Monster Hit in UK? Amazing! Why?

In the UK we love a trier and an underdog and I think Bilko is both of those donofthedial. I think the clever writing also helped the shows success over here, I remember when I was growing up in the 70s, Bilko was must see viewing for me and members of my family and was aired at peak time twice a week on BBC2. Even now the BBC still shows episodes sometimes during the day and late at night.

In many best sitcom polls over here 'Bilko' will inevitably be in the top five and a few years ago 'The Radio Times' (the BBC listings/schedule magazine) voted it the best sitcom ever.

I don't think us Brits see Phil Silvers as a stereotype, in fact his vaudville style of banter is similar to the music hall style of many of the UK's best loved comic actors (Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Williams, Sid James etc). He even appeared in one of the many, very British 'Carry On' films (Follow That Camel) in the 60s:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0061680/

Personally, I would say that Bilko is the Daddy of all sitcoms and Phil Silvers was one of the US's finest comedy exports

Pretty much covering ground that's already been done here, but I think it's very much due to the Brits loving both underdogs, and wheeler-dealers getting one up on "the big man". (In a similar parallel, this is why British comedian Norman Wisdom's films are so very popular in Albania).

There are certainly parallels with characters such as Del-Boy ('Only Fools and Horses') and Arthur Dailey ('Minder') and many others (Walker in the classic 'Dad's Army' is an interesting comparison). It also shows the Achillies heel and the kind side of these characters, Bilko included - realising that someone else might end up in trouble as part of their schemes, they'd often abort their plans and / or help the person in need.
I also think the show's appeal in the U.K. is also due to the tone of humour. Many US sitcoms now (and I mean this in a constructive "nice" way) are of the brash, the-cooler-we-are-the-funnier-we-are vein, whereas Bilko was often down on his luck and indeed the underdog. Only animated shows such as 'The Simpsons' seem to buck this trend slightly, and are probably one of the reasons The Simpsons is so beloved in the U.K.

Until literally a couple of years ago, Bilko still appeared regularily in BBC Two's schedules. In late years it was pretty much a "filler" (shown very early morning or very late at night), or to fill a gap in the daytime schedules, but even when I was at college in the 1990s I can remember coming home and watching it at around 5:30pm - which for a terrestrial TV channel, is quite something. Even long after home-grown classics such as Hancock had slowly disappeared from the schedules, Bilko was still around. Bar the odd short run of 'The Munsters' occasionally (again as part of the daytime gap filler), Bilko was the last black and white show to regularly be broadcast on terrestrial British TV.

There are other likely factors - a decades old black-and-white imported comedy is cheap to show; and maybe as it was Army-based and first shown ten or so years after the close of World War II, maybe many old British servicemen took to the setting, and some of the exploits they got up to (or would like to think that they got up to!) whilst they were enlisted. The character of Bilko is very British though - vein, pompous, deceptive, yet at the same time quietly kind and loveable.

...wow, I never knew I could write a whole essay on such a matter =)






Jay Firestorm

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Timeless comedy, split-second timing, superb acting and scripts, plus the unique talents of Phil Silvers as Sgt Bilko account for the success of this series in the UK. US humour often travels well across the Atlantic, as Bilko and many other US comedy shows have demonstrated over the decades.

British humour is also often popular in the USA, with classic British shows like "Steptoe and Son", "Dad's Army", "Fawlty Towers", "The Office", "Yes, Minister" and many others have been popular in the USA. Interestingly, the USA often remakes such series with a new cast and US location..... but the remakes are rarely as good (in British eyes) as the originals.

Can anyone explain why the USA spends millions $$$ on such remakes, when the US audience is perfectly capable of appreciating British humour.....as we are for the inimitable Phil Silvers and his fellow Fort Baxter colleagues.

It seems to me more or less a variation on "Faulty Towers" with Faulty/Bilko coming up with schemes.