Baywatch, Baywatch and more Baywatch.
Hope that cringe isn’t permanent…
I’ve felt that British acting has a basically different style. Much more personal. It’s as if they assemble these great actors and their characters together and come up with a vehicle to put them.
By contrast, American shows seem to be created by writers character-first. Then they find actors to play the roles.
Case in point: Seinfeld vs. Absolutely Fabulous. In Seinfeld, most of the characters are ordinary people who come to life because a good actor portrays it. But any number of good actors could have portrayed that character successfully (of course not identically). An exception is Kramer, who I would call a British style character. Extraordinary. Jerry, and the others are mostly ordinary people with unique quirks, rather than bizarre characters. On AbFab, on the other hand, the only “ordinary” character is Saphhire, who is a super-ordinary straight-woman.
Look at American sitcoms like Friends and Frasier. These characters are not clowns, they are designed for viewers to identify with as people.
On Red Dwarf or Blackadder the characters are way too demented to identify with, but you can identify with situations they get themselves in. They don’t represent ourselves (as in American shows) they represent ASPECTS of ourselves.
Add a higher rudeness tolerance, and presto!
Let’s not forget Antiques Roadshow, a great British show that’s great in the States too. Since DirecTV has started carrying BBC America, I’ve been very happy.
“If A=B, B=C, and C=D, do not get a job proofreading” --Quid’s Theorem
I kinda like the American version of Cracker. JMHO
Axel–I think you meant Saffron, not Sapphire. Saffron Monsoon was Edina’s super-straight, humorless daughter.
Saffron, right. They always call her Saffy, so I just presumed, making, I suppose, “a pre out of you and me?” 
My brother gave me a book called Gorilla Monsoon, which is about somebody’s world travelling adventures. I’ve been tempted to send it to the BBC, with a note. Something like “Eddie’s the Gorilla my dreams…”
Questions:
How many AbFabs are/were made?
Are they still being made?
How does Saffy manage that shocked, yet crushed look episode after episode? “Yes, well I guess it’s too late to flush her now, eh?” -Patsy’s sister
You wouldn’t think British comedy was great if you were faced with the stuff day in and day out. Only the best stuff gets exported (well, some crap sneaks in, I’m sure) and likewise with the American imports we get.
I can’t thank the Yanks enough for Frasier, Mash, South Park, The Simpsons, and, I’m ashamed to admit it, Friends. British and American humour is very different, which is obvious in our programming. The TV world would be a far less interesting place if we all made the same programmes.
American humour is, from what we see over here, very wholesome. Morals are made and everyone is happy at the end (I’m excepting South Park here). our comedies have people behaving badly, smoking, getting bladdered, and taking the piss out of each other. Smashing!
I love American comedies, and think in general they’re better than the ones produced here. But then again, to find the good British ones I’d have to sit through hours of drivel, and I can’t be arsed. I’d rather you kept Saved by The Bell and the Cosby Show, though.
Of yeah, before I go your chat shows are the best on earth. Our attempts at emultaing them usually involve six middle aged people sitting round chatting about haemorrhoids, and the audience clapping politely.
16 episodes of AbFab were made, plus the two-hour special “The Last Shout.” The show is no longer in production. Everything has been shown at least once on Comedy Central. Most episodes are available on videotape.
Can’t answer the last one. I always found that look tiresome.
Only 16 episodes!? Waaa!
Thanks for the info, though. I’ll be on the lookout for the special.
Lest anyone claim British TV viewers are somehow inherently more tasteful than Americans, keep this in mind; America imports British shows like Monty Python, Doctor Who and Upstairs, Downstairs, Britain imports American shows like Baywatch, Dallas, and Saved by the Bell.