Just saw an ad on Siffy for an american remake of the BBC series Being Human, and it brings up a question I haven’t found an answer for: why? Now, just seeing the ad since the show hasn’t premiered yet (and only seeing a few episodes of the original in BBCAmerica), I’m making a few assumptions about the american Being Human but I’m betting dollars to donuts the script will be the same, except american slang and american pop culture references etc. Ala the Office. And although the show was cancelled, they attempted to do the same treatment to Coupling.
So I’ve got two questions: are there any other british shows that have remade for american audiences, and is there anybody else annoyed at this apparent trend? I mean, what’s the point? Where’s the sense in it? I ask you!
That’s a list of 100 or so shows British shows remade by Americans. Not all from the BBC (the list doesn’t show who made them). Includes some pilots whch didn’t make a series.
That’s a corresponding reverse list.
This ‘trend’ has been going on since the 70s. At least.
All In the Family and Three’s Company are both based on British shows. (Till Death Do Us Part and Man About the House, respectively.)
Wikipedia has a whole category devoted to the concept. Which tells me that Sanford and Son also was. Which I think I knew, but slipped my mind. There’s a couple on the list that didn’t materialize
OK, how’d I do that…?
A couple that didn’t materialize, and a few that apparently aired, and I never heard of. But it’s a long list, going back a long time.
The first crossover that immediately came to mind was Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, since I watch it often enough. The American version pales in comparison to the UK original.
I’ve been watching “Law & Order: UK”, and recognize some scripts that are exact copies of the original US version, just with “DS” substituted for “detective”, “crown prosecutor” for “district attorney”, and the CP wearing silly wigs. But whereas many US-clones of UK shows are crummy (“Coupling” comes to mind), “L&O:UK” is very well done. It’s also neat to see actors from “Doctor Who” and “Battlestar Galactica” in conventional stories (and hear Jamie Bamber talking with a UK accent).
Dang. I knew that there were many others that I couldn’t remember, but I didn’t realize there were so many or that it had being going on so long. Fawlty Towers recast with Bea Arthur as the star, really? I guess I withdraw my earlier statement. And, I really should do more research before making a post. I am quite embarrassed right now.
Still, doesn’t answer my other question; what is the point? Wouldn’t just airing the shows as is be simpler and cheaper? Rather than re-casting, re-writing the screenplay, re-shooting etc? And its just a completely unbased assumption, but I would think that the license to do all that is an extra cost not including the license to just air the episodes.
It’s strange. I kind of thought of Coupling as the British Freinds, but it’s not listed that way. Coupling was way better than Freinds anyway. Too bad it didn’t last that long.
As long as they don’t dare meddling with Misfits, I don’t care.
Because of the belief by network executives that viewers would not like the British accents, plus that some jokes and references wouldn’t translate.
There’s some truth in the belief – I know people who won’t watch anything where the characters have obvious British accents – but it’s a gamble that program executives don’t want to take.
A British TV series generally has far fewer new episodes per year than an American TV series. The U.S. version of “The Office” is expected to have 22 episodes per year, not 6.
I heard somewhere (I think on a commercial on BBC America) that Law & Order: UK was the first time a show has been remade the *other *way across the pond, with it being a British remake of an American show. Is that accurate?
Also, I saw a commercial the other day for MTV’s new show Skins. Is that a remake of the British show? The British one was great and I have a feeling the American version will a very poor watered down imitation.
According to Wikipedia, not even close.
Hmmm, perhaps the ad meant it was the first American drama to be remade in Britain, as it looks like everything else on that list are game shows, reality shows or sitcoms.
That sounds more correct. It’s mostly that way, too, in the UK->US direction, although it seems there are a couple dramas in there.
It’s not really about the accents, it’s about the format. British shows don’t fit into US time slots; the episodes are often a different length, and the number of episodes usually doesn’t fit in with the US season/ratings setup. And there are usually a limited number of series, too, and the US studios want a successful show (and they want all their shows to be successful) to continue on indefinitely until the ratings fall.
Though if people exist who won’t watch something just because the characters have British accents (man, I didn’t know such xenophobia still existed) - screw 'em.
Yes, it’s a remake of the UK original. I think this one is set in Baltimore.
And after the new year, Showtime will premiere the first episode of its remake of Shameless, this time set in Chicago instead of Manchester. They previewed part of the first episode after the last episode of Dexter earlier this month, and the character names and script follow really closely after the first episode of the UK original.
As to this, it’s not just the accents but many of the slang terms and cultural references. I watch a lot of BBC America, and even I have problems with some stuff. Like at the beginning of Graham Norton’s chat show, he’ll make a joke while putting up a picture of some soap star, and I’ll completely miss the joke. Or in an episode of Shameless, a character was called a scouser, and I had to look that up to find it meant someone from Liverpool. So unless they reran a UK series with captioning, I think many people would be turned off by the language differences.
It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, innit?
The TV companies don’t show British shows because they think the average viewer won’t understand the accents, slang and cultural references. The average viewer doesn’t have the chance to learn to understand the accents, slang and cultural references because the TV companies don’t show British shows.
Apparently it’s supposed to be the British Seinfield.