I'd hardly call the original 'Kath & Kim' really crude and vulgar. The humour is certainly different from mainstream US Sitcom humour, bit is hardly toilet or gross-out humour.
As an Australian who saw the US 'Kath and Kim' (yeah, don't ask) I think the main issue is Kath/Molly Shannon actually.
Kath and Kim are suppose to be a little bit clueless and dimwitted (and as somebody said upthread - behind the times) and that is often what makes the show as funny as it is. Between the two of them they present two faces of cluelessness - Kath being the nice and inherently good type of cluelessness, Kim being the annoyingly selfish type of cluelessness.
I actually think Selma Blair did pull off Kim well, but Molly Shannon was playing Kath way to straight and it just didn't work. Kath needs to be a full ensemble - the voice, the hair, the clothes (okay we did have the clothes in this one), somebody that needs to stick out like a sore thumb.
I also think the show is loosing out by not having a Sharon character. The point of having a Sharon character is to bring out Kim's even more selfish and narcissistic (and down right mean) side. Often I found in the original show that is where some of the funniest stuff lies.
Updated On: 10/11/08 at 08:12 PM