Man About the House: Three's a Crowd

Man About the House: Three's a Crowd
ITV
15 August, 1973
Sitcom
DVD
B

I already blogged about this series (http://mathw3sc.blogspot.com/2011/03/background.html), comparing it to Three's Company, but that was five years ago and I want to take a look at it under these different circumstances.  I was at that time taking heavy notes, while this blog is more impressionistic, watching and then reviewing.  Also, I didn't grade those episodes (for either show).  So here's what I think of the first episode of MAtH now, including in the context of other shows at the time.

I think this episode still holds up well, even if some of the "gay humor" is very dated.  There's an overall sexual explicitness that contrasts with contemporary American shows, yes, even M*A*S*H.  Not that there's anything graphic, but it's less coy and more a part of what Robin calls "the permissive '70s."  The Britishness is accessible, like Robin's "pub signs" knickers.  The writing is intelligent and funny, if not clever and hilarious.  The five main characters are introduced and the main situation set up in an efficient but casual manner.  Note that I don't remember Robin as this scruffy, with huge muttonchops, and that's another contrast with American sitcom main characters who, even on M*A*S*H, tended to be more cleancut.  (All in the Family's Mike Stivic is, if I recall, only this scruffy in the flashback episodes.)

Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke I believe wrote all the scripts for the show, and I think Peter Frazer-Jones directed all of them, but I'll correct this if I turn out to be wrong.