Sort of a revival but the pilot of Only Fools and Horses bombed when they showed the pilot. But due to a strike and a schedule gap in prime time it was shown again in a different time slot a few months/year later, became a hit and the rest is history.
This isn't quite right, there wasn't a broadcast pilot, but the first series in 1981 did pretty middling business, John Sullivan used to say that only his family ever watched it. It got a second series, though, which also garnered modest ratings, but it was a repeat of that series in the summer of 1983 where it really started to pull in big audiences and the next series later that year was a big hit. But that was a success via word of mouth, rather than any particular revival.
There are other examples of sitcoms that have probably fared better in their repeat runs than first time round. The first two series of One Foot In The Grave in 1990 did alright business for BBC1, but nothing special, but there was a repeat run of both series in the summer of 1991 where it really took off, it was the first time I'd seen it and David Renwick has said it was a very important repeat run as it gained it a new audience and the critics who had slagged off the earliest episodes were able to reconsider. And then the next series was much-anticipated and when it started to pull in really huge figures.
The best revival I can think of is Catchphrase. 35 years after it first aired, it still gets 5m on a Saturday at 6pm. I believe it’s also the longest running Gameshow in the UK.
I don't think that's right (I'm sorry I'm spoiling this thread for everyone). Catchphrase began in 1986, but it hasn't run continuously since then, so it's behind Family Fortunes, Mastermind and the longest-running, University Challenge. The longest continually-running game show would presumably be Countdown.
I know the pilot of Catchphrase was a complete technical disaster which took hours to film, and Brian Conley was the warm-up, who had to keep going for ages and everyone was very impressed, and that kick-started his career.
Ab Fab
was not quite the same situation. It was a
massive
hit initially, winning BAFTAS from the word go, and it was Jennifer Saunders's choice to end the original run when she did whilst it was still in its prime. It was then also her decision to bring it back years later after another show she piloted with the same cast (
Mirrorball
) failed to capture the same magic. IMO The BBC would bite her hand off if she ever offered them any more at any time, even though the quality of the show has diminished with each revival. I'd also argue that the OP's claim that it was bigger the second time round isn't quite true. It was always big, I think the BBC just pushed it more as it went on as they knew by then it was a surefire hit.
Yes, that's right. Mirrorball was an interesting show, as you say Ab Fab had officially ended, but Mirrorball was a new sitcom with the same cast playing different characters. But after she wrote it, Jennifer Saunders kept on coming up with new ideas for Ab Fab, so decided to make more Ab Fab instead.
As you say, it was a huge success straight from the start, although I would argue it was never as good as the first series as it stopped parodying the fashion industry and started being a part of it, with all the celebrity cameos. There was a great review by David Quantick in Q when the original series came out on VHS, saying you could tell what had changed by the packaging, as the Series 1 sleeve was ridiculously gaudy and Saunders and Lumley were clearly meant to look ridiculous, whereas Series 2 looked almost tasteful and you could tell they were actually quite enjoying it.
I believe Harry was replaced or left after series one, series two was still on ITV.
That's right, Harry Enfield did Series 1 and then left, saying they should get a proper actor in. Actually I always preferred the first ITV series (I didn't watch it at the time, I bought the VHS years later) to the second, as Harry seems quite a likeable character, whereas at the start Neil Morrissey is a right cliched hippy idiot. The big problem is his character is too similar to Martin Clunes'. As you say, Series 2 was with Morrissey (and shown before Boon, also starring Neil Morrissey) but it didn't do much and Thames lost their franchise so that was it for eighteen months.
