Assaulted Nuts (TV series)

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Assaulted Nuts
Genre Sketch Comedy
Written byRay Cameron
Barry Cryer
Andrew Marshall
David Renwick
Terry Ravenscroft
Peter Vincent
Directed byRay Cameron
Starring Tim Brooke-Taylor
Daniel Peacock
Cleo Rocos
Wayne Knight
Barry Cryer
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
ProducerRay Cameron
Running time30 minutes
Original release
Network Cinemax / Channel 4
ReleaseApril 17 (1984-04-17) (US) –
November 17, 1984 (1984-11-17) (US)

Assaulted Nuts was a television sketch comedy series broadcast in the US in 1984 and the UK in 1985. The show was constructed as a fast-paced succession of short, unconnected sketches. [1] It was a co-production between Cinemax in the US and Channel 4 in the UK. [2] It ran for seven episodes in the UK and thirteen in the US and elsewhere.

American performers Elaine Hausman, William Sadler and Wayne Knight acted alongside British comic actors Cleo Rocos, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Daniel Peacock and Barry Cryer. New York actress Marcell Rosenblatt also appeared in episode 7, which may have been shot as the pilot.[ citation needed ]

In the second season (episodes 8-13), Emma Thompson and Gail Matthius replaced Tim Brooke-Taylor and Elaine Hausman. [3] [4]

In keeping with Cinemax's reputation at the time, much of the material was sex-related, with overt references to Benny Hill, and Cleo Rocos' work with Kenny Everett.

In the UK, the show was broadcast at 11:15pm on Thursdays and consequently was seen by relatively few people. In spite of the quality of its writers and performers, the show made little impact, with critics dismissing it as Americanised. Seven 30-minute episodes were broadcast before the show was cancelled. (The second series was mentioned but not broadcast in the UK.) The original UK broadcasts were weekly between 17 January and 28 February 1985. [5]

The writers of Assaulted Nuts were Ray Cameron, Barry Cryer, Andrew Marshall, David Renwick, Terry Ravenscroft, Peter Vincent. Ray Cameron also produced and directed the series.

American TV Guide listings for the Cinemax airings in 1984 listed one sketch from each episode. [6]

The series aired on the arte channel in Germany from October 1993. [7] (It also appears to have aired in France and Finland.) It aired on the USA Network in 1987, where a ten-minute clip also aired on USA's Night Flight music video series. [8] In Australia, some sketches were shown as part of "Graham Kennedy's World of Comedy" (seven hourlong specials in 1986, with repeats in 1991 and 1992).

Tim Brooke-Taylor, speaking in 1997, said: "It was an American cable company who set it up at HBO. It was difficult as everything had to fit American taste and knowledge And the fact that we had no audience, which is vital for me. It could have been very good. I did a lot of sketches by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall (Who wrote 'One Foot In The Grave' and '2.4 Children'), but they always seemed to be edited out. I couldn't do the second series and was replaced by Emma Thompson (natch), but that series was never shown in England. We got on very well with the American performers though. One of them incidentally was the interrogator of Sharon Stone in the 'Is she wearing them or not' . The name of the film escapes me. I replaced Olivia Newton-John in a Cliff Richard 'made for TV' film. So everything is equal. And does this explain why I play the women's parts? No." [9]

In 2013, Wayne Knight commented: "It was an interesting thing, partly because Emma Thompson was in it. This was before she became Dame Emma. We’re still friends, because I just think when you find somebody like that you try not to let them go. It was three British actors and three Americans and it was airing simultaneously on Cinemax and Channel 4 in Britain. It sunk in the middle of the ocean, because you’re trying to combine British and American sensibilities. I don’t know if it worked, but it was fun to do. The British are very silly, and they’re very clever. They enjoy wordplay. Americans are broader and more coarse. We don’t like to belabor things. Like, shop sketches don’t necessarily play as well to us as they do the Brits. You know, the classic Monty Python, coming into a shop and having an odd conversation about a duck. That would play really well in Britain, and not well in Beaufort, Alabama." [10]

In one sketch, William Sadler played Death, a role he would reprise in the Bill & Ted series of films. "I actually played the Grim Reaper once before Bogus Journey. It was on a TV show called Assaulted Nuts. There was this one scene where I was the Grim Reaper coming to take Elaine Hausman. And I started doing this accent that I’d heard from an actor who I’d worked with onstage named Jan Tříska. That’s how I know it’s a Czechoslovakian accent: because he was Czechoslovakian, and I just lifted it directly from him. We did a play together called New Jerusalem at the Public Theater, and I just thought, “Yeah, that’s what Death should sound like: vaguely European and kinda silly.” [11]

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References

  1. ↑ "Assaulted Nuts". britishclassiccomedy.co.uk. 13 April 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  2. ↑ "Tim Brooke-Taylor on Assaulted nuts clip #14". youtube.com. 12 March 2009. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  3. ↑ "Assaulted Nuts (TV sketch comedy series 1984-1985) - OrangeCow.org". orangecow.org.
  4. ↑ @TygerbugGarrett (16 September 2021). "US 1984 TV Guide listings give us an Assaulted Nuts episode guide of sorts:April 17 #1 Instant CremationApril 29…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. ↑ "ASSAULTED NUTS---Full Episode". youtube.com. 13 June 2014. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  6. ↑ Tufts, Chris (16 September 2021). "Assaulted Nuts (a Titles & Air Dates Guide)". Epguides.com . Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  7. ↑ KG, imfernsehen GmbH & Co. "Assaulted Nuts Staffel 1 Episodenguide" – via www.fernsehserien.de.
  8. ↑ "San Bernardino Sun 9 August 1987 — California Digital Newspaper Collection".
  9. ↑ "The Official Goodies Rule - OK! Fan Club Website - Articles/Guides".
  10. ↑ "Wayne Knight of 'The Exes' on the art of comedy — and embracing Newman - Metro US". 19 June 2013.
  11. ↑ "William Sadler Answers Every Question We Have About Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey". 25 August 2020.
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