Quote: Aaron @ October 3 2008, 12:52 AM BSTBut then you watch a lot of British comedies, so are accustomed to our particular twists of society, quirks, eccentricities - and that.
Not so much a failure to understand as a reluctance to accept, I would guess.
Cheers 'n that, Aaron.
And yerp, point taken. Just watched the VP debate, and realised one Palin may not fully appreciate another.
I would doubt that Bain & Armstrong will be involved much in any writing of the pilot. I just think the UK episodes thus far written as so strong it would be a shame if US/other countries didn't get a chance to see them. I think they would find an audience simply because they are so well written, acted and produced - and very, very funny.
Quote: Tommy Power @ October 2 2008, 2:37 PM BSTI don't believe the US versions of British shows are actually superior to the originals.
On the most part I agree, a part from The Office which I believe is better than the original, for the depth of it's characters and the amount of laughs in one episode.
I suppose though, at least the US have the balls to state they are remaking a British show because in Britain we tend to just copy-cat successful American sitcoms and pretend they are original ideas...Lead Balloon (Curb), Roman's Empire (Arrested Development) and even Coupling which was basically the Friends set up, but Coupling worked, but still it was Friends.
Anyone else think that Roman's Empire is Arrested Development?
I don't buy into the idea that Americans can't understand UK comedy. Look how big the Pythons were over there! A lot of Python humour was very UK-centric.
Quote: Aaron @ October 3 2008, 11:46 PM BSTAnyone else think that Roman's Empire is Arrested Development?
Well it isn't Arrested Development because that would be highly insulting to AD to say it was. 
And yeah lots of other people do... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0952922/board/thread/72515773?d=72515773&p=1#72515773
But it's about a rich family who suddenly come in to money problems, the lead character who is the 'sensible' one trying to hold it together, the guy played by Nicolas Burns who is clearly trying to be 'Gob', the slightly eccentric head of the family and the same techniques like cut-aways and call backs.
My God, Roman's Empire was BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!! And I don't mean that in a Huggy bear type of way. I wasn't really a fan of Lead Balloon, either. The writing on the show wasn't that bad, but the characters were all so miserable, all the time, I actually used to get depressed, watching it. At least the characters on Curb, are more upbeat.
My concern is that they'll use the same episode and series plotlines, even if the dialogue is altered to make it more "accessible" to Yanks. I believe that's what they did with Coupling.
A question about that...
I've been living without this forum for some time, so I will continue to apologise if some of my opinions have been soaked in my own self-righteousness and erroneous data. Please forgive me on this one 
There was a US pilot of Coupling....am I right in thinking that, in a loose sense, Coupling is a British interpretation of Friends. If so, does the idea of the Americans making a pilot of a British programme that is an interpretation of an American idea seem somewhat...bizarre?
I've heard so many nightmarish rumours regarding American pilots of British TV shows (I laughed so much at their buff and tough Dave Lister in the Red Dwarf US pilot) and the idea of somebody saying "we like Peep Show but we want to remove the first person element" scares me somewhat. Surely, that's what makes the programme stand out and different, and if a producer is oblivious to this it...alarms me.
I just found out that the guy who plays Leonard in The Big Bang Theory played Mark in the first Peep Show pilot.
Quote: TomCampbell @ November 16 2008, 7:33 AM GMTthe idea of somebody saying "we like Peep Show but we want to remove the first person element" scares me somewhat. Surely, that's what makes the programme stand out and different, and if a producer is oblivious to this it...alarms me.
You're the one who's implied that it needs to be "stand out and different".
UK shows over here are shown on PBS and BBC America. Not many people see those shows. That's why the US remakes them. The only shows that last are the ones that use a UK version as a starting point and move into new territory, all the others fail.
If they do a Peep Show US I'll check it out, but if it becomes a repeat of the UK version with American accents it will fail.
Re: Coupling US, I actually watched all eps of the US version and it was amazing how each punchline that was hilarious in the UK original failed to be funny in that version.
In general I think the US is better off coming up with something original than versions of British favourites. It's generally very difficult to analyse what jokes are cultural, what does translate and what clearly doesn't. It seems that in general American comedies aren't allowed as much freedom in certain things as British comedies (censorship on TV), so they have to rely on innuendo and that's a huge basis for the humor. I guess a show like Peep Show could air uncensored on cable, but unless the channel is HBO, it wouldn't exactly be a wide audience (ala The Office US).
I'm all for more female-centric comedies but a female Peep Show seems weird. The mutual dislike/like type of weird relationship Mark and Jeremy have I don't think would work with two girls. But the casting raises an interesting question: are there any female comedy duos in Britain?
Why don't they simply buy the original and air it? These remakes, if you have seen the original are not worth watching.
Quote: sanniberry @ December 15 2008, 10:11 AM GMTinteresting question: are there any female comedy duos in Britain?
Mel And Sue?
French and Saunders.