As my tribute to British comedy legend Tim Brooke-Taylor (R.I.P), here are my top 10 episodes of The Goodies. Also, yes fellow Goodies fans, I didn't include Kung Fu Kapers, I know. I shall now commit seppuku with a black pudding

The Goodies were repeated so often, down here in Australia, that they became a tea time institution. Like these three weird uncles who would visit five times a week. They, along with Doctor Who, Danger Mouse, Kenny Everett, The Trap Door, Astroboy, Catweazle, Into the Labyrinth, Star Blazers and many other shows were like the collective Holy Grail of tv viewing in the 70s and 80s.

And now, ‘A Walk in the Black Forest’.

I believe the goodies were better remembered in Australia because their series was seemingly repeated endlessly during the early eighties. When they toured the country they were surprised at the enthusiastic reception compared to England

...also “Ecky Thump”, which famously someone died from laughing so much whilst watching and “Bun fight at the OK Tea rooms” should be worthy mentions.

I still remember the first episode in 1970. I was only 6 at the time, so I didn't realise the ads were joke ads, and I pestered my Mam to buy me the plasic Spacemen cereal.

It still amazes me that The Goodies didn't get repeats in the UK. It was censored quite a bit here in Australia to fit in a kids slot before Doctor Who repeats, but on repeats on the ABC for much of the 80s and even picked up in the 90s by a commercial station. Seriously, The Goodies and Doctor Who Monday to Thursday at 6pm is all I remember about childhood television. Its hard to go past those episodes, although Bunfight at the OK Tea Rooms is one of my favourites. And the Apartheight one in South Africa, which doesn't age well and not just because of the blacking up at the end, etc. Farewell, TBT, As I'm sure he would have said "Don't cry for him, Marge and Tina"

The best part of my childhood was informed by The Goodies, as in Australia the public broadcaster somehow mistook it as a kids show and aired it in post-school prime-time!

"What does your husband do?" "He keeps his distance..." Classic line from a classic show

I was never happier as a kid in 1970's NZ with Friday night fish'n'chips, having my best friend for a sleepover, and a new episode of the Goodies. It's dated so much better than Python, which is much patchier than most people remember and tended to hammer an idea into the ground in the same time as which Goodies would've jammed in 5 more jokes and turned everything on it's head.

Grew up on The Goodies and was heartbroken to find that hardly anyone else of my generation is even aware they exist. Thankful to my parents for making us watch the DVDs with them so often!

One of my favourites isThe Goodies and The Beanstalk. Very funny send up of ‘It’s a Knockout’ with Eddie Waring telling the audience that the teams have to go through a paddling pool. ‘Which is full of piranha fish!’ - all done with that Eddie Waring wink and smile. and the geese with the bouncing eggs done like the Dambusters film. Brilliant!

It's honestly a shame that the Goodies didn't have enough funding to make the Goodies Movie back in 2019. Also, a fun fact, during filming of Kitten Kong, Tim sliced his hand on the wires holding the bike during the flying stage. He had to go to the nurse in the studio who was French and was confused about the mouse costume. Tim, trying his best, was explaining what he was doing in French, talking about a giant kitten, and to our knowledge, the nurse replied with something like "Oh yeah, piss off". He was a joy to watch and it is sad that I'll never get the chance to thank him for making me laugh.

This show was an absolute gem back in the day. We all had our favourites and didn’t mind repeats.

No bunfight at the okay tearooms?-Sacralidge!

My childhood!

'Lighthouse Keeping Loonies' has always been my favorite episode. Nearly died the first couple of times I watched the scene with the 'fog horn incident'!

An intelligent take. This and Pertwee's Doctor were my favourite programmes when I was a wee one in the early 70s. I think South Africa deserves a mention here (which I was too young to appreciate when it was first aired).

We loved it as kids in the 70s, in an age where we were always outside no matter the weather, the Goodies kept us in. Then straight back outside again.

As a fan of Garden and Brooke-Taylor's work on ISIHAC since before I can remember, I've been meaning to watch some of the Goodies for a very long time. I recently found the new series on audible, which was utterly hilarious. I was devastated when I heard the news a few weeks ago. RIP Tim, you will be thoroughly missed. An oldie, but a goodie.

Hello Stuart, I very rarely comment on videos. However, I have been a fan of yours for a long while now and felt compelled to comment on this one. I was introduced to The Goodies by my Father when he showed me Goodies Rule O.K. on vhs, recorded in the 1990's from BSB. My love for the boys grew when we both bought the LWT series and watched them together when my Mother went bed, I must have been about five at the time. As my age progressed I expanded my comedy scope and started listening to I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and immediately found a new appreciation for Tim's talent at doing old women's voices and singing. The Goodies may not have the current public stature that Monty Python has these days, which is a great injustice as they will always be the superior show, in my opinion. I was shattered when I heard of Tim's passing and immediately started to watch and listen to as much Tim as possible. I found the BBC Radio 4 tribute very moving and that it perfectly depicted the great influence that Tim had on the modern comedy world. Great video and a touching tribute from a fan. I apoligise for rambling on.

This is like that time Stu introduced me to the world of Chris Morris. How have i never heard about this show before?

I'd like to thank my autistic sister for making me grow up with 3 goodies episodes played on repeat for about 10 years for making me actually taking note and loving the goodies despite no one else I know my age knowing who they are

I agree with the lack of repeats. It was a very popular show and recently after Tim Brooke-taylor's death you would expect the BBC would put in a full series of episodes to honour Tim. They didn't. There isn't much on on the BBC nowadays and yet they still don't put in any Goodies.

I'm so glad "The End" is in here. The gag where Bill hasn't aged even after 106 years is one of my favourites. Also, if you like the Goodies, you should check out the Monkees (if you haven't already). It's similar to the Goodies in that it's got a "loose" format following a group of guys who always end up doing something new each episode - that, and it also has a pretty cartoon-esque sort of humour. "The Picture Frame" is a pretty good episode to start with IMO.

I grew up in the 70s and so the Goodies, along with Pertwee/Tom Baker Doctor Who, *were* my childhood. It's hard to describe just how much of a national institution these programmes were at the time. They really did tell the whole decade what shape to be. And I absolutely agree with every item in your list, for pretty much the same reasons. The only thing I could add is to mention their more in-joke satirical digs, such as comments about David Frost and so on (and an entire episode about Rolf Harris); or Tim with the Silver Rose they won for Kitten Kong and painting it gold.

The Goodies had so many great episodes; I was kind of surprised that Kung Fu Kapers or Bunfight at the OK Tea Rooms didn't make your list, but at the same time I can't really argue with any of your inclusions.

What a blast from the past

Thank you for this . While Bill Oddie , Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke Taylor continued to have successful careers it is a pity that this show has not been treated with more respect by the BBC (something that Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke Taylor regularly joked about on 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue) I watched a couple of these when they were shown on BBC four a couple of years back. Earthanasia is indeed amazing and incredibly dark And RIP Tim Brooke Taylor - by all accounts a really lovely man Plus Bill Oddie's compositions are actually pretty funky!

CBC in Canada ran this in an after school weekday slot in the late 70s. Loved it. Especially the giant kitten episode and the one in which they become advertising executives.

Love 'The Goodies'. To me, when I was a kid, I loved 'The Bunfight at the OK Tearooms"... the premise and execution of shooting one another with cream was hilarious. And Bill Oddie in THAT costume just elevated it to legendary status :D

As a kid, the "Big Foot" episode never left me.

Thank you so much for this. I loved The Goodies at the time but thought the show had probably dated so much that it would be totally childish and a mystery why it was on PrimeTime TV. Your review has put me straight and explained why it was so popular back in my day.

A great tribute to three of the funniest characters from my childhood. R.I.P Tim, you made me laugh a lot. Thanks.

Oh this takes me back to being 19 -23 in Melbourne Australia, 1979 to 1983 every night while eating our tea. Absolutely loved this every single night and never cared how many times I saw the episodes. It’s so sad that Tim has gone, I still think of them being the same as when they did this brilliant show!! Happy memories and so many laughs, my personal favourite being the cod who loved Max Bygraves singing Tulips from Amsterdam. Still cracks me up ❤

As a long-standing Goodies fan and a real fan of your videos, this is great! Thank you!

I need to watch this, I laughed just from watching the bits played here.

The farm fresh food episode now looks more relevant than when it first appeared because we now live in an age of factory farming, food engineering and gmo food controversy.

I don't know why this brilliant show was not more accessible. As a grade-schooler in the 70s, I remember being able to see this show briefly in the States ( New Orleans area). I told all of my friends they needed to watch it because "it's great like Monty Python".... and they agreed. Not all too much longer it seemed to have disappeared as quickly as it came. I do remember some of these bits thank you for sharing. I'm saddened by the member who passed away. I'm always looking for a streaming service to show full episodes

That was fun to watch! Thank you so much! Rest In Peace Tim.

I remember watching repeats of the Goodies in the UK about ten years ago, they showed one episode a night for week at the end of the year and it was my first time watching them. To my memory, they played Kitten Kong, Earthanasia, Double Trouble, Lighthouse Keeping Loonies, The Stone Age and The Beanstalk, and ten year old me was completely elated at this wonderful programme and still am today. :)

TREMENDOUS video of a tremendous team ! I remember when I was at high school in the early 1970s how everyone seemed to be watching the "Goodies", including the teachers and the parents. The persian cat on the new Post Office Tower was totally iconic.

God I used to bloody love the Goodies! In fact I was a right Goodie 'groupie' back in the day. Attending all the personal appearances they used to do and I even managed to get tickets to one of the BBC studio recordings. Sadly it was the 'Apart Height' one. The episode that ended up being rerecorded due to some of the more, shall we say, 'dodgy' jokes in it. God I was so upset when poor old Brooker bit the big one recently. :(

Great list. I think the Goodies deserve and justify a Top 20 though - not many shows that could claim that... OK Tea Rooms has the fantastic Poker scene, and someone did die laughing watching Kung Fu Capers... The factory farming one is really good too and still relevant. I love the sleepwalking one and Watership Down too. And Goodies Rule OK is a masterpiece!

I grew up watching a set of three dvds containing about 20 episodes total so the goodies will always be one of the defining parts of my childhood and my sense of humour And yes tim was my favourite

I saw this show in the us on Public Television as a kid in the 1970s.I loved it .I cannot find a region 1 ( Us and Canada )DVD set any where

Love this on tv late 80s and even into early 90s. Australia. Press Gang, Monkey (Magic), The Goodies, Rick Mayall couch stories, and Degrassi Junior High.The shows thst got me through all the horror that was schooling. 😊 what a time to be alive.

I said it somewhere before: The Goodies were like your best friends that you’d never met. So many good memories. So many laughs. 🙏🏻

I am just discovering this group show, though I've known about its existence since it first appeared (I'm a US citizen, btw, so...not everything filtered over to us from across the pond). Yet, until I happened upon Tengy Talks tv and Movies channel I'd not seen anything from the show that I recall. I see them as a kind of combination of surreal Python-ish Brit comedy and, stylistically/tonally a kind of British version of The Monkees/the shows look quite similar, and like the US show, is "family friendly" on the surface, but with many buried "hints" that the meanings of things are differently intended. Fun great great stuff here just now I am being treated to. THANK YOU for your countdown...and now I am prepared for something completely different that is, uh, completely different...ie a lot of half-hour goodies to look forward to seeing!

I didn’t think I would ever hear of these guys again. Just typed it in search on a KZfaq, and here it is. Used to come on late night TV here in the states in the late seventies on Saturday night

I absolutely love the goodies! Been waiting years to watch full episodes and I finally found them

As a kid, we had the Goodies At Last on DVD and loved it. Even now, they still crack me up.

A fun list, and I agreed with your point during the comments about Radio Goodies that a big part of the success of the series as a whole is the excellent, multi-levelled writing that allows viewers to appreciate it even when they aren't aware of half of the things being referenced - that along with the enormous talent, appeal, and cameraderie of its three stars. There really is something for all ages in this show and across generations, as demonstrated by it's ongoing appeal in Australia where it has been repeated. It's not just nostalgic old fans from the 70s who love it today!

Loved watching The Goodies with a high school friend in the U.S. We’d each be in our own bedroom while on the phone with each other watching the show on Sunday nights. We didn’t talk much, just laughed on the phone for the whole show.

Growing up in Australia in the 80s we were so lucky to have The Goodies on TV repeated frequently after school. I think it really helped kids to appreciate a more broad and sophisticated style of humour. It was great! Now I’ve got 2 kids of my own and we recently watched every Goodies episode together and they loved it. It’s amazing how it still really holds up! For me, you had a good top 10, but mine would have to include Bun Fight at the OK Tearooms, Ecky Thump (aka Kung Fu Kapers), Scoutrageous and That Old Black Magic. Thanks, this was a fun watch! :)

This one definitely is worth a look! Thanks Stuart!

I'm Australian, and grew up with the Goodies. Not so much the early 70's, but late 70's into 80's I watched religiously. The goodies were very popular in Australia at the time, and it's a shame it has somewhat slipped into obscurity. RIP Tim Brooke-Taylor. Goody goody yum yum.

My mum told me about the context for Radio Goodies why we were watching it and that added a lot to it. It remains one of my favourite episodes too.

Glad to see a fellow fan of this amazing show.

So many of my favourites made your list! Earthanasia is the episode I watch every holiday season, can’t wait to give it another watch. It was also the first episode I thought of after Tim passed away, alongside Scoutrageous.

This is fantastic - Always preferred this. I was still young in the early '70s and found this funny (and Benny!). Very nice top 10.

The Goodies were brilliant. Me and my sister absolutely loved them. They were great. Funny. Creative. Thank-you for sharing also the history of them.☺

Our childhood heroes. Still hilarious today. My kids love them. RIP Tim

It's so mesmerising to listen to you talk about this stuff.... And now I really feel like checking out this series and then re-watching the entirety of the Flying Circus. Once I get done with all the crap that the University has thrown at us...

thanks for including "The Baddies" that's an underrated early episode and I love it too!

Your number two is my number one. I love "The End". The one joke that does it for me when when Graham is drawing on the map all the bypasses and motorways that are going to be built before they get rescued. It turns out to be a tic-tac-toe/noughts and crosses grid. He draws the final line which goes through three noughts. He looks at Bill and Tim, then back at the map and says "Hey, I won". But he says it in a way that it's easy to miss until, you watch it three or four times. I mean the entire joke is hilarious, as soon as you realize what he's drawing, but amazing acting by Graham just to say the line that way

You nailed most of the best and with good arguments! I only missed one thing: The end sequence of "The Movies" is amazingly good, such a great sequence of gags and effects, including their amazing recreation of Buster Keaton's Steamboat Willie stunt. I was particularly happy of seeing "It might as well be string" in the list, the definitely spoof ad episode. Of course there are a few I would replace (I really like "Goodies in the nick" and "Cecily") but with Radio Goodies at the top... I am not complaining! :) Good work!

I really like this show too. R.I.P. Tim Brooke-Taylor.

The Goodies got me through Primary School. ABC Australia showed them a lot. But here in Canada they are almost unheard of. They need to be on Britbox or something like that.

So surprised I haven't heard more of this before. Definitely gonna check it out

A very underrated programme. The one I always remember was the episode where they try to popularise cricket by combining it with Rollerball. 😂 Excellent video, well done. 👍

Enjoyed this, but you left out the Livvy episode! The opening sequence with Tim dressed as John Travolta doing the Saturday Night Fever intro is pure comedy gold.

The Movies was always my favourite episode growing up, just seeing the insanity that is the war between silent films, biblical epics and westerns at the end brings a smile to my face

This is definitely one of your best videos

Yeah. Of all the Covid deaths that affected me, Tim was #1. I saw all three of them 18 years ago, and it was one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever had.

In Australia. As a kid the show was replayed on loop non stop on the ABC. Absolutely loved it. Then it just disappeared. I haven’t seen it for decades. Even the clips in your video still make me laugh. I think we were the shows biggest audience. I will be trying to buy the box set The dinosaur episode was my favourite

You're a brave man to try to pick the ten best episodes. However, I largely agree with your choices. I managed to get my hands on a copy of the box set earlier this year, and I don't know if it's possible to wear out DVDs, but I'm giving it a go. Thank you for posting this video. I thoroughly enjoyed it. R.I.P. Tim.

Thank you for this.

My favourite KZfaqr talking about my favourite show

Great video. Excellent stuff.

My mum introduced this to me and I loved it!

Great top 10 love these episodes

I'm going to have to show this to our common friend Matthew, and explain why The Goodies are so loved here in Australia. Keep up the good work.

Growing up in Brooklyn in the 70s, my friends and I would watch this religiously and reference catch-phrases all day ("Me hat blew off"). I remember our teacher being a bit puzzled and amused by our humor.

The show was popular in Australia too and its an integral part of my childhood as my first impression of the UK pretty much when I knew nothing about it at the time except for this and Paddington so I was really sad to hear Tim died cos of bloody COVID, you picked 3 of my faves too, Lighthouse, Earthenasia and The End which I loved for the same reasons you do. Theres just too many good eps to mention but I do think its worth mentioning the one where they produce thier own farm fresh food including square eggs etc because that really was a premonition of genetically engineered food decades before it was even talked about in public.

Great picks, all. I adore The Goodies and you're right, they are sadly overlooked all too often. I'm so glad that you've decided to shine a light on them. Gender Education and Earthenasia are some of my all-time favourites. I'd also give honourable mentions to Gunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms, The Goodies and the Beanstalk, Kung Fu Kapers and Saturday Night Grease. R.I.P. Tim Brooke-Taylor.

My Dad grew up with the Goodies so my childhood memory of it is every few years he'd pull out a VHS or DVD and it'd be all we watched for a week.

I'm only 17 but the goodies is one of my favourite tv shows.

The episode with the dogs singing 'Anything you can do, I can do better' was a classic.

With full context of the 'nicest person of the year" award, the blackboard gag at 7:26 is the hardest I've ever laughed at British comedy. Good lord, Spiro Agnew.

Great show....I loved it. The writing was great

Australian here. I loved this show as a kid, and although (in hindsight) most of their jokes went over my head, I loved it none the less because, like you said, they wrote accessibly. The true mark of any good book/show/piece of art is that it can be enjoyed by all, whether you have a little or lot of knowledge. I remember the S-E-(signals X) episode, and the two part episodes the most. And, yes, I saw them when they toured Australia in the 2000s. Truly a magical moment.

Look, these guys were hilariously and mad back then, and would still be today.

I would have loved to see discussion of the wacky segment of making three different movies simultaneously. The scene where Bill and the Keystone Cops burst in on Delilah’s boudoir always cracks me up!

I watched the Goodies as child growing up in Australia, One of the episodes that sticks in my head was Ecky Thump.

I would pay so much for the goodies and wurzel gummidge to get bluray releases

IT'S ROUND

I am impressed especially in the KITTEN KONG episode the lengths the guys went through to imitate the exact framing and effects shot set-ups of the Hollywood film maker whose career was famously built almost entirely around making movies about BIG things/things being made big (via radiation etc), "Mr. Big" himself, Bert I. Gordon. He made films like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, THE CYCLOPS, WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST, BEGINNING OF THE END (giant grasshoppers) etc. The Goodies really seemed to go for very specific DETAILS of the subjects they spoofed. Very smart...and funny!.

Thanks! "The Movies" was always my favourite, mostly for "Macbeth Meets Truffaut the Wonder Dog". I was laughing so hard that I thought I was going to get a heart attack. "Hark what light through yonder window breaks! Is it the Moon? No, it's Truffaut the Wonder Dog!".

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