I’ll go first…The Office.
Now I know the two shows are fundamentally quite different, but they adapted what was already a very successful show, and turned It into an event more successfully one that lasted for significantly longer than the original did. I say that’s a win for them.
Anything else? Life on Mars, Being Human, The Inbetweeners…?
I genuinely can’t think of one that finished better. A big part of the art of entertainment is knowing when to stop.
If you look up reviews for any British shows on IMDb, a good chunk of the reviews all say the same thing - “Oh my gaaad the Briddish make the best shows, I just wish they had more episodes!”
Totally missing the point that it was good because it told its story and finished
They can’t even bring themselves to say “miniseries”, it has to be a “limited series”
There’s quite a good Wikipedia article on this.
Amongst all the quiz and reality shows, there are a few intriguing obscure nuggets:
- The Golden Girls is an adaptation of a UK TV series, The Brighton Belles.
- They’ve tried to adapt Fawlty Towers three times.
- Not the Nine O’ Clock News was adapted for the US.
- One Foot in the Grave became Cosby - presumably the British version didn’t have enough (ie any) rapists.
- They tried to adapt Spaced, IT Crowd and the Young Ones but they failed at the pilot stage. This is probably A Good Thing. Although I might see if I can dig out the pilots.
Cosby predates One Foot in the Grave - I remember watching Cosby as a kid in the 80s, and OFitG didn’t show up until the 90s. OFitG became (I think) Curb Your Enthusiam.
Maybe a controversial one but I much prefer the US version of Shameless to the British one.
Robot wars (called battlebots in the US)
I don’t think you can say either the US or UK office is better than the other, they’re too different
That’s my feeling, they’re very different beasts. The British one is like a bespoke gem and the American one is that retooled for the US comedy writing system.
What feels like a controversial opinion, but it really shouldn’t be, I don’t think the US Office is as good as the UK Office.
The UK Office felt like a documentary, and really felt like places I had worked and knew people like that.
Once the US Office got out of copying the UK one, it just become a sitcom that had people talking to the audience. I mean it was good, but it was still basically an American sitcom.
It’s like WWDITS. The film was awesome, and the first season that still involved the Kiwis was good, but it quickly subsided into standard American dross. Winning a Golden Globe for basically not being WWDITS and just being Matt Berry was the icing.