It's true that I've never seen "Porridge," but I think this show was genuinely underrated. As far as I know, about the only attention it got was negative - it was called too light a comedy (considering the subject), and was also accused of being full of ethnic stereotypes, which it really wasn't. And it was full of very good comedy actors, some of whom I've hardly seen since, like Jose Perez as Fuentes, the leader of the group. And Melvin Stewart, one of the most underrated character actors of all (even his great "All In The Family" character seldom gets mentioned when people write about that show), as the nasty guard (at least, by LIGHT COMEDY standards), always trying to get something on the main characters, especially Fuentes. And Tom Poston as the nice, put-upon guard (again, I've never seen Porridge, so I don't know the similar character on that show, but Poston was very good). And Rick Hurst, who's made a career out of playing likable oafish characters.
