Those of us in certain Nerd and/or Snob Circles may often ask each other, “What’s your favorite BritCom?” I think the frequent answers are Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, Absolutely Fabulous, Coupling and Monty Python’s Flying Circus…the latter is more of an ensemble show in the same vein as Key & Peele or SCTV. Mine was and always will be The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin since it was the weirdest, most absurd and lastly, the most British (from the Fifties through early Eighties) in personality.
The man who created the character passed away yesterday. I had no idea that Reggie’s debut was originally in a novel. Some things adapt to television so seamlessly you’d never know. Besides Reggie, he wrote and created other things. Mr. Noobs’ best-known protagonist was in the middle of his career. The humor involved in the three seasons of Fall (or what the Brits call series) translated very easily to America since boredom from being in a rut is universal. Maybe the second and third would have some difficulty as I’ll explain later. When I read Mr. Noobs’ obituary from the link above, I discovered the man’s past credentials: The Week That Was (an English predecessor to SNL’s Weekend Update and The Daily Show from how I understand it) and The Two Ronnies (no opinion, I just know it’s a gold standard for UK comedy in the Sixties/Seventies). Therefore, I’m confident, Mr. Noobs had numerous supporters to go through with Fall.
Let me give a quick synopsis of Noobs’ best-known work. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is about a middle-aged middle manager at a dessert company played by Leonard Rossiter…
Quick digression. Leonard is best known for three things in America; he starred in another BritCom called Rising Damp shown on A&E in the Eighties; he was the Soviet scientist quizzing Dr. Floyd in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey; and he was the representative from Scotland Yard Clouseau shot in the ass in The Pink Panther Strikes Again. He sadly passed away in 1984 from a heart attack. Thus, when Noobs did a epilog special in the Nineties for Reggie, it was told from the perspective of the people he hated.
Back to Fall…
To break out of the monotony, Reggie begins to daydream. These were done as jump cuts to illustrate what was on the character’s mind. Boredom isn’t Reggie’s only nemesis, Noobs’ show is an ancestor to Mike Judge’s work Office Space with Reggie’s co-workers and relatives who tend to speak in clichés to cover up their incompetence, indifference or both. Eventually, Reggie follows through on doing what was shown in the opening credits; he strips off all his clothes and fakes his death at the white cliffs of Dover. Then he returns in the guise of a pen-pal from South America, remarries his wife and lands the same dead-end job. When the ruse is revealed, the boss promptly fires him, his wife stays and Reggie becomes a pig farmer. Around the second season, I recall he loses the pig-farm job but is inspired to start a store called Grot where everything in it is guaranteed to be useless. Grot becomes a runaway success yet Reggie quickly realizes despite being the boss, he finds the experience hollow. He formulates a plan to destroy Grot from within by hiring three of the most incompetent people he can find and instead, they make the corporation a global sensation. I can’t remember how Reggie eliminates Grot but I do know the last season involves Reggie running a weird commune with the supporting characters front he previous episodes.
It wasn’t for everybody and the American adaptation starring Richard Milligan on ABC around 1983 was abysmal. Until Bea Arthur took on the US version of Fawlty Towers, Reggie (the US name) was clunky and not funny.
To close, I think my favorite reference to Fall and I hope that Mr. Noobs knew about it was during an episode of MST3K. No idea which movie Joel and the gang were ripping but the scene involved a train. After it “ran over” the viewers, Tom Servo gave Reggie’s standard excuse for why he was 11 minutes late to work (in the show, he’s always 11 minutes behind arriving at work and home).
If you get the chance to see The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, I highly recommend it. You just need to watch it in order, it isn’t a show you can see out of sequence like many Doctor Who adventures or The Prisoner.