French and Saunders

Just as The Tracey Ullman Show begat The Simpsons, the 1987 BBC series French and Saunders begat the wildly popular Absolutely Fabulous. Perhaps best described as a Brit version of the immortal SCTV series, French and Saunders was high-end satire of the highest order. Lovely leads Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were the ringleaders behind several fantastic parodies of TV, movies, pop culture, and current events. With a stable of supporting sirens such as Kirsty MacColl, Sidney Cole, and Betty Marsden, F&S already had the competition licked in the dolly department, but it was the inspired comedy material that kept the Brits bubbling until the show hit the skids in 1996.