On the Buses
 |
"No wonder you want me to take sleeping tablets, you're a sex maniac!" |
 |
Seventies Britcom centred on workers of the Luxton & District Traction Company. The main characters are Stan Butler, a bus driver, and his best mate and conductor, Jack Harper. Their arch-nemesis is pen-pushing bureaucrat bus inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake. Recurring characters include Stan's mum, sister Olive and brother-in-law Arthur. Olive and Arthur are unhappily married, which is often joked about. Seventy-four episodes were made from 1969 to 1973. Three spinoff films were also made.
On the Buses was one of the earliest British sitcoms to centre on working-class people's lives. Much of the humour comes from Stan and Jack's attempts at chatting up women, while trying to get out of doing any work. Critics derided the show as being vulgar, but it was hugely popular with audiences. Some episodes were watched by 16 million viewers, a figure unknown today, due to the splintering of the British televsion market.
Do not confuse with a character being Put on a Bus. Though come to think of it, Stan leaves the series for Oop North, on the grounds that bus drivers make more money there, thus he literally was Put on a Bus. Also, this series is not to be confused with Run Over By A Bus, or Having a Bus Dropped on Him or any other Bus Trope.
Came fifty-third in Britains Best Sitcom.
- All Men Are Perverts - Jack and Stan are forever skirt-chasing, much to Blakey's disgust.
- Blind Without'Em - Olive loses her glasses on a regular basis, and of course can see nothing without them.
- British Accents
- Double Entendre - a mainstay of the humour
- Have a Gay Old Time - "There's always gay life on the buses/make sure you leave your bird at home".
- Foreign People Are Sexy - the infamous episode where the boys pull a couple of Swedish birds.
- Housewife - Stan's mum, a totally archetypal British 1950s housewife with a scarf perpetually over her hair
- Loveable Rogue - Jack and Stan
- The Movie - Actually three - On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972), and Holiday on the Buses (1973)
- The first movie is notable for being the most successful film that Hammer Film Productions ever made. Yes, that Hammer.
- Naughty by Night - well, Olive would like to be, but Arthur has other ideas...
- No Accounting for Taste - Olive and Arthur are a brilliantly ghastly combination.
- Popcultural Osmosis - "Blakey from On The Buses" is sometimes referred to in conversation (as a comparison to people) by other people who've never seen the series.
- Sitcom Character Archetypes - Jack and Stan are Wisecrackers, Blakey is The Bully, Arthur is The Stick, and Olive is The Dork.
- The Chew Toy - poor Olive, destined to be dumped on and have fat jokes told about her, despite being played by an ex-model, who also made nudie pictures.
- Three Is Company
- Wardrobe Malfunction leading to Disaster Dominoes at the beginning of the third movie.