tv: Say it ain’t so, FOX!

When I wrote a little while ago about US remakes of UK shows, I mentioned that the Absolutely Fabulous remake never saw the light of day. There were some attempts and pretenders to the throne, but thankfully they all fell through and rightly so. Apparently “we” aren’t done trying to get an American AbFab made, from Televisionary:

Don’t break open the Bolly just yet. FOX has ordered a script for an American remake of hit British series Absolutely Fabulous from executive producers Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development), Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, and writer/executive producer Christine Zander (Saturday Night Live). Project, from Sony Pictures TV, Tantamount, and BBC Worldwide America, is the latest attempt to remake Jennifer Saunders’ AbFab. This version will shift the action to Los Angeles, where two boozy over-the-hill BFFs attempt to stay hip while earning a disapproving eye from Edina’s straitlaced teenaged daugher Saffron.

I’m glad to see Saunders still turning AbFab into a cash cow, but I wish they’d just stop. Write something new and funny and stop trying rely on what was funny to bring people back in front of their tv sets. Besides, isn’t it a little dumb to remake a show that the viewer can just turn to BBC America or Oxygen to watch the original anyway? I am content to use whatever means are readily available to see the original versions of the shows we swipe. They’re often more funny and have, at the least, far more interesting and original accents. 😛 Also, thinking about the idea of two over-the-hill BFFs in Los Angeles… sounds like a good third or more of the reality shows already on TV. Minus the plastic surgery, of course.

Last night instead of the debate, I suffered through the second episode of Little Britain USA. I was really trying to give it a chance, but somehow seeing the same ol’ characters from the BBC show come onscreen wasn’t doing it for me at all. Even the new characters seem immediately tiresome seeing them the second week around.

One standout sketch was a divorcing couple going through their belongings and while the husband never suspected his wife was a lesbian, all of the items in the hers box are so blatantly obvious from the The L-Word egg cups to the book Martina Navratilova’s Guide to Drinking from the Furry Cup. The new characters aren’t winning me over and the old characters really have nothing new to offer. Also their “American” accents still grate on my nerves. It’s gotten to the point where the actual American actors on the show sound like they’re faking it too next to Matt and David’s examples.