I would have to say that my favorite of all of the British comedies is The Good Life (known in the U.S. as Good Neighbors.) Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal play Tom and Barbara Good who live in Surbiton, a suburb of London. Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith play their neighbors, Jerry and Margo Ledbetter. On his 40th birthday, Tom leaves his job as a draftsman making plastic toys for breakfast cereal, because he doesn't feel fulfilled, and he's no longer able to take his job seriously. He convinces Barbara to try to adopt a self-sufficient lifestyle, and they turn their yard (front and back) into gardens to grow their own fruits and vegetables, and they buy chickens, pigs and a goat. The generate their own electricity, and they also try to make their own clothes. Jerry is confused as to why Tom would leave a perfectly good job to try self-sufficiency, and Margo simply horrified by the fact that she is now living next door to a couple who grow their own food, have chickens, pigs and a goat in the backyard, and create electricity using methane (i.e.,manure). Not to mention how it reflects poorly on her that they are her friends.
All of the characters in the series are excellent. The situation itself is ripe for comedic scenes, and the actors are perfect in their portrayals and have great comic timing. All of the actors are great, but I have to mention Penelope Keith's Margo specifically. Margo Ledbetter is one of the greatest characters ever to be seen in television. The character is well written, but it is Keith's portrayal of the Margo that makes it so wonderful. Someone just has to say to me, "Thank you very much, Jerry," imitating Margo's haughty manner, and I bust up laughing. I love this show!
Episode 1: Plough Your Own Furrow
Quotes:
Tom (reading a birthday card): "Mendelssohn and Mozart were dead by 40. Why aren't you?" How thoughtful.
Tom: When I get a birthday card from my wife, I expect a sentimental, loving, sickly verse. Not, "Another nail in your coffin, you wreck."
Barbara: Blow your candle out and eat your cake.
Barbara: Life begins at forty.
Tom: That's a fallacy for a start.
Tom: It's quality of life. That's what I'm after. If I could just get it right.
Barbara: What's "it"?
Tom: It? Well, "it" is... it.
Barbara: Well, if I see it lying about, I'll say, "Look here 'it,' my husband's had enough of you."
Tom: Not being very specific, am I?
Barbara: Borderline.
Tom: You look like an advert for gracious living.
Jerry: I am.
Commissionaire: Good morning, Mr. Ledbetter. Good morning, Mr. uh...
Tom: I've really made an impact with you over the years, haven't I?
Commissionaire: No. I've got sciatica.
Tom: Good.
Commissionaire: Charming.
Tom: No, no, no, that's my name. I've only been here eight years.
Brian: It really is something, isn't it?
Tom: Yes, it is. It's a mold for a plastic hippopotamus that's going to end up in a package of breakfast cereal.
Brian: You've gotta hand it to the ideas men on the fifth floor, haven't you?
Tom: Electric shock treatment probably. Ideas men? They sit up there like the gargoyles on top of Notre Dame. Every now and again, one of them jumps up, puts on his jester's cap and says, "Eureka! Hippopotamus, oh!"
Brian: Oh, come. You wouldn't want us to go back to the dark ages, breakfast cereal without little plastic gifts?
Tom: It still tastes the same.
Tom: Listen you lot! I am a run machine! A run machine! And I bowl!
Tom: Will you mind explaining to those children in my office that I play cricket?
Jerry: Do you?
Tom: Well, no. But I could if I were asked!
Jerry: Still got the middle-age blues, have you?
Jerry: You use about 1/10 of your ability. I have to use all mine, and what I lack, I make up for with sheer, bloody crawling.
Tom: I can't see the world as a giant plastic toy. How can you make it your life's work.
Jerry: I don't. It just brings in the goodies.
Jerry: You're not going to walk into another job at your age, are you?
Tom: I'll hit you with my crutch in a minute.
Tom (on intercom): Miss Martin, it is funny, but not out loud.
Jerry: Don't go, Tom. (to Sir) I think that Tom ought to sit in on this one, Sir.
Sir: Why? Where's he from?
Tom: Fourth floor.
Sir: Oh, yes, yes. I'm afraid I don't get down to the fourth floor as often as I'd like.
Sir: How is it, um, uh...
Tom: Going?
Sir: Coming.
Sir: Now, look here. A bubble has just come off the top of the think tank. And I don't mind telling you that this is an absolute blockbuster of an idea. It's going to put our wildlife preservation series in the "Van Guard" of world, and I do mean world moldings. [Tom tries to hold in his laughter] Can you guess what it is? No, you can't, can you. Our next mold is going to be... a giraffe! And Tom, I'm thinking of putting this giraffe on your plate! [Tom runs out of Jerry's office and finally laughs]
Tom (to Barbara): Honestly, you should have heard Sir. You would have thought that he discovered penicillin. I couldn't help laughing.
Tom: I'd run off with you if you weren't married. I even love your varicose vein.
Barbara: I'll grow it in the shape of your initial.
Barbara: We don't need a lot of things.
Tom: No. We're a very spiritually advanced couple, aren't we?
Barbara: Yes. Anyway, you don't make enough for a lot of things.
Tom: No.
Barbara: I'll tell you what's at the bottom of all this. All this "it" business you were on about this morning. I had a think in the garden after you left.
Tom: You know, why do you always go into the garden to think? You're not having an affair with the gnome we haven't got, are you?
Tom: Hey! I was brilliant at algebra in school, wasn't I?
Barbara: I don't know.
Tom: I was.
Barbara: Big head.
Tom: X, the unknown. "It." In order to track it down, all you have to do is what they do in algebra.
Barbara: What are they?
Tom: I can't remember.
Barbara: We're both really firing on both cylinders today, aren't we?
Tom: You've heard of the "don't knows." I've come across the "don't want to's."
Tom: New page. [rips off page and hands it to Barbara.] File that.
Barbara: All right. [wads it up and throws it in the corner.]
Tom: I want... it.
Barbara: Shall we go to bed?
Tom: Yes. No. No. I'll be up in a minute.
Barbara: All right. Happy birthday.
Tom: Big deal.
Tom: What do you think?
Barbara: I need to think.
Tom: Garden?
Barbara: Yes.
Tom: Right.
Barbara: Self-sufficiency in Surbiton?
Barbara: I couldn't kill chickens.
Tom: Right. I'll chop their heads off with my Black and Decker while you're not looking.
Barbara: What happens when we need new clothes.
Tom: I'll have made the loom by then.
[Barbara comes in from thinking in the garden]
Tom: Well? Well? Well?
Barbara: You're on. We'll do it.
Tom: Now look, have you thought about this?
Barbara: What do you think I've been doing? Taking my wellies for a walk?
Jerry: Sir sacked you for laughing?
Tom: Other way around. I sacked Sir.
Jerry: You're mad, you realize that, don't you? You're... you're... I'm looking for a superlative.
Tom: Totally insane.
Jerry: Yes.
Tom: Rubbish.
Barbara: (calling to Tom from the window): Tom! The man said the goat will be here by noon.
Tom: Lovely.
Jerry: A goat? This is sheer folly. It just won't work. You're... you're... totally insane.
Tom: Jerry, we've never been saner in all our lives. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got 300 weight of spuds to put in.
I love this show!
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