10 US Remakes Of British TV Shows Which Were Actually Pretty Good

The American take on this classic British sitcom is the archetypal difference between the US and UK approach to TV comedy. Whereas the English Steptoe and Son was essentially the long running struggle between a son and father who simply loathed everything about one another, Sanford and Son took a far warmer, more even handed look at the war between the generations.

As one would stereotypically expect, the American adaptation is warmer, softer, and with a higher threshold of zaniness. None of this is a bad thing, just a different approach - the US version ran nearly three times as long as its UK inspiration, so filling this with nothing but hostility would become trying pretty quickly.

Both shows were laudably progressive for their time. Steptoe was one of the first prominent British characters to be notably deprived. Similarly, Sanford and Son helped open the door for many comedies with predominantly black casts.

Creator Norman Lear took little more than a set up and a title to create his own version of a British institution, and came out with something significantly different, but equally important.