TV's "The Office" US version… and others

I’ve just read on IMDb that the Americans have made a US version of the classic British mockumentary comedy series ‘The Office’. 😮

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386676/

I find it mindboggling how they are still buying scripts of popular British shows and trying to do their own versions, it never works as well, and usually US makers completely sanitise the purpose of the original comedy, or don’t grasp the concept, and just ruin it. The British humour is usually based around subtlety and clever wordplay – something that US comedy seldom achieves, who are generally louder and more visual in their comedy. Plus US comedy almost always champions the coolest person as the lead, whereas great British comedy is based around the loser who never quite gets it right (Basil Fawlty, Hancock, Mainwaring, David Brent, Hyacinth Bucket… etc).

I find it really wierd as to why the US companies bother. If they just bought the original, it’d be a much better show all round compared with a rehashed recast mishmash, and viewers might learn something about other cultures too rather than having to have everything put into their own version of the language and culture.

I’m sure the real ‘The Office’ has already gone out in the USA anyway as Ricky Jervais has appeared on Letterman several times talking about it. So why bother making some nasty imitation if it is that popular in the USA already?

For the record, here’s a sample of other British comedies that were bought by US networks and remade for their own audience:

Fawlty Towers (at least three times, all failed miserably as you’d expect)
Are You Being Served? (Called ‘Beanes of Boston’, failed – Australia also tried this one and failed)
Dad’s Army (Renamed ‘Rear Guard’, Failed)
Red Dwarf (Failed badly both times)
Steptoe and Son (Renamed Sandford and Son, I’ve never seen it but hear it was nowhere near as good despite the long run)
Keeping Up Appearances (I heard this failed, original was cack anyway)
One Foot In The Grave (ruined by Cosby, total garbage like all his shows. What were they thinking selling this masterpiece to an idiot like him?)
Man About The House (became trashy Three’s Company)
George and Mildred (Became trashy The Ropers)
Love Thy Neighbour (Became Love Thy Neighbor – Failed)
Men Behaving Badly (A brilliant UK show was turned into total crap. When the US version was released here it became called It’s A Man’s World to disassociate itself form the great original)

Here are other classic UK shows (and a few poorer but well-known ones) that became US shows, but I have not seen or heard comparisons to: (UK on left, US right)

Agony/The Lucie Arnaz Show
Billy Liar/Billy
Birds of a Feather/Stand By Your Man
The Bounder/The Bounder
Butterflies/Butterflies
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin/Reggie
A Fine Romance/A Fine Romance
For The Love Of Ada/A Touch of Grace
Home To Roost/You Again
Keep It In The Family/Too Close For Comfort
The Likely Lads/ Stuebenville
Mind Your Language/What A Country!
On The Buses/Lotsa Luck
Porridge/On The Rocks
Rising Damp/27 Joy Street

Has anyone seen both of these above and can you make comparisons? I’m always interested in the ideas of remakes. It is an odd concept.

The US has ripped off some British dramas too, including Cracker, which they reamde quite well. Also Waking The Dead has become Cold Case (a shadow of the original imho). Any other dramas?

And on the flipside, the UK has made some appaulling versions of already appaulling US shows, like Who’s The Boss, The Golden Girls and Married….With Children (I liked the origininal of thsi, but I hear the UK one was BAD!)