Are You Being Served? sharp-tongued, witty responses, along with his trademark catch-phrase "I'm free!", were enthusiastically embraced by many audience members, and the character evolved into a gay icon in popular culture. Despite this, Inman pointed out that Mr Humphries' true sexual orientation was never explicitly stated in the series, and David Croft said in an interview that the character was not homosexual, but "just a mother's boy". In an episode of the spin-off "Grace & Favour", the character is further described as neither a "woman's man" nor a "man's man" and as being "in limbo". The characters (Mr Humphries especially) sometimes broke the
Are You Being Served? cast members made guest appearances. "Are You Being Served?" aired in Canada in prime time on Global Television Network in the mid 1980s and late night on YTV. It also became available to Canadian viewers on PBS station WNED (Buffalo). The show aired on Saturday evening prime time from the mid 1980s to late 1990s. The series was also extremely popular in Australia. It started on ABC Television in 1974 and was repeated by ABC in Australia several times. By 1978 it had been acquired by the commercial Seven Network who successfully screened repeats of the program to audiences larger