A remake too far?

MasterMike · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:43

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6335037.stm

I'd LOVE to see the American reaction if we did some British remakes of Friends, Arrested Development, and the like. I once watched a pilot Americanised Red Dward, and looked on heartbroken as I watched American actors destroy my favourite characters.

Why do people feel the need to do this? America has some fine comedies - and so does the UK. Why do Americans need things "Americanised"?

Chronos-X · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:46

A noteable exception here is the US version of the office, no matter how much I wanted to hate it, almost seems to excel the original.

HAz · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:47

Lucky we dont have to see it then.

Raymond Lin · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:47

We already remade Friends, ever seen Coupling? Except its a 1 joke sitcom, 99% of the joke is on sex. Its funny and i love it but it still remind me of Friends a lot.

Raymond Lin · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:48

Chronos-X said:
A noteable exception here is the US version of the office, no matter how much I wanted to hate it, almost seems to excel the original.

Its because the original was rubbish, it was too pretentious for me. Everyone says its great but i just can't get into it, i see the jokes but its just not funny.

slambo69 · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:49

'Everybody loves Raymond Lin' comming soon on BBC.

Not sure if it can be applied here, but the movie enigma was what really annoyed me, terrible, how can a writer/director do such a thing, making it look like the Americans captured the enigma, pitiful.

Jez · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:49

Chronos-X said:
A noteable exception here is the US version of the office, no matter how much I wanted to hate it, almost seems to excel the original.

I wouldnt say it excels it, but its certainly very funny :/ I really wanted to hate it too.

Psyk · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:50

It won't be anything like the UK one except for the basic set up. Rural America is just too different to the British countryside in terms of culture for them to resemble each other. It's not like the Office where a US work place isn't really a world away from a UK one.

DailyGeek · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:52

Raymond Lin said:
We already remade Friends, ever seen Coupling? Except its a 1 joke sitcom, 99% of the joke is on sex. Its funny and i love it but it still remind me of Friends a lot.

Ironically, the Americans tried to do a US version of Coupling, but it flopped.

daz · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:52

If you consider the US version of The Office as a comedy in its own right, it's actually really watchable. Probably the worst episode is the first one, where they tried to pretty much exactly mimic the first episode of the UK Office, which just didn't work.

XPE · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:54

MasterMike said:
I once watched a pilot Americanised Red Dward, and looked on heartbroken as I watched American actors destroy my favourite characters.

The americanised Red Dwarf is with out a doubt the worst thing i have ever seen.

Raymond Lin said:

Its because the original was rubbish, it was too pretentious for me. Everyone says its great but i just can't get into it, i see the jokes but its just not funny.

Click to expand...

I never could see what all the fuss was about either

Click to expand...

MasterMike · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:58

Raymond Lin said:
Its because the original was rubbish, it was too pretentious for me. Everyone says its great but i just can't get into it, i see the jokes but its just not funny.

I can understand people not liking The Office, but "pretentious" is certainly not a word I'd use to describe it.

daz · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:58

Nobody is forcing you to watch The Office.

I, and obviously lots of others just find it incredibly funny. Lots of people don't get things like "Brass Eye", "Big Train" or "Marion and Geoff" though either. Comedy is subjective...

Tru · 6 Feb 2007 at 22:59

I think they remake them to capture a larger market. In the US, watching British comedies is very much the preserve of internet geeks and college types with broader-than-average horizons.

I was never a fan of 'Dibley' but it doesn't come across as something that will work in the US.

Charlie Brookers Screenwipe deal with this sort of thing excellently, it's all on youtube, start here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaxlK9ByRHE.

Raymond Lin · 6 Feb 2007 at 23:01

daz said:
Nobody is forcing you to watch The Office.

I, and obviously lots of others just find it incredibly funny. Lots of people don't get things like "Brass Eye", "Big Train" or "Marion and Geoff" though either. Comedy is subjective...

no one forced me but with all the fuss i checked it out, didn't like it. Then i thought it could be a bad ep so i watched the Christmas special and that was the same. I have nothing against Ricky Gervase, i find his standup Animal really funny, just not his other works in the Office and Extras.

Joe42 · 6 Feb 2007 at 23:01

Psyk said:
It won't be anything like the UK one except for the basic set up. Rural America is just too different to the British countryside in terms of culture for them to resemble each other.

But we have to watch films set in rural america, or anywhere in america for that matter, they never get converted for a british audience.
So why do most british films have to be completely changed before they are 'suitable' for an american audience?

Kol · 6 Feb 2007 at 23:02

daz said:
If you consider the US version of The Office as a comedy in its own right, it's actually really watchable. Probably the worst episode is the first one, where they tried to pretty much exactly mimic the first episode of the UK Office, which just didn't work.

Exactly! After seeing the 1st episode, I was angry at how poor an adaptation is was, however, I watched on and soon grew to love it as much as the UK version. The more I've watched the more I have enjoyed it.

I learnt never to judge a programme on it's 'pilot'

scorza · 6 Feb 2007 at 23:02

Why do we care if they remake "our" sitcoms? They aren't shown on our TV shows and they certainly aren't diddling the writers/producers out of money - its just a case of some soulless TV execs deciding that TVoD wouldn't work for their target demographic or some other such nonsense.

We've have remade US shows for the British audience too - That '70s Show was remade to fit in with 1970s Britain. Unfortunately it was pants.

daz · 6 Feb 2007 at 23:04

Mikol said:
Exactly! After seeing the 1st episode, I was angry at how poor an adaptation is was, however, I watched on and soon grew to love it as much as the UK version. The more I've watched the more I have enjoyed it.

I learnt never to judge a programme on it's 'pilot'

I also actually "get" Steve Carrell now whereas before I hadn't really seen him in very much.

Kol · 6 Feb 2007 at 23:05

daz said:
I also actually "get" Steve Carrell now whereas before I hadn't really seen him in very much.

Likewise. He's a great actor now I've seen him so many times. So many moments have made me cringe just like the UK version and Dwight, haha, what a fool.