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Global Telly Talk
Classic UK TV
The Great British Sitcom
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<blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 328257" data-attributes="member: 27"><p>I've noticed that some of the Britcom remakes that showed up on American networks in the 1970s and 1980s were "star vehicles". Stars would sign contracts with a production company or a studio with promises of giving the star a role in a sitcom, perhaps a few movies, etc. The studio had to honor the contract or else that star could sue (or worse, get paid without having to do the work!). So the producers might decide to adapt a British series (or some other nationality---Brits just had a lot more stuff to copy) simply to fulfill the terms of their contract. It saved money that would otherwise be devoted to hiring a content creator and writer. If it became a hit, all the better....but even if it did not, at least they fulfilled their part of the contract with the star. Off the top of my head, I recall :</p><p><em>Amanda's </em>which was a Bea Arthur vehicle that was a remake (with tweaks) of<em> Fawlty Towers</em></p><p><em>High Society </em>which was a Jean Smart vehicle that was a tweaked remake of <em>Absolutely Fabulous </em></p><p><em>The Lucie Arnaz Show </em>which was a pretty faithful remake of <em>Agony</em></p><p></p><p>There was also a remake of <em>Waiting For God </em>that was in development as a star vehicle for Richard Mulligan (with Olympia Dukakis as Diana), but it was abandoned when Mulligan died unexpectedly. In all these cases, the premise of the series was seemingly not as important as the idea that the show would succeed due to the recognizability of the star of the series. That might have contributed to their failures, though.</p><p></p><p>In the <em>Amanda's</em> example, people knew of the FT parallels, which likely hurt its chances of succeeding since people loved the original so much and Bea Arthur was not about to attempt John Cleese's physical comedy. Now that I think of it, I recall seeing another attempt at capturing the magic of FT with a pilot episode (called <em>Snavely</em>) that featured Harvey Korman and Betty White (!!) as the ersatz-Fawltys in the period just after Korman had left <em>The Carol Burnett Show</em> and White's run on <em>The Mary Tyler Moore Show</em> had ended. Though Korman had the manic energy, White played the Sybil role much less shrew-like (!!) and it was....well, it's just as well it was not picked up as a series.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Daniel Avery, post: 328257, member: 27"] I've noticed that some of the Britcom remakes that showed up on American networks in the 1970s and 1980s were "star vehicles". Stars would sign contracts with a production company or a studio with promises of giving the star a role in a sitcom, perhaps a few movies, etc. The studio had to honor the contract or else that star could sue (or worse, get paid without having to do the work!). So the producers might decide to adapt a British series (or some other nationality---Brits just had a lot more stuff to copy) simply to fulfill the terms of their contract. It saved money that would otherwise be devoted to hiring a content creator and writer. If it became a hit, all the better....but even if it did not, at least they fulfilled their part of the contract with the star. Off the top of my head, I recall : [I]Amanda's [/I]which was a Bea Arthur vehicle that was a remake (with tweaks) of[I] Fawlty Towers High Society [/I]which was a Jean Smart vehicle that was a tweaked remake of [I]Absolutely Fabulous The Lucie Arnaz Show [/I]which was a pretty faithful remake of [I]Agony[/I] There was also a remake of [I]Waiting For God [/I]that was in development as a star vehicle for Richard Mulligan (with Olympia Dukakis as Diana), but it was abandoned when Mulligan died unexpectedly. In all these cases, the premise of the series was seemingly not as important as the idea that the show would succeed due to the recognizability of the star of the series. That might have contributed to their failures, though. In the [I]Amanda's[/I] example, people knew of the FT parallels, which likely hurt its chances of succeeding since people loved the original so much and Bea Arthur was not about to attempt John Cleese's physical comedy. Now that I think of it, I recall seeing another attempt at capturing the magic of FT with a pilot episode (called [I]Snavely[/I]) that featured Harvey Korman and Betty White (!!) as the ersatz-Fawltys in the period just after Korman had left [I]The Carol Burnett Show[/I] and White's run on [I]The Mary Tyler Moore Show[/I] had ended. Though Korman had the manic energy, White played the Sybil role much less shrew-like (!!) and it was....well, it's just as well it was not picked up as a series. [/QUOTE]
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The Great British Sitcom
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