US/UK Comedy Developments.
>_<
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Original Source: 'Broadcast Now'
Link: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/analysis/us/uk-comedy-spreading-the-laughter/5007962.article
'American and British sitcoms are coming together as US and UK writers join forces and hybrid production models emerge. Robin Parker talks to the leading players.
British TV comedy is preparing for an American invasion, with Stateside comedy kings David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik and Arrested Development star David Cross crossing shores to make shows for UK broadcasters.
Unfazed by the lukewarm reaction to Friends producer Adam Chase's BBC Three comedy Clone, the writers hope to bring the verve and high gag ratio of the best US sitcoms to shows with strong British appeal.
Their solution? Fish-out-of-water situations involving Brits in the US and vice versa, and strong back-up from British writers.
RDF has teamed with Cross for Channel 4 sitcom pilot The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret, while Crane and Klarik - whose collective CV boasts Friends, Mad About You and The Class - are developing Episodes, a Hat Trick sitcom starring Matt LeBlanc for BBC2 and Showtime.
Creative freedom
The writers have also relished the opportunity to unshackle themselves from the advertiser-pleasing demands of the US TV networks. "I've been spoiled by how much the process has been exactly how it should be: minimal, helpful notes," says Cross. "It's a hands-off, respectful approach. I've never gone home saying, 'I can't believe what that f**king idiot suggested'." Which, for anyone who's seen Cross's expletive-strewn rant against Twentieth Century Fox's marketers on the Arrested Development DVD, is a far cry from his experiences back home.
Todd Margaret is the acid test for RDF head of comedy Clelia Mountford's theory that putting together American and UK writers with enough common ground can deliver the best of both worlds.
Mountford observed Cross and Shaun Pye, best known as a writer for Jonathan Ross, as they holed up in RDF's offices going back and forth over various drafts. "David's great with a story and very disciplined with structure, and Shaun's great at polishing up that story and adding funny lines; he's very much a gag writer. He was able to give British characters an authentic voice."
Shared humour
Episodes, which satirises the trend for US remakes of UK comedy shows, will feature contributions from Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni, the British creators of The Worst Week Of My Life. But Hat Trick managing director Jimmy Mulville has no fears of the comic voice becoming marooned somewhere in the mid-Atlantic. "We're so marinated in Americana now - often, you just need to put lines in the mouths of British actors to make them sound British."
This writing model is, in a sense, somewhere between the traditional authored British sitcom and the US showrunner model which, outside My Family, has yet to take hold in the UK. RDF is exploring other US/UK comedy ideas, while Hat Trick is now looking at a drama. Bussell and Srebsi saw first hand the American way of working when The Worst Week Of My Life was adapted for CBS - with 13 writers.
Dedicated team
"The US spends more money on writing and is in some ways more professional," Sbresni notes. "The writers were all full-time and weren't off doing sketches or chat-show monologues. But US networks micro-manage and can ask for changes during a series run."
Bussell adds that the showrunner model always carries the risk of a "homogenised" end product and says the derogatory term 'gang-banging' has caught on as a way of describing the gag factory approach.
But he notes that, while Brits are good at "leftfield" ideas, the US method of churning out 22-episode runs brings a discipline the UK has yet to master. "US writers bring an economy of language; they can deliver a punchline that's much more effective, and it's a reflection of the US character as opposed to the bumbling, verbose British way. Their scripts are sparer and punchy, but with real substance to the story. Sometimes in the UK, it's a case of 'hunt the plot'."
Original thinking
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Don Taffner Jr, president of My Family producer DLT Entertainment, rejects the argument that the showrunner model can be the recipe for a bland product. "I always laugh when commissioners say they want more 'authorship' - a good showrunner ensures they will have it as the writers are working towards their vision."
He says the trick is to have in the showrunner role a US writer versed in the writing room mentality, with predominantly UK writers working for them. The biggest challenge for the showrunner in the UK is getting the script locked down earlier: for economic reasons, 2am rewrites on the day of shoots don't happen over here.
Promising start
Despite Comedy Central pulling out of a second run of Hat Trick's earlier BBC2 series Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword Of Fire, forcing a scaling back of the project, Mulville is optimistic that the new hybrid model can be built on.
"The UK hasn't had a show written predominantly by Americans that's both a critical and ratings success - but it will come," he says. "So many British producers are talking to US writers that it's unstoppable.
"We want to give broadcasters more confi dence to try more comedies. They know they should be doing them, but they're too expensive and high risk. But wherever we can grow comedy hits, we should try them."
HOLLYWOOD COMES TO LONDON: MAKING TODD MARGARET
"Are there any famous people here?" chorus a gaggle of girls from the primary school next to RDF's production trailers, expectantly clutching blank sheets of paper for autographs.
Weighing up the chances of their awareness of US comedian David Cross's peerless performance as failed actor and closet homosexual Tobias Fünke in cult Fox sitcom Arrested Development, RDF head of comedy Clelia Mountford breaks the bad news: "Yes, but no one you'd have heard of." But, pressed further, it dawns on her: "He's Uncle Ian in Alvin And The Chipmunks."
For one hot week in May, Hollywood descends on London's Elephant and Castle for The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret, a transatlantic experiment orchestrated by RDF for Channel 4's Comedy Showcase season of pilots.
Cross has called in favours from LA pals for his first UK TV project. Arrested Development's Will Arnett and Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze perform cameos. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo (You, Me And Dupree) are also on board.
"There was no way we could have shot this thing if the director was a stranger, setting up a shot I knew we'd never end up using," says Cross.
Keeping up the rear for Britain are Sharon Horgan, Russell Tovey, Fonejacker's Kayvan Novak and Matt 'Super Hans' King.
Sadly, I'm denied the surreal sight of 45-year-old Cross being mobbed by pencil-wielding eight year-olds. He's off to a spit-and-sawdust boozer, where he'll be head-butted to the floor six times by Free Agents actress Sara Pascoe before heading upstairs to tackle an obese cat.
Pubs have played a part in the show. After a Cross gig at London's 100 Club, Mountford approached him to arrange a speed-dating session with British writers. Shaun Pye won the gig after he and Cross stayed on drinking.
The idea behind Margaret - a US executive is mistakenly sent to his company's UK office and has to adapt to British quirks and customs - started with Cross.
"I'd pitched something to HBO and they'd accepted, but they wanted to make it for a comedy lab-type thing for, like, $12, so I said no," he says. "Now it doesn't really look anything like the original idea, partly because I was introduced to Nathan Barley, which was so close to my first idea."
Cross and Pye hit upon a simple structure: each week we'd see Margaret - played by Cross - in court listening to a list of misdemeanours. The audience then sees an escalating series of events leading up to his arrest. There's some improvisation and a lot of physical comedy, but Cross stresses he's keen not to go too broad.
"I cast everybody on the strength of being able to improvise; that's what I like doing anyway. I told everyone, 'We'll get what's on page and then we'll just go," he says. "There's a lot of silliness, great character work and circumstantial comedy, where things are revealed to be not exactly what you think they are."
Energetic comedy
Mountford promises a show that's "pacy, physical, silly and crazy," noting "the nature of David's comedy is so physical and it takes forever, but he's very happy to do that over and over again."
Such as the aforementioned headbutting. "Falling over in a pub? That's nothing," Cross beams. "Yesterday I was running around a café, having a nervous breakdown, screaming and yelling, chugging energy drinks, dancing and singing and breaking stuff before jumping up on a counter and falling into a cooked breakfast. Three takes. The fall was easy - I was padded up. It's the jumping and running around that kills - I haven't moved my body like that in ten years." There's nothing like suffering for your art.'
There's only room for one of us Bussell's in this business, Mark, and let's be honest, it's you.
Quote: David Bussell @ November 18 2009, 10:22 AM GMTThere's only room for one of us Bussell's in this business, Mark, and let's be honest, it's you.
I wondered about that. Thought he might be your evil comedy twin. Sorry, your good and saintly comedy twin.
WOW and WOW and WOW
see him in action here-
Allo Allo meets Captain America. I was referring to Cross$co not Mr.Bussell with his ridiculous pint size riders on porno horse girls and tuna head fishwives and obscene teddy bears. (where do you get those sexy fish from anyway?) Wayyyy too British.
f**k it this is supposed to be a thread and im talking to myself.
So, what did people on here think of that Pilot?
Quote: catskillz @ February 6 2010, 4:07 AM GMTSo, what did people on here think of that Pilot?
I liked 'The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret' pilot; it didn't knock me out, but I did enjoy it.
Quote: catskillz @ February 6 2010, 4:07 AM GMTSo, what did people on here think of that Pilot?
It was as funny as a dead child's toy.