Men Behaving Badly - Season 1 (British TV Series)
The pageant of boorishness and slobbery known asMen Behaving Badlylaunched itself upon an unsuspecting United Kingdom in 1992. Over the course of six  episodes, Gary (Martin Clunes), the disgruntled manager of a security  alarm company, struggles to break up with his long-suffering girlfriend  Dorothy (Caroline Quentin) while competing with his aimless flatmate  Dermot (Harry Enfield) for the attentions of their fetching new upstairs  neighbor Deborah (Leslie Ash). The plots are built on contrivances like a  chess match over opera tickets or an attempt at seduction via a  synthesized flamenco guitar, but the humor always springs from the petty,  careless, and generally inane behavior of Dermot and Gary. Gary persuades  Dorothy to accept an open relationship, then becomes consumed with  jealousy when she sees another man; Dermot tries to persuade Deborah to  relieve their basic needs while her boyfriend is in Singapore. It could be  tiresome squalor--and according to reviews, the American remake of the  show (featuring Rob Schneider and Ron Eldard) was just that--but Clunes  and Enfield invest this pair of clods with enough humanity to make their  mishaps both excruciating and funny. Enfield left after this first sextet  of episodes; Clunes and Enfield's replacement Neil Morrissey took the show  to five more series, but Enfield's charming dimness makes this first  series worth a look.--Bret Fetzer