We quickly tire of discussing imported television
 

Has there ever been a shit British remake of an American show? I'm genuinely curious.

Yes. "Days Like These" was a British version of That 70's Show that ran on ITV for just one season in 1999. It basically had exactly the same plots and dialogue as it's American counterpart, with the cultural references changed to fit her majesty's realm. It's really quite horrendous and surreal to watch.

It's available to watch on YouTube, and it's definitely quite a strange experience for fans of the original like myself. I do also know there was a remake of The Golden Girls on ITV in the mid 90's called "The Brighton Belles". I've never seen an episode but apparently it performed so poorly in the ratings it was pulled halfway through the series, something that doesn't really occur very often in British television.

EDIT: Linky Link

The majority of other US to UK transitions are just game shows, which on the whole seem to have translated well in their journey across the Atlantic. If anyone can think of any more examples let me know.

Cheers, interesting stuff.

I also asked Reddit, who predictably started arguing over which version of The Office is better.

The Chase is great. Watched a lot of that when I was in uni. It was surreal seeing Bradley crack up during one of the epiosdes. I'm glad the show keeps those moments in.

EDIT: Sorry, Crash!

Didn't Crashpunk just post that?

Ricky Gervais is my lifetime idol. I've exchanged twitter banter with him a couple of times and naturally I infinitely prefer the original Office. It will forever be one of the best sitcoms in my eyes. However, I also enjoy watching the US version and I often try to treat is as it's own programme in it's own right. Both are good pieces of television, but for me, the UK version is at the top.



Edit: After reading your Reddit threat, Meech, I saw someone posted a link to a Wikipedia article with a list of US - UK adaptations. I had absolutely no idea that University Challenge was originally American. I mean, it feels so quintessentially British!

The thing is... pretty much every British show that got a terrible American remake was terrible to begin with.

Except the IT Crowd.

EDIT: Whoops!

Ha. No. That show is all around awful.

It really isn't. It tried to subvert the standard sitcom, and sometimes fell into those same pit falls every now and then, but it had some genuinely funny episodes. The one where they go to see a musical and the two pretending to be into football are ones that come to mind.

It made me do the laugh, it's good enough for me.

The vast majority of all sitcoms are shit. The IT Crowd had good people working with poor material, and that's why it seems better than the rest. They almost all have poor material being presented by poor to forgettable actors.

Now I imagine you're talking about multi-camera sitcoms in front of a live studio audience? Or are you also including sitcoms like The Office, Spaced etc?

Anyway, I'd disagree if it's the former. I mean shows like I'm Alan Partridge and Father Ted spring immediately to mind as great examples.

What is Life On Mars?

We established a long time ago that OANST has awful taste in comedy.

Friends is the best.

I actually have no idea what Life on Mars is. Never heard of it.


I'm Alan Partridge is amazing. Love that show. There are exceptions to every rule.

It's about a police officer from 2006 who wakes up in 1973, with pretty much the same life he already had. He has to deal with being seriously out of step with the politics of the time, while questioning his sanity.

It was fairly well-recieved, and then got remade in Americavision.

Yeah, Life on Mars was pretty good.

Life on Mars: A policeman named Sam Tyler is hit by a car in 2006 and wakes up inexplicably in 1973, where the police force have been expecting his arrival as their new transfer. The show revolves around him adjusting to life, trying to figure out how he got there, and if he can find a way back to the present. It's also a beautiful piece of television.

It's essentially a homage to 70's British cop shows with added Sci-Fi elements from the overarching theme of his mysterious time travel. Sadly, not a single trailer on YouTube seems to do it justice in my opinion.

I watched the pilot of the US version, not great. Although I must give credit to the scene where Sam sees the twin towers still standing. Really enforces his distance from the world he knows, sadly there isn't really anything as hard-hitting as that that's disappeared in Manchester. (That I know of!)

The ending of the American version is insulting.

Let's just say it takes the title far too seriously and leave it at that.

God I fukken love Life on Mars, if you haven’t seen it and you have some appreciation for British television then it’s worth a watch.

Also Ashes to Ashes, which was its successor but set in the 80s with a new lead character.

Sounds like an interesting concept. I guess I kind of vaguely remember seeing a commercial for it at one point.

My statements were directed at sitcoms. Sitcoms are mostly just awful garbage.

Not even Spaced, OANST? Father Ted? Louie? Garth Marenghi's Darkplace? Jam? Peep Show? And what about those animated sitcoms? Futurama? The Venture Bros?

Yeah.... but those never got remakes, did they?

Yes. But you *did* just say "sitcoms are mostly just awful garbage" - which is what I was addressing.



Although, technically, Peep Show had a pilot for a US remake...

You understand that the ones you mentioned represent an extremely small percentage of all sitcoms, right? And understanding that, you realize that 'most' does not mean 'all,' right?

But surely you could say that about most things? Particularly in television? And thus the statement seems rather pointless? And thus when you frame such a point within the context of these conversations - are US remakes of British shows worse - you can see how it comes across as more than saying "the vast majority of sitcoms are shit except all the top quality ones that people talk about all the time"?

Less arguing more shit or I will manually kill all interest in this discussion by making it a thread.

Your post inspired me to look up the resolve to the series and... like... Jesus Christ your post did it justice. I cannot believe someone was in charge of writing the ending, and then another human being said "Yeah, that'll do."

I had no idea about... that, until today, but I think it shall now be my prime example of Americans shitting all over a British show.

Soz if this is off topic (ironically). Here's a cat or some shit* to please the mods:



*Most accurate video after typing in "Cat or some shit"

I read about it too. Turns out that it was a last minute thing because they found out that they got cancelled, and needed to wrap up the show. It still seemed pretty dumb.