What was the first episode of Red Dwarf you saw?

[Dave]

I was hooked when a friend showed me Backwards on Video at the age of nine.

The first episode I saw ‘new’ was Psirens, but the time that happened I knew Series I-IV as encyclopaedically as a twelve year old can.

What was the first episode of Red Dwarf you saw?

Topic

[John Hoare]

The very first episode I remember seeing was a tiny bit of Dimension Jump – I *think* from its first showing. Dad turned over to it, and I saw Ace Rimmer knocking Kryten out in the cockpit. I wanted to watch it, but Dad wouldn’t let me because something else was on.

The first episode I saw properly was actually The End in the ’94 repeat season – and I was hooked from the first episode, and recorded every episode on tape. Still have them, actually. Body Swap seems odd to me now, without the continuity announcer mentioning “It’s the Red Dwarf diet…”

[Seb Patrick]

As I’ve said before – I’m convinced the first ep I saw was “Justice”, because I remember the head mumps scene. However, I saw all of IV on original broadcast – and that includes “Camille” – so going by simple fact (and ignoring my hideously bad memory), it must have been “Camille”.

Dwarf, Brittas and Harry Enfield’s Television Programme were three things I remember my Dad used to let me stay up late to watch…

[John Hoare]

Dwarf, Brittas and Harry Enfield?s Television Programme were three things I remember my Dad used to let me stay up late to watch?

Spitting Image, for me. John Major singing Should I Stay or Should I Go is etched into my memory. “GO! GO!”

Incidentally, the lyrics to that have always annoyed me. “If I go there will be trouble / And if I stay it will be double”. IN THAT CASE, SURELY THE DECISION IS OBVIOUS.

[Danny Stephenson]

I have a strong belief that the first episode I saw, was The Last Day, only because I remember Kryten’s silver box with his name on it. Which makes sense considering my later memories of Red Dwarf came from Series 4, so it all ties in. Between Series 4 and 5 I found out that Holly used to be a man. I found the tapes of the original runs my dad had made, then I got hooked…

[pfm]

It was definitely the original broadcast of The End. I clearly remember, at 5-years-old, being sucked in by the whole ‘Steptoe in space’ vibe and… OK, that’s a lie…

I got into it properly, bizarrely, through watching the Smeg Ups video. My mate had it, for whatever reason, in the middle of a load of One Foot In The Grave, Young Ones and *yes* Who videos, all of which we also devoured. I remember at the time being annoyed that it was just outtakes and not actual episodes, but it definitely got me interested. Luckily there was a series 2 video around, so Kryten was the first episode I actually sat and watched. It’s not a wonder that series 2 is still my favourite, it’s the only one I knew for quite a while, but god I watched it a heck of a lot of times.

[mick]

The End, I still have a Betamax recording of the original broadcast

[John Hoare]

The End, I still have a Betamax recording of the original broadcast

Does it have any continuity on it, mick?

[Andrew]

I know I saw some of Series I in ’88, but I couldn’t swear it was from episode one. I have vivid memories of Series II, however – it was attached to Young Ones repeats, I was 12, and I head to watch Better Than Life with the volume low because I was meant to be asleep having been sent to bed early as punishment for…something.

I recored Parallel Universe onto VHS, but it was my Mum’s tape and I couldn’t keep it. So I did the only sane thing – took the TV into an alcove, padded the area with cushions and put a tape recorder in there. I didn’t even check the duration – I tacked it on after a copy of the Batman album and had to flip the tape about six minutes in…

[John Hoare]

On an audio tape somewhere, I have the Palace Hill and The Cook Report themes. I also have me singing along to the theme of The Satellite Show, a CBBC series from the late eighties that NOBODY REMEMBERS. I really wish I’d been allowed video tapes back then to keep all this stuff – I would kill to see Palace Hill again, and it never turns up on any of the torrent sites…

Unfortunately, I also have 30 minutes of, erm, ‘Radio John’.

[Dave]

Radio John, coming soon to a Dwarfcast near you?

[mick]

Does it have any continuity on it, mick?

Buggered if I can remember, infact the only thing I remember about it is that the end credits are cut off by Robots of Death.

Time for some Betamax digging again…

[Jonsmad]

13 years of age in 1988, big fan of the Young Ones and Fawlty Towers and Python by this point. Read the blurb in the paper about a new comedy show set in space. I thought, That sounds shit. Didnt bother watching it, probably read an Eagle or Oink Comic instead and went to bed.

Then later at school, everyone raving about the show and calling everyone else a smeg head, and me feeling left out for having missed it. So first episode was Future Echoes, and the recaps at the start of the show really helped back then. Started recording the show off the tv by series 3 premier. And Waiting so so long for a series 1 video release and a chance to see how it all began, by which time all I could really remember was bits of Me2 and the catchphrase of saying “Fish”
multiple times, which me and friends used to do all the time.

[John Hoare]

I did a play for a school assembly that nicked VAST amounts of Red Dwarf – including the chicken merango scene from Confidence and Paranoia, and the driving test from Backwards. I’m sure it was absolute shit, but as usual with my stuff, there was just one REALLY good joke. Fucked if I can remember it, though. I can’t even remember if we wrote out a script or not…

Ut also involved a time machine made of cardboard, that blew up by someone pulling party poppers behind it. Only the person who was supposed to set them off they missed their cue, and I had to say the line three times before they bothered to do it. Prick.

[Tanya Jones]

It’s possible that I saw series 1 first, and I’m almost certain that I saw series 2, because I was an obsessive fan of series 3 (knew several eps off by heart). No idea about the first episode, though. I was defintely a big comedy watcher by 1988, as I remember the continuity and series like Alexei Sayle’s stuff, so I think it’s highly likely I did see series 1; but no vivid memories, sadly.

[pfm]

I’m gonna admit something now. There was one episode I had NEVER seen until the DVD release… Anyone care to hazard a guess at which it was? Didn’t think so, it was Confidence & Paranoia. It had gained mythical status in my mind over the years, one episode of Red Dwarf I had not seen! Oh the joy at finally watching it. I didn’t come but it was close (it was Confidence & Paranoia after all…)

[mick]

Bizzarely enough Confidence & Paranoia was the last Red Dwarf vid I got and after the original broadcast I never saw any of those episodes again until 2002!

[Danny Stephenson]

>The Satellite Show…

Did that have characters called Sigma, Callisto and Ganymede on it, John, like puppets? Coz I remember drawing them on a board I used to make plastercine models on when I was about 5…

[Austin Ross]

The local library had a VHS copy of the first and second series, so I first saw The End. It wasn’t that long ago, either – probably five or six years at the maximum. I remember I HATED The End, but I decided I’d give it one more chance and I pretty much immediately fell in love with Future Echoes.

[Phil]

Meltdown.

PBS was airing series I-VII (there was no VIII at the time) in a weekly rotation, in sequence. I remember my first viewing of Meltdown rather well, and it was a pretty good episode to start with. Since I didn’t know the characters, there was enough situational comedy to keep me very amused.

Holoship was aired the next week and THAT was when I fell in love. I didn’t know much about the characters at all, but I knew this was a show that was treating them with some real respect, and the writer in me was very much impressed.

I started watching because my manager at Taco Bell (oh, to be 17 again!) was talking about it to me one night when we were closing up. He was talking about the bit where the ship is hit with a meteor in Queeg. I don’t remember it being a particularly funny re-enactment (are they ever?) but it was enough, evidently, to get me to tune in.

[Pete Part Three]

Future Echoes in the ’94 repeat run. By the time BBC2 had repeated Confidence and Paranoia a month later, I’d already bought both series one videos. I continued buying the videos regularly for the duration of the run (rather than simply recording them) up until series six. The BBC would not see fit to release that for another year, so had to rely on taping that series off the telly. Psirens was, of course, excluded from the repeat and my VCR went kapputt before Emohawk.

[Antipodean]

Ouroboros Xtended was the first one I saw. The last one was Meltdown.

[pfm]

> Ouroboros Xtended was the first one I saw.

Woah, not the best introduction to Dwarf! I always wonder whether I would have stuck with Dwarf if I had seen VII or VIII first. Obviously LOADS of people have.

[Phil]

>I always wonder whether I would have stuck with Dwarf if I had seen VII or VIII first. Obviously LOADS of people have.

The only Simpsons DVD set I own is season eight, so if this idea is expanded upon in another set someone is welcome to clarify or correct me, but Matt Groening has a theory that people are always going to enjoy most what they see first. Which means those who loved The Simpsons during the first few years will think it’s been downhill ever since, those who came to it later will think it’s been downhill since season 10 or 11, and those who came still LATER think it’s brilliant now and will follow the pattern of becoming disillusioned somewhere down the line.

And I DO think there’s some truth to that, as much as I’d like to refute him. Long-running shows are the best gauge of this, obviously…

I did enjoy The Simpsons from early on, but my interest blossomed around the time of seasons 6-7-8, and, of course, I pretty much think those are the best. My favorite cast of Saturday Night Live is the one I grew up watching (Phil Hartman, John Lovitz, Chris Farley…), and my favorite series of Dwarf is still V, which, coincidentally, happens to be the first series I saw (if you can discount one single episode of IV).

It’s an interesting theory and Groening is not a stupid man…the urge to refute him is definitely there, and I’m sure there are enough counter-examples to do so…but it’s worth considering. There’s an issue of comfort that comes with your first real exposure to something and it’s hard for something else, no matter what the quality, to unbalance that.

[philmyer92]

Backwards just after the first just the shows dvd had been released then after series 6 had been released on dvd Emohawk then the rest of series 6 that followed. i then watched in same weekend series 1,2 and the rest of 3 by the end of the week up to series 6 then i had to wait untill the other 2 dvd’s came out.

[Dave]

>a theory that people are always going to enjoy most what they see first

I think I can agrre with that. There’s a sense of ownership. And to slightly contradict what I wrote at the top of the thread: Series VI is easily my favourite, which although I had seen Seasons II-IV a few times, VI was the first one I had to wait a week to find out what happens and in pre-internet days that cliffhanger was a big deal.

[Andrew]

It’s a reasonable way to look at things.

There’s a certain vibe from what you see first that establishes what you’re seeing as “This Is How This Thing Is”. People who saw Terminator 2 first think it’s an action franchise and kinda teen-friendly. If you saw the original first see it as a horror franchise that went all action-y. (Aliens caused much the same problem.)

It’s a generalisation, of course, but not invalid for that. (Maybe it’s more “what spoke to you first” rather than “what you saw first” – the version that made you sit up and pay attention.)

I’d say Dwarf was somewhat defined for me the day I recorded Parallel Universe. Series III is my favourite series, so I’m kinda on the II/III border about what the show ‘is’ for me – which maybe explains why I’m less keen on the SF-heavy seasons, but enjoy the tonally-not-totally-dissimilar VIII.

[Pete Part Three]

>The only Simpsons DVD set I own is season eight, so if this idea is expanded upon in another set someone is welcome to clarify or correct me, but Matt Groening has a theory that people are always going to enjoy most what they see first. Which means those who loved The Simpsons during the first few years will think it?s been downhill ever since, those who came to it later will think it?s been downhill since season 10 or 11, and those who came still LATER think it?s brilliant now and will follow the pattern of becoming disillusioned somewhere down the line.

I think the first episode of The Simpsons I saw was season two’s “One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish” and would dispute Groening’s comment because, while it was good, it was nowhere near the genius of Season 4-6.

Ditto for me and Red Dwarf. Future Echoes will always have a special place in my heart, but V is the absolute peak of the show.

[Phil]

Well I’m sure he doesn’t mean that the first *episode* you saw is going to be your favorite…I think it’s more about the era during which you first experienced the show. It’s easy to break a show into series/season, mainly because the boundaries are pre-defined…but it’s more the period of the show’s evolution that he’s referring to.

Also I think Andrew is right to refine the comment to mean “when the show first spoke to you” rather than “when you first saw it.” I’m sure Groening had Andrew’s idea in mind, however it happened to be phrased…explaining things on the fly in a commentary you’re bound to express at least one idea gracelessly.

[Joey TORDFC]

I’ve had a think about this recently. I distinctly remember two Rimmers prior to my regular watching, one with an H, one without. So contrary to me saying in the past it was series five from original broadcast, I’m going with Dimension Jump.

[Pete Part Three]

>Well I?m sure he doesn?t mean that the first *episode* you saw is going to be your favorite?

Yeah, I got that; I just meant that the first episode I saw of Red Dwarf was from Series One and the first episode of The Simpsons I saw was from Season 2. They ‘spoke to me’, it’s just that the shows got even better.

[Andrew]

Maybe it needs to be further qualified with ‘unless what followed spoke to you even more significantly than what you saw first’. Or something.

[Phil]

Quiet, you.

[pfm]

Well, VII ‘spoke’ to me all right. Tikka was the first episode of Dwarf I saw on original broadcast. Oh how I had hyped up this collosal erection event in my mind. The expectations for The Phantom Menace were nothing in comparison. I remember thinking the Kennedy stuff was absolutely awful, that it was NOT Red Dwarf. That didn’t stop me watching it about six times in two days though. You know when something is bad but you keep I ate out your mother watching it, hoping to glean more from it? You can immediately see why I would paint a picket fence hate VII and a more casual viewer would just masturbation for the nation accept it or even like it. As a fan you’re gonna compare compare equal rights for monkeys compare. As a casual you’re licking your cat’s balls not thinking ‘what the fuck??’ every second. A casual is like an impartial jury who have no knowledge of the accused’s previous convictions.

[Tanya Jones]

Er, yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

[Danny Stephenson]

has someone been editing these posts? Have you done that ‘performingmonkey’?

[Pete Part Three]

If I say who I think is responsible for this it’ll get cut too, so I’m not
going to, but it’s him. I know it’s him, you can bet on it, and if I ever
catch up to him, I’m gonna cut off both his b— blunt knife.

Ah shit, I just quoted series VIII.

[Danny Stephenson]

I think that is one of the funniest jokes in VIII. Can’t you let just one go?

[Pete Part Three]

I had to google the exact quote rather than transcribing it from memory. So that’s all right then.

[pfm]

A word to the wise – don’t drink and post. Things that seem funny after you’ve had a few quite frankly aren’t.

[Tanya Jones]

Oddly enough, pm, this is comforting to read.

[daphne]

The first one I saw was “Justice”…I remember it clearly because I was having a “post-drinking-binge” snack (in the States they have “British Comedy” nights late on PBS) and I thought, “What kind of show would create a main character with a head like that looks like a dried custard?” Also, I thought it was “Space Herpes.” In fact, it was only recently that I discovered my mistake. hee hee hee….

[Phil]

I miss the British Comedy Nights we had on our PBS affiliate in New Jersey. Up there we had Dwarf, Brittas, Thin Blue Line, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, Father Ted…

The affiliate down here in Florida seems to think “British Comedy Night” translates perfectly well into “six episodes of Last of the Summer Wine.”

[Austin Ross]

The best I’ve gotten out of the local PBS as far as British comedic exports are concerned is Fawlty Towers, and I’d seen it long before their aired it. The last I checked they were running through the first series of the new Doctor Who, but still.

They run enough other good stuff that I’m willing to forgive them, though.

[Arlene Rimmer BSc SSc]

>The affiliate down here in Florida seems to think ?British Comedy Night? translates perfectly well into ?six episodes of Last of the Summer Wine.?

You have to put up with Last of the Summer Wine too? Of course, over here that’s not the worst–an eastern Washington “British Comedy Night” is “two episodes of As time Goes By with Judi Dench and two eps of My Hero”.

I try not to watch My Hero, myself, because I like Ardal O’Hanlon, and I’d hate to ruin that.

[John Hoare]

The thing that pisses me off about Last of the Summer Wine is that Roy Clarke used to be a great writer – Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances are FANTASTIC.

But he seems content on just churning out that bilge now. What a shame.

[Seb Patrick]

I can think of one pretty big reason why he still does it, actually ;-)

[pfm]

I doubt he uses much brain power penning those.

[Phil]

Forgot about Keeping Up Appearances! That was also part of British Comedy Night. (The shows were kept in fairly regular rotation so obviously not everything I listed would be seen in one night.) I enjoyed KOA a lot. It’s a perfect example of a formulaic sitcom still managing to be funny every time.

They also aired As Time Goes By, which was a case of two great actors stuck in a world of poor supporting actors and even worse writing, and My Hero, which, I’m afraid to admit, I actually enjoyed.

I’d never say it was genius, but every episode I saw got at least one good laugh out of me. And I realize that by saying that, nobody here will ever want to speak to me again.

[Danny Stephenson]

> and My Hero, which, I?m afraid to admit, I actually enjoyed.

Get out.

[Pete Part Three]

>I?d never say it was genius, but every episode I saw got at least one good laugh out of me. And I realize that by saying that, nobody here will ever want to speak to me again.

You had me at “I enjoyed KOA a lot”. Sorry, but that’s as shite as My Hero.

How many episodes were made? I swear to god they always play the same one on UKGold (you know; it’s the one where Hyacinth embarrasses herself in front of someone she wants to win over).

[Author]

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