Are You Being Served? is an excellent British comedy (Britcom) which aired in the United Kingdom from 1973 to 1985; the pilot episode was made in 1972 and no episodes were made in 1980, 1982, and 1985 (the episodes made in 1984 were aired in 1985). During the 1970's and 1980's Are You Being Served? was second in the ratings only to Coronation Street (a British soap opera). The show is still so popular that it has been seen in Egypt, has been shown dubbed in Germany, and is shown in its original glory on public television stations all over the United States. There was also a short-lived Australian version of AYBS? in the early 1980's starring John Inman, the most popular actor of the original Are You Being Served? series.

This highly popular Britcom, which recounts the exploits, travails, and hijinks of the clothing department staff of a fictional London department store called Grace Brothers, is the result of Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft's first collaboration and is based on Lloyd's experiences at Simpson's in London's West End. The show was originally to center around Trevor Bannister (Mr. Lucas), but as the show became immensely popular the characters of John Inman and Mollie Sugden (who played Mr. Humphries and Mrs. Slocombe) began to dominate. As mentioned above, Are You Being Served? continues to be aired by PBS (by way of BBC America) in the United States, by UK Gold (by way of the BBC) in the United Kingdom, and by many other stations around the world, and so it still has quite a huge following.

All I can say to convince you to watch Are You Being Served? is that it is an amazing show, and if you haven't seen it, you're missing a lot. Even if it first aired about a quarter century ago, its appeal and humor are so universal that they have not diminished with the passing of time. True, a lot of the humor is dated (and if you watch the episodes over and over and over again on tape like I used to do, it will get old pretty quickly :p), but that's part of what makes Are You Being Served? such an interesting, challenging, lovable, funny, and enjoyable show.