness that it is more than just a childish series to be looked back upon with fondness, but a comedy series unlike any other. This guide is the start of what I hope someday will be a reference book, the like of which exists for Monty Python, which will give full details, analysis and behind-the-scenes information on what I truly and deeply believe is one of the greatest comedy series of all time.

Enjoy.

This guide is divided into six parts:

Note

This guide supercedes and supplants all previous episode guides to "The Goodies". This is the definitive episode guide, and, to quote Douglas Adams, where it is inaccurate, it is definitively inaccurate.

What Is Not In This Guide

I have tried to remain objective wherever possible; but in a few instances I have let slip my general opinions on what I think is good or bad. For the record (in case anyone actually cares), here is my own personal Top Ten and Bottom Five episode lists, completely without justification. In order of transmission:

Top Ten:
#2 Snooze
#7 Radio Goodies
#22 The New Office
#28 Superstar
#46 South Africa
#48 The End
#51 Hype Pressure
#62 Earthanasia
#66 U-Friend Or U.F.O.?
#75 Animals Are People Too
(and there were many more that just missed out)

Bottom Five:
#15 Wicked Waltzing
#19 Charity Bounce
#20 The Baddies
#61 Royal Command
#63 Politics

A Note About Writing Credits

The first five series are billed as being written by "Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie with Tim Brooke-Taylor". After this, they are simply billed as being written by "Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie", as they did the bulk of the work. However, TBT did have a certain amount of input into the programmes.

Series Nine programmes also carry the credit "Created by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie."

A Note On The Usage Of The Phrase "The Goodies"

I have used this phrase in several different ways in the guide. If it's in a synopsis, it refers to the characters. Otherwise, it either refers to the series title, or to the three writers/performers, viz Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. This is usually clear from the context.

A Note On Episode Titles

This was never going to be easy task. There have been several sets of titles used or invented for The Goodies, and it has been my task to sift and sort through them to find one that I think is most appropriate. However, I have used some ground rules to help me select the titles.

  1. Any title that actually appears on screen, regardless of what appears anywhere else, is official. This mainly applies to the specials. It does not apply to those episodes on commercial video tape (see Part Four).
  2. Any title used on the commercial video tapes. These, I am lead to believe, have been chosen by the Goodies themselves, and as they do not, in the main, conflict with what I would have chosen anyway, I might as well use them.
  3. BBC Enterprises Programme Information Sheets. These, in fact, only list titles for Series Six and Eight. However, it is obvious that BBC Enterprises has a list of titles for Series Three onwards, as these titles consistantly appear in Australian TV guides. I also have a list from the BBC Film And Video Tape Library, which gives titles for Series Five to Eight. On the whole, these two lists correspond, but I have given preference to BBC Enterprises where there is a difference.
  4. Laugh - The Comedy Magazine had an article and episode guide to The Goodies in its third issue. As there seem to be no offical titles anywhere for the first two series, the author of the article (and editor of the magazine) invented titles for these shows. As these titles have been used in other episode guides (without permission, I might add), and they seem to be as reasonable as any others I have seen, I have retained them for use here.
  5. The Guiness Book Of Classic British Television has an article on The Goodies with a list of titles, many of which do not tally with those on any other list. I asked one of the authors, Paul Cornell, about this, and he confirmed that these were not official titles from the BBC, and most are derived from TV guides, or were invented. I have indicated these titles, where they differ, by a (g) in the guide.

In only one case have I actually resorted to invented a title; this was for show #75, "Animals", which I have amended to "Animals Are People Too" because (a) I want to avoid confusion with show #68, and (b) I like the double meaning in the title.

It is my hope that concensus can finally be reached over title usage, so that we may save further confusion.

A Note On The Extancy Of Episodes

All episodes were originally made on colour 2" Quad video tape with pre-filmed inserts (aside from several all-film specials). From these, 16mm B/W kinescopes were made (up to Series Four) for sales to overseas countries who had not yet converted to colour. In most cases, the programmes still exist on colour 2" tape. However, several of the tapes have been lost or erased over the years. Three of the episodes ("Caught In The Act", "Sporting Goodies" and "Wicked Waltzing") only exist as B/W 16mm film. A B/W film copy of "The Greenies" is also known to exist.

One episode, the original version of "Kitten Kong", is not believed to be still extant. Nevertheless, much of the footage still survives in the revised edition, "Montreux '72". See individual entries for those two episodes for further discussion.

A Note On Episode Lengths

All BBC episodes are nominally 30 minutes long, although they vary from 27 to 31 minutes. The exceptions to this are the two film Christmas specials, which are longer (43 and 49 minutes), and "A Collection Of Goodies", which is only 25 minutes. Many of the episodes have suffered slight cuts at the hands of the Australian censors. These can range from a simple "Get stuffed" (see Joe Melia's strange, over-dubbed, Dalek-ized voice on "The New Office") to something like two minutes eviscerated from "Earthanasia". The Ten Network in Australia actually bought brand new, unedited copies from the BBC for their 1991 run, but then stuffed up completely by cutting the episodes to around 22 minutes to allow for adverts. Nonetheless, there are still little fragments in these tapes that are not in the ABC copies.

The Series Nine episodes for LWT/ITV should run to around 24-25 minutes, but again they have been shortened for Australian TV to around 22 minutes to allow for more advertising in the half hour.

Contents / Introduction / Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

Last updated April 6, 1996 by Melinda Casino.
melinda@badger.idiscover.co.uk

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