The Young Ones was a British sitcom about four students sharing a house: cheerfully violent punk rocker Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson), shrill friendless anarchist Rik (Rik Mayall), longsuffering hippy Neil (Nigel Planer), and the undersized Mike (Christopher Ryan). It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall, and Lise Mayer, with additional contributions by Alexei Sayle (mostly his own performances). The show was directed by Geoff Posner and produced by Paul Jackson for the BBC between 1982 and 1984. The show developed a cult following throughout the English-speaking world, including the US after re-runs were aired on MTV in the mid 80's.

The show revolved around the shared house where the students lived during their study at nearby Scumbag College. It can be classified as a comedy of manners. It was noted at the time of its first airing for its violent slapstick: jokes often involved the main characters hitting each other with various objects within reach. There was also a large amount of surrealism, with each episode also including scenes with puppets playing the part of talking animals or objects.

Episodes in the second series originally included "flash frames" lasting only a fraction of a second, but these were edited out of most reruns. These were included as a mockery of the paranoia that was rife at the time of subliminal messages in television, music and music played backwards. The series originally ran to 35 minutes per episode, and many episodes were cut for timing when repeated on the BBC or satellite channels.

- From Wikipedia