Why does the US remake British TV?
Slarti Bartfast
Posts: 6,607 Forum Member
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Earlier today my son watched Bob the Builder via Netflix US and I was astounded to hear it had been re-voiced with American accents. Even the theme tune had been re-sung! It's just come back to me as my other son is watching Rugrats and it struck me how bizarre a practice it would be to re-do it with different accents. What's the point? What is gained?
This got me thinking, Americans don't seem content to watch British shows, they re-make them. The Office, Life on Mars, Shameless, Men Behaving Badly, The Inbetweeners, etc, etc.
Why is this? Do they frown on importing foreign cultures? Whereas we tend to import their offerings and come to know, and even assimilate, their cultural references, do they remain insular and relatively ignorant of other cultures?
This got me thinking, Americans don't seem content to watch British shows, they re-make them. The Office, Life on Mars, Shameless, Men Behaving Badly, The Inbetweeners, etc, etc.
Why is this? Do they frown on importing foreign cultures? Whereas we tend to import their offerings and come to know, and even assimilate, their cultural references, do they remain insular and relatively ignorant of other cultures?
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http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_television_series_based_on_American_television_series
As somebody has pointed out, this does happen in reverse too, albeit to a lesser degree.
I think the UK is marginally more intelligent.. only marginally though.
Indeed, especially throughout the 70's and 80's, we imported and redubbed so many kids tv shows from all over the world...stuff like White Horses, Robinson Crusoe, Pippi Longstocking, and any number of Japanese cartoons and live action shows from the 80's.
Top Gear, Craig Kilborn, John Oliver, BBC America, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Merlin, Doctor Who, etc, all popular in the U.S.
They make some of the best TV and film in the world, some of the most creative and amazing programming you could wish for.
I myself love films and TV from the world over, I don't want it dubbed or remade, I want the total foreign experience.
I suppose they remake them because they know they can make more money off them that way.
A film like 'the girl with the dragon tattoo' is an example of pretty pointless remake. Why did they just not watch the original with subtitles?
I suppose all the Americans with good taste watch all the best foreign stuff online, but the masses are not interested in foreign media. A bit like the rest of the world with American sports, we couldn't care less about it.
Money. Both ways.
For the U.S., it's much cheaper and more profitable to do a remake than license it.
For Britain, it's much cheaper and more profitable to license a sitcom series than do a remake of it. However, it does prefer to create the British format of U.S. game shows and TV reality. Examples: Blankety Blank, Geordie Shore, This is Your Life, Blockbusters, Family Fortunes and University Challenge. More profitable this way.
The Americans remade it using the original scripts.
And they got Richard Ayoade, who played the main character Moss in the British one, to come and play the same character in the American one, almost word for word!
So does Britain. One advantage Britain has over the U.S. is its history of using the pool of directors and key crew/production (cinematography, sound, music, editing, etc). Because we don't make as many theatrical films as the U.S. does, we have experienced film directors and crew members working on British TV dramas and such. Hence, the consistently high quality of British television drama.
It's actually thanks to Britain that the U.S. are starting to use its pool of film directors to work on American TV drama like True Detective and such.
Who does he think owns the rights to these UK shows, and therefore who does he think makes the decision to sell those rights to foreign territories?
And ultimately who does he think profits from that sale?
I really love my BBC4 fix of subtitled drama - but I have four episodes of Spiral 5 to catch up on at the moment.
I hope that Laure, Gilou and Tintin are kicking as much arse as possible - and that the awesome Roban is his usual brilliant self.
Of course! D'oh!
Did you ever watch the Tracey Ullman show, OP?
The may feel that their viewers will be more comfortable with US accents.
And for remakes they will use references and context relatable to them.
It a bit different with the reverse. We've had US tv and have adopted and adapted to it well. In most cases we're happy with and understand US references and dialogue etc.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? I'm guessing because I have no idea what that's about.
Edited: Oh, it's Big Brother?
Whooops. Wrong Craig -Ferguson, not Kilborn.
While I'm at it, off the top of my head, Bubble Guppies, Max and Ruby and Dinosaur Train are North American cartoons dubbed over with British accents. I'm sure there are others.
I have a kid too.
Do you all really think the OP cares about the topic they presented? It is nothing more than a cheap shot veiled in a half-witted topic.
But yes, a country created from English, Irish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Scandinavian, Chinese, Japanese, African, Mexican, Latin American, Russian, and Indian (Asian and Native) are ignorant about other cultures. Yawn...
You never disappoint, dee.
That's not true now is it?
I suppose the American TV broadcaster who bought the rights to show it must have thought that American viewers would be able to understand their accent much easier. I say accent, but just mean one that doesn't come from thousands of miles away.
Well, I just happen to love fatuous arrogance, so...
By the way, BB, I just remembered there's a UK version of Fraggle Rock too. How aghast are you?
Are there many British programmes that have been consumed as they are (not remade) on the other side of the pond?