Arg! I just found out that the channel I thought was Oxygen is actually some generic Women's Entertainment network. Which means I have no access to the new AbFab episodes. Does anyone know when it will be on BBC America or Comedy Central?

Rif Randle No, its not Patsy that dies. Its her sister Although Patsy does eat. I cracked up.

Why, oh why does Oxygen feel the need to edit out "tit"? It comes on before the sex lady, after all!

Yeah, the excessive editing was dumb.

Baby Spice wasn't bad. I about died when she told Eddy that her fake tan made her the color of an old man's scrotum.

The editing was just puzzling. Who do they think is watching this show? It's sure as hell not anyone I'd label as impressionable - I doubt many people with that label would have an interest.

I hadn't realized it, but I'd kind of missed those old girls.

Right with you there, Queen B. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that. I loved that the mean nurse/beautician was there, but she wasn't mean or loud like usual. Baby Spice was good and much prettier than I recall. Not hearing tits was ridiculous - scrotum:okay, tits:not okay?

I think Baby Spice looked prettier because she wasn't in her "Baby" character where she dressed like a four-year-old and all.

I really wish I'd been able to hear the word "shit" the several times it was said. Especially when Baby Spice told Edina she wasn't going to be taking her shit any longer.

I enjoyed it when they actually had the three main actresses do that little commercial for Oxygen. I wonder how they got them to do that?

Has anyone ever seen the French movie adaptation of the show, Absolument Fabuleux?

Quick pool around here: Was reading Jump the Shark.com, and there were three camps for ABFAB, they hate the show, hate Jennifer Saunders or they love it and think that as long as the stars are willing to make new eps, the better, or it's a great show, but they should have ended it at the end of the third season. Which camp are you partial to? Just wondering.

I cracked up when Emma Bunton called Eddy on her fake tan. Mostly because Emma shouldn't be talking when it comes to fake orangy tans. Maybe that was the whole joke and I'm just way behind. My British cousin and I have this thing where we think Geri, Victoria, and Emma must sleep in beds of tanning lotion.

I'm glad the show's back and we're getting the episodes only a couple months after they originally air in the UK.

I particularly like how Bubble has evolved from pure airhead/dingbat into the most subversively clever character on the show.

I've never heard of this Oxygen channel. So AbFab no longer makes its American debut on Comedy Central?

Seriously, I am really pissed. My cheapo cable company (fuck you, Adelphia) doesn't include the Oxygen channel in its lineup, and although I registered for access to the BBC America website, I haven't received confirmation yet. Until I do, I can't post on the board and ask when BBC America will premiere the show. Does anyone know if/when it will?

Junkyard Dog, Oxygen is a cable channel "for women" concieved and owned by Oprah Winfrey. It's very similar to Lifetime, but aimed at a slightly younger, hipper audience. It started out very dull, mainly showing endless repeats of those movies where Farrah Fawcett gets beaten up repeatedly or where Jane Seymour spans the decades to become a very old lady in very bad make-up.

But about a year or so ago, Oxygen got some new creative people behind it and it's been jazzed up considerably. The movies are better and they've come up with some original programming like Girls Behaving Badly (hot chicks playing videotaped pranks; a concept Ashton Kutcher ripped off to created Punk'd) and a phone-in sex show with a Dr. Ruth clone (annoyingly feisty old lady talking dirty). And they've also started running so-called "female-oriented" sitcoms: Cybill, Roseanne and now AbFab. I don't know how they got it away from Comedy Central (maybe they won it in abidding war or maybe Comedy Central lost interest), but Oxygen is now the U.S. home for Patsy and Eddie.

They've been re-running Seasons 1 - 3 and are now running Season 5. I haven't seen anything from Season 4 on there yet, which is disappointing since the only episodes I don't have on tape are "Parralox" and "Gay".

On the plus side, they show it in a good timeslot and repeat each episode enough so that you can be sure of catching it. On the downside, they bleep out the word "tit", which I find incomprehensible. Maybe they feel that since they're a "women's" channel and many women find the word "tit" derogatory, it's unacceptable even on a show where a woman says it.

Thanks for the info, guys. Unless I'm mistaken, CC financed part of the budget for season 3 (and possibly s4), so I was surprised to find they no longer have anything to do with the show. I guess Oprah outbid them, or maybe they really did lose interest. I don't think AbFab is as successful a franchise now as it was back in the day.

Speaking of which, I'm very interested to hear peoples' opinions of the new episodes; I have to say I really didn't care for s4 at all. It would be nice if Saunders could bring the scripts back to their former level of quality, but if that doesn't happen, I'd just as soon she ditch Eddie & Patsy for good and move on to something new.

Damn! I don't get Oxygen! Evil programmers!

I was so shocked when I was flipping channels today and came across AbFab on Oxygen! It totally made my day, since the last time I saw them was the movie on Comedy Central what, a year ago? I'm so glad they're bringing this back to the states!

Damn, I missed the first episode. I was sure nothing new would be starting this weekend. With luck, Oxygen wil be repeating it often enough for me to catch it before the second ep on Friday.


I don't know who Ashton ripped the idea off from, but it's a sure bet that the creators of Girls Behaving Badly were no more original than he was -- the idea has been around for a damn long time.

Did anyone catch the special on AbFab on bbc 1 on friday? Any comments? I totally hated the blooper reel for some reason, but Julia Sawalha seems really cool in real life.

ETA Patsy falling into the empty grave and the 7/11 comment, no matter how offensive, will never get old.

Not to mention that Girls Behaving Badly is absolutely painful to watch.

Finally got a chance to watch my TiVo'd episode of "Cleanin'" and I thought it was pretty good. No moments made me really laugh out loud like in the early seasons, but it was just nice to see the girls back. Also, I totally agree with the post about how Oxygen beeped "tit" but not "scrotum". That is just odd to me.

I love the remodeling! A lap-pool in the bathroom! How on earth does Edina get all this money? Anyway, I'm just psyched AbFab is back.

There's a comment by Julia on the BBC website where she says she's more like Edina in real life than Saffy. So yeah, I bet she is.

I got the impression that Saffy's father, wotsit, made some investments on Eddie's behalf in the late Sixties and they paid off quite well. I haven't seen any old episodes for ages, but there was the impression that they mixed with some influential people, and possibly someone suggested buying the right shares.

Either that or she's incredibly talented and hard-working arf arf.

I know, Lawtalkin' Guy, I just hate Ashton Kutcher so much that I like to blame him for everything, including the Lindbergh kidnapping. And even though the concept is not new (what concept really is?), Girls Behaving Badly was a modest hit on Oxygen for a season before Ashton came up with Punk'd.

Ditto. I miss Eddie and Patsy. :-(

guess CC is too busy airing crap like The Man Show to care about it's female viewers.
I have Comcast in MN and get WE not Oxygen yet my mom, in So Cal also has Comcast and she gets Oxygen but not WE. I can get Oxygen but as part of a package for way more than I'm willing to pay.

Though, I was suprised when the first commerical had previews for the next episode thereby giving away the fact the Saffy was pregnant before we found out on the episode. Stupid of Oxygen.

I enjoyed the episode. I don't think it was as good as Seasons 1-3 (but what is) but it was just nice seeing the gang again.

I’ve never heard of the Oxygen channel (I’m in Toronto), but, Albanyguy, I loved this:

Hee!

For those who don't have access to the Oxygen Channel, series 5 will be released on DVD on March 16th (according to the BBCAmerica website).

Sounds like it's being released on DVD right after the full episode run on Oxygen.

Oxygen co-produced this season with BBC. The Oxygen logo is in the end credits.

I completely agree with M.Darcy's thoughts. Not as funny, good to have them back.

They let Baby Spice be in Chicago in London? Who knew? Anyone know if she sucked? It was lame to put her at the same school as Saffy to try and bring her into the storyline more than Lulu. She's someone this show should be making fun of, not giving a job and funny lines to.

The show is nowhere near as sharp and cutting edge as it used to be. Mocking spray-on tans & lap pools seems a couple of years old. They did spray-on on Friends last year, for christ's sake, and they're never cutting edge in their references.

What happened to Patsy's employees? They both look inflated. Is Jeremy's located in Eddy's house? That scene with them was weird.

They were showing The Last Shout, so I watched it again. God, that was funny. Was Julia Sawalha pregnant in it? She looked kinda big in those sweaters. The whole thing with Eddie's bleeper was hilarious.

The bleeper gag was great. "Have you seen my vibrating thing?" "It's by your bed, dear." I've really warmed up to Eddy's mom. I didn't really notice her when I first started watching.

One of my favorite lines she did was when she was talking about Eddy's old room at home. "There have been three coats of paint and two wallpaperings and still, if the light hits it just right, I can see Jimi Hendrix looking at me."

The one where Eddy's mom kept wandering off and Twiggy and her husband brought her back. Twiggy's husband wanted to keep her. Hee.

I *knew* TWoPpers would have all the answers! I had no idea about Series 5 and was just stumbling around cable in a post-nap haze last night. What wonderful luck that it turned out to be the first new episode of the season!! I'm with everyone else that said they forgot how much they missed the girls. Damn it was funny! Can't wait until Friday. I thought Emma was great. She looks so much better now with a few fine lines about the eyes. Ok, so Baby on AbFab, and Posh on World Idol. Two down, three to go....

If anyone is wondering when BBCAmerica will show the new season, well, don't hold your breath. I emailed and asked and here is their answer

Don't know if she was pregnant, but she was very big in that one. When Eddie started harping on how "fat" Saffy was at the end of Cleanin', it didn't make a lot of sense. All I could think was "She doesn't look fat; she looks really thin compared to how she looked a couple of seasons ago".

I'm glad they're giving Saffy something real to work with in Season 5 (can't wait to meet the baby's father) and letting her get on with her life. Although I enjoyed Season 4, I found Saffy to be annoying (although always funny) for the first time. In Seasons 1 - 3, the humor revolved around the fact that this teenager was the only real grown-up in the household and was forced to "parent" her idiotic mother.

But by Season 4, that was wearing thin, because Saffy was no longer a kid and I didn't like or symapthize with her so much. All she seemed to do was sit around the house and bitch about how much she hated Eddie and Patsy. I kept thinking "Well, you're an adult now, you have other choices. If you hate it so much, go out, find a place of your own to live and build a life with people your own age. On the other hand, if you enjoy being supported in comfort by your mother and it gives you a sense of power to be the one in charge of the household, then stop whining about it, you prissy little passive-agressive control freak".

Exactly AG. It pissed me off what happened to her character. The Saffy of the first three seasons would not still be stuck at home in season four, but that's the only way to keep her on the show.

I think the idea was that, as much as Saffy thought or hoped she was above Patsy and Edina's behavior, she was getting just as caught in their vicious, futile cycle as they were. It sort of reflects the final episode of the third series, where Saffy is the head of a dysfunctional family and still has to make room for Patsy and Edina, as much as she hates them and wishes they would go away. I'm rather glad that the series is attempting to suggest now that this depressing future isn't set in stone.

ETA: If we had seen a mature, well-adjusted Saffy graduate to her own life after the third season, I don't know that we would have realized just how damaging Edina and Patsy's influence was on her.

"...because we're too busy airing reruns of Changing Rooms."

To echo others' sentiments, I hope Saffy gets to move out for good with this baby. Otherwise, this show will truly have jumped the shark (if it hasn't already).

I managed to catch the rerun of Cleanin' on Monday at 10PM on the Oxyen channel. Not sure if they are going to be regularly re-running at that time every week, or if it was a one time deal. I agree with those of you who did not like the character make over that Saffy underwent in season 4. She became this pathetic schlumpy character in oversize sweaters. The brief moment she was on the new episode yelling at her mother I thought "Yeah, it's the old Saffy!"

Yeah, I have to say I hope poor Saffy gets her spine back in the new series. Her situation with Edina is kind of a comedy archetype: That of the child being more intelligent and responsible than the selfish & irresponsible parent, but it was never simple-mindedly so. I never found Saffy to be nothing more than a prig; she had a venomous wit that could easily hold its own against Eddie or Patsy, which is why she was such a good foil for them.

That said, I can certainly see why she'd become such a doormat later in life, as several of you have already pointed out. It does make sense that she'd gradually be worn down by her mother's relentless Ego, but that doesn't make it a fun or amusing situation to watch.

Quite enjoyed "Book Clubbin'". Oh, but I love me some Lumley. She's just so GD funny. Was that Kristin Scott Thomas for real?

John sort of annoyed me, but started growing on me at the end. This episode had tons of great one-liners that I will have to learn upon repeated watchings - "It's the Chanel of babies!"

This series, so far, has been much better than the previous one.

I believe it was her Toomanyblondes. I loved how Eddie and Patsy were talking about her while she was lying right there in the room in "corpse" pose.

And the boyfriend was named John Johnson? I always thought it was weird when folks named their child names like that, like Stephen Stephenson.

But that fantasy scene with Eddie parading around with her granddaughter in trendy matching attire was hysterical. I especially liked the little red track suits. It sort of reminded me of The Royal Tenenbaums.

Oh, and what is Mariella Fostrup so famous for in the UK? They had an episode of UK Coupling with her in it, and Steve had a crush on her.

I liked this one a lot more than the first ep. Something about the season premiere felt a bit "off," but I thought tonight's ep was a huge improvement. The bi-racial granddaughter sequence was gold. I loved the part where Edina's walking down the street with the baby, and a random black guy stops to give her a pound.

The midwife said something in which a key word was bleeped and I couldn't make any sense of whatever the line was supposed to be (but it got a huge laugh). Any ideas?

I thought it was "shit" that was bleeped. I'm pretty sure of it, anyway.

I didn't watch much of Series 4 because it didn't hold my interest. This one, however, seems to be a lot more interesting to watch. It's nice they're giving Saffy an actual storyline.

However? I'm just not loving June Whitfield's newish hairstyle. It seems so...off.

I like the new series so far but the fat jokes are wearing thin for me. "You should tell people you're pregnant when you first see them, you don't want them to think you're fat." Saffy looks thinner than she did in S4 and no one was harassing her about it then.

That said, Kristin Scott Thomas was great. I've always loved her ever since Four Weddings and a Funeral when I couldn't fathom why Hugh Grant was lusting after Andie MacDowell when Kristin's character was hopelessly in love with him.

I TiVoed the 90-minute "Last Shout" episode and I'm still working on it. I had to shut it off just as Saffy's wedding was beginning but I just had to say how I laughed my ass off when Eddy and Patsy held Saffy down and waxed her upper lip.

It was (loosely paraphrased): women who want to only use breathing during childbirth all end up yelling for drugs and shitting the bed.

I love that scene. The mixture of pain and disbelief on Saffy's face was what really sold it for me. I guess that little incident would explain why Saffron's door had like, a million locks on it in season four.

In Paris (Season 4), Edina comes into Sapphy's bedroom to wake her up in the morning. When she taps Sapphy on the shoulder, Sapphy instinctively flinches and covers her upper lip with her hand.

Thanks, Cathy51. The bleeped word was bleeped so inartfully that it obliterated much of the rest of the line as well, to my ears at least. I am now laughiing retroactively.