Posted on 05/23/2006 10:11:50 AM PDT by pissant
May 23, 2006 - At one point Benny Hill was planet Earth's most popular comedian. At its peak, The Benny Hill Show was broadcast in over one hundred different countries. Borrowing a page from the big book of restaurant advertisement, one hundred different country-sized customers can't be wrong. And they're not. Hill is hilarious.
On a side note, the somewhat puzzling thing about this globe-spanning fact is the language barrier. Many of Hill's sketches focus on puns and play on words in the English language ("I'm not against naked women... not as often as I'd like to be.") - I have no idea if the stuff would translate properly. I assume that for the international broadcasts the language gags were cut out and only the fast-paced physical comedy was kept.
In many ways that is Hill's greatest strength: he was very funny on two levels. He could please audiences of both brows, low and high. While not everyone may get a chuckle out of Hill's opening songs ("One day when he was high he saw a sign that said 'Drink Canada Dry' and the damn fool went up and tried it."), but nobody, and I mean nobody, can resist a short bald man with ice-cream cones stuck to his head. Benny makes the most of his seventy-year-old whipping-boy, that's for sure.
The ten shows on this set are more or less the same, in terms of format, as those found on previous A&E releases. Each episode runs for approximately fifty minutes, begins with a song (always with Benny surrounded by young, writhing women), and ends with the classic "Benny Hill song" chase.
Making their debut in these episodes were the Hill's Angels; a group of Benny's female costars who knew how to move around in leotards like nobody's business. In an attempt to capture some of the success of Hot Gossip, a similarly scantily-clad British group, Hill and his new producer Dennis Kirkland used these women to titillate a good chunk of the world's male population.
Taking a close look at this set you'll notice that it contains all of the episodes produced between 1978 and 1981; there's only ten of them. Yes, as is common of British television, not many episodes were produced - in 1979 he only made two shows - but in this case it was on purpose. Rather than risk weakening his comedy in an effort to turn out as many shows as possible, Hill chose to take his time until he was satisfied.
It's here that we come to the show's weakness (which also happens to be its strength): it's written by just one person, Benny Hill. A sole authorship of a television series can give a program a wonderful cohesiveness, but it also limits the range of the material.
For example, in the episodes found on this set Hill introduces a new character: Gaston Le Clerc, a young Parisian child that speaks with a heavy French accent. The joke is the fact that the man interviewing him always interprets the kid's sayings in the wrong way. The kid will say, "I see a lot of pretty ladies sitting on the grass and I can see their pink knickers... " the interviewer will raise an eyebrow and the kid will clarify, "I can see they are a pink knickers because they are having a pink-nick. " It's funny, but the gag is identical to the one used with the Chow Mein character.
It must be very difficult to come up with wholly new material for a show when only one person is writing it. Considering that by the '80s Hill had been writing for television for over two decades, it's not surprising that after you watch a number of episodes back-to-back you pick up on the recycled jokes.
That being said, there is still enough new and clever material to keep you from stifling a yawn. One particularly clever gag was the idea that the characters in a bunch of television sets could interact with one another. Hill's character looks "up" to the TV above him and notices the Hill's Angels dancing around, so he blows upwards in order to cause their skirts to flutter. Nowadays such gags don't seem too revolutionary, but at the time Hill was on the forefront of playing with the capabilities of the television medium (using split-screen, running footage backwards, etc.,)
You'll get the most enjoyment out of this set if you're a long-time Benny Hill fan or if you watch the episodes at a leisurely pace. There's a lot of great stuff here, but it does tend to grow stale after a while. Then again, that complaint holds for modern-day sketch shows as well. While the episodes on this set don't sizzle with the wit and energy they had during the '70s, they still remind you that puns, women in their underwear, and chase sequences, set to that classic music, are always funny.
I'd add (earlier) Carol Burnett Show, too, for the Conway and Korman skits. And Sid Caesar.
I love Benny Hill – I laugh every time I see his shows even if I've seen them before. Maybe it's the way he delivers his lines, and the mischievous look in his eyes.
Me too! Benny Hill and SCTV, along with "Dave Allen at Large" now and then, were regular TV fare throughout high school!
70s? I didn't see it until mid 80's.
Yea, that was one of Benny's first big breaks in the USA!
Dave Allen at Large
No, not the real Dave Allen.
DAVE ALLEN: Good evening. Now a lot of people as me, why is it that, as I sit here, I am frequently seen brushing my trouser leg. And the answer is, because I drink my whiskey diluted... with vodka. And in the course of the evening I see the little fellows climbing up my trouser leg and what I'm doing is brushing them off.
And uh, I went to a psychiatrist about it, and I said, "I have to keep brushing the little fellows off." And he said, "Well there's three things I want you to do. One is relax more, the second thing is to cut down on your drinking, and the third thing is to stop brushing the little perishes all over me.
A little Jewish story about a couple of Jews who were walking down the street and...
FROM THE AUDIENCE: Leave Jewish people alone. Leave us alone.
DAVE ALLEN: There were two Pakistanis walking down the street, in Golders Green, and they went into their synagogue, and one Pakistani said to the other...
FROM THE AUDIENCE: "I am a Pakistani and I have more brains in my little finger than I have in the rest of my body. Leave us Pakistanis alone."
DAVE ALLEN: Uh. I'll tell you a story about my own race. Two Irish fellas, one of them bought a paper shop and it blew away. The other Irishman went to see a dentist to have a wisdom tooth put in.
FROM THE AUDIENCE: "Shut your mouth." "You tell him Pat." "What kind of a man has two Christian names and no surname?" "An idiot, that's what."
DAVE ALLEN: Are there any Chinese in? Once upon a time there were two Chinamen. Now look how many there are. These Chinese are not very bright you know...
FROM THE AUDIENCE: (cursing at him in Chinese)
Audience members start throwing things at him. Four production staff walk behind him, blocking things from hitting the stage.
DAVE ALLEN: Right, I'll tell you a mythical story about a race who don't even exist. I'll tell you a fairy story. There were these four fairies...
FOUR PRODUCTION STAFF: "What if we are, you nasty..." "Why don't you leave us alone?" (the four start hitting Dave Allen)
DAVE ALLEN: (sitting alone on the stage) My God!
A piece of lighting equipment falls on the stage beside him.
DAVE ALLEN: (looks up) I'm sorry!
Haha I rememver that skit! Benny is the best! :-)
Biography for Benny Hill
Birth name
Alfred Hawthorn Hill
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Nickname
King Leer
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5' 10½" (1.79 m)
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Mini biography
He was born Alfred Hawthorn Hill in 1925. It was his grandfather who introduced him to Burlesque Shows and the theatre from where the young Benny Hill was to draw much of his comic inspiration. After his national service with the army during WW2, Benny came to London, adopted the stage name Benny Hill (in homage to his all time favourite comedian Jack Benny) and began appearing in variety shows. He briefly formed a double act with Reg Varney and did radio shows. But it was his talent for impressions and comic timing that were to give him his first big break on TV with the show "Hi There" in 1949. "The Benny Hill Show" (1955) began in 1955. It's pioneering combination of cheeky humour, songs and impressions were to make it a hit for the next 40 years.
Benny also broadened his career with cameo appearances in films such as The Italian Job (1969), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965). He also had a hit record in 1971 with "Ernie The Fastest Milkman In The West". In 1979 "The Benny Hill Show" (1955) was shown in America for the first time and Benny went on to become one of the biggest stars on US TV. The show itself has been seen in 109 countries and won a BAFTA as well as Golden Rose Of Montreaux Award. Benny Hill's TV career came to an end in 1989, when his show was dropped, but his popularity continued and he completed a US TV special, Benny Hill's World Tour: New York! (1991) (TV) shortly before his death in 1992.
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IMDb mini-biography by Al Crow
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Trade mark
Expert in featuring in fast moving, mute comic short subjects, with funny music, and massive persecutions at the end.
Reverse salute called the "Benny Hill salute".
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Trivia Comedian.
Was one of only a handful of TV comedians (the others being Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason) who had control over the circumstances of production of their respective TV shows.
Died in his favorite chair while watching television.
At the time of his death, a large box was found in his apartment. The many awards and honors he had earned throughout his career had been placed in the box as if they were unimportant to him.
Despite his wealth and success, he never owned a car, did his own shopping, lived in a two room apartment, but never used the second floor. According to one of his obituaries, he once refused to repair the leaky roof in his mother's home because it was "too expensive".
After complaints that his television comedy sketches were too sexual, he began casting children to appear on his shows. But instead of hiring professional child actors, he hired the children of the television crew, stating that their laughing to his sight gags were genuine.
When Hill passed away in April 1992, his estate was worth an estimated £10 million. The only will Hill created left his estate to his parents who both died years ago. Next in line were his brother and sister, neither of whom he had a close relationship with, but like his parents are also dead. As a result, Hill's estate was divided among his seven nieces and nephews.
His father and uncle were circus clowns, performing in the circus until they both left for military service during WWI.
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 216-217. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Related to Holly Valance. His cousin is her grandfather.
Born on the same day as Telly Savalas, whose 'Kojak' character he impersonated on his 1969-1989 Thames TV show.
Was born on the same day that V.I. Lenin died.
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Personal quotes
(When asked to comment on rumors that he had sexual affairs with women who appeared on his shows): "I never yell, I never tell, but I'm grateful as hell."
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Oh Bianca, lovely Bianca
So I divorced my wife and I began a new life,
With Bianca on the honeymoon cruise,
Our wedding night, it was great, I even let her stay up late
To listen to the six o'clock news.
Now I am never blue with my queen of tattoo,
A happier man could not be found,
I've got heat in the winter, I've got shade in the summer,
And moving pictures all the year round.
Oh, lovely Bianca, big fat Bianca,
Like a peach on an apricot tree,
I would charter a tanker and sail to Sri Lanka,
To thank her for marrying me.
(To thank her for marrying me)
To thank her for marrying me.
I dig it! Thanks!
I always loved the one in which Hill played an old codger in the nursing home.
Playing strip poker with a very hot nurse.
Those quivering hands when he got a winning hand and the nurse was down to
bra and panties...and the hands go lifeless and drop the cards...priceless
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