5 Failed Attempts to Americanize Hit British Sitcoms
Why in the name of all that’s funny do American producers try to adapt British sitcoms for U.S. audiences? The easy answer: Sometimes, it works. Norman Lear’s All in the Family and Sanford and Son were huge hits based on U.K. comedies, while the American version of The Office is arguably the most successful (or at least the most imitated) sitcom of the century.
But alongside those successes are a series of miserable failures that got lost in translation. Here are five examples of failed American versions of classic British sitcoms…
Fawlty Towers
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In 2000, the British Film Institute ranked Fawlty Towers first on its list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, and Channel 4 had Basil Fawlty number two on its list of the 100 Greatest Television Characters. With its simple premise — an uptight dolt runs a dysfunctional hotel — Fawlty Towers was an obvious choice for an American update. But the attempt has failed three times. There was Snavely with Harvey Korman and Betty White, which never got past the pilot stage in 1978. Amanda’s By the Sea with Bea Arther got the ax after 10 episodes in 1983.
And Payne, the 1999 adaptation featuring Night Court’s John Larroquette in the John Cleese role, was canceled before it could finish airing the nine episodes it had filmed. Payne “is supposed to be inspired by Fawlty Towers, but it lacks inspiration of any kind,” spat the New York Post.
The IT Crowd
The IT Crowd, about a socially impaired group of computer techs, was a U.K. hit in the 2000s, winning Best New British Sitcom in 2006 and the International Emmy Award for Comedy in 2008. And like with Fawlty Towers, producers screwed up American versions three times. The one that got the farthest was a 2008 version featuring some of the original U.K. cast alongside Joel McHale. NBC went so far as to run commercials for the new series, but new NBC chairman Ben Silverman thought the pilot “didn’t quite spark.” (Translation: It sucked.)
Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence tried again in 2014, but again, the pilot never aired. Original director and writer Graham Linehan was set to try his hand in 2018, but nothing came of the attempt.
Coupling
The British hit sitcom Coupling was often compared to Friends and Seinfeld, a description that must have perked up the ears of NBC executives. Could they possibly commission another version of the most successful sitcoms of the 1990s?
Well, sure, the network could commission it, but that doesn’t mean it would be any good. Like a photocopy of a photocopy, the U.S. version of Coupling was a faded duplicate of a sharper program. Like the pilot of the American Office, Coupling lazily recycled scripts from the British version but the humor didn’t translate. The show’s original creator, Steven Moffat, blamed NBC: “The network fucked it up because they intervened endlessly.”
Absolutely Fabulous
The British version of Ab Fab enjoyed several successful iterations, revivals and movie versions. The over-the-top comedy was so outrageous that Roseanne Barr decided America needed its own Absolutely Fabulous. But that iteration, starring Barbara Carrera and Carrie Fisher, never got off the ground. (Barr incorporated some AbFab ideas into the worst season of Roseanne, the “it was all a dream” year when the Conners won the lottery.)
America tried again in 2008 with Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Johnston in the lead roles. Fox took a look at the pilot and said, “No, thanks.”
Men Behaving Badly
Men Behaving Badly, a sitcom about beer-guzzling flatmates, won the hearts of British viewers in the 1990s.
Men Behaving Badly, the American version starring Rob Schneider, won the hearts of no one.