This was delightful! But what really makes these videos brilliant is that Laurence could be talking about pretty much anything and it would still be entertaining. And the off-camera glances to Tarah just makes it all the more endearing.
I remember watching in the 1960's, saw the Top Cat and noticed it changed to Boss Cat, although I thought, it was longer than the 1 month Wikipedia suggests. I hated the change, the BBC can be total d**ks at times.
@@tonymcgeachin9906 No, it was not a copyright issue. You are correct it was because of the cat food 'Top Cat', but why would they object, but it is because the BBC can not be seen to advertise. There was the perception at the BBC that it could be seen as an advert for the cat food.
It was definitely airing in the UK in the 70s as Top Cat. I've not seen it for years, but I don't recall ever seeing an episode with the title Boss Cat.
@Nicky L Absolutely! The only people who ever uttered the words "Boss Cat' were the continuity announcers. The BBC were so petrified of being seen to be advertising that items used by Blue Peter to do arts and crafts, such as cornflake boxes, had their branding taped over. Everyone knew it was a Kelloggs box but the word could never be seen.
The Fast Show (US) was a syndicated cooking show with a central theme of fasting.. They first episode involved showing all sorts of fruits and vegs being rendered into juice, since juices are a common first step toward complete fasting. The next episode involved nothing but ways to consume water - from the tap, bottled, frozen, liquid water poured over frozen water, and so on. After that it got quite boring. It was soon cancelled.
That is just so over the top insane that I can't tell if you're making that up or not! I hope you aren't, because, if it's real, I am morbidly curious about it.
I remember turning on BBC America when I saw "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" listed on the guide, only to find out it was NOT reruns of the Fox show known only as "Kitchen Nightmares". Instead it was a much more subdued Gordan Ramsay fixing up failing restaurants and not screaming at people. Surprisingly, the British version was much more delightful to watch.
As an American I first learned of Gordon from Hell's Kitchen with him yelling at the chefs on a regular basis. I have seen more than a few of his British shows since and they are a lot better than the American shows which regularly involve him getting angry at people(although sometimes for good reason, some of the restaurant owner's are quite hardheaded)with the exception of Master Chef Jr. because it wouldn't be seen well if he was yelling at 8-12 year olds.
I think the first thing I saw where Gordon wasn't portrayed as a hothead was a documentary he made on shark fin soup in asia, terrible dish that leads to fisherman cutting fins off sometimes endangered sharks and throwing the sharks back into the ocean to die; All for something that doesn't add much to the soup. I also liked a show where he took a bunch of convicted criminals in prison and taught them how to cook in a restaurant. Really showed that he wants to help people and teach people to cook.
"Randall and Hopkirk: Deceased" was released in the US as "My Partner the Ghost". "Till Death Us Do Part" was remade for US audiences and found incredible success as "All in the Family" - same for "Man About the House" being adapted into "Three's Company". The excellent "Robin of Sherwood" series from the 1980's was simply called "Robin Hood" in the US airings.
I know I didn't know it was an import at the time, but a problem we all had was figuring out some of the lyrics to All in the Family's opening credits song. They re-recorded the song after I don't recall how many seasons, but then we were all able to sing along. Fun times. Three's Company, another great one.
My Partner the Ghost's dvd release in America uses the British title, making it more difficult to shop for, as I'd never heard of "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'. 🤷♂️
The sequel/spin-off of "Are You Being Served?" that was known as "Grace and Favour" in the UK was called "Are You Being Served? Again" here in the US - I would imagine because most Americans aren't familiar with the concept of "grace and favour" homes and, therefore, wouldn't understand the double meaning of the title.
@@Birdbike719 The premise is that the now-retired Grace Bros. staff are all living together in a big old house that Mr. Grace has left them in his will.
I was lucky to grow up in the Dallas area that was the first to import British television for airing on our local PBS station KERA. My dad and I would stay up late on Saturdays and Sundays watching the Brit-Com time slot for a few hours each night. "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was the first, but shows like "Good Neighbors", "Are You Being Served", "Red Dwarf", and "Open All Hours" quickly became favorites.
My mom adored "To the Manor Born" on PBS when I was a kid. When I finally found it as an adult, I couldn't get into it. My husband loves "Good Neighbors/The Good Life" and introduced me to it. I've never seen "Only When I Laugh" but now we have the Internet so I can look for it.
I loved watching British comedies on Saturday nights on my local PBS channel. Especially Keeping up Appearances and As Time Goes By, starring Dame Judi Dench. They were usually followed by the wonderful Canadian show, The Red Green Show I miss watching those shows
My grandparents introduced me to Keeping Up Appearances. Sadly, they’ve both passed, but I’m so glad they introduced me to that show. I watch the entire series about once a year 😉
The British series Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan was retitled "Secret Agent" in the U.S., which gave them a reason to hire Johnny Rivers to do the theme song "Secret Agent Man." The song made it to #3 on the U.S. Billboard pop charts. It really is one of the best TV themes, up there with Hawaii 5-0 and Mission: Impossible. Top Cat was loosely based on The Phil Silvers Show (originally titled You'll Never Get Rich, AKA Sgt. Bilko). You probably never saw that show in Britain.
"Secret Agent" appeared to be a continuation of the adventures of John Drake of "Danger Man," who went on to be "The Prisoner." (They ran "Danger Man" in Chicago, I believe just prior to "The Prisoner.") They also ran "Human Jungle," starring Herbert Lom as a psychiatrist. (It was odd to see him in a straight part after the "Pink Panther." (They were a couple of top notch actors).
@@texbankuk I don't know about its reception here, but I can confirm that my mom always spoke very highly of Patrick McGoohan. I never did pursue any hidden meanings about her fondness for him, though.
Brit here. I'm 63, and Top Cat was always called 'Top Cat' when I was watching, we knew he and the other characters were copied from the Sergeant Bilko part of the Phil Silvers Show. Now, things like 'Charlie Chan and the Chan Clan' cartoon were far more interesting to me. All the kids in that series (I was a kid then), wore t-shirts over long-sleeved T-shirts apparently, and it was heard at the time here, that American kids weren't allowed to show their arms. The past is a different country. It became modern with the first Japanese cartoons; 'Marine Boy' in my case. Topless mermaids and all.
What you call “The Phil Silvers Show” was actually called “You’ll Never Get Rich” (because every week Sgt. Bilko came up with a new get rich quick scheme that failed) when it first aired on broadcast TV in the US so was this an example of the name change phenomenon? Regardless, it was probably my favorite TV comedy as a kid. Incidentally, in the US military a First Sergeant or Master Sergeant (which I believe Bilko was) is sometimes referred to as “Top” so the reference to “Top Cat” fits but not “Boss Cat”.
I'm sure if it were re-made today, the (1961) Avengers would have to be retitled. Whenever I talk about it, I have to explain that it's about spies (John Steed & Emma Peel) not superheroes.
@@eywine.7762 There was a crappy movie remake already in 1998 with Sean Connery. Marvel's Avengers comics had already been around for several decades when this movie was released. (IIRC, the first Marvel "Avengers" movie was retitled "Avengers Assemble" in some countries.)
My all time favorite British sitcom was "Goodnight Sweetheart". Nicholas Lyndhurst was superb. And who doesn't like time travel? A very well written show.
There was a pilot for a continuation of "Goodnight Sweetheart" where Nicholas Lyndhurst's character travelled between the 1960s and the late 90s. It was shown as a part of a playhouse where several other ideas were shown to the public. A reboot of "Porridge" - a comedy set in a British prison - won
@@triviabuff5682 He travelled back to the 1940s, not 60s and pretended to be a spy back then to help with this lack of being in the army. That's also why he could get away with calling Beatles songs his own.
@@Thurgosh_OG Yes, that's true, but I was describing a pilot for a new series of "Goodnight Sweetheart" that was broadcast as an episode of "Comedy Playhouse (I think it was called.). The BBC decided not to make the new series, and instead made a reboot of "Porridge".
Such a memorable show, especially because I think it's constructed entirely of repeated scenarios and catch phrases. "You know Violet dear. She's the one with the Mercedes, swimming pool and room for a pony." "Mind the pedestrians, Richard." And of course... "It's pronounced bouquet" among many, many more.
The U.S. and UK each had their own comic strip characters called _Dennis the Menace,_ created at almost the same time. When the U.S. one became a TV series, it was called _Just Dennis_ across the pond, I believe. Also, as far as I know, its star, Jay North, did not get called "Jay South".
One or both of the two Dennis the Menace comics are likely fudging their dates of origin. In the US, NC State University's mascot is the Wolfpack and The University of Nevada mascot is the Wolf Pack. Both have the same origin story where supposedly a sports writer derogatorily wrote that the football team was running around like a pack of wolves and the school eventually adopted the description as their mascot. There is no evidence that any such article was written about either school's football team. Both schools are vague about when they officially adopted the Wolfpack/Wolf Pack mascot. Most people believe the inspiration for both schools' mascot name came from the WWII era German submarine squadron that went by the same name. I suspect that the Dennis the Menace comics have a common inspiration that has been lost to time.
@@kevinbrown-ge6sz For the US version, cartoonist Hank Ketcham based the characters on his own family, merely switching their surname from Ketcham to Mitchell. What he left out of his comic strip: His wife Alice died of a drug overdose right after she had filed for divorce. Then a few weeks later Hank Ketcham married his secretary and moved to Switzerland. 🤔 Dennis was dumped off at a boarding school, and later fought in Vietnam and got post-traumatic stress disorder. He didn't have much contact with his dad as an adult.
@@kevinbrown-ge6sz Might have been a simple as “Dennis” being a common name in both countries and “mischievous kids” as a comics subject being popular at the time.
the Garfield character is written by a man who lives in Muncie Indiana. I learned that when his wife called my mom to buy some Tupperware. No internet back then so we didn't know much unless it was in an encyclopedia.
The amazing spy show "MI-5" here in the US was the re-brand of the British show "Spooks." The name was changed for reasons obvious to at least us older Americans. And "The Great British Bake Off" was renamed "The Great British Baking Show" because 'bake-off' was trademarked already.
@@margaretstutts4362 I just started a re-watch of MI-5. Only because I was afraid if BritBox noticed how many times I’ve re-watched Line of Duty they’d take away my subscription. Hahaha!
Great examples! The name change for Spooks was a bit odd since that word is used for spies here as well, but I guess it was done to specify British spies. I thought it funny that you can still see the original word forming in the opening titles.
@@jabbertwardy The name is a derogatory name in the US (though I don't think it's used anymore) so they played it safe. I think it took me three years before I realized you could still see the original titles spelled out! Also, the creators had to work some magic with the actors' union so they leave their names out of the credits... adding to the mysteriousness of their identities! I think as part of the deal they had to put it in the DVD release or something.
The Benny Hill show was the best! My mother loved keeping up appearances (I think that's what it was called). The one with the lady noone really liked.
I watched Top Cat in the 1960s in the UK on the BBC. In advance of and immediately before each episode, the continuity announcer *always* referred to the programme as "Boss Cat" e.g. "It's now time for Boss Cat". To have done otherwise would have led to accusations of product advertising ("Top Cat" being a brand of cat food) on a TV channel whose operational guidelines specified in its charter granted by the UK Government prohibited such advertising. I have no doubt that the programme listings published by the BBC's Radio Times magazine did the same. The show itself, including its signature tune, as broadcast always referred to its main character as "Top Cat" or "TC" for short and there were no changes to the sound track so the whole exercise seemed to have little point.
I remember reading an episode summary of Man vs. Wild, which described some impressive thing Bear did, which is far more impressive when you think it's a bear doing it.
I watched quite a bit of "britcoms". There are some other TV shows that did NOT change their names : " Three Up, Twp Down", "Open All Hours", "Keeping Up Appearances", "The Darling Buds of May"., "One Foot in the Grave", "Waiting for God".
Wasn’t there an “Are you being served?” Then a second one that US called “Are you being served, again?” But was called something like Grace and Favour? Love me some Mr Humpfries!
Back in the 1960s, I loved the British show 'My Partner, the Ghost'. It wasn't until decades later that I learned the original British title was 'Randall and Hopkirk - Deceased'. I still love it, by the way.
You just completely blow over the fact that Ninja turtles in the UK robbed Michelangelo of his nunchucks because nunchucks were an illegal weapon. His weapon in teenage mutant hero turtles was rope..A ROPE
They actually cut scenes where he used nunchucks in early seasons, then in America they eventually gave him a grappling hook to accommodate the UK censors.
I adored The Good Life/Good Neighbors! I specifically sought it out because of Monarch of the Glen, which had Richard Briers. That, in turn, led me to Rosemary & Thyme with Felicity Kendall.
You left out my favorite example. in the 1960s, i became acquainted with a British comedy-drama involving two private investigators, starring Kenneth Cope, Mike Pratt, and Annette Andre. I knew it as 'My Partner, the Ghost'. It wasn't until much later that I learned it was originally known as 'Randall and Hopkirk - Deceased'.
Great video! Fascinating shows and titles. You forgot about all of S Club 7's TV shows. In the UK, they were titled Miami 7, LA 7, Hollywood 7, and Viva S Club while in the US, they were retitled as "S Club 7 in Miami", "S Club 7 in LA", "S Club 7 in Hollywood", and "Viva S Club".
I was always confused when I went looking for Good Neighbors on British TV streaming services, now I know to look for Good Life. Loved the show and looked forward to each episode on PBS in the 80's.
Absolutely fell in love with British sitcoms thanks to PBS ~ Waiting for God, Are you Being Served?, Last of the Summer Wine, Keeping Up Appearances are just a few of my favorites
Keeping Up Appearances was first introduced to me by my grandparents many years ago. PBS was the only station they seemed to watch, except for CBS when Jeopardy and Wheel were on. It took me a few episodes to get the humor, (I was 12), but once I did, I loved it! Still do as a matter of fact. I have the entire series on DVD as well as saved to my DVR! 😂 And no, this is not a Chinese Take Away!
@@dorismidge8762 I remember watching an episode with my ailing grandfather (who was, oddly enough, named Doris, though you didn't pronounce the "i"). He laughed harder than I'd heard him laugh in years. I think it was the "riparian delights" episode.
LOVE "The Fast Show"! Should be mandatory watching all over the world. But I cannot now watch the scene in "Return of the Jedi" where C-3PO is telling the tale of the Rebellion to the Ewoks, complete with sound effects, without tacking on a gravelly, slurred " . . . but I'm afraid I was very, very DRUNK." at the end. 😉🤣 Back to the topic at hand, two of the name changes that stood out to me were: 1) When there was both a time-travel thriller series and a killer Rwandan crocodile movie, both called "Primeval," so the movie got called "Primeval Kill" for its release in the UK. 2) "G.I. Joe" got changed to "Action Force" . . . but not completely. I bought a DVD of the 1987 animated "G.I. Joe: The Movie" for the proverbials and giggles, and the battlecry was "YO, JOE!" until about two-thirds of the way in, where it changed to a very badly-dubbed "FULL FORCE!" Surreal.
What’s not to love about British shows (or Canadian or Australian)? And to be honest, I spend more time watching British RU-vidrs than American. Everything is better. Maybe the accent, maybe the dry, sarcastic humor. But this American appreciates and love it.
I thought you would have brought up the name change of the match game to blankety blank and family feud to family fortunes. The later was changed because people would associate feud with fighting.
Since this show was broadcast before Lawernce was born it maybe why it wasn't listed. Secret Agent starring Patrick McGoohan and had the title song "Secret Agent Man" was shown in the U.S. as Secret Agent and originally as Danger Man in the U.K. in the 1960's according to Wikipedia it was also known as John Drake, the name of McGoohan's character, and Destination Danger.
Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man” was a great tune...❤️🎶 My friends used to go to the Whiskey-A-Go-Go... They saw Johnny Rivers performing live... You had to be 18...and I graduated shortly before my 17th birthday... Boy, was I jealous!! ❤️🎶
If I'm not mistaken, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles was only used in the UK for the 1980s series, but not for the 2003, 2012 and 2014 series, which kept the "ninja" part of the name.
In the early 2000's, Discovery aired the 1st season of Junkyard Wars, which was clearly a British show called "Scrapheap Challenge" just renamed. All the dialogue referred to its original name, the only thing changed was the title graphic. Subsequent seasons aired that were shot in the US with its US name though, and with a completely different host- George Gray who is now the announcer on The Price is Right!
I live in Croatia where they show quite a few American and a few British programmes with subtitles. They often go straight into them without showing the title sequence and they invariably rename them. For this reason I sometimes watch something like "Bones" for months without knowing what it is called.
I loved watching British comedies on PBS when in was little. Staying at my grandma's every Saturday night that's all we watched from 8-11pm. The Vicar of Dibley was my absolute favorite. Funniest show😂
In the mid-late 80's, there was a cartoon based on Dennis the Menace (the blonde US version) that also aired in the UK. But in the UK, it was simply called 'Dennis' so as not to clash with the Beano's Dennis the Menace (the black-haired UK one). The same adjustment was also made to the movie that came out in 1993.
My favorite British shows was the black adder keeping up appearances are your being served and red dwarf my local PBS station use to show them along with Dr who and Blake 7 i miss those days
How I loved Brilliant (Fast Show). It first aired here when BBC America was introduced in the mid 90’s. After a gut wrenching episode of This Life there was nothing better than reruns of A Bit Of Fry And Laurie then Brilliant! You see, I was very, very drunk.
He isn't referencing shows that morphed into an American version... but rather how the shows were renamed to be shown in the US (and vice versa). Fawlty Towers was called just that in the US.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Grace & Favour, the followup series to Are You Being Served? When it aired on PBS in America, it was retitled Are You Being Served? Again! John Inman went on record saying he actually preferred the American title.
I think it was somewhat of an omission that when discussing the Ninja Turtles that you didn't point out that Michelangelo's nunchucks were barred from being seen in the British version
Actually Mikey got the weird weapon change in hero turtles in Britain. Some type of throwing hook I think. It was just strange because the nunchucks are technically allowed in Britain just as a collection piece or as a defense weapon legally speaking.
Unless I'm remembering wrong, they would cut out any scenes of nunchucks for British TV in the 1980's. Enter the Dragon didn't have nunchucks until I saw it on DVD!
The grappling hook wasn't just a UK change, though. Mikey changed weapons, and then later the Turtles would even avoid weapons as much as possible, having them use improvised weapons far more often. Now whether Michelangelo's nunchucks got edited out in the earlier seasons in the UK, I don't know. It does seem weird to me that nunchucks are worse than katanas, though, which are just big knives.
@@ZipplyZane I think the problem was that nunchucks are easy for kids to make - two sticks and a bit of a string and you could laughing all the way to A&E.
@@youcantleavethisempty I get that, but my point was that I'd think the kids could also easily grab knives and play swords with them. The positive spin would be that they were worried that people wouldn't immediately know that nunchaku are as dangerous as they are. The negative one is that it was just part of the same reason they removed Ninja, despite them not being more violent than many Western groups that were allowed to pass.
I remember watching the sequel series to Are You Being Served? which in the UK it was called Grace & Favour, but here in the USA it was called Are You Being Served? Again.
Most shows in Australia kept their original US or UK names (except for that Bear Grylls thing). In the 1980s Bandai Australia released "Machine Men" in 1983 which was called "Gobots" in the United States and released by Tonka. The Hanna-Barbera cartoon, "Challenge of the Gobots," was called "Challenge of the Machine Men" Down Under. We also had different names for the characters at first. The Guardians were called "Friendly Robots" and the Renegades were "Enemy Robots." Leader-1 = F-15 Man Cy-Kill = Motorcycle Man Crasher = Porsche Man Road Ranger = Semi-Trailer Man Tank = Tank Man Cop-Tur = Copter Man Rest-Q = Ambulance Man Hans Cuff = Police Man etc. Bandai Australia would later change to the U.S. Gobots name from 1984-87, but the line was always called "Machine Men," and the larger Super Gobots were called "Super Machine Men" here. So any Machine Men characters released from 1984-87 only ever had the same name as the US Gobots (e.g. Pathfinder was only ever called Pathfinder, same with Bug Bite etc.). The Challenge of the Machine Men also had a different intro song, which was basically just the toy commercial's jingle (you can find it on RU-vid). Australia did miss some Gobots though, such as Treds; never released here. As with other parts of the world, the Machine Men lost out to the Transformers. And we had both the Marvel US and UK comics here, as well as toys from both Hasbro USA (Pawtucket RI) from 1984-90, then Hasbro UK (Newport, Wales) from 1991-97, before switching back to predominantly sourcing toys from Rhode Island again.
Wait, WHAT??? Martin Freeman was in Fargo?? Now I have to see it again, I love that movie but I can’t picture him in it! EDIT: ok, I just looked it up, he is in the TV show. Phew! I thought I was going crazy!
I wasn't aware that there was a British version of The Office so I was surprised when at the clip of the guy in the back ground. It was Mackenzie Crook. He played Ragetti in the PoTC movies.
While the popular detective show "Midsomer Murders" is call the same thing both in the UK and the US, in many places internationally, it is called "Barnaby", which is the surname of the main character. Originally this was Tom Barnaby, played by John Nettles. When he retired, so did Tom, only to be replaced by his cousin, John, played by Neil Dudgeon. I have always reasoned they did this, and didn't just give Barnaby's DS Ben Jones a promotion (which he rightly deserved), because of the show's international name.
The TMNT thing is not surprising. Swords with curved blades are way more tightly regulated than swords with straight blades. You know, because of ninjas.
My comment refers not to TV shows, but to classic sci-fi movies. In the 1950s BBC launched a TV serial called "The Quatermass Experiment", concerning a rocket scientist called Bernard Quatermass. (Rumor has it that the writer found the name in the London telephone directory.) It was wildly successful, so a movie version was produced called "The Quatermass Xperiment". (The producers were counting on a X-rating from the censors, which would guarantee a lucrative box office.) The American importers changed the title because they thought the name Quatermass would confuse movie-goers, so it became "The Creeping Unknown". The Quatermass character was so popular that more movies followed: "Quatermass II" (renamed "Enemy from Space" in the US) and "Quatermass and the Pit" (renamed "Five Milion Years to Earth" for Americans).
Hi Laurence Debra here from S Wales here Like you I remember watching a show in the late 1960s early 1970s called "Top Cat", I am sure I grew up thinking the American show was called "Boss Cat". Some other British shows with different names in the US are UK 1 Man About The Hiuse 2 George and Mildred 3 Steptoe and Son USA 1 Threes Company 2 The Ropers 3 Sandford and Son
The Great British Bake-Off is the Great British Baking Show in the US. Apparently, Pillsbury had a bee in its bonnet about the name because of the Pillsbury Bake-Off.
The UK had an almost shot-for-shot remake of That 70s Show called Days Like These. It was so bad they didn't even bother to air the last 3 episodes they had already made.
I was thinking this after seeing someone else's comment. Could include the awful UK adaptation of The Golden Girls; Brighton Belles and the US adaptation of Man About The House; Three's Company, as well as the British origins of US sitcoms, All In The Family and Sanford and Son.
The American remakes of British shows were only successful if American audiences were unaware of the original British series. (Although Beans of Boston was a failed “Are You Being Served” remake long before US audiences were introduced to the original.) I think the main reason British remakes fail is because the original American versions are already too well known in the UK.
So it looks like "The Fast Show" was a BBC Two comedy sketch show from 1994-1997 that was broadcast in the US as "Brilliant"... so when the show Brilliant was brought to the US, they had to change the name so that it wouldn't be confused with the other British show that was rebroadcast in the US as Brilliant... What a brilliant folly!
Hiya Laurence, Bear Grylls real name is Edward Grylls the bear part came when people used to call him "Teddy" hence Teddy bear, the U.S version of Family Fortunes is called Family Feud, the U.S version of Fawlty Towers is called Payne, the U.S version of The Young Ones is called "Oh No Its Not Them Again", this is Choppy in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England
I hope the still call it The Benny Hill Show in the U.K. That definitely wasn't on PBS but they did show "racier" drama after hours. Also, got hooked on Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Doctor Who and Red Dwarf when young. Until BBC America came along and saw Spaced and the Office and realized those Brits are still pretty darn funny.
Oh yeah, I remember there was a show called the fast show, but it came on after the Slow Show, so I never had the patience to sit and wait for it to finally, well, show.
Perhaps both shows are a bit before your time, but there was a highly successful show in the US called "All In The Family" which was based on the UK show called "Till Death Do Us Part." I'm not sure how much legacy or influence "Till Death Do Us Part" had on British TV an society, but "All In The Family" was one of the iconic sitcoms of the 1970s. I'm surprised it wasn't even mentioned.
There are two VERY FAMOUS American 70s sitcoms that had their origins in Britain that were overlooked..."All In the Family" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_in_the_Family) with the famous Archie Bunker character was originally known in the UK as "Till Death Do Us Part". And the famous "Sanford and Son" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_and_Son) starring Redd Fox as a salvage dealer had a British counterpart known as "Steptoe and Son"
They were more adapted remakes with different casts than they were re-titles of the same show, for the American/British market. Although US/UK remakes/adaptions of each other's shows (good or bad) would make a great video topic. Laurence could include the awful UK adaptation of The Golden Girls; Brighton Belles and the US adaptation of Man About The House; Three's Company.
Howzabout the three different attempts at remaking "Fawlty Towers" for the American market? The first one, "Snavely," starred Harvey Korman, the next one took Basil Fawlty out completely, replaced him with Bea Arthur, and called it "Amanda's". Then there was 1999's "Payne," starring John Larroquette, which was the best of the three, and really felt like Fawlty Towers.
"One Foot in the Grave" became "Cosby", starring Bill Cosby, which aired on CBS. The British version still aired on PBS under its original title, though.
@@KasumiKenshirou I don't BELIEVE it! I remember reading an article in a UK newspaper that Cosby wanted to get the rights to make OFING, but I hadn't realised he'd actually made it. The article said that he wanted to make the lead character more "likeable" - which rather goes against the point of the show, which was an old bloke getting furious about everything!
@@stewydoo The worst transpondian adaptation of all time has to be the short-lived American remake of Coupling. Very nearly the same scripts, as I recall, but just totally fell flat and unfunny.
Not a title change but I know the scene in Shaun of the Dead where they see the first zombie and say "She's drunk!" That scene was changed for American release because in Britian it was "She's pissed" which means would mean angry in the states. I'm sure plenty of other British movies have done this but that is the one I am familiar with.
In the intro of Martin Freeman’s new show, you omitted a recent one (also available on BritBox) entitled Confession or A Confession. Gripping and incredibly well done.
Laurence, re. your reference to Born Survivor, rather than Man vs. Wild (Bear Grills), it might also mislead hunters into thinking they could walk into an outdoor store, and get a monstrous grill on which to grill his/her latest successful hunt.
The U.S. tried twice to remake Fawlty Towers for audiences over here. One with Bea Arthur as the Basil character and called "Amanda's" and once with Harvey Korman called "Snavely". I only saw the Bea Arthur version and other than Tony Rosato as the Manuel type character it was forgettable. Now, via the IMDb I've learned there was a third attempt called "Payne" with John Larroquette.
I saw Payne. It wasn't very good. (Didn't see the other versions, so maybe they were even worse.) I just remember that the main character's name was "Royal Payne", which was incredibly stupid.
@@KasumiKenshirou Yeah, the others were worse. As for the name, yeah, it sounds silly, but "Royal" is a real name, somehow. (Like the actor, Royal Dano.)
Have seen an episode of 'Royal Payne' on youtube, and can immediately see why it failed. Rather like the single pilot the US made of 'Dad's Army'. It completely missed the point, and failed to find an audience in the US.
Tell Brit-box to add more than just 8 seasons of "Last of the Summer wine", Allo Allo, Father Ted and in general more comedy and I will subscribe to them again. I love the British sense of humor. There is enough drama in life, do we really need any more.
I'll add one that's before your time. "Danger Man" starring the late Patrick McGoohan, was changed to "Secret Agent" in North America for some reason that I'm not aware of. It then spawned a hit song by Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man". The most disturbing thing about this video is the clip of children playing soccer on a playground made of large rocks, in shorts no less.
Pretty sure they changed it specifically because they thought the song would be great for the show. There was a half-hour "Danger Man" that aired about 3-4 years before the hour-long ones, also with McGoohan, that aired in the U.S. as "Danger Man." It has a different theme than both versions of the hour-long series.
Oh!! I LOVED Good Neighbors on PBS (aka The Good Life originally in the UK). I wish I could watch that show again. I think it would gain a larger audience these days, with so many people now adopting a homesteading lifestyle to one degree or another, and/or going off-grid.
