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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I genuinely can’t think of one that finished better. A big part of the art of entertainment is knowing when to stop.
If you look up reviews for any British shows on IMDb, a good chunk of the reviews all say the same thing - “Oh my gaaad the Briddish make the best shows, I just wish they had more episodes!”
Totally missing the point that it was good because it told its story and finished
They can’t even bring themselves to say “miniseries”, it has to be a “limited series”
100%. Fleabag comes to mind. Wish there were more episodes, but it ended right when it should have.
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.
They also did a pilot of Red Dwarf!
Monsters!
I’m sure it would have been terrible, but part of me wants to see how Terry Farrell would have done as Cat.
They tried that one twice!
The US pilot of the IT Crowd is on YouTube, and it’s pretty terrible. Even Joel McHale couldn’t save it.
presumably the British version didn’t have enough (ie any) rapists.
You forgot Little Jimmy. shoe-in for such a role…
I’m reading that Brighton Belles was based off of Golden Girls, not the other way around.
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.
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.
The Cosby Show was the 80s. Cosby was 96-2000.
Huh - I assumed they were the same thing.
I wonder if it never aired in the UK…
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).
Peep Show also notable I think for how many failed attempts there have been to adapt i
Robot wars (called battlebots in the US)
Robot Wars is actually an American show and Battlebots is an off-shoot.
Robot Wars was created in America but the first televised show was in the UK.
I don’t think battle bots is better, it’s definitely more successful though
I don’t think you can say either the US or UK office is better than the other, they’re too different
You also can’t say it was more successful because it lasted longer, the yanks will milk every comedy dry until it’s ejaculating pure dust
That’s my feeling, they’re very different beasts. The British one is like a bespoke gem and the American one is that retooled for the US comedy writing system.
What feels like a controversial opinion, but it really shouldn’t be, I don’t think the US Office is as good as the UK Office.
The UK Office felt like a documentary, and really felt like places I had worked and knew people like that.
Once the US Office got out of copying the UK one, it just become a sitcom that had people talking to the audience. I mean it was good, but it was still basically an American sitcom.
It’s like WWDITS. The film was awesome, and the first season that still involved the Kiwis was good, but it quickly subsided into standard American dross. Winning a Golden Globe for basically not being WWDITS and just being Matt Berry was the icing.
WWDITS = What We Do In The Shadows.
The film was awesome
Maybe a controversial one but I much prefer the US version of Shameless to the British one.
Same, but it went on too long. I stopped at season 7 and recently tried to finish it, but I just don’t care any more. 🤷🏻♂️
I am enjoying the US version of Ghosts. Sufficiently different while manifestly the same. And fills the void since the UK version finished.
In the '70s there were several US adaptations of UK shows which were quite successful. All In The Family was based on Til Death Us Do Part, Sanford and Son was based on Steptoe and Son, and Three’s Company was based on Man About The House. In these cases both versions were very successful in their own ways.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Life on Mars. Although I really enjoyed the British original as well.
But no one can come close to the Great British Baking Show.
Great British Baking Show
That’s Bake-Off over here, sonnyjim!
IIRC, the brand Betty Crocker owns “bake off” as a trademark over in the USA, so we couldn’t call it that.
Great show, unless you do like a soggy bottom.
There’s a Captain Disillusion video which shows you the effort they go to when making the US edition. Items include filming intro scenes twice (and you can see sketches aren’t as funny the second time around) and even using digital effects to change the name on the winners trophy.
The American version didn’t have DCI Gene Hunt, which automatically makes it inferior
But no one can come close to the Great British Baking Show.
I prefer the Canadian. In terms of “feel good” show, the Canadian goes further.
I think this is due to the actual societal character of the British compared to us Americans. We just can’t seem to genuinely pull it off because it’s somewhat counterintuitive to the way we’re raised socially. Try as we might, we may come close, but we seem to always miss the mark, even if the differences are hard to put a finger on. That’s just my opinion.
I think some of the difference has to do with the show’s format. You don’t see anyone arguing or backstabbing. On the contrary, even though they are competing against each other they often help each other out. In the USA we have shows like Jersey Shore, car repo, bounty hunter, everything we watch is some form of confrontation pitting someone against someone else and then filming and broadcasting the fireworks. Can you tell that I’m tired of American TV?
LegoMasters started in the UK, right? I’ll take that or the Aussie one over the crap they tried making in the US. I’d rather watch the incredible things people can do with Lego instead of pretend to enjoy the showrunners’ poor attempts at a weekly emotional tug job
Australian Lego masters is easily the best English language version. I haven’t seen any of the versions in other languages, though.
Top Gear, obv. No, sorry, reallly, it was woeful.
Netflix’s House Of Cards was based on a British series which is based on a novel
IT crowd. Joel Mchale makes everything better /s ;)
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