US TV shows that were more popular in Britain

[George White]

I know that Cagney and Lacey was. Possibly secretly part-funded by the BBC, in later series, as was Fame.
Virginian- I think the Men from Shiloh was created because it was still popular internationally, but stale in the US.
Dallas, possibly.

[Phil_A]

Due South definitely, leading to the BBC co-funding the final season(although it still ended up in random slots all over the schedules).

[Alternative Carpark]

Police Squad was better liked in Britain, I think.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Due South definitely, leading to the BBC co-funding the final season(although it still ended up in random slots all over the schedules).

It was a Canadian series. The first Canadian series to get a prime-time slot on a major US network apparently.

[kidsick5000]

Isn't Baywatch the best example?
Its popularity in UK and Europe saved it from cancellation before it became the Pamela Anderson phenomenon.

Not sure for the basis of saying Cagney and Lacey was more popular in UK. It ran for seven seasons in the US. Of course, on the Beeb it didn't get moved around so much. It was pirennial 10pm fare.

[doppelkorn]

I think The Fresh Prince of Bel Air is more fondly remembered here as a cult show than in the US for whatever reason.

[George White]

The Virginian and Bonanza - huge in Ireland, it's because the Irish love westerns. Really.
The films always drew audiences. There was an appetite for the likes of JT Edson and George Gilman's fauxmerican pulp, and Joe Millard's Man with no Name spinoff fiction.
And then, there's country and Irish.

Went to Castleblayney, where many of the country and Irish acts are from and realised, "Nah. There isn't really anything to say about country n Irish. THAT is why there is so little written, why RTE/BBC NI docusoap Stetsons and Stilettos is the way it is – covering tractors and trucking festvials as well as jiving, why Margo's book when not hinting at dodgy business is mostly boasts about US stars. YES, there might be a few freakish relics (Radio Luxembourg DJ/RTE music show producer Pat Campbell's The Deal probably the most notorious) but everyone is dead, old or uninteresting. Everything that'd been or needs to be said behind the scenes has been said. There are stories but they are tied into the troubles. Plus everyone takes it far too seriously. On the bus up I met by an expat Dub who told me not to be so flippant because the locals don't see it as a bit of light ent fluff but something akin to a religious experience, because like late era Northern Soul, it is the dancing that counts. They call it the Vegas of Ireland, but I noted that Branson was a fairer comparison. She also said that never tell a boyfolk act they are not country or they will get very angry.
There's really two varieties of Irish country – the old stuff that began in the showband scene, Big Tom, Philomena Begley, Daniel O'Donnell, his sister Margo, Foster and Allen, Larry Cunningham, the sort of Irish acts who'd appear on Sing Country, and get played by Wally Whyton. Mostly awful or middling material – usually covers (usually tied to a certain act – Philomena Begley to Billie Jo Spears, while TR focused himself on Mac Davis songs), with a few tacky but catchy songs like Lovely Leitrim, but performed by decent cabaret performers who if saddled with better material, may have gone onto more than national fame.
Then, there's the younger crop – it began in the early 2000s with Michael Fallon – alias Mike Denver – a cowboy-hatted, peroxide-tipped Galwegian, and Michael English, a protege of O'Donnell's, and a sort of Eoin McLove type who briefly got picked up by Louis Walsh due to the latter's mother being a fan.
Then, Nathan Carter came on the scene – a young, still in his teens Liverpool singer of Irish extraction who moved to Ulster, and started singing and talking in a strange Scouse-Irish-American twang, like Ronnie Whelan in reverse via Route 66. Carter somehow broke through via a cover of Darius Rucker/Old Crow Medicine Show's reworking of Bob Dylan's half-written ditty Wagon Wheel, which became this unavoidable hit all over rural areas – touring in stadiums in the cities as well as small country hotels, and appealing to young housewives as well as grans, though he does have a foothold in the latter, with his strange obsession with his nana – who goes everywhere with him. Think R Wayne in Britain's Got the Pop Factor... Carter has spawned a slew of copycats, mostly failed boybanders and failed rappers whose careers failed, and country is an easy way out. People like Derek Ryan, Lee Matthews, or farmers who reckoned themselves good singers and got money via suspicious means like Marty Mone and Eamonn Jackson (outed as a puppy farmer) and talent show runner-up Jim Devine. Mone's Hit the Diff, a sort of sub-Wurzels ditty about tractors – not so much a song but a a list of adjectives that roughly describe the movements of a tractor being shouted at in a broad Monaghan/Ulster border accent. Country music should be heart and soul, but this isn't. These singers have no sense of humour – singing comical songs seriously. Ex-All-Ireland Talent Show runnerup (imagine Britain's Got Talent in the style of the First Division – with Dana and Shane of Boyzone and a few regional TV hosts) Cliodhna Hagan's We're All Gonna Die Someday has the ring of a Not the Nine O'Clock News parody – but apparently was a cover of an Aussie song from the late 90s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7YyF1l6D64), think they're singing country, the amount of insincerity and insecurity in the scene is huge. And promoters tapping into the jiving scene which exits really only in the Northern border area are using this. Music to dance to, not listen to. Basically, it's akin to Northern Soul. If the likes of the Highwaymen are Motown, then this stuff is Wayne Gibson and Wigan's Ovation, or the Eric Winstone Orchestra with the Joe 90 theme.

[Shay Chaise]

Neighbour's

[Glebe]

Not sure for the basis of saying Cagney and Lacey was more popular in UK. It ran for seven seasons in the US. Of course, on the Beeb it didn't get moved around so much. It was pirennial 10pm fare.

Indeed, that and MASH and QUINCY were required pre-bedtime-while-dad-is-having-his-late-dinner viewing in our house!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OuwaA0BLKr4

[kidsick5000]

The Red Hand Gang - possibly only rembered by the late-30s / early-40s crowd. But only one series was made - in 1977. It must have been repeated loads into the early 80s, though i doubt anyone can recall a specific episode. Just the slow-motion trampoline titles and one of the actors being called James Bond III

Apologies for a very Peter Kay entry. "Do you remember salt and shake crisps? Always got one really salty crisp didn't you..."

[thraxx]

What about Dynasty and Falcon Crest and those other terrible Dallas rip offs.  They were massive here, but you never hear about them from a US perspective.

Was The Equalizer big in the US?  English was its schtick, in a time when the US probably dinnae gie a fuck about that.

[kidsick5000]

Was The Equalizer big in the US?  English was its schtick, in a time when the US probably dinnae gie a fuck about that.

Big enough for four seasons and initially renewed for a fifth until some contract nonsense got it cancelled. And there was a significant amount of grumbling that the Denzel film wasn't an exact remake.
But I think it's another case of its appearances on UK tv being more regular compared to US tv then the series just stops. We werent privvy to such information and story arcs didn't happen so often. The biggest change I can remember was the increased disappointment in Ewar Woowar talking adversaries into giving up rather than something more action-packed.

[jobotic]

The Red Hand Gang - possibly only rembered by the late-30s / early-40s crowd. But only one series was made - in 1977. It must have been repeated loads into the early 80s, though i doubt anyone can recall a specific episode. Just the slow-motion trampoline titles and one of the actors being called James Bond III

Apologies for a very Peter Kay entry. "Do you remember salt and shake crisps? Always got one really salty crisp didn't you..."

It's a funny old business, memory. I can still remember, not only the theme tune but the incidental music when things got tense in the programme. Fuck knows why. I liked it at the time but it was hardly an important part of my life.

[gilbertharding]

Not sure for the basis of saying Cagney and Lacey was more popular in UK. It ran for seven seasons in the US. Of course, on the Beeb it didn't get moved around so much. It was perennial 10pm fare.

I have two citations for Cagney and Lacey in other contexts.

1. It was 'thanked' in the acknowledgements on one or other of the early Sonic Youth LPs. Either Sister or EVOL (I'll have to check).
2. It was referred to by Bill Bryson in Notes from a Small Island as one of the things he couldn't understand about The British Public - namely their apparent persistent fondness for Cagney and Lacey.

[Replies From View]

Audiences in the UK enjoyed Cheers 16% more than their US counterparts.

[paruses]

The Red Hand Gang - possibly only rembered by the late-30s / early-40s crowd. But only one series was made - in 1977. It must have been repeated loads into the early 80s, though i doubt anyone can recall a specific episode. Just the slow-motion trampoline titles and one of the actors being called James Bond III

Good call. For a while I thought I might be the only person who remembered it. I couldn't tell you anything about it really apart from a vague memory of the opening credits but I do remember absolutely loving it during summer holidays (a very welcome break from Why Don't You if my memory is not too false).

[greenman]

On the geek side Babylon 5 seemed to make a lot more impact here and in Europe relative to Trek.

[Alberon]

B5's creator J Michael Stracynski put a couple of references to Channel 4 in the scripts due to the fact that was who aired the show in the UK and at least one of the stars of the show did an ident for the channel.

Don't know how valuable UK sales were, but it was a budget show always on the knife edge of cancellation each season.

[George White]

B5's creator J Michael Stracynski put a couple of references to Channel 4 in the scripts due to the fact that was who aired the show in the UK and at least one of the stars of the show did an ident for the channel.

Similarly, Prisoner Cell Block H added a Yorkshireman character, because Yorkshire were the first ITV region to pick it up.
And wasn't there a black British character in Neighbours added for the British audience...

[Gulftastic]

And wasn't there a black British character in Neighbours added for the British audience...

I can't remember his name but he was the whitest black person of all time. He made Carlton off of Fresh  Prince look like Malcolm X. He talked like Cliff Richard.

[Jerzy Bondov]

They had that Irish boy for a bit as well. My sisters and I used to laugh at his bad Irish accent but it turns out that was his natural accent as he grew up in Belfast. This makes us racist! Ooops!

[Gulftastic]

They had that Irish boy for a bit as well. My sisters and I used to laugh at his bad Irish accent but it turns out that was his natural accent as he grew up in Belfast. This makes us racist! Ooops!

Connor! He formed a good double act with Toady. They were wrestlers for a bit. The Lawman and The Shamrock.

[kidsick5000]

He talked like Cliff Richard.

He really did and in that "Let's do the show right here" style combine with that shit impressionist way of constantly announcing himself "Hi, It's me... Eddie Buckingham."

[Mr Banlon]

Manimal
Automan

[paruses]

What was the one about a motorbike that was a motorbike version of Blue Thunder / Airwolf?

No idea if it was even popular in Britain to be honest but the mention of Manimal. aside from making me laugh, reminded me. Was around the same time because it was on the same night as Cubs so I mostly didn't get to see it. Fucking Cub idiots.

[Dr Rock]

What was the one about a motorbike that was a motorbike version of Blue Thunder / Airwolf?

Streethawk.

[Small Man Big Horse]

What about Dynasty and Falcon Crest and those other terrible Dallas rip offs.  They were massive here, but you never hear about them from a US perspective.

Dynasty was huge in the States, it started off poorly but by about it's third season was the no.1 show in America. They've just rebooted it now, the first season has aired and it's been renewed for a second. And whilst not as successful, Falcon Crest was a top-20 show for many years too.

[kidsick5000]

Streethawk.

With music by car boot sale favourites, Tangerine Dream

[Ghughesarch]

Tales of the Golden Monkey. In the sense that I liked it, which seems to add up to one more fan in the UK than in the US.

[mothman]

I never noticed at the time that the star of Tales of the Golden Monkey also played Commander Decker in Star Trek The Motion Picture. And possible paedophile.