For god's sake

I can only hope that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright were as shocked as I was when they realized that the company who owns "Spaced" (ITV or BBC or whoever) had okayed the American remake, to be run by "Charlie's Angels" McG. Too bad Pegg and Wright had to go and get famous, because now this little gem from a few years back has shown up on the profit radar of the American TV industry.

Just for once, can't the American buyers of the rights to a show simply rebroadcast the British version on a major network? Instead of reworking a fantastic piece of comedy (and in the process stripping it of most of the wit, timing and personality that made it funny), why not celebrate it by exposing it to the largest audience possible? Are the American producers convinced that American audiences won't "get" British style comedy? British people do speak English, so it does stand to reason that most Americans ought to be able to follow along. Will Edgar Wright personally direct each episode with his by now trademarked camera moves, whip pans, flashbacks, surrealism, and flawless editing (basically, Wright is a guy who treats filmed comedy like Spielberg treats filmed archaeology)?

The British "Office" consists of twelve episodes and two specials. "Fawlty Towers" consists of twelve episodes. And "Spaced" consists of fourteen episodes. All three are appreciated (to varying degrees) as some of the best television comedy ever made. Why do we need to drag a good thing out for three or four seasons, inevitably running it into the ground? The above three series ended because the creators had taken them as far as they could go. I doubt most American producers (save for the folks behind "Lost") will show the same artistic discretion. Good luck to us all, and my condolences to Pegg and Wright (and Frost and Hynes and Deakin and Heap and all the rest...)