We've had a lot of laughs at the expense of these wacky foreigners trying to jam Western series into a cultural box they don't really fit in, but let's not forget about the true pioneers of the totally insane, bizarre and usually failed remakes of shows from other countries: the good old US of A. They've made a habit of re-purposing series for American audiences since the invention of television, or thereabouts, a practice which continues apace today with hit shows like Homeland (based on the Israeli series Hatufim) and not-so-hit shows like The Killing and The Bridge (based on the Danish series, erm, The Killing and The Bridge). The current vogue is for these big political and crime dramas, but for a while their sights were firmly set on something very different. Us, specifically. We've already seen how British humour fails to translate to India and Germany, but those are pretty different cultures to ours, right? America and England aren't so different. We still enjoy The Simpsons even if some of the specific references fly right over our heads. Sadly the Yanks don't think the same way and, rather than simply repeating British sitcoms on American stations, have chosen time and again to attempt to remake them. Often with disastrous results. Recent years have seen the aforementioned attempts at bringing The IT Crowd (starring Community's Joel McHale as a far-too-handsome Roy and Richard Ayoade reprising his role as Moss) to the States, and before Veep there was a direct adaptation of The Thick Of It in the works, which abandoned the handheld camera style and swearing, and stuck in a laugh track. Surprising that one didn't catch on, eh? There's worse where that came from, though. There was the pilot for a remake of Space, helmed not by visionary director Edgar Wright but far-less-visionary director McG, the man behind the Charlie's Angels films and Terminator: Salvation. There's the oft-maligned attempt at exporting Red Dwarf which saw Daphne from Frasier cast for some reason, and all of the jokes missing. They just lost their remake of The Inbetweeners after one season, too, which isn't a huge tragedy. Worst of all, however, were the three - count 'em - separate attempts to make an American Fawlty Towers. One of which was called Chateau Snavely. One of which was to star a Golden Girl. All of which are incredibly painful and possibly the most idiotic idea this side of hiring a Spanish waiter who doesn't speak a lick of English.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
