Yeah, my parents also watched it, never saw the appeal personally, much preferred to watch some good comedy programs. I do however admit to enjoying "Love thy Neighbour", a show that attempted to make fun out of the racists.
At least Rudolph Walker as the black neighbour, Bill Reynolds, gave at least as good as he got. Although "Love Thy Neighbour" attracts scorn nowadays my memory of it is that it did more to puncture prevailing racist attitudes than reinforce them. Your attitude after watching it was that you'd rather have Rudolph Walker than Jack Smethurst as an actual neighbour. As always in British sitcom it was the wives how came over as the truly sensible characters.
An interesting comparison is "Rising Damp" which was pretty much contemporary with "Love Thy Neighbour", where Don Warrington's (black) character, Phillip,
always ended up with the upper hand.
I suspect that "Love Thy Neighbour" has aged poorly, more because of the style of comedy (cf "On The Buses") rather than, viewed objectively, the racial content. "Rising Damp" on the other hand is, I dare say, as watchable as it ever was.