Only Fools & Horses to get US remake

[Badnik Mechanic]

The TV show only fools and horses is one of the longest running sitcoms on British TV, whilst the series has never officially ended, the chances of a new episode are very unlikely. It has spawned 2 seperate spinoffs which have seen... some success, but nothing on the levels of the original show.

It's considered by many to be the most popular TV series in the UK of all time and many consider it to be the funniest show of all time.

It has so of the most memorable scenes of all time and it's very rare to find anyone living in the UK who has not seen an episode or knows of scene from it.

AND IT'S BEING REMADE FOR A US AUDIENCE!

The details are not clear yet, however what has been confirmed is that ABC is penning the series, the lead writers are Steven Cragg & Brian Bradley of Scrubbs fame.

No cast has been announced yet, but there are rumours according to the Metro newspaper that Robin Williams has been asked to play Uncle Albert, now theres a lot of other rumours going around, the Guardian however has totally lost the plot and more or less made up some of the most ridiculous rumours I've ever seen. e.g. Del Boys van has been replaced by a monster truck.

No date for the pilot has been made yet other than they want it to air in 2012, but it's said that if it's a success it'll become a series.

Source

Metros article.

The Guardian newspaper's most ridiculous article of all time.

So what do you think? Want an American version of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYBd7999qqo

Or this?

Edited January 30, 2012 by Hogfather

[Patticus]

I really, really hate this American propensity for ripping other countries' good show/movie ideas off.

How is this going to work? Are they just going to cram it full of much loved faces and hope for the best? Are the scripts going to be lifted wholesale from the original episodes, or will we only see hints of the original in the plot lines and such?

[Detective Shadzter]

They're plonkers if they think a remake of this classic is a good idea.

[Marcello]

I've never watched the original, and I probably won't watch this, even though I like Scrubs, so this could be funny. I do believe we should see some of this, before it's written it off as shit. The Office was also based off of a British show from what I know, and look how popular that is and how good it supposedly is/was (I've never watched it myself)

Edited January 30, 2012 by MarcelloF

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

I really don't think something like OFaH is exportable. :|

[Stasis]

If they do this they need to make sure everything regarding Dels dodgy dealing of knock off items and poor French skills remain intact. I'd accept Robin Williams as Uncle albert as he really would look the part judging by those Zelda adverts. As for Del and Rodney I have no idea.

[Kamicciolo]

If I remember reading right, then they've already tried to "transfer" Only Fools and Horses into an American style show before, which has been received poorly if I recall correctly. That means it's up to these writers to take a popular British program, that's already on record of not making it over there, and make it into something "more american" while retaining the aspects that made it worth trying to bring over in the first place.

Not an easy feat I'll admit :V

[Solly]

Speaking as an American who can't stand to watch T.V nowadays, this doesn't even remotely surprise me, even if I haven't heard of the show.

Television and film writers are so strapped for ideas that half of the T.V series or movies that come out are remakes or sequels to something, whether it be from another country or here. The other half is made up of new movies recycling old and boring ideas, as well as terrible reality shows about fat people doing their jobs.

Original thought is dead. But if it's any consolation to fans of the original series, I doubt that this will be too offensive, mostly because if it manages to get off the ground I doubt it's going to get more than 2 seasons, tops.

You know, watching some of the clips in this thread has made me want to check this show out. It looks pretty funny, and comedy is a dying art.

[Solkia]

They'll probably just fill it with half-assed jokes that people over here would find funny.

Just like The Office.

[Stacy]

They tried it with Red Dwarf and they failed with that. Personally no country should try to do OFAH its a national show plus the creator sadly past quite recently.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I don't even know if they could remake it in this country either when you think about it.

Putting aside the production team and the cast, this show has been running for 30 years. So much has changed that you couldn't simply remake it word for word, even some concepts just wouldn't be as funny anymore and the modern equivilant of something isn't quite as funny.

For example... theres an episode where Del is trying to sell mobile phones, now at the time mobile phones were these expensive cool magical looking things... and top end phones today are still cool expensive things, whilst the magic has sorta gone since we know what they're like... our perception of that episode changes.

At the time we laugh because Del is trying to sell something exotic to his friends who simply don't care for it, and because the phones are hookie they do some funny things, which at the time we respond by saying 'Oh I bet they do that!' because theres still the mystery, now we laugh because whilst we know they don't do that, the look of the phones and how amazingly rubbish they are has taken place of why we originally laughed at the episode.

But if you were to remake that episode again... Which of these phones looks funnier?

Putting Apple jokes aside, it's no contest really is it? The size of it... the wonky antenna... you name it, the older phone just looks more funny.

Would this scene still be as funny if Del was holding an iPhone?

Some stuff would still work, theres that episode called 'Mother Natures Son' (the water bottling episode) just about everything in it is still relivant and funny today, the fly tipping that they do, selling bottled tap water, organic foods etc etc. The episode where they go to Margate would probably still work, although not sure if they'd need to change the location.

Then theres the unknown.

Remember the episode where del gets the VCR's? Only they run on a different electrical current so they're all breaking down? Modern equivilant would be something like a Sky+ box?

Anyway whilst we're on the subject of Only Fools and Horses... a fun fact... as you know I live in this charming little place called Hull... well one episode was called 'To Hull and Back.'

Theres a few scenes filmed around the city and the train station...

Heres a clip from it.

Skip to around 1:20 thats Hull's train station... those gates are still there but the stations has been decorated a lot since then... keep watching the clip.

Now at 1:50 when Del, Rodney and Albert leave the station, thats not the main exit, it's a side street into quite a nasty looking alley way, but it's not too bad, I used to do drama in a building just opposite just behind the camera. (although it still looks that dirty).

Now at 1:58 if you look behind Del, on the right of your screen, you can just make out a broken window.

To Hull and Back was first shown on Christmas Day in 1985. A year after I was born, now neither my parents ever went down that side of the train station (it's kinda out of the way from the city centre, even back in 1985 it wasn't the central hub per say) So theres no way to tell when the window was broken...

But because I used to do drama in a building near it, I'd pass by it a lot... I don't know when exactly it was fixed... but during the years 2007-2008 both windows were still broken in exactly the same locations!

This is despite the building being owned and opperated by several different companies since 1985!

I guess they thought it would be a tourist attraction?

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

The Inbetweeners is getting a US remake as well. I, myself don't see how the remake's going to level with the British version. Those particular 4 teens is what made the show.

But really, I don't think the Americans like British stuff. Or maybe because of licensing issues I don't know. I can't think of a British comedy/TV show that rocked here in America. I don't think it ever happened.

What did happen is that Americans try to mirror the British version with our own copy of the show.

[Swiss]

Worst idea of 2012, anyone?

Just...no. You cannot do this.

[Badnik Mechanic]

The Inbetweeners is getting a US remake as well. I, myself don't see how the remake's going to level with the British version. Those particular 4 teens is what made the show.

But really, I don't think the Americans like British stuff. Or maybe because of licensing issues I don't know. I can't think of a British comedy/TV show that rocked here in America. I don't think it ever happened.

What did happen is that Americans try to mirror the British version with our own copy of the show.

Normally, when a British show is tried in America, it ends up being something else.

For example, Fawlty Towers (oh my current avatar!) was going to be remade for the US, when they were looking at what needed to be changed, they discovered that most of the show took place in either the lobby or the restaurant/bar... so they set it in a bar and changed the title to 'Cheers.'

Never heard of Fawlty Towers?

[Patticus]

Didn't Cheers start before Fawlty Towers, or did I dream that?

[supersonikku]

A big part of OFaH's identity is it's setting...I really can't imagine it working being set anywhere else.

Anyone seen the US pilot of 'Spaced'? The whole thing used to be on youtube but weirdly I can't find it. Did get a good chunk though..

Any fans of Spaced who haven't seen this before, be prepared to feel just a bit sadder.

To be fair, they've kept the jist of the script remarkably similar to the original for the first part of the video, they've just managed to make it shit.

Enjoy that part cause afterwards the guy playing Mike (weirdly named BILL now) tries to get Tim...i mean BENJY... to go back and play Gears of War. Considering the original spaced mainly featured Tomb Raider, Tekken and Resident Evil for the original playstation, this was no quick attempt to convert...then everyones favourite gun-battle-mime scene is bastardised.

Sorry, that's quite the deviation, but the only fools remake made me think of it again and it was even worse than I remembered.

Edited January 30, 2012 by supersonikku

[krazystitch]

British people usually tend to be funnier than Americans. It's practically a fact.

Bringing this to the U.S. would fill it with sex jokes, racial slurs, and pop references or in other words, what most Americans find as "comedy."

[Mollfie]

There was a US version of The IT Crowd too apparently.

also Skins, which isn't a comedy and is generally nsfw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQVWZx0Yo0A

I just don't get why US versions seem to simply copy the British version. Why not, you know...make your own show? Or just use the British one? Especially when they're modern programmes. We get US stuff all the time that's not altered for British audiences and we don't get British remakes (do we?) so I don't understand why American's can't just watch British shows?

Edited January 31, 2012 by Mollfie

[SuperStingray]

The only TV show I've seen that was copied from British to American television and worked successfully was Whose Line is it Anyway, and that's only because it's not "written" and half the performers were the same.

[Mollfie]

The only TV show I've seen that was copied from British to American television and worked successfully was Whose Line is it Anyway, and that's only because it's not "written" and half the performers were the same.

True. I actually find the US version better because Drew Carey is funnier than Clive Anderson and I think the set and atmosphere are more fun too.

[Milo]

Meh. Just another possible victim of greedy American producers who want to see how bad they can **** it up modernizing it for America's standards of television, let alone see how much money they can milk out of it.

[Stacy]

Meh. Just another possible victim of greedy American producers who want to see how bad they can **** it up modernizing it for America's standards of television, let alone see how much money they can milk out of it.

Speaking of milking nice avatar, giggity!

[Milo]

Speaking of milking nice avatar, giggity!

ohyou.jpg

[Solkia]

Speaking of milking nice avatar, giggity!

It was MY avatar first :U

[Covskin]

The main American show that the UK has remade recently is Law & Order, though we did have the US version too.

And regarding Fawlty Towers, one American version turned Basil Fawlty's character into a woman. Yeah.

America has a terrible track record of converting British shows (with The Office and Who's Line the only recent exceptions), and I don't see why remaking a 30-year-old show will improve their chances.