Interesting piece from an American features agency about whether sitcoms can survive the west-to-east journey across the Atlantic and the process of being remade, following the debut of the US version of The Office. Ties in well with a piece I wrote some years ago about the differences in the [intlink id=”two-nations-divided-by-a-common-sense-of-humour” type=”page”]two nations’ senses of humour[/intlink].
From Wichita Eagle | 03/29/2005 | Can Britcoms be turned into sitcoms?:
Can Britcoms be turned into sitcoms?
British comedy is edgier and often doesn’t translate well.BY STEVE MURRAY, Cox News Service
Sometimes things get lost in translation — even when the language is the same.
Take TV comedies. Just because a show’s a hit in the U.K. doesn’t mean it’s gonna fly in the U.S. There’s often a big gap between the tone of the two cultures’ shows and their sources of humor. They’re created and written in different ways, and some of the naughty bits the Brits get away with would never pass FCC scrutiny.
In other words, giving a Limey show a Yankee face-lift requires more than changing “pub” to “bar” or “chips” to “fries.”
The full piece is worth a look, if comedy is your thing.