Quote: Roy Gould @ August 21 2010, 10:23 AM BSTThe British laugh at and with failure. In the U.S. (the big cities that is) they like success. Americans are 'Aspirational' and the Brits are 'Desperational' (I know there's no such word!!) The reason I said "the big cities" is that middle America (the Redneck parts) are similar to us - they go for "working Class" comedy - "Roseanne", "Everybody Loves Raymond" just like we do - "Only Fools and Horses" and "The Office". Remember "The Office" was set in Slough and not London (or any Big city) - apart from Gervais's performance, which was pitch perfect, the setting was a stroke of genius.
I doubt if shows like "Frasier" or "Friends" were (as) popular in middle America - they were 'City' shows - but the cities in the U.S. such as New York, San Francisco, L.A. etc are huge, so could bring in huge figures. We don't have that land mass in the UK.
Am I boring you? I'll go away now...
No, it's very interesting, Roy. Where does Cheers fit in? If that was anything, it was desperational, but fairly huge.