MovieChat Forums > Man About the House (1973) Discussion > Not a copy of an American show

Not a copy of an American show

posted 18 years ago by steely-dan
21 replies | jump to latest

I'd just like to point out to that earlier poster who said that this show was copied from Three's Company, a US show........sorry fella but you are wrong! Man About The House was on here in the UK in 1973 and if you watch the end credits the production year is shown....1973 for the first series!

I really narks me off when people suggest that the Americans invented this and that and that everyone else copies them.

In my view these days the only reason our (UK) sitcoms look and feel so much like American shows is so that the production company can sell the show to the Yanks. And it might be worth adding that it's these American style production values that are turning the UK viewing public off sitcoms all together.

[–] Saboxer 18 years ago

Actually it's even worse! Three's company IS a copy of MATH. The names are even the same (or similar). Robin Trip-Jack Tripper, Jo and Chrissy-Jo and Chris, The Roupers(is that spelt right?). Also, both Robin (MATH) and Jack(TC) are chefs in training. Same situation. Even in some case similar jokes.
I'm not from the US or UK but, I feel that UK comedies are generally vastly superior.

[–] goofyball 18 years ago

it's common knowledge that 3's company is based on a british show. the pilot is almost an exact copy. but just because a few people don't know that... doesn't mean anything except they just don't know that 3 decades ago a producer remade a british show. but the comment that british shows are superior... i don't think it's a competition. there are great british and american shows.

it's also easier for us to remake shows for american audiences because most americans especially back in the 70's were not watching british series. however successfull american shows are shown over and over again in europe. i think it's more difficult to remake something when an audience is already familiar with the original.

[–] Twilightnight 18 years ago

I agree with you goooofball, we get to see some great US shows over here. I think the UK produced some of the greatest comedies of all time in the 70's, such as Fawlty Towers, Rising Damp etc... and I much prefer MATH to 'Three's Company', but in saying that, I don't think we've been able to produce anything nearly as good, unless it's that surreal type of comedy (ie; League of Gentlemen) for many years. Stuff like Frasier and Cheers were far superior to anything we've done over the last couple of decades IMO. Although I think Friends was very overrated and I can understand people not liking that kind of cheesy comedy. I think some of the drama coming out of the US is superb at the moment too.

As you say, there's good stuff (and equally bad stuff!) to be found on both sides of the pond.

[–] goofyball 18 years ago

a voice of common sense... on imdb... wow! i love it.

i loved fawlty towers as well but never heard of rising damp. i will try to check it out.

dramas are the best thing hollywood is doing right now. as a comedy writer, it's a bit disheartening to see the state of the comedy world on television... but it will revive one day.

maybe i will remake rising damp. LOL

[–] Twilightnight 18 years ago

Thanks!

Rising Damp featured the wonderful Leonard Rossiter, who also appeared in 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin' which you may be familiar with? Sadly some people have accused RD of being racist, but they're missing the point entirely IMO. Rossiter's character Rigsby was a mean-spirited bigot who was made to look a fool whenever he made racist jibes towards his black tennant Philip. Philip was in fact everything that Rigsby wasn't, smart, smooth and successful - which made Rigsby look like the sad, jealous fool that he was! The show was anti-racist if anything. Wonderful cast RD had.

I agree with you, the comedies seem to have dried up somewhat - I think stuff like 'The Office' has made the old style 'classic' situation comedy look a bit dated, but maybe you could change all that! Good luck...

[–] GuderianKrieg 17 years ago

Why do people get so offended/upset about cross the pond remakes,dont matter if its UK to USA or USA to UK a lot of jokes miss the mark due to national references which are above foriegn audiences.
Some remakes are better than the original some are not.
It would be nice though that remakes are declared as such and thus not worth the opposing nations population watching the same jokes again.
I love dozen of yank comedies and dozen of Britcomms with such a huge selection watch what you like and give the others a miss..

[–] laurence01 17 years ago

It is not exactly dificult to work out. The credits for "three's company" actuly say it is based on "man about the house".

[–] buckaroobanzai50 11 years ago

Very eloquently put.

BTW, did you ever see the American Version of Fawlty Towers? If you didn't, don't bother.

[–] SteveGreen 17 years ago

There was a particularly dire US attempt to remake Fawlty Towers, Payne, which completely missed the point by removing 99% of Basil's mania and making Sybil an attractive personality.

[–] cpfh 16 years ago

Some of the other remake attempts were also atrocious, like Red Dwarf. I had never had the chance to see MATH, but as I grew up on the american show I wonder how I would take it if I saw it now

[–] Royalcourtier 7 years ago

The American copy is not great. By all accounts it is rubbish, ruined by poor casting, bad acting and inferior script. The Americans got nothing right.

[–] jejozi 11 years ago

Well of course 3s Co. is based on MATH, it says as much in the credits. smh

They are both insipid, but at least the US cast is attractive.

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.

[–] EnrikaTheGiraffe 16 years ago

... it is my opinion that American comedies can't hold a freaking CANDLE to British comedies. We had WKRP in Cincinnati in the '70s and That '70s Show in the '90-'00s, and that's it. With the possible exception of Benny Hill, Brits know humor. I grew up with Doctor in the House and Monty Python, and it just went from there. Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Whose Line is it Anyway, Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Young Ones, The High Life, The Thin Blue Line, Waiting for God, Yes, Minister... the list goes on and on and on. Brilliant comedies, all.

God Bless the BBC.

We're pretty good at animated comedy, though. ;) (Long live Family Guy!!)

[–] BethH24 16 years ago

I love alot of British sitcoms.I'm from Britain myself.Besides this one,others i like are :

Fawlty towers
Citizen Smith
Dad's army
Keeping up appearances
Bread
Last of the summer wine
Monty python
The young ones
Bottom
One foot in the grave
Birds of a feather
2 point 4 children
Only fools and horses
The darling buds of may

I think i've missed some out actually.There are loads i like.

I wish they still made sitcoms like they did then.There have been afew more recently,but i dont think they are as good as the older ones.

[–] rao-4 14 years ago

I guess you missed all the great sitcoms of the sixties that were filling up the airwaves in the U.S.: Hogan's Heroes, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, F-Troop, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, Andy Griffith, Gomer Pyle, McHale's Navy, The Beverly Hillbillies, etc. Most British shows from that time were erased by the BBC, so we can't compare them, but American shows can hold a "freaking CANDLE" to British comedies.

Dreaming is nice, but it's time to stop dreaming and start doing.

[–] AMovieTheatreGoer 14 years ago

I'm always surprised and a little bit disappointed since I'm almost the only one who remembers that "Man about the house" was the original series!

My friends and other people in forums on TV remember only the American series and didn't know this was a remake before I tell them.

I'm not agree, sorry, with those who told that's untrue: I read it often in articles on "Three's Company" that it is a remake of "Man about the house". And the plot and the characters are almost the same. I remember the same beginning: the landlord is persuaded to accept the boy, into thinking that he's gay.

Nothing personal with the Americans, I love some US movies and series, but in my opinion and for my tastes, I think the original UK series are better than their remakes:
- Man about the house
- Life on Mars
- The office
- State of play
- Queer as folk
for example...

mythical Doctor in the house!!! I haven't seen it again, unfortunately...
my UK series list is very long!
-----------------------------
Mick Travis: When do we live? That's what I want to know.

[–] willjohn 12 years ago

Those so-called great US sitcoms contained a lot of dross.

Bewitched had me wondering if American men ever took their suits off. Most of them included a suspension of disbelief, and not just the ones with magical creatures in them.

[–] DNAlien 12 years ago

Everybody watch USA tv series and movies so they have always most famous ones but really USA copies a lot of foreigner shows, series and movies. Not only UK series but french, spanish, etc.

Sorry my english.

[–] johanson17 11 years ago

About which is better:

Remember traditionally the British watch more TV than Americans do, and provide more variety because of the economics of series vs season models. The audience is also much larger and more diverse in America so some niche shows would not work in America. There is no "American culture" in the singular, it is more like American cultures.

For me I love British comedies because that is usually where my sense of humor lies, yet American comedies like Seinfeld, Big Bang Theory, Community, or classics like Cosby Show, Perfect Strangers or Family Ties are equally as good.

The British made remakes of Who's the Boss, That 70s show, Golden Girls, Mad About You and a slew of Game Shows/Talk Shows/Reality Shows over the years. It goes both ways.

Oh, BTW most of America's greatest comedians are actually Canadian.

[–] libertarian45 8 years ago

All the 60s US sitcom listed above (Hogan's Heroes, Gilligan's Island et al) are complete crap. That's the issue here - generally speaking, there's American humour (aimed at 8th grade level as admitted by a studio exec once) and Brit humour.

There are exceptions: I never thought Benny Hill or On The Buses were particularly mature and, as already mentioned, Seinfeld, Frazier and Big Bang are intelligently written.

It's no secret that Hollywood is virtually out of ideas (has been for decades). They keep attempting to recycle past successes and tap into other countries' successes. In cinema comedy they borrow heavily from the French. For TV they look at UK successes and think "well, here's a sure thing". However, due to the difference in humour, they usually don't succeed. The execs scratch their heads and say, "I don't get it". And they never will. That's the problem. Using an idiot like John Laroquette to replace John Cleese? Really?

[–] 11 years ago

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