the audience applauded

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Richard O'Sullivan spent much of his early career playing supporting roles in drama shows such as 'Dixon Of Dock Green' and 'Great Expectations'. In 1971, he found sitcom fame as weasely Lawrence Bingham in 'Doctor At Large', which was broadcast from London Weekend Television. The following year, he crossed over to Thames to star alongside Beryl Reid in the disastrous 'Alcock & Gander'. The year after that, writers Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, who remembered O'Sullivan from when he appeared in their earlier hit 'Father Dear Father', pitched him in the leading role as randy cookery student Robin Tripp in their next show - the hugely successful 'Man About The House'.It all starts when two girls - Chrissy ( Paula Wilcox ) and Jo ( Sally Thomsett ) - awake one morning after a raucous party ( which they were throwing as a farewell party to their previous flatmate ) to find a man asleep in their bath. This is, of course, Robin Tripp, a homeless cookery student who, along with some friends, gatecrashed the party. As Robin can cook, Chrissy and Jo offer to him to become their new flatmate, on the proviso that he keeps his hands to himself.Chrissy and Jo's landlords, however, the sex-mad Mildred ( Yootha Joyce ) and sexless George ( Brian Murphy ), who live downstairs, do not approve of the girls having a man live with them. To ensure them that there will be no hanky panky between themselves and Robin, Chrissy tells them that Robin is gay ( which they later find out was just a ruse to let him stay ).From what I believe, on its original transmission hardly a week used to go by without Mary Whitehouse tearing into it, who thought that two females sharing a flat with a male was not an appropriate premise for a sitcom. ITV obviously did not give two hoots about what Mrs. Whitehouse thought as 'Man About The House' regularly pulled in viewers of around 12 million. It was so well liked that in its first year, the cast performed a sketch for that year's edition of 'All Star Comedy Carnival' ( ITV's answer to 'Christmas Night With The Stars' ). Also there was a feature film spin-off ( as was a common thing with sitcoms in those days ) the following year. Richard O'Sullivan was tailor-made for the part of Robin and both Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett supported him more than adequately as the sexy girls. Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce made such an impression on viewers that they were later spun-off into their own show - 'George & Mildred' - which was even more successful. Also impressive was the late Doug Fisher as Robin's Jack-The-Lad friend Larry.Six series were made in all. The final episode ended with Chrissy marrying Robin's brother Norman ( played by Norman Eshley, who later appeared with Joyce and Murphy in 'George & Mildred' as their snobbish neighbour Jeffrey Fourmile ). One year after 'Man About The House' ended, Mortimer and Cooke brought back Robin Tripp in a different show - 'Robin's Nest' - in which he opened up a bistro with his attractive fiancée Vicky ( Tessa Wyatt ). All in all, 'Man About The House' was not brilliant ( not in my view, anyway ) but it was enjoyable all the same. It was one of those sitcoms that manages to be risqué without being offensive, rather like 'On The Buses'.Like most British sitcoms, the format of 'Man About The House' was sold to America in the '80's where it was remade as 'Three's Company', which starred John Ritter and Suzanne Somers. It was nowhere near as funny.

How can someone call Three's Company 'prurient'? Maybe a Jesuit priest would think so. Anyway, having seen both series, there is no comparison. The imitator FAR surpassed the original. No doubt. There will always be some people who will choose the original just to not be with the masses. Something tells me the creators of Three's Company aren't too unhappy with bad reviews. They laughed all the way to the bank while the viewing public laughed at their show.

I found the first four episodes of MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE, and I'm scouring eBay and Amazon for more! This show is pretty damn funny. I never liked the American version, and now I know why. The acting in this is far superior! Richard O'Sullivan is funny without resorting to inane slapstick -- ok, there's a bit of it, but the British do it so much better (as evidenced by Benny Hill). Sally Thomsett is cute without being dumb, and shows her wit time and time again. And Paula Wilcox combines sexy, smart, and sassy like no one I've ever seen. You won't find a more talented trio.Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy are the -- dare I say -- threesome's perfect foils. Not the lecherous landlords of the American version, but naughty and enjoyable.Would love to see this on TV on this side of the pond. As it is, I'll have to buy PAL and have it converted to NTSC. A small price to pay for superior, saucy, sexy fun!

This programme started to be hard to see in this particular TV market once the American imitation "Three's Company" (1977) started up. "Three's Company" was everything "Man About the House" was not. The British original was funny, sexy, maybe a bit salacious. And it had two cute girls, nice English ones. The grossly inferior "Three's Company" was unfunny, prurient rather than sexy, and basically brain-dead. And no cute English birds, obviously."Man About the House" had a proper star, Richard O'Sullivan, who'd just finished his stint as Bingham in "Doctor in the House", a *completely* different role, mind you. Rather than someone like O'Sullivan, "Three's Company" had John Ritter. Years later, it turned out that Ritter could act but that wasn't really apparent in the '70's when he gave the leading one-note performance.Hack US magazine writers still trot out that tired old cliché about the British being prudish about sex when compared to sophisticated Americans. I've seen a couple of references of that kind in the past month. Well, that might very well have been true in the 1940's, but that was certainly not the case by the '60's, and it's not true today either. If one compares these two series from the 1970's, it's the British one that's mature, while the American copycat seems childish and leering.I suspect anyone who had ever seen "Man About the House" was left grinding his teeth by "Three's Company" and its long and entirely undeserved run. Surely there's an all-Britcom channel somewhere where this coy ménage à trois can find a happy home again.