Red Dwarf US... ugh...

[FlyingLemons]

A discussion of US adaptions of UK TV ideas inspired me to go back and find the US version of Red Dwarf, and boy, was I sorry I did. It's basically reduced the show to a set of bad one liners and the wholesale transportation of jokes from British Red Dwarf without any adaption means it falls terribly flat.

Behold, Red Dwarf US in all its crappy glory.

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3ZUrduNUs

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud-dPqgmRR0&feature=related

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc4BR7UnSmA&feature=related

I hope that someone doesn't try it again, because these days the suck density would be so high it would create a black hole and the world would end in a sucky singulatrity.

 

[Tulin]

Only a bloody American show would have somebody called "Hinton Battle".


I was done right there.

 

[Silent_Bob]

Well watching that is one way of making me feel better about Back to Earth. Gah, what the hell were they thinking.

 

[Christopher]

Only a bloody American show would have somebody called "Hinton Battle".

That's rather infantile, to judge someone for his name. Hinton Battle is a veteran stage and screen performer. He was the Scarecrow in the original Broadway cast of The Wiz, he's a three-time Tony winner for Best Actor (Featured Role - Musical), and he's probably best-known to television audiences as the musical demon Sweet in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More With Feeling." Sounds to me like an excellent choice to fill Danny John-Jules', err, paws.

 

[FlyingLemons]

Considering Danny John-Jules plays the Cat with an American accent, the original US Cat wasn't that far removed from the UK version.

However, I think I prefer it when Terry Farrell plays the Cat. Nice catsuit... get it? Eh?

*silence*

Oh, my puns are wasted on you people...

 

[TerriO]

Could have been worse. It could have been Terry Farrell.

Having seen both versions, Hinton Battle was far more appropriate for the role.

 

[The Badger]

It's been claimed that whilst shooting the American version, the producers realized it needed more jokes. Grant and Naylor where flown in from Britain to rewrite the script. After they finished and returned home, Linwood Boomer, who wrote the American version, re-wrote it removing most of Grant and Naylor's changes.
I don't know if that is true or not but it explains much if it is.

 

[Candlelight]

It's been claimed that whilst shooting the American version, the producers realized it needed more jokes. Grant and Naylor where flown in from Britain to rewrite the script. After they finished and returned home, Linwood Boomer, who wrote the American version, re-wrote it removing most of Grant and Naylor's changes.
I don't know if that is true or not but it explains much if it is.

But then Linwood got the sack after the first pilot, and Grant Naylor were brought back for the second pilot.

I've only ever seen the first, but have just downloaded the second one and might watch it this weekend, along with the episodes that played at Easter.

 

[The Badger]

But then Linwood got the sack after the first pilot, and Grant Naylor were brought back for the second pilot.

True, but the second pilot had practically no budget (the Kryten footage was lifted straight from BBC's 'RimmerWorld'), so it's not really suprising it wasn't picked up on.

 

[Christopher]

^As I recall, though, the "second pilot" was really just a brief demo film to give an idea of what the show might be like. So I don't think network execs would've held the reuse of footage against it; after all, that would've just been part of giving a sense of the intended flavor of the show, like how the preliminary cut of a film may use a temp music track cut together from other scores to give a sense of what the director has in mind for the musical tone of the various scenes.

 

[DWF]

Could have been worse. It could have been Terry Farrell.

Having seen both versions, Hinton Battle was far more appropriate for the role.

I'd still settle for Danny Jules-John.

 

[blockaderunner]

Gah. I saw the first three minutes of the first part of the pilot and I had to turn it off. I'm a Yank and big fan of the UK version and this was retarted. I felt sorry for poor Robert Llewellen (sp). And do the producers think that us Yanks are that stupid that they had to have Daphnie from Fraiser to explain the premise of the show? Well, we did elect Bush.....twice. Anyway, horrible show. I don't even think the prospect of seeing Terry Farrell in a catsuit is enough for me to sit through it.

 

[Captain Pike]

Yeah it's awful.

It still boggles my mind as to why as soon as any international series proves itself a hit, the Americans have got to go and have their own version. There may have been a few modest successes like Sanford & Son or The Office, but mostly it's a graveyard of retarded dreck. They even tried to do their version of our own Kath & Kim, which was thankfully (I think) still-born before it was released upon a wider population, or at least cancelled after only a few episodes.

I wish they'd stop with the whole mentality of doing American versions.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Yeah it's awful.

It still boggles my mind as to why as soon as any international series proves itself a hit, the Americans have got to go and have their own version. There may have been a few modest successes like Sanford & Son or The Office, but mostly it's a graveyard of retarded dreck. They even tried to do their version of our own Kath & Kim, which was thankfully (I think) still-born before it was released upon a wider population, or at least cancelled after only a few episodes.

I wish they'd stop with the whole mentality of doing American versions.

Because "The Brighton Belles", "Married for Life", and "Days Like These" were so original? For example...

 

[Phillip Culley]

Could have been worse. It could have been Terry Farrell.

Having seen both versions, Hinton Battle was far more appropriate for the role.

I'd still settle for Danny Jules-John.

I'd prefer Danny John-Jules

 

[flux_29]

Just awful.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Unfortunately, I didn't see the Terry Ferrell version on youtube. It's been a long time since I've seen it but I seem to recall it was better than this version. Maybe not great but better, her Cat was not the UK Cat but could have worked as its own reimagined version. Mind you, I'm going off old memories so don't take that as gospel.

This version's biggest problem is the comic timing. Craig Bierko's is off and that guy playing Rimmer is incredibly off, as some youtube comment suggested, he should be taken out and shot. There's a reason for those beats and pauses. How the director of this thing couldn't see those jokes falling flat is beyond me. Even Kryten feels off but Robert Llewellyn seems to have enough experience to right himself a bit as the pilot goes on. Jane Leeves seeemed to have potential as Holly.

And somehow "the Farm" just isn't the same as "a farm in feee-gee". (I know it's Fiji, just trying to do it with Lister's accent and emphasis)

Only a bloody American show would have somebody called "Hinton Battle".

I always found Danny John-Jules to be a very British sounding name myself.

 

[MrPointy]

Screw you guys, I chuckled. US Lister and Rimmer don't really have the comic timing down, but Kryten is brilliant as always and Holly wasn't bad.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I didn't watch it. I'm American and... I know when the fuckin' Brits got us beat cold. Nobody but the Japanese can make a good Godzilla flick and nobody but the Brits can do Red Dwarf. So it is written. So shall it be done.

 

[Heeroyuy]

Then there's the US co-produced Doctor Who movie which attempted to turn the Doctor into Spock ("I'm half-human on my mother's side!") and other dumbed-down elements such as chase scenes and the Chameleon circuit being called a "Cloaking device".

However, Paul Mcgann did make a decent Doctor, though.