According to Pliny writes:
> You’re forgetting the show that Letterman credits for his long-running Will It
> Float segment, the British hit “Is It Buoyant”
I think that’s just a joke by Letterman. I think that there’s no such program or sketch in a program or anything else on British TV by that name. There’s no program with that title listed in the IMDb. When I do a search on “Is It Buoyant?” on all webpages with no mention of Letterman, I get nothing (except for cases where these words occur in the middle of random sentences). I certainly wouldn’t put it past Letterman to make up a source for the “Will It Float?” sketches.
Dr. Rieux writes:
> On the other hand, All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Dear John, and Three’s
> Company were all successful American translations of Britcoms.
In an earlier post, I said that the only American remakes which lasted a reasonable time were (All in the Family, Three’s Company, Sanford and Son, Too Close for Comfort, Cosby (the 1990’s show, not the 1980’s one), Queer as Folk, and The Office. As you point out, there’s one more, the show Dear John. I think these seven shows are the only ones that lasted more than a single season. Successful? Too Close for Comfort, Cosby, and Dear John struck me as no better than average sitcoms. Sanford and Son and Three’s Company may have been fairly popular and lasted a while, but I don’t think they were that all-fired great. I suppose you could make an argument for the American versions of Queer as Folk and The Office being important. I would say that only All in the Family was a major sitcom among all the American remakes of British shows.