SPECIAL REPORT: Foreign Format Remakes

Manatee: We here at "M and M Destroy TV" have discovered an alarming trend for Fall Television. Viewers beware! As if it wasn't bad enough that the strike caused us to be inundated by reality TV all winter - the Fall 2008-09 Schedule is not shaping up to be much better. For the past 3 months we have been forced to watch dreadful mid-season shows which were destined to sit on a shelf collecting dust for years to come; raunchy reality wanna-be celebrities; and repeats of Sex & the City and Family Guy.

And now we are facing an Invasion of Foreign Television! Sure, The Office is good for a few laughs (don't worry, they're working on an Office spin-off), but do you remember Viva Laughlin?! How can they put us through this? Why is it so hard to hire a few talented writers (I know they are out there and probably at the studio's doorstep with script in hand) and create some original shows? In addition to this list, we did not include foriegn series which have been acquired by the various networks (Ie: HBO will air the Australian series, Summer Heights High and Showtime as acquired UK's Secret Diary of a Call Girl.)

Marmot: This is definitely frightening. What does this say about America when we have to import entertainment, which is our biggest export? We're just taking from other countries, polishing them up and selling it back to them at a higher price. That's just...well...good business.

What a lot of people don't realize is that there have been many successful American shows that were based on foreign series. Obviously, Ugly Betty was, as it is nine shades of ridiculous, but All In the Family, which has a set piece in the Smithsonian, was a remake of a British series called "Till Death Do Us Part". It then was remade as a Japanese series called Racist Chair Man. Or so I heard.

So why is this pilot season, more than any other, full of foreign remakes? Mostly due to the Great Writer's Strike of '07/'08. The 3 month strike crippled the development season, forcing networks to go with what they know works, which is also why there are good deal of pilots from previous years that have been re-shot, much like the now-legendary "Three Pounds".

Here's a list of this year's pilots that are remakes of foreign shows:

What You Have to Look Forward To:

CBS Network

Roman's Empire (Pilot Presentation**): A single camera comedy series based on the British BBC format about a self-made millionaire and dedicated family man who, with a mixture of both benevolent generosity and absolute authority, successfully runs an ‘Empire’ of thriving businesses. His monopoly, however, extends further than business and encompasses the lives of his much loved family, in particular his three beautiful daughters, and any man who dares to date one of them becomes a member of the family and a pawn in his empire – whether they like it or not.

Worst Week of My Life (Pilot Take #2***): A single camera comedy series based on the British limited run series about a couple's nightmarish week before their wedding dealing with family and in-law politics.

Mythological X (Pilot): A dramatic series based on an Israeli format about a woman who tracks down all of her exes after a psychic tells her that she has already met the man she is going to marry.

NY-LON (Pilot): A dramatic series based on the British Channel 4 series set in two great cities and featuring a passionate love affair spanning 3,000 miles. It was the first ever UK drama series to be filmed partly on location in New York’s Lower East Side and with an exciting transatlantic cast, NY-LON follows the troubled romance between a bohemian New York record store clerk, and London stock broker Michael, after their chance meeting in his city. Following the disparate couple through the highs and lows of their very modern romance, the intervention of opinionated friends and the inevitable culture clash, NY-LON is a stylish and bold drama event.

Elemental fka The Untitled Eleventh Hour (Pilot): A U.S. version of the four part British television miniseries developed by Granada Television for ITV in the UK by Stephen Gallagher. The series follows the adventures of a professor who is an advisor to a government scientific agency who troubleshoots threats stemming from or targeting scientific endeavor. He is joined by a government operative who acts primarily as his bodyguard, as he has made powerful enemies through his work.

ABC Network

Never Better (Pilot): A single camera comedy series based on a British format about a recovering alcoholic. He tries to be a good husband and father despite his somewhat misguided attempts.

Bad Mother's Handbook (Pilot): A single camera comedy series based on the book of the same name by Kate Long, which also aired as a one-off television drama on ITV in the UK. The Bad Mother's Handbook tells the story of one year in the lives of three unforgettable women - a woman, her teenage daughter and her mother. Both hilarious and wise, it is a clear-eyed look at motherhood and childhood, from the moment the condom breaks, to the moment you hear your baby's first cry. The realisation that no two mothers are alike, and that ultimately love is the most important thing of all.

Good Behavior (Pilot): A dramatic series with comedic elements based on the New Zealand television comedy/drama series, produced by South Pacific Pictures centering on a family of burglars whose matriarch mandates that they go straight after the father is jailed. The characters each walk a fine line between right and wrong according to their respective values - the law, the criminal code of honor, loyalty to family, and respectability.

Life on Mars (Pilot): A U.S. adaptation of the BBC series about a 21st century detective who is mysteriously transported back to the 1970's. Detective Sam Tyler's world is about to be turned upside down. Moments after his girlfriend and colleague, Maya (Archie Panjabi), is kidnapped by a serial killer, Sam is knocked unconscious by a car. He wakes up - in 1973. Sam discovers a strange new world full of cigarette smoking, gum chewing, and unreconstructed men. Dazed and confused, Sam finds it difficult to focus on the murder his new colleagues are investigating. Then he discovers a connection between this crime and the serial killer who kidnapped his girlfriend back in 2006. Could solving this case be the key to getting home? Could it be a way to save his girlfriend?

FOX Network

Outnumbered (Pilot*): A comedy series based on the British BBC series about a family where the parents are "Outnumbered" by their three children. The parents constantly try to keep their children under control, but completely fail to do so.

Spaced (Pilot): A comedy series based on the British Channel 4 series about two twenty-somethings who meet by chance while both are apartment hunting. Despite barely knowing each other, they conspire to pose as a young "professional" couple in order to meet the requirements of an advertisement for a relatively cheap apartment. The series largely concerns the colourful and surreal adventures of the two as they navigate through life, decide on what they want to do with their lives, come to terms with affairs of the heart, and try to figure out new ways of killing time in largely unproductive ways. Of course, because they spend so much time denying being a couple, romantic tension develops between them.

HBO

Suburban Shootout (Pilot): A dark comedy series based on the British series that follows the topsy-turvy world of a suburban housewife turf war. In Suburban Shootout, the routine world of Suburbia, mid-morning exercise classes and daily school runs, mask the secret super-sexed, super violent world where women don't kill time - they kill each other. The series chronicles the malicious and sordid battle between two power hungry housewives. Into this epic struggle walk an innocent newcomer and her husband, who act as unwilling pawns in the power struggle between the two matriarchs.

Little Britain (Series****): A sketch comedy series featuring two stars of the British comedy series "Little Britain".

FX Network

Man V. Woman (Pilot): This partially-improvised, adult-oriented sketch comedy show is adapted from a British format. Sketches will primarily focus on the often adversarial relationships between men and women.

NBC Network Kath & Kim (Australian Series): They're the most dysfunctional duo in suburbia. Kath Day (Molly Shannon, NBC's "Saturday Night Live") is the mom, a foxy, 40-something divorcée who finally has time for herself and her valiant search for love. Kim Day (Selma Blair, "Hellboy," "Hellboy II") is the daughter, a self-absorbed princess recently separated from her husband who finds consolation in stuffing her face. When Kim decides to move back home, Kath reluctantly agrees -- but to Kim's chagrin, Kath is not about to cater to her every whim as she has in the past. Based on the most successful comedy in Australia of the same name, Kath and Kim are two brassy women who prefer the finer things in life like acrylic nails, big hair and faux diamond chips.

Lifetime Network Mistresses (Pilot): The dramatic series is based on the one-hour BBC1 series of the same title. Follows five 30-something girlfriends who are each involved in a very complex relationships. They deal with these relationships and the matter of infidelity by leaning on each other.

* For those of you not Industry Lingo Savvy, "Pilot" just means that they are shooting one episode of a potential TV Series. Then the studio and network test that episode with audiences to gauge their interest in the show. Typically, if this episode tests well and the audience is entertained, then the Network will add it to their fall schedule. If not, then they toss it in the trash can, never to be heard from again... unless your name is Rob Thomas and you are bringin back the 1998 failed series "Cupid" to ABC for (potentially) 2008-09.

For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_pilot

** "Pilot Presentation" simply means the studio does not want to put in a lot of money to the pilot, so they film a shortened version of your script. For example, they might film 35-40 pages as opposed to your full length 60 page script. FYI: Moonlight was shot last year as a presentation and it got picked up. they rehot the entire first episode. The presentation never made it to CBS.

*** Sometimes when a Network films a pilot and cans it, another network comes along the following year and says, "Wait, I will buy that from you." And then the new network will probably rework the script with the writer and then film a whole new pilot for their network. Yes, it seems backwards to us too... but try, try again.

**** Yes, You have the pleasure of watching this on the air.