"No wonder you want me to take sleeping tablets, you're a sex maniac!"
Seventies Britcom centred on workers of the Luxton & District Traction Company. The main characters are Stan Butler (Reg Varney), a bus driver, and his best mate and conductor, Jack Harper (Bob Grant). Their arch-nemesis is pen-pushing bureaucrat bus inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake (Stephen Lewis). Recurring characters include Stan's mum Mabel (Cicely Courtneidge, then Doris Hare), sister Olive Rudge (Anna Karen) and brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins). Olive and Arthur are unhappily married, which is often joked about. Seventy-four episodes were made from 1969 to 1973. Three spinoff films were also made between 1971 and 1973.
On the Buses was one of the earliest British sitcoms to centre on working-class people's lives. Much of the humour comes from Stan and Jack's attempts at chatting up women, while trying to get out of doing any work. Critics derided the show as being vulgar, but it was hugely popular with audiences. Some episodes were watched by 16 million viewers, a figure unknown today, due to the splintering of the British televsion market.
Came fifty-third in Britains Best Sitcom.
This show provides examples of:
- Accidental Pervert:
- How Olive and Arthur got married. While lodging with the Butlers, Arthur was heading back to his room but went into the wrong one twice. First Stan's, then Olive's. Both times it's assumed he's there for nefarious purposes, so Mum decides since he "had his fun" he had to marry Olive.
- While timing how often conductresses were using public toilets on their routes, Blake is caught by a constable who assumes Blake is a pervert for following around clippies and recording their bathroom visits.
- The Alleged Car: Arthur's combination motorcycle and sidecar that he bought used in the second series.
- All Men Are Perverts: Jack and Stan are forever skirt-chasing, much to Blakey's disgust.
- Animated Credits Opening: The series had two different animated openings. While both showcase the characters in various antics, one uses cut-out style animation and the other takes a more surrealist approach with exaggerated body proportions.
- Beauty Inversion: Olive was presented as frumpy and uncaring of her appearance, though in real life Anna Karen had been a model and dancer prior to the series. When she showcased her natural look during a magazine shoot in the 1970s, viewers were shocked at just how different she appeared from her character.
- Be Yourself: Played with in "The Poster". After the others try to make Stan look glamourous so he can compete with the other traditional male models trying to get the poster spot, Stan decides to forgo all that and just be a busman... Except he walks in pretending to be a much more competent and dutiful busman, covering himself in grime to sell himself as a hard worker. This is exactly what the judges are looking for and he wins easily.
- Blind Without 'Em: Olive loses her glasses on a regular basis, and of course can see nothing without them.
- Camp Straight: Jack shows shades of this, to the point where a guest star explicitly calls him 'Twinkletoes'.
- Catchphrase:
- Blakey's "I 'ate you, Butler!"
- Arthur's "What a lot of rot you do talk."
- The Chew Toy: Poor Olive, destined to be dumped on and have fat jokes told about her, despite being played by a former model who also appeared as various scantily-clad characters in sex comedies and Carry On films.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: Look-In (a magazine aimed at children) serialized the series in comic strip form between 1971 and 1974. Notably, the show's raunchy style of humour was toned down, due to the fact that it was aimed at a younger audience.
- The Corrupter: Whilst by no means a respectable person, Stan would be less likely to resort to illegal means without Jack's influence.
- Double Entendre: A mainstay of the humour.
- Easily Forgiven: In "Vacancy For Inspector" Jack is promoted to Assistant Inspector and starts ratting out Stan's tricks to get around work, neglecting to mention that they were mostly Jack's ideas. At the end, all Jack apparently needs to do is turn down the job and go back to being a conductor for Stan to forgive him.
- Everybody Smokes: Including on buses, and at the dinner table.
- Final Season Casting: Michael Robbins left right before the final series as he was dissatisfied with the quality of the scripts, while Reg Varney left midway through.
- Flashback Episode: Stan's Worst Day shows us how Arthur and Olive met, and got forced to wed, how Stan and Arthur met, and also that Stan used to be Blakey's conductor and they were friends before they both got promoted.
- Foreign People Are Sexy: The infamous episode where the boys pull a couple of Swedish birds. Fatima the snake dancer also deserves a mention.
- Godwin's Law: Jack and Stan regularly cracking gags comparing Blakey to Hitler is a big case of
Values Dissonance for modern viewers, particularly since all he wants them to do is be on time and do some work. - Godwin's Law of Facial Hair: Inspector "Blakey" Blake is a tyrannical bus inspector with a toothbrush mustache who dedicates his life to making the lead characters' lives a misery. However, it's often subverted because he's usually depicted as a killjoy who's simply expecting the protagonists to actually do their jobs and provide a public service.
- Introductory Opening Credits: The Movie has captions giving the names and occupations of the lead characters, though at this point most of the audience would be familiar with them from the TV series.
- Housewife: Stan's mum, a totally archetypal British 1950s housewife with a scarf perpetually over her hair.
- While a few episodes had her try to get a job and fail, Olive was also this until she divorced Arthur and got a job at the depot in the last series.
- Karma Houdini: For the most part, Stan and Jack always seem to get away with almost everything they do. Up to and including several acts of theft, defiling a cemetery, attempted benefit fraud, getting otherwise innocent co-workers fired, stopping the Equality Act in its tracks ... and, of course, being highly unprofessional whenever they deign to do their actual jobs.
- Iris in The Darts Match. She blatantly cheats to prevent Stan from being able to start the match by throwing a double, even pushing him over the line to disqualify one of his throws, and not only is no one the wiser, Jack gets her onto the men's darts team by kicking Stan out for her.
- Stella in Not Tonight. She manages to scam Stan out of most of his pay, runs off in the middle of the night to get some new clothes to get a job as a secretary for the depot's General Manager, and gets away with it completely.
- Of the pair, Jack is easily the biggest example of this. No matter what he does, Jack never faces any consequence for his schemes and usually Stan, his family, or Blake will be the one to suffer. At best, he just doesn't get the money or the girl.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: While in the first three series Stan would usually beat Blakey, starting from series four most episodes would end with Stan worse off than he was before, while Blakey chuckles in glee.
- Loveable Rogue: Jack and Stan. It’s debatable whether they’re still lovable in this day and age.
- The Movie: Actually three - On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972), and Holiday on the Buses (1973). The first movie is notable for being the most successful film that Hammer Film Productions ever made. Yes, that Hammer.
- My Beloved Smother: Mum babies Olive, especially in the first season, even coming along on her first shift as a conductress to take care of her. While she's not as bad with Stan, she still treats him like a child on occasion and prevents him from being alone with his girlfriends if they're over.
- Naughty by Night: Olive would like to be, but Arthur's not keen.
- No Accounting for Taste: Olive and Arthur are a brilliantly ghastly combination. We're later shown in a flashback that Arthur had no interest in Olive, he was forced into the marriage after walking into the wrong bedroom while lodging with the Butlers.
- Noodle Incident: Arthur's operation is never outright stated, though the implication is it's something to do with his genitals since it comes up in the context of sex.
- Politically Correct Villain: Inspector Cyril Blake; sure, there's the odd derogatory comment, but for the most part, he's the most progressive character on the show.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: It would be difficult to find a character who dosen't fit this trope. It is most common in Stan's mum.
- Popcultural Osmosis: "Blakey from On The Buses" is sometimes referred to in conversation (as a comparison to people) by other people who've never seen the series.
- Protagonist-Centred Morality: Stan and Jack are depicted as the protagonists and the show plays on the idea that they are in the right. Despite the fact that they preform several illegal or at least morally wrong actions. Casual dialogue in the seventh series opener insinuates that they're willing to go so far as to defraud a divorce hearing.
- Put on a Bus: Rather amusingly for Tropers, Stan leaves the series for Oop North, on the grounds that bus drivers make more money there, thus he literally was put on a bus.
- At the start of series seven, Arthur has suddenly abandoned Olive after ten years of marriage.
- Retool: Necessitated by Michael Robbins and later Reg Varney leaving the show. The premise changed to allow Olive a job at the depot and Blake to move in with her and Mrs Butler.
- Rules Lawyer: Jack. Whenever Blakey tries to catch them in the middle of a scheme, Jack will whip out some rule that prevents the inspector from finding out what they're up to.
- Running Gag: The show attempts to depict Arthur's operation as this.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Jack Harper's catchphrase might as well be "As shop steward. I can do whatever the 'ell I bleedin' want".
- Sexless Marriage: Arthur and Olive, to the latter's dismay. Unless Arthur is very drunk.
- Ship Tease: One episode depicts a drunk Stan attempting to snog both Blakey and Jack, within five minutes of each other. In series seven, as part of a joke, Jack explicitly kisses Stan's cheek.
- Shotgun Wedding: To all intents and purposes, the reason why Arthur married Olive in the first place after a Bedmate Reveal.
- Sitcom Character Archetypes: Jack and Stan are Wisecrackers, Blakey is The Bully, Arthur is The Stick, and Olive is The Dork.
- Spin-Off: Don't Drink the Water ran for thirteen episodes across two series in 1974 and 1975 and saw Blakey retire to Spain with his sister only to find himself beset by just as many problems as he was in Britain.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Olive and Mrs Butler. Subverted in the final series when Olive is forced to get a job at the depot to maintain the double income household after Arthur leaves.
- Surrounded by Idiots: With everything Arthur had to deal with regularly, it is impossible not to see why he left.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: When Blakey's mother stays with the Butlers, she treats them like servants and overstays her welcome by taking Mum's politeness as an invitation.
- Transatlantic Equivalent: NBC adapted it in the 1973-74 season as Lotsa Luck, with Dom De Luise as the lead.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: Leading to Disaster Dominoes at the beginning
of the third movie. - With Friends Like These...: When it came to work matters (e.g. payment, the union, etc.) Jack would always throw Stan under the bus for his own personal gain.
- Written-In Absence: Reg Varney left the series in the final season, after "Goodbye Stan", so he isn't in the last six episodes. His absence was explained by Stan moving to the Midlands, to work in a bus manufacturing factory.
