American Sitcoms Remade in UK

I thought it was the other way around. Aren't all American shows based on a far superior British version?

Yeah it goes both ways. Wasn't the dreadful Coupling a British attempt at aping the success of Friends?

I enjoyed Coupling UK, not Coupling US. Then again, I'm a big Moffat fan, even though his tendency to derail characters and engage in rampant sexism and misogyny had surfaced even before he ventured into sci-fi.

The Brits don't do reality TV though, right?

Of course they do reality TV!

Simon Fuller created Pop Idol, which became American Idol over here and then spread to countless other nations.

Simon Cowell created The X Factor in the UK before bringing it over here.

Big Brother began as a Dutch show, but is currently in its 15th cycle in Britain.

Susan Boyle may be one of the most famous reality show contestants worldwide and James Corden has a movie coming out where he plays Paul Potts, the opera singer who won Britain's Got Talent.

One Direction was formed on British reality TV.

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"Yeah it goes both ways. Wasn't the dreadful Coupling a British attempt at aping the success of Friends? "

It was much more satirical and sex based--I suppose the basic setup was similar in that it was a group of female and male 20something friends? I've NEVER heard the UK version described as dreadful before! Wow--I only caught some of it when our PBS used to air it, but I remember finding it quite funny. NBC's remake, on the other hand, which was almost word for word was odd--because somehow every single scene or joke that had worked with the other cast (and in British accents ) was now, to use your word, dreadful. It made writer Steven Moffat's name in the industry, and a number of the actors went on to quite a bit of success. Of course Jack Davenport was already a TV star thanks to the UK TV phenom This Life (a show I love, and that NBC also tried to remake as First Years--I think it aired one more episode than the Coupling remake...)

Randomly, here in Canada we are about to get a remake of the brilliant 2005 Joanna Lumley sitcom (well it doesn't have a laugh track, but..) Sensitive Skin on HBO Canada. Kim Catrall wanted to do the remake and is the producer and star--the cast is mainly Canadian, like her, though I have some hopes because Joanna Gleason is one of the co-stars. Apparently so far there are no plans to show it in the US (the Canadian adaptation is by Bob Martin--the star and bookwriter of Drowsy Chaperone as well as a head writer on Slings and Arrows so it has a decent pedigree as far as remakes go.)

Not sure if there have been Canadian remakes on TV before (not counting some failed attempts at creating English versions of French-Canadian hits.) Unless you count Queer as Folk which did have largely a Canadian production and writing team, was co-financed here and filmed here but had a mostly American cast...

Updated On: 7/18/14 at 05:30 PM

We could be here all night if we were naming American remakes of UK shows Didn't we have a thread on that?

I believe the UK remake of Who's the Boss, The Upper Hand actually was a massive hit, and ran for 100 episodes--rare for UK shows. Also, when I lived in London in 1999, there was an awful That 70s Show remake that apparently used the same script, called Days Like These.

One of my favorites, Mad About You, was remade in the UK sometime in the 90s as "Loved by You". I've never actually seen it, I just know of its existence. It was probably dreadful.

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***spoiler alert***

Is Kim starting the show before or after the husband dies?

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Thank you Gothampc - I have never heard of Nobody's Perfect. Sadly I have heard of and seen Brighton Belles - it was awful, do yourself a favour and avoid it.

Eric - I really liked Sensitive Skin - it's a very slight sitcom but as a vehicle, I can understand why Kim Catrall would be drawn to it. I think I read that Joanna Lumley isn't impressed that it is being re-made.

PS - Eric - if you enjoyed Sensitive Skin - have a look at Up in Town - it was a series of 10 minute episodes, Joanna Lumley delivering monologues to camera - talking about her past. I loved this when I first saw it. All this talk of Sensitive Skin reminded me of it - so thank you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXEKjZRA1E4

I guess I didn't mean reality TV like that. That's just game shows. I mean like Real Housewives type stuff. I was watching "Ladies of London" on Bravo, and they talked about how there wasn't anything like that in the UK.

Ha! Gross. I haven't watched much UK Tv, except for Gavin and Stacy which is awesome.