American sitcom Cheers set to be adapted for British viewers
- Cheers, the American sitcom which ran for 275 episodes, is set to be remade for British audiences
- Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye is working with Big Talk Studios on the project
- Executive producer Kenton Allen says it is a "huge honour" to be entrusted with the comedy
Cheers, the long-running US sitcom, looks set to be re-made for British audiences.
Deadline reveals Big Talk Studios, the production company behind The Outlaws and Ludwig, is currently pitching a UK version of the NBC sitcom.
Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye has been signed up to re-write the show for British viewers.
Cheers - which was set around a bar, and focused on bartender Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson) and his customers - launched in 1982. It ran for a total of 275 episodes across 11 series, ending in 1993. Spin-offs from the show included Frasier, a hit sitcom in its own right.
Deadline notes: "Big Talk is in the early stages of pitching Cheers to British broadcasters after being permitted to develop an adaptation by distributor CBS Studios."
Executive producer Kenton Allen said it was a "huge honour" to be entrusted with the comedy, also noting it would be a "huge challenge" to get it right.
Allen was reluctant to say too much about Big Talk's plans for Cheers, but revealed that the series would be set in a pub. "I might be insane," he commented. "The British pub is an endangered species, so there's an answer for the 'Why now?' about it. The attitudes of Cheers in the '80s are very different to the attitudes of today, so there's a massive amount of work to be done around taking inspiration from the original characters but creating something fresh."
Big Talk Studios is also working on an animated Netflix comedy created by Ghosts stars Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond, and talking to US networks about adapting Mitchell & Webb sitcom Back, BBC Two comedy Mum and one-off sci-fi special We Are Not Alone for American audiences.