The I.T. Crowd

[signboy]

One of the best britcoms I've ever seen. I don't think it's available in N america at all, but that's what the interwebs are for. See it. Watch it. Do it.

[anti-m]

It is pretty great -- you can catch a lot of it on you tube!

[Heather. Redmon.]

The IT Crowd is a great show! I've seen every episode! I've heard that they're making an American version and Moss is going to be in it. I hope it doesn't get wrecked up by American TV.

[fluffy]

Well, The Office translated well, so hopefully the art of adapting sitcoms for different audiences is finally getting somewhere.

[j$]

Having sat through twenty odd years of american sitcom imports (The War At Home? Thanks, America) I still find it hard to understand why US TV thinks things from across the pond have to be translated in the first place. It can't be cheaper - do they really grant their audience so little intelligence?

I digress. This is a great show. Given the writing pedigree (Big Train, Father Ted, a whole host of stuff) it shouldn't be surprising.

[fluffy]

American audiences want happier endings and series which will last forever and ever with characters that they can be "friends" with. The US version of The Office is rather more upbeat and most of the first-season characters are still in it (and they're all much more fleshed-out than the UK versions were).

Basically, the US doesn't really go for one- or two-season shows and instead prefer shows which are continuously produced year after year, whereas British audiences seem to prefer shows which are done as a little standalone series and which later may get another standalone series. (The fact that in the US it's called a "season" and in the UK it's called a "series" is very telling.)

It's interesting that you mention The War At Home as a US import that you got over there, since that show is a perfect example of the failing of the US system - personally I liked the show somewhat (the characters got a lot better in the second season, and under all their prickly dysfunctional exteriors they really started to seem to care about each other!), but they ended the second season on a cliffhanger with the expectation that a third season would happen, but it got canceled. Even the serials which are produced as standalone series (like 24, Prison Break, etc.) also do that, with a season arc which ends with a lead-in to the next season. It's like nobody can ever let anything just end.

[Caravan Ray]

Well, The Office translated well.

No it didn't