Just when you think the media has finally gotten sick of Ricky Gervais, following the debacle at the Golden Globes (although I have to say that despite the poor taste of some of his "jokes", Gervais was actually quite funny! And I say this is a very anti-Gervais person!), it's announced that he is to reprise his role as the boss we all love-to-hate David Brent. Being a fan of the original series, I see nothing wrong with this news. Well, except for the fact that Gervais has not suddenly decided to revive his own comedy show, no, in fact he'll be appearing in the US version of the show! This I have a really big deal with.
In all honesty, I've never seen the US version, and probably never will, out of choice. Not because I think it's bad, but because I can't help feeling that the American TV companies show a complete lack of respect for British television.
Here in Britain, if a TV company sees a show that they like, they pick it up and air it as it was initially made, so that we, the public, can appreciate that masterpiece. Perfect examples of this, are practically endless, but include: Friends, Lost, 24, Prisoner Cell Block H, Monkey etc.
On the other side of the pond, however, TV execs see something they like (The Office, Men Behaving Badly, Being Human, Skins, One Foot in the Grave etc), and instead of sharing it with their audiences (okay, sometimes they do still share it!), they remake it, removing all the British humor and replacing it with US humour, that sometimes (Bill Cosby's One Foot in the Grave being the perfect example of this), completely miss the actual point of the comedy entirely!
Of course, with sitcoms like The Office, the Americans can get it very right, and find themselves an incredibly successful corker of a comedy, but why can't they just appreciate the David Brent-version and live with it? Have they run out of their own original ideas? Well, with the brilliant (and original) Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother still gaining huge success on both sides of the pond, it's evident that they haven't. And this is where I just don't get it.
I accept that British humor is often not handled well by some Americans.
I accept that most British series only have roughly 8 episodes, whilst the Americans prefer more around the 24 episodes quota.
I also accept that many of the most popularly "converted" shows have come from the BBC, a channel, which we all know includes no adverts, which means that with adverts placed in the middle, you will find yourself faced with TV shows that do not fit into the typical US timeslot.
Nevertheless, I'd like to point out that Being Erica (that is shown on E4) has only 13 episodes in a series, putting it well under the preferred quota. And, I'd also like to question how US TV channels handle the showing of films, which typically have quite erratic running times?
I don't know, maybe I'm just being silly, because at the end of the day, most of these remakes aren't that great anyway. I just don't understand why they feel this urge to make them, in the first place!
