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Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series starring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and then as Smith and Jones for six series on BBC1 from 1989 to 1998. A spin-off from Not the Nine O'Clock News, the show had a brief run in the United States on A&E and PBS in the late 1980s, as well as on CBS in the early 1990s during their late-night block.
The show's development came after Not the Nine O'Clock News ended in 1982. Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson pursued their solo careers, while Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones decided to form a double act.
Their first appearance as a duo was in a short sketch in the BBC1 comedy special The Funny Side of Christmas in 1982, in which Jones played a stranger who annoyed hospital patient Smith to the extent that Smith's character walked out in rage, leaving Jones's character to enjoy Smith's Christmas gifts.
The BBC offered the pair their own show, with much of the material written by themselves with help from a large team of writers. The title is a pun on the American television series Alias Smith and Jones.
The show shared several script writers with Not the Nine O'Clock News including Clive Anderson and Colin Bostock-Smith. It used taboo-breaking material, bad language, sketches in questionable taste, and included head-to-head dialogues in the Pete and Dud mould with Smith the know-all idiot and Jones the know-nothing idiot. The head-to-head format was also used by Smith and Jones in a series of commercials. Cast regulars Chris Langham and Andy Hamilton helped keep the show to a consistently high standard.
Series 4 in 1987 was the final series to be produced solely by the BBC, and the last series to be broadcast on BBC2. The 1987 Christmas special, The Homemade Xmas Video, was one of the first shows to be produced for the BBC by an independent production company – TalkBack – of which Smith and Jones were founding directors. TalkBack produced series 5 for the BBC in 1989, which was broadcast on BBC1 and dropped "Alas" from the title.
In 2000 Smith and Jones sold TalkBack to Pearson Television, then owners of Thames Television, for £62 million. Pearson PLC sold Pearson Television to CLT-UFA in 2001 to form the RTL Group. Pearson Television was renamed FremantleMedia and its UK division took the Thames Television name. The operational departments of TalkBack and Thames were merged to form Talkback Thames in 2003; initially each brand continued to be used on screen, but eventually all productions used the Talkback Thames name. In 2011 individual brand names returned and Talkback is once again used solely for comedy productions.
The show ran for ten series across 14 years, each comprising six 30-minute episodes.
Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series starring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and then as Smith and Jones for six series on BBC1 from 1989 to 1998. A spin-off from Not the Nine O'Clock News, the show had a brief run in the United States on A&E and PBS in the late 1980s, as well as on CBS in the early 1990s during their late-night block.
The show's development came after Not the Nine O'Clock News ended in 1982. Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson pursued their solo careers, while Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones decided to form a double act.
Their first appearance as a duo was in a short sketch in the BBC1 comedy special The Funny Side of Christmas in 1982, in which Jones played a stranger who annoyed hospital patient Smith to the extent that Smith's character walked out in rage, leaving Jones's character to enjoy Smith's Christmas gifts.
The BBC offered the pair their own show, with much of the material written by themselves with help from a large team of writers. The title is a pun on the American television series Alias Smith and Jones.
The show shared several script writers with Not the Nine O'Clock News including Clive Anderson and Colin Bostock-Smith. It used taboo-breaking material, bad language, sketches in questionable taste, and included head-to-head dialogues in the Pete and Dud mould with Smith the know-all idiot and Jones the know-nothing idiot. The head-to-head format was also used by Smith and Jones in a series of commercials. Cast regulars Chris Langham and Andy Hamilton helped keep the show to a consistently high standard.
Series 4 in 1987 was the final series to be produced solely by the BBC, and the last series to be broadcast on BBC2. The 1987 Christmas special, The Homemade Xmas Video, was one of the first shows to be produced for the BBC by an independent production company – TalkBack – of which Smith and Jones were founding directors. TalkBack produced series 5 for the BBC in 1989, which was broadcast on BBC1 and dropped "Alas" from the title.
In 2000 Smith and Jones sold TalkBack to Pearson Television, then owners of Thames Television, for £62 million. Pearson PLC sold Pearson Television to CLT-UFA in 2001 to form the RTL Group. Pearson Television was renamed FremantleMedia and its UK division took the Thames Television name. The operational departments of TalkBack and Thames were merged to form Talkback Thames in 2003; initially each brand continued to be used on screen, but eventually all productions used the Talkback Thames name. In 2011 individual brand names returned and Talkback is once again used solely for comedy productions.
The show ran for ten series across 14 years, each comprising six 30-minute episodes.