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On The Buses
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| On The Buses | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster for On The Buses 1971 theatrical release |
|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Creator(s) | Ronald Wolfe Ronald Chesney |
| Starring | Reg Varney Bob Grant Cicely Courtneidge (first series) Doris Hare (series 2-7) Michael Robbins Anna Karen Stephen Lewis |
| No. of series | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 74 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | London Weekend Television |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV1 |
| Original run | February 28, 1969 – May 20, 1973 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
On The Buses was a British situation comedy created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney. The pair had already had successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife for the BBC. The BBC rejected this offering and so the pair turned to ITV station London Weekend Television. The show was accepted and although the critics disliked it, the show was a huge hit with the viewers.
Stan Butler (Reg Varney) works as a bus driver for the Luxton & District Traction Company. He lives at home with his bingo-loving, widowed and overbearing mother (Cicely Courtneidge, later Doris Hare), his frumpy sister Olive (Anna Karen) and his lazy brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins). The bane of Stan's life is Inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake (Stephen Lewis) who is often checking up on him and his conductor Jack Harper (Bob Grant), and threatening them with the sack for lateness and untidiness. Not coincidentally, Blakey sports a toothbrush moustache and general appearance very much in the image of Adolf Hitler. His catchphrase is "I 'ate you Butler!". In later years Arthur and then Stan left the series, Olive worked for the bus company and Blakey moved in to board at Mum's house.
Seventy-four half-hour episodes were made. Also popular were the spin-off feature films made by Hammer Film Productions (On The Buses, 1971; Mutiny On The Buses, 1972; Holiday On The Buses, 1973). On The Buses was Britain's top box-office film at the time, surpassing even the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
Like several other London-made ITV sitcoms of the era, the format of On The Buses was sold to American television, where it was remade by NBC as Lotsa Luck, starring Dom DeLuise, running for 24 episodes in 1973–74. The American version failed to succeed and has never been screened in Britain.