Red Dwarf USA Documentary (Part 1) 

One of the contrasts that helps explain why the US pilot failed is the scene of Lister re-awakened from stasis. In the UK version, he struggles to accept that everyone is dead. In the US version, it's just another situation for a joke. The UK shows Lister as a believable person, the US has him as an awkward joke delivery machine.

14 writers on Red Dwarf USA = utter crap and did not work. 2 writers on the original Red Dwarf here in the UK = total excellence and utterly brilliant, wonderfully funny. Enough said.

Is it just me or is Robert Llewellyn possibly the nicest, happiest, most well adjusted TV star on the planet?

"The guy that played me was really good, that's what pissed me off!" XD I love Craig.

I'm Irish but for me the three best comedy shows of all time are Red Dwarf, Only Fools and Blackadder. British comedy was always by far and away the funniest but over the last few years the comedy out of the beeb has been poor.

Damn, that US pilot is wretched.

To be fair, if we made a British version of The Big Bang Theory it probably wouldn't work either. ... that's why we made The IT Crowd instead.

A similar situation happened with The Young Ones. Although this was a few years after the British series ended. MTV filmed a US pilot, and for some reason hired Nigel Planer to be Neal in it, even though it was set in an American student house. It was so awful that Planer was terrified it'd be picked up, as he'd signed a seven season contract! Luckily it was never even broadcast.

Red Dwarf has always meant a lot to me, i can't sleep without a bit of noise - too many thoughts running through my head - Red Dwarf is a kind of security blanket for me - put it on and feel a bit safer

Every time Robert Llewellyn says something, he just bursts out laughing! He's a legend!

It's very notable how Robert can't say anything at all about the experience of actually being on set for this.

The most Hilarious thing about the Red Dwarf USA was how much all the UK cast and creators slag it off

Hearing their opinion on the second reading was utterly brutal! Would have love to have been a fly on the wall for this utter car crash.

Robert Llewellyn and Hattie Hayridge seem like two of the nicest, most pleasent people in the television industry (if you haven't seen it, do go and watch the episode of Carpool they do together, it's quite wonderful)

Why did they do this? Why not just watch Red Dwarf?

Robert Llewellyn looks a lot like Simon Pegg in the thumbnail for this.

As an American................ British Red Dwarf is just amazing

I feel so sorry for anyone who saw the USA version live :(

Craig Bierko turned down Joey from Friends? Wow. I wish I could peek into that timeline.

The reason why RD USA failed was because they tried to copy the jokes word for word. Had they of incorporated American humor into it they may of had more success. Take the US version of the Office for example, that was a success precisely because they adapted the comedy to suit the audience.

British Red Dwarf was magic. You don't fuck with sorcery and expect anything less than disaster. I do like hearing these guys talk about how terrible the US version is, though.

It's interesting seeing how the english team focused on story while the american writers just focus on jokes

Love love love the Boys from the Dwarf... Celebrating Chris Barrie all week in honor of it being his birthday on Sunday!

12:25 Someone needs to isolate that laugh for a forum weapon.

I won’t lie some of the American jokes made me laugh.

Great documentary

Red Dwarf The IT Crowd Doctor Who Sherlock Fawlty Towers America... STOP TRYING TO FIX WHAT'S NOT BROKEN!

From an American fan. Thank God they went the current way with the show!

That fire exit line was hilarious 😅

Robert Llewellyn is brilliant and funny as hell.

Not joking, I don't know how I haven't stumbled across this before, but I honestly thought this was some sort of odd parody at first? Glad we ended up with only the one definitive version.

If the Americans can successfully reproduce a UK programme, then good. But Red Dwarf was just so original, and unique, it just can't be replaced. Not even another UK team can reproduce it.

It's really interesting to see Doug Naylor's comments and analysis of why the script didn't work. Shows how much he really cares about his craft and why the original Red Dwarf was such a success

Pretty refreshing to see a making of where they fully acknowledge that something didn't work

12:20 - Those men in suits are probably the same NBC executives who laugh at Jay Leno jokes when he started on the Tonight Show in 1992.

Amazing to think 14 writers were employed to work on the Red Dwarf pilot, which in running time for NBC would amount to 22 to 23 minutes of content. In the original version, only Rob and Doug wrote the episodes, for a run time of 29 minutes of content per episode. Says everything doesn't it?

Pining after Kochanski.....that was a core essential part of the Lister charachter. Its like starting your movie off with Don Quixote taking Aldonza to the drive-thru. How many episodes in the first few seasons revolved around him just trying to ask her out?

Typical American way of making their own version: Have 6,000 writers do what originally took maybe 2-3, use actors that look like models, carefully calculate which demographics will react to it in a particular way, and basically make a mess of it all. It's a miracle they managed to turn the Office into something that's arguably better than the original - at least for a while. "You're so negative, just think of one-liners" - Basically, American producers seem to have very little respect or regard for the original source material. They just want to grab the rights before someone else does it. Sort of exactly what Disney did with Star Wars. "Lots of men in suits doing real fake laughing": Sounds like corporate America to me. Lots of overpaid morons in expensive suits.

"You don't need to be pug ugly to be funny." LoL.

This US pilot is a trainwreck. But that fire exit one-liner at 14:00 made me giggle like a banshee.

A couple of those gags are quite good. The baseball cards one in particular.

They really needed 14 writers to basically copy half the jokes from the original series?

horrible mistake insult to the british original

"There must be a store" :D brilliant

At what point, I wonder, did the US directors say "Oh god, the Brits were right".

I must admit...that female Cat (not showing in this video)...daaaang. Also, the intro music gives me strong StarCraft vibes

America makes good quiz shows which everyone copys but are fast to drop anything that isn't a instant hit which some shows take time to develop-Red Dwarf,Faulty Towers all had low ratings but were given time to grow. They should just show the uk shows and not assume us viewers only want us made shows.

I watched the VH1 100 worst ever tv shows and my nipple nuts burst off when they finally announced #1 and they said the words, "RED DWARF"!!! Infuriating this crap was released!

Hinton Battle: The singing demon from Buffy.

Rob looks like and even sounds like Simon Pegg....albeit an older version

The first US pilot had some great gags, but as a whole it just wasn't as funny or endearing or, dare I say, human as the original

I couldn't agree more

8:04 Yeah, Jane Leeves' hair was wrong for Holly. But at least Jane looked better as Daphne Moon in Frasier. In fact I would like to point out that this Dwarfing USA documentary is how I first became a fan of Frasier.

The only funny thing about the US show is hearing about how much of a disaster it was trying to take what was good from the original series and try and 'copy' the success without putting really collaborative effort in with the original creators. Even more funny is that that the people behind the US version probably didn't learn anything from this experience.

12:59 A perfect script, sir, with only one minor drawback...

The show premiered on April 5, 1987 as the very first program ever shown by the brand new FOX Network, and along with The Tracey Ullman Show was one of the network's few hits before The Simpsons turned the network into a major player. It was a constant ratings success until it ended in June of 1997; it's still Fox's longest-running live-action sitcom. This is the show in which Christina Applegate and Katey Sagal got their starts.

You can't beat the original.

I've actually never seen this pilot, only the one with Terry Farrell, (from Deeps Space nine and Becker) as Cat.

SOME mistakes?! There was only one mistake - creation of US version.

in other words... Americans always fail at replicating iconic British TV programs

The Red Dwarf USA theme is catchy, but I prefer the UK theme. BTW, the Kryten costume is a lot slimmer in this version.

This wasnt even 1% of the original cast.. they are THE PERFECT cast

I didn't even know that Robert Llewellyn's natural accent was english. I just assumed that his natural accent was American, just like his character Kryten.

0:11 WHERE ARE MY NIGHT COURT TAPES

Lone Starr from "Spaceballs" is an American Lister.

The producer Doug is talking about at the start is Linwood Boomer. The same guy who went on to do Malcolm in the Middle.

Didn't even know there WAS an American version. Won't be going out of my way to find it !! 🙁

I'm kind of on the fence when it comes to Hinton Battle's portrayal of the Cat. I thought Hinton was very good. However, while Danny played him as a self--absorbed, and shallow prima donna, for laughs, the Hinton clips I saw appear to show the Cat as manipulative sociopath. I really found the Hinton's Cat to be kind of scary.

Cheers mates

red dwarf is good british comedy

I view the first American Pilot Episode as an alternate RED DWARF reality in the space time continuum... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TcoycQSHSb4.html ...when I don't have time to binge watch the entire original series, I watch the first American Pilot. I think it's hilarious and stands on it's own with a great cliff hanger ending.

They used the triplicator to copy Red Dwarf and the American version is the shit version and the British one is the excellent version..

Now I want Robert Llewellyn fake laughter impersonation as a ring tone...

I didn't even know they had done a pilot. Glad it didn't take off

Absolutely love Red Dwarf ,thank god I’ve never seen this shite though

I never saw the American version (if there even was one); in my opinion, seeing a number of the British version episodes (but by no means all) & comparing those with the American pilot, I much prefer the British version. The British certainly have a way with humor!

14:02 one of the very few moments that the American pilot was on par with the original British version

How did they make Kryten, performed by the same actor, look different?

krtyens outfit and face looks crappier too :(

Craig and Robert both did a great job with the somewhat lackluster material/translation they were given, but I happen to be among the few who actually enjoyed this strange version of a truly brilliant show...YES, obviously, the original was FAR superior...but on it's on merit, this USA version was rather amusing...

I use to think bierko wasnt the right choice like most people, even bierko himself agrees he was the wrong choice but having watched the pilot a few times over the years i reckon it couldve actually worked, llewelyn instantly gels with him onscreen and bierko's lister is still likable so given a chance it did have potential.

Some thing shouldn't be re-made.

That initial music is interesting, anyway.

I always thought Kryten sounded more Canadian than American?

It could've worked with Baluchi, the same holly and replacing the cat and rimmer.. They did replace cat though

Well, the Office and Shameless translated really well, IMO. If Red Dwarf was a US cable show, it might've done better. When you translate for US broadcast networks, they try to play on the safe side with too-good-looking actors and VERY broad humor. UK-Red Dwarf was willing to be a little more risky. At the very least, they should've let Jane Leeves stick with her British accent; it TOTALLY would've worked.

Robert Llewelyn was the only decent thing in the USA version. The problem is - Red Dwarf is fundamentally British, as is its humour! It could have translated into the USA and Americans can and do enjoy the proper Red Dwarf - but it didn’t.

Alright, "Ace". How about getting the smeggin' ASPECT RATIO right, or is that outside your job description?

Be sure to check out the new Red Dwarf Encyclopedia, only at Hasslein Books! hassleinbooks.com/pages/book_redDwarf.php

Why on earth do the Americans feel the need to take something wonderful and mess it up recast it and end up with something inferior? They did it to the office and now I find also red dwarf they be crazy watch the original UK series much much better I am sure. How would they feel if we recast say Buffy and Giles was the only American in it?

12:25 Best part

There didn't need to be an american Red Dwarf. I'm american and I adore the original.

Honestly, the US pilots had some great lines and original gags and the cast wasn't bad. But the focus on zingers and one-liners is what ruined it. I feel like that's a problem with a lot of American sitcoms. They aren't as character driven or consistent with their personalities. They often then fall into the trap of everyone being a comedic sociopath that just spits out zingers but you have a hard time caring about these characters or even liking them. And that's not even getting into OG Red Dwarf being one of the only 80's-90's sitcoms that was not only sci-fi, but also crammed feature length plots, character exploration and world building within their 20-minute comedy show.

I don’t like “copy-catting”, but I would have loved the USA Red Dwarf. Maybe an alternate reality of Red Dwarf?

Bierko is great, but you need an out of shape eccentric and funny guy to play Lister not a good looking guy.

Sounds like the series “Episodes”!

'like a band aid over the cancer' must remember that one for work......

9:02 did he talk about the first Kryten being bad? I cant understand him :(

I think the level of American humour is now advanced enough to try again.......any excuse for more red dwarf

Although I have come to believe that British comedy shows on the whole work better than American ones, there are some genuinely great American comedy shows nowadays, and they can stand on their own next to their Brit peers. And there are some genuinely successful translations of British shows to America. But to do that, you need people who are not the worthless corporate suits; you need people who understand what made the British show great, and who can translate that to American sensibilities without losing the core identity of the original show. What the American Red Dwarf demonstrates is how to do that completely wrong in every way, losing the heart of the show and having no head at the same time. (See also any American adaptation of Fawlty Towers.) Not all American comedy should be condemned because of the occasional (okay, sometimes frequent) failings; but what should happen is to learn from the mistakes and improve. That does not seem to happen.