Creed from "The Office" Was in the Grass Roots!

[Teasing the Korean]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcZ7jJnMThM

He's on the left.

[7/4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creed_Bratton

[GregK]

Pretty sure this has been pointed out a few other times over the years in various threads here

[Alexander]

I've only seen the American "Office" on a couple of occasions. It's okay, but it's not a patch on the British series. I can't watch the American show without thinking about how the British show did it better. For example, Ricky Gervais plays the boss as a cringe-inducingly unfunny man. His desparate need to be liked makes him hard to watch (in a good way). Steve Carrell isn't bad, but he's just not Gervais. He comes off as sympathetic.

Also, Dwight is just no substitute for Gareth!

I also vastly prefer Tim and Dawn to Jim and Pam. The last episode of the British series (the Christmas show) was soaringly triumphant. There was no place to go after that. I'm glad they ended it when they did.

It's kind of sad that American TV feels the need to flog a dead horse. Gervais did everything he needed to do on "The Office" in twelve episodes (and one double length special). How many years has the American show been on now?

Edited April 14, 2008 by Alexander

[RDK]

Just the opposite for me - I'm not a fan of the British Office, though I love the American version (and yes, I did see Gervais' version first).

[RDK]

It's kind of sad that American TV feels the need to flog a dead horse. Gervais did everything he needed to do on "The Office" in twelve episodes (and one double length special). How many years has the American show been on now?

Completely irrelevant since U.S. and BBC networks operate so differently. So you're telling me that, even while liking the Brit Office better that you wouldn't have wanted more episodes of that version if you could have them?

[Alexander]

It's kind of sad that American TV feels the need to flog a dead horse. Gervais did everything he needed to do on "The Office" in twelve episodes (and one double length special). How many years has the American show been on now?

Completely irrelevant since U.S. and BBC networks operate so differently. So you're telling me that, even while liking the Brit Office better that you wouldn't have wanted more episodes of that version if you could have them?

Only if they could do something completely different with it. I wouldn't want to see more of Gareth as the new boss or Tim and Dawn having a happy relationship. There's no point in that. The show is supposed to be about despair. Can't have that with happy, fulfilled characters.

[GregK]

I've only seen the American "Office" on a couple of occasions. It's okay, but it's not a patch on the British series. I can't watch the American show without thinking about how the British show did it better. For example, Ricky Gervais plays the boss as a cringe-inducingly unfunny man. His desparate need to be liked makes him hard to watch (in a good way). Steve Carrell isn't bad, but he's just not Gervais. He comes off as sympathetic.

Also, Dwight is just no substitute for Gareth!

I also vastly prefer Tim and Dawn to Jim and Pam. The last episode of the British series (the Christmas show) was soaringly triumphant. There was no place to go after that. I'm glad they ended it when they did.

It's kind of sad that American TV feels the need to flog a dead horse. Gervais did everything he needed to do on "The Office" in twelve episodes (and one double length special). How many years has the American show been on now?

I hear this for every British series redone in America, and I never agree. It's like an automatic, knee-jerk comment from people: An American version of a British show? No way it can be as good! Nothing I've seen of the British Office makes me think it's as good, or even that similar. It's a different show at this point!

[A Lark Ascending]

It works both ways. US series have been used as a starting point for British programmes too.

I've never seen the US version of 'The Office' - I would say the makers of 'The Office' in the UK did something else that could be emulated widely. Made a perfect sequence and then stopped instead of flogging it through 'Office II', 'Office - Return of the Nerd' etc.

I suspect a fair bit of the deadpan humour of the UK office just wouldn't translate to the States. I'm currently working my way through 'Weeds' on DVD - I cannot for the life of me see that working in a British version. Though I can see only too well what it would turn out like if they tried! They'd probably have Dawn French or Penelope Keith playing the Mary Louise Parker character!!!!

Has 'The Royale Family' ever screened in the States? - one I'd have thought would not travel well.

Edited April 15, 2008 by Bev Stapleton

[Teasing the Korean]

In other news, Creed from "The Office" was in the Grass Roots.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcZ7jJnMThM

He's on the left.

[sidewinder]

and there's me thinking this was a thread about Andrew Hill's 'Grass Roots'

[Tony Pusey]

On the subject of remakes Bev, Hancocks Half Hour made it to Norway as Flexness, same scripts translated into Norwegan ! And Steptoe and Son turned up in Swedish, again, same Gorton and Simpsson scripts, just cant for the life of me remember the name of the show!

[A Lark Ascending]

On the subject of remakes Bev, Hancocks Half Hour made it to Norway as Flexness, same scripts translated into Norwegan ! And Steptoe and Son turned up in Swedish, again, same Gorton and Simpsson scripts, just cant for the life of me remember the name of the show!

And didn't 'Till Death Do Us Part' migrate to the US as 'All in the Family'?

I always assumed that 'Juke Box Jury' was homegrown, but Anita O'Day mentions a version in the States in the 50s in her autobio.

[sidewinder]

And didn't 'Till Death Do Us Part' migrate to the US as 'All in the Family'?

Yep. Alf Garnett = Archie Bunker

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Another that doesn't look like it would travel well is "Gavin and Stacey". My wife and I think it's hilarious, but because we know so many people here in South Wales who are just like that. I see NBC are going to do an American version. I can't believe Americans would find humour in a series which isn't about the central characters (who are named after famous murderers); it seems a bit too off the wall for Americans to me. And the humour - at least the South Wales part of it - is very, very localised. I'm far from certain that that humour even travels as far as England. (The Essex element of the humour is more international.)

Would it be possible to put on US TV the episode in which Gavin & Stacey get married, which doesn't show any of the wedding?

MG

[Tony Pusey]

i didnt think that Coupling my favourite show of the last decade traveled well either.

The Office is really sit com, but sit as in Situationist International, the spectacle as seamless miserablism!

And the Swedish Steptoe was called Herbert and Herbert.

[A Lark Ascending]

Another that doesn't look like it would travel well is "Gavin and Stacey".

I've heard nothing but praise for this but missed it. A colleague at work has the DVDs so I'm waiting until she's seen them.

I really liked 'The Green Room' - somewhat slapstick but quite unpredictable.