This week saw the release of The Killing Season 1, America’s own re-imagining of the hit Danish TV show Frobrydelsen that’s been gripping the nation since it began airing on Channel 4, on Blu-Ray and DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
While 'remake' is often a word associated with cinema, our cousins from the other side of the pond are no strangers to adapting TV series for their own audiences, and while some have inevitably become lost in translation, others have often come out with rather great results!
Having been nominated for three Emmy® Awards and already commissioned for a second series, the critically acclaimed The Killing is undoubtedly one of the latter, so to celebrate its release we take look at the best American TV show remakes and the original counterparts who inspired them.
The Killing
Denmark’s subtitled crime drama Forbrydelsen proved to be a rather unlikely hit with UK audiences when it first hit BBC4, eventually becoming such a success that it wasn’t long before the American re-imagining was underway cue in hardcore fans of the Danish original who feared the worst, only to be pleasantly surprised with a show that’s not only been hugely successful across the Atlantic, but also proving a hit in its own right with UK audiences.
Set in Seattle, the show follows detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder as they investigate into the murder of local teenager Rosie Larsen, whose seemingly picture perfect life begins to unravel in disturbing ways as the secrets and lies surrounding her disappearance are uncovered.
The Office
Debate continues to rampage about which version of this mockumentary workplace sitcom is superior, but with the seventh season of the American version currently airing on NBC, there’s no doubt the remake has been a huge success.
The first episodes were copies of the British version with jokes Americanized for the new audience, but since then the program has distanced itself from the original character patterning and become its own show. The writers did an excellent job of changing some aspects to appeal to American audiences while leaving the essence of the humour intact.
Ugly Betty
Uggly Betty revolves around the character of Betty Suarez, a 22-year-old Mexican American woman from Queens, New York who is sorely lacking in fashion sense. Known to be courageous, good-hearted, and slightly naïve, she is abruptly thrust into a different world when she lands a job at Mode, a trendy high fashion magazine based in Manhattan that is part of the publishing empire of the wealthy Bradford Meade.
Unbeknown to most, however, is the fact that this highly successful TV series wasn’t the only (or first!) remake of the original Colombian show Yo Soy Betty, La Fea. The show’s been in fact remade in no less than 18 countries, including India, Turkey, Russia, Spain, Poland, Germany and even China!
Queer As Folk
Like The Office, the American version of this show continued for much longer than the British one. Where Queer As Folk in the UK focused on a group of outrageously stereotypical gay men, the North American program (Canada broadcast it, too) made the characters a bit more relatable, adding a lesbian couple to its leading cast from the start and eventually going down its own path with new plotlines.
The remake was more serious in general - unlike the original, it tackled AIDS, gay adoption, and gay marriage in its episodes instead of focusing solely on its characters’ personal lives. Running from 2000-2005, it became an important show for the LGBTQ community as homosexuality continued to find greater acceptance in the mainstream media.
Might Morphin Power Rangers
Strongly associated with early-to-mid-90s kids TV, you might still remember Power Rangers as a huge American franchise built around the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series, which spawned no less than 19 seasons as well as 2 feature films, 3 videogames, a traditional card game, a soundtrack album and even a live show tour!
What you may not remember, however, is the Japanese Super Sentai series which the show was based on, even though you probably watched quite a lot of it without even noticing early seasons of Power Rangers actually featured battle footage from the original Japanese show, as the only footage filmed with American actors was that which featured in the story sequences.
Shameless
UK audiences were preparing for the ultimate cringe fest as everyone expected a rather diluted American counterpart to one of Britain’s most loved TV shows. Shameless did, however, catch everyone by surprise with a remarkably faithful and still very much rough-around-the-edges interpretation, perhaps aided by the guidance of the original series creator Paul Abbott.
The show has received great critical acclaim from both American and UK critics, becoming one of HBO’s most successful productions. The show has been recently commissioned for a second series.
Wilfred
Elijah Wood stars in Wilfred as Ryan, a suicidal young man who attempts to kill himself several times in the first episode. Ryan's neighbour, Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann), asks him to look after her dog for the day, only to be taken aback as he sees Wilfred as an Australian man in a dog suit, while everyone else sees Wilfred as just a dog.
Premiering in BBC3 last August (at the same time when it was commissioned for a second series), Wilfred is based on the Australian show of the same name, which incidentally also stars the same Australian actor (Jason Gann, who doubles as the show’s creator) in the title role.
Three’s Company
Don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t realize this American classic was a UK remake - we were a little surprised, too. Man about the House was successful in Britain, but it didn’t become a blueprint for future shows the way Three’s Company did here.
British audiences found the premise somewhat shocking - a man sharing a flat with two women was terribly improper - but in the aftermath of the 1960s, American audiences were more receptive to the idea and found the humor an incisive reflection of the freewheeling 1970s.
Most importantly, the show introduced the world to John Ritter, who remained a beacon of American comedy until his sudden death in 2005. Watching Three’s Company now is like being in a time capsule, and we bet they’re mighty jealous across the pond.
In Treatment
An unusual and emotional series, In Treatment brings a dynamic new focus to a staple of modern society - the psychotherapy session. The award-winning series stars Gabriel Byrne and is set within the intimate confines of individual psychotherapy sessions with five sets of patients.
Paul (Byrne) is a therapist who exhibits an insightful, confident demeanour when treating his patients, but displays a crippling insecurity while counselled by his own therapist, Gina (Dianne Wiest).
In Treatment is not entirely a plunge into the unknown, however. The show is the American version of Be’ Tipul, one of Israel’s most successful and most talked about dramas ever, with a structure very close to the original but with minor adjustments: a patient is a combat veteran of the Iraq war, not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Killing is out on DVD & Blu-Ray now
This week saw the release of The Killing Season 1, America’s own re-imagining of the hit Danish TV show Frobrydelsen that’s been gripping the nation since it began airing on Channel 4, on Blu-Ray and DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
While 'remake' is often a word associated with cinema, our cousins from the other side of the pond are no strangers to adapting TV series for their own audiences, and while some have inevitably become lost in translation, others have often come out with rather great results!
Having been nominated for three Emmy® Awards and already commissioned for a second series, the critically acclaimed The Killing is undoubtedly one of the latter, so to celebrate its release we take look at the best American TV show remakes and the original counterparts who inspired them.
The Killing
Denmark’s subtitled crime drama Forbrydelsen proved to be a rather unlikely hit with UK audiences when it first hit BBC4, eventually becoming such a success that it wasn’t long before the American re-imagining was underway cue in hardcore fans of the Danish original who feared the worst, only to be pleasantly surprised with a show that’s not only been hugely successful across the Atlantic, but also proving a hit in its own right with UK audiences.
Set in Seattle, the show follows detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder as they investigate into the murder of local teenager Rosie Larsen, whose seemingly picture perfect life begins to unravel in disturbing ways as the secrets and lies surrounding her disappearance are uncovered.
The Office
Debate continues to rampage about which version of this mockumentary workplace sitcom is superior, but with the seventh season of the American version currently airing on NBC, there’s no doubt the remake has been a huge success.
The first episodes were copies of the British version with jokes Americanized for the new audience, but since then the program has distanced itself from the original character patterning and become its own show. The writers did an excellent job of changing some aspects to appeal to American audiences while leaving the essence of the humour intact.
Ugly Betty
Uggly Betty revolves around the character of Betty Suarez, a 22-year-old Mexican American woman from Queens, New York who is sorely lacking in fashion sense. Known to be courageous, good-hearted, and slightly naïve, she is abruptly thrust into a different world when she lands a job at Mode, a trendy high fashion magazine based in Manhattan that is part of the publishing empire of the wealthy Bradford Meade.
Unbeknown to most, however, is the fact that this highly successful TV series wasn’t the only (or first!) remake of the original Colombian show Yo Soy Betty, La Fea. The show’s been in fact remade in no less than 18 countries, including India, Turkey, Russia, Spain, Poland, Germany and even China!
Queer As Folk
Like The Office, the American version of this show continued for much longer than the British one. Where Queer As Folk in the UK focused on a group of outrageously stereotypical gay men, the North American program (Canada broadcast it, too) made the characters a bit more relatable, adding a lesbian couple to its leading cast from the start and eventually going down its own path with new plotlines.
The remake was more serious in general - unlike the original, it tackled AIDS, gay adoption, and gay marriage in its episodes instead of focusing solely on its characters’ personal lives. Running from 2000-2005, it became an important show for the LGBTQ community as homosexuality continued to find greater acceptance in the mainstream media.
Might Morphin Power Rangers
Strongly associated with early-to-mid-90s kids TV, you might still remember Power Rangers as a huge American franchise built around the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series, which spawned no less than 19 seasons as well as 2 feature films, 3 videogames, a traditional card game, a soundtrack album and even a live show tour!
Tagged in The Office The Killing