7 posts tagged “kath & kim”

Jeremy Blomstedt rates his American TV favourites in his newspaper column. An excerpt, as these are two shows I follow:

Best new TV series: ABC’s “Life on Mars,” hands down. The admittedly-goofball premise of a modern-day New York police detective finding himself on the same beat in the 1970s either intrigued you or sent you for the hills. For me, though, this show has been one of the most enjoyable rides of the year, and it was gaining storytelling steam week by week. New episodes will air after “Lost,” starting Jan. 28.

Worst TV series of the year: NBC’s “Knight Rider” do-over was a bad idea as a two-hour TV movie, what with its color-by-numbers script and even lazier performances. That the series was worse – and not just a little worse, but truly plumbing the depths – didn’t come as a shock, I suppose, but who could have guessed that it made just about every single aspect of the original series look like “Citizen Kane” in comparison?

   I just hope the holiday hiatus hasn’t slowed Life on Mars down in the US. As to Knight Rider, I like the cheesefest. It is far lighter than the original, but Justin Breuning is a better actor than the Hoff was at this age, and Deanna Russo is very easy on the eyes. However, the changes to the pilot concept to make it more ensemble, with a Las Vegas-style mentality (no surprise, considering Gary Scott Thompson is show-runner) does spoil things a little. While I liked the idea that the hero and his ex-girlfriend are on missions together with a bit of sexual tension, it has become a little too far removed from the original series’ idea of ‘a car, a stud and an old man’—a formula which serves television well (an excerpt from an earlier blog entry of mine is below). Maybe we just aren’t as fascinated by a talking car now?
   I haven’t seen it, but I am sure there were worse things than Knight Rider in the US. American Kath & Kim, maybe?

The TV formula
• Knight Rider: a car, a stud, and an old man
• Hardcastle & McCormick: a car, a stud, and an old man
• The Sweeney: a car, a stud, and an old man
• The Streets of San Francisco: a car, an old man, and a stud
• The Equalizer: a car, an old man, and an even older man
• Street Hawk: a bike, a stud, and a bald man
• Solo One: a bike, a middle-aged man, and an old man
• B. J. and the Bear: a truck, a stud, and a chimp
• The Dukes of Hazzard: a car, two studs, and an old man
• Starsky & Hutch: a car, two studs, and an old man
• Miami Vice: a car, two studs, and a not-so-old man
• Minder: two cars, a stud, and an old man
• The Professionals: two cars, two studs, and an old man
• The Persuaders: two cars, two middle-aged men, and an old man
• CHiPs: two bikes, two studs, and an old man
• Special Squad: three cars, one stud, and two old men

PS.: Given Harvey Keitel is older than Philip Glenister, would American Life on Mars qualify as ‘two cars, one stud, and an old man’?

Just as I wasn’t enamoured with the idea of US versions of various shows (Outrageous Fortune, The Vicar of Dibley, Kath & Kim, State of Play), and have been keeping an open mind on the American Life on Mars, I must say the reverse is true. I am not particular fond of ITV’s plan to remake Law & Order in the UK, starring the very pleasant-looking Freema Agyeman. Some things only really work in their home countries. While, as with Life on Mars, I will keep an open mind, I can’t imagine the original theme over images of London as opposed to New York. It sounds as bad as remaking Bewitched in the UK, which no one would be stupid enough to do. Oh, wait …

In a year when Outrageous Fortune was remade in Britain as Honest and will be remade in the US as Good Behavior, in a year when Kath & Kim gets Americanized and we hear that State of Play will become a movie with Ben Affleck, what do we make of these?
   The American versions of Shameless and Little Britain, and the Russian version of The Office (Ofis).
   US Vicar of Dibley (Minister of Divine) starring Kirstie Alley and set in a town called Divine, Ga.
   Cold Feet, being remade in Poland.
   And as already covered on this blog, there’s a forthcoming Spanish show called Vida en Marte about a cop who has an accident and wakes up in 1977, wondering, ‘¿Soy enojado, en una coma, o trasero a tiempo?’
  

The Independent on Sunday has a good article on American remakes of British shows, though I should add that Britain has had its share of remaking others’. Anyone remember how Married with Children (Married for Life) and Who’s the Boss? (The Upper Hand) did not translate that well in the UK?
   Ready for the American treatment are:

ABC
Life on Mars

CBS
The Eleventh Hour (prod. Jerry Bruckheimer, starring British actor Rufus Sewell)
Worst Week (based on The Worst Week of My Life)

NBC
Top Gear
Gavin and Stacey

Big screen
State of Play (to star Helen Mirren, Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck)

Also coming
The Vicar of Dibley
Footballers’ Wives

   Don’t forget the Americans are also redoing Opportunity Knocks with Ashton Kutcher, though the concept sounds a little different from the original, Kath & Kim from Australia and Good Behavior (née Outrageous Fortune) from New Zealand (already remade in the UK as Honest with Amanda Redman).
   They join The Office, which of course has been a big hit in the US and perhaps led the way with this current crop, long enough for people to have forgotten Cracker with the late Robert Pastorelli. And, of course, American Idol and America’s Got Talent are rehashes of British shows.
   Once upon a time there were many versions of Popstars, which originated in New Zealand. Pity we now license New Zealand Idol, Stars in Their Eyes and Strictly Come Dancing. At least when the Americans remake things, they generally pick better source material.

I’m not even that huge a fan of Kath & Kim but I find the US remake news interesting. The two lead characters will still be Kath and Kim Day, but there will be no Sharon, Kel or Brett! Yes, they are being Americanized to Heather, Phil and Craig!
   I am keeping an open mind but just as I can’t visualize this set in the US, I can’t see Sharon called Heather!
   Official site is now up with very little content: http://www.nbc.com/Primetime/Kath_and_Kim/index.shtml.
   I’m wondering what sort of American accent would equate to Melbournian suburban—and no one I know in Melbourne talks like Kath and Kim anyway!

 

   Meanwhile, I understand that Outrageous Fortune already has a UK remake (Honest, with Amanda Redman) and that the US version approached Rene Russo for the Robyn Malcolm role, but IMDB says it has gone to Catherine O’Hara. I was wrong about the name: Throng reports it is to be called Good Behavior and IMDB confirms this.

First there was Kath & Kim, the US version, for NBC. Now, ABC brings you … from the maker of Veronica Mars … the American version of Outrageous Fortune!
   I can see OF work in the US though no doubt the hard-out Kiwi fans of the show will join all the Brits (who have had their fair share of American remakes), and moan. We will say what an inferior version the American one is and how it misses all our Newzild subtexts.
   The American Outrageous Fortune will join the American Life on Mars and the American Kath & Kim on American TV screens this autumn, I mean the American version of autumn, which is called fall. 
   We are certainly not immune from taking someone else’s concept and running with it, what with the New Zealand version of two British shows, Strictly Come Dancing and Pop Idol, and a Danish show that is now called Sensing Murder here. It’s only notable because aside from Popstars, New Zealand shows have not made it hugely overseas in licensed format.
   And the Dutch can get angry about the British versions of some of their shows like Big Brother and The Generation Game.
   Actually, I welcome our trans-Pacific transplanting and I hope the creators of Outrageous Fortune can bring in some useful royalty income into New Zealand.
   The irony is that this is probably the sort of show TV2 would air here in an effort to beat TV3, which shows the original OF.
   If we are all licensing each other’s shows, then how about a local version of Alarm für Cobra 11 but with a Māori guy and a white guy?

NBC has announced its new schedule for 2008 and, Journeyman fans, our fave is gone.
   In its place is an American remake of Australian sitcom Kath & Kim.
   You poor, poor bastards.
   Well, let me rephrase that. I like Kath & Kim but I only think it works in Australia. And as the first Aussie sitcom I can think of to get the American remake treatment, I just can’t see Molly Shannon and Selma Blair pull off, ‘Look at me. Look at me.’
   Maybe I am wrong as the Americans managed to make more episodes of Three’s Company and The Office than the original British producers could thanks to larger budgets, and keep them reasonably funny in their own way.
   I just get visions of Joey-style writing and direction rather than anything inspired like Flight of the Conchords or Extras.
   What the heck, here’s a YouTube video. Can this work as an American sitcom, in a Trailer Park Boys vein? What accent will Shannon and Blair adopt?

   For a country that puts out good, original sitcoms like My Name Is Earl, Americans are creative enough to come up with their own ideas—though having said that, I hope Kath & Kim creators Jane Turner and Gina Riley make a ****load of money from the adaptation, which they will also executive-produce.
   On the plus side, Knight Rider is back. Great! No story arcs or all that complicated plotting that US shows are known for of late. Just a good ol’ fashioned American TV show with plenty of cheese and a talking car. Let’s hope Val Kilmer comes back as KITT.