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British Sitcoms

PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, is funded by public money donations, and US tax dollars. It is an independent corporation, set up to keep it from being controlled by the US gov. Various elected officials threaten/try to take some control of, or get rid of PBS from time to time, for political reasons. I'm not sure how much actual control the UK gov has over the BBC, so it might not be that different in that respect, but the US gov has far less control over broadcasting and cable in general than the UK gov has. In the US, PBS shows a lot of BBC shows, which turn up on Masterpiece Theater, Mystery, it showed Monty Python, even (UGH!) Benny Hill, and lots of British sitcoms. So, PBS is government funded, but not controlled TV.
 
PBS is government funded, but not controlled TV.
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Make that *partially* government funded. They get a lot of money from contributions and various fund raising activities. I think that it is still true that donations to PBS are tax deductable (like contributions to charity).
 
PR, that's what I meant when I said that they are funded by PUBLIC MONEY DONATIONS and tax dollars in the first line of my post. That is a bit deceptive, though. Much of PBS's money does come directly from the general public, in small pledges, but a lot also comes from corporations, whose reasons for doing so probably vary widely. And, yes, donations to PBS are still tax deductible. I think that the BBC is, or at least was, funded by a large tax on TVs.
 
I think that the BBC is, or at least was, funded by a large tax on TVs.
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It's not a tax on TVs as such, but everyone has to buy a license each year. If you don't have a license you can be prosecuted and fined. It currently costs £105, which is just over $166 a year
 
Is that per TV, per household, per individual? How does it work? I must say that people in the US would find the idea of watching TV illegally MUCH too attractive!
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Per household, and they have vans that patrol the streets picking up TV signals. They cross check against the records of licenses, and if they detect a signal from a house with no license, there's a knock on the door in the middle of the night...

Well, maybe not in the middle of the night, but they do patrol in the evenings, and the fine for not having a license is quite a lot, I believe.

Hmm, must check how much...
 
Add a cable system or digital tv or a satellite and your tv gets pretty expensive! How do students manage?
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That's a lot of money when you are a broke college student trying hard to cope with not having a full time job because you are in school.
 
I think students are covered by their parent's license as long as they remain financially dependent. And old people get a very reduced concessionary rate, too
 
I think students are covered by their parent's license as long as they remain financially dependent.
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No.

Students have to buy their own TV licence is they live away from home. That is why the BBC ran all those adverts showing the parents of a student saying "grand" all the time.
 
Also, aren't there commercials now? I would have thought that the tax would have been eliminated once television could be paid for with commercials. I do know I don't know much about the system, though.
 
Also, aren't there commercials now? I would have thought that the tax would have been eliminated once television could be paid for with commercials. I do know I don't know much about the system, though.
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The only adverts the BBC carries are for itself and then only between programs.

BBC America is different.
 
So, I taped an episode of Black Adder and couldn't stomach watching the entire episode. I deleted it after watching at least 1/2 or 3/4 of it. Nope, just not my thing.
 
Was it season 1? When he's a peasant, IIRC? It gets much better after season 1.
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I agree - Black Adder I is by far the weakest of all parts. My favorite "season" is Black Adder III, closely followed by Black Adder II and IV.
 
Black Adder is like Star Trek movies. Even numbers are best
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II followed by IV, then III, with I a LONG way behind.
 
No he was some lord or something. Brother to the king but not in line for the throne? I don't really remember much other than he was plotting to kill his brother? Or the King's brother? God, it was bad ... sorry.

I just don't really understand what he is saying and when I do, I don't know what he means or what is meant to be funny. Oy, and the laugh track was very annoying as well. Like I said, just not my style of humor.

I did watch another episode of Coupling and Manchild this weekend. I am getting to really like Coupling but still on the fence about Manchild. I guess I don't know enough about the characters yet so I think that is why. Plus, one of the characters just pulled the plug on his mother and going through some odd grieving. Anyway, I will give it a few more tries.
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A saw an episode of "coupling" when I was in Phoenix, and it wasn't my thing. More proof that to each her own, eh?
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That's the problem with entertainment. You will never EVER please all of the people all of the time. I do think the British comedies experiment more than the American ones do, though. I think that's good.
 
I did watch another episode of Coupling and Manchild this weekend.
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Out of idel curiosity: was it this past weekend's ep, or another Tivo'd a couple weeks ago ep?



A saw an episode of "coupling" when I was in Phoenix, and it wasn't my thing.
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Coupling is like Farscape for me in one respect. I love both of them, but without needing to get any other opinions I knew that there would be a fair number of people with whom they wouldn't connect at all. I recommend them both to some people but not to some others.

Edit: The people who get recommended or not recommended those two shows are necessarily the same people.
 
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