Game On (Part 1) - British Sitcom History Podcast

It's always more distressing when we delve into the nineties as we have to address what we were up to at the time. This week, we look at Game On, the cult success that plays into the lad culture that was so prevalent at the time.
Will it live up to our memories of it and how similar was it to Gareth's mid-nineties London life?
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[@doqas]

Game On followed by They Think It’s All Over, them were the days

[@Lauren94twitch]

good timing i bought a video of this with 3 eps on recently from a vintage shop

[@britcompod]

Old school.

[@nickroberts990]

Ah brilliant! Im going to enjoy this one. It's never really in the conversation when it comes to best sitcoms, but it deserves to be in my mind. I can watch this on my own and laugh out loud. Absolutely love it!

[@nickroberts990]

I preferred Neil Stuke to Ben Chaplin.

[@Georgieastra]

Back in the 90s IE pre internet for the vast majority of people there were persistent rumours that Ben Chaplin was a grandson ( some said great grandson) of Charlie Chaplin. I remember reading an interview with Ben after he moved to Hollywood in which he said that he had sought to dispel this misconception although I can't actually recollect him clarifying the matter until after his Uma Thurman gig.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

Very interesting and enjoyable discussion, particularly with putting the show in it's time and place in the 90's. I also feel the show was influenced by the contemporary American sitcoms where dating is a regular plotline [Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier is an older character but often has a 'date of the week' plotline] which shows the difference with 'Please Sir' 20 years earlier where the characters were settling down and starting a family in there late teens/early 20's and reflects changing societal norms.

[@philipellis7039]

My memory of it was that the first series was the better one. Having rewatched some of One and Two I don’t know about better but definitely different. Chaplin’s brooding good looks give us this central irony that if Matthew wasn’t trapped in his flat he could have the playboy lifestyle that he likes to fantasise about, hence that bitter undertone. The Stuke version isn’t as handsome and is played more as a frustrated adolescent which is a less interesting character but does allow for more farcical situations. Maybe Chaplin had taken his version as far as it would go.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

It's interesting to note that Neil Stuke was apparently the runner up to Chaplin in the original casting. It does make me wonder the way Stuke played the part was the original intent and they went back to that after Chaplin left as the two versions of the character are very different.

[@philipellis7039]

As a bit of an aside the Matt Baume channel on KZbin looks at gay representation on US television, particularly 90s sitcoms. I'm not sure what parallels I would draw with Game On but for an interesting perspective on Frasier, Golden Girls,Soap,etc, can be worth a look.

[@bodysuitguy]

Tea, NOW

[@paulcurd7617]

Weird coincidence I literally bought the DVD box set about a month ago! Prompted by me buying the Gigolo Aunts LP with “Where I Find My Heaven” on it, which made me think “oh yeah Game On, I used to love that”…on the whole I’ve enjoyed rewatching it but some of the humour really hasn’t aged well and the homophobic comments in particular grated a lot. One thing I did like was the moment at the end of Series 2 Episode 1 when they go all meta talking about the change of actor in Rosanne..😉

[@seangilchrist3102]

I’ve been revisiting this series and Ben Chaplin made this show, the cast change fundamentally changed it for the worse