Jordan Watch : Top 10 Comedies of all Time

I do not know how many of you folks are "old" enough to remember the great Jordan TV channel 2 and its package of comedies that used to be broadcasted at 8:30 each night. Well, here is my list of favorite 10 comedies which include oldies (70s and 80s) as well as the newer comedies in the 90s. (some of the descriptions here are taken from the BBC's comedy guide)

1- Mind your language:

The very best in my opinion. Barry Evans is a tutor who has to teach English to a magnificent group of foreigners and the show cannot stop producing linguistic and practical jokes. The scripts ensured that every possible foreign stereotype was milked, and to this effect the class included representatives from China, France, Germany, Greece, India (both Sikh and Muslim), Italy, Japan, Pakistan, Spain and Sweden. 'Please, let us have no racialism,' teacher Brown pleaded of his pupils in the opening episode, 'in this class all are equal.' Some people said it was racist but I really enjoyed a lot of laughs.

2- Allo Allo:

The brilliant and hilarious show which features a French café owner who gets engaged in the French resistance movement against the Nazis in World War II. One of the most remarkable comedies I have ever seen and I still recall the motto phrases like "the painting of the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies" which the German intelligence was running after. The show's other principal catchphrase was resistance leader Michelle's, 'Leesen verrry carefully, I weel zay zis only once...'

The show had a cunning method of dealing with language problems. French characters spoke their native tongue with pantomime-style exaggerated French accents, but when they spoke English they adopted equally exaggerated posh Oxford accents. The English characters spoke English normally, but when they spoke French it was with a poor, almost incomprehensible cod French accent

3- Three's Company:

The show that raised the late John Ritter to stardom. For me the best ever American comedy. Jack was a red-blooded heterosexual but Janet (sensible) and Chrissy (dizzy blonde) tried to convince landlords Helen and Stanley Roper that he was gay, so that they might allow him to shack up with them in their Santa Monica apartment. Helen eventually became wise but Stanley continued to believe the ruse.

4- Coach:

I simply adore Craig Nelson in this show. Hayden fox is such a character that can spark a wave of laughter around him while he is only griming and nagging. I can see in him a typical Jordanian man. Arrogant, stubborn, un-romantic and old fashioned. Surrounded by Luther (his assistant) and Douber ( the assistant coach and stupid football player) the three of them make a wonderful team. The female presence in the show was really marginal and boring. It is a guy's comedy in the first place where men can laugh at themselves.

5- Are you being served?

Another British classical. A group of salesmen and women in a British store with different characters. The gay Mr Humphries is the most interesting character while the old lady Mrs Slocombe wonders aloud whether anyone has seen her pussy (she was, of course, referring to her cat). Captain Peacock was the floor walker, a dapper, silky-voiced officious sort determined to keep the staff on their toes. Mrs Slocombe, head of ladies fashion, had ideas above her station and an unerring ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time and in the loudest voice. Her assistant Miss Brahms was the target of leering sexist remarks, usually from junior shop assistant Mr Lucas. Mr Rumbold was the fussing manager and direct link to the board of directors and its chairman 'young Mr Grace' - who was actually fantastically old and, in common with the other members of senior management, lived in the past, still treating staff with a feudal arrogance and blissfully unaware of the rapidly fading status of the store. Most memorable of the main characters was Mr Humphries, senior sales assistant in the menswear department, a camp and effete man, sharp-tongued and as light as a fairy on his feet

6- Friends:

Everyone in this generation know about Friends and think this is the best comedy ever. It is really remarkable but for me goes at number 6. My favorite two characters are Chandler and Joey.

7- Mad About You:

This couple really clicks together. For newly wed couples this should be the best comedy. I used to watch it with my wife and in each and every episode we would be able to identify with the events and the dialogue. Helen Hunt has really shown tremendous comedy skills here while Paul Reiser was brilliant in production and acting. The show was based on real life experiences of couples and it was so simple, so true and so realistic.

8- Seinfeld:

In the first episodes I did not like it but then managed to get linked with the daily lives of those four friends and I was really amazed by the ability of the writers to produce a whole episode out of one small idea or item. One of the episodes was about "cleavage" and it was so hilarious to think about all the jokes and situations that can be created from that idea. The four main characters were evenly balanced but Kramer would always be special. I think this was a successful show because it is based on details of daily lives.

9- Yes Minister:

A fantastic political comedy based on political maneuvers and lies. The series started as "Yes Minister" but then Jim Hacker the main character was elevated to Prime Minister and his assistants followed him. Yes Minister depicted the career of a new minister - James Hacker as he negotiates the workings of government office. Hacker represents an unspecified political party but is clearly a moderate, either centre-right (most likely) or centre-left. He enters office as Minister of Administrative Affairs with enthusiasm and ambition, determined to make his mark upon public life, but soon comes to realise that his hands are tied by complex bureaucratic regulations that seem both indecipherable and insurmountable. His Private Secretary, the pedantic Bernard Woolley, does his best to steer Hacker through the minefield, but whatever progress the two of them make is usually revealed as a dead-end. This is because, keeping one or more steps ahead of Hacker, is his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby a silky-smooth senior civil servant with a treasure trove of baffling phrases, paradoxical reasoning and enigmatic explanations. In Sir Humphrey's hands, Hacker is merely the ball in a Machiavellian game of political ping-pong.

In every episode, the hapless Hacker, not the most intelligent of men, attempts to carry through what he believes to be a bright, new initiative or policy, intended to cut costs or improve public services (and, at the same time, to promote his name), only to find his plans re-routed or derailed by the usually imperturbable Sir Humphrey.

10- Golden Girls:

A lot of my friends were laughing at me for the fact that I watch a comedy composed of old ladies but I would have some of the best laughs in my life while watching a conversation between Dorothy and her mother Sofia. Those two characters are magnificent. The rest are not bad either.