Miniskirt Police

 All right: episodes of the classic 90s Japanese comedy Miniskirt Police (ミニスカポリス) are a little difficult to locate in the present day, but we managed to track down a few VHS transfers on YouTube, Niconico and similar online venues. "Minisuka" has an almost legendary status in its country of origin, the kind of show which defies description even in its native language. 

The basic premise seems to involve two bumbling police constables enticing pretty young starlets out of their clothing (there's also something about a deranged stage magician, but we haven't quite figured that part out yet).

Most of the humor revolved around scantily-clad models being humiliated in their lingerie (kind of like Naughty and Funny except without the hidden cameras). Scripts usually required at least one girl to be stripped down to her bra and knickers by the end of each episode, sometimes more depending on whether the eponymous WPCs were taking part in the festivities.

The original series ran from 1996 to 2001, followed by a number of revivals between 2003 and 2006. The most recent update, launched in August 2013, is considerably less explicit and replaces the main cast with an all-girl pop group, following current trends in Japanese entertainment. 

Video Clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exsDf_QAnYw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShDo-lVRBO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iHXgiQOdnI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HvRGc99SPU

https://www.tokyomotion.net/video/2147907/ミニスカポリス

https://www.tokyomotion.net/video/1953080/ミニスカポリス-バトル

https://www.tokyomotion.net/video/2158884/ミニスカポリス

https://www.tokyomotion.net/video/1998883/ミニスカポリス-巨乳-色々-ぽろり有

The Two Ninnies

The Two Ronnies was a television comedy sketch show created by Bill Cotton for the BBC, which aired from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Barker and Corbett, the Two Ronnies of the title. The show was produced annually between 1971 and 1987. It had many notable writers including John Cleese, Spike Milligan, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones. In addition, Barker used the pseudonym Gerald Wiley when writing sketches.

The show featured comic sketches in which Barker and Corbett appeared both together and separately, with various additions giving the program the feeling of a variety show. The sketches often involved complex word-play, much of it written by Barker, who also liked to parody officialdom and establishment figures, as well as eccentrics. In addition to their regular TV series, the Ronnies also made a number of Christmas specials and telemovies, the best known of which being Futtocks End, The Picnic and By The Sea.

In common with similar British productions of the time, The Ronnie's humor included healthy doses of innuendo and the occasional baring of a starlet's knickers, particularly during the "serial" segments such ''Death Can Be Fatal.'' Full-figure lingerie scenes were much rarer than in The Benny Hill Show, but young female extras appeared in their underwear on occasion throughout the Seventies and early Eighties.

Afternoon Delights

More evidence that Japan is home to the most advanced civilization on the face of the planet: while Western kids were raised on a steady diet of Scooby Doo, Groovie Goolies and Everything's Archie, Japanese pre-teens were fed a healthy blend of panty shots and lingerie scenes via the popular media.

Chargeman Ken

Yes, it's all completely true: back in the late sixties, Japanese audiences were treated to scenes like this literally every day after school. Japanese Animation (anime, for the uninitiated) had a long history of fan service, particularly where young female characters were concerned. As the years wore on, the cartoons became increasingly more risque, leading to impromptu stripteases in shows like Cutie Honey (1973) and Majokko Megu Chan (1974). 

Majokko Megu-Chan

Sure beats the heck out of Sabrina the Teenaged Witch, doesn't it? All kidding aside however, it's worth noting that live action panchira was extremely popular on Japanese TV, so the transition to anime was probably inevitable. Despite periodic outcries from P&T groups and child welfare advocates, the trend caught on and soon became a staple of the cartoon industry. In the space of thirty years, fan service went from this in 1970:

Mahou No Mako-Chan

...to this in 2000:

Gakko No Kaidan

Viewed as cute and harmless (if a little risque), shows like Gakko No Kaidan and Read Or Die were aimed at a young demographic, mainly adolescents and middle-schoolers. Most of the humor was family friendly; kids could laugh at the jokes while their parents smiled at the frequent innuendos.

Read Or Die

Garters Galore!

And now for another (in)famous chase scene from The Benny Hill Show! By the end of the eighties, the starring cast must have been stripped down to their underwear in every manner humanly possible, but apparently, the Old Reprobate still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

 

 

 

 

This 1986 closing sketch finished with Benny fleeing through the Dimpton countryside with the obligatory Traffic Wardens in hot pursuit. Inevitably, a chance encounter with a barbed wire fence leaves the girls in nothing but their bras and knickers, at which point the tables abruptly turn and the WPCs find themselves sprinting half-naked through the woods.

 

 

On the run again...

 

The skit appears to have been a fun shoot for everybody concerned; evidently the girls found running around in their stockings and garters as much of a thrill as we do. Interestingly, the scene posted above originally had the closing credits rolling over the action. We'd be very interested to know how they removed the titles for this animated gif. It seems to have been lifted from an old video compilation (as opposed to DVD), maybe there's an alternate source concealed somewhere on the net :)

Mind Control!

Yeah, the girls in these two clips are most likely payed actors, but the idea of post-hypnotic striptease is the proverbial dream come true. Both vids are filmed in the quasi-documentary style common to reality TV; apologies once more for the low resolution in the second vid.

• Hypnostrip One on Youtube 

• Hypnostrip Two on Youtube

Incomparable

Way back in the early 90s, the incomparable Monica Fraga was considered one of the most beautiful models in all of Latin America. During this classic guest appearance on (I think) Ney Gonçalves Dias, the former Brazilian Playmate agreed to take part in a body painting demonstration, which - naturally enough - required that she strip down to her lingerie before a studio audience.

Click on the "start" arrow to begin. You may need to click more than once.

 

As far as I can tell, Ney Gonçalves Dias - ostensibly a 'news & views' program - featured regular stripteases by well-know female celebrities. During the show's closing credits, the girls would dance before the cameras in their bare knickers, apparently their sole reason for being on the show in the first place. I managed to dig up a few examples on youtube; unfortunately, the resolution leaves a little to be desired (some of the VHS sources are nearly thirty years old).

Monica Fraga at 13.00.

Striptease at 4.15.

Very grainy, but watch until end credits.

Extremely low res; sorry...

James Whale Radio TV Show: The Dream Girls

 James Whale (no relation to the acclaimed Universal movie director) was a run-of-the-mill talk-back radio host until he unaccountably graduated to TV in the late 1980s. While otherwise painfully unremarkable, the show occasionally featured scantily-clad British beauties whose sole purpose was to spice up the proceedings with a touch of risque humor.  One of the more memorable appearances consisted of the aptly named Dream Girls: 

VCR screencap - apologies for the low resolution.

For some inexplicable reason, this multi-talented dance troupe had to perform in the sexiest of lace corsetry imaginable - basques, torsolettes, garter belts and waist-cinchers - complete with matching black hosiery. Interestingly enough, none of the other guests were required to remove any clothing whatsoever - most probably because they were male.

James meets the Dream Girls: beware of vulgar humor.

Apropos to their act, James asked the girls, "Did you enjoy that?" - to which Lisa (the blonde in the middle) replied, "Yes we did, very much" - a sentiment evidently shared by everyone who saw them. A phone-in poll confirmed that 95 percent of the viewing audience wanted to see The Dream Girls back in future episodes. Not sure whether they returned as regular guests - information on the group is extremely rare at this point of time - but hope always springs eternal.

The full dance sequence may be seen in this (regrettably low resolution) video from 1991. Fast forward to 25.31; the Girls are literally the only thing worth watching over the course of the entire sordid program.

For cryin' out loud - get RID of the fat guy!

The Big Win

The Big Win was an Italian game show broadcast between 1987 and 1992. Overwhelmingly successful in its heyday , it was infamous for its gratuitous stripteases, some of which included up to eight girls undressing before the camera at once.

The show's premise was similar to a game of strip poker, in which the "contestants" represented various nations of the European Union. Whenever one of the players lost, she was required to strip down to her bra, panties and suspender stockings - sometimes even less, depending on the size of the bet. In a few episodes, the festivities ended with an "all girl" striptease - proverbial Big Win of the title.

 

 

British Comedy in the 2000s

Following a hiatus of close on thirty years, gratuitous lingerie scenes have finally returned to British comedy, albeit in the form of satellite television. In this sequence from Nuts TV, we have three beautiful young girls strip down to their bras and panties to play a game of twister, apparently to decide which of them has to visit a haunted house in the countryside. This is, of course, a long and honored tradition dating back to the days of the Olde Tyme Music Hall; no punchline is ever complete without the presence of a scantily-clad damsel (or three).

 

Click on the "start" arrow to begin. You may need to click more than once

Benny Hill: TV Medley

Synopsis from The Benny Hill Wiki:

Elsie is an attractive young woman who shares an apartment with her no-nonsense, working class grandfather (Jackie Wright), who frequently talks back to the characters on her television. After grousing about the high-class cultured show on television, he complains back to the dancer (Benny Hill) through the television screen who in turn responds back to him. After the he leaves for the evening, Elsie comes out to the living room in her dressing gown and nightie, and the program switches to the news where the newscaster (Benny, again) ogles her through the television screen and and admires her figure.

Unaware this is happening, she moves around the apartment as he repeatedly misquotes the news, looks out the back of the set when she crosses behind it and even steals a bite of her pastry through the screen. When he reports that an escaped convict (Bob Todd) is loose in the vicinity of her neighborhood, the criminal immediate bursts into Elsie's apartment and hides in her wardrobe cabinet, closely followed by two police officers (Henry McGee and Roger Finch) strolling into the house. Seeing all this, the newscaster tries to warn them, but they turn down the volume on the television which he then turns back up. When the criminal is caught hiding, a struggle ensues, and the newscaster is shot through the TV monitor, lamenting that the only casualty was an innocent newsreader. Finally looking at the television, Elsie comments "Look at that - drunk again".

Summary by User:Thor2000

 

Whirling Skirts

While we're on the subject of  dancing and whirling skirts, TISA and I came across an intriguing set of images (see below) during our travels around the web, apparently relating to an early Seventies variety show:

Anyway, we ran a couple of searches and managed to locate at least one online source. The photo(s) came from a Japanese twitter account devoted to fashions of the 1970s. The caption reads as follows:

ゴーゴーガールのスカートめくりゲームや水着濡らしゲームが人気だったという1971年放送の「夜の大作戦」って番組、観てみたい…

Speaking for myself, I couldn't make head nor tail of the translation, other than the program's title being  "Daily Daisakusen". Fortunately, TISA had considerably more success deciphering the message:

As you say, this scene was broadcast on a program called "夜の大作戦". This is a viewer participation game. Viewers vote for one of the five dancers in advance, then one of the dancers shows her pants via the breeze. A free gift was sent to the viewers who voted for the dancers who played パンチラ. 

The name of this segment was "ショークリメ". "ショー" of "ショークリメ" is "show". "クリメ" is an expression  that reads "turning up" in Japanese. This name seems not to be used outside this program.

I think our Japanese compatriots were way ahead of the curve in this instance: if memory serves correct, there was nothing like this on UK TV back in the 1970s (though Spain and Italy might have mimicked the idea during the 80s). The "viewer participation" angle seems particularly ingenious from where I'm standing. Many thanks to TISA for solving this mystery.

Regards, FireCat.