History Series / SomeMothersDoAveEm

* {{Catchphrase}}: "Ooh Betty ..." is not Frank's only catchphrase of the series. Others include a quavering "Oooh ...", usually uttered with his forefinger to his mouth as he stands amidst the chaos of some disaster he has just caused (and which he himself has invariably escaped unscathed). He also sometimes complains about being "ha-[=RASSed!=]", or occasionally, "I've had a lot of ha-[=RASSments=] lately" (originally an American pronunciation). Other recurring catchphrases include references to "a bit of trouble", which usually implies some sort of undisclosed digestive disorder, and to the cat having "done a whoopsie" (presumably a euphemism for having defecated in an inappropriate place, on one occasion in Spencer's beret). If Frank is pleased (or confused) about something, he will often use the catchphrase "Mmmm -- nice!" or "Ohhh -- nice!"

* ScreenToStageAdaptation: A stage adaptation, written and directed by Guy Unsworth based on the TV series began a UK tour at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon in February 2018 starring Joe Pasquale as Frank Spencer, with Sarah Earnshaw as Betty and Susie Blake as Mrs Fisher. Due to the success of the 2018 tour, the production began another tour in from February 2020, however due to the coronavirus pandemic many dates were cancelled.

* DeusExMachina: In "Cliffhanger", the rugby club's appearance was ''very'' timely.

* BedsheetLadder: Frank's idea to escape the hotel room: "We can tie sheets together like in ''Colditz''."

* TitleThemeTune: The theme tune is the show's title in Morse Code. This adds a GeniusBonus: the instrumental theme is played on a solo piccolo. Not only does one phrase echo the series title ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'', but to anyone familiar with Morse code - the staccato piccolo playing spells out the name of the show.

* ThereWasADoor: At the start of one episode, Frank has apparently removed his garden shed's door in order to replace a section of wall in his house, saying (if I remember correctly) something about gaining access inside as justification. His mother-in-law remarks something along the lines of, "There was a movable piece of wood there. It was called a door."

* TitleThemeTune: The theme tune is the show's title in Morse Code.

* ThereWasADoor: At the start of one episode, Frank has apparently removed a section of his garden shed's wall in order to replace a section of wall in his house, saying (if I remember correctly) something about gaining access inside. His mother-in-law remarks something along the lines of, "There was a movable piece of wood there. It was called a door."

* {{Corpsing}}: One noticeable example occurs in "Wendy House" where Creator/RichardWilson plays an insurance assessor who calls on Frank and Betty. All three sit on a sofa to discuss the situation and Wilson slowly sinks down into it so that he barely manages to come up to Crawford's shoulders. Michele Dotrice cannot stifle her laughter and this, in turn, causes both Crawford and Wilson to corpse. After a few seconds all three manage to pick up the script again and the take is retained in the finished edit.

* NiceHat: Frank's signature beret.

''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'' was a British SitCom that originally aired on Creator/TheBBC from 1973 to 1978, starring Michael Crawford as the hapless Frank Spencer. It was written by Raymond Allen, [[RomanAClef based on]] [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory his own experiences as a single man]]. However, upon seeing the first draft for the script, Creator/MichaelCrawford insisted that Frank have a wife. Michele Dotrice was then cast as the long-suffering Betty.

* {{Corpsing}}: One noticeable example occurs in "Wendy House" where Richard Wilson plays an insurance assessor who calls on Frank and Betty. All three sit on a sofa to discuss the situation and Wilson slowly sinks down into it so that he barely manages to come up to Crawford's shoulders. Michele Dotrice cannot stifle her laughter and this, in turn, causes both Crawford and Wilson to corpse. After a few seconds all three manage to pick up the script again and the take is retained in the finished edit.

** In the climax of "The Public Relations Course", Frank has driven the course director, Mr Watson, into white-hot anger with his usual cluelessness and incompetence, leading him to make a disastrous verbal gaffe as he snarls that Frank isn't supposed to ''help'' the dissatisfied customers; he's a public relations officer. The rest of the class, already going sour on the very idea of PR after seeing Mr Watson fail to keep his cool in Frank's presence, immediately begin demanding refunds.

* OhCrap: You can tell Frank knows he's in trouble when he places his index finger next to his mouth and gives a quavering "Ooh!"

* EnragedByIdiocy: Almost everyone who deals with Frank may be calm and collected to begin with, but his seemingly boundless dimness and ineptitude inevitably send them into fits of frothing rage of which they didn't even know themselves to be capable, sometimes followed by blubbering, gibbering insanity. For example, in "The Public Relations Course", PR guru Mr Watson leads a five-day training course, but on the first day, Frank quickly drives him mad with meaningless or irrelevant answers to basic questions. Things deteriorate further when he asks Frank to participate in a role-playing exercise as first a dissatisfied customer and then a PR representative dealing with a dissatisfied customer played by Eddie, a fellow student who has taken Frank under his wing. For the former, Frank simply fires off insults that he doesn't understand but heard from Lang, a militant who thinks public relations is pure hokum (and who thus deliberately aggravates Mr Watson almost as much as Frank does accidentally), and for the latter, he blithely agrees that the dissatisfied customer has grounds to sue his hypothetical employer. Mr Watson flies into a rage, and when Eddie intervenes and says Frank was only trying to help him, Mr Watson snarls, "He's not '''supposed''' to help you! He's a public relations officer!"... thereby convincing the entire group that Lang is right about PR being pure hokum and the course being an excuse to bilk them out of their money, leading them to storm out ''en masse''.

* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Over the course of the series, especially in "The Psychiatrist", we learn that Frank's childhood may explain a lot about how he turned out as an adult. His father, evidently frustrated by having a son who is just as inept as his wife, left the family when Frank was a toddler, while Frank's aunt tells Betty that his mother was ashamed of him and used to hide him under the stairs when the education officers visited the house, waiting until he was ten to send him to school - and he only lasted a few months before being withdrawn again, as his mother didn't want him to pick up dirty habits from the other boys.

* TheKlutz: Frank. If there's something to trip over, fall into, or get stuck halfway in, he'll do just that. If he's carrying something breakable, he'll drop and break it, probably beyond repair.

* EnragedByIdiocy: Almost everyone who deals with Frank may be calm and collected to begin with, but his seemingly boundless dimness and ineptitude inevitably send them into fits of frothing rage of which they didn't even know themselves to be capable, sometimes followed by blubbering, gibbering insanity. For example, in "The Public Relations Course", PR guru Mr Watson leads a five-day training course, but on the first day, he asks Frank to participate in a role-playing exercise as first a dissatisfied customer and then a PR representative dealing with a dissatisfied customer played by Eddie, a fellow student who has taken Frank under his wing. For the former, Frank simply fires off insults that he heard from Lang, a militant who thinks public relations is pure hokum, and for the latter, he blithely agrees that the dissatisfied customer has grounds to sue his hypothetical employer. Mr Watson flies into a rage, and when Eddie intervenes and says Frank was only trying to help him, Mr Watson snarls, "He's not '''supposed''' to help you! He's a public relations officer!"... thereby convincing the entire group that Lang is right about PR being pure hokum, leading them to storm out ''en masse''.

* EnragedByIdiocy: Almost everyone who deals with Frank may be calm and collected to begin with, but his seemingly boundless dimness and ineptitude inevitably send them into fits of frothing rage of which they didn't even know themselves to be capable, sometimes followed by blubbering, gibbering insanity. For example, in "The Public Relations Course", PR guru Mr Watson leads a five-day training course, but on the first day, he asks Frank to participate in a role-playing exercise as first a dissatisfied customer and then a PR representative dealing with a dissatisfied customer played by Eddie, a fellow student who has taken Frank under his wing. For the former, Frank simply fires off insults that he heard from a militant student who thinks public relations is pure hokum, and for the latter, he blithely agrees that the dissatisfied customer has grounds to sue his hypothetical employer. Mr Watson flies into a rage, and when Eddie intervenes and says Frank was only trying to help him, Mr Watson snarls, "He's not '''supposed''' to help you! He's a public relations officer!"... thereby convincing the entire group that the militant student is right about PR being pure hokum, leading them to storm out ''en masse''.

* EnragedByIdiocy: Almost everyone who deals with Frank may be calm and collected to begin with, but his seemingly boundless dimness and ineptitude inevitably send them into fits of frothing rage of which they didn't even know themselves to be capable, sometimes followed by blubbering, gibbering insanity. For example, in "The Public Relations Course", PR guru Mr Watson leads a five-day training course, but on the first day, he asks Frank to participate in a role-playing exercise as first a dissatisfied customer and then a PR representative dealing with a dissatisfied customer. For the former, Frank simply fires off insults that he heard from a militant student who thinks public relations is pure hokum, and for the latter, he blithely agrees that the dissatisfied customer has grounds to sue his hypothetical employer. Mr Watson ends up flying into such a rage that all of the students immediately lose faith in him and abandon the course.

* TheKlutz: Frank Spencer is this trope UpToEleven.

* BedsheetLadder: Frank's idea to escape the hotel room: "We can tie sheets together like in Colditz."

* CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: A psychiatrist tries to goes to convince Frank that he's not a failure. By the end of the episode, the psychiatrist is a nervous wreck, and Frank is delighted to have been proved right - he is a failure.

** In "Learning To Drive", when Frank takes his DrivingTest (for the tenth time) but ends up driving the car off a pier into the sea.
** The famous motorbike sequence in "King of the Road".

* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Over the course of the series, especially in "The Psychiatrist", we learn that Frank's childhood may explain a lot about how he turned out as an adult. His father, evidently frustrated by having a son who is just as inept as his wife, left the family when Frank was a toddler, while Frank's aunt tells Betty that his mother was ashamed of him and used to hide him under the stairs when the education officers visited the house, waiting until he was ten to send him to school - and he only lasted a few months before being withdrawn again.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Season 3 seems to have erased all mention and memory of Dr Smedley.

** "The Employment Exchange" includes multiple flashbacks to Frank's many misfortune-laden previous jobs.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: In "Learning To Drive", when Frank takes his DrivingTest (for the tenth time) but ends up driving the car off a pier into the sea.
** Also, the famous motorbike sequence in "King of the Road".
* EpisodeOnAPlane: "Learning to Fly".

* GenerationXerox: In the Sports Relief special, Jessica has turned out just as hapless and klutzy as her father.

* IrishPriest: The long-suffering Father O'Hara. In one episode Frank even asks him about joining the priesthood.

* PanickyExpectantFather: Frank is this just before Jessica is born.

* VideoInsideFilmOutside: In common with most British television series of the 1970s, all interior studio footage was shot on videotape, while all exterior location footage was shot on film. A few episodes feature interior location footage that is also shot on film (such as the hospital in "The Hospital Visit" and the roller rink in "Frank is Introduced to Fatherhood".

** In "George's House" from Series 1, Frank and Betty are staying with Betty's brother George, whose house is [[SmartHouse completely fitted with gadgets that work using motion sensors]]. While trying to use the toilet without triggering the sensor that opens the door, Frank accidentally sets off the automatic flush, which gets stuck in the "on" position. His attempts to find the cistern cause the toilet to become blocked, until water pours into the bathroom and ultimately into the house's main control room. The circuits short out and the gadgets go haywire, just as George's boss is trying to persuade an American client to sign a contract to build other houses like George's. As the episode ends, the American client has driven off in a rage, George's wife is stuck in a downstairs window, smoke is pouring out of one upstairs window, and a jet of water is shooting out of another upstairs window, while Frank and Betty wonder if anyone noticed anything.

* [[LoserSonOfLoserDad Loser Son of Loser Mum]]: Frank's reputation is made even worse by the fact his mother was as much of a WalkingDisasterArea as he is.

* SmartHouse: In "George's House", Betty's brother George has designed a house filled floor to ceiling with electronic gadgets, most of them operated by motion sensors. Inevitably, when Betty and Frank are staying with him, it isn't long before Frank falls afoul of the electronics; when he struggles to use the toilet without accidentally activating the motion sensor that opens and closes the door, he ends up blocking the pipe, and the water overflows into the central computer, causing it to go berserk.

* WholeEpisodeFlashback: "The RAF Reunion", "The Psychiatrist", "The Employment Exchange".

* {{Catchphrase}}: "Ooh Betty ..." is not Frank's only catchphrase of the series. Others include a quavering "Oooh ...", usually uttered with his forefinger to his mouth as he stands amidst the chaos of some disaster he has just caused (and which he himself has invariably escaped unscathed). He also sometimes complains about being "ha-RASSed!", or occasionally, "I've had a lot of ha-RASSments lately" (originally an American pronunciation). Other recurring catchphrases include references to "a bit of trouble", which usually implies some sort of undisclosed digestive disorder, and to the cat having "done a whoopsie" (presumably a euphemism for having defecated in an inappropriate place, on one occasion in Spencer's beret). If Frank is pleased (or confused) about something, he will often use the catchphrase "Mmmm — nice!" or "Ohhh — nice!"

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: When she appears in "The Hospital Visit", Creator/ElisabethSladen 's Merseyside accent starts showing through the cockney one she affects.

* SmartHouse: In "George's House".

* VideoInsideFilmOutside

* WholesomeCrossdresser: In "Men as Women", Frank's shock at his doctor dressed in drag subsides when he realises that both the doctor and his colleague were only playing dames in a local Cinderella {{pantomime}}. Upon hearing that one of the Ugly Sisters is ill, Frank even offers to fill in at the end of the episode.

* MoralGuardians: Mary Whitehouse was an outspoken critic of ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'', at one point calling Frank Spencer a "purveyor of pornography"... just because he alluded to some [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar downstairs trouble]] in one episode.

* {{Adorkable}}: Frank is this -- his [[ThePollyanna persistent optimism]] and unwillingness to cause any harm to others exemplify this trope.

* CharacterDevelopment: Frank receives some in Season 3, becoming more self-assured and sophisticated as well as slowly growing into his role as a husband and father. [[VocalEvolution His voice even becomes a little deeper]].