Fawlty Towers was americanized with horrid results. John Laroquette was in that. It died quickly.
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British -> American:
“Three’s Company” was based on a British series, “Man About the House”.
Men Behaving Badly. American version is terrible.
Cracker in the UK became Fitz in the States. Cracker IMHO was one of the best TV prog.s in the last 10years. Fitz was a heap of crap.
One foot in the grave became that heap of crap with Bill Cosby in it.
Thank God Rossanne Barrs AB FAB was killed before it started.
I’m not putting down American TV BTW, I love a lot of US shows, just pointing out the bad remakes. I’m sure there are reverse versions aswell. I just don’t know them.
i think the main problem with Red Dwarf in USA was they didnt know what “smeg” was.
I think the main problem was the US re-makers didn’t “get” Lister.
In the original he’s a fairly dodgy scouser with deplorable personal hygiene, a bad complexion, a bent for petty larceny and a fondness for diabolically hot curries.
This didn’t translate terribly well, and IIRC the Lister of the US pilot is a blond, tanned, surf bum.
OTOH, the little tin-god Rimmer came across quite well, suggesting that over-weaning petty bureaucrats are cross-cultural. 
It’s odd you’d say that Apollyon, because I found that whilst Lister’s character in the US pilot was kind of surf-dude like, he came across very well with the same kind of attitude that Craig Charles does. But, yes, he did like wildly different.
However, I didn’t like Rimmer at all in the US version - and I assume they had problems porting his character across because his role is severely reduced (to what can only be a few minutes screen time in a 25min pilot).
The Cat also comes across brilliantly in the US version, but steals a lot (I feel) from Danny John-Jules’ characterisation and voice.
By the way - not many people knew what “Smeg” meant in the UK either - until Dwarf came along. It’s kind of onomatopoeic though.
BBC to US successes:
All in the Family from Till Death Us Do Part
Sanford and Son from Steptoe and Son
BBC to US failure:
Beanes of Boston from Are You Being Served?
BTW: I had to look up “smeg” after watching for the first time, and found nothing in the dictionary.
Smeg is short for smegma - so look that up in the dictionary.
Interesting tale - my home country, New Zealand, had it’s own Red Dwarf fanclub. I contributed a few pieces of artwork to its magazine that came out a few times a year, including a pretty cool cover. The editor of that magazine, Justin, eventually shut down its production, partly because it was a bit of a thankless job, but mostly because he recently had had a sex change and his/her life had shifted focus somewhat.
She is now living happily as a woman named Kelly.
goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes…Fun Fun Fun! in the SUN SUN SUN!!
ACK!! I can’t get that damn song out of my head now…
Thanks a lot 
There are 4 Red Dwarf novels. Only 2 were put out in the US:
Red Dwarf : Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor *
Better Than Life by Grant Naylor
The 2 other books are:
Backwards by Rob Grant
The Last Human by Doug Naylor
Your best bet on finding these two is ebay.
*Grant Naylor is a “psuedonym” of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, back when everything was happy and they were still writing together.
Red Dwarf…Red Dwarf…yeah, I think I’ve heard it mentioned once or twice…