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I've read that a pilot episode of The Office went down so well in America so they are deciding...wait for it...to remake the show with American actors! Whats going on? Every time we have a TV show made in this country that does quite well, it gets taken over to the good old US of A when the butcher it by remaking it with their own actors...when will they learn. By converting The Office into an American format you're going to loose the marvellous talent of Gervais and his complete ignorance for humanity - you won't find anyone that'll be that good in that role, anywhere.
When will American society actually let someone else have an influence on their media and entertainment circuits. Other TV shows that have done well over here have attempted to be remade but then sunk to the bottom of the ratings quicker than the Titanic. Men Behaving Badly, Absolutely Fabulous, Bottom - they all got sold to American TV companies but they wanted to use their own actors and remake it, changing the storylines, lets face it, completely. What would have happened if we had turned around to the yanks and said "now just hold on there, ya yellow bellied, petrol guzzling yank...we want ya show, but we are gonna remake it". What would then have happened to Friends, Fraiser, Saved by the Bell (ok maybe not that one) - they would have been ruined, because the original actors know whats going on more so that the people remaking it. The actors remaking it will see the original show to get ideas but won't know what the original actor was thinking that made them so funny in the first place.
I will give them the benefit of the doubt though as there was nothing that could have saved The Weakest Link whether they had kept the same host or not! If the Americans are taking shows and trying to make them even better, then why don't we give them some of our shows that would even make you dog keel over if you made him/her watch it. Lets see what they could do then, with a pants format show that smells like a warehouse full of cheese....would it come back cheesier, or would it come back a hit and make us look like fools with the inability to act?
One things for sure though, while we continue to make great shows such as My Family, The Office, So Graham Norton the Americans will continue to go "I love it", buy the format, and then turning it into something resembling Toilet Duck...Expensive, Only good for theToilet, and leaves a bad taste in your mouth!
When will American society actually let someone else have an influence on their media and entertainment circuits. Other TV shows that have done well over here have attempted to be remade but then sunk to the bottom of the ratings quicker than the Titanic. Men Behaving Badly, Absolutely Fabulous, Bottom - they all got sold to American TV companies but they wanted to use their own actors and remake it, changing the storylines, lets face it, completely. What would have happened if we had turned around to the yanks and said "now just hold on there, ya yellow bellied, petrol guzzling yank...we want ya show, but we are gonna remake it". What would then have happened to Friends, Fraiser, Saved by the Bell (ok maybe not that one) - they would have been ruined, because the original actors know whats going on more so that the people remaking it. The actors remaking it will see the original show to get ideas but won't know what the original actor was thinking that made them so funny in the first place.
I will give them the benefit of the doubt though as there was nothing that could have saved The Weakest Link whether they had kept the same host or not! If the Americans are taking shows and trying to make them even better, then why don't we give them some of our shows that would even make you dog keel over if you made him/her watch it. Lets see what they could do then, with a pants format show that smells like a warehouse full of cheese....would it come back cheesier, or would it come back a hit and make us look like fools with the inability to act?
One things for sure though, while we continue to make great shows such as My Family, The Office, So Graham Norton the Americans will continue to go "I love it", buy the format, and then turning it into something resembling Toilet Duck...Expensive, Only good for theToilet, and leaves a bad taste in your mouth!
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we remade 'whose the boss?' as 'the upper hand' and it blew monkey balls.
then again so did the original Tony Danza programme
then again so did the original Tony Danza programme
Vice wrote:
> i can't see how the american's get the office though, i mean there is
> no laugh track to it, they might think it's a serious program though
True...they probably see it as an actual documentary of what it's like in a British Office!
> i can't see how the american's get the office though, i mean there is
> no laugh track to it, they might think it's a serious program though
True...they probably see it as an actual documentary of what it's like in a British Office!
i can't see how the american's get the office though, i mean there is no laugh track to it, they might think it's a serious program though
Thunderbirds was British but they used American accents because the Americans wouldn't take it otherwise, and we didn't care what accent they had.
I dont know if any of you have been watching "coupling" a bbc 2 comedy (yes you read that right) its very funny indeed, sort of a Brittish version of Friends. Well the pilot went down very well in America so now they have decided to make it with American actors, so they are Americanising a Brittish version of an American program if that makes scence.
They aren't really remakes - they just take the concept, just like they/we/everybody does with loads of other shows. Really not worth getting in a fuss over.
Look at it this way, at least they are paying for it. Eastenders is basically Coronation Street set in London, but as no money changed hands it is treated as a new concept. Big Breakfast was basically GM:TV for younger audience, but no money changed hands so it is treated as a new concept. So Graham Norton is basically repeteated torture, but as no money changed hands it is treated as a new concept.
Look at it this way, at least they are paying for it. Eastenders is basically Coronation Street set in London, but as no money changed hands it is treated as a new concept. Big Breakfast was basically GM:TV for younger audience, but no money changed hands so it is treated as a new concept. So Graham Norton is basically repeteated torture, but as no money changed hands it is treated as a new concept.
You know you gys have a fair amount of remakes of american shows that you probably don't even now about. Plus if we take your shows that is just further proof that you guys indeed rock!
The Americans love their remakes. I saw a trailer for 'The Ring' remake the other day, oh god it looked terrible.
The day they remake The League of Gentlemen is the day we go to war with America.
The day they remake The League of Gentlemen is the day we go to war with America.
Whose line is it anyway...
now on comedy central with drew carey as the host, the comedians are as good as they usually are, careys not to bad as the host and occasionally gets in on the improvs, but the audience just isn't the same as the uk version, after all I've never seen the american audience ask for the situation to be done in the style of a sweedish porno.
Red Dwarf USA didn't fare too well, Absolutely fabulous now uses the uk cast for the show in the US.
Queer as folk USA didn't 'go down too well'
*sniggers*
I can't think of any entertainment programmes that were copied from a successful format and were made equally successful.
We are not wholely innocent in this, take for example 'Days Like These'
the UK version of the hit US show 'That 70's Show', essentially the same with all the camera angles and gags identical, yet the UK version wasn't as funny.
Its like trying to make a copy of an oil painting with a black and white photocopier, the imitation won't be as good as the original, there will always be something missing - a certain (as Thierry Henry would say) Va va voom.
just as I was about to finnish this post off, I remembered that 'comedy' that was shown on BBC2 not too long ago, which took the concept of Scrubs and put it in the NHS and just wasn't anywhere near as good.
now on comedy central with drew carey as the host, the comedians are as good as they usually are, careys not to bad as the host and occasionally gets in on the improvs, but the audience just isn't the same as the uk version, after all I've never seen the american audience ask for the situation to be done in the style of a sweedish porno.
Red Dwarf USA didn't fare too well, Absolutely fabulous now uses the uk cast for the show in the US.
Queer as folk USA didn't 'go down too well'
*sniggers*
I can't think of any entertainment programmes that were copied from a successful format and were made equally successful.
We are not wholely innocent in this, take for example 'Days Like These'
the UK version of the hit US show 'That 70's Show', essentially the same with all the camera angles and gags identical, yet the UK version wasn't as funny.
Its like trying to make a copy of an oil painting with a black and white photocopier, the imitation won't be as good as the original, there will always be something missing - a certain (as Thierry Henry would say) Va va voom.
just as I was about to finnish this post off, I remembered that 'comedy' that was shown on BBC2 not too long ago, which took the concept of Scrubs and put it in the NHS and just wasn't anywhere near as good.
Let's see them recreate the morbundity of Eastenders with a cast of mormons, set in Utah.
Synopsis of Episode one: the whole state is up in arms after someone is found drinking cola. The respected Mr Bobby Smith is diagnosed with a disease only curable with a blood tansfusion the day after being accepted to Harvard, winning the lottery and his fiance had agreed to marry him. A gargantuan version of Harry Ramsdens opens in Salt lake city, draining the area of it's most abundant resource.
Some purdy lady spills some vinegar on her lovely frock. Grubby, the plucky orphan child, befriends a horse called "N", which later appears on the frontage of Harry Ramsdens chip emporium, it's throat slit.
Cryptically the large sign over the door says "Real" then there is a piece of rock salt stuck to the sign, a dead horse and a spolied frock, then the words "served here". Ransden defends his actions by saying paint isn't cheap, especially the sort containing toxic levels of lead that he uses that will poison the City's inhabitants in episode three.
FADE TO OBLIVION
Synopsis of Episode one: the whole state is up in arms after someone is found drinking cola. The respected Mr Bobby Smith is diagnosed with a disease only curable with a blood tansfusion the day after being accepted to Harvard, winning the lottery and his fiance had agreed to marry him. A gargantuan version of Harry Ramsdens opens in Salt lake city, draining the area of it's most abundant resource.
Some purdy lady spills some vinegar on her lovely frock. Grubby, the plucky orphan child, befriends a horse called "N", which later appears on the frontage of Harry Ramsdens chip emporium, it's throat slit.
Cryptically the large sign over the door says "Real" then there is a piece of rock salt stuck to the sign, a dead horse and a spolied frock, then the words "served here". Ransden defends his actions by saying paint isn't cheap, especially the sort containing toxic levels of lead that he uses that will poison the City's inhabitants in episode three.
FADE TO OBLIVION
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