Four eras, four seasons, aired 1983-1989. Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson, and Rik Mayall. Hilarious and, in the end, famously poignant.
I re-watched recently. The first season is pretty bad. The familiar formula only really starts in the second season, and it’s comedy gold from there on.
The first series is an odd beast as they clearly had a lot more budget to play with for location shooting, costuming, etc. Yet the writing came into its own once it it was lower in budget and all filmed on sets. Also not having Ben Elton in the mix for series 2&3 probably helped, by the time he came back for Goes Forth the formula was too set to be messed with.
Ben Elton wrote for all series apart from the first.
Rowan Atkinson only wrote for the first series.
Draw your own conclusions, but it seems to me that Elton strengthened the writing and had a lot of experience writing sitcoms; Atkinson was a sketch writer and it was probably wise for him to take a step back from writing and focus and performing.
The first series has its moments but they nearly all involve BRIAN BLESSED!
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