Rob Grant, creator of Red Dwarf, has died
beyondthejoke.co.uk160 points by nephihaha 3 hours ago
160 points by nephihaha 3 hours ago
My random claim to fame; I was the support act (juggler) for Norman Lovett (the red dwarf ships computer), for one night only in the Welsh town of Bangor.
What a life I’ve lived.
Yes, I remember him. He briefly had his own show called "I Lovett" or something like that. Also spent time in Bangor back in the mid nineties.
I still spend time in Bangor
One drunken night in the company of Norman Lovett was enough for me :-)
There was nothing like Red Dwarf on TF (British or American) back then - a laugh-tracked show that could be simultaneously the most hilarious dry wit, not-so-dry bawdy humor, and a compelling and thought-provoking sci-fi action-adventure all at the same time.
I fell off it after they had that comeback season roughly in 2000 where the whole ship got revived. Then I saw a few clips from a later season where everyone was pretty schlubby. I'll need to track down some way to re-watch the whole thing.
I watched the whole lot thanks to lockdown. I used to like up until series six or so, but had a look at the later ones. Yes, the actors certainly all look more "lived in" nowadays.
The later series/seasons are very uneven, which surprised me. I stopped watching originally around when Chloe Annette's Kochanski was introduced but I was surprised that instead of a steady decline that the quality was very up and down.
I rewatch it a lot and the only season I skip is 9. There are a couple bad later episodes I'll skip but there are more than a few bangers in the later seasons.
RIP, thanks for the memories.
No sci fi effect has ever given me the same sense of wonder that I got from the shot of the camera slowly travelling over the gigantic ship in the Season 1/2 intro.
Btw: @dang : Grant was the co-creator, alongside Doug Naylor, who is still kicking
The intro was actually strangely eerie/bleak. I felt sorry for Lister (I think it is) out there painting the ship. There was kind of a sadness because he had lost pretty much all his friends and you could feel the vastness of space.
It's cold outside
There's no kind of atmosphere
I'm all alone
More or less
Let me fly Far away from here
Fun fun fun
In the sun sun sun
I want to lie
Shipwrecked and comatose
Drinking fresh
Mango juice
Goldfish shoals
Nibbling at my toes
Fun fun fun
In the sun sun sun
Fun fun fun In the sun sun sun
As fresh immigrant to USA, watching it on local PBS on the gigantic back projection jumbotron TV someone offloaded on us back in mid-90es, it made a huge impact with its absurdity and silliness. I sing "Drinking Fresh Mango Juice" every time I get it out of the fridge, and when my wife and I visited Egypt and got room service with fresh mango juices, it was in heavy rotation. And every time I leave and it's cold outside, I tend to sing "It's cold outside!". RIP
One of my favourite happy happy songs.
> Shipwrecked and comatose
is how I have often felt.
For a brief period there it was fashionable to have fish nibbling at your feet (in the 2010s?). Not goldfish shoals although that is probably what Lister wanted to farm in Fiji.
As an American, Red Dwarf along with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy created a deep appreciation both for British humor and funny sci-fi in my adolescent self. I now own the box set on DVD and even have a random Red Dwarf novel I got at a yard sale (I forget which one of them wrote it though).
RIP Rob! Will be having a vindaloo, lager, and maybe some fish (Fish! Fish! Fish!) later in your honor
(EDIT: 100% talking about the UK version here, had no idea or forgot there _was_ an American version)
Maybe it was written by:
> Grant Naylor is a gestalt entity occupying two bodies, one of which lives in north London, the other in south London. The product of a horribly botched genetic-engineering experiment, which took place in Manchester in the late fifties, they try to eke out two existences with only one mind. They attended the same school and the same university, but, for tax reasons, have completely different wives.
> The first body is called Rob Grant, the second Doug Naylor. Among other things, they spent three years in the mid-eighties as head writers of Spitting Image; wrote Radio Four's award-winning series Son of Cliche; penned the lyrics to a number one single; and created and wrote Red Dwarf for BBC television.
> They have made a living variously by being ice-cream salesmen, shoe-shop assistants and by attempting to sell dodgy life-assurance policies to close friends. They also spent almost two years on the night shift loading paper into computer printers at a mail-order factory in Ardwick. They can still taste the cheese 'n' onion toasties.
> Their favourite colour is orange.
Haha I went and actually looked and yep, that's it...no wonder I couldn't remember
Somehow enough fragments of that stayed in my brain since 2004 to google it. My first and last real-life encounter with the word 'gestalt'.
Red Dwarf is an absolute classic, but I think people of all nations can agree that the American version was better off cancelled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mlnntKi2no
Even the second attempt at it, with Star Trek DS9's Terry Farrell (as Cat), was a bad idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfJsViD9SjM
The original was lightning in a bottle.
I have watched the American pilot, and one thing I found curious was that the two female characters were the most interesting (Cat and the Computer played by Terry Farrel and Jane Leeves who were both in major series - Deep Space Nine and Frasier). Holly/Computer has been female for much of the British series and Cat did work as a female character. Contrast with the British show which was very male except for computer (sometimes) and Kochanski when she became a regular character (Chloe Annette didn't really work. I wish Clare Grogan had been a regular instead.)
I agree, Clare Grogan is still who I picture when I think of Kochanski tbh, I loved her energy
Clare Grogan is definitely who I think of. I couldn't really see Chloe Annette being Kochanski, she was miscast and I don't think she got good scripts.
He's dead Dave. At least he went peacefully in his Jeep.
Stoke me a Clipper... I'll be back for Christmas!
They’re all dead, Dave! What a great franchise.
Anyone else read Rob Grant's book Colony[0]?
It's a pretty funny sci-fi book, similar dry wit.. I picked it up at a yard sale only because it said "from the creator of Red Dwarf" even though I mostly only knew of the show through others..
I used to stay up late to watch Red Dwarf. [dark reference to the show incoming] Maybe he's moved on to somewhere Better Than Life.
Kryton is one of the greatest characters to ever grace a tv screen.
Robert Llewellyn is just a lovely person in general. He now produces a YouTube/TV show about electric cars, but his outtakes from Red Dwarf are delightful. He stays mostly in character during the outtakes (perhaps that's easy in the suit) and he's very funny.
Some random Red Dwarf outtakes: https://youtu.be/l6VTzq5N0Mo
“It’s a banana. It always has been a banana and always will be a banana. It’s a yellow fruit you unzip and eat the white bits. It’s a banana!“
Smeeeeeeeeg head
Loved the show back in its heyday. From what I remember, the novels are pretty good too
Wow 2 in one day with Dan Simmons :(
Rest in peace.
Fab show, great memories! Thanks for the laughs Rob, RIP.
I'll pour out a lager and grab some chicken vindaloo in his memory.
RIP with the calculators.
Smeg
Damn. Guess I’ll be smoking some kippers in his memory.
Can we get a black bar?
On second thoughts, that would mean changing the CSS.
Ah, there are so many jokes like that which still make me smile. I'm grateful Red Dwarf and his books were part of my childhood.