Critical Reception
The programme was a cult hit though not an enormous ratings winner and strayed away from bonafide sitcom by being shot entirely on location and without a live audience. Critics did not know what to make of it on its first broadcast - was it a comedy or a comedy drama? The critical response was generally negative, with the consensus being that expressed on the BBC critics programme Did you See...? that the programme was an attempt by management at the BBC to keep the talent from the Young Ones without actually understanding the humour and forcing it into a more mainstream avenue.
It also made Elton the youngest lone BBC script writer on a mainstream programme at the age of 26. He had risen to prominence three years earlier as the chief writer on The Young Ones. Despite the fact that it was not a critical success, Elton still considers it to be one of the best things he has ever written.
It has not, to date, been officially released on either VHS or DVD.
Read more about this topic: Happy Families (TV series)
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or reception:
“Somewhere it is written that parents who are critical of other people’s children and publicly admit they can do better are asking for it.”
—Erma Bombeck (20th century)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)