# AbFab Countdown **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2001, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667 "2001-11-05T20:49:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/1 "2001-11-05T20:49:51Z")
Sweetie, darling, it’s only one week until the new AbFab series premieres. It begins November 12 on Comedy Central, 9 p.m. eastern, 8 p.m. central. I hope the characters interact just as well and they try not to let it become too broadly slapstick. I think I’ll drink a gin and tonic in celebration that night while watching the first episode. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/2 "2001-11-05T20:59:29Z")
Darling. Sweetie. Darling. Don’t forget tonight’s “How to be Absolutely Fabulous” preview, at 8:00. And remember: You can never have enough bags, hats or shoes. (I work at a fashion mag—and jeez, those writers got those gals down cold!) ---
**Author:** ![Mogwei22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@Mogwei22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mogwei22)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/3 "2001-11-05T21:31:25Z")
Yeah Babe! Stoli! I have to wonder how Saffron will fit into all this…by the end of the last season she seemed to have lost her edge. tickets, money, passport, tickets, money, passport. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/4 "2001-11-05T23:18:59Z")
One word from me, and I can raise hemlines so high that the world’s your gynecologist! Thanks for the tipoff again, Eve. Mr. Pug (another fan) and I will check out that preview tonight. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/5 "2001-11-06T01:01:00Z")
The series met with mixed reactions here in the UK. The detractors either accused it of being too much ‘more of the same’ or too much of a departure! I guess Jennifer Saunders can’t win either way. FWIW, I thought it was an **excellent** series with some richly comic moments. The highlight comes when Saffy writes a play about her life, featuring actors playing her Mom and Patsy - very weird and self-referential, but hilarious. Both Saunders and Lumley were, I thought, on top form throughout this series, and evidently enjoying themselves enormously. Oh, and if you like Jane Horrocks (Bubbles), the good news is there is twice as much of her in the new series. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/6 "2001-11-06T02:53:40Z")
I unexpectedly saw an episode of the new series this summer while in Amsterdam and I found it odd and depressing. It took me a while to realize that it was a new one–I was amazed that I could have missed an episode. I felt that the updating made it tragic somehow. But that may have been the spacecake talking: I got really upset the same might about a docuentary on some English footballer. . . ---
**Author:** ![JavaMaven1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/7 "2001-11-06T03:05:23Z")
I’m buying a bottle of Stoli just for, Sweetie Darling. ---
**Author:** ![daffodil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@daffodil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffodil)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/8 "2001-11-06T12:04:16Z")
We **are** all talking about the English version, aren’t we? I mean; a non-smoking non-swearing American Patsy??? Come on! \*btw; Saw a bit of the American “Fawlty Towers”. What’s THAT for crying out loud. - I thought Americans understood English. Why the remakes? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/9 "2001-11-06T14:07:12Z")
No, thank goodness, the threatened American remake of “AbFab” never came about. That special last night turned out to be the same one they’d shown before . . . Odd, how violently not funny Jennifer Saunders is in her non-Edina mode. She’s like Rowan Atkinson: latched onto one brilliant character, but that’s all she’s GOT. I understand she heartily resents having to return to the “AbFab” schtick, but she was smart enough to do so, at least . . . ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/10 "2001-11-06T14:22:12Z")
**Eve** , I think you do her an injustice. The ‘French and Saunders’ stuff was both good and bad but I did think the film parody series was excellent – for example, I _loved_ her Jodie Foster/‘Silence of the Lambs’. Others were equally as good. Saw a little of the new AbFab. I’d reflect **Ianzin’s** observation that it was very good if something of a departure – those wanting the same ol’ thing will probably be a little disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/11 "2001-11-06T15:36:14Z")
London, it’s possible (indeed, probable) that we only got Jennifer Saunders’ second-rate stuff over here. We don’t get THAT much British TV, and it’s not always the pick of the litter . . . Speaking of French, I am furious that my local PBS station stopped carrying “The Vicar of Dibley” and replaced it with “Father Ted.” Not ALL clerics are equally funny . . . ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/12 "2001-11-06T18:59:24Z")
**Eve** - Ah! I see. I assumed otherwise, sorry. Have to say, I haven’t fully grasped how PBS operates. I’ve always _thought_ it’s funding comes from a combo of public and sponsored money, but how this impinges on its scheduling evades me. I guess it’s got to be pretty penniless (if it can’t afford BBC material) or the schedulers have a very broad remit to satisfy. Hmm, I agree Father Ted’s cut of a different cloth. I tended to think it got too far ahead of itself in terms of failing to fully explore/develop characters (and enough of them) before taking the audience off on its merry tangents. Enough went with it to satisfy ratings on a channel with limited expectations but I wasn’t always one of them. A bit hurried, IMHO. If you get a chance, I’d suggest taking a look at ‘Gimme, Gimme, Gimme’. I think the current series works pretty well, in an uncouth kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/13 "2001-11-07T00:00:09Z")
I always got the oddest feeling that “Cybill” - that Cybill Shepherd vehicle - was the sanitised American remake. It wasn’t unfunny in a kind of a generic way, but the idea of remaking Abfab appalled me. If i’m wrong I may give it another go. ---
**Author:** ![DMAAN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@DMAAN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMAAN)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/14 "2001-11-07T02:54:17Z")
Anyone know if any networks have picked it up in Canada? If not would anyone like to cheat and make it available over the web? d ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/15 "2001-11-07T04:13:32Z")
Yes! I love that show! Too bad no one else in my house does. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/16 "2001-11-08T10:43:34Z")
I tend to waffle on AbFab – either I find it funny, or really depressing – but put me down for the “more of the same” side of the fence for the new series. Some good moments, some dull moments, some annoying moments…same ol’, same ol’. OTOH, I’m a big **Father Ted** fan. But then again, all it takes to make me laugh is for Ardal O’Hanlon to do that gormless expression, so I’m obviously the target audience for this show. It’s probably just as well they had to stop after four seasons (due to the tragic death of Dermot Morgan); even the writers admitted they had pretty much run out of ideas during the last batch of shows. Mind you, I like **Vicar of Dibley** too. There _was_ an American remake of AbFab (and maybe two): there was a 1995 TV show called **High Society** , starring Mary McDonnell and Jean Smart. Mary M.'s character had a straitlaced Young Republican (note caps) son. As far as I can recall, they handled the transition from British “shallow” to American “shallow” pretty well, and it managed to be funny despite the usual US TV network sanitation process. I think it only lasted one season. I don’t recall if Roseanne ever succeeded in getting her version of it off the ground, and frankly I don’t care. On another note, there’s a new AbFab book out called “Continuity”, made up of continuity photos from the show (i.e. Polaroids of what the character looked like so that they can recreate it for the next day’s shooting) and put together by Jennifer Saunders. The notes (and many of the photos) are quite funny. (Incidentally, and apropos of not much, Julia Sawalha does a spectacular Cerys Mathews impersonation. Just thought I’d mention it.) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/17 "2001-11-08T14:47:51Z")
"It’s probably just as well they had to stop after four seasons (due to the tragic death of Dermot Morgan) . . . " What?! The leading actor on that show? Is it possible The Queen pf the Dead has missed a show-biz obit?! I have to do some web-searching . . . What a shame, he really was excellent, even if I didn’t care much for the show. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/18 "2001-11-08T14:57:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*"It’s probably just as well they had to stop after four seasons (due to the tragic death of Dermot Morgan) . . . " > > What?! The leading actor on that show? Is it possible The Queen pf the Dead has missed a show-biz obit?! I have to do some web-searching . . . What a shame, he really was excellent, even if I didn’t care much for the show. \*\* Try [here](http://www.gabrielmedia.org/frted/morgan.html). He had a heart attack shortly after the completion of the third series (I was incorrect in saying above that there were four). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/19 "2001-11-08T15:18:28Z")
Crap. What a shame. Oh, well, back to AbFab . . . ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667/20 "2001-11-08T18:08:28Z")
I’m looking forward to the new episodes. I just hope I won’t be disappointed. I loved the originals and have watched them so much I practically have them memorized. I also hope I can stay awake to watch on Monday. Thanks to Phoenix’s weird time zone, it’s not on until 10pm for me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abfab-countdown/91667.md?page=2)