The house used for the external scenes is situated in Codrington Road, Bristol. The reason for including a performance by a live band in each episode was that this caused the BBC to categorize the show as "Light Entertainment" rather than "Situation Comedy", which meant it got a higher budget
The principal characters were all derived from characters performed by the actors at The Comic Strip club in London in the early-1980s. Rik, the People's Poet was a solo act by Rik Mayall; Vyvyan was a development of Adrian Edmondson's half of Twentieth Century Coyote (with Rik Mayall); Neil was originally Nigel Planer's inept (and depressed) folk singer; while Mike was based on Peter Richardson's performance as half of The Outer Limits (with Nigel Planer). It was originally intended that Richardson should join the show, but when he declined, the role was offered to Christopher Ryan.
Rik Mayall once remarked in an interview that The Young Ones were designed to be a nuclear family, with Neil as the mother, Mike as the father figure, Vyvyan as the rebellious young son and Rick as the daughter (complete with pigtails).
Was one of the first BBC shows to be have its location scenes videotaped rather than filmed (save for a couple of scenes - the "Dallas" (1978) spoof in "Time" and the red bus in "Summer Holiday" were shot on film). Prior to this (and was common until the end of the 1980s) film was used for location shooting due to the fact that videotape equipment was too cumbersome and unportable.
Rik Mayall admitted to being knocked unconcious by Alexi Sayle during filming 'Sick' Source Simon Pegg.
