Why The Very Strange IT Crowd Remake Failed
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- Опубликовано: 10 дек 2023
- American television networks remaking British sitcoms is not a new strategy. Sometimes, like in the case of The Office, it can work out better than expected. In the case of The IT Crowd, it went horribly wrong. The original IT Crowd is immensely popular both in the US and UK, and for good reason. The American reboot of The IT Crowd missed the mark on almost every level. So much so the network decided to turn off The IT Crowd without turning them back on.
#theitcrowd #theoffice #nerdstalgic
SOURCE
archive.org/details/the-it-cr...
www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/...
web.archive.org/web/200710152...
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainm...
www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...
tv.apple.com/us/episode/episo... 
Развлечения
They should have done it as a sequel. Had Richard's Moss essentially transferring to a US company. And having to deal with a bit of culture shock that ultimately results in him becoming friends with American IT people. With of course American style comedy butting heads with his more British style. But that would have required some creativity on the network's part.
That honestly sounds like a good idea. That's a show I would have checked out.
That is Moss level genius.
That would've been much better
This, but also have the main chars in the USA dept look suspiciously similar to the UK dept chairs
that kind of spinoff rarely works. for a prime example, look for "Joey" (originally from "Friends"). from the top of my hat, I can only name 1 character that had a successful spinoff: Saul Goodman (from Breaking bad and Better call Saul).
I think you really undersell just how important Katherine Parkinson’s performance was to the whole show. Her line delivery and facial expressions really sell some of the lines and her character is the glue between the geeks and the real world. If you don’t get Jen right the whole thing just falls apart
I absolutely agree. Katherine Parkinson is such an amazingly talented, underrated comedic actress, and without her the show wouldn't have been the same. Every line she said was just downright perfect. I also loved her occasional mood swings and yelling.
The way she says her lines is still stuck in my head to this day shes great
The guardians of the internet KNOW WHO I AM??
100%, the lack of her mention in this video is scandalous
I like to think that the U.S. pilot is a fever dream by Moss, since he’s played by the same actor in both versions.
He even has that haunted fever dream look in his eyes, like "Maybe if I pretend this is all perfectly normal, I can go rescue my real friends when the director holding us hostage falls asleep."
Fanciful but believable.
Seems like something Abed would experience...
I remember seeing a thread about this on Reddit, and one person mentioned that the person who plays Jen looks too out of place, and I think that applys to Roy too.
Chris O'Dowd (Roy in the UK version) just looks like a normal guy, and Joel Mchale has the dean fainting over him in sunglasses.
And Katherine Parkinson (Jen in the UK Version) looks like a regular woman who works in HR, while the Jen in this version looks like one of the girls on the 5th floor who wouldn't give Roy the time of day
Exactly, the casting was just so far off on this one.
100%. Joel is far too good looking, not that Chris isn't, but because of it, Joel comes off as arrogant and kind of bullyish. He's not the nerd, he's the one that picks on the nerds.
One might even say he dated Jen because she looks like a man. 🙂
I'd pay good money to see an episode of Community where O'Dowd plays Jeff.
I never actually thought of joel as that attractive looking. I think after he had some work done on his hair it’s helped. But even on early seasons of community he felt like he looked like a 40 year old trying to look 25
I watched this failure of a pilot years ago, and I remember vividly that, besides all your points, they completely changed something significant, missing the most important joke. They made the boss intelligent, outsmarting the IT crowd in the end. Why? Maybe the network executives couldn't take the joke...
Doesn't surprise me at all, and completely undermines the whole show since if Reynholm is smart, Jen never gets the job in the first place.
If the boss is a woman and/or black, they MUST be smarter/better than the protagonists. This is western Marxist media 101.
Well if that was a difference from the original then at least it was trying something different, the problem would've been the fact the original plot relies on the boss being an idiot so if you're going to do a carbon copy then er yeah it's gonna fall on its arse and so you return to the original point that doing a rip off is pointless, you need to be original you can't just clone success. But they never learn, this is American tv execs all they know is money.
@@user-et6pj4db9sIt worked with the office. The boss is an idiot in the UK version and US version.
@@onee the office is the rare exception but usually clones just fail. The point is if you don't have an original idea you'll rarely make success out of just repeating someone else. The American Office worked cos the show did become different from it's UK counterpart. The UK Office was a spoof of documentaries, the US Office was just a standard sitcom really with cartoon characters.
In the US reboot, it looks like they got a bunch of random people just reading their lines. They might as well filmed them each individually on a green screen and paste them into the scenes in post production. In the UK version, the cast interacts much more naturally, and Moss, Roy and Jen are actually believable a co-workers within the over-the-top world presented in the show.
It came off like a high school production where they just recited lines at each other.
So true. The US versions of Roy and Jen are completely dull and lifeless and absolutely no comparison to the British originals in terms of charisma and comedic chemistry. Which makes Moss seem even more out of place.
Why tf can Americans not watch the original anyway?
@@Jefferson-ly5qe Part of the marketing in the United States is that if you watch a "foreign" film or television show, you're a snob. This allows Hollyweird to make more money by copying a successful plot of a foreign creation and sell it as their own paying minimal royalties. If I say "you really should watch Abre Los Ojos instead of Vanilla Sky", that gets me labelled as arrogant with a false sense of superiority, because I know the original. Well, the original was honestly better. However, I would say The Ring was better than Ringu. Every now and then, not too often, the remake is better than the original.
I think one thing you missed is season 1 of the office didn’t do well and was nearly cancelled. It wasn’t until a near complete rewrite of Michael that it found its own.
yes, exactly. they made the same mistake with the office to start off with. It's only when they adapted it, rather than tried to copy the UKL verison, that it came into it's own.
1st season of US Office is underrated, has some of its funniest episodes IMO. Same goes for Parks and Rec which some people also identify as being bad for some reason
They only didn’t can it bc the the 40 yr old virgin made Steve a household name.
honestly i think mark was smug bad character@@Vivi_9
Never quite understood why the US has to remake anything in the first place. Just buy in the original, surely? (As we do innumerable US series, after all).
I realise that learning to appreciate a non-US product is tricky for US citizens, though!
there’s just certain dialogue and comedic timing that can’t translate from British sitcoms into American comedy shows, they did it right with The Office because they made it their own thing and managed to turn it into something brilliant
I thought the American version of The Office was shite 😂
@@khoyrulislamthat’s fine lol everyone’s different, but for me I prefer the US version because I respond to goofy humour better than painful cringe which for me the original has so much of, Ricky is way too good at playing a terrible human being. it also has a lot of actors I love like Steve Carrell and Ed Helms
True, they should have made it their own thing but didn’t
@@Symoraoh please, this content farm channel would be saying the same thing if the office had failed.
If the show had been a hit, they would be talking how great it is, and all the cons they mentioned, would suddenly be pros. I can see right through the bias. Just imagine all the videos there would be about how the "failed" American Idol ripoff, The Voice, if that show hadn't succeeded. They would paint the narrative that The Voice is bad, and that it was just copying Idol, and that's why it failed.
Roy in the original IT Crowd managed to master the role of a frustrated professional who's had to deal with shit from idiots for way too long, while the US version felt like Roy was the idiot the original had to deal with for way too long. Also, there's a lot of sarcastic humour in the UK IT Crowd that just doesn't work with most American actors
exactly! in the original before he even answers he most likely thinking "god dammit, I better not have to go up there just to push a fucking button". in the new one it feels almost as though he recently figured how to push the power button.
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
What was Wenger thinking, sending Walcott on that early?
@@Reginald425 The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in!
Ah conversations
😢
They were having a laugh
I remember checking it out when it leaked because I was a big fan of the original. In the end, I'm glad that it didn't work out because Joel McHale would probably not do Community if it did.
What a loss that would have been.
As perfect as Joel was for community, he was as wrong as can be for IT crowd.
@@bacon575 He probably could have been better if they had taken the concept and did the show in their own way but the shot for shot remake trying to do exactly what the original did wasn't working at all.
@@Strideo1 I agree. I work in I.T. and there are a LOT of Joel McHale character types that could be parodied and exaggerated. I think a lot of Hollywood execs fail to realize the script is just a PART of what makes something good. You need someone who fits the part. In the same way, the guy who plays Roy in I.T. crowd probably couldn't play Jeff Winger as well in Community.
@@x3ph34r I think Joel McHale would've been great as a male Jen without much rewriting. He could've been a good Roy but with a substantial change into how the character works. He could never be Moss though (unless he has more depth to his acting than we realise).
they failed because they weren't standard nerds
The best spiritual iteration of the IT-crowd in the US is, in my opinion, Better Off Ted. It very much touches the absurdity of incompetence with over the top characters, while also being very American in vibe
Exactly!
Absolutely brilliant show that was killed way before its time.
wow, that is a show i havent thought of in a looooong time. Thanks for the member berries, will go rewatch stuff from that one :)
100% agreed.
Better off Ted was brilliant. Every episode held up on its own.
The (now I’d have to say “original”) IT Crowd is by far my favorite TV show of all time (I’ve seen all episodes numerous times over the years and keep rewatching them) and I had NO IDEA that there was a remake 😱
*attmpt at a remake, or several of them... I could see how they would fail, the original show is legedary and needs no remakes or reboots or even any additional seasons for that matter
I didn't either, and it was so painful to watch, that it probably was better that I never heard of it.
It's still passable compared to the German version. They did not only have bad comedic timing, they literally managed to have punchlines before the actual joke was set up. It was utterly bizarre to watch. Makes me think, that the problem maybe wasn't only with Hollywood but the British side as well.
Especially since just copying British shows really isn't a German thing. They like to steal and adapt (Especially game shows), but this is the only example I know of this weird scene for scene copying.
don't watch the failed pilot, it's painful to watch. The original is my favorite as well, the chemistry between the characters is gold and won't be recreated any time soon. Even years later, you see Noel Fielding or Chris O'Dowd or Richard Ayoade or Katherine Parkinson in the same room at the same time, they just look at each other and break down laughing. It becomes a competition to see who can make the other laugh. Richard is king of this. Just look at the other series they've appeared in together, like Gadget Man and Travel Man.
@@mundanestuff oh I was too curious, watched it already 🤣 I agree, it was painful! Escpecially knowing the original…
Joel McHale will always be Jeff Winger to me lol.
THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS WATCHING IT I WAS LIKE….. HES TOO COOL FOR THIS 😭😭😭😭
Which is *exactly* why he doesn't work here... Jeff Winger doing and saying the same things Roy does just comes off as an a**hole
I absolutely love the original IT Crowd. It’s possibly my most rewatched show.
I know! When he said some of the jokes had aged poorly I felt personally attacked! 😂
@@ellicelYeah the jokes are still funny; it's society that has aged poorly!
I'll be honest I thought the IT Crowd was hilarious when I first watched it as screened in the 00s when I was in my 20s but now rewatching it back in my 40s I think alot of it is quite weak really. It's very hit and miss, there's some good individual gags but I can easily watch whole episodes and only manage to laugh once if at all. I think it's grossly overrated, Graham linehams comedies were progressively weaker as time went on so father ted was his best work, then black books which was a bit weaker but still funny but by the time you get to IT Crowd alot of it is just weak.
@@user-et6pj4db9sa lot of it hits different when you know its coming too. Some of the gags are still great.
@@TheShift1313 I didn't watch the entire five seasons but it's just been uploaded in its entirety on RUclips and some of it is terrible, Ive tried something from each season, when it first aired I think I watched until Chris Morris left then I didn't see much more. It really isn't as good as everyone makes out, father ted was and is the best work Graham Lineham ever did, even black books wasn't as good. To me the premise of this is squandered alot, it should be about them being confined to the basement and actually dealing with IT related stuff since that's the title but most episodes are doing shit outside the office so just loses focus to me. Richard is wasted cos he could've been given much better lines. But sure, there's some funny gags, just not enough of them
The difference between British and American humour is that the British want to laugh at someone, but not in a malicious way. They want someone to be the butt of a joke but not someone who is mocked.
In American sitcoms, comedy mostly comes from the fantastic one-liner "funny guy".
This is an astute observation. Or at best, some shows like Parks and Recreation or Community have a combination of lead characters in both the British and the American archetype. The only successful comedy I can think of that uses the more British style is "Monk"
@@jmunt Yeah, I think a lot of American programs do have the guy we laugh at, but often they are used as a setup for the "funny" guy. I will have to rewatch Monk!
you’re right - british humour is very much laughing because you’ve been there/can be there, as opposed to the american laughing at them. its why so often the main characters/ensembles of british ‘sitcoms’ are losers, as opposed to having a loser to laugh at in the american style
American Humour does its best to ignore and reject the "worse aspects of reality", the main character is almost always some big shot or at WORST lovable idiot who's just down on his luck.
British Humour on the other hand EMBRACES the shittier side and recognises that yes sometimes life does suck and that sometimes you ARE the loser in the room but that happens to most people so just roll with it.
Americans laugh WITH, we laugh AT.
@@beanus7394"Bottom" being the absolute apotheosis of this
Never knew they tried. The UK version just couldn’t be matched. It’s one of my favorite shows ever
I’m glad I’m early to this one!! The original IT Crowd was so good, but they couldn’t make it translate like they did with The Office. Chris O’ Dowd was just too good, you couldn’t just replace him with Joel McHale, same with Katherine Parkinson.
The original show also had a feeling like it was shot as a soap opera in some ways, the remake looks too clean.
had no idea this existed 💀. the original was so freaking good
Better than Silicon Valley in terms of funny geekdom? Or no?
Never watched this series before but Silicon Valley was hilarious
@@scroopynooperz9051 as someone who’s seen both, IT Crowd blows it out of the water
@@Symora ok now I have to watch it then. Thanks for the heads up
@scroopynooperz9051 Totally different shows, but the good thing about IT Crowd, is that you can watch the hole thing in 5 hours.
I too had not idea they tried it. I am gonna go out on a limb and say that if they had kept it going, then the US boss actor would not have become the NCIS Director. Well, maybe he would have depending on how long the US version kept going.
The IT crowd actually had some very mediocre jokes and set-pieces a lot of the time - what made the show work was the incredible timing and delivery, as you mentioned, and i find it hilariousthat the producers of the remake watched the show but didnt realise this. It's like enjoying a pizza and coming to the conclusion that you really like tomato sauce on bread.
That’s a good analogy 😂
I don't think anybody involved in bringing the show over actually ever watched the original show, they were just executives who were looking for the next adapted hit. (Lots of classic "all American" TV shows were adapted from Britcoms, starting with All in the Family and Sanford and Son). They read a brief magazine article about how it was a big hit in britain, said "let's get it" and never bothered to do any research or re-writing beyond some mild Find-and-Replace edits to obvious cultural references, while missing the underlying meaning. Not unlike ABC's Life on Mars adaptation.
Tbh despite enjoying Black Books and Father Ted, I have long outgrown I.T Crowd. It did have great timing and delivery at times, particularly from the always charismatic Moss. But as you said the jokes are the kind of lame dad jokes you’d see on The Muppet Show in Zucker/Abrams movies. Both of those things I still love given the creative execution of their gags but I.T Crowd’s reliance on a sitcom formula really highlights how shallow and basic the humour is, only able to get by on a winking “we know this is really bad” type of irony. I just wish that irony was executed more creatively or with something more substantial to say than “hey we know our writing is really lazy so it’s okay because we know right”. Not to mention how as the essayist pointed out many of the jokes have aged like yesterdays jam, often appearing smug and mean. It’s not a show I ever go back to anymore even if I am in the minority on it
Love the video. Would have liked it if you'd have talked about how Jane in the USA version didn't hit the right notes as Katherine Parkinson. She was brilliant in the series. In fact, you didn't even mention Katherine in the whole video! Just found it strange as you mentioned other actors but missed her out.
Literally don't know who else could possibly match Katherine Parkinson. All the main actors are integral to the show. You can see the lack luster performances of them all including Moss because he needs equally good acting to bounce off.
Joel as a nerd just doesn't really work.
Loved him in Community because he suited his character way better.
Noticed something curious: The writing credits David Guarascio, Joe and Moses Port, who went on to be... the showrunners/executive producers of Community Season 4
Must’ve been REALLY weird for Richard Ayoade to recreate exactly same scenes and jokes
Especially doing it many years later.
@@joadbreslin5819 seems like somebody forgot the old adage: if you have to repeat a joke, it isn’t funny anymore.
@@chrismantonuk Presumably, they were presenting it to a different audience, which isn't really repeating. Like when a standup comic does the same act in different cities.
I honestly feel bad for him. You cal tell his heart isn't into it.
FATHER 😂
1:04 Funny thing, my heatin pad was randomly not workin suddenly and right as he said "Did you try turnin it off and on again?" was as i did exactly that, and i responded "Yes, it worked" xD
I can see Joel as playing sarcastic very well, but can't imagine him being self-deprecating.
Yeah Chris o dowd isn't ugly but you can believe him as a loser. Joel McHale is still a bit cool and good looking for the role. It was the same problem with the US red dwarf. They had a good looking guy as Lister (Craig Charles character). It just didn't fit
Didn't know anyone tried rebooting the IT Crowd. It was lightning in a bottle. Granted Richard was made for the role but so were the others.The Rehnolms (Father and Son) were amazing. Roy was also just perfect for his role
This show is one of the best yet tragically short.
I think we love great shows better if they finish at their peak - i.e. a short-run - and don't try to go on milking it for series after series beyond the peak.
E.g., look at Fawlty Towers. Just 2 series. And absolutely amazing. And you're left wishing desperately for more. Which surely helps you to remember it fondly.
The IT crowd was what The Big Bang Theory desperately wanted to be but never was.
Spot on!
Nah the Big Bang Theory was halarious
@@rdc2021 It had some mirth but hilarious is going a bit far
I feel like you missed the very same point the studios did. The reason the show worked is because the cast was loaded with extremely proficient comedians who played off each other so well. This allowed them a tremendous amount of range to simulate a professional environment while being totally ridiculous about it. The casting was phenomenal and many members of that cast have had starring rolls in popular comedies since. It working in that instance It had nothing to do with the show being British, they barely got into the IT theme really. You can take that very same cast and ask them to do a show about an underground abortion clinic in Texas and they would find a way to make it hilarious because they were simply elite comedians. That is why the show was great.
Yep, on screen chemistry is everything and that's what the American version of the Office had too. That's why it worked. There's zero connection between these actors
As much as i love joel, Roy's blase attitude and gruff voice is what makes it amazing. Just like a real dude from IT. Joel sounds too upbeat. Its weird they kept moss from the original. Almost makes it seem like he moved to America and was trying to start a new life lol
The Office had terrible issues in season 1, as the British producers and Ricky Gervais made them do one per one shots of the OG series. Once they broke loose from the British version, and changed Michael's character, it hit more American tones and became successful. I think even Nerdstalgic did a few videos about this.
Also there a lot of British series succeeding in USA, like All in the Family (Archie Bunker), and of course some terrible misses like Coupling, so it's mostly hit or miss.
Michael in season 1 was really such a bad character
I don't think this is true at all. Greg Daniels said he made the first episode to be like the british one to keep to network off his back, but they only did it for the pilot. Other episodes do their own things and only maybe occasionally use a similar joke.
And he has said both Rick and Stephen were very supportive and wanted them to do their own things because they loved American TV and knew you couldn't just totally copy the british one and expect to succeed.
@@danielfreeman8725 You're 100% correct. Stephen Merchant has said himself many times that from the very start he and Ricky wanted the American creators to put an American spin on it, and in an interview on Conan's podcast Stephen said he specifically wanted an American like Greg Daniels to have control because Greg understood the "DNA" of American television and correctly identified that it could be a show built on the Jim/Pam romance. "The British producers" (Ricky and Stephen) always had a hands off approach and certainly didn't "make them do one per one shots of the OG series", idk where the OP got that from.
@@danielfreeman8725apparently the rule with adapting the Office in every country is that the first episode has to follow the same script as the original UK version.
Yeah I remember seeing the first episode the night it aired, having watched all episodes of the original multiple times over at that point, and HATED it. I think it’s nearly (but not quite) as bad as this IT Crowd remake. I was convinced the show would fail.
The original it crowd is part of my comedy series rotation. IT crowd, father ted, Peep show, phone shop and the Inbetweeners. They can't be replicated
Those are all my favourite comedies, except for Phone Shop, which I've never seen. Given your sense of humour, I'll give it a go. Thanks
The Americans also tried to do a remake of Red Dwarf and they brought back Robert Llewellyn as Kryten, but it never made it past a pilot episode. Just like Ayode in the IT Crowd, Llewellyn was the best thing about that pilot episode!
The main problem with that Red Dwarf pilot episode was that they tried to cram in about 6 or 7 different episodes worth of stories from the English show, that were taken from _multiple_ series so none of them made any sense together, while ALSO shoehorning in the introduction of Kryten himself (who wasn't introduced in the English show till series 2, and didn't become a full cast member till series 3) into one 30 minute episode.
It ended up being an incoherent, rushed, mess of an episode. Rimmer was hopelessly miscast, Lister was miscast (he was far too tall and handsome to be a slob), the romance between Lister and Kochanski was all wrong (she _hated_ him in the US version) It was awful.
There's interviews from Rob Grant and Doug Naylor (the writers of Red Dwarf) talking about how the American writers just wanted the characters telling gag after gag with little to no interest in how it affected the story. The basically wanted it to be more like Friends or something, a 'sitcom' where the 'situation' is secondary to the 'comedy'.
They even tried doing a second pilot later with even less budget (they literally had a white bed sheet behind them as a backdrop), which basically tried to recreate the episode 'Marooned' where Lister and Rimmer are trapped on a snow planet together, but that episode was from the English series 3. It didn't work at all as a pilot episode, because you don't know who these characters are yet, or why it would suck for the two of them to be stuck with each other.
Right? Everything you said. Wasn’t rammer played by the neighbor from Married With Children?
This was literally history repeating itself, majority of the main points for US IT Crowd's downfall made in the vid are identical to the issues with the US version of Red Dwarf, down to one of the main cast from the original UK version coming over for the US version (Robert Llewellyn's Kryten) and the tone deaf casting of the lead actor (Craig Beirko as Lister)
They should have attempted the story as a continuation from the original, where Moss moves to America, and the pilot is him trying to get a job there. Put a couple of nods to the original in there for good measure
The strangest thing about the American pilot being almost shot for shot is the instances when it isn't.
During Denholm's rant about teams, he shows the picture on his desk, not of his family, but the A-Team, a joke omitted in the American version. However later in the episode a montage is scored to the A-Team theme, a continuation of a joke in the original and a complete non-sequitur in the American version.
I wonder if the ppl workin on it just didnt even know what the A Team was and missed the ref there...
@@SylviaRustyFae No chance of that. It's quite well known, especially by people who work in television.
For me the bit where Roy tries to impress Jen is the most illuminating difference. In the original he pretends to be quoting Tolstoy, and in the US version he pretends to have fought an alligator with his bare hands. If you want to know what the US execs think of their audience's intelligence, then look no further.
@@joadbreslin5819 Oh, i thowt i responded to this, but uh yeah; its not at all impossible someone doesnt know X random bit about media from a time before they lived, or a culture outside their own. Even for someone who works in the industry
Gaps in knowledge like that do exist and it may of been down to one prop designer and the director; and no one else thowt to call it out as an issue, cuz its not an easy thing to correct your boss or to potentially throw a fellow worker under the bus... Even if they did screw it up
Its far more unreasonable to me to assume Everyone knows about the A Team, a show from the early 80s that had an unsuccessful movie return a decade and a half ago, than it is to assume a couple or a few ppl didnt know about it here and no one else spotted it or wanted to call attention to it
I mean, just consider the actin quality of the USA crew, it suggests inexperience in the industry and makes it seem even more likely theyre new and just not as well versed in "iconic" media of the format
@@joadbreslin5819 Or theres also what @ibpants pts out. They mayve even thowt "USA nerds wont even know what the A Team is; we gotta change this"
American television is obsessed with casting beautiful people playing people who are not supposed to be
Good vid, wanted to mention two things.
Another US pilot for a British show, which failed, and had a member of the original main cast in was Red Dwarf (Sci Fi comedy, not everyone's cup of tea though I grew up on it and it was popular at the time).
Also, the reason why Richard Ayoade's performance is the same is because he is, apparently, not really acting too much. The character of Moss was actually created around Richard's personality. It's actually rather brilliant. He has a lot more confidence these days and his appearances in panel shows always brings about laughs.
I was reading the comments here just to see if anyone mentioned Red Dwarf which is another personal favourite.
They needed someone like Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) to play the American version of Roy (Chris O'Dowd).
Good idea 👍🏻
Well, he kinda did - TBBT is actually the show that would have been the US version of The IT Crowd if it had been done right.
@torstenscholz6243 Yeah, I always saw it as an American answer to IT crowd. You got the normie woman character, plus nerds. Only in TBBT, you got Roy divided into Leonard and Howard and Moss into Sheldon and Raj.
Your videos are so well written and entertaining, keep it up!
I have an issue with this being called a "British" sense of humour given not only is Roy actor Chris ODowd Irish, but so is Graham Lunehan, the writer and director.
Much like Father Ted before it, it's more accurate to think of it as an Irish Sitcom made for a British TV channel.
Semantics
@@Vivi_9 maybe but there's clearly something slightly different than british comedies so I think it's a worthwhile distinction
@@Vivi_9Try telling that to Irish people
@@cjlister8508 I do, it's hilarious
@@Vivi_9 😅
The exact same problem happened with Taskmaster, and I'm surprised you didn't bring it up.
British comedians are just more likeable overall. When you put American comedians in, their self assured aspect kills the whole thing. You're no longer likable, you're just a jerk.
It's a consistent problem, American confidence just kills the ability to do unlikable things in a likeable way.
A US Taskmaster!? Ha! Next you’ll be telling me there’s a ninth season of Scrubs or a third Matrix movie.
@@timothyreeves615 Ooof, best not tell this guy about the *fourth* Matrix Movie.
And possible 5th... 🙂@@Corlanthis
Stephen Fry put it in a good way, US comedy is on jokes and one-liners, UK is based on characters. In Animal House the US comedian would want to play John Belushi's part, smashing the guitar, the UK comedian would want to play the guy whose guitar got smashed. Self-deprecating humour is always the way in the UK.
Speaking of American confidence killing the humor, there's also the US Peep Show pilot
From the clips you showed I think the US version lacked the delivery of the original - it's not the words per se that are funny, it's how the actors say them.
Yeah, the 'computer' scene in the office is a great example - in the UK version, he's exasperated and desperate, because he's living in a nightmare and is desperately hoping for a way out to present itself; in the US version, he's simply trying to get one over on his new boss. It's got shades of the Inbetweeners remake - all the characters present, but the scenes have been 'polished' for the US audience and just lack the edge that the UK original had.
The German version also had the problem that they screwed up most of the gags from the original (in the video you can see the gag from the first scene in the pilot, but the actor is looking in the wrong direction). In addition there were some lines that are untranslatable in a literal way (like "yesterday's jam" or "hard stare"), so they tried too hard to come up with something funny, but it was just falling flat.
I would love to see the US and German takes on the countdown episode 😂
Also, the "Made in Gt. Britain" gag didn't work in the German version for obvious reason, so they simply deleted it.🤣
Other thing not even mentioned is that only the first season of The Office was transferred word for word, and was a terrible season. After narrowly missing being cancelled they veered off in a different direction than the British version and played off the strengths they saw in the American cast.
THAT WAS ONLY THE PILOT! Why do people keep repeating this lie? Most of the first season was original.
@@danielfreeman8725 that just makes my point even more. The Office was successful because it didn’t try to exactly recreate the original show (well for the pilot but otherwise it was different)
@@danielfreeman8725 another lie being repeated here - that the 1st season of the Office was bad in anyway. It was amazing and far better than anything post Michael
@@Vivi_9That's not a lie. It's an opinion, one that most fans share, by the way. I only made it through the first season and kept watching because everyone assured me it got better.
Diversity Day though 🤣🤣
The thing i would say is they had pieces that would work in a different situation, but just falls flat when copying and pasting. McHale, Ayoade, and St cloud could put something decent together (even though st cloud is not as known as the other 2). McHale was a terrible choice for the frumpy, nerdy, loveable loser role. The way st cloud was delivering her line of knowning IT just wasn't working like Parkinson.
McHale is better as the snarky straight man.
Imo the US Office veering away from copying the UK version was what made it successful. Realizing what a gem they had in Steve Carell and letting him do his thing. The dialogue just being repeated did not work. The fact that studios keep trying to regurgitate rather than adapt is so frustrating, but hey, it's easier right?
I love the original tho. Found it when I was on vacation in the UK. I watch it every few years to relive it all.
I'm surprised they didn't learn from trying to make Red Dwarf USA.
I think part of the IT crowds charm was we were used to these type of characters. WithGraham Linehan writing Farther Ted and with Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade working together in Mighty Boosh. There is a certain beat to these comedies that just don't sit right with US actors. I think the UK is used the to marginalised, underdog characters. They're NPC with their own show in a sense. Where as the US is normally filled with American Dream, I work a normal 9-5 but have a big house and car type characters
Fielding and Ayoade were also both in Nathan Barley, another underrated 00s Britcom gem.
@@torstenscholz6243Ayoade was also in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, which is a cult classic.
Wait.... remake? Now I need to watch the terrible usa pilot.
Since Americans enjoy British shows, they should just show them here - the IT Crowd is hilarious and we love it, we don't need our own version of the thing.
Americans want sex
The language barrier is too rough for Americans to get over. We'd have use subtitles.
@@done9137 If so, how come they took the exact same British actor? The language barrier would be there with him. Also, what's wrong with subtitles?
@@done9137 I thought Americans spoke English?
@@done9137 Nah, it's not that bad. :)
Its funny and weird how similar this story matches that of the time America tried to remake Red Dwarf and the Pilot was so awkward and bland it was buried until Red Dwarf put in on one of their DVD features. It even had 2 of it's original cast to try an help blend the different styles of humor and still flopped. Great vid, keep up the good work!
American TV tried to do the same thing with BBC's Coupling as well. Shot for shot, joke for joke... and it was just horrendous.
Yes. Coupling was a uniquely British situation comedy. The actors, particularly Richard Coyle sold the comedy of the situation by playing it straight, even when it was totally absurd. American comedy generally works by delivering punchlines and wisecracks. So when they tried to make Americoupling’ it failed because the US actors laughed at their own jokes
Truth is, it's all in the chemistry of the actors. The US version simply didn't have it.
A surprisingly big part of that is in the writing. Often, writers will write (or re-write) dialogue to fit the actors who will be delivering it, and inject some of their real-world relationship dynamics into the characters. If you take a script written for Chris and Richard, but then make Joel and Richard say the lines, it just won't work as well because it doesn't fit Joel.
It also comes down to the casting. Joel McHale is better as the snarky straight man.
This just shows how important and difficult good comedic writing is. It just has to fit the actors and characters perfectly. It did in the original UK version, it clearly did not here. The US versions of Roy and Jen in particular are just way too bland compared to the originals and lack any comedic chemistry. In British comedy, it's not uncommon that writers and actors know each other for years and have worked together before and the dialogue and gags are written to benefit them perfectly, often they even write their dialogue themselves.
I was slightly surprised when I found out how "recent" The IT Crowd was. It had this essence that made me think it was from the 90's. But it may be me associating just British style of TV with older series, because we get a lot of those where I live. Keeping Up Appereances for example is one of those older British comedy series that still occasionally will show on the tv.
Judging by your surname, you're either from Finland or Estonia, correct?
They tried to remake Coupling. That failed. Yet, they could have pulled it off if the base premise was not too much like friends.
Even in the intro: Joel McHale didn't even look at Moss when he was doing the "I'm the head of this department!" scene, compared to Chris O'Dowd.
The difference with the it crowd and the office is that with the shorter episode count seasons get in the uk the office managed to run through the entire series for inspiration in the first season so basically season two could be like a reboot for the series and they could do their own thing with the series the it crowd was given the season they got picked up for so we don’t know if it would’ve been another shameless where largely it could be it’s own thing in the us cause there are things in the uk shameless that didn’t make it into the American version cause they wouldn’t work over here like frank having an actual sexual relationship with Karen Jackson that didn’t make it over to America closest we got was Karen taking advantage of Frank who is obviously high on painkillers for example and with the it crowd not easily watchable in America due to mainly being on britbox and only on the British comedy live channel on Pluto tv if it’s still on there
Jam ages well. Thats why people make jam.
They also tried this with Red Dwarf. Even had Kryten played by the same actor. Worked out just as well.
Yeah... although Daphne - I mean Jane Leeves - as Holly wasn't bad...
Didn't know the pilot for a remake existed, so that was pretty brutal to witness.
Replace O'Dowd? Outrageous!
The orig was superb!
> Some of the jokes aged like yesterday's jam
Actually, that doesn't work as a thing, because, you know, jam lasts for ages.
The jokes have aged fine in the humor of 80% of all people.
That’s what I thought. My grandparents still referred to jams “preserves”. “Pass the strawberry preserve. Do we have any apricot preserve left?”
They were farmers in New Zealand, and would turn left over fruit from their harvests into jam, as otherwise the fruit would spoil and go to waste (a cardinal sin for depression era Protestants). Once a jam jar is sealed, it can stay unopened and un-refrigerated for a year, basically til next season when you make another batch.
And back in those days, fruits were only available seasonally, no grocery stores selling strawberries year round. So jams were a way to enjoy fruit out of season.
@@ginao6810 Yesterday’s Jam was the name of an episode of IT Crowd. It’s a joke
“Doesn’t work as a thing”?
Because jam lasts for ages…. Like the jokes from the show. So the jokes aged like yesterday’s jam, meaning it’s not aged that much at all and is still funny.
The problem is that British and American humour are vastly different. British humour is more grounded and realistic, while in the States, you can go bombastic and over the top. Just see the two versions of the Office for reference.
Have you watched Monty Python?
@@igano111 he worded himself poorly but I get what he's trying to say.
You're spot on about Monty Python, but when an MP sketch is fantastical/ridiculous, the message/meaning of it is still very grounded.
The ministry of silly walks is a knock on British rigidity.
The Life of Brian is a movie knocking British culture and its origins.
Etc.
And you see the same in the IT crowd with the fire extinguisher scene. The British love poking fun at themselves, which is a very grounded type of humor.
The fire extinguisher joke would not have worked in the US because "Made in the US" with someone going "aaaaahhh" just doesn't work.
I always thought it was the other way around; in a episode of the IT crowd there could be a new king that makes crazy rules, they could have mugged the queen or Moss being confused with someone wanted by the Interpol. Big Bang theory was so tame if compared to IT crowd.
I'm not sure if that is true in general or not, but I know it's not true about the IT crowd. It had ridiculous over the top situational comedy. I loved it, but we must recognize that it was pretty out there. I don't want to list spoilers here though.
Stephen Fry put it best. A British comedian is often the butt of the joke, who wants to do better in life but is constantly shat upon, while an American comedian never wants to be the butt of the joke, they want to be the coolest guy in the room with the best one-liners. (think Chandler from Friends)
American humour is aspirational. Hopeful. British humour is self-deprecating and pessimistic. We like to take the piss out of ourselves. Americans like to make themselves feel better. They rarely like to take the piss out themselves.
That's why a lot of American remakes fail. They usually cast people who are far too cool and confident to play the likes of Rimmer from Red Dwarf, or Roy from the IT Crowd. Steve Carrell works in the Office because he's okay with taking the piss out himself and making himself the butt of the joke.
The fact that Richard Ayoade was in this but everyone else was different just makes it feel confusing, awkward and a little sad. If all of the episodes had been made, he would have had to reshoot all the same scenes again. It’s like being held back a year in school while all of your friends move on or something akin to that feeling
lol, I didn't know they even tried this. Great video, thanks for sharing :) (I wonder what else they tried...)
the thing that i never got is why remake the shows at all?
cant they just play the british version...?
As someone who loves the it crowd and lives in the US I can confidently say Hollywood rarely understand why the original show from whatever country is popular everywhere and as such they should stay away from Americanizing shows
US producers just can't stand it that old Europe is so much better at producing good, creative, funny films and television, so of course there *has* to be a US remake. Why not simply air the Original version with subtitles?
Another thing I noticed is and by no means is this meant to be taken as a slight to the incredibly talented actors/comedians of the UK version but the US version was cast in a way that just felt unnatural. All the actors were too good-looking, like they were too attractive in typical US style. The original cast was made so much more realistic. Like they looked like every day people and not like they just spent time with a stylist and in make-up and hair getting ready. How many actual people when doing job interviews and going to work have the time and energy to do a full blow out and stuff. In the UK Roy looked like a slob who didn't care or lacked self awareness, Jen looked like an everyday woman just doing her best. It was how real yet unreal these characters were navigating these comedic real yet unreal situations that made it gold. It wasn't just the script, it wasn't just the characters and setting and stuff, it was everything working together to make gold and when you lack one of those ingredients the others are just not enough to hold it up.
The UK IT crowd had an amazing supporting cast. Chris Morris, Noel Fielding and Matt Berry were difficult shoes to fill
The OG IT Crowd is iconic. If we want more of it, they should just make more of it, with original cast, and release it world wide. I'm an American and I thoroughly enjoyed that show.
The problem with that is that - at the moment - the IT Crowd creator is a persona non-grata in the British entertainment world, i.e. cancelled. Cause he took a firm stand on a certain issue, quite a long time before rest of society wanted to grasp with that issue. I think it's fair to say society has a bit towards his views since then - particularly on sports. However, he remains very much an untouchable.
They even won't do the "musical" version of his other, older and incredibly popular, sit-com - "Father Ted" - (co-written with Arthur Matthews) unless he signs away all ability to have his name associated with it.
The US Office didn’t work until they moved away from copying the original and developed their own characters. Michael Scott changed significantly from season 1 to season 2. When I first watched the pilot I thought it was doomed and couldn’t believe they were ruining another good show. Its now one of my favourite series of all time, and I rate it even higher than the UK Office. Copying is the problem. Getting the right cast chemistry is also super difficult. If they do try make a US IT Crowd again, they need to develop it independently of the original catered to American sensibilities.
I always thought it was called the IT crowd as in the word it (used to refer to something previously mentioned) and not I.T. and always thought it was part of the joke that they didn't understand it stood for Information Technology. I loved the Reynholm Industries website they created for the show where you had to work out how to hack the system and got rewarded with a picture of the boss flashing.
IT Crowd is one of the most hilariously beloved UK comedy shows ever made. Many of our shows are so uniquely British they would never work with one-to-one American remakes much like what happened with horrid American versions of Peep Show and The Inbetweeners. The Office was an extremely rare case, but that didn't entirely copy the cult classic original UK one :-)
Fun Fact: Here in Germany, we actually managed to make an excellent remake of a very British show - Ein Herz und Eine Seele, the German version of Till Death Us Do Part. It was a very hilarious, well-made show and was so well-adapted to the German market that until today many don't even know it's a remake of a British show.
This video illustrates the difference between RUclips creators who are in it for the money versus RUclips creators or do it because they care about the subject. The writing in this video is so hollow and lifeless.
IT Crowd was better than big bang
But didn't we do the same with Married with Children. The 1st episode of Married for Life was an excact remake of an episode of MWC 😁
Did you guys re-upload this? I could swear I've seen this before on Nerdstalgic.
I couldnt even sit through the original show. It was not good 💀
IT Crowd is one of my favorite shows. I'd heard it was going to be remade but didn't know about this pilot. From what I see, it looks like a shot by shot remake. The Office remake also leaned heavily (too heavily) on the British version originally before wildly diverting (for the better). I think an IT remake could be done, but it's weird having Moss there again. I guess no one could come close to recreating that character. As someone else mentioned, they should have had Moss relocate to an American IT and gone from there.
I've been watching Superstore, which was inspired by the UK show "Trollied", and is a very good adaptation, I think. And like the Office, it allows for cultural changes so it can "grow" in its new environment. One other failed attempt was "The Vicar of Dibley", which similarly didn't change enough.
it reminds how they tried to reboot Red Dwarf in US with only one returning actor from the og show which was Robert Llewellyn as a Kryten
Thanks for the video! I had no idea😅
Another show that failed to cross the Atlantic was Ultraviolet, an awesome drama about vampires in 90s London with an absolutely amazing performance by Idris Elba. Elba was the only cast member to move from the UK UV to the US pilot & it’s a shame he didn’t get a chance to show his abilities in a full US-length season, which had the potential to to rival the X-Files (or maybe just Dark Skies, which was great even if short lived). Maybe Elba should have been given the lead in the US version. The US lead was OK, but was no Jack Davenport.
The new Emergency phone line bit or the Peter File episode would have bombed horribly.
It's not quite shot for shot. One major issue was that the US writers don't know how to do comedy.
In the original, Roy has an argument with someone on the phone which turns into physical threats. Roy slams the phone down and says "That showed her!". In the remake, Joel calls her "Emily" before hanging up. The punchline is gone.
Chris Morris' character was a lunatic. The American boss couldn't decide on a personality. In the first scene where he's sizing up Jen, he starts off weird like the original but ends with a sarcastic jab. There's no consistancy.
Reminds of the time someone tried to remake Fawlty Towers with Bea Arthur in Basil’s role as widow.
I'm not certain which of the 8 credited producers of the US show were the showrunners, but two of them were the showrunners for season 4 of Community ("the bad one").
Wow I didn't know about this! But it does remind me of the attempts to make an American version of Red Dwarf. With one of the pilots featuring the English actor of Kryten reprising his role for it!
The first British sitcom American remake that became more popular than the original was Three's Company in the 1970s. They didn't even try to replicate the humor from the British version, but for an American sitcom the jokes were very risqué.
Truest of OGs remember the awful attempt to remake Kath & Kim in the US
I'm sort of surprised that the US hasn't tried to remake Inbetweeners. With the success of frat movies and Superbad, I would have thought that an attempt would have been made, but it never was.
It would be interesting to see how they would adapt Richmond
Could have worked if he was played by Marilyn Manson.
Ironically, Joel McHale's performance here perfectly mimics "Gamer/PC Bros", which could have worked if they'd written the part more in keeping with archetype of toxic NerdBro/GamerBro™ that McHale brings to his performance.
I always said, it would have made more sense to be a continuation of the original, like Moss just went to America to head their IT dept there, not just a complete copy.
There was a similar misstep decades ago when a US network failed *miserably* at remaking the British classic "Dads Army", by basically committing every mistake shown here.. well worth a look at that story..
many such cases.. from Absolutely Fabulous to The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin
Dozens of massive cultural successes too, it should be said, everything from Sanford & Son to Queer as Folk and House of Cards
There once was also an atrocious pilot for a US remake of Spaced, another underrated nerd Britcom classic.
I like to believe this is just what Moss sees when he's concussed
They were going to do something similar with Red Dwarf. Crichton was going to be played by the same actor.