My Family trivia - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)
The Harpers live at 78 Lancaster Road
Source: Episode 8.5. Neighbour Wars
The layout of the Harpers' house in series one was quite different to the current layout. The reason for this is that the BBC bought the show a new set after the first series proved to be such a hit with audiences.
Production company DLT Entertainment say they spend more money on writing and rewriting My Family than any other scripted British comedy, which allows them to produce longer runs of up to 28 episodes per year and have a consistently funny show that viewers, if not critics, watch more than any other comedy
Source: Donald Taffner Jr
The Series Four episode 'Blind Justice' has never been repeated on the BBC due to a decision by the BBC Editorial Policy Unit. Although no reason is given for the decision, it is believed the BBC consider the episode offensive to blind people. The episode is still available on the Series Four DVD and has been screened on BBC America.
The early series of My Family were over-seen by Seinfeld Executive Producer Fred Barron. Barron left at the end of Series Four, and so Ian Brown and James Hendrie - the most established writers on the show - took over 'showrunner' responsibilities for the next series. Tom Leopold was the showrunner for Series Six, and Tom Anderson (former showrunner of Cheers) has been at the helm from Series Seven onwards.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the set of My Family at Pinewood Studios to meet the cast as they filmed the 100th episode. Robert Lindsay says: "I knew the Royal Family were fans of some kind because I did a thing at Buckingham Palace and Camilla came up and said 'oh, my favourite dancing dentist!'".
He added: "The Queen was a bit nonplussed and wandered into the bedroom and asked us why there were seats there. I said, 'that's where the audience sits.' 'You have an audience that watch you? Oh, I see...'"
Source: Radio Times & The Times
It is widely known that Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker are two of the best paid sitcom stars on TV. Money is likely to be a big factor as to why the stars are still performing in the sitcom, because they have been quite public in saying they are not always happy with the standard of the scripts.
In 2009, Lindsay said to The Times: "There is some real dross in there and we are aware of it. We had many fights. Out of 100 episodes maybe we've done ten that you can say are really good shows."
There is a dispute as to which episode of My Family is the 100th episode, depending on whether you accept the Comic Relief special as an episode or not. If you do accept it, "The Guru" is the 100th episode. If not, it is "Kenzo's Project".