The best and worst US remakes of British TV shows

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as they say, so maybe the news that American network ABC has commissioned its own version of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Okay, who are we kidding? We don’t want to watch the show. Even the involvement of the writers of hit medical comedy ‘Scrubs’ can’t stop us thinking that this simply just won’t work.

But it got us thinking about the many remakes of British shows that have hit the US airwaves over the years. Here are three of most successful and three of the attempts that bombed across the pond…

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The hits....

Shameless
In the UK the show has enjoyed great success and become an unlikely hit, but no one ever got the sense that it would work if set anywhere else but Manchester. Yet, with a little help from the star power of William H. Macy, it has become a success in the US.

The American series follows a different set of Gallaghers, headed by Frank (Macy) as the alcoholic single father to six unruly children. Showtime - the network on which it’s shown - enjoyed its biggest season premiere for eight years and a couple of award nominations for Macy and Joan Cusack earned the US version of ‘Shameless’ a second series which will air in April.

Whose Line is it Anyway?
Many panel shows make the transition but few have been as successful (or entertaining) as ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’. Originally running for ten years on Channel 4, the American version went on to almost repeat the feat, airing for nine years until it ended in 2007.

The series started on ABC with Drew Carey replacing Clive Anderson as presenter but with the majority of the original comedians still in place. Ryan Stiles, Wayne Brady and Colin Mochrie were stalwarts on both sides of the Atlantic and the key to the show’s success. Maintaining the same tone and sense of humour were also important but mainly it’s a testament to the talents of its performers.

The Office
Nothing comes close really. This is Exhibit A in the defence of remakes. It started out as little more than an imitation, right down to Steve Carell doing a David Brent impression and a stapler encased in jelly. It was still popular with the American audience and slowly over the next couple of seasons morphed into its own entity.

The characters changed as the show progressed and out-grew the original Ricky Gervais series in terms of size. 20+ episode seasons were the drive behind the changes and it paid off big thanks to the great writing of the likes of BJ Novak, Mindy Kaling, Paul Lieberstein (each are regulars on the show as well) and then Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. 

Ratings are high and award nominations flooded in at the peak of its success. The show, now without Carell, is winding to a close but has re-discovered the quality that it lacked in recent years.

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The misses....

The IT Crowd
Like ‘The Office’ the first episode of this remake was near enough identical to the first episode of its UK counterpart.  The result is weird for Brits to watch, not just because it’s pretty much the same dialogue but because sticking out like a sore thumb among the new cast is Richard Ayoade as Moss, the same character he plays in the original series.

The pilot was recorded in early 2007 and a full series was ordered with plenty of scripts written, but the plug was pulled just before the show went into production. Reportedly NBC chairman Ben Silverman wasn’t a fan.

Cold Feet
Hugely popular and award-winning, well, the British version was anyway. The original show followed the lives of three couples for five series between 1998 and 2003. It won over 20 major awards and was something of a phenomenon for Granada Television which naturally had the Americans knocking on the door.

The basic premise could work well in any country but it didn’t in America. Eight episodes were made but only four aired thanks to a mixture of poor ratings and reviews. One critic even claimed that a scene from the show gave her the “mental equivalent of hypothermia”. Ouch.

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Coupling
Over here the Steven Moffat (now of ‘Sherlock’ fame) original British sitcom ran for four series and won a British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy. It used a similar group-ensemble mechanic to shows like ‘Friends’ and ‘Seinfeld’ and the show was favourably compared to both.

Seven episodes of the American version never saw the light of day on NBC however, thanks to poor reviews and poor ratings. The writing did appear to be on the wall after a particularly cunning tactic from BBC America, who ran adverts promoting their screenings of the original ‘better’ British series – which just happened to be scheduled right before the NBC remake.