GREAT NEWS! We've added 10 more TERRIBLE American Remakes to this list: 10 More Awful American Remakes of Great British Shows ruclips.net/video/7itrKv3jCPg/видео.html
I’m Canadian but grew up on British television. That they would even attempt to remake Absolutely Fabulous and Fawlty Towers is a crime. Lol British comedy is pure gold. No one can come close to matching it.
They must have tried Fawlty Towers twice, because I distinctly remember a version where rolls were reversed and Bea Arthur played the part of Basil. Of course, it was terrible.
I’m an American and Absolutely Fabulous was the first British show I ever watched and I was hooked. I can’t believe that a remake was even attempted. Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders can’t be replaced.
Fellow American, totally agree there are a lot of British Shows that are just to Golden to be copied. Come on USA use your originality -Oh wait that was lost 20 or more years ago when reality TV took over.
Sheila Ingram if you like Jennifer Saunders then check out her with Dawn French just type in French and Saunders into the search bar on here . You’d know Dawn French if you’ve ever watched vicar of dibley
The original characters were Lister ,Rimmer (Smaghead) and cat and Rimmer (Smaghead ) still thought he was perfect ,plus the fact that Lister and Rimmer hated each other's guts .
SwGuru well no. Given the diff in audience size and the diff in production, y’all will have to deal with it. Plus we don’t have to pay to get a TV license. That alone means we get what we want.
Noooo dont say that Blackadder would be nothing without Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson😂 and as for Bottom its like inbetweeners where the Humour just wouldnt work in America
@@mrcritical6751 i wish i had your clarity of vision, i just think it would have to be Americanized. Which usually leads to the soul of the programme being ruined
I think I speak for most Americans when I state that we don’t need or want remakes. As much as I love David Tennant, that Broadchurch remake was also useless.
Don't know why they don't just give them the originals had a lot of American friends like the originals. But of course they're not going to get all of it, because of the slang
There was a broadchurch remake? Why? I thought it was really good (second season not as good as the first, but third was decent and first was really good)
I think I might be weird. I genuinely enjoyed US Top Gear. Tanner was a bit of a twat, but Rutledge and Adam were hilarious, and most of the stuff they did was cool. That's my opinion anyway.
@@matthewcarter9790I don’t agree, I actually liked the first series after that and the switch to BBC due to the ITV franchise, Thames losing its licence to broadcast, although the company still exists. It went down the coarse language and toilet humour route which is lame and unfunny after about a couple of episodes.
Jim Hebson , our entertainment sucks because Hollywood thinks we’re ALL fucking stupid 😒😒I give up on TV long ago..have apps and watch mostly movies and British TV shows plus IFC
@@memeicusgaming2197 No it was always a joint production. Unfortunately the American insisted on such as the 'Half Human' plot that was thankfully soon scrapped.
Even though I’m American, I love British television. Shows like “Coupling”, “Doctor Who”, “The Inbetweeners”, and the “IT Crowd” are some of my all-time favorites! But those were such cringe-worthy, horrifying adaptations!!! Shudder... Joel McHale is a great actor and very funny, but just such a wrong fit for Roy.
@@zeddyfin American Shameless is not shit. More like THE shit. As someone who watched the UK version from start to end, I can honestly say the Americans did this one better.
I always preferred Neil to Harry in Men Behaving Badly. Harry Enfield was only in the first series because after that the BBC gave him his own sketch show “Harry Enfield and Chums” in 95 (I remember all this because I was 14 and 95 was great year for me)
It's some sort of fragile ego thing. They need to be able to imagine that they are "the best" all the time. (Because that is their indoctrination from birth).
@@JoRiver11 I like the whole "Land of the free" and how they go on about having freedoms yet they are probably the least free country in the western world, they work the longest working weeks, get the least holidays and the system is so stack up against so many people they live their lives in poverty with no way out other than crime, they have most overzealous police, a prison system that's based on profit and designed to keep people coming back. They are quite litteraly the most oppressed country and that's why they have that shit forced down their throats from a young age and will claim this "freedom" they have allows them to purchase guns guns guns and kill anything that wants to get in the way of that freedom
@@djimma5080 have you actually been here or are you just spouting the stereo types that you hear on tv? Because if you had bothered to come to a state other than The main ones that Europeans seem to think that is only in America or is the only I interesting ones i.e. California, Florida, Texas, and New York, than you would find out that we are much more than those gun toting, crime loving stereo types you hear about. Each state has it's own culture and it's own way of speaking. You can't lump us all into one category because it would be inaccurate. It would be like Americans lumping all of Europe into the same category. Also saying that our police are overzealous does not only do an injustice to them bjt is also inaccurate. You cant base all police on the few shootings that you hear about on tv since there millions of cops on duty, risking their lives every day. And as for thinking they we are better than other countries, we actually don't. We leave that to the British to believe. We have more of a belief in equality.
@@andreasmith9809 unfortunately there is a decent amount of truth to what he says. Many Americans see themselves as better than anyone else or don't bother to even know much about how people live in other places. We also generally work far more than other places, and take far less holiday. Also, despite many Americans freaking out about socialism, Americans also end up having to spend way more just to maintain what would be a basic standard of life in other places. Healthcare primarily, between premiums, co-pays and coinsurance. I'm an American married to a Brit, so we've had lots of opportunities to compare.
Oh my God, when the US did "Us and Them", I actually threw up a little bit. As an American who LOVES "Gavin and Stacey", I couldn't believe they would take such a UK classic and *attempt* it...but then again, I should've known better after US Red Dwarf 🤦♀️
@@denfitzpatrick5988 Why didn't they do an American character and a Canadian character? Close enough that they are similar but far enough apart for differences much like England and Wales.
gentarofourze I agree, the US has its own distinctive dialects and characters to do that as well, someone from NYC travelling up to the back end of New England
Everything America sucks nowadays. Where British tele would insert a smart high brow joke, America inserts a fart joke. If not a fart joke then a virtue signalling joke.
I personally blame American sensibilities, if Skins US or Inbetweeners US would've aired on HBO or Showtime, then it could've been the next Shameless, but since it was on MTV and had to be watered down (it didn't help that critics accused Skins of being down right child porn)
@@chayden153 there's an argument that Hollyoaks could also be considered child porn though. Sexualised themes amongst minors and scenes with nudity of barely legal in the later episodes(after the ⁹pm watershed). So how is one allowed and the other forbidden?
I'm Belgian and i like these British shows : bottom , are you being served , falwty towers , black adder , some mothers do ave em , allo allo , the young ones , you rang m'lord , chef , One foot in the grave , the brittas empire , black books , keeping up the appearances , red dwarf , dad's army , absolutely fabulous & the office. The office USA is the only remake i saw a episode from , and i did not like it. The originals are just to good and authentic to remake.
Was Allo Allo dubbed or subtitled? How did they deal with the jokes about the differences in language, such as the policeman speaking poor French & saying "Good moaning"? By the way, your English is excellent. :-)
The Dr Who film was a co-production between the BBC, and several US & Canadian firms. It's also the only Dr Who anything to be filmed in Canada. Here in the UK it did fairly well, as as a then 8 year old I found it genuinely scary... but my parent's generation - who'd known the series since it started - hated it. (In contrast to the 2005 - 2017 sequel series, which was well recieved)
or Australia. The American remake of Kath and Kim was dreadful. The whole premise was bogans trying to be classy, when they were too stupid to know what classy was. The yanks removed that bit took out the best character and wondered why it died. Why not just show the originals, dont assume you audience won't understand, they will pick it up eventually. The original couplings might have been a bit risque for America they mention sex and body bits fairly often. Can't do that in America, you can shoot people but not show a boob.
Who ever even attempted to remake abfab should have their rights as an American and a human removed for all eternity! Jesus , even thinking of a remake is punishment by death
I get why they won't stop trying: ALL IN THE FAMILY (adapted from TILL DEATH DO US PART) and SANFORD AND SON, (based on STEPTOE AND SON). They're considered two of the greatest comedies ever made for American TV, and they've been trying to repeat that success ever since.
I'm American. The British versions of Red Dwarf and The IT Crowd are two of my favorite shows. I had no idea we had tried to make our own versions. I can believe they're bad, but I feel I must see them.
Some British comedies do translate into American programs. All In The Family was based on the British series Till Death Us Do Part. Sanford And Son was based on Steptoe And Son. Three's Company was based on Man About The House.
This is why I loved Episodes with Matt LeBlanc playing himself in a self deprecating piss take. It was totally pointing the finger at how the USA TV totally misses the joke by imitating what was successful in the UK & failing miserably.
Actually it’s not ,there are absolutely no similarities between the two shows , they don’t even have the same number of children . The premise of Outmatched is that there are three genius children, not sure if the youngest child is genius(started watching the pilot) and the parents are just average. and trying to navigate life with children who are geniuses. Outnumbered is that there’s three kids and two parents hence outnumbered, the kids are normal, though I think Ben is an evil genius.
orlah mckenna no in Outmatched there’s four kids, Brian ,16,Nicole,15,Marc 10 and Leila 8. The three oldest are all geniuses, but Leila the youngest is their normal child (she’s not a genius like her siblings). In Outnumbered there’s three kids.Ben ,Karen and the oldest one (I forgot his name.)
The U.S. Life on Mars is actually a really good show. A real pity that the whole show was tarnished by, and is only remembered for, its ludicrous "martian" ending.
Please see my commnet. I thought it wa an interesting how. I thought the ending was OK. It gave a logical explanaotn to what hapenned. How else can somoene explain going back in time to an alternative Unverse 30 years earlier where you are somehow part of that Universe. I thought the ending was pretty good and interesting.
@@HoldenNY22I agree. I don’t think it was that bad. With what they did and the little details it made sense and was good. They’re both good versions, but the American one actually makes sense and is tied up.
@@tidalboxerI think ours is better idea of the characters being dead and not knowing that they are dead of course and needing guidance from Glenister’s character and when it’s their time to go he takes them to that pub which is basically “ heaven “ so that they move on. Of course the first series was also a parody of the 1970’s series The Sweeney, and the second series with Keeley Hawes was The Gentle Touch the 1980’s series that starred the late Jill Gascoine.
@@jane1975 I did REALLY love Ashes to Ashes. I also like both versions of Life on Mars. Either idea has really been done before… dead or in a coma. They both for me work great.
the US didn't really need to bring python to our shores we had carol burnett. in fact an argument could be made that python was the british version of burnett. the argument would be very weak. they are the same in that they are both sketch comedy shows.
We remade Red Dwarf? Yikes, im glad i missed that one!! They tried Fawlty? Oh, my lord!! NO! There is NOTHING like British comedy & i have a ton of box sets, some i had to re buy because we wore the disc's out. Red Dwarf, Are You Being Served & Allo Allo were the first shows i ever saw on our PBS station in the early 90's. That very quickly branched out to tons other shows, lol. Its addicting!!
alphadawn2015 lennon no I’ve been trying to but I always miss it so I’ve just been sticking to Netflix but you know they ain’t doing shit with that which is a shame because red dwarf is one of the shows that me and my dad got to really bond over and I have so many great memories of him and me just lying on the couch watching it. And I really want to see the new season because a couple of months after it came out my dad died and was un able to watch the rest of it with me that’s why this show means so much to me.
@alphadawn2015 lennon Ive seen back to earth & bits from another season but thats it. I havent bought those on dvd yet & finding them to watch here is very limited. I have the original box set.
@@Zooumberg Oh, yes, that is one of the dvd's that i had to replace cause we wore it out, lol. Ive got the movie too. We watch british comedy every night. Last night i watched good ole Meldrew, night before was Fawlty & the night before that was Good Neighbors. I also have a few on vhs that i need to get on dvd & a ton more i want to get. I could just watch solely british comedy.
Genuine question but why bother remaking a series for the American market when there's already a successful UK version? Why not just show the original UK version. Imagine if we tried to remake Friends for example. Am I missing something?
It does happen the other way around too, and the results are also bad... The Golden Girls - The Brighton Belles Married with children - married for life who's the boss? - the upper hand
@@welshgit I guess my question should have read 'Why remake a programme for a different market when there's already a successful one'. By the time you've changed the settings, humour etc you've essentially lost the heart of the original programme. Just show the original and don't bother remaking it.
@@DominicBurford Oh, I agree with you - for exactly the same reasons you mention. Sorry, I should have been clearer - I wasn't trying to counter what you said in any way, just adding to the point!
I don't think the US version is generally viewed as awful so it probably doesn't really belong here. I do agree however that the original is great (and I haven't seen the US version)
@Jason Mistretta "a perfect ending in Season 5" Don't you mean season 3? For the record, I didn't mind the change in main characters in the original show, but based on your glowing review I might give the US version a shot at some point.
The McGann movie was NOT an "American remake". It was co-produced by the BBC, who made the original series. And it was an officially sanctioned continuation of the original series, not a remake. And it has been officially recognized as part of the series continuity (though with copyright restrictions that the Beeb is too craven to pony up for).
Actually, the very first episode of the US version of "The Office", was almost a line by line carbon copy of the British version's first episode. And it stunk! Thank God they tossed that format out the window and came up with their own unique spin that worked. The US version ended up being different enough to be relatable here, but kept only the basic character roles the same. It ended up being pretty good in its own right, but I still prefer the English version.
The IT croud version was the same. Line by line, same characters, same stories, no wonder it never made to air. Oddly enough, Shameless wasn't on this list. It's done well having a few seasons. And I think it's because they took inspiration..not just a blatant copy.
And thankfully they also got rid of that British model of "6 episodes every few years or so" and went with a standard American run for season 2 (22 episodes).
@@DevanLundThat’s the reason why American versions are also bad, they go on too long. Thus the writers run out of material. That’s why the original Office series is better because there are only 3 series and one Christmas special. The writing is tighter also the series concept is supposed to be a “ mockumentary “ style, which probably was lost on the American audience. About the only sitcom that was great besides Cheers that the US had, was The Simpsons but that’s now ruined with PC and all the guts and humour taken from it, was only supposed to last 10 seasons, and tbh the first 10 seasons were great and funny and all the best gags now it’s crap. About the only satire you have now is South Park.
The thing that's really annoying about this as there is so many talented American writers who didn't get chance to make their pilot because money went into these ideas
I'm an American fan of non-American TV. In the defense of Life on Mars, the show was given the ax before the end of the first season and that was the best ending they could come up with in short time. It didnt have the opportunity to allow Sam to fall in love and really miss 1970. I've often wondered if I could buy a dvd player, electrical adapter, and TV (if needed) to watch some UK television. I love my Acorn and BritBox, but waiting for a year+ for rights to be released is annoying.
you really should have mentioned "Being Human", I absolutely loved the UK original. Honestly, the only reason I kept watching the US version was to see if it would get better...wishful thinking I guess, BTW I'm American
You certainly don't reboot Fawlty Towers by making Sybil beautiful and the relationship between Basil and Sybil actually romantic. That immediately removes a prime comic engine.
The United States should never, ever touch Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, or The IT Crowd. Ever. I also didn't much like the American version of Broadchurch (I can't even remember the name of it). David Tennant was brilliant, as usual, but the rest was ick.
@@andrewdevine3920 I still like them. Series 7 had the episode with JFK assassinating himself, and I still think that's one of the cleverest takes on that whole thing.
It's the British warped sense of humour that can't be copied ,it's a unique way of thinking and getting things done in a funny ,light way and it can be educational at the same time .American T.V . Can't really copy the original T.V series and do them justice ,plus the actors that they use are unbelievable as most actors and actresses who started in these shows take the piss out of themselves .
When Harry Enfield was in Men behaving badly, the series on ITV was a flop, the BBC bought it a few years later and replaced Enfield with Neil Morrisey and the rest is history. Please check your facts before recording.
I think they were originally planning to have one of the lead characters from the New York area and the other from the South but I don't know whether they did that.
Fun fact most episodes of the American version of the inbetweeners was directed by taika waititi, yes that guy glad to see he survived that train wreck
@@peteg1114 yeah it explains a lot. People think he amazing. He's shit actually. He's basically another M Knight shabamabad. But instead of stupid plot twists it's comedy.
Kathryn Hahn was amazing in Free Agents, she probably got tons of work from that. Coupling was sort of OK, but the UK version had the "luxury" of only having to make a half dozen episodes per season.
The problem with the American Red Dwarf was that the studio wanted to make Dave Lister into a Han Solo type character. Even the actor who portrayed Lister argued against this. He was a fan of Red Dwarf and understood the character better than the studio.
Disney and Misfits? I think I'd watch it, just for the cringe value as the studio tries to skirt the stuff like swearing, violence and sex. Though imagining the traditional Disney characters in the Misfit universe would be funny as hell, at least to me. But I'm rather twisted myself
As an American , I think the biggest problem here is the fact that Britain has SO much history, and has such a completely different outlook on life, than we do. (Especially with humor). It just doesn’t translate. A few have succeeded, but they just fall flat in general. I myself love British humor, but most people I know just don’t get it🤷♀️. I used to watch The Young Ones and nobody had any idea why I thought it was funny. Thank goodness I never saw the remake. And I did enjoy Cracker, (for a while), but once I saw the original, hands down it was superior. I don’t even watch WatchMojo American lol I watch this one.
I’m so glad Father Ted and Bottom haven’t been adapted for US audiences Edit: I was wrong, a US remake for FT was considered and it was going to be set in Boston but thank fuck it wasn’t made.
For me, the worst ever American Version of a TV show was when they attempted "Shameless" - nothing compares to the purely British Council Estate feel of the original Shameless, and the US butchered it - I understand wanting your own feel to it, but you can't capture another country's culture with American actors and writers. Not well anyway
I think they need to stop trying to copy and just be "inspired by." Do you know what I mean? Like The Office here was better once they were no longer copying directly (the pilot), but shifted to where they made the characters and plot more American. I don't know. I'm American and prefer British TV. With some exceptions, British TV is far superior. Especially crime, mystery, procedurals.
@Jason Mistretta And there is the answer to why they want to remake the shows. An American studio exec sees couplings loves it goes back writes up a precis. He gets called in to the bosses office. "Er Harry whats this bit about redhot lesbian spanking party". It was hilarious this guy trying to explain a porno to his girlfriend". Yeah but Harry the christian lobby won't like it perhaps he could shoot her, thats ok."And mrs Kafoops in Deerfield Oregan won't understand the slang, and we can't expect her to google it she'll have to put down her popcorn''."No we'll make our own,
I don't even understand how any US studio could even think it would fly on US TV. With regard to these things, the American audience is actually quite repressed when it comes to sexual content on TV, violence no problem. The other issue I suppose comes from the fact these characters were representing kids in school. Maybe changing it to a college setting in the US would have allowed it to work a bit better, but I just think US advertisers, and audiences are just far too squeamish when it comes to sexual content.
As an American and HUGE Absolutely Fabulous fan, the remake was horribly painful to watch. It broke my heart to see good actors flail and bomb so badly. Honestly… what were the producers thinking after watching rehearsals? No one can match Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumly’s chemistry and on screen smarmy charm.
What I was thinking the whole five minutes I managed to watch of this video before down-voting it, not because I disagree with it's premise, but rather because of the script / narration and because it didn't consequently show clips from both shows for comparison.
Actually, Community debuted in 2009 so Joel McHale would have been unavailable for it if the IT Crowd got picked up and renewed through the 2009 season.
Apparently, there is going to be a U.S remake of Ghosts. And as a die-hard six idiots fan (the cast of the show), I am both angry and confused. Even if it turns to be an okay remake (which it most likely WON'T be), it'll still be crap compared to the original. Plus, Ghosts is only a year old now and series 2 is still in production!!
@Annabel Laver Ikr. I mean, it does show how much of a success Ghosts was, the fact that CBS already wants to remake it. But still, it's gonna be bad 😬
@Annabel Laver Yep, who would the ghosts even be? A native American? A cowboy? They have only 300 or so years of history so, I'm not sure what they could do when it comes to creating characters
Some remakes work. The Indian remake of the British classic "Yes Minister" is, by all accounts, every bit as hilarious as the UK version but the two counties share very similar governmental bureaucratic systems so the same jokes work in English and in Hindi.
To be fair, it has worked the other way too. Anyone remember our remake of the Golden Girls, which I think was called the Brighton Belles? Thought not! I'm sure there must have been others too.
Good in hindsight, but is was made in 1996, when governments, G8 and UN were lead calls to get things changed over as the systems for credit cards, even the UK rapier missiles were effected by their computers not being able to read 00 as anything other than 1900, we laugh now and in 2000 when nothing happened, but that's because there was a massive behind the scenes change over costing 10s of millions to correct errors including stock exchanges, some seem fun such as food with sell by date of 2000, begin rejected as it was thought to be decades out of date or a woman being invited to start primary school as the system said she was 4, instead of her real age of 104. Banks had been threatened with fines of £10,000 a month if they didn't fix their IT issue as credit cards couldn't read 00 as 2000. Mainly because a lot of companies and governments just hadn't invested and bother updated many of their IT systems for years, and focusing on profits and shareholder payouts. Had companies and governments invested and updated their systems periodically then it wouldn't have happened.
Angela Rippon and Tom coyne originally presented Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson did not start on the show until 1988 when Jeremy Clarkson Andrew Wilman restarted it in 2002 so technically Top Gear ear is a remake itself with Jeremy Clarkson Richard Hammond and James May joining the next year
I know of two American remakes you did not mention. 1. Sybil, a version of Absolutely Fabulous that featured Sybil Shepard as a working middle aged Hollywood actress with two daughters. 2.Amanda, a remake of Fawlty Towers staring Bea Arthur.
That was true some time ago but you’d be hard pressed to find anything great or even above average nowadays comedy wise. And I am in my 60s so have seen many. The US has definitely taken major strides. They are much better doing their own stuff rather than remakes of pommy stuff.
Carrie Fisher version of Absolutely Fabulous would genuinely be worth watching she had the right sense of humour and presents to do it do it in a different way but still do it effectively
They can have our studio based shows all they like, they are usually done pretty well, but when it comes to scripted comedy, they should keep their hands off!
Americans don't allow normal looking people to become actors. So when it comes to comedy, it's basically a bunch of good looking people in contrived situations that always work out in the end.
I love British shows. One I would add is Broadchurch. The US version, just didn't have anything going for it. Here's a question, does the UK remake any US shows, and if so, how have they done?
@10:08 - I think you misunderstood the ending of Life on Mars. He wasn't killing himself. He was putting himself back into a coma. It reminds me of the ending to Total Recall, which was also on Mars, that so many people completely misunderstood.
I actually really liked the American version of Men Behaving Badly, and was really sad when it got retooled and then cancelled. And I remember gathering with all my friends to watch the Dr. Who TV movie.
the problem with a lot of remakes is that they try to be very similar to the original , ( rehashing jokes ect) look at shameless , first season was the worst because they just copy pasted most of it , , when they started doing their own thing show became good , similar thing was with being human , Skins did not work because most of the characters and jokes were exact copies from British ones ( i might be little bias because i dont really like British comedy and their shows , i did like misfits , well first 3 seasons)
Completely right they should start off doing their own original take from the off, people don't want to see American versions of the same situations especially when a lot are watered down versions of those scenes.
James L. Brooks tried to Americanize “Are You Being Served?” In 1979 with “Beane’s of Boston.” It had a decent cast, mostly-Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Slocum, John Hillerman as *Mr.* (not Captain) Peacock, and Alan Sues from Laugh-In as Mr. Humphries. (He flatly didn’t work.) The show never made it past the pilot, though it really ought to have succeeded given the people behind it.
I’m seriously getting flash backs of the Americanized version of Life on Mars. Also any American who hasn’t watched any British Television I just need to have a chat with them.
The public channel used to play some British shows, so I grew up loving shows like Mr. Bean, Keeping Up Appearances and Father Ted. When the internet became more common I was able to watch stuff like IT Crowd and Peep Show. British comedies are great!
John Cleese didn't endorse _"Payne,"_ the American adaptation of Fawlty Towers, mainly because they went against his wishes; and didn't include the main character, Basil Fawlty. Instead, they went with a pale version of Basil, which seemed only loosely based on Basil
You left out the attempted remake of the British hit show, "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin". The 1983 American version was simply called "Reggie", starring a dreadfully mis-cast Richard Mulligan. The British version had starred Leonard Rossiter, an extremely versatile character actor who played a variety of serious roles. With all due respect, Richard Mulligan didn't have much range, and "Reggie" was advertised as more like a version of the original 1947 Danny Kaye movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". But in both the British version and the American remake the Reginald/Reggie character's daydreams were mostly comic visualizations of a single idea that only lasted a few seconds. The only comic element "Reggie" successfully recreated from the original show was the chairs in the lead character's boss' office, which made a farting sound whenever someone sat down or got up. As a fan of the original, I found it painful to watch.
I am a huge fan of the British “Coupling”. That being said, when the American version aired I gave it a chance. The pilot episode literally used the exact same script of the British version with which I was familiar. Same dialogue and somehow the American cast made mince meat of it. So it wasn’t the script. It was the American cast unable to make anything of the skillful ironic humour that English actors are so naturally capable of conveying. And likely the same goes for the other series included here.
Same. Coupling is to me THE funniest TV comedy ever. I was amazed how not funny the exact same dialogue was in the American version. The timing, the fine ironic humor, it got lost in translation.
GREAT NEWS!
We've added 10 more TERRIBLE American Remakes to this list:
10 More Awful American Remakes of Great British Shows
ruclips.net/video/7itrKv3jCPg/видео.html
I agree. I’d love to watch Keeping Up Appearances.
Men behaving badly was more known for Martin clunes and neil Morrissey
Was coming to the comments just to put this. 👍
I came here to say this haha
Harry Enfield was in the first series, instead of Neil Morrissey
Yup... Also came to say the same thing 👍
Was coming to rage they got that wrong ha
I’m Canadian but grew up on British television. That they would even attempt to remake Absolutely Fabulous and Fawlty Towers is a crime. Lol British comedy is pure gold. No one can come close to matching it.
Not to mention they tried to remake RED DWARF ? Wtf ?
They must have tried Fawlty Towers twice, because I distinctly remember a version where rolls were reversed and Bea Arthur played the part of Basil. Of course, it was terrible.
Used to be good.
We’ve really lost our way over here and our comedy shows are tripe these days.
Paul Busby - there’s a few gems still out there but yeah. I guess I should say old British comedy is pure gold and could never be replicated.
David Edwards apparently 3 attempts to remake it here in the states were made, the second one was called Amanda’s and yes it starred Bea Arthur.
I’m an American and Absolutely Fabulous was the first British show I ever watched and I was hooked. I can’t believe that a remake was even attempted. Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders can’t be replaced.
Just sacrilegious!
@@sainjawoof3506 exactly
Fellow American, totally agree there are a lot of British Shows that are just to Golden to be copied. Come on USA use your originality -Oh wait that was lost 20 or more years ago when reality TV took over.
Sheila Ingram if you like Jennifer Saunders then check out her with Dawn French just type in French and Saunders into the search bar on here . You’d know Dawn French if you’ve ever watched vicar of dibley
I thought the UK Ab Fab was bad enough!
"The story of four very different men drifting in space"
One man, there's only one man in Red Dwarf.
And he was god to the cat people!
Not just the ship; there's literally only one man left in the whole universe. That's the whole point.
That tickity boo you old son of gun smoke me a kipper I’ll be back for breakfast
Now, now. Rimmer was a man. He was a dead man, sure, but he was a man.
The original characters were Lister ,Rimmer (Smaghead) and cat and Rimmer (Smaghead ) still thought he was perfect ,plus the fact that Lister and Rimmer hated each other's guts .
I really don’t get why America can’t just air British shows. They are so good
Sometimes they strike gold.. Just look at The Office
Ah... there are a lot of cultural references and slang that we just won't get.
@@azimuth361 Its about time you learned, like we did with all your best shows :)
SwGuru well no. Given the diff in audience size and the diff in production, y’all will have to deal with it. Plus we don’t have to pay to get a TV license. That alone means we get what we want.
And now the Dr is dead again. Imagine if it was still good.
Imagine if they tried to remake Bottom and Blackadder. I would make a petition to nuke American TV studios.
Noooo dont say that Blackadder would be nothing without Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson😂 and as for Bottom its like inbetweeners where the Humour just wouldnt work in America
Imagine an American version of The Young Ones with all SJW remake crap going on... I'd rather have Corona.
@@lisagibson2975 i second that😂
I could see an American version of Blackadder working, just pick different eras of American history like the civil war and stuff
@@mrcritical6751 i wish i had your clarity of vision, i just think it would have to be Americanized. Which usually leads to the soul of the programme being ruined
I think I speak for most Americans when I state that we don’t need or want remakes. As much as I love David Tennant, that Broadchurch remake was also useless.
Don't know why they don't just give them the originals had a lot of American friends like the originals. But of course they're not going to get all of it, because of the slang
@@Bob.Jenkins i dont think many people would agree with you there
I really don't get why is it necessary, its in the same language, it's not like subtitles needed!
There was a broadchurch remake? Why? I thought it was really good (second season not as good as the first, but third was decent and first was really good)
Doodars yes, it was called Gracepoint.
Yeah we don't talk about Top Gear USA over here in the states. We realized long ago your version is the only version
No one even watches the uk version anymore and it’s pretty much irrelevant
@@donaldtusk2678 there hasn't been a UK version since the trio left
Danny Lam there has it’s just not very good no one watches it
The only reason to watch TopGear was Clarkson, Hammond & May.
I think I might be weird. I genuinely enjoyed US Top Gear. Tanner was a bit of a twat, but Rutledge and Adam were hilarious, and most of the stuff they did was cool. That's my opinion anyway.
Neil Morrissey was in Men Behaving Badly WAYYYY longer than Harry Enfield was.
@@matthewcarter9790true that
They never mentioned the length of time in the role. All they said was the original cast.
Glad someone said this
@@matthewcarter9790I don’t agree, I actually liked the first series after that and the switch to BBC due to the ITV franchise, Thames losing its licence to broadcast, although the company still exists. It went down the coarse language and toilet humour route which is lame and unfunny after about a couple of episodes.
I live in the US and I love British TV. Instead of flash and explosions, etc. they use great writing, great acting, great production values and more.
Jim Hebson , our entertainment sucks because Hollywood thinks we’re ALL fucking stupid 😒😒I give up on TV long ago..have apps and watch mostly movies and British TV shows plus IFC
Let’s cut through the bullshit it’s English tv not British
Honestly a lot of UK shows are so bad now. It's like they have given up and just import US shows.
The Doctor Who tv movie was not an American version. It was a joint production between the Americans and BBC
I thought BBC only gave the permission
@@memeicusgaming2197 No it was always a joint production. Unfortunately the American insisted on such as the 'Half Human' plot that was thankfully soon scrapped.
It should also be noted that it aired the same night as the series finale of "Roseanne" on ABC.
@@CaptRobertApril Very true. Shot themselves in the foot.
@@detectivesquirrel2621 Regardless, it doesn't belong here because it isn't 'awful'
Even though I’m American, I love British television. Shows like “Coupling”, “Doctor Who”, “The Inbetweeners”, and the “IT Crowd” are some of my all-time favorites! But those were such cringe-worthy, horrifying adaptations!!! Shudder... Joel McHale is a great actor and very funny, but just such a wrong fit for Roy.
genius2012 American shameless is shit
have you seen black books, peep show, father yed, faulty tower, The Mighty Boosh etc...?
@@zeddyfin American Shameless is not shit. More like THE shit. As someone who watched the UK version from start to end, I can honestly say the Americans did this one better.
Definitely check out Peep show, Plebs and Friday Night Dinner. They're on same level as IT crowd and Inbetweeners.
@@squanchy9755 Disagree, Plebs is ok at best, Friday Night Dinner is good but repetitive, Peep Show is ok but repetitive too.
"Martin Clunes and Harry Enfield" - 95% of the viewers look confused and the rest know this video was researched via brief glances at Wikipedia.
lodsofemone
I know Martin Clunes from "Doc Martin". It played for a time on our local PBS Station.
I always preferred Neil to Harry in Men Behaving Badly. Harry Enfield was only in the first series because after that the BBC gave him his own sketch show “Harry Enfield and Chums” in 95 (I remember all this because I was 14 and 95 was great year for me)
Neil Is or was Bob the Builder. :)
The first series with Harry was on ITV but their superb vision cancelled it. The BBC took it up and 're-cast Neil Morrissey. A great series
This is so cringeworthy. It’s like remaking Friends and setting it in Stoke.
HEY nothing is as bad as stoke well maybe Birmingham but still
Spaced is kinda friends
They did it was called cold feet lol
It was called coupling, apart from the stoke bit
There is nothing wrong with Stoke...
why can’t america just, idk, air the British versions ?
It's some sort of fragile ego thing. They need to be able to imagine that they are "the best" all the time. (Because that is their indoctrination from birth).
@@JoRiver11 I like the whole "Land of the free" and how they go on about having freedoms yet they are probably the least free country in the western world, they work the longest working weeks, get the least holidays and the system is so stack up against so many people they live their lives in poverty with no way out other than crime, they have most overzealous police, a prison system that's based on profit and designed to keep people coming back. They are quite litteraly the most oppressed country and that's why they have that shit forced down their throats from a young age and will claim this "freedom" they have allows them to purchase guns guns guns and kill anything that wants to get in the way of that freedom
@@djimma5080 have you actually been here or are you just spouting the stereo types that you hear on tv? Because if you had bothered to come to a state other than The main ones that Europeans seem to think that is only in America or is the only I interesting ones i.e. California, Florida, Texas, and New York, than you would find out that we are much more than those gun toting, crime loving stereo types you hear about. Each state has it's own culture and it's own way of speaking. You can't lump us all into one category because it would be inaccurate. It would be like Americans lumping all of Europe into the same category. Also saying that our police are overzealous does not only do an injustice to them bjt is also inaccurate. You cant base all police on the few shootings that you hear about on tv since there millions of cops on duty, risking their lives every day. And as for thinking they we are better than other countries, we actually don't. We leave that to the British to believe. We have more of a belief in equality.
@@andreasmith9809 unfortunately there is a decent amount of truth to what he says. Many Americans see themselves as better than anyone else or don't bother to even know much about how people live in other places.
We also generally work far more than other places, and take far less holiday. Also, despite many Americans freaking out about socialism, Americans also end up having to spend way more just to maintain what would be a basic standard of life in other places. Healthcare primarily, between premiums, co-pays and coinsurance.
I'm an American married to a Brit, so we've had lots of opportunities to compare.
We do it’s call BBC America.
Oh my God, when the US did "Us and Them", I actually threw up a little bit.
As an American who LOVES "Gavin and Stacey", I couldn't believe they would take such a UK classic and *attempt* it...but then again, I should've known better after US Red Dwarf 🤦♀️
Gavin and Stacey works on a Welsh and Essex foundation
@@denfitzpatrick5988 Why didn't they do an American character and a Canadian character? Close enough that they are similar but far enough apart for differences much like England and Wales.
gentarofourze I agree, the US has its own distinctive dialects and characters to do that as well, someone from NYC travelling up to the back end of New England
I am an American and I agree that American remakes of British shows are ALWAYS a disaster. I prefer watching the original British versions.
Uh the office is way better than the British version
@@JamesBen937 Shameless too 🤷🏼♀️
James BM British here VOUCH
The American shameless is amazing. But most of the time they are disasters.
Everything America sucks nowadays. Where British tele would insert a smart high brow joke, America inserts a fart joke. If not a fart joke then a virtue signalling joke.
Skins and Inbetweeners were highlights of my teenage years. These remakes are simply unforgivable.
I personally blame American sensibilities, if Skins US or Inbetweeners US would've aired on HBO or Showtime, then it could've been the next Shameless, but since it was on MTV and had to be watered down (it didn't help that critics accused Skins of being down right child porn)
@@chayden153 there's an argument that Hollyoaks could also be considered child porn though. Sexualised themes amongst minors and scenes with nudity of barely legal in the later episodes(after the ⁹pm watershed). So how is one allowed and the other forbidden?
@@bewd4310 if they remade it for an American audience, it would probably run into the same issues
And shameless!.
That's why US usually casts an older actors to play teenagers. And it's actually, surprisingly, a good thing for at least 2 main reasons
I'm Belgian and i like these British shows : bottom , are you being served , falwty towers , black adder , some mothers do ave em , allo allo , the young ones , you rang m'lord , chef , One foot in the grave , the brittas empire , black books , keeping up the appearances , red dwarf , dad's army , absolutely fabulous & the office.
The office USA is the only remake i saw a episode from , and i did not like it.
The originals are just to good and authentic to remake.
Was Allo Allo dubbed or subtitled? How did they deal with the jokes about the differences in language, such as the policeman speaking poor French & saying "Good moaning"?
By the way, your English is excellent. :-)
Dads army
The Dr Who film was a co-production between the BBC, and several US & Canadian firms. It's also the only Dr Who anything to be filmed in Canada.
Here in the UK it did fairly well, as as a then 8 year old I found it genuinely scary... but my parent's generation - who'd known the series since it started - hated it.
(In contrast to the 2005 - 2017 sequel series, which was well recieved)
America. Never. Touch. Britain. Again.
Don't you mean "don't copy your fathers work that's procrastination"
(I said USA is UK's son because thirteen colonies and all that y'know)
Memeicus Gaming York🇬🇧 vs New York🇺🇸 lol 😂
or Australia. The American remake of Kath and Kim was dreadful. The whole premise was bogans trying to be classy, when they were too stupid to know what classy was. The yanks removed that bit took out the best character and wondered why it died. Why not just show the originals, dont assume you audience won't understand, they will pick it up eventually. The original couplings might have been a bit risque for America they mention sex and body bits fairly often. Can't do that in America, you can shoot people but not show a boob.
Who ever even attempted to remake abfab should have their rights as an American and a human removed for all eternity! Jesus , even thinking of a remake is punishment by death
I get why they won't stop trying: ALL IN THE FAMILY (adapted from TILL DEATH DO US PART) and SANFORD AND SON, (based on STEPTOE AND SON). They're considered two of the greatest comedies ever made for American TV, and they've been trying to repeat that success ever since.
Steptoe and Son was funnier.
Also Three's Company, based on Man About the House.
The yank versions were total crap
@@郑颍 That's what all the men said about your mom.
@@reh3884 Thankfully yank garbage like you does not matter to anyone
I'm American. The British versions of Red Dwarf and The IT Crowd are two of my favorite shows. I had no idea we had tried to make our own versions. I can believe they're bad, but I feel I must see them.
Resist the urge. The US makes some great TV but any show that tries to copy British icons is never going to work.
The British Red Dwarf is brilliantly hilarious
The American version of Lister looks like an Obi-wannabe kenobi
You should remake versions of bad British shows. You could actually make them good!
Some British comedies do translate into American programs. All In The Family was based on the British series Till Death Us Do Part. Sanford And Son was based on Steptoe And Son. Three's Company was based on Man About The House.
This is why I loved Episodes
with Matt LeBlanc playing himself in a self deprecating piss take. It was totally pointing the finger at how the USA TV totally misses the joke by imitating what was successful in the UK & failing miserably.
Episodes was great!
I loved that show!
The exception to the rule that anything with Stephen Mangan and/or Tamsin Greig in it must be funny.
Classic British joke:
How is health care like irony?
Americans don't get it.
Outmatched is clearly an American adaptation of Outnumbered. Absolutely awful.
Yeah. Nothing can replace Outnumbered.
Actually it’s not ,there are absolutely no similarities between the two shows , they don’t even have the same number of children . The premise of Outmatched is that there are three genius children, not sure if the youngest child is genius(started watching the pilot) and the parents are just average. and trying to navigate life with children who are geniuses. Outnumbered is that there’s three kids and two parents hence outnumbered, the kids are normal, though I think Ben is an evil genius.
@@mysticloverfairy1 There are 3 kids though
orlah mckenna no in Outmatched there’s four kids, Brian ,16,Nicole,15,Marc 10 and Leila 8. The three oldest are all geniuses, but Leila the youngest is their normal child (she’s not a genius like her siblings). In Outnumbered there’s three kids.Ben ,Karen and the oldest one (I forgot his name.)
@@mysticloverfairy1 jake
The U.S. Life on Mars is actually a really good show. A real pity that the whole show was tarnished by, and is only remembered for, its ludicrous "martian" ending.
Please see my commnet. I thought it wa an interesting how. I thought the ending was OK. It gave a logical explanaotn to what hapenned. How else can somoene explain going back in time to an alternative Unverse 30 years earlier where you are somehow part of that Universe. I thought the ending was pretty good and interesting.
@@HoldenNY22I agree. I don’t think it was that bad. With what they did and the little details it made sense and was good. They’re both good versions, but the American one actually makes sense and is tied up.
@@tidalboxerI think ours is better idea of the characters being dead and not knowing that they are dead of course and needing guidance from Glenister’s character and when it’s their time to go he takes them to that pub which is basically “ heaven “ so that they move on. Of course the first series was also a parody of the 1970’s series The Sweeney, and the second series with Keeley Hawes was The Gentle Touch the 1980’s series that starred the late Jill Gascoine.
@@jane1975 I did REALLY love Ashes to Ashes. I also like both versions of Life on Mars. Either idea has really been done before… dead or in a coma. They both for me work great.
Imagine if they tried to remake Monty Python or Mr. Bean.
omg! would have been evil
...or the goodies. Love me some Goodies.
It's not like they could get any worse, so they might as well give it a shot, talk about two things the world could live without.
..OR BLACKADDER...MY GOD
the US didn't really need to bring python to our shores we had carol burnett. in fact an argument could be made that python was the british version of burnett. the argument would be very weak. they are the same in that they are both sketch comedy shows.
We remade Red Dwarf? Yikes, im glad i missed that one!! They tried Fawlty? Oh, my lord!! NO!
There is NOTHING like British comedy & i have a ton of box sets, some i had to re buy because we wore the disc's out. Red Dwarf, Are You Being Served & Allo Allo were the first shows i ever saw on our PBS station in the early 90's. That very quickly branched out to tons other shows, lol. Its addicting!!
alphadawn2015 lennon no I’ve been trying to but I always miss it so I’ve just been sticking to Netflix but you know they ain’t doing shit with that which is a shame because red dwarf is one of the shows that me and my dad got to really bond over and I have so many great memories of him and me just lying on the couch watching it.
And I really want to see the new season because a couple of months after it came out my dad died and was un able to watch the rest of it with me that’s why this show means so much to me.
@alphadawn2015 lennon Ive seen back to earth & bits from another season but thats it. I havent bought those on dvd yet & finding them to watch here is very limited. I have the original box set.
Cheryl, have you seen Grace and Favour? It's the spinoff from Are You Being Served. It's a great show too.
A pair of pilots that never aired and never sold Clips can be found and they are painfully unfunny
@@Zooumberg Oh, yes, that is one of the dvd's that i had to replace cause we wore it out, lol. Ive got the movie too. We watch british comedy every night. Last night i watched good ole Meldrew, night before was Fawlty & the night before that was Good Neighbors. I also have a few on vhs that i need to get on dvd & a ton more i want to get. I could just watch solely british comedy.
Genuine question but why bother remaking a series for the American market when there's already a successful UK version? Why not just show the original UK version. Imagine if we tried to remake Friends for example. Am I missing something?
It does happen the other way around too, and the results are also bad...
The Golden Girls - The Brighton Belles
Married with children - married for life
who's the boss? - the upper hand
@@welshgit I guess my question should have read 'Why remake a programme for a different market when there's already a successful one'. By the time you've changed the settings, humour etc you've essentially lost the heart of the original programme. Just show the original and don't bother remaking it.
@@DominicBurford Oh, I agree with you - for exactly the same reasons you mention. Sorry, I should have been clearer - I wasn't trying to counter what you said in any way, just adding to the point!
The upper hand & who's the boss are the exception to the rule of USA remakes of UK shows are horrible
@@welshgit don't forget Threes Company. The original version was called Robin's Nest.
You forgot Being Human. The UK version is amazing. The U.S. made me angry...
That was the first tv show that popped in my head. Skins also
I don't think the US version is generally viewed as awful so it probably doesn't really belong here. I do agree however that the original is great (and I haven't seen the US version)
@Jason Mistretta "a perfect ending in Season 5" Don't you mean season 3?
For the record, I didn't mind the change in main characters in the original show, but based on your glowing review I might give the US version a shot at some point.
@Jason Mistretta So we were both wrong! Google told me there were only 3 seasons for some reason.
being human first season was kinda meh ( mostly copy of the british one) then it got pretty good and then i think they ran out of ideas
It’s weird to think that Fawlty Towers only had 12 episodes and it will be remembered as on of the greatest sitcoms of all time. Who remembers Payne?
The American version of Being Human should have made this list.
I came to the comments to say the same thing
@@saintmercy57 me too.
Same...
I see I'm late to the party ...
I agree. there was nothing good about the American version of Being Human.
The McGann movie was NOT an "American remake". It was co-produced by the BBC, who made the original series. And it was an officially sanctioned continuation of the original series, not a remake. And it has been officially recognized as part of the series continuity (though with copyright restrictions that the Beeb is too craven to pony up for).
Actually, the very first episode of the US version of "The Office", was almost a line by line carbon copy of the British version's first episode. And it stunk! Thank God they tossed that format out the window and came up with their own unique spin that worked. The US version ended up being different enough to be relatable here, but kept only the basic character roles the same. It ended up being pretty good in its own right, but I still prefer the English version.
The IT croud version was the same. Line by line, same characters, same stories, no wonder it never made to air. Oddly enough, Shameless wasn't on this list. It's done well having a few seasons. And I think it's because they took inspiration..not just a blatant copy.
@@whichwasher2007 And Coupling, word for word and TERRIBLE. Their Patrick found a better show in Better Off Ted.
The British office is 100x better.
And thankfully they also got rid of that British model of "6 episodes every few years or so" and went with a standard American run for season 2 (22 episodes).
@@DevanLundThat’s the reason why American versions are also bad, they go on too long. Thus the writers run out of material. That’s why the original Office series is better because there are only 3 series and one Christmas special. The writing is tighter also the series concept is supposed to be a “ mockumentary “ style, which probably was lost on the American audience. About the only sitcom that was great besides Cheers that the US had, was The Simpsons but that’s now ruined with PC and all the guts and humour taken from it, was only supposed to last 10 seasons, and tbh the first 10 seasons were great and funny and all the best gags now it’s crap. About the only satire you have now is South Park.
Yeah, they've completely stuffed up Australian shows too
Kath and Kim is a prime example
Tbh.... most American sitcoms remind me of derivatives of "Friends" , that's just the way they deliver comedy...
The fact that they tried to remake Red Dwarf is unforgivable
And that’s only 20th
The thing that's really annoying about this as there is so many talented American writers who didn't get chance to make their pilot because money went into these ideas
And there are so many talented American writers
The humour is just so different. We couldn’t replicate Seinfeld or Roseanne or Frasier. It just wouldn’t work.
American sitcoms are usually terrible, especially the ones with laugh tracks.
If they are so bad why are they so sucessfull world wide
@@jsmith5212 Because they're everywhere and forced down our throats. This is even more true for back in the day.
If they even dare to touch Only Fools And Horses I’ll singlehandedly take back our land
They did
@@albertmccarthy7232 NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
@@cambs0181 ikr but unfortunately they have tried it
@@cambs0181 they tried twice and only one got the light of day
So many countries have attempted only fools, some of them are hilarious
I'm an American fan of non-American TV. In the defense of Life on Mars, the show was given the ax before the end of the first season and that was the best ending they could come up with in short time. It didnt have the opportunity to allow Sam to fall in love and really miss 1970. I've often wondered if I could buy a dvd player, electrical adapter, and TV (if needed) to watch some UK television. I love my Acorn and BritBox, but waiting for a year+ for rights to be released is annoying.
you really should have mentioned "Being Human", I absolutely loved the UK original. Honestly, the only reason I kept watching the US version was to see if it would get better...wishful thinking I guess, BTW I'm American
They actually thought they could recreate the MASTERPIECE that is Fawlty Towers???
Wiggl3s _ that’s an insult to the whole of Britain basil will never be replicated
Charlsworld Xx agreed
It's worse than that - JOHN CLEESE thought they could...!
You certainly don't reboot Fawlty Towers by making Sybil beautiful and the relationship between Basil and Sybil actually romantic. That immediately removes a prime comic engine.
Its criminal!
The United States should never, ever touch Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, or The IT Crowd. Ever. I also didn't much like the American version of Broadchurch (I can't even remember the name of it). David Tennant was brilliant, as usual, but the rest was ick.
Rena Stone I guess you forgot about Doctor Who the movie that starred Paul McGann.
Well the bcc ruined doctor who so much more damage than America could of ever done
@@SharkWarrior35 Considering the way marvel has gone lately I reckon America is perfectly capable of doing exactly that much damage to doctor who
iain rickwood have you seen the latest doctor who, they are terribly written
@@SharkWarrior35 Same with Marvel comics
'Red Dwarf' should have never been touched.
Everything after season 6 should never have been made. The US remake can't be worse than season 7 and 8. It just physically can't.
@@andrewdevine3920 I still like them. Series 7 had the episode with JFK assassinating himself, and I still think that's one of the cleverest takes on that whole thing.
Red Dwarf and Doctor Who are terrible to people who maintain any kind of standards for their science fiction.
@@trixstermillion2190 people take sci-fi too seriously now
I’m from USA, all I could do is laugh. A lot of our shows are based off of British Shows. 😂 This list hit too hard to home. 😂😂🤦🏻♀️
It's the British warped sense of humour that can't be copied ,it's a unique way of thinking and getting things done in a funny ,light way and it can be educational at the same time .American T.V . Can't really copy the original T.V series and do them justice ,plus the actors that they use are unbelievable as most actors and actresses who started in these shows take the piss out of themselves .
When Harry Enfield was in Men behaving badly, the series on ITV was a flop, the BBC bought it a few years later and replaced Enfield with Neil Morrisey and the rest is history. Please check your facts before recording.
I didn't know they tried to remake Gavin and Stacey.
They stepped oh-ver the line there
Wouldn't have worked they don't have Barry Island 🏴🏴
Gavin and stacey isnt the same without the welsh.
I think they were originally planning to have one of the lead characters from the New York area and the other from the South but I don't know whether they did that.
Stepped over the line without stepping over the border.
@@timothorgodofpunder8129 oh' oh whats occuring
Fun fact most episodes of the American version of the inbetweeners was directed by taika waititi, yes that guy glad to see he survived that train wreck
@Jeri Brown sadly yes
christ, but that does explain why Jo Jo Rabbit was so shit.
@@peteg1114 yeah it explains a lot. People think he amazing. He's shit actually. He's basically another M Knight shabamabad. But instead of stupid plot twists it's comedy.
Kathryn Hahn was amazing in Free Agents, she probably got tons of work from that. Coupling was sort of OK, but the UK version had the "luxury" of only having to make a half dozen episodes per season.
The problem with the American Red Dwarf was that the studio wanted to make Dave Lister into a Han Solo type character. Even the actor who portrayed Lister argued against this. He was a fan of Red Dwarf and understood the character better than the studio.
I read somewhere that Disney was planning a U.S. remake of the Misfits. Lol, it’s like asking Michael Bublé to recreate a Frank Zappa tune.
Can't see bubble singing "Why does it hurt when I pee?"
Disney might be planning that too. You dont want to give them ideas like that
Disney and Misfits? I think I'd watch it, just for the cringe value as the studio tries to skirt the stuff like swearing, violence and sex.
Though imagining the traditional Disney characters in the Misfit universe would be funny as hell, at least to me. But I'm rather twisted myself
You do know Disney makes nature programs all the time they jus show them on the other networks they own
Yeah but frank Zappa is an American
Gavin and Stacey should never have been remade into THAT.
There WAS another U.S. "Gavin and Stacey" as well, though. It starred Thomas Haden Church and Debra Messing.
Who remembers when Red Dwarf made fun of the US pilot in "Back to Reality"?
Is that what that was!!??!! The new players who are been being all cool and heroic? Haha i love red dwarf but i never knew america tried to remake it!
They did?! Now I need to rewatch that episode to see 🤣🤣🤣
Dwayne DIBLEY???
I think that was done before the US remake because series 6 felt the most like a US sitcom with the fast one-liners that were repeated so often.
As an American , I think the biggest problem here is the fact that Britain has SO much history, and has such a completely different outlook on life, than we do. (Especially with humor). It just doesn’t translate. A few have succeeded, but they just fall flat in general. I myself love British humor, but most people I know just don’t get it🤷♀️. I used to watch The Young Ones and nobody had any idea why I thought it was funny. Thank goodness I never saw the remake. And I did enjoy Cracker, (for a while), but once I saw the original, hands down it was superior. I don’t even watch WatchMojo American lol I watch this one.
I’m so glad Father Ted and Bottom haven’t been adapted for US audiences
Edit: I was wrong, a US remake for FT was considered and it was going to be set in Boston but thank fuck it wasn’t made.
For me, the worst ever American Version of a TV show was when they attempted "Shameless" - nothing compares to the purely British Council Estate feel of the original Shameless, and the US butchered it - I understand wanting your own feel to it, but you can't capture another country's culture with American actors and writers. Not well anyway
I think they need to stop trying to copy and just be "inspired by." Do you know what I mean? Like The Office here was better once they were no longer copying directly (the pilot), but shifted to where they made the characters and plot more American. I don't know. I'm American and prefer British TV. With some exceptions, British TV is far superior. Especially crime, mystery, procedurals.
Skins American version was dreadful 😂
Bay Bay like inbertweeners, the American remake was HORRIBLE
It’s because MTV made it and not a premium channel like HBO or Showtime...
This richly deserved to be on the list. I loved the UK version. I couldn't believe just how bad it was when it was Made in America. Yuck!
@Jason Mistretta And there is the answer to why they want to remake the shows. An American studio exec sees couplings loves it goes back writes up a precis. He gets called in to the bosses office. "Er Harry whats this bit about redhot lesbian spanking party". It was hilarious this guy trying to explain a porno to his girlfriend". Yeah but Harry the christian lobby won't like it perhaps he could shoot her, thats ok."And mrs Kafoops in Deerfield Oregan won't understand the slang, and we can't expect her to google it she'll have to put down her popcorn''."No we'll make our own,
I don't even understand how any US studio could even think it would fly on US TV. With regard to these things, the American audience is actually quite repressed when it comes to sexual content on TV, violence no problem. The other issue I suppose comes from the fact these characters were representing kids in school. Maybe changing it to a college setting in the US would have allowed it to work a bit better, but I just think US advertisers, and audiences are just far too squeamish when it comes to sexual content.
Besides "Life on Mars," I haven't heard of any of the American remakes (I'm American). That's 19 bullets dodged.
I actually wanted to watch the American version of Life on Mars, heard it was quite good... but after seeing that ending, I'm going to pass :)
I did not know there was US remakes of *"Red Dwarf"* and *"Inbetweeners."* Shock. Imagine a American remake of *"Rising Damp."* 😲
I thought that was meant to be Rimmer in the first clip, until the narrator said Lister
As an American and HUGE Absolutely Fabulous fan, the remake was horribly painful to watch. It broke my heart to see good actors flail and bomb so badly. Honestly… what were the producers thinking after watching rehearsals? No one can match Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumly’s chemistry and on screen smarmy charm.
"Rob Schneider is Martin Clunes, in DeDerpDerpDerpDe DerpDerp.
Rated PG13"
derp face
What I was thinking the whole five minutes I managed to watch of this video before down-voting it, not because I disagree with it's premise, but rather because of the script / narration and because it didn't consequently show clips from both shows for comparison.
I’m twice as glad that the IT crowd failed more than most of the others due to the fact Jeff would have had to leave community if it went to series.
Actually, Community debuted in 2009 so Joel McHale would have been unavailable for it if the IT Crowd got picked up and renewed through the 2009 season.
Brian Kelly yeah that’s what I meant to say. He wouldn’t have been able to commit to filming more community in series 1.
Apparently, there is going to be a U.S remake of Ghosts. And as a die-hard six idiots fan (the cast of the show), I am both angry and confused. Even if it turns to be an okay remake (which it most likely WON'T be), it'll still be crap compared to the original. Plus, Ghosts is only a year old now and series 2 is still in production!!
Nooooo!
What... no... they can't... I see billboards in my future!!
@Annabel Laver Ikr. I mean, it does show how much of a success Ghosts was, the fact that CBS already wants to remake it. But still, it's gonna be bad 😬
I mean, it's a very english show, the premise itself!! Americans dont inherit 400 year old houses!!
@Annabel Laver Yep, who would the ghosts even be? A native American? A cowboy? They have only 300 or so years of history so, I'm not sure what they could do when it comes to creating characters
Not fond of the live action remake of Yes minister they've got going.
You’re kidding me!
Some remakes work. The Indian remake of the British classic "Yes Minister" is, by all accounts, every bit as hilarious as the UK version but the two counties share very similar governmental bureaucratic systems so the same jokes work in English and in Hindi.
Always had to ruin it with a happy ending
To be fair, it has worked the other way too. Anyone remember our remake of the Golden Girls, which I think was called the Brighton Belles? Thought not! I'm sure there must have been others too.
The Fox movie of Doctor Who Could have worked IF, IF they had used a Peace Accord idea, instead of the Y2K phobia that was rampant leading up to 2000.
Good in hindsight, but is was made in 1996, when governments, G8 and UN were lead calls to get things changed over as the systems for credit cards, even the UK rapier missiles were effected by their computers not being able to read 00 as anything other than 1900, we laugh now and in 2000 when nothing happened, but that's because there was a massive behind the scenes change over costing 10s of millions to correct errors including stock exchanges, some seem fun such as food with sell by date of 2000, begin rejected as it was thought to be decades out of date or a woman being invited to start primary school as the system said she was 4, instead of her real age of 104. Banks had been threatened with fines of £10,000 a month if they didn't fix their IT issue as credit cards couldn't read 00 as 2000. Mainly because a lot of companies and governments just hadn't invested and bother updated many of their IT systems for years, and focusing on profits and shareholder payouts.
Had companies and governments invested and updated their systems periodically then it wouldn't have happened.
Angela Rippon and Tom coyne originally presented Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson did not start on the show until 1988 when Jeremy Clarkson Andrew Wilman restarted it in 2002 so technically Top Gear ear is a remake itself with Jeremy Clarkson Richard Hammond and James May joining the next year
This video was funnier than most of these shows.
Miaow 🐯
They also made a US version of Ronnie Barker’s Porridge in the 70s, it was dreadful
Good god, how stupid can they be?
Fuck u America!
You cannot remake anything with either of the Two Ronnies in it without both/either of them and have any chance of it working.
It’s Nigel PLANER as in PLAY-NER. Not PLANNER.
I just commented the same
Got, not gotten; baton (bat’n, not b’tonnn)
DR who wasn't a remake as it was made by the bbc and is canon
They said on here it was a collaboration and meant to launch Dr who in America
The BBC version of Dr Who airs in the US now, or was if the direction it has taken hasn't meant it's been dropped.
@That One Guy You Walk Past yes it is canon as that doctor regenerated into the war doctor and was made to be a continuation of the original narrative
I know of two American remakes you did not mention. 1. Sybil, a version of Absolutely Fabulous that featured Sybil Shepard as a working middle aged Hollywood actress with two daughters. 2.Amanda, a remake of Fawlty Towers staring Bea Arthur.
"Amanda's" was nauseating.
Thankfully Amanda's was cancelled in time for her to get cast in The Golden Girls.
No one does comedy as good as the Brits 👍NZ
The aussis come pretty close. "Frayed" was a riot.
That was true some time ago but you’d be hard pressed to find anything great or even above average nowadays comedy wise. And I am in my 60s so have seen many. The US has definitely taken major strides. They are much better doing their own stuff rather than remakes of pommy stuff.
Carrie Fisher version of Absolutely Fabulous would genuinely be worth watching she had the right sense of humour and presents to do it do it in a different way but still do it effectively
*presence
The ONLY American version of a British show I prefer is "Who's line is it anyway?"
They can have our studio based shows all they like, they are usually done pretty well, but when it comes to scripted comedy, they should keep their hands off!
I preferred the US version of shameless over the UK.
I prefer the US version of the Office.
TwilightLink77 have you seen the UK version?!
Ryan Hunt Sadly no. I think it was on Adult Swim for a while.
I have a soft spot for the 8th Doctor and am happy Paul McGann is still doing audiobooks as the character.
You missed the most important and telling travesties:
• DAD’S ARMY [US “The Rear Guard”]
• STEPTOE & SON [US “Sanford & Son”]
Sanford & Son rocks
Americans don't allow normal looking people to become actors. So when it comes to comedy, it's basically a bunch of good looking people in contrived situations that always work out in the end.
The brilliant ending to the British Life on Mars where he jumps off Stockport town hall. Great series!
Apparently theres going to be a third season 🤔
I tried that and it was bloody painful.
@@TJ-ov4us there is yes.
@@TJ-ov4us What?? Life on Uranus??
@@TJ-ov4us If that is true, you've made my day. Although Ashes to Ashes kind of answered a lot of the questions.
I saw Red Dwarf and just had to see this 😂
Oh gosh how did US top gear last that long ?! You can’t beat the iconic trio
7:44 Actually it would be England and Wales respectively since Gavin is from Essex and Stacy is from Barry Island
I love British shows. One I would add is Broadchurch. The US version, just didn't have anything going for it. Here's a question, does the UK remake any US shows, and if so, how have they done?
@10:08 - I think you misunderstood the ending of Life on Mars. He wasn't killing himself. He was putting himself back into a coma. It reminds me of the ending to Total Recall, which was also on Mars, that so many people completely misunderstood.
In his defense, Craig Bierko ("Red Dwarf") is quite talented. But the U.S version of the show was cringe worthy.
I actually really liked the American version of Men Behaving Badly, and was really sad when it got retooled and then cancelled. And I remember gathering with all my friends to watch the Dr. Who TV movie.
the problem with a lot of remakes is that they try to be very similar to the original , ( rehashing jokes ect) look at shameless , first season was the worst because they just copy pasted most of it , , when they started doing their own thing show became good , similar thing was with being human , Skins did not work because most of the characters and jokes were exact copies from British ones ( i might be little bias because i dont really like British comedy and their shows , i did like misfits , well first 3 seasons)
@Jeri Brown it still was the worst one
Completely right they should start off doing their own original take from the off, people don't want to see American versions of the same situations especially when a lot are watered down versions of those scenes.
James L. Brooks tried to Americanize “Are You Being Served?” In 1979 with “Beane’s of Boston.” It had a decent cast, mostly-Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Slocum, John Hillerman as *Mr.* (not Captain) Peacock, and Alan Sues from Laugh-In as Mr. Humphries. (He flatly didn’t work.) The show never made it past the pilot, though it really ought to have succeeded given the people behind it.
What about The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, or did I just dream the monstrosity which was the American version?
I’m seriously getting flash backs of the Americanized version of Life on Mars.
Also any American who hasn’t watched any British Television I just need to have a chat with them.
The public channel used to play some British shows, so I grew up loving shows like Mr. Bean, Keeping Up Appearances and Father Ted. When the internet became more common I was able to watch stuff like IT Crowd and Peep Show. British comedies are great!
I think most people will remember Neil Morrissey I’m Men Behaving Badly rather than Harry Enfield
John Cleese didn't endorse _"Payne,"_ the American adaptation of Fawlty Towers, mainly because they went against his wishes; and didn't include the main character, Basil Fawlty. Instead, they went with a pale version of Basil, which seemed only loosely based on Basil
You left out the attempted remake of the British hit show, "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin". The 1983 American version was simply called "Reggie", starring a dreadfully mis-cast Richard Mulligan. The British version had starred Leonard Rossiter, an extremely versatile character actor who played a variety of serious roles. With all due respect, Richard Mulligan didn't have much range, and "Reggie" was advertised as more like a version of the original 1947 Danny Kaye movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". But in both the British version and the American remake the Reginald/Reggie character's daydreams were mostly comic visualizations of a single idea that only lasted a few seconds. The only comic element "Reggie" successfully recreated from the original show was the chairs in the lead character's boss' office, which made a farting sound whenever someone sat down or got up. As a fan of the original, I found it painful to watch.
I am a huge fan of the British “Coupling”. That being said, when the American version aired I gave it a chance. The pilot episode literally used the exact same script of the British version with which I was familiar. Same dialogue and somehow the American cast made mince meat of it. So it wasn’t the script. It was the American cast unable to make anything of the skillful ironic humour that English actors are so naturally capable of conveying. And likely the same goes for the other series included here.
Same. Coupling is to me THE funniest TV comedy ever. I was amazed how not funny the exact same dialogue was in the American version. The timing, the fine ironic humor, it got lost in translation.
That's racist
Robert Wilson. Explain, please. Racist how?
@@kathleenclark5877Racist against Americans.