For some reason that I will never understand, American television networks seem to regularly go through this weird phase where they think ratings success is waiting for them just around the corner….if only they can find the perfect British TV show to remake for their primetime schedule.
Yes, this keeps happening, year in and year out – FOX’s new Thursday drama for this season is called Gracepoint and is a remake of the British hit Broadchurch – and it doesn’t matter seem to matter how many of these US spins on British series don’t do well in the ratings (US versions of Coupling and Skins), or never even make it out of the pilot stage, come to that (looking at you, recent US attempts at Gavin and Stacey and Only Fools and Horses). The networks are going to keep swinging anyway – chasing the elusive magic that makes particular British series popular among American audiences.
Next in line for the remake treatment? Popular Channel 4 comedy series The IT Crowd. Yes, sadly, according to Deadline, someone at NBC seems to think that creating American versions of Moss, Roy and Jen is a great idea, so much so that they’ve given this new series a put pilot commitment, meaning that the revival will air, at least in some limited capacity.
The original British series starred Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson, and followed the hilarious office misadventures of two IT guys who know nothing about social interaction and their new manager, a woman who knows nothing about computers.
This is actually the second time NBC has taken a crack at figuring out how to put on The IT Crowd for American audiences – a remake was first commissioned in 2007 to star Joel McHale and original British cast member Ayoade. A fairly terrible pilot was shot – you can check it out on Daily Motion if you’d like to find out exactly how terrible – but the remake never got off the ground. Likely because of the aforementioned terribleness.
This second attempt does have a slightly stronger creative pedigree, in the form of Scrubs executive producer Bill Lawrence and Community writers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan. These guys have a proven track record of actually being able to write comedy – and workplace comedy in particular – so perhaps there’s a slimmer of hope that American It Crowd won’t be completely awful.
There’s no word on who might be expected to star in the remake, though it seems safe to assume that O’Dowd, Ayoade and Parkinson are likely too busy with other projects to be part of this new effort. Or at least we can hope I guess?
You should remember shows like The Office and All In The Family were Americanized versions of British television and were immensely successful. So much so, those shows even had successors and spin-offs.
Brits do the same thing: didn't they make their own Law and Order a few years back? And how many countries made their own versions of Married With Children?
American TV network NBC has ordered a new pilot episode for a remake of The IT Crowd.
It will be the third attempt to bring Graham Linehan's sitcom about misfits working in a company's IT department to the USA, but - as originally revealed by Variety - Linehan is set to write and executive produce the "reimagining of the show" this time, working with production company Universal Television.
Whilst the format has been unsuccessfully piloted twice before in America, this will be the first time that Linehan has written the script. The original attempt in 2007 saw Richard Ayoade reprising his role of Moss, alongside Joel McHale and Jessica St. Clair. The pilot is available to watch via DailyMotion. Below is a clip which compares the versions:
A second attempt, overseen by Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, took place in 2014 but also failed to progress beyond an initial pilot.
Graham Linehan speaks further about the new pilot in an exclusive episode of the Sitcom Geeks podcast, which will be published on Thursday.
Talking about how American sitcoms follow a different style of humour, Linehan explained to hosts Dave Cohen and James Cary: "I thought you cannot do the same type of show, if you look at US sitcoms, they do realistic grounded sitcoms with characters you love, brilliantly. Cheers, Frasier, Seinfeld; sometimes they have more surreal elements, but generally they're much more grounded than my stuff.
Graham Linehan."We'll have Rik Mayall falling down the stairs breaking every bannister, they have these people having a series of snappy conversations, making you think these are the funniest people in the world. You have to adjust it. Not moving the furniture around, it's deep structural changes."
Linehan also revealed the premise is being slightly tweaked to take into account of how technology has progressed. "It's ten years after we first wrote it. Nowadays people like Jen would have an instinctive knowledge of how some things work."
Speaking about the previous attempts to pilot the show in America, Linehan told Sitcom Geeks: "The first was done without my knowledge. I still don't know how that happened.
"The second version I went out and worked on it for a week, and they went back to the original script and sold it to Fox... but I didn't want to work with Rupert Murdoch so I spent one Christmas on the phone demanding they tear up the contract.
"This time round I pitched it myself, I went out there and said 'British sitcoms do this, American sitcoms do this, I think we could do this if we adjust certain things'. They went for it. I'm completely involved."
Further details about the new NBC pilot will be announced in due course.
The IT Crowd is one of my favorite shows of all time. It was lightning in a bottle and it should be left alone.
But if there's going to be another attempt, let Linehan get on with it and don't interfere with his process in any way. Maybe the American suits will be smart enough to let him do just that.
