Peep Show US Remake with wimmin'

[cliggg]

From an interview with Sam Bain
"People sometimes ask if I look at my earlier work differently now – whether my shows would have been better if they had been more diverse. What would Peep Show have been like with women as the two leads? It's a great question – and it's one I'll shortly have the answer to, because there is a script in development for a US Peep Show with two female leads. It's at FX Networks and it will be written by top comedy brain Karey Dornetto (Portlandia, Community)."

Would this work with wimmin'? There are plenty of sitcoms around these days that show women being as pathetic/sleazy/degenerate as men, Idiotsitter & Teachers being two off the top of my head. I admit I got bored of the original after season 5 or 6, it just kept going to the point of being depressing instead of funny for me. Will this end being any good at all?

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/may/25/peep-show-with-female-losers-bring-it-on-sam-bain-on-why-comedy-needs-diversity?awc=11152_1558941359_f2266794f48e7315fd043707e104008a&utm_source=afl&utm_medium=awin&utm_content=Bauer+Media+Magazines

[Bazooka]

Only if they are gorgeous.

[Blue Jam]

What Women Want is a dreadful and deeply patronising film, but the idea worked, yes. If this show has women thinking about more than handbags and calories I may give it a go.

Isn't there a pilot of Peep Show in which Sophie's internal monologue features?

[Blue Jam]

The crew has downed tools as the actors, producers and director perch uncomfortably on polystyrene rocks. We've stopped to have an impassioned debate over racial politics – specifically over how much racism is too much to put in one character's mouth.

Daryl

[the]

Isn't there a pilot of Peep Show in which Sophie's internal monologue features?

It was a DVD extra.

This idea sounds like an attempt to bend the Peep Show concept round into Fleabag humour territory.

[Butchers Blind]

Ahh, I see what they're doing here, like that Ghostbusters film that did well.
Why not have original ideas rather than rehash old ones.

[St_Eddie]

Why not have original ideas rather than rehash old ones.

Why have original ideas when you can bulletproof your rehash against criticism with gender politics.

[BritishHobo]

I've been very outspoken on here many times in defence of both US and gender-swapped remakes. I think they've often turned out to be much better than people give them credit for, and that the backlashes often completely disproportionate. But I look at a headline like this and I just think, for fuck's sake, how do you not know exactly how this will be received? Annoying people who hate gender-swaps AND 'British comedy is so much better blah blah wit blah blah sarcasm blah blah panel shows' bores? It's doomed already. Who is in commissioning, heard this idea and thought 'yep, that'll do gangbusters'?

[QDRPHNC]

In case anyone hasn't seen it, here's the first US attempt at remaking Peep Show.

[St_Eddie]

I've been very outspoken on here many times in defence of both US and gender-swapped remakes. I think they've often turned out to be much better than people give them credit for, and that the backlashes often completely disproportionate. But I look at a headline like this and I just think, for fuck's sake, how do you not know exactly how this will be received? Annoying people who hate gender-swaps AND 'British comedy is so much better blah blah wit blah blah sarcasm blah blah panel shows' bores? It's doomed already. Who is in commissioning, heard this idea and thought 'yep, that'll do gangbusters'?

I don't know about any of that but I will ask why it is that Americans feel the need to produce their own versions of UK sitcoms?  Why can't they just watch the original UK version?  It's not like us Brits insist upon having our own version of Seinfeld or The Larry Sanders Show.  It just rubs me up the wrong way.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

In case anyone hasn't seen it, here's the first US attempt at remaking Peep Show.

Beyond belief

[thenoise]

Why have original ideas when you can bulletproof your rehash against criticism with gender politics.

Yes. The original Peep Show wasn't great because it was about men, it was great because it was well written and performed, and had a nice central concept.

An all female remake is no more or less likely to work than an all male remake, it all depends on the level of talent involved.

[Bronzy]

I don't know about any of that but I will ask why it is that Americans feel the need to produce their own versions of UK sitcoms?  Why can't they just watch the original UK version?  It's not like us Brits insist upon having our own version of Seinfeld or The Larry Sanders Show.  It just rubs me up the wrong way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Brydon's_Annually_Retentive

[St_Eddie]

Yes. The original Peep Show wasn't great because it was about men, it was great because it was well written and performed, and had a nice central concept.

An all female remake is no more or less likely to work than an all male remake, it all depends on the level of talent involved.

I completely agree.  I don't know why it has to be called Peep Show though.  Whether it stars men, women or a mix of the two, it doesn't matter, just call it something else.  Peep Show doesn't need to be remade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Brydon's_Annually_Retentive

That is not the same thing at all.  It's not a remake.  It's not a British replacement for The Larry Sanders Show.  It's inspired by it, sure.  A knock-off, yeah.  Maybe even a rip-off.  A remake though?  Nah.  Every time a movie is a big hit, you end up with countless knock-offs but that's are not the same thing as straight up remaking a popular movie.  The same applies to TV.

If Karey Dornetto wants to write a show inspired by Peep Show and call it something else, then I wouldn't be arsed.  It's the fact that it's a straight up remake of something which doesn't need remaking that bothers me.  It's the fact that it's yet another British show being remade for an American audience because apparently watching something that isn't set in their own country is a foreign concept to Americans (quite literally).  The very fact that you couldn't actually name a single straight up British remake of an American show speaks volumes, when you consider that the list of the opposite is vast.

[DukeDeMondo]

The very fact that you couldn't actually name a single straight up British remake of an American show speaks volumes, when you consider that the list of the opposite is vast.

Well, there is one that springs immediately to mind. I can't really think of any others off the top of my head.

[sponk]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Brydon's_Annually_Retentive

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baddiel%27s_Syndrome

They could call the remake Hoes Peep

[Ferris]

Daryl

"Do I have to spell it out, Mark? The sausage-munching Boche. Fritz; the bratwurst-guzzler."

Different times, of course. Could never say all that today.

[Andy147]

Well, there is one that springs immediately to mind. I can't really think of any others off the top of my head.

Brighton Belles from The Golden Girls is another.

Wikipedia suggests The Fosters (from Good Times), Loved By You (from Mad About You), The Upper Hand (from Who's The Boss) and Days Like These (from That 70s Show). (Plus loads of game shows, quiz shows and reality TV formats, but that's not the same thing).

[Petey Pate]

Well, there is one that springs immediately to mind. I can't really think of any others off the top of my head.

Would Sean's Show also count?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Buzby can probably set us right, but I expect part of the reason the yanks remake so many of our shows (other than them being xenophobic thickos) is that their telly networks require 22+ episodes a season and ours are usually done in 6. The entire run of Peep show isn't enough for syndication and that.

As for Peep Show US, I'm fine with it. It's not like we haven't remade a load of Scandi noir type shows in recent years. I wonder how well some things might translate - not just culturally, but gender wise, too. Mark being menaced by a bunch of youths doesn't seem like it would be as funny from a woman's perspective.

[DukeDeMondo]

Would Sean's Show also count?

Sean's Show's more of an "inspired by" sort of deal, really, isn't it? It's not a direct remake of anything.

[St_Eddie]

Interesting to see a couple of American shows which were remade in Britain get a mention but yeah, kind of the exception to the rule.  Besides, even if there were more, it wouldn't negate my distaste for remaking a show in the same language that it was originally in.  That goes both ways.  So yeah, the couple of times us Brits remade American sitcoms; fuck us for that.

[sponk]

What about Candid Camera and America's Funniest Home Videos?

[St_Eddie]

What about Candid Camera and America's Funniest Home Videos?

Terrible shows.

Next question.

[BritishHobo]

Review with Forrest MacNiell was an American remake of an Australian show, and that's one of the funniest comedies of the last few years.

[QDRPHNC]

What's a wimming?

[St_Eddie]

What's a wimming?

Swimming without the 'S'.

Next question.

[Twed]

Interesting to see a couple of American shows which were remade in Britain get a mention but yeah, kind of the exception to the rule.  Besides, even if there were more, it wouldn't negate my distaste for remaking a show in the same language that it was originally in.  That goes both ways.  So yeah, the couple of times us Brits remade American sitcoms; fuck us for that.

The Coupling of times

[Ja'moke]

Broad City?

[Small Man Big Horse]

In case anyone hasn't seen it, here's the first US attempt at remaking Peep Show.

I wrote a review of it last year for my site, which ended with:

Is there anything good about it? Sadly the answer is no. All of the characters bar Sophie are unsympathetic, the script misfires with every attempt at comedy and it's lacking pretty much everything which made the original so special. I always try and find something positive to say about a show but the only times I laughed were at how bad it is, for instance at one point Mark is convinced that Sophie will like a bad boy and draws a swastika within a love heart that he gives her while thinking "This is going to make Sophie so hot", it's so badly misjudged it's almost unbelievable, as is her believing that Mark's making a satirical point about office politics with that drawing and she happily gives him her phone number.

At least the executives who commissioned it recognised how bad it was and didn't give us twelve seasons and a spin-off starring a kid version of Super Hans, that would have been truly depressing, but at the same time it's disappointing that they weren't able to make a version of the show which was it's own beast but still resembled the original in certain ways, because as with The Office the source material shows how much potential it had to become a long running series.

As for UK remakes of US shows, Bob Martin was heavily influenced by The Larry Sanders Show, but it was cancelled after Barrymore definitely didn't kill a man. Or maybe he did. I dunno. Then there was Hang Ups with Stephen Mangan which was a remake of Web Therapy, and Married For Life was our take on Married With Children but with Russ Abbot in the main role, which inexplicably was not a success.