Spaced

[Your Mom]

Has anyone seen this show? It's wonderful and I wish I had seen it sooner. It stars Simon Pegg and is directed by the same guy who did Shaun of the Dead I believe. It's really hilarious. A couple of questions for our friends in the UK though.

1. Is there no rule about language on your shows? There were at least 4 F-Bombs I can remember.

2. Why do you say "called" and not "named" when telling someone's name? It strikes me as odd but then again for all I know you might think saying "named" is odd.

[-A-]

There aren't really any rules on language after 9pm, as far as I know. Certainly nothing as serious as in the US, anyway. Generally, things seem to be a lot less strict - for example, Family Guy gets shown on the BBC over here, which a couple of American people I've spoken to found surprising.

I think called vs. named is just one of those things - I'd say 'called' without thinking about it, but 'named' doesn't seem odd - just a little more formal, maybe.

Edited November 1, 2008 by -A-

[GA!]

Has anyone seen this show? It's wonderful and I wish I had seen it sooner. It stars Simon Pegg and is directed by the same guy who did Shaun of the Dead I believe. It's really hilarious. A couple of questions for our friends in the UK though.

1. Is there no rule about language on your shows? There were at least 4 F-Bombs I can remember.

2. Why do you say "called" and not "named" when telling someone's name? It strikes me as odd but then again for all I know you might think saying "named" is odd.

1. After 9pm, any word is acceptable on TV, except for 'cunt'. I think. The BBC has a few more restrictions.

2. Do you mean, for example, "he's called Chris"? The answer to that then is that "he's named Chris" sounds odd.

[Adam]

I use both called and named frequently, it's just one of those things over here I guess.

I wasn't aware it was stricter in the US, but yeah, after the watershed, which is generally 9pm but I know the movie channels have an 8pm watershed, it's anything goes pretty much in terms of language. Plenty of these comedy sketch/panel shows can drop over two dozen 'f-bombs' during a show starting at 9pm or later. Ive never thought anything of it in terms of being more lenient than in other countries.

[-A-]

I wasn't aware it was stricter in the US, but yeah, after the watershed, which is generally 9pm but I know the movie channels have an 8pm watershed

That reminds me, I think the actual watershed is 8pm, but broadcasters self-regulate and keep most swearing bleeped until 9pm or later.

I wonder what the rules are on 'cunt' then? I'm sure I must've heard it on terrestrial TV, but I can't think of examples.

[Adam]

I'm sure Frankie Boyle has come out with that before on Mock the Week, that's on the BBC. I could be wrong though.

[therockbox]

I wasn't aware it was stricter in the US, but yeah, after the watershed, which is generally 9pm but I know the movie channels have an 8pm watershed

That reminds me, I think the actual watershed is 8pm, but broadcasters self-regulate and keep most swearing bleeped until 9pm or later.

I wonder what the rules are on 'cunt' then? I'm sure I must've heard it on terrestrial TV, but I can't think of examples.

It was used a couple of times on Dead Set (E4), and it's also been used on a few documentaries. One that springs to mind is about the origins of road names, they spent about 10 minutes talking about Grope Cunt Lane. Caprice (model) also said cunt on daytime TV, she was talking about the The Vagina Monologues on Richard and Judy I think.

As for Spaced, it's one of my favourite shows. I've watched it through more times than I can remember, it's a bit like Arrested Development in that you pick up jokes and references that you missed on the first or second viewing.

[RoyWill Rumble]

Called and named aside, Spaced is in my opinion the best sitcom of all time. The characters are incredible and Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg are awesome in it.

There's talk of the show being remade for America, with American actors and all that shit and it rather pisses me off.

[TGC]

Called and named aside, Spaced is in my opinion the best sitcom of all time. The characters are incredible and Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg are awesome in it.

There's talk of the show being remade for America, with American actors and all that shit and it rather pisses me off.

I believe that has already fallen apart if memory serves.

[Your Mom]

Yeah there was an article in Wizard and it said the American version fell through. Which is a good thing because it would suck.

[RoyWill Rumble]

Thank fuck.

[Scott McFly]

The watershed is definitely 9pm. You can get away with some mild stuff before then (bitch, shit, etc.) but anything stronger has to be after that and generally the c-bomb is rarely dropped but generally after 10pm if it is. I think the Sky movie channels are PIN-protected are they not for swearing before then?

And "named" is a bit formal. If you're asking about someone's name you generally say "what's his name?", but to say "he's named John" sounds a bit uppity. In fact, I would probably just say "he's John" or "that's John" and not say anything in the middle.

Edited November 1, 2008 by Scott McFly

[Zaz]

Watched it all on YouTube last year sometime, really, really awesome show. Probably the funniest sitcom I've seen, mainly because they didn't stretch it out over too many seasons like most American ones do.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Yeah, see, watershed in the US is something like 10pm and even then you're not going to find any curse more severe than "damn". There are rare exceptions - South Park, for one - but for the most part everyone's got sticks up their butts as far as "dirty words" are concerned. If "cunt" got dropped on broadcast television no matter what time it was, you wouldn't hear the end of it on the news and shit for at least a few weeks and the network and whoever said it would probably be severely reprimanded.

[stokeriño]

Whereas Frankie Boyle can go on terrestrial television at, oh, about 9:20pm on a Thursday evening and say that the Queen is so old, her pussy is haunted.

Hooray for whoever it is in the UK television standards oversight people who clearly doesn't give a damn about their job. (Y)

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I watched, and loved Spaced for the first time when the second series aired in 2001. I watched one episode and went out and bought series 1 on DVD the next day and then series 2 ASAP.

Great great comedy.