American Comedy Awards

A motley crew of Latvian ne'er-do-wells performs rude, crude and lewd stunts.

Writer and creator Peter Spence originally intended To the Manor Born for radio. Instead, BBC brass decided on a half-hour television version which began its three-year run in September 1979. Spence based the series on a widow who sold her Cricket St. Thomas estate to a businessman. Some of the scenes were filmed inside the estate, known in the sitcom as Grantleigh Manor, which lent the show an authentic upper-crust atmosphere. In the series, uppity widow Audrey fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith) sells her ancestral home to settle her late husband's debts. She is shocked to learn the new owner, Richard DeVere (Peter Bowles) rose from poverty to become a "nouveau riche" supermarket king -- even more surprising, his English accent and manners belie his Czechoslovakian background. Audrey moves to the nearby Grantleigh Manor Lodge, a convenient location where she can watch Richard and the estate. Richard soon learns his new neighbor is an adversary determined to dictate the "lord of the manor"'s expected duties and customs. His desire to modernize the manor often clashed with her notions of tradition -- what ignited their sparks was not just anger, but romantic tension. Whether their battles were of the sexes, class differences, city vs. country lifestyles, or all of the above, nearly every episode featured a cat-and-mouse game in which one tried to outsmart the other. As Audrey and Richard became better acquainted, the intensity of their arguments decreased and their mutual attraction grew; Audrey began to accept Richard's adaptation to upper-class country life and he more appreciated her old-fashioned ways. Other regular cast members included Audrey's longtime friend Marjory Frobisher (Angela Thorne), Richard's mother Mrs. Polouvicka (Daphne Heard), Brigadier Lemington (Anthony Sharp), Audrey's butler Brabinger (John Rudling), the estate handyman Ned (Michael Bilton), village shopkeeper Mrs. Patterson (Daphne Oxenford), and the church rector (Gerald Sim). The 21-episode series ended in 1981 with Audrey and Richard's wedding; 24 million people watched the finale. To The Manor Born later aired worldwide and on American PBS stations. In 1997, BBC Radio 2 broadcast ten To the Manor Born radio plays, six TV episode adaptations and four new stories starring Penelope Keith and Angela Thorne as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton and Marjory Frobisher and Keith Barron as Richard DeVere.

An NBC page aspires to an acting career, amid various challenges (including his size). Also known as 'Hey Mulligan.'

Produced for cable's Showtime service, the half-hour Weeds starred Mary-Louise Parker as suburban housewife Nancy Botwin, whose comfy, affluent existence was shattered by the unexpected death of her husband. With no other readily available source of income, Nancy decided to service an ever-growing consumer demand -- by selling marijuana to other white-bread suburbanites. Purchasing her pot from streetwise dealer Conrad Shepard (Romany Malco) and his aunt, supplier Heylia James (Tonye Patano), Nancy set up her new business enterprise using a bakery as a front, with the assistance of city councilman Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) -- all the while keeping her activities a secret from her snooty, traditionalist best friend, PTA president Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins). Also in the cast were Alexander Gould and Hunter Parrish as Nancy's sons, Shane and Silas; Justin Kirk as her overgrown-slacker brother-in-law, Andy; Andy Milder as Celia's feeble husband, Dean Hodes; Allie Grant as the Hodes' overweight daughter, Isabelle; and Martin Donovan as Peter, a single dad whom Nancy fell for -- and who turned out to be a DEA agent. The series' ironic theme music was the Womenfolk's "Little Boxes," a satiric paean to split-level conformity. One of those series invariably described as "smart and sexy" by in-the-know critics, the Golden Globe-winning Weeds debuted August 7, 2005.

Five kids follow mysterious clues as they search for their missing foster parents in this story based in Amsterdam. Will the children be able to find a light at the end of the tunnel they are travelling in? The story is set in Amsterdam. When their foster parents Erik and Kate Hunter go missing, five children Simone, Sophie, Tim, Jennie and Jerry set off in search of them with only a handful of clues to guide them. Will the children be able to find a light at the end of the tunnel they are travelling in?

A delightfully manic comedy about an ill-mannered innkeeper, created by and starring 'Monty Python' alum John Cleese and his then-wife, Connie Booth. Inspired by a real-life hotelier, the series won legions of fans as soon as it premiered on the BBC in September 1975. A second series of six episodes ran in February 1979.