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Hands up everyone who liked Spaced. Right, good. Now who thought it needed to be more American? Oh.

Here's what Variety had to say about the upcoming traumatastic convert.

"Fox has locked its orbit on "Spaced," a U.K. comedy being retooled for American auds.
Net has given a put pilot order to the project, originally created by the "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" team of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (as well as Jessica Stevenson). "Will & Grace" alum Adam Barr is set to adapt the show for the U.S.

"Spaced" revolves around a young man and woman (played by Pegg and Stevenson in the U.K. version) who pose as a couple in order to rent a cheap apartment. They're soon surrounded by colorful neighbors and eventually begin a flirtation.

The single-camera comedy is particularly known in Britain for its frenzied use of pop culture references -- particularly when it comes to sci-fi, horror, comicbooks and videogames.

Wonderland Sound and Vision is behind the project, as well as Warner Bros. TV (where Wonderland is based) and Granada, which holds format rights. Wonderland TV prexy Peter Johnson first discovered the show while talking to someone at a comicbook store; as a "Shaun of the Dead" fan, he quickly looked to seal the rights.

Wonderland's McG and Granada's Robert Green will exec produce alongside Barr; the extent of Pegg's and Wright's involvement is still unclear. But Johnson likens the effort to NBC's adaptation of Ricky Gervais' and Stephen Merchant's "The Office" for the U.S., with Greg Daniels in charge.

"Spaced" has been nominated for a BAFTA and an Intl. Emmy Award, among other honors. Channel 4 aired seven episodes of season one in 1999 and another seven segs of a second season in 2001.

Barr's other credits include "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Desperate Housewives." "

And here's what Edgar Wright had to say...

"The interesting part of that is, no-one has been in touch with me at all. Haven't deigned to get in contact. So my involvement is indeed very unclear.

P.S. I can confirm too, that Simon was never contacted either. I don't really want to get involved at all, but it infuriates me that they would a) never bother to get in touch but still b) splash me and Simon's names all over the trade announcements and infer that we're involved in the same way Ricky & Steve were with The Office.

Also, it's worth stressing that I will not be profiting from this reversion, nor do they have to get permission from me to make it.

One more thing...

I'm calling for everyone to refer to the U.S. version of Spaced as "McSpaced" from now on.

I can't think of a better distillation of the whole idea."

Link: Not an imaginary story.

Jesus...
I thought it was Halloween not April fools :)

Still though, how can it fail when McG is involved?

It's not a "single-camera comedy".  That's Alan Bennett's Talking Heads they're thinking of.

Honestly - what a bunch of cock monkeys*.

What would be so wrong with just paying some money for Spaced, instead of remaking it.  The americans I know that have seen the show (okay, okay - so it's three people) loved it and had no problem at all getting the humour.

I can imagine their version of Brian will be more ker-azee than crazy, the romance between the two leads will be consumated, there won't be any toking etc.









*No, I don't know either.

I'd caution against an automatic 'this will be shit' approach as the US version of 'The Office' is excellent. I know Merchant and Gervais did script one early episode and retain a producer credit but I don't think they are hands on involved.

That said you have to wonder why they see fit to invest in the format but not the creators. McG is best known for the enjoyable but totally vapid Charlie's Angels and you'd asume they'll go for a more 'Entourage' style trendy feel rather than the flat share squalor of the UK Spaced.

I'll give it a chance but will bale early if it sucks - my TV roster is fully staffed at present.

Yep, if they want to use the UK show as a starting point to make their own show there's nothing wrong with that, at best it might ba developed into something new, preferable with a different name, that we can enjoy as well. The Office An American Workplace is excellent though Spaced I think would need more work. I'd be surprised is the American TV companies weren't interested in ine show given the success of Pegg and Wright's films.

As long as the creators are paid well and respected for the part they played in the original, but that's a different story.

Oh smeg! here we go again.

is that Rimmer a guy from BBC's Dracula? and Lister a guy from IT Crowd? and the Cat a girl from Deep Space Nine? and the Holly a girl from Frasier????

I saw Spaced not so long ago and I thought it already had started to show it's age. Am I the only one who thinks this? Do I deserve to live?

"What would be so wrong with just paying some money for Spaced, instead of remaking it."

Pardon the media studies nerditry, but you've missed the reasoning because American TV programming does not work the way yours does.  Fox isn't hoping to attract audiences for 14 weeks with Spaced, they're hoping to attract audiences for 14 years.

But in the first place, if Fox wanted to show Spaced, they'd cut about six minutes from each episode because they're too long for network slots.  And then they'd only have 14 episodes of it.  From their perspective, what would be the point of buying it?  To hope for big ratings for 14 weeks?  And if you get it, then what?

Americans don't understand the way your TV culture works.  Remember that we've been raised on a diet of far fewer, year-round series.  ER was Thursdays at 10 pm for years - when there wasn't a new episode, there was a repeat.  When Absolutely Fabulous became a minor hit for Comedy Central, people could not understand why there were only 12 of them.  People explained that they only made six a year and Americans thought that meant they just added six new episodes to the ongoing rerun cycle each fall - that over the course of the first year it was on, BBC2 showed those six episodes eight times each.

That's why the only markets for British shows are PBS, cable channels and home video.  There hasn't been any original foreign programming on the networks since some Spitting Image episodes which NBC showed as specials in 1986.

is that Rimmer a guy from BBC's Dracula?
Don't know. That's the American Dwarf though, and the only British stars in it was Robert Llewlyn as Kryten and the girl from Frasier. They could have had an American actor in Dracula though.

and Lister a guy from IT Crowd?
Heh, I know the guy you mean, but it's not him.

and the Cat a girl from Deep Space Nine?
Yes. She played Dax. This is before she took that role. They had a male cat in the original American pilot, she took on the role later. She wasn't in a complete episode though. I forget the correct term but it was like a teaser to try to get US Dwarf off the ground.  It never did take off, and those 2 bits (the pilot and the teaser) are all there was. Thank goodness.

and the Holly a girl from Frasier????
Yes. Again, this is before she became famous as Daphne (I think that's her name, I haven't watched much Frasier) I believe.

Personally I'm not really a fan of Americans making verions of our shows. We import American shows, why can't they import ours? As for cultural differences and references, so what. We see differences in US shows but I think we pretty much get it just the same.

"We import American shows, why can't they import ours? As for cultural differences and references, so what."

Because that isn't what American television does.  USTV - the five major networks, anyway - is in the business of providing their affiliates long-running, hit series from which the affiliates earn ad revenue.  That's ALL they do.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with cultural differences - just about every British show of quality is available somewhere in the US.  I mean, we DO import your shows - via BBC America, Sci-Fi Channel, various PBS anthology shows, or individual PBS stations (almost every one of our hundred-or-so PBS stations have shown every episode of Keeping Up Appearances a dozen times), but none of your production companies or networks MAKE the type of programming that our five networks show.  The BBC/Carlton/whoever don't make enough episodes of anything to satisfy the advertising requirements, and the episodes are too long, and would have to be edited.

was the American Red Dwarf any good?

the answer is no, as find it on youtube

Link: US Red Dwarf...

The American Lister looks like Jack from Lost in that pic....

Hmm, it doesn't really work but perhaps it could have become something. The jokes aren't a lot different, I think maybe the problem is that despite it's space-age setting Red Dwarf is really just a classic British sitcom at heart like Rising Damp, Porrige or Dad's Army - it's all about class. We just want to see the underdog kick back, which happens almost immediately in Red Dwarf. Take that out and you just have some limp jokes.

The Americans don't do the whole class thing, the best ones are more about psychology. That's why British shows don't succeed in America, except The Office which isn't about class. They would be better off having a go with Hyperdrive and doing it more dryly.

From what I heard The IT Crowd is being adapted for the US with Richard Ayoede reprising his role.

The US Lister - isn't it that guy who plays the main baddy in The Long Kiss Goodnight?

On the subject of American TV, I'm in the middle of the Season Three box set of Deadwood.  Fuck me but it's good.  How much must it have cost per episode?  There are uncountable numbers of characters, enormous numbers of vast beautiful sets, and a script that must take forever to write, never mind learn.  Amazing achievement.

I don't know if it's American per se - it appears to be quite transatlantic - but I watched HBO's Rome recently for the first time.  Amazing.

And Deadwood I caught some of season #1 on youtube-similar sites, and it was astounding.  I was a bit miffed when I found the later episodes had been culled from easy net access.

"I don't know if it's American per se - it appears to be quite transatlantic - but I watched HBO's Rome recently for the first time."

The BBC stumped up about $15 million to co-produce the series with HBO (the total budget for the first season was aproximately $100 million). The cast is mostly comprised of British, Irish and Italian actors, filmed almost entirely within Rome's Cinecittà Studios.

I just bought season 1 of The Wire today. I've heard it isn't too bad? :)