There is a myth that the first series of Black Adder was not up to scratch. It hasn't been repeated as much as the other versions and has been criticised by the writers and cast. When Ben Elton came on board it became more popular but also more childish and less surreal. Personally, I think it is the best series and holds up much better than the subsequent entries.
shareI find the first series rather bland. None of the characters seem to stand out as they all seem to have the same level of intelligence, Percy, Baldrick and Edmund seemed more like the 3 stooges. Again what made the other three series better was the witty smart humor of Blackadder, an intelligent cowardly greedy man stuck in a situation where morons where above him.
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For me, its not as good because of the character of Edmund Black Adder. He is so very, very unlikable that I can barely stand to listen to him talk or watch him either. Unfortunately, many sitcoms nowadays go for main characters who you couldn't care less about or actively dislike, and I can't stand those sitcoms because if I don't care about the character at all why should i invest anything in the show? And that's the biggest problem about The Black Adder, I loathe Edmund. He's a slimy, horrible little toad with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and dumb to boot. I liked many of the actors around him, but his character (unhappily the main character)leaves me grinding my teeth. I still watch 1, and I don't think that its crap, but I want to punch Edmund right in his weaselly face every time I watch it. And his whiny voice is like fingernails on a blackboard - I cringe every time I hear it. Smart, clever, sly, witty, sarcastic Black Adder is far more to my taste (and far more bearable) than the character from series 1.
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The first series was great, still makes me laugh. The third series was crap.
shareEdmund is supposed to be unlikeable. He is sly and cowardly, his father hates him, his brother tolerates, him, only his mother loves him. Over the centuries people like that have been part of the English Royal Family. Do you really think they were all heroes and saints?
shareI wouldn't say crap, but uneven. It gets off to a slow start in the first episode, but picks up well by the middle. However, the character isn't as fun as in the second series and it is that version that informs the later series. The character is more interesting when he is the brilliant schemer who is undone by his cretinous cohorts, rather than the imbecile leader, with Baldrick as mastermind (Percy is always an idiot).
It's funny, but my first encounter with the show was in the mid-80's, on A&E. The first two series were all that had been produced, but they seemed worlds apart. I caught Blackadder II before the original, so the original series seemed extremely strange. At first, I wondered if it was even the same actor, as Atkinson looked so different between the two shows, though after watching a complete episode I knew it was.
I enjoyed it as much as the other series it didn't have the same variety in storylines as the other Blackadders though it was still hilarious and had a great script in my opinion.
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Jesus, that's super... How'da nitwit like you get so tasteful?
I really liked series 1 - I prefer it to series 3 on the whole (although that series did get better as it went along) - loved the episode with Stephen Fry.
shareYea that episode was hilarious, in my opinion one of the best.
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Jesus, that's super... How'da nitwit like you get so tasteful?
At first I thought they should have used Henry from series 1, but Fry is part of blackadder without a doubt. I think that's maybe one of the reasons people don't like series 1 as much - it doesn't have the same dynamic but that's one of the reasons I think it stands out. The higher the class the more foolish the individual - blackadder's intellectual development - even Hugh's character when it came to series 4. I just love them all!
shareI think you are absolutely right.
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Jesus, that's super... How'da nitwit like you get so tasteful?
I agree with what Rowan Atkinson said about the first series: "...It looked great, but it wasn't as consistently funny as we would have liked".
And I think that's true. Some parts were funny, some were just not funny. Its not as hilariously funny as the rest of the series. And it certainly isn't funny all the time.
To me it seems as tough the first series had a good idea and a good thought behind it, but the execution of those ideas weren't that great.
But some parts, such as the witch smeller episode is very funny.
And the last episode, although not that funny, is great in its own tragic-comic way. I think its a brilliant episode actually, the best of the first series.
So, yes, it could've been a lot greater and funny. Its mildly entertaining, but not great,and I can see why the BBC didn't a want a second series at that time.
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It was expensive and uneven. Critics did not like it and it got so-so ratings.
It was Blackadder II that came out FOUR years later with a cheaper budget and according to Ben Elton who came on board, 'more laughs per minute' when the series really took off.
Its that man again!!
I really loved the first series, you had the sense you were watching something cutting edge and original when it first aired. All four series where excellent in their own way.
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If you had the luxury of seeing Blackadder when it was first aired you may have had a different point of view.
1982/83 saw great changes in British TV comedy. The Young Turks were the alternative comdy teams that sprang from the Comic Strip stage to make The Young Ones and the Comic Strip series.
Blackadder was a curious mix of the old school of Oxbridge comedy that produced Not only but also, Monty Python and Not The Nine O'Clock News.
Blackadder was built as a shakespearean comedy as opposed to a tradegy
Atkinson had played out various characters in NTNOCN using his rubbery faced talents and had not as yet exhuasted them in an attempt to monopolise international inflight entertainment.
There are a lot of paralells between John Cleese's work after Monty Python and Atkinson's after NTNOCN.
Basil Fawtly was a similar character to Edmund Blackadder, always in an anarchic situation of his own making and desperatly failing to get out of it, making many references to his former screen personas during his performances.
You might wonder how much influence Holy Grail had on the original premise for Blackadder too.
The casting was superb,
Brian Blessed in probably his best role ever.
Elsbet Gray underplaying the Queen with some killer lines.
Peter Cook cameoing in the first episode and Rik Mayall in the last.
Miriam Margolyes as the Spanish Infanta, Jim Broadbent as her interpretor,
Frank Finlay as the Witchsmeller.
Tony Robinson and Tim Macinerny ensuring their future careers.
I think the only weak link was Robert East as Harry. Even the other 6 most evil men in the last epis0de were played by some quality British stage and screen actors.
The first series is my personal favorite too. The entire cast is superb, the jokes are great (some bordering on profanity, misogyny and atheism but that was the best part) and I love that Edmund always fails miserably, his character being the villain with delusions of grandeur type, a combination that I find irresistibly funny in comedy as opposed to simply “stupid”. Thank you for pointing the influence of the Holy Grail, as for some funny reason it had never crossed my mind!
Also, I agree with you on that there are similarities with the Faulty Towers. Both characters have a goal (Basil to strike it rich behind his wife’s back, Edmund to seize the crown) which is in itself a great comedy tool as it prompts you to keep watching (half-) hoping that neither will make it by the end of the series. This also makes the plot thicker. In the rest of the series the episodes were stand-alone with characters coming and going and that doesn’t allow for character development and also the scripts were a little too tame/bland, not that "raw" (so that they could appeal in a wider market?). I really wish that Atkison had kept on the same track.
I think the true myth is that the later Ben Elton series were NOT crapp. The first series was a comedy masterpiece. Having seen in recent years repeats of it against repeats of other revered TV comedies including Python, Fawlty, The Young Ones, Not The Nine O'Clock News etc the first series of Black Adder now seems the best of all of them, the only one that hasn't sunk in my estimation since first seeing it. Highly intelligent, groundbreaking, edgy and above all hysterically funny in the most original possible way. Perhaps too intelligent and groundbreaking for the average punter.
I want to laugh at comedy characters not with them. That is why useless, despicable, stupid characters like Blackadder I (or Fawlty, or Derek & Clive or Mayall & Edmondson's characters) are always funnier than the clever suave Blackadder of later series. Add to the less funny lead character the woefully unfunny Fry and Laurie and driven by Ben Elton's tiresome not-as-smart-as-he-thinks-it-is sub-Carry On humour, and you get copious laugh-track fodder but few actual belly laughs.
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Well put. No need to elaborate further.
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