My Fantasy DVD: Hippies

Sun, 17/12/2006 - 07:42 — John Hoare

Out of all of the television shows that Linehan and Mathews have been involved with, nearly all of them have been released on DVD. Two major omissions remain, however - Paris, their 1994 sitcom featuring Alexi Sayle and Neil Morrissey, and Hippies, their 1999 effort "about" the counterculture, created by both of them, but written by Mathews alone. Is it coincidence that it's their two period sitcoms that are seen as the least successful? Well, probably, to be honest, but it's an interesting notion.

It has to be said that even getting Hippies on DVD would be fantastic. Some shows you mainly buy the DVDs for the extras; much as I love Red Dwarf, I recorded them all during the 94 repeat run, they're shown endlessly on UK Gold, and I've seen every episode 20 times over. The extras were the main draw. With something like Hippies, it's different - just a chance to own high quality copies of the episodes would be wonderful. That's not to say that I'd be happy with a bare bones release; just that the episodes themselves deserve more of a spotlight than on some DVD releases, because the series deserves to be re-evaluated.

Still, what kind of extras would I like to see on any potential Hippies DVD release?

Pilot episode

Yep, there was one! And not just one with the odd different scene from a broadcast episode - Mathews says in this excellent interview that "Hippy Dippy Hippies was the original pilot, although we re-shot it for the series." If nothing else, I want to see this. It would make absolutely fascinating viewing, as if it was completely reshot, there must be loads of changes between the pilot and series. Not only are pilots entertaining in their own right, but they're also a fascinating glimpse into how a series could have turned out - the decisions taken on what to change really give you an insight into the production process.

Commentary

On all six episodes, please - if you're going to bother to sort out a recording session, why not do all six? The first Maid Marian DVD is extremely frustrating in this respect - you've got Tony Robinson sitting there being extremely interesting over the first episode, and then nothing else. I was desperate to hear what else he had to say.

As for who should do it: Simon Pegg, obviously (he's extremely good value on the Spaced and Shaun of the Dead commentaries); co-creator and writer Arthur Mathews would also be a must. Apart from them, the director Martin Dennis would lend some valuable insight on the technical side - indeed, the great joy of the Fawlty Towers Series 2 commentary is hearing Bob Spiers giving in-depth information about actually shooting a sitcom. Film techniques are gone over time and time again in various forms, but sitcom production is covered far less comprehensively; which, considering their popularity, is rather odd. Multi-camera sitcoms are just as important as film.

Beyond them, there's plenty of other people who could get involved; Sally Phillips, Julian Rhind-Tutt, and even Peter Serafinowicz for his episode. Perhaps even Lineham could get involved for an episode or two; as Mathews wrote the series himself, it's sometimes easy to forget that he co-created the series, and he could perhaps give some insights into the creation of the show... and some details on why he left.

Trailers

There were loads of trails for Hippies - it was endlessly hyped due to it being the successor to Father Ted, and there were plenty of spots in the weeks before the programme, and indeed trails for next week's episode straight after the first few eps. These didn't only include clips of the programme with a voiceover - they also included shots of the cast running around a giant 2 logo in a field, which was rather nicely done, and made the trails rather more interesting than usual.

Outtakes

I remember some outtakes from Hippies appearing on a show a few years back; however, I'm afraid I can't remember which one. Steve Penk Gets His Bollocks Out, or something. I do, however, remember one outtake involving Sally Phillips showing her knickers off to Simon Pegg repeatedly, and him corpsing, which I think the entire country would benefit from having a wider audience.

Sally Phillips' knickers. Mmmmm.

Deleted Scenes

Now, I was at a recording of one episode of Hippies - Protesting Hippies, which went out first (and was quite the worst one of the entire run). There were a few bits chopped out of it - not just odd lines, but entire scenes. Two bits I remember are a cutaway to two CIA agents, after Alex's line about the CIA planting a camera in The Freak's beard; and a long exchange about pressing a red button at the sandpaper exhibition. (The fact this bit was cut out explains why the pieces of sandpaper on little hooks suddenly stop moving in the final episode.) There was more than that cut from the episode that I don't remember - and spread across six episodes, there must be quite a lot of unseen stuff. All this is provided that the rushes to the series still survives, of course.

I always find deleted scenes fascinating. Yes, one one level it's more Hippies for your money - but it always surprises me when, in some reviews of DVDs, they review the actual scenes themselves based on how good they are. The point is, some deleted scenes are deleted for a reason - you shouldn't be reviewing them on quality. You should partly be reviewing them on how interesting they are.

One important thing to do with deleted scenes is to give them a bit of context. On The IT Crowd release, this is done with an optional commentary from Linehan; on the Red Dwarf releases, it's done with a simple caption informing us why the moment was deleted. Either is fine; but there's nothing more infuriating than when someone has bothered to go and put together the deleted scenes, and then not spent that tiny bit of extra time giving them the proper context.

Series 1 Scripts

As DVD-ROM PDFs. Scripts are always fascinating - both for the stuff cut out (or not even shot), but also for the stage directions, which contain extra jokes, or even interesting character stuff. They're also a good insight into the production process. Still, the main reason I mention the Series 1 scripts is because it leads into...

Series 2 Scripts

Oh yes. Mathews mentions in the aforementioned interview that:

"I actually wrote a lot of the second series. Alex was going to enter a competition for Britain's most laid back person. Ray was convinced that he was going to be featured on this This is Your Life. Jill joined a suicide cult. There was no shortage of ideas. I would have brought back Peter Serafinowicz, who played a very frightening character called Robin."

Seeing as the scripts are unlikely to see the light of day anywhere else, it would be fantastic to see them on DVD; it would be the closest the show will get to having the second series it deserved.

There's other paperwork that could be included too - call sheets, PASB documentation - hell, even the original pitch document for the series...

Isolated Music

As you'd expect, there's quite a lot of music in Hippies. As well as the amusing opening and closing themes (I love sitcoms that put real effort into their title music), and the between-scene stings, there's also music from Ray's musical in Hairy Hippies to include. "We are the children, of Aquarius...."

Photo Gallery

Photo galleries are often underrated on DVDs. Why is it that people will gleefully admire photos in a book, but as soon as they're transferred to DVD, they get bored because they don't move? You only have to look at the wonderful galleries on the Red Dwarf or classic Doctor Who releases to realise what a great feature these can be if a bit of effort is put into them.

It would be great to have some behind-the-scenes photos included, for instance, as well as the more usual publicity photos. One thing that all productions do is take photos of the set and cast, for continuity purposes. In fact, during the recording of the episode I attended, I got dragged up on stage and had my photo taken with the cast using the polaroid camera they presumably used for this kind of thing. (It's a long story.) I still have the polaroid somewhere - when I find it I'll stick it up on the site. Anyway, if the continuity photos could be dug up, that'd be great stuff for the photo gallery.

Production Subtitles

Much-used on Doctor Who releases, but not on many other TV DVDs, these are a great way of adding value to a release relatively cheaply. Recording dates, location information, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, quotes from various people, extracts from reviews - it effectively adds nearly three hours worth more extras with hardly any disc space.

So... how likely?

Phew. Now, I've done these kinds of pieces before, and I'm well aware that these articles may sound like one big unrealistic moan. Or at the very least, one enormous wank fantasy. Both of which are absolutely true, of course.

Still, I remain convinced that the show will get a DVD release one day. For a start, Simon Pegg is the star of the show - after Spaced and Shaun of the Dead, that gives you a large ready-made audience who would buy the DVD. Along with the people who'll buy it because it says "From the creators of Father Ted" on the cover, I'm pretty sure the release would sell well, even if the show is currently relatively obscure. I mean, there's plenty of obscure shows that manage to find a release these days

Now, getting all of the extras above would be an absolutely miracle. Still, I'm hoping that if they do release the show, it won't be just a bare bones release - because the show deserves to be celebrated with a decent set of extras. Note that I mention nothing up there (save the commentary and production subtitles - and I'd happily do without the production subtitles if we get a commentary) which involves extra recording of material - it's all based on existing stuff that could be compiled together. This means more money can be spent on finding and compiling archive goodies. A decent commentary can provide much of the information that would be included in any potential documentary, after all - and documentaries are expensive to shoot and edit.

So. Yeah. Hippies. Release it. I'm sure it'd sell well enough. And please, please - let's see that pilot...

A version of this article was first published on Noise To Signal.

Comments