In today's world, you turn your TV on, and have hundreds of channels.
Once upon a time, there was a fairly amazing land, where we only used to have one channel aka PTV to watch on our television screen. The intense well scripted serious dramas with phenomenal actors, the hilarious sit-coms and dramas that made everyone laugh out loud, actually. The comic timing of actors combined with the hilarious scripts resulted in the comedy series we all still cherish, to this day.
It's wonderful how long ago it seems now. With no choice and options, everyone was pretty happy with the PTV we had, because of the excellence of the content.
Here is a list of a few of the comedy dramas we miss:
Sona Chandi
Sona Chandi is a classic comedy-drama television serial produced by PTV. The story of the drama revolves around a couple who came to a city in search of work. The role of Sona is played by Hamid Rana and his wife Chandi (Sheeba Arshad). This simple, innocent couple during their jobs in different houses, help many people in solving their problems.
Angan Terha
Aangan Terha was a satirical Pakistani drama presented by the PTV network in the late 1980s. The drama is based on many stories on multiple issues of the society and indirect criticism on the Martial law and the electoral system. The show starred Salim Nasir, Shakeel, Arshad Mehmood, Durdana Butt and Bushra Ansari in lead roles, was directed by Qaiser Farooq and written by Anwar Maqsood.
Alif Noon
Alif Noon was a comedy series from Pakistan Television written by Kamal Ahmed Rizvi. Allan was shown as a clever business minded person who used to come up with some nasty and immoral tricks to earn fast money and used to use Nannha as his stooge. Nannha (his Front man) didn't know the norms of the new society and was therefore used by Allan as the front man for his tricks. In the end, he would unintentionally toss out the whole plot of Allan by speaking the truth to the public. The cast consisted of Rafi Khawar known as Nannha and Kamal Ahmed Rizvi known an Allan.
Family Front
Family Front was a 1990s Pakistani comedy drama sitcom. It was broadcast by the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV World, now PTV News).[1] Sitcom was directed by Waseem Abbas and written by Muhammad Younis Butt, starring Saba Hameed, Samina Ahmad, Waseem Abbas, Mira Hashmi, Shahzad Nasim and Naseem Vicky. The story is about a family of Azam and Sumbul who have two children and Azam's sister too is an important family member. The family, except Azam is quite irresponsible and end up in a humorous but serious situation in every episode.
Guest House
Guest House is a Pakistani comedy-drama series written by Rauf Khalid which was produced and run by PTV in early to middle 1990s. The show was inspired by the hit British sitcom Fawlty Towers. The setting is a fictional guest house named Welcome Guest House located in a posh area of Islamabad. It is run by Mr. Shameem and his wife with the help of three permanent regular employees Naveed, Murad and Rambo. The story of every episode starts with arrival of new guests and the involvement of guest house's employees in their comic and tragic situations. Almost each episode ended with the solution of problems of the guests with the help of all-too-readily helpful employees and reluctant owners of the guesthouse.
College jeans
It was a production of the students of National College of Arts – Lahore (NCA). It focused more on how the college students are & how hilariously bizarre they can get. It also starred Ali Zafar. It was the very first drama of its kind that brought to the limelight the life of the university students.
Shashlik
Production & direction of Surmed Khoosat where he played the role of Cheeku. It was aired in the mid 2000’s again for PTV where it was all about a bunch of friends who developed certain love triangles. Starring Nadia Afghan, they did do wonders & it ran for quite some time too.
Khwaja and Son
Khajawa and Son (begun in 1985) is a comedy serial that revolves around Khawaja sahib (played by Ali Ejaz) and his son Jawad. As a father, Khawaja sahib is quick to catch on to any mistake or wrong step his son takes and is ever ready to correct him. His major correction tool is twisting the ears of his son, who is a full grown adult. With his father not giving him much room to breathe and his nine sisters continuously placing demands on him, there is not much fun out there for Jawad. Fortunately, Jawad's loss is our gain as the products of these interactions, the comical scenes and situations, are a treat to watch.
Choti si dunya
A villager saves the life of a foreigner and in return gets an invitation by the foreigner to accompany him back to his native country. Returning to his village after few years, he is fondly labeled as Janu German. Roaming around in a suit, Janu German, now has difficulty in re-adjusting to his village`s life style. At the end of the play he is challenged by one of the locals to a one-to-one competition to see who can speak better English, with hilarious results.