Because copying formulas and reworking them seldom works.

Well I'd rather watch the fucking Simpsons anyday, given the alternatives. Game On? TGP? Harry Enfield? Anyone??

"jam", you idiot.

And that's about the only one, IDIOT.

Hang on a cotton pickin' minute... most of the shows mentioned in the initial thread, while popular, are also pants. Popularity does not always equal quality.

Unless your name is Jane Root, that is.

Before someone else says it, we only get to view the best of American shows, the same way that they only import the best of our shows and formats. It works both ways.

Yay. Well said. My barometer of the state of US sitcom is whatever goes on Paramount before 9.00pm. It's usually VERY BIG PANTS. And that's the creme de la creme of the four billion channels the Yanks have to sell us...

The other thing all the above shows have in common is that they're all on far too fucking early.

Yeah, and they all keep getting bumped for minority sports coverage, or moved around the schedules on a whim.

British TV should never try to copy American shows and vice versa. Most American shows are designed to have numerous commercial breaks in them, meaning many lose depth and flow in trying to keep the viewers attention. British shows either have few or no commercials, meaning that scenes and episodes can be longer.

This simple fact means that remakes/ imitations are bound to fail.

The Larry Sanders Show, Oz

What do all these programmes have in common? A number of things.

1. They are the best American programmes ever made.
2. NO-ONE FUCKING WATCHES THEM!

Totally unrelated to the rest of my post, but who cares?

I'm still waiting for the British version of Saved By The Bell.

>British TV should never try to copy American shows and vice versa. Most American shows are designed to have numerous commercial breaks in them, meaning many lose depth and flow in trying to keep the viewers attention. British shows either have few or no commercials, meaning that scenes and episodes can be longer.
>
>This simple fact means that remakes/ imitations are bound to fail.
>
>The Larry Sanders Show, Oz
>
>What do all these programmes have in common? A number of things.
>
>1. They are the best American programmes ever made.
>2. NO-ONE FUCKING WATCHES THEM!
>

Ah, but only because the idiots in charge of scheduling decided to tuck them away somewhere between The Learning Zone and Late Night Celebrity Shove Ha'penny. If promoted properly, the shows could have gathered a decent audience.

Both had enough utterances of the word 'fuck' to appeal to the 11OCS crowd, anyway.

Let's just remake Big John Little John and be done with it.

Aah, am sorry to admit it but do watch Buffy, but only to see the wonderful Xander and his stupid one liners.
have been brainwashed, but it's a nice feeling, please, join us, you know you want to...

>>British TV should never try to copy American shows and vice versa. Most American shows are designed to have numerous commercial breaks in them, meaning many lose depth and flow in trying to keep the viewers attention. British shows either have few or no commercials, meaning that scenes and episodes can be longer.
>>
>>This simple fact means that remakes/ imitations are bound to fail.
>>
>>The Larry Sanders Show, Oz
>>
>>What do all these programmes have in common? A number of things.
>>
>>1. They are the best American programmes ever made.
>>2. NO-ONE FUCKING WATCHES THEM!
>>
>
>Ah, but only because the idiots in charge of scheduling decided to tuck them away somewhere between The Learning Zone and Late Night Celebrity Shove Ha'penny. If promoted properly, the shows could have gathered a decent audience.
>
>Both had enough utterances of the word 'fuck' to appeal to the 11OCS crowd, anyway.

In a wholly unexpected Teletext article on 'Oz', it was stated that 'Oz' did not fit in with the 'mainstream mentality'.

Bold experimental programming indeed...

Someone mentioned that Americans by the format, and we by the shows, that is what i ment! We get stuck with their shows with words like "wal-Mart' and 'Elevator' sure, we know what these words mean, but the Americans who like 'Eastenders' (they get it over there!) need phrase books, and subtiles, it brings to mind, that the 'Master Race' doesn't want words that they didn't invent or they don't understand, it's just typical of the one of they only countries not to adopt the metric system!

I got annoyed a while back when heat magazine did an interview with Edie Falco to coincide with the latest run of Oz to appear on C4, but all the questions were about The Soprano's!

TK- I like it when you're all fired up..

I still think that the UK public service channels are worried about promoting US imports in case they become their biggest ratings earner.
Channel 4 doesn't mind Friends being its biggest draw. Sky loves having The Simpsons / X-Files etc at the top of its charts. However, if the BBC were to be seen championing imported product above its home-grown output, questions would be asked about funding / licence fee / production remits and so on...
If BBC2 pushed The Simpsons and Larry Sanders and Seinfeld (blah blah and more and more) into prime time slots there'd be nowhere to put its own flagship shows. The only spaces left are pre-7.00 and post 11.00.

Sad but true.

(a disappointed Larry Sanders fan...)

We'll just all have to get cable or digital. (Hopefully, Paramount will be running Seinfeld/Sanders by the time I switch to digital in January. Maybe they'll show the Critic too - which I never saw. Anyone?)

Going back to the original argument:

>Futurama, Friends, The Simpson, Frasier, South Park, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Family Guy, Stargate SG1, Roswell High.
>
>What do all these programmes have in common? A number of things.
>1) They are regularly watched by Millions of people every week.

Just because a show is popular and has good ratings doesn't make it a great - just proves that a lot of people like it. They may be any number of reasons for this - and people have been known to leave the telly on for their pets, or not watch it whilst they do something else...

>2) Some of these have been mentioned in the forum over the past weeks, and

Yes. Shurely the point of a television forum, is to, err, discuss television, including programmes?!?!?

>3) THEY ARE ALL AMERICAN!!!!!!

Well, actually Stargate SG1 is filmed in Canada...but that's being pedantic. Do you mean USA or North America?
>
>When will the BBC, ITV, C4 and do an extent 5, going to looks at these shows, and study the formula? Are the Brits the pits at making Sitcom/Fav Teen/Cartoons for older people programmes?
>
Why should we? (Nearly) Every-one says we should copy, but it doesn't work (Brighton Belles, anyone?) Let the Americans (and Canadians) get on with it. I'm fairly certain that if all we did was to copy the Americans, a lot of the good and innovative broadcasting and programmes in the UK since the 1960's wouldn't have come into being. No Peter Cook, Monthy Python, Goodies, etc; Also, in the UK we are more relaxed and not so heavily regulated (they have network censors and programme ratings). This helps creativity, not stifle it.
If that's what they are good at, then fine, I'm not complaining - but only someone who watches mainstream culture thinks everything is American. Expand your mind a little.

>Someone mentioned that Americans by the format, and we by the shows, that is what i ment! We get stuck with their shows with words like "wal-Mart' and 'Elevator' sure, we know what these words mean, but the Americans who like 'Eastenders' (they get it over there!) need phrase books, and subtiles, it brings to mind, that the 'Master Race' doesn't want words that they didn't invent or they don't understand, it's just typical of the one of they only countries not to adopt the metric system!

That's utter nonsense. There is *regional* differences even in the UK - look at some of the difficulty southern viewers had with Rab C Nesbitt. Also, when we adopt formats, we often *Anglicise* them, with results ranging(such as in comedy) from terrible to average. The reverse is also true. Americans have copied UK formats/shows with varying success.

But please explain how we could copy The Simpsons or Futurama? Kidnap Matt Groening?
As an animation fan, I get really hacked-off by people who only ever say that America only does animation well, or that they are so dominant no-one can catch them, and we have to copy them. That is crap. If all you watch and view popular culture, then all you'll see is the same few toons and shows.
Just because the States (and that country above it), can do teen shows & adult animation better than us, doesn't make them a *Master Race*. It's a pithy comment.

>>Well, actually Stargate SG1 is filmed in Canada...but that's being pedantic. Do you mean USA or North America?

The first several seasons of the X-Files were filmed in Canada. Does that make it Canadian?

>Maybe they'll show the Critic too - which I never saw. Anyone?

It was good. About a fat middle-aged film critic and his broken relationships. It included many funny film spoofs. It was axed after one series because it was perceived as only appealing to film type fans. Quite wrong.

Hey be nice to TK, he's my age- and hasn't had the exposure to such quality as Boothby Graffoe, One Flew oVer... and stuff, he's a child of the 80s I'm a child of the seventies- but born in the eighties. See the difference?

>*Master Race*. It's a pithy comment.

I didn't mean Master race,. as in the Master race of the Planet, but yet that is the way the view themselves.

And I have to oppolgise, when i said that all the programs were american, I of course ment, from the other side of the Atlantic.

Can you think of any other, copied formats apart from the 'Brighton Belles', this is a sad sit-com, and waste of camera film for that matter, but so was Mr. Bean, if you watch any of that c**p, you'll notice that Mr. Bean is walking down a street, and people laugh, the point is why? It seems that as far as the Medium of Televison goes, The North American's (U.S. and Canada) seem to be the masters, with sit-coms like Friends, and The Simpson, with some really funny stuff, while we have the likes f the rather poor Mr. Bean, walking down the street looking into shop windows as the height of our hilarity.

I really don't think that America produces better TV than the UK, just DIFFERENT TV. A UK Simpsons wouldn't work, just as in America Jam would never happen (and if it did it wouldn't be on commercial terrestrial TV, it'd prolly be on HBO or some other cable channel). America may produce better sitcoms than Pay and Display, but we also produce better sitcoms than Brother's Keeper (dire late-night ITV filler material shite).

>It was good. About a fat middle-aged film critic and his broken relationships. It included many funny film spoofs. It was axed after one series because it was perceived as only appealing to film type fans. Quite wrong.

Time for me to be Mr Pedantic here, but The Critic moved to Fox after one season. Cue lots of sub-Simpsons 'Fox is rubbish' in-jokes and smugness. A bit of a shame after the excellent first season. Then it got cancelled.

"It stinks! It stinks!"

"Yes, Mr Sherman. Everything stinks."

>I really don't think that America produces better TV than the UK, just DIFFERENT TV

eg Diff'rent Strokes

>>I really don't think that America produces better TV than the UK, just DIFFERENT TV
>
>eg Diff'rent Strokes

Am I the only person that's ever confused that with "Brush Strokes"?

>>>I really don't think that America produces better TV than the UK, just DIFFERENT TV
>>
>>eg Diff'rent Strokes
>
>Am I the only person that's ever confused that with "Brush Strokes"?
>
>
>

'choo talking 'bout, Willis?

Ah, Young Master Coleman. Still the same freakishly diminutive man-child, I see?

>>>I really don't think that America produces better TV than the UK, just DIFFERENT TV
>>
>>eg Diff'rent Strokes
>
>Am I the only person that's ever confused that with "Brush Strokes"?

YES!!!

Well, they sound a bit similar, apart from being completely different (sound of hole being dug)

>I really don't think that America produces better TV than the UK, just DIFFERENT TV. A UK Simpsons wouldn't work, just as in America Jam would never happen (and if it did it wouldn't be on commercial terrestrial TV, it'd prolly be on HBO or some other cable channel). America may produce better sitcoms than Pay and Display, but we also produce better sitcoms than Brother's Keeper (dire late-night ITV filler material shite).

Definetly agree, paul. And of course we could look at it differently by yakking about co-productions and joint ventures between UK and foreign broadcasters in genres such as documentaries......

... costume drama ...

Aren't dubbed Films and TV Programmes the worst?