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| On the Buses | |
|---|---|
 Poster for the 1971 On the Buses film |
|
| Format | Comedy |
| Created by | Ronald Wolfe Ronald Chesney |
| Starring | Reg Varney Bob Grant Cicely Courtneidge (first series) Doris Hare (series 2-7) Michael Robbins (series 1-6) Anna Karen Stephen Lewis |
| No. of series | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 74 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | London Weekend Television |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV1 |
| Original run | February 28, 1969 – May 20, 1973 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
On the Buses is a British situation comedy created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, originally broadcast in the UK from 1969 to 1973. The writers had already enjoyed successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife for the BBC. The BBC rejected On the Buses and so the duo turned to the ITV company London Weekend Television. The show was accepted and despite a poor critical reception it became a huge hit with viewers. As of 21st November 2008, only 2 members of the main cast are still alive, these being Stephen Lewis and Anna Karen
Contents |
Situation
Stan Butler (Reg Varney) works as a bus driver for the Luxton & District Traction Company. He lives at home with his bingo-loving, widowed and overbearing mother (Cicely Courtneidge, later Doris Hare), his frumpy sister, Olive (Anna Karen), and his lazy brother-in-law, Arthur (Michael Robbins). The bane of Stan's life is Inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake (Stephen Lewis), who is often checking up on him and his conductor and best friend, the cheerful, bucktoothed Jack Harper (Bob Grant). Blakey often threatens them with the sack for lateness and untidiness; not coincidentally, he sports a toothbrush moustache and general appearance very much in the image of Adolf Hitler. His catchphrases are "I 'ate you Butler!" and "You've made my day." In later years Arthur and then Stan left the series, Olive worked for the bus company and Blakey moved in to board at Mum's house.
Background
Seventy-four half-hour episodes were made. Also popular were the spin-off feature films made by Hammer Film Productions (On the Buses, 1971; Mutiny on the Buses, 1972; Holiday on the Buses, 1973, set on a Pontin's holiday camp). On the Buses became Britain's top box-office film at the time, surpassing even the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
In addition, two five-minute Christmas special shorts were made by LWT for their Comedy Carnival. One has been wiped from archive but the other — featuring a goose that the cast are chasing for Christmas dinner — still exists at Fremantle Media.
A spin-off series, Don't Drink the Water, ran for thirteen episodes from 1974 to 1975. This featured Inspector Blake retiring to Spain with his long-suffering sister, Dorothy (Pat Coombs).
Like several other London-made ITV sitcoms of the era, the format of On the Buses was sold to American television, where it was remade by NBC as Lotsa Luck, starring Dom DeLuise, running for 24 episodes in 1973–74. The American version was unsuccessful and has never been screened in Britain.
The series was originally recorded at London Weekend Television's studios at Wembley. In late 1972 the show relocated to the company's new facilities on the South Bank of the River Thames; here it was discovered that the outside entrance doors to the main and secondary studios were too small to accommodate the double-decker buses that were used in the series. Therefore single-decker buses were used and a plywood mock-up of a second deck was lowered from a lighting rig on to each bus.
Filmed external shots were also an integral part of the series. LWT came to an arrangement with the former Eastern National bus company to use their buses located at the Wood Green bus garage in north London. (For the purpose of the TV series, they were under the ownership of 'Luxton and District'. 'Luxton' is supposed to be located in Essex, and actual Essex towns such as Southend, Basildon, Braintree and Tilbury are all mentioned in the show.) One of the termini for the buses was 'Cemetery Gates' and for this, LWT used the entrance to Lavender Hill Cemetery in Enfield, north London, a stone's throw from Reg Varney's home at the time.
The fourth season was affected by the ITV Colour Strike, with seven of 13 episodes being made in black and white.
On the Buses was the subject of a board game by Denys Fisher games.
After a successful tour of Australia in 1988 in an On the Buses stage play, a planned revival of the television series, entitled Back on the Buses was mooted in 1990, featuring all the original cast: Varney, Lewis, Robbins, Hare, Karen and Grant. Despite some publicity at the time of its announcement, including an appearance by the cast on the BBC TV chat show Wogan, the proposal was not taken up by LWT and the new series was never made. Although scripts were never written, the proposed new series was to feature Stan and Jack running their own bus company in the newly deregulated market, and coming into conflict with Blakey, who was running a rival firm. Reg died on 16 November 2008.
Episodes
References in popular culture
- On the Buses is heavily referenced in the comic novel The Garden of Unearthly Delights by Robert Rankin. The novel is set in a far distant future in which the show has become the basis of a religious cult.
- On the Buses was referred to often on the now axed Australian Triple M radio show Get This, featuring Tony Martin, Ed Kavalee and Richard Marsland. Martin would often break into an impersonation of Blakey.
- An episode of Harry and Paul, broadcast 3 October 2008, features a sketch-parody of the programme called "Omni-Busses".
Buses
The actual buses used were Bristol Lodekkas, with bodywork by Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft.
DVD releases
The series has been released on DVD.
Region 1: On the Buses: The Ultimate Collection is an 11-disc set containing all seven series.
Region 2: On the Buses: The Complete Series was released in November 2006 and contains all seven series.
Region 4: the first five series have been released, with the others to follow.
External links
- On the Buses forum
- On the Buses UK fan club
- On the Buses episode guide
- On the Buses at tv.com
- On the Buses tribute site
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 21 November 2008, at 06:57.
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