British comedian whose self-titled show made her a hit in the US will make first appearance on BBC1 since starring in Girls on Top in 1985
On 19 April 1987 a British comedian, largely unknown in the US beyond a solitary top 10 hit single, made her debut on a brand new American TV network, called Fox.
Tracey Ullman was a successful TV performer and singer in Britain – best known for Three of a Kind, Girls on Top and putting Neil Kinnock in the video to her song My Guy . But the veteran American producer James L Brooks, having been shown some of her work, was so wowed he thought she could take on the US too, and offered to produce a TV sketch show for the fledgling channel.
In the end, The Tracey Ullman Show would be eclipsed by the animated sketch show it created, The Simpsons, which has gone on to outshine every other sitcom or primetime series in US history.
But the young comedian from Slough would still make her mark. The Tracey Ullman show won three Emmys in its four seasons; later US shows Tracey Takes On and Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union were also huge critical and awards-show successes. She became a favourite of Woody Allen, appearing in three of his films in the 1990s (and winning a Golden Globe nomination for Small Time Crooks).
Read more at theguardian
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