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What's a British TV show that the Yanks did better? (self.askuk)

submitted 9 months ago by Oneeightnine to c/askuk

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I'll go first....The Office.

Now I know the two shows are fundamentally quite different, but they adapted what was already a very successful show, and turned It into an event more successfully one that lasted for significantly longer than the original did. I say that's a win for them.

Anything else? Life on Mars, Being Human, The Inbetweeners.....?

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[–] Emperor 20 points 9 months ago (9 children)

There's quite a good Wikipedia article on this.

Amongst all the quiz and reality shows, there are a few intriguing obscure nuggets:

The Golden Girls is an adaptation of a UK TV series, The Brighton Belles.
They've tried to adapt Fawlty Towers three times.
Not the Nine O' Clock News was adapted for the US.
One Foot in the Grave became Cosby - presumably the British version didn't have enough (ie any) rapists.
They tried to adapt Spaced, IT Crowd and the Young Ones but they failed at the pilot stage. This is probably A Good Thing. Although I might see if I can dig out the pilots.

[–] its_me_gb 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

They also did a pilot of Red Dwarf!

[–] Emperor 4 points 9 months ago

Monsters!

[–] Apeman42@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

I'm sure it would have been terrible, but part of me wants to see how Terry Farrell would have done as Cat.

[–] UKFilmNerd 2 points 9 months ago

They tried that one twice!

[–] DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

presumably the British version didn’t have enough (ie any) rapists.

You forgot Little Jimmy. shoe-in for such a role...

[–] Marcumas@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

The US pilot of the IT Crowd is on YouTube, and it's pretty terrible. Even Joel McHale couldn't save it.

[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

I'm reading that Brighton Belles was based off of Golden Girls, not the other way around.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

The Fawlty remake with Bea Arthur was an interesting try. Casting her in the Cleese role was a good idea, but the script writing was poor.

[–] IggyTheSmidge@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Cosby predates One Foot in the Grave - I remember watching Cosby as a kid in the 80s, and OFitG didn't show up until the 90s. OFitG became (I think) Curb Your Enthusiam.

[–] GombeenSysadmin@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The Cosby Show was the 80s. Cosby was 96-2000.

[–] IggyTheSmidge@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

Huh - I assumed they were the same thing.
I wonder if it never aired in the UK...

[–] byroon@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Peep Show also notable I think for how many failed attempts there have been to adapt i

[–] cdf12345@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

British television audience are very accepting of the American originals while being much less accepting of British remakes (see, for instance, the failure of The Brighton Belles, the British remake of The Golden Girls).

[–] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 1 points 9 months ago

I would argue that not the nine o'clock news was better than anything stateside