Logie Awards Winner: Most Outstanding Actress, Most Outstanding Actor, Most Popular Comedy PersonalityFinalist, Situation Comedy, New York International Television FestivalBest Comedy Show, People?s Choice AwardsBest Overa... more »ll Script, Writers Guild of America, WestShe?s losing her wits and he?s at his wits? end!Starring Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald, Mother & Son is the hilarious, Australian, award winning classic comedy about the relationship between the newly divorced Arthur and his aging and very eccentric mother, Maggie.Torn between a social conscience that dictates he should look after his mother in her old age and the need to live a normal life while he?s still in his prime, Arthur tries to accommodate his mother?s constant demands for affection and attention. With Maggie vague, but vicious and more arsenic than old lace, the daily chaotic events usually leave the contented Maggie unaware and the beleaguered Arthur in a dilemma and tied to Maggie?s apron strings, if she could just remember where she put the apron...INCLUDES: Maggie Takes a Holiday / Maggie Gets the Milk / Maggie Alone / Arthur?s Holiday / Arthur?s Night Out / Maggie in Love / Maggie Makes a WillSpecial Features: Cast Profilesapprox. 195 mins. col.« less
I find myself laughing a lot at these episodes. At the same time I find myself getting really depressed too. Not sure I've run into a show like this before.
Movie Reviews
Best Show EVER!!...but cheesey marketing strategy!
Richiemagoo | Rural Kentucky | 12/07/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This show aired in America on PBS stations in some locales, and quite frankly, it is one of the absolute best shows in the history of television. In my book, it is tied with All In The Family for best show of all time. If you like some of the better classic BBC comedies..you'll love this Australian show!
Not only is this show roaringly funny- (largely thanks to senile Maggie, and the various circumstances that always seem to make her live-in caretaker son Arthur look like the bad guy...while her other son, Robert, a well-to-do dentist who has little real concern for his mother maggie, always seems to come out looking like the responsible one) but it is also a quite dramatic show, and you can empathize with virtually all of the characters at various times.
I was elated to see this show finally come to DVD....but i am also annoyed at the fact that they are only releasing the first season- which only consists of 7 episodes- whereas they could have just released the whole series at once- it's only comprised of 40 episodes.
Even though this is a great show, I think the fact that one has to pay $27 for 7 episodes will probably make it a dismal seller, even among long-time fans of the show, and will probably result in future seasons not being released. I am very reluctant to buy a series that is released this way...but for this show, I am making an exception.
I do wish the DVD producers would stop jerking us around like this though- and my dissatisfaction with their self-defeating marketing ploys has resulted in me buying far fewer DVDs than I otherwise would have, had the various companies released seasons of various shows in a more timely manner."
I LOVED This Show
TheBanshee | United States | 10/14/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I'm in the US, and I started watching this show in 1986, when our public TV stations ran a lot of old episodes of "Britcoms" (though maybe this is an "Ozcom"). Ruth Cracknell is a mother in the Olivia Soprano school of Evil Parents, always criticizing her dutiful (if not always happy about it) son Arthur for "whinging" (I word I learned from Britcoms) and treating her other son, the negligent but smoothly glib Robert (who takes credit for Arthur's good deeds whenever he can), with overweening affection that's meant to be a barb for Arthur.
While I don't think it was as great a series as "All in the Family", it was reliably very, very funny. My then future hubby and I watched it faithfully, even when we had to get out of bed to do it :)And though the entire cast is good, you really should watch Ruth Cracknell as the Mother. She's a pistol.
And as some other have said, $27 for 7 episodes is just price gauging. I think I'm gonna have to wait to buy it. But if you have the money (I don't), you should check it out."
Additional Information
Collector | Seattle,WA | 12/17/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These discs are "region 1" and will play on your DVD player. Mother & Son, a product of Australian television, is quite possibly one of the best sit-coms ever made."
I agree
Sherry E. Ragan | Pleasant Grove, Utah | 10/13/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I agree with what others have said. This is the funniest show I think I have ever seen. I am thrilled to get the first season. It really is one of the best sitcoms ever."
Funny ckassic comedy
Eileen Powell | 04/03/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Enjoyed this dvd ,seen it years ago and the second time around was as good as the first time"