The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally
produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960,
with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first
series, broadcast between May and September 1951, was titled Crazy
People; all subsequent series had the overall title The Goon Show.
The show's chief creator and main writer was Spike Milligan. The
scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns,
catchphrases and an array of bizarre sound effects. Some of the
later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling
BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other
shows for decades afterward. Many elements of the show satirised
contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of show business,
commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the
military, education, class structure, literature and film.
The show was released internationally through the BBC Transcription
Service. It was heard regularly from the 1950s in Australia, South
Africa, New Zealand, India and Canada, although these TS versions
were edited to avoid controversial subjects. NBC began
broadcasting the programme on its radio network from the
mid-1950s. The programme exercised a considerable influence on
the subsequent development of British and American comedy and
popular culture. It was cited as a major influence by the Monty
Python team and the American comedy team The Firesign Theater.
The series was devised and written by Spike Milligan with the
regular collaboration of other writers including (singly) Larry
Stephens, Eric Sykes, Maurice Wiltshire and John Antrobus, initially
under the watchful eye of Jimmy Grafton (KOGVOS - Keeper of the
Goons and Voice of Sanity). There were ten series overall, plus an
additional series called 'Vintage Goons'. The 1st series had 17
episodes plus 1 special, Cinderella (1951); the 2nd series had 25
episodes, (1952); the 3rd series had 25 episodes plus 1 special -
The Coronation Special (1952-53); the 4th series had 30 episodes
plus 1 special, Archie In Goonland (1953-54); the 5th series had 26
episodes plus 1 special - The Starlings (1954-55); the 6th series
had 27 episodes plus 3 specials,(1955-56); the 7th series had 25
episodes plus 2 specials, (1956-57); the 8th series had 26 episodes,
(1957-58); the Vintage Goons were re-performances of 14 episodes
from series 4; the 9th series had 17 episodes, (1958-59); and the
10th series had 6 episodes, (1959-1960)
Information from http://en.wikipedia.org
