US Versions of British TV Series

We did try to remake Married With Children, and totally failed at that. Remember Married For Life, with Russ Abbott? No? Probably for the best :D

I don't mind remakes as long as they bring some sort of value, and are better in some way - at least for the target market.

I mean LoM had very UK specific references, so remaking it for the US could have worked. But they change more than the references, they change stories, scripts, and characters... and thats where it can go pear shaped.

I don't disagree entirely. The British version of Law and Order is superb. Living in Canada we have the best of three worlds. American and British humour are quite different. Canadians,who have more recent British history (like myself) are mostly able to get both. British shows tend to be written to appeal to British viewers foremostly. The dialects and slang are crucial parts of the dialogue for obvious reasons.If there was a show with only undiluted dialects, even Brits would need subtitles. ( Spender, Boys from the Blackstuff). We are seeing now with shows like Duck Dynasty and Honey-Booboo that some shows made in America could use subtitles both for Brits and Americans. The lyrical language is part of the chemistry...... I think.

oK, bindimax - so I'm replying to your post 2 years later. But, anyway - you bring up a good point. As much as I enjoyed the UK Life on Mars, I often found it difficult to follow the dialogue because of the accents and the slang. Also, as you point out, I (an American) don't know much about what England was like in the 70s. I visited there in the mid-70s but I was young and it was only for a few days.

One of the most stunning, and culturally relevant, moments for me in the US version was when Sam first gets back to 1973, looks up at something in the distance, and exclaims "No Way!" And then the camera pans up the World Trade Center. I was alive in 1973 when the World Trade Center finally opened, and I was in NYC when the towers came down in 2001. I worked in those towers, although on that day I was not there. I lost colleagues and friends that day and met new friends who worked rescue and cleanup. I knew firefighters who fought the flames, cops who set up and patrolled the perimeter, volunteers who served coffee, people who donated dog food for the cadaver dogs. I could smell jet fuel and burning flesh days later and miles away. Before the towers came down, I could see the smoke rising into the sky from 20 miles away.

That single scene in the US version could not have been more culturally relevant for me - and it is probably the one scene in any TV drama that packed that much of a punch for me.

neat . . . sweet . . . petite

John Simm will always be Sam Tyler AND The Master!

Actually Russia did.


"Nobody is free, even the birds are chained to the sky" - Bob Dylan

In reply to the OP, American TV remakes British shows because, frankly, we Americans don't have enough creative writers to compose good original material to supply content for all the channels. Yes, there are some excellent American TV shows and movies, just not enough to supply all the outlets. The ratio of brainless, just plain bad, TV shows far exceeds what is good. Britain seems to have a better pool of writers and "idea people" in comparison.

The reason American TV networks don't just import the British versions of shows is quite simple: slang and certain accents like Cockney don't translate well, despite the common language. I watch a lot of British TV shows from DVD sets and I usually have to turn on the subtitles so as not to miss something. Even then, I still don't know what is meant when a guy is referred to as a "right ponce," or what "punters" are, or what "nicked" means (I've heard this word used in more than one way: to steal or to be put in jail), etc. When you are listening to a flow of dialogue and you don't understand some words, it certainly interrupts the dramatic rhythm. And you miss some of the humor as well. Life On Mars contains more slang than, say, Inspector Morse, but at least with subtitles I can know that I haven't mis-heard a word - only that it's a word I don't understand fully.

I'm really thankful for the availability of British shows here in the US. They are very often the best reason to sit down in front of the TV.

A critic will point out your failings. An enemy will never tell you what you're doing wrong.