The Strange World of Gurney Slade

Associated Television

Comedy Sci-Fi & Fantasy
English     8.3     1960     United Kingdom

Overview

Anthony Newley stars as an actor who walks off the set of a banal sit-com and into a fantasy world of his own imagination in this surreal odyssey through one man's personal alternative reality.

Reviews

BrownSTHLM wrote:
Anthony Newley was so far ahead of his time in 1960 when he made this show, that it is still boggles the mind 66 years later. The premise of the show at its start was already pretty wacky. An actor in a run of the mill comedy/soap opera style show leaves the show in the middle of shooting and we follow him out of the studio and into his aimless wandering around as he interacts with various characters. The show was first given a primetime slot - Newley was a star after all - but was gradually shifted further down the schedule as each episode lost viewers and became more and more obtuse. It was filmed week by week so that after episode one was broadcast, episode two was filmed and edited etc. and then broadcast and so on week by week. As the viewing figures dropped, Newley began to address the popularity of the the show within the show itself - eventually being tried in the final episode for producing a terrible tv show that no one liked. The witnesses in the trial being characters that had appeared in earlier episodes and who were quizzed by the prosecution and Newley himself on the plot, characters etc., value of the show and so on. The chameleonic young David Bowie, already a Newley fan at this time, watched this and perhaps thought to himself - _I'll 'ave some o that_ - his debut album _David Bowie,_ certainly owes something to Newley. Beyond his _avant garde, post-modern_ version of televison, Anthony Newley was a successful songwriter, penning _Feeling Good_ for _Nina Simone_ with his longtime collaborator _Leslie Bricusse_ with whom he wrote the score for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, as well as many other hits - the lyrics to _John Barry's Goldfinger_ among them. The Strange World of Gurney Slade is a very unusual television series that is wonderful to watch and think about the fare that was on offer at the time. If you ever get the chance to see it, grab that chance with both hands, wrestle it to the floor, pin its arms and watch the heck out of it!

Similar

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised on CBS between October 3, 1960 and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays the widowed sheriff of the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina. His life is complicated by an inept, but well-meaning deputy, Barney Fife, a spinster aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee, and a precocious young son, Opie. Local ne'er-do-wells, bumbling pals, and temperamental girlfriends further complicate his life. Andy Griffith stated in a Today Show interview, with respect to the time period of the show: "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of the '30s. It was when we were doing it, of a time gone by." The series never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings and ended its final season at number one. It has been ranked by TV Guide as the 9th-best show in American television history. Though neither Griffith nor the show won awards during its eight-season run, series co-stars Knotts and Bavier accumulated a combined total of six Emmy Awards. The show, a semi-spin-off from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show titled "Danny Meets Andy Griffith", spawned its own spin-off series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., a sequel series, Mayberry R.F.D., and a reunion telemovie, Return to Mayberry. The show's enduring popularity has generated a good deal of show-related merchandise. Reruns currently air on TV Land, and the complete series is available on DVD. All eight seasons are also now available by streaming video services such as Netflix.

More info
The Andy Griffith Show
1960