i caught "As time Goes by" --a BBC sit com that has been running for several years now on PBS--and was puzzling through a 'dress up ball' that involved Centrillions..
(i am a poor scholar and know little latin, and less greek)

a few minutes latter the mystery was cleared up--
St.Trilian's

and then--i was surprized--Not that the older generation knew the reference, but that the 'young women' did.--and that it was featured in a somewhat modern (10 years or so old) show!

i don't think my kids "know" abbot and costello, (they do know laural and Hardy--their father was a fan, and bought all sorts of video taps of the laural and hardy movies)or the bowery boys--(they might know the names, but i am not sure about that even)

Are the St Trillian's Girls movies still shown? (on TV?)

(st trilian's was a girls school filled with wild, vaguely sexy girls, who were always getting into one sort of trouble or the next--the closest US equiviant would be the bowery boy's..

the antics, were fun, but not serious--things like setting up a still in the chapel,(using the pipe organ pipes) --but they never actually collect the alcohol--the still explodes or some such before they can actually get drunk--but of course, inland revenue finds out about it before it explodes.. and there are cases of mistaken identity.. the usual silly farcical things..

(PBS broadcast several of the StTrilian's movies, too, in times past.) the movies are (or seemed to be) all pre WWII(Rank Films, i recall--with the big Gong at the beginning..)-ancient history!