Alas Smith and Jones
Encyclopedia
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy
sketch
television series featuring Mel Smith
and Griff Rhys Jones
. It was broadcast on the BBC
from 1984 to 1998. From 1989 to 1992 and 1995 to 1998, it was called Smith and Jones.
The series followed in the footsteps of Not the Nine O'Clock News
in its use of taboo-breaking material and sketches in questionable taste (as well as bad language), and also featured head-to-head 'duologues' between Smith and Jones. The series shared several script writers with Not the Nine O'Clock News including Clive Anderson
, Colin Bostock-Smith and used Chris Langham
as a cast regular. Other writers included Andy Hamilton
.
The show's title was a pun on that of the American television series Alias Smith and Jones
. The head-to-head sketches were very much in the Pete and Dud
mould - Smith was the idiot who knew everything, Jones the idiot who knew nothing.
The series was one of the first to be commissioned by the BBC from an independent company, Talkback Productions
of which Smith and Jones were also directors. The format of the Head to Head with similar characters was used by Smith and Jones in a series of commercials.
The show also had a brief run in the United States on A&E
and PBS.
In 1987 (between Series 3 & 4), the duo went on London Weekend Television
for The World According To Smith & Jones. The BBC was not happy about the show and came close to canceling it. Reviews were mixed, critics did not know what to make of it, and Smith and Rhys Jones soon appeared back with the BBC for a fourth series later that year. Despite the criticism, The World According To Smith & Jones returned for a second series in 1988, and then flashed from the schedules without a repeat (unlike Series 1, which was repeated in battle against the BBC in late 1987).
In 2006 Smith and Jones returned with The Smith and Jones Sketchbook, recorded in front of a live audience acting as a look back at their earlier shows.
The second video released in 1993 featured footage from Series 1–4 of the series, particularly from the second series.
A compilation DVD
release The Best Of Smith And Jones was scheduled for 8 August 2005 by the BBC, but has been delayed many times and is unlikely to be released.
However, in October 2009, FremantleMedia released a two disc set titled "At Last Smith & Jones: Volume 1". This contained compilations of the first four series, as well as the two Christmas specials, "The Home Made Xmas Video" and "Alas Sage & Onion". The first of these has a scene cut, presumably for music clearance reasons, but the latter has an additional scene removed from the initial broadcast. The scene involves a plane crash, and the special was first broadcast on the same evening as the Lockerbie bombing
. The set also includes 3 episodes from the 1989 series "Smith & Jones In Small Doses".
Tie-in books included The Smith and Jones World Atlas (a humorous gazetteer
of the world's countries), Janet Lives With Mel And Griff, and The Lavishly Tooled Smith And Jones Instant Coffee Table Book
(co-written with Clive Anderson
), which was designed to look as if it could be made into a coffee table
.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
sketch
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
television series featuring Mel Smith
Mel Smith
Melvin Kenneth "Mel" Smith is an English comedian, writer, film director, producer, and actor. He is most famous for his work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones.- Early life :Smith's father, Kenneth, was born...
and Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...
. It was broadcast on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
from 1984 to 1998. From 1989 to 1992 and 1995 to 1998, it was called Smith and Jones.
The series followed in the footsteps of Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...
in its use of taboo-breaking material and sketches in questionable taste (as well as bad language), and also featured head-to-head 'duologues' between Smith and Jones. The series shared several script writers with Not the Nine O'Clock News including Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson is a British former barrister, best known for being a comedy writer as well as a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom...
, Colin Bostock-Smith and used Chris Langham
Chris Langham
Christopher "Chris" Langham is an English writer, actor and comedian. He is most famous for playing MP Hugh Abbot in BBC Four sitcom The Thick of It and as presenter Roy Mallard in People Like Us, first on BBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television on BBC Two, where Mallard is almost...
as a cast regular. Other writers included Andy Hamilton
Andy Hamilton
Andrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter and radio dramatist.-Early life:...
.
The show's title was a pun on that of the American television series Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, a pair of Western cousin outlaws trying to reform...
. The head-to-head sketches were very much in the Pete and Dud
Pete and Dud
Pete and Dud were characters played by the comedians and entertainers Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.The dialogue format originated in 1964 when Dudley Moore invited Peter Cook to appear in a television performance, whereupon Peter Cook scripted a conversation between two men from Dagenham in flat caps...
mould - Smith was the idiot who knew everything, Jones the idiot who knew nothing.
The series was one of the first to be commissioned by the BBC from an independent company, Talkback Productions
Talkback Productions
Talkback Productions was formed in 1981 by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. The company is one of the UK’s leading production companies and part of the RTL Group, a major European broadcast and content company....
of which Smith and Jones were also directors. The format of the Head to Head with similar characters was used by Smith and Jones in a series of commercials.
The show also had a brief run in the United States on A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
and PBS.
In 1987 (between Series 3 & 4), the duo went on London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
for The World According To Smith & Jones. The BBC was not happy about the show and came close to canceling it. Reviews were mixed, critics did not know what to make of it, and Smith and Rhys Jones soon appeared back with the BBC for a fourth series later that year. Despite the criticism, The World According To Smith & Jones returned for a second series in 1988, and then flashed from the schedules without a repeat (unlike Series 1, which was repeated in battle against the BBC in late 1987).
In 2006 Smith and Jones returned with The Smith and Jones Sketchbook, recorded in front of a live audience acting as a look back at their earlier shows.
Schedule
The show ran for 10 series with 6 or 7 episodes of 30 minutes duration in each series.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088475/episodes:- 27 December 1982: A 5 minute special, broadcast as part of The Funny Side Of Christmas
- 31 January 1984 – 6 March 1984: Series One, 6 episodes
- 31 October 1985 – 5 December 1985: Series Two, 6 episodes
- 18 September 1986 – 23 October 1986: Series Three, 6 episodes
- 15 October 1987 – 26 November 1987: Series Four, 7 episodes
- 23 December 1987: 35 minute special, The Home Made Xmas Video
- 21 December 1988: 40 minute special, Alas Sage and Onion
- 16 November 1989 – 28 December 1989: Series Five, 6 episodes (then titled "Smith & Jones", thus dropping the "Alas")
- 22 November 1990 – 3 January 1991: Series Six, 6 episodes
- 22 October 1992 – 3 December 1992: Series Seven, 6 episodes
- 6 September 1995 – 18 October 1995: Series Eight, 6 episodes
- 19 June 1997 – 24 July 1997: Series Nine, 6 episodes
- 9 September 1998 – 14 October 1998: Series Ten, 6 episodes
Commercial releases
In 1991, a compilation of footage from Series 5 and 6 was compiled for a VHS release - simply titled "Smith & Jones".The second video released in 1993 featured footage from Series 1–4 of the series, particularly from the second series.
A compilation DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release The Best Of Smith And Jones was scheduled for 8 August 2005 by the BBC, but has been delayed many times and is unlikely to be released.
However, in October 2009, FremantleMedia released a two disc set titled "At Last Smith & Jones: Volume 1". This contained compilations of the first four series, as well as the two Christmas specials, "The Home Made Xmas Video" and "Alas Sage & Onion". The first of these has a scene cut, presumably for music clearance reasons, but the latter has an additional scene removed from the initial broadcast. The scene involves a plane crash, and the special was first broadcast on the same evening as the Lockerbie bombing
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
. The set also includes 3 episodes from the 1989 series "Smith & Jones In Small Doses".
Tie-in books included The Smith and Jones World Atlas (a humorous gazetteer
Gazetteer
A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social...
of the world's countries), Janet Lives With Mel And Griff, and The Lavishly Tooled Smith And Jones Instant Coffee Table Book
Coffee table book
A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...
(co-written with Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson is a British former barrister, best known for being a comedy writer as well as a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom...
), which was designed to look as if it could be made into a coffee table
Coffee table
A coffee table, also called a cocktail table, is a style of long, low table which is designed to be placed in front of a sofa, to support beverages , magazines, books , and other small items to be used while sitting, such as beverage coasters. Coffee tables are usually found in the living room or...
.